Many smart people I know try to work in a trip on mushrooms once a year or so. Many of them are folks who don't generally even smoke weed or drink regularly, which surprised me.
I think it is a good idea, and I try to do it, too.
But, I have a healthy respect for the potential downside of a psilocybin experience, too. Many years ago, I ate some shrooms before a concert at the L.A. Coliseum. There were some thuggish types and an air of violence in the parking lot, and that was enough to set my trip down a bad road. An hour later, I experienced a dark stadium full of bloody froth-mouthed humans, along with some other lizardish creatures, killing and eating each other, to the ear-splitting sound of huge metal sawblades grinding against each other, while I huddled in my seat unable to move. It seemed to go on forever, but after it was over I realized it was only 3-4 hours.
That experience was only in my mind, but it still had a lasting impact on me, something like what I imagine being caught up in a murderous orgy of cannibalism really would. For weeks afterwards, while glad to be back in the real world, I was still nervous and averse to sudden noises, had many nightmares, and was generally less happy. Eventually those effects diminished, and I don't think I suffer from any kind of permanent damage (although, how can you really know).
But I now make sure to prepare a calm stress-free environment before doing psilocybin.
It is important that you have someone else there, preferably someone sober or at least more sober than you. You need a baseline to calibrate your sense of what is real and what isn't, so you don't get lost in your own head. This is very important.
When you are really experienced and no longer have any anxiety about what lurks inside your subconscious, only then is it advisable to trip alone.
No, the two implications are that 1. You should be somewhere you feel safe. Preferably with someone you feel safe. and 2. It is better to be outside in nature. (1) is always spoken of as being crucial and (2) is something that is oft repeated. I don't have any experience myself to say why (2) is so often suggested.
The whole being outside in nature thing is because of the character of the visual perceptual distortions that occur on psychedelics.
Basically it perturbs the brain's pattern recognition systems, and causes them to look much more strongly and insistently for patterns and regularities in the input. Therefore, to get the best effect, one should feed in highly irregular images, such as the messy, fractal-ish geometry of nature.
When you look at tree bark or grass or clouds on psilocybin, your brain tries furiously to see a pattern or regularity in it, and as a result your perception of it constantly shifts and rearranges.
When you stay indoors and look at manmade things with human-conceived geometric shapes, the patterns are already there and your brain sees them immediately. At best this is boring, and at worst it can cause you to become fixated in a way that is quite uncomfortable.
This isn't the most eloquently worded explanation but I'm sure most people here can tell what I'm talking about. Psychedelics have a lot to teach us about the workings of perceptual cognition as well as about more spiritual matters.
"An hour later, I experienced a dark stadium full of bloody froth-mouthed humans, along with some other lizardish creatures, killing and eating each other, to the ear-splitting sound of huge metal sawblades grinding against each other, while I huddled in my seat unable to move."
Bear in mind that if you are a generally grounded and lucid person, it is entirely possible to experience things as extreme as this while never once thinking that it's really happening.
Sitting in the middle of a university campus watching it being torn apart by terrifying non-euclidian-shaped monsters from beyond the sky is really fucking cool as long as you never forget that it's just a drug experience. It's like being in the middle of the best action scifi movie ever.
I think it is a good idea, and I try to do it, too.
But, I have a healthy respect for the potential downside of a psilocybin experience, too. Many years ago, I ate some shrooms before a concert at the L.A. Coliseum. There were some thuggish types and an air of violence in the parking lot, and that was enough to set my trip down a bad road. An hour later, I experienced a dark stadium full of bloody froth-mouthed humans, along with some other lizardish creatures, killing and eating each other, to the ear-splitting sound of huge metal sawblades grinding against each other, while I huddled in my seat unable to move. It seemed to go on forever, but after it was over I realized it was only 3-4 hours.
That experience was only in my mind, but it still had a lasting impact on me, something like what I imagine being caught up in a murderous orgy of cannibalism really would. For weeks afterwards, while glad to be back in the real world, I was still nervous and averse to sudden noises, had many nightmares, and was generally less happy. Eventually those effects diminished, and I don't think I suffer from any kind of permanent damage (although, how can you really know).
But I now make sure to prepare a calm stress-free environment before doing psilocybin.