Your trip's variables

Known and Unknown variables

The effects of any drug, legal or otherwise, on the human body depend mostly on three variables: amount of the dose, interactions with other drugs / alcohol, and route of administration.

These variables are usually "known" beforehand - unless you are trying out a mystery pill handed over to you by a friend in the dark recesses of a disco (being a Psychedelic Dad, I do not go for this risky behaviour and discourage it)

"Set and setting" - or the general psychological outlook and use of comfortable and familiar surroundings for the psychedelic experience to be positive; is one of them. Your experience will be more rewarding if the "set and setting" are correct, or if will be far worse if "set and setting" are incorrect or conflicting. Same with general health or with the expectation of catching some rest the day after an experience.

A blissful, meaningful and transcendental experience can turn into a horrific nightmare -or it could ruin your life- in the wrong "set and setting". You might want to read drug experiences of other users -especially the bad experiences. They wrote them with you in mind.

Other variables with a role in the experience are body weight, gender, time since last meal and mood profile. All these are "known variables" as you already take them into consideration by the moment you drop.

The "unknown variables" - in Donald Rumsfeld's parlance- are not visible to you at the moment of dropping and they can wildly affect your experience. You want to reduce the number of "unknowns" to help your experience be positive, but even in a perfect afternoon and with perfect planning things can go pear-shaped: an insistent Jehovah's Witness is knocking on your door; or you get an out-of the-blue phone call from your employer.

What I do in these cases is to call-in sick, or explain that I have a very severe flu and have to be back in bed. This usually solves the situation in 90% of the opportunities.

For the other 10% of the time -the really important emergencies when kids get in trouble, or something terrible happens- it is imperative that you have a sober adult in your household - someone who can call a doctor or responsibly look after a child.

It does not matter if the effects of a substance make you feel you are built like a Russian tank, all psychedelics lead to moments of complete and utter vulnerability and are, by definition, incapacitating agents by not letting you establish a working reality with the outside world.

This sober adult does not need to know you're tripping balls: as long as you can put a poker face, some sunglasses and act "fluey", it should all be fine. But you will need help if you get a call from the school's principal asking you to pick up your bundle of joy because she's got a viral infection and you are right into a DMT-fuelled alien landscape.

As a Psychedelic Dad, you need to set your space for the experiences, but you must always remember that your children still depend on you. If you cannot cope with an emergency situation during an excursion, you need to have someone sober who can do it for you. Otherwise, don't do it.
Your kids are not responsible for your lifestyle choices.

Psychedelic Dad is very grateful to the wealth of knowledge carried by www.erowid.org, the premier resource about recreational drugs and drug-related information.