If you have the patience (and setting) to work through them, bad trips can yield incredible results. I’ve had a number of bad trips and they have been among the most psychologically and emotionally productive experiences of my life. They were all different, but shared a very important common element: My bad trips were the result of me fixating on some negative aspect of myself or the nature of existence that I typically suppress in my normal consciousness. That’s why it’s bad. You become keenly, completely aware of something that you typically semi-consciously run away from. But when you’re tripping you have so much clarity and - perhaps more importantly - so much energy. For a time, you’re conscious of your unconscious and you have the energy to do something about it.
I credit hallucinogens with giving me the chance to reprogram myself. The chance to shed the conservative, closed-minded, bible-thumping mindset that I was brought up with and choose another mindset based on the type of person that I wanted to be. Most of the heavy lifting for that reprogramming was done during bad trips.
