The 7 Levels of the Psychedelic Experience

This video attempts to establish a comprehensive intensity scale for measuring the 7 distinct levels of the psychedelic experience, in accordance with the terminology laid out within our Subjective Effect Index and in collaboration with various artists from the r/replications community.

-- PROJECT LINKS --

-- JOSIE LINKS --

​0:00 / Introduction
02:06 / Level 0 - Subperceptual
02:39 / Level 1 - Subtle
03:42 / Level 2 - Mild
05:05 / Level 3 - Moderate
08:06 / Level 4 - Strong
10:40 / Level 5 - Heavy
12:19 / Level 6 - Extreme
13:35 / Outroduction

#lsd #trippy #psychedelic

[guitarguru.]

Most accurate representation of psychedelic visuals I’ve ever seen. Hands down.

[p_fiction]

Out of the handful of “bad trips” I’ve had, they always ended up being some of the most meaningful and significant experiences of my life.

[drhxa]

To anyone considering tripping here's what you need to know: please be aware that the mental and emotional effects were not well described in this video. Yes, the perceptual and cognitive effects are well documented but those are only a tiny fraction of the experience relative to the flood of emotions.

With most substances (including classic LSD, Mushrooms, and DMT) most people will get a hightened anxiety, nervousness, and general physical discomfort at the start (come-up) which is often unexpected and can be very difficult (usually impossible!) to control in the traditional sense.

The video presents the first few levels as "controllable if you focus" which is true of the perceptual side effects but it is false of the emotional side effects. Learning how to LET GO and let the experience take you where it will is essential but it's MUCH easier said than done.

Yes, bad trips lead to the most learning and growth but can also have a traumatic component that hightens anxiety for months after the trip. Use extreme caution.

If you don't respect these substances, you will get hurt sooner or later. Good trips are most common, just immense fun and beauty. Bad trips are good because you learn about yourself from them even if, in the moment, you had a tough time emotionally. Terror trips leave you with life-long PTSD.

First time? Start with a low to average dose, see how you react for 2-3 hrs. Stay safe and good luck. Let. Go.

[legallyrequired]

I’ve rented a log cabin in the woods for a day before my birthday, I’m really excited to go. I live in a city where you can’t see any stars, and I found a spot that has reduced light pollution. I absolutely love how clouds and stars look on psychedelics.

[Jeffrey]

Your representation of the visual effects are absolutely spot-on.

[PerspectivEs]

The first time I ever did Psilocybin was one I'll never forget. My legs felt so light, and I had the overwhelming urge to just start walking. I walked about 6km to the other end of my town, and then back again for a total of 12. It was like the power stopped at my midsection; my legs felt light as air. Colors were so much more vibrant and I just had this overwhelming appreciation for the structure of the universe. I thought repeatedly how much nature and the cosmos should be appreciated more, how the design of the world around me was just so incredible and I had to acknowledge it.

[chaemchoiaromdee]

This experience gave me a lot of confidence about my self and my body. A bunch of bad thought/behavior patterns were broken.

[RobertHills-owlx]

Psychedelic mushrooms completely helped me get out of addiction and depression. It totally rewired my mind. It's amazing how it worked better than antidepressants.

[scherzomazeppa]

Here's a friggin psychedelic story--Level 8?

Though I'm older (60), I smoke weed for back pain and have for a long time. About 14 years ago, I had moved to Texas and nowhere to get any...so got some legal "salvia" from a local head shop who said it was " like a weaker form of weed." Anyone who really knows (and I didn't) could tell you it's like mega-DMT. I had no idea, and that night ripped a single hit from a bong, laid down and hoped to get a bit tired or mellow.

The next thing I knew, I was in front of some kind of "being, " like a librarian, saying, "The story of (my name) is over" and had me hand him a tape/cd of my life recorded. Next, I was nack in my bedroom with 3 beings by the side door (I don't remember what they looked like), two were at computers punching in 0's/1/s...(I remember thinking "they are using binary, " and third scowled at me "you are nothing but a hologram and we control you." Then, he started making the walls disappear, like panels on the holodeck on Star Trek...I was paniced and begged him to stop, not to do it to my dog who was on the opposite side floor (so they did, lol) along with everything else until nothing was left. They had no empathy, more like hatred-filled, and after they made all disappear, and I was left alone in what seemed to be an eternal, black, silent void. I felt overwhelming dispair; kind of said f-it, and let myself dissolve. Then, it felt that I saw "thrown, " felt a thud, and found I landed on the hardwood floor in the sphinx-position...else I would have cracked my skull open.

