Hi!
For those who have experienced both psychedelic drugs and lucid dreaming, wich one is better? What are the differences?
-Orion
Lucid dreaming is better…
Believe me 
Hi
Hmm,the only psychedelic …äh… a friend of mine did is mariuhana.But two times my friend was really buzzed after smoking it,he started to hear music (he even could switch between 4 different songs at will).Had also some nice optical effects,but they are hard to describe.For example,if someone stood up from his chair it looked as if he stood up,sat down,stood up again,sat down,stood up… this very fast and at least five times in a row.
However,my friends mind was quite clear (at least he thought so )
To make it short,drugs and LDing is similar,but you can´t really say one is “better” or something (that also depends on what you want:fun,new experiences,religious thoughts… perhaps all in one?).
So,i´d just say both is fascinating,but LDing is safer.
Traumgänger,the paranoid 
Either your friend took something else along with weed or he needs specialist help:)
Marihuana does not work this way:)
And to the drugs…i wouldnt be suprised if psychodelic drugs were doing exactly same what acid based drugs.Sciencific theory about lds is:its all in our heads.If so then experiences are same.
Of course lds are natural way to achieve that state- they healthy and safe.Drugs are not.
I think you jump to that conclusion a little early.
The big an essential difference is LDing is in your head, but psychedelic drugs are a projection on/change of the reality unless you are ‘asleep’.
For example try to fly from your balcony on LSD… 
I guess that is an immediate stop to the experience…
You`re right:)
But i meant it in a particular way-experience is same in terms of how its percieved(not what possibilities it gives).If you never had an ld drugs are your “best” way to feel how it is like:)This way experience is just the same.
Sorry my english sometimes prevents me from what i want to say perfectly:(
If you’ve done a drug once you can try it again and again and again in your LDs without any side effects
Hi
Sorry,i think this will be OT (perhaps this thread should be moved to the launch?)
Anyway:
Jack,i assure you,such things can happen to you if you smoke weed,especially when you are a newbie…
And i hope this friend of mine does not need specialist help,cause of all persons he is the one i like best
One day i´d like to eat mushrooms,but i don´t really feel prepared for it yet…
Traumgänger
Well, in that case you’re right. 
Hi Orion,
i almost tried all psychedelics there are…only a few and very rare that i couldn lay my hands on…i didnt experiment with for consciousness…
The things you experience in a good intense psychedelic trip…
can be beyond beauty but it can be real hell to…
I have learned some special things from it about consciousness and myself and about ego…also colours and objects that you will never c anywhere else…beauty without the normal limits…
but like i said, Hell side to, and then its not so fun…death fear way beyond real death fear…pitch and pitch black fear and panic…but you are very close to yourself in those hours and minutes…you learn so much if you can cope with it…
But in a ld you have much more freedom…and can experiment so much safer…
And Ureon is right…when you once know the effect of a drug you can copy it in a ld…i did and it works…
But what is most important…i think ppl who take psychedelics have to know themselves really good and have a certain goal why they take tghose substances…if you only take then for fun you will get an very cold shower…at best! It is not something to toy with but to respect…because it brings you in contact with the deeper layers of yourself and your emotions…and also the dark side of your emotions like fear and panic…
But an ld is more fun…much more relaxed…and everything is possible there in a psychedelic trip you are not totally your own scenario writer!!!
In a ld thats much more the case!!!
OK I hope I informed you enough…Orion!
Jeff
Hi Traumganger,
Remember if you ever want to take mushrooms…
you can start with little and built the dossage up in time so that you never lose your balance with yourself…so then when you would take a normal dosage its not such a big new thing for your consciousness, but still as ok as it can be!
Just a hint, because i read your posting where you said you wanted to try one day!
