The Rise of the $1,000 Trip Sitter

We have written many times about the importance of “set and setting” when it comes to tripping, whether you are new to mushrooms or an experienced psychonaut. Ensuring the right set and setting can be the difference between a good trip and a bad one; between opening the door to a lifelong relationship with a potentially beneficial organism that might help you grow as a person, or slamming that door closed, possibly forever. Of course, it might not be that intense; you might have a bad trip and get over it (a lot of us do). But why put yourself through it? Having a good atmosphere, including the right person to see you through it, makes for an ideal experience.

Those who love mushrooms and have taken mushrooms know that this is the case. They know the importance of having someone with them as they take their first steps into the eye-opening world of psilocybin. And so, of course, this is now a service that you can purchase, for a fee (small or large).

It used to be a given that a trip sitter — that is, someone who would sit with you through your shroom experience and stay sober, or at least sober relative to you, to help ensure your safety and stability as you went through your trip — would be a friend, most likely a more experienced close acquaintance whose presence chills you out, and who you feel comfortable speaking with about your physical and emotional well-being. A good pal, let’s say, and not your stressy ex-roommate with the penchant for leaving you in the lurch or saying weird things at inopportune moments. It was up to you to choose who this person would be, and the process was very informal; maybe you’d be both tripping, with the more experienced person staying on low doses and being in charge of The Vibe. Or maybe they would skip out on it for the evening, kicking back with a beer to make sure everyone was in a good place.

For Virginia, as a young(ish) person exploring for the first time, that trip sitter was a tall friend, a little older, who had taken every substance under the sun and who had the vibe of a ‘70s era hippie except in the body of someone who might run security at a drum & bass show. The informality of the whole thing was kind of the point; no one wants to have to arrange a trip like a military maneuver, as that welcomes the idea that it’s something scary, which is a direct route to Bad Trip highway. Ideally, you just want to slide into it like it’s no big deal. Of course, this has a number of potential pitfalls; your friend could get too high and be functionally useless to you. You could have a minor argument and wreck the mood of the whole evening. You could find out that they aren’t quite as reliable as you hoped, or that they don’t have the skills necessary to hold space for you through a challenging experience, or that they didn’t realize what the experience might entail for you and don’t have the right psychological toolkit to help you. In the most extreme cases, they might even take advantage of you. For some, relying on friends feels a little… Wild West.

Enter the Professional Trip Sitter.

For a sum of up to a thousand dollars, you can hire someone to be your trip sitter, or rather, your Trip Sitter™. There is a huge range of people offering these services, and while none of their offerings are identical, it’s become common for Trip Sitters to create a “ceremonial” vibe for the experience, borrowing (sometimes in culturally appropriative ways) from the way other cultures engage with mushrooms and mushroom trips. They might bring curated trip playlists or burn sage; they might help you arrange blankets and mood lighting and incense and have snacks on hand. An initial pre-trip consultation is common, and many will offer a post-trip counseling appointment as well. Others might refer to themselves as shaman, which again raises questions of cultural sensitivity, especially with regard to the way these sessions are often rooted in the Trip Sitter’s experiences of ayahuasca ceremonies or similar.

If all of this sounds gentle enough, it’s because it is. These things will positively influence a psychedelic experience, and they’re things we will arrange for ourselves when we are settling in for a little psychological self-discovery. You might think that a thousand dollars is a lot of money for something that you could get a friend to do for free, and it is. Sure, a trip might last between 6 and 12 hours, and counseling skills are valuable, and there might be two Trip Sitters, which from a safeguarding perspective is better practice, but it is still a lot of money to pay for something that hundreds of thousands of other people are doing for each other for free. But still, for many people, the idea of having a guide, or a coach, or a pseudo-friend there while they take their first steps with hallucinogens will be well worth the money, for the sense of safety alone.