Please Understand: At that time (2008 or so), there was no "holographic simulation" theory around as there is today. I would not have randomly made up being in a "hologram"--as if I ever gave holograms any thought. Ditto with respect to thinking about "binary numbers." I may have seen the Matrix when it came out about 10 years before, but I didn't like it or ever think about it, so could not have been "primed" to make this up from that. The experience was as real as reality feels to me now as I type this. I am not a bullshitter or kook--I have a Ph.D., retired professor, well published and level-headed. I was also familiar with psychodelics having done my share back in my own college days. This was nothing like, well anything I ever experienced before or since.

This incident shook me up so much, that after, I spent years and a lot of money traveling with my wife (who went for the fun of adventure/traveling...I never told her this story to this day, lol) all over the world for answers. Egypt, Cambodia, Vietnam, Turkey, Malta, France, India, Peru, Bolivia, Belieze, Guatamala, etc. etc. all in search of answers/hints from both spiritual folks in some of those places, and perhaps glimpses of reality to explain wtf happened that one bad salvia day (and then, a real weird thing that happened to us in Peru that borders on the impossible too). The eternal black void haunts the shit outta me.

Sorry--this was long. I haven't vented on this for a while. I can't vouch or not for what I experienced...but I think you can tell it was more than nothing. I since, have had many reality "glitches" paranormal stuff and amazing synchronicities in my life. All I can and have absolutely concluded is reality is not what we think it is, and anyone claiming to have a clue is actually clueless. I sure the F hope it doesn't simply boil down to a hologram--that's for sure.

[danadoozer]

Your description of a heavy experience really helped put into context my last acid trip....25 years ago, it scared me off psychedelics possibly for life! I was tripping so hard, and was seeing the most insane, complex, and mind blowing geometric puzzles spiraling, changing, the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life! So yeah, I was having a fabulous trip, so I thought it was a great idea when my friend suggested taking more! So I took 5 more hits and within a very short time I became completely overwhelmed and terrified of everything! I saw my friend with about 8 heads, all stacked up and then the world exploded into static. I remember saying "I took too much acid" but in this weird slow man's voice and stumbled into my bedroom and collapsed onto the floor. The terror and panic I felt is indescribable, the worst fear possible. And yes, I met an entity, THE ENTITY. It was the motherboard that runs the universe. That's all I can say. I saw the man behind the curtain on that trip, and it left me with the feeling that I was NOT supposed to see what I saw. I think I've seen all I need to when it comes to psychedelics, but I'm still fascinated with them, their power is truly awesome .

[williamspiper]

Psychedelics saved me from years of uncontrollable depression, anxiety and illicit pill addiction.imagine carrving heavy chains for over a decade and then all of a sudden that burden is gone.Believe it or not in a couple years they'll be all over for treatment of mental health related issues

[arturoyescas]

I'm well into the triple digits for trips starting about 15 years ago. This is BY FAR the most accurate and comprehensive description I've seen.

[haroldworthington]

A few months ago I ate a chocolate mushroom filled candy bar without realizing what was in it and long story short I saw a bunch of little faces everywhere and when morning came I noticed a green mist hanging in the air and I started thinking about lizards and frogs. A few days later I was telling a friend about it and they had just returned from a psychedelic retreat where they had their experience around the same time as I did and they were out in some wetlands surrounded by frogs. Pretty wild, we were hundreds of miles apart but seemed to have a psychedelic connection.

[lancehubrr]

i feel like a psychadelic experience will not only make u appreciate the worlds beauty during the trip but even after, u start to notice, consider, and appreciate the worlds beauty alot more. I also feel like a trip can really open your mind to a new level of creativity that you can expand on throughout life

[TemporalAberration]

I think I got to level 6 once on acid, but it may have just been high level 5. I would certainly appear unconcious to others, but I was not, I was completely unaware of my real enviornment or my body though. I remember floating out of my body, looking at it thinking "if i'm here what happens to it", which quickly stopped mattering as ego dissolved completely. Flew through some trippy space (amnesia starts kicking in here), until I arrive in an infinite expanse of swirling conciousness and energy, in awe at first but then merging with it. In that state everything just made sense, and felt more real than anything I have ever experienced.. Spent probably 2 hours in that part, followed by return to the lesser ego death state, and a period of trying to piece my mind back together, convinced if I did not I would never come back.