Jeff
I think both psychedelics and LDs are useful and interesting. They are not really comparable, though, except perhaps ayahuasca which can produce lucid dreams with a weird extra dimension and very intense clarity. With less powerful psychedelics there tends to be a blending of reality and unreality, which can be confusing and frightening, hence the crucial importance of setting up a safe and predictable environment for the experience. The environment (or your ability to react naturally to circumstances in a calm way while possibly confused and unable to see or think) has to be sufficiently safe that it actually doesn’t matter whether what you experience is real or not. This is the only way to enjoy the psychedelic experience. Natural psychedelics, if used responsibly and in a serious way, are both safe and beneficial to health. They can also complement lucid dreaming as part of a process of spiritual opening. Natural psychedelics, meditation, vegan diet and dream practice have helped me to very successfully treat a debilitating chronic illness that conventional doctors could not even diagnose.
Lucid dreams are not a substitute for psychedelics, and psychedelics are not a substiture for lucid dreams. The essential difference for me is the terrifying power of psychedelics, that you are opening yourself up to the cosmic stream and only your trust in the spirit of the plant will ensure your safety. This is really impossible to describe to anyone who has not experienced it.
Lucid dreams are probably suitable for almost everyone. Psychedelics are probably not. You need a lot of mental and physical fitness, experience in meditation and preferably metaphysics, and also be willing and able to make the changes to your emotional and material life that the experiences demand of you. But they are not as dangerous as they are made out to be in scare stories. The plant spirits are benevolent. Trust in the cosmic stream of nature and it will help you.
The argument that certain drugs (marijuana, mushrooms, peyote) are safe and good for you because they are natural is totally flawed. There are plenty of naturally occuring drugs that are obviously bad for you (eg -the poison in a death cap mushroom). Marijuana, Mushrooms, Peyote may be natural but taking them is not.
i remember learning in psychology that LSD works by releasing the chemicals in your brain that are responsible for dreaming - LSD and dreaming are closely linked. However, the difference is that in dreaming your body is paralysed so you can’t actually act on any of your hallucinations.
i just found my old text book. here is an excerpt from the book “Psychology - The science of behaviour”.
“…serotonin plays an important role in the control of dreaming. Normally, we dream only when we are asleep…During the rest of the day, circuits of serotonin-secreting neurons inhibit the mechanisms respnosible for dreaming, thus preventing them from becoming active. Drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT suppress the activity of serotonin-secreting neurons, permitting dream mechanisms to become active. As a result hallucinations occur.”
So if lucid dreaming and psychadelic drugs both have basically the same effect, then surely LDing is the better option.
I don’t know what textbook you are looking at but I was unaware we enough about the “mechanism of dreams” to make such a certain statement. Seratonin plays a role in our sleep cycle but it also has many other communication duties. This is just like when people try to induce alpha waves to induce dreams. Alpha waves occur during many brain operations, only one of which is dreaming. There is no proof that one causes the other.
“So if lucid dreaming and psychadelic drugs both have basically the same effect, then surely LDing is the better option.”- well maybe if that were true. Anyone who’s done both knows it isn’t though(though I guess mescaline was close).
The very fact that you must deal with the real world at the same time as your delusions makes psychs distinctly different. For example with psychedelics you can actually have a conversation with someone who is not a figment of your imagination.
I think the two are different enough that they should be considered on their own merits not against each other.
Amoeba, what I said wasn’t an “argument”, it was a statement. I wasn’t saying that (e.g.) peyote is safe because it’s natural, I was saying that it is, as a matter of fact, potentially safe, and natural. The point about natural psychedelics does not come from a pre-formed intellectual belief that everything natural is safe and good (obvious counter-examples are earthquakes, opium, datura and humans), but from an experience of a higher level of causality that reveals the connections between certain plants and the fundamental underlying structure of reality. Unfortunately this isn’t something that can be argued out theroretically, so people like me just end up having to say “that’s how it is,” which is obviously unsatisfactory. But then again, you wouldn’t argue with me about what colour my front door is, would you, because I’ve seen it and you haven’t.
Think about it in terms of lucid dreams. Some psychologists have argued that lucid dreams are theoretically impossible and that there can only be dreams of lucid dreams. But we all know that they’re wrong because there’s a difference between lucid dreams themselves and dreams of lucid dreams. The experience is totally undeniable once you’ve had it - it may be difficult or impossible to describe, but that doesn’t change the revelatory reality of the experience.