On Not Passing the Acid Test: Bad Trips and Initiation

Most psychedelic explorers have had a bad trip at one point or another. Leary and Metzner have discussed bad trips as the result of the wrong “set and setting,” and bad trips are sometimes treated as evidence of personal failure. In contrast, from a shamanic perspective, bad trips are to be expected as part of the territory of acquiring knowledge. The energy of the dark side of human nature and one's own culture arises on bad trips, and no one seeking knowledge from plant allies can avoid confronting these shadows. By immersing people in the dark side of self and culture, bad trips do what initiation always does: bring people to a state in which they do not think they can handle the situation and have to call on spiritual resources for help. In this essay, I use the myth of Inanna's descent to the Underworld as a metaphor for psychedelic journeys and shamanic dismemberment. I discuss protecting oneself, with an emphasis on the importance of community and allies when taking psychedelic journeys, using examples from my own experiences. I conclude by discussing the wisdom and healing that I believe one can bring back from the darker side of the psychedelic experience.