Toxicity/physical side effects???

[protopeach]

Greetings to all -

Could those of you with experience please talk about toxicity and/or side-effects?

Do mushrooms, DMT, Salvia, Yage have any negative impact on your liver, for instance? Or do they cause any kind of brain damage, effect on blood pressure, etc.?

Does the vomitting hurt your intestines in any way? Should people with stomach trouble avoid them? Can cancer patients trip?

The more I know, the more intelligently I can discuss the issue with those who are thinking about tripping, but reluctant. It's easy to assume that something so powerful and foreign must also be toxic.

You know, the drug war would have you think that all that stuff is going to hurt you.

I appreciate your inputs,
Protopeach

[protopeach]

I realize that Daniel's explanation of psychedelics at the beginning of the website state that they are not physically harmful.

However, I have had a racey heart on psilocybin more than once. What was that?

Just want to be absolutely certain before I do further trips.

As usual, your information is valuable to me and I appreciate your responses.

[whitewave]

I don't know about the side effects of psychedelics on the physical body, but they can affect the etheric body adversely. According to an energy healer I see, it is easier for negative entities to attach themselves to you when you are very open psychically. Daniel talks about this in the chapter on DPT in BOTH. There are some interesting pictures in Barbara Brennan's book Hands of Light of the energy fields of people on various substances.

[PuristLove]

Psychedelics do cause some general stimulation. It would probably be ill advised for someone with heart conditions or high blood pressure problems to use them, however, a healthy individual shouldn't have any problems.

Most psychedelics are metabolized and excreted from the body within about 24 hours of their use. I have never heard of any liver toxicity problems. Definitely safer than say alcohol, as far as the liver is concerned.

There has never been any evidence to suggest that classical psychedelics are neurotoxic.

In your question, you included salvia. I should state explicitly here that we really don't know much of anything about what salvia does to the body. It has not been studied in the same way LSD, psilocybin, etc have. And it has a very different action on the body. However, Mazatec shamans have been using salvia for thousands of years and haven't seemed to notice any health problems related to it.

[Halfglass]

Use valium or xanax (or booze)for coming off psychedelics--it helps with the raciness.

[Anita]

While I think physical/toxicity effects are covered quite in depth elsewhere on the internet on such sites as erowid,I have not read much of the dangers to ones "soul",or etheric body.
I find it interesting that the argument regarding longtime use of mindaltering medicine among shamans without physical harm is focused on while the rigorous preparation for journey by the same shamans are somehow almost overlooked.
As for the use of alcohol or any other drug to make the comedown a little easier,I don't think that is such a good idea.Every substance have a spirit attached to it and alcohol in particular seems to attract some of the more unsavory ones.
By the way,is it an "accident" that it is our legal high in this age of destruction?

[whitewave]

My teacher--a shaman or "energy healer," has spoken to me quite strongly of the potential harm psychedelics can do to the etheric body, as I mentioned in a previous post. I went to see her once after taking mushrooms and she said I had a "brain allergy." On other occasions, she has removed entities from me. Psychedelics in particular, open portals which cannot always be closed when the effect of the drug has worn off. These energies may not always have our best interests in mind, and as each one of us is a microcosm of the larger mind of the earth, any imbalance in us will be reflected on the larger plane of our planet which desperately needs us to remain centered right now. Because of what she's told me, I've been debating about taking psychelics again, worried that I will let something in that I can't control. I miss the transcendance, though, and hope that by staying centered and substance-free in this transitional phase, I will be able to integrate what I have learned to help others see.