Are There Benefits to Feeling Shame and Guilt While Tripping?

Welcome back to The Drop In, DoubleBlind’s newsletter serving up news, culture, and independent journalism about psychedelics straight to your inbox. 

Happy March! Today’s freshly squeezed stories are about the death of Beat-era poet and artist Gerd Stern, and a new study suggesting that feeling guilt while tripping might actually be good for you. If you keep scrolling, you’ll find pieces on monkeys using plant medicine to heal wounds, the power of soul retrieval, and everything you need to know before working with Datura…if you dare.

Have a great week ✨

Mary Carreón
Senior Editor

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Experiencing Shame and Guilt on Mushrooms Might Actually Be Good for You

A new study finds that experiencing shame and guilt during psilocybin trips is common— and for those who can process these emotions, it may lead to greater positive outcomes.

We’ve all been there: You’re about one hour into a hefty psychedelic experience and all of a sudden you're hit by an anvil of guilt for not living up to your potential, or the thing you said to that person who pissed you off, or the funeral you missed because you were painfully hung over. The weight of your (regrettable) decisions and indecision morphs into the focal point of your trip as you curl into a fetal position on the floor. While profoundly treacherous in the moment, a recent study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs found that feelings of shame and guilt during psilocybin experiences might actually be beneficial.

The study, first reported by PsyPost, tracked 679 individuals who planned to use psilocybin in real-world settings. Nearly 70% of participants reported experiencing shame or guilt at some point during their trip. Specifically, about 56% reported shame, and approximately 52% reported guilt. About 12% of people rated these feelings as the highest level of intensity possible. The duration of these feelings varied, but on average, they lasted between 10 minutes and an hour. The study’s authors found that the degree to which participants could constructively process feelings of shame or guilt during their psilocybin experiences played a key role in shaping their well-being two to four weeks later.

“It was surprising to see that individuals who were most able to work through feelings of shame or guilt during psilocybin use had the highest mystical experience and wellbeing ratings, even compared to individuals who did not experience those feelings whatsoever,” said study author David Mathai, medical director of Sattva Medicine and clinical assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, to PsyPost. “It may be that a certain degree of contact with psychologically challenging material during psychedelic use allows for greater overall benefit.”

The findings suggest that confronting difficult emotions under the influence of psilocybin could be essential for long-term psychological well-being. On average, participants reported a small but statistically significant decrease in trait shame (which refers to how prone a person is to shame daily), lasting at least two to three months after their trip. However, about 30% of participants actually experienced an increase in general shame, underscoring the need for adequate psychological support during and after psychedelic experiences.

There are a few caveats, however. Mathai said that shame and guilt are difficult constructs to research. “Different ways of measuring [them] may lead to different outcomes,” he said. “Unfortunately, we were unable to characterize patients’ specific experiences of shame and what it looked like to work through these feelings.”

He suggests that future research could examine shame and guilt in more controlled clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted therapy, as well as how different psychedelics influence feelings of self-worth and guilt.

Gerd Stern, Beat-Era Poet and Psychedelic Multimedia Pioneer, Dies at 96

From the streets of New York to the Bay, Gerd Stern shaped counterculture with poetry, light shows, and a knack for stirring the pot.

Gerd Stern, the Beat-era poet and multimedia provocateur who helped define the psychedelic ’60s, died on Monday, February 17, in Manhattan at 96. His daughter, Radha Stern, confirmed his death to the New York Times.

Stern was a shapeshifter among the avant-garde countercultural artists who defined the ‘60s, seamlessly oscillating between poetry, art, and publishing.

“Designated as a ‘poet’ two years earlier by my first live-in girlfriend, I was sleeping on the New York City streets, in a burnt-out Willys automobile,” Stern wrote for DoubleBlind, recalling his early years. His vagrancy landed him — on the advice of a psychiatrist — in Columbia Presbyterian’s psychiatric ward, where he met a young Allen Ginsberg. The two bonded immediately, alongside another patient, Carl Solomon. “We quickly formed a trio, confessing to each other that we all wrote poems and lived a somewhat outside-of-normal lifestyle.”

Stern eventually found his way into the underground, co-founding USCO, an artist collective that regularly turned abandoned spaces into sensory-overloading installations of strobe lights, kinetic sculptures, and film projections. In July 1965, Leary hired USCO to design a “brain-activating” light show for an Off-Broadway production on Manhattan’s East Side. But things didn’t go so well. Leary was confounded by USCO because they effectively drowned out his famed “turn on, tune in, and drop out,” mantra with a recording by the French surrealist Antonin Artaud. “He wanted to do things like the life of Buddha and the life of Christ, and we said, ‘No thanks—we don’t do linear,’” the New York Times writes.

Stern was a mid-century Renaissance man. He managed Maya Angelou in her cabaret days at the beginning of her career (the two were also allegedly romantically involved), helped publish William Burroughs’s first book Junkie, and even ran his family’s cheese-import business. He also wrote travel articles for Playboy magazine and helped create the Berkeley listener-supported station KPFA-FM.

Even though his soul has departed from this earthly plane, the beautiful chaos he unleashed while here will live on and inspire new cultures of freaks forever. Rest in psychedelic rapture, Gerd.

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Last Call: Breathwork & Somatic Healing Workshop

Wednesday, March 5th

Your breath is so powerful and so transportive Dr. Stanislove Grof used it as an effective substitute for LSD in psychotherapeutic work. In the right container, with the proper support, it is a mind-blowing tool for rejuvenation, growth, and healing. 

Join expert facilitator Ellen Wong this Wednesday for a breathwork and somatic healing experience.

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If you’ve been craving a reset, a moment to exhale fully, and step into something deeper, click the link below to register. 

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Learn with Us

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❤️‍🩹 “Soul retrieval” is a practice found in shamanic cultures around the world. It helps reintegrate parts of oneself dissociated from what today we might call “trauma”, but it’s not quite as clear cut as that. This article explores the beauty and power of this ancient ancestral healing method.

🦧 It appears we aren’t the only monkeys who use plant medicines. This orangutan is the first documented case of animal herbal medicine. Read the full story here.

🏋️ The next fitness fad may be microdosing. Here, we take a closer look at how the microdosed workout trend is changing the fitness game.

DoubleBlind Digs

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Latest Youtube Video

What are “Synthetic Shrooms”: Everything you need to know about 4-AcO-DMT

4-AcO-DMT is chemically similar to psilocybin and exists in a legal gray zone. It could potentially fall under the Federal Analog Act, but it’s not technically illegal. You can even buy it online for affordable prices. It’s so similar that some unscrupulous vendors have been using it in chocolates marketed as “psilocybin”. But how similar is it? Is it dangerous? How do you dose it?

We cover all this and more in this deep dive video on 4-AcO-DMT. 

👉Watch it here👈