When I did finally come down I was so excited to share the experience with my friends, only to find I could not, still not done processing it myself, unable to communicate the experience in a way that made sense, and also having some trouble speaking in general. For many months I was not entirely convinced I was not still in the trip, but not to a level where it caused problems. It was one of the most profound experiences of my life, but it also made me terrified to touch psychadelics again for a long while.

[LynxenX]

Extremely realistic and accurate representation of the open and closed eye visuals produced by psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and LSD. Likely the best I have seen on YouTube.

[simondiamond]

Did anyone else start getting flash backs while watching this .. ? I literally felt every species of psychedelic mushroom, along with every micro dose of every hallucinogen I've ever tripped -in my entire life -all the way from the first time I tripped face off 2grams of mushrooms.. one thing I'll add ... At least in my own personal experience, along with many fascinating conversations I've had with other "experienced" trippers.. the more you trip, the better you get. By 5hat I mean, the better you get at at tripping, and being able to handle those memorizing-face -melting experiences; such like, when one finds themselves on the tipping point of reality, going in and out forgetting who they are or why your there, not a clue of where your at, or what you even are... in any form at all. Trip more often, and you learn certain techniques that can help deter an all out "freak-out". Granted, that's if your dose wasn't too-toooo high. Better to trip with a light/medium experience.. that's when you learn to do the "magic" in those mushrooms, as you begin to experience the world through the eyes of the "shaman"... Most people won't believe it until they trip themselves, but every trip we take, we alter our lives permanently. Depending on how we developed as a tripper, this shall either welcome it's-self as an enduring positive transformation, that forces us to break free from our material delusions, or it will be a highly detrimental experience and will undoubtedly drive a person to the brink of insanity. this is why it's better to learn to trip when you can manage the trip itself, and actually remember the experience! When this is done, you can actually begin to use the psychedelic experience of tripping to 'open doors & open windows' into literally alternate dimensions that your consciousness wakes up into, when you no longer are tripping. Or ofcourse shuts down and sinks/slips further into a world which you have no control over. The question is however, did we ever really have any control over our lives or did we just perceive it that way? I personally have proven to myself through my experiences that that depending on my actions and my thoughts and my deeds that I perform while tripping, it literally controls the alternate universe I live in today, which personally, I prefer to any alternative I could have woken up to if I never experienced the magic of shape shifting realities. That said, Great Video.. well said and stated with the many basic initial introductions into the layers of tripping, love those memorizing visuals as well, pretty accurate I felt too, at least from how I remember all my trips. So remember friends, neighbors, and strangers, trip clean, trip easy, and don't be surprised if everything about your life changes after you took that first trip, and instead take that trip by horns of the bull, and wrestle that mean, intimidating creature, into a form of personal enlightenment and complete positive transformation. Do the drugs, don't let the drugs do you!

[MrHopran]

So about a month ago I took my first LSD trip. It was in a small hut near a forest with 2 of my friends, so 3 people, but only 2 of us (luckily) took the acid. Me being me, I wanted to have the full psychedelic experience, so I took one tab which was supposedly 200μg.

For about an hour nothing much really happened. I was a little giggly, but that may have been just from the excitement. In the next 30 minutes, some visual distortions started appearing. Dinosaurs in the trees, Auschwitz children on the ceiling, Lenin on the right side of my friend's face. Anything with a slightly more complex texture like leaves, bark, stone walls, etc. my brain would just expand recursively into more and more complex patterns. The effects were especially pronounced outside where it was dark since it was kinda late at night so we tried to spend as much time as possible there to explore our newly attained senses and not get cold while doing so. My friends also took this opportunity to smoke some weed. They were also drinking beer throughout the night. Usually, at these kinds of events, I drink and smoke as well, but since it was my first time on acid, I wanted to have as vanilla of an experience as possible, so I restrained myself. Looking back, maybe I should have drank as well since alcohol and weed apparently weaken the effects. At this stage it was really fun, everything felt new and exciting and me and my friend felt like explorers of a brand-new world. That feeling lasted for about 15 minutes after which the weird stuff began.

