My response is entirely anecdotal from personal experiences and friends. They are not based on any scientific research.

I’ve tried both LSD and shrooms. They’ve been my favorite since they aren’t about feeling high. It’s not about elevating your mood like marijuana, cocaine, extracy. They aren’t about making you chill like alcohol, benzos, and opioids. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like you have more conscious access to your brain. It’s like a lot of the filters that control your perception are removed or altered. While most people focus on the hallucinations, I think the important part is the access to your mind. Another bonus is that since they aren’t about getting that emotional high, they’re not addictive.

On each occasion, I’ve left the trip with a new outlook on life. It’s like I have all these things that are hidden from my consciousness, and bringing them into awareness helps me address them. I have a friend that live sin the mountains and drops shrooms regularly every 3-4 months as a reset. It helps him readjust his priorities and get back to his life’s purpose.

I’ve heard accounts where things went bad, but I haven’t had that experience. If you’re with a trained professional, you might be in good hands. There are videos online of reputable people going to South America and trying ayahuasca, so that might be something you’d be interested in watching.

If you try it out, please report back and let us know how it went!

You’ve said you already experimented with cannabis and it wasn’t your thing, but for everyone else reading, this is my experience with it.

THC (exclusively in edibles) has been a mixed-but-overall-positive bag for me. I believe it, in conjunction with therapy, helped me understand my own cognition better, especially on a gut-level, and especially after having been on an emotional plateau for years. It allowed me to viscerally experience emotions and sensations I hadn’t felt in a long time, experience trains of thought different from my default, reexperience the childlike sense of wonder in many things, and overall spurred me on towards self-improvement - all helpful to me in pursuit of coming to terms with ASD and lacking interoception.

That all said, it’s not without side effects. If your environment and/or headspace aren’t right, your high can go sour and lead you towards unpleasant trains of thought (it’s a psychoactive, after all). Withdrawal symptoms for me feel like a blunted inverse of everything positive about THC, and if you use too frequently, it can potentially last for days. And of course, inebriation is not everyone’s cup of tea, munchies can potentially be a dietary concern, and cottonmouth is unpleasant whether you’re high or not (although I found this got much, much easier to manage later on).

My advice: Don’t do too much at once - knowing exactly how much is too much comes with experience and keeping a mental tab on your tolerance, but if you’re completely new, start with 5mg and wait. Take regular breaks for the sake of your tolerance and mental health - even one day has an impact. Do it in a location where you’re comfortable and not likely to be paranoid about other people knowing you’re high. Try to enjoy it, but if you aren’t and can’t shake a bad trip for whatever reason, it can be a valuable learning experience all the same. Talk about your experiences with someone to get those thoughts and emotions out of your head (which is worth doing in general, weed or no weed). Overall, be a responsible adult about it.

Well, I’ve never done it in a professional setting.

But anecdotally I’ve gotten relief from recreational use.

I took around 20 micrograms of LSD once, and i