However, perhaps this sense of safety is misplaced. No matter how good someone sounds on paper, when it’s just you and them in a room together and one of you is high, none of the pitfalls mentioned of ending up with a bad trip-sitting friend can really be properly mitigated by hiring someone who calls themselves a professional. Many “professionals” — including doctors, cops, teachers, and bosses — have taken advantage of addled people just because they knew they could. In fact, if you were the kind of person who wanted access to people who are getting high, calling yourself a professional trip sitter would be one of the easiest things you could do to make that happen. This isn’t meant as a slight to people who offer these services; many will abide by the standards set for hallucinogenic research or apply other therapeutic protocols; some might even have some training in counseling and psychotherapy, though again, it is unlikely at present that a licensed therapist would undertake this work (or at least advertise their willingness to do so openly).

It seems, then, that there is a false sense of security in these services, given that this is an unregulated field with no clear governing body and no clear complaints processes. What happens if your trip sitter does something you find traumatic or disturbing? Who can you speak to, and what accountability will there be? We don’t say this to undermine the many passionate, truly professional trip sitters who do good work and truly believe in the healing power of mushrooms. But we do have to ask the question: Is there really much benefit compared to having a friend do this for/with you?

If you can't reach out to a friend, relative or loved one to trip sit for you, then fill your boots. Pay your money. Go well into that Trip Sitting world and have an enlightening time. But if you like the idea of this but don’t want to pay the money or put your trust in a stranger, what can you do?

There is a midpoint between entrusting your high self to a potentially flaky friend and paying someone money to be a (hopefully) more reliable friend, and that’s to take what you like about Trip Sitters™ and bring that into your relationship with your informal trip sitter. Michelle Janikian’s Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion is a guide to bringing in those good practice habits to your psychological adventures:

If you are thinking about training to become a licensed trip sitter or therapist, research the hell out of whatever program you’re thinking of enrolling in. As with any field, there are more and less reputable people. Another thing to consider is whether the program is run by an organization that has a solid history in therapy, community work, or hallucinogenic work, or whether it has been set up by an “entrepreneur” hoping to capitalize on the current trend for all things psilocybin. Is there any proper accreditation involved? Can you speak to someone who has been through the program? Is it value for money? And to repeat, hopefully needlessly, the first thing you are told in any therapy training course: Don’t, DON’T, fuck your clients.

It’s worth noting that generations of psychonauts have, in fact, built their own frameworks for trips, even though we might not think of them as such. These frameworks have been passed down from person to person, or through popular culture, or via some social osmosis. However, it’s happened that trips generally fall into the same structures, at least within similar cultures. We do, usually, act as trip sitters for each other, even if we don’t use those terms. We tend to hold each other lightly, paying attention to the music and the temperature; we know to put pillows and blankets out, and have lots of water on hand. We know that changes in atmosphere or location can be overwhelming, so we tend to stay either inside where we feel safe or outside in nature, depending on the tripper’s preference. Many a psychonaut has coasted out of a trip with some gentle lo-fi music on as the sun comes up, clutching a cup of tea and dipping a biscuit. These are our “containers,” as Michael Pollan calls them, for psychedelic experiences, protecting us from bad trips (as much as possible) and letting us access the most transformative benefits.

Having said that, it’s still worth thinking about having a relatively frank conversation about boundaries with your trip sitter, whether they are paid or unpaid. Are you okay with them suggesting topics of conversation or activities, or would you prefer them to be more passive? Are you okay with them engaging in light physical touch or maybe a hug if they think you need it? Will they offer support after the session is over, or send you on your way? If your trip is going to be a much less formal event, you can still bring in the elements you like. Do you like the idea of a pre-experience briefing where you chat with your friend about what you want to feel and achieve? Then invite them out for a coffee and talk about just that. Do you think post-trip therapy or counseling would help you process what you felt? Schedule an appointment with your therapist. This is all available to you—free of charge (apart from the therapy; you’ll probably have to pay for that).

This post is a syndication from “A Quickly Changing Kaleidoscope,” written by Dr. K. Mandrake and Virginia Haze, the authors of the critically acclaimed The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible and The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook.

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