We were just sitting down at a table discussing the effects, trying to explain what it feels like to our "sober" friend. It was late at night, I felt a little drowsy and the visuals were starting to get a little overwhelming, so I put my head down into my crossed arms to lay down and relax for a while, but the moment I did that, I lost all control over my body and my mind just went nuts. Fractals of infinite complexity, everything just spinning around. I thought: "This is it. This is the trip. I'm just gonna enjoy myself for the next 8 hours". Every sound, colour and thought, they all were just a part of this abstract painting that me and my friends were painting together. It felt like we were bouncing thoughts and ideas back and forth between each other all equally contributing to the final image of the evening. At some point, I lost track of which thought is mine and which isn't and I just went with the flow. I still felt very excited, so I just enjoyed the ride for the next 10 minutes trying to figure out the rules of the new world we were in. Well, I say 10 minutes, but honestly from here on out time stopped making sense so any time information I give can be wildly inaccurate.

Thinking that I have figured it all out, I started laughing out loud uncontrollably. To my sober friend it looked like I was laughing at his joke which apparently wasn't that funny to the degree I was laughing, so he knew something was up, but honestly, I wasn't a part of that conversation for the last 10 minutes and I don't remember anything he said. Anyway, he tries to check up on me if I'm all right. I'm trying to answer back because I can somewhat hear him but it feels like I'm 5 layers under reality and to get anything out is a challenge. Any coherent sentence that I try to formulate comes out just as random sounds and squeaks. My friend now knows that I'm not good and so he grabs me and turns on the lights. Mind you, until this point, we tried to make the inside of the room as dim as possible so that we enhance the effects. So he turns the lights on and BAM ... I'm awake, back in the real world ... for about 5 seconds after which I dropped back again into my daydreaming group session. Anyway, the way my friend tried to wake me up made me think that an ambulance was called and I got a panic attack thinking that I ruined the night. After all, it was my first time, so it could have been too big of a dose for me. I really didn't know what was going on with my body. By now, I could be somewhere completely else on stretchers carried by paramedics for all I knew. To make it all worse I knew 8 more tabs were lying on a table and my friend was talking the whole night about taking another one as he didn't feel the effects for the first hour thinking that we took only a quarter of a tab, not a whole. So I thought we took the rest as well. This made my anxiety spike even more. Given this moment I'd like to also thank my sober friend who didn't take acid with us giving me one small sense of hope.

So by now I pretty much wasn't sure of what is real and what isn't. I saw recurring images of all the possible night iterations where I either am carried away by paramedics or I'm still just lying down on a mattress next to a fireplace or we are still outside exploring all at the same time. It felt like I got one deja vu every second. It also felt like only by thought I can control the outcome of the night. Any thought that I had felt as real as if it was really happening at that moment so I tried to think as positively as possible. My friend tried to wake me up to give me some water. I'm back again in the real world for another 5 seconds of rest time. This time I'm just scared shitless hoping for it to end ... it didn't.
Any attempt to wake me up from here on out would just reassure me into thinking that the paramedic storyline is real.
At this point, I started to feel like time is going backwards. My thoughts were going forward, but key moments from the night started appearing again and again, and thoughts that I had before at some given moment, which didn't make sense at the time, now suddenly started making sense only in the context of the future.
So yeah ... for the next six hours I was just really miserable hoping for everything to end and that what I was thinking isn't real. When I finally came back after these 6 hours, at first, I wasn't sure if I was really back or if this wasn't just another hallucination. My first memory after waking up is of my friend talking to me, but I wasn't really paying attention since he could have been just a product of my imagination so no meaning in answering. After about 5 minutes I realized, that yes, this really is the real world. I wasn't even happy or anything that I'm back. I was just so drained of any will to live after trying for hours to communicate and not being able to.

Well, that concludes the story of my very first and as of now only psychedelic trip. I don't know if I want to try this ever again, maybe sometime, but definitely with a smaller dose. I'm not sure where would my experience rank in the context of this video, but I'd say at least a 4. Definitely a strong thought provoking experience. I'm still thinking about it quite often. For anyone still reading, thank you for your time, sorry for my rant and any mistakes that I've made (I'm not native). I just wanted to write down somewhere my experience. I hope your trips go better than mine.

Trip safe.

PS: Visuals in this video are VERY accurate. Probably the best I've seen on yt.

[john-ljni]

I meditate every time I take 🍄 and I can't begin to explain the countless experiences I've had. Going to into my Akashic Records, seeing my past lives and connecting with my higher self.

[nikkitronic]

I had a level 5 trip the other day with my bf after not doing psychedelics for almost 20 years. It was the most fun, beautiful, refreshing, life affirming thing I have ever done. I still have overwhelming feelings of gratitude and happiness from that trip. I’m sure it helped that I am in a better spot in my life than I’ve ever been. But I feel the psychedelics pushed my happiness over the edge. All in all an absolutely wonderful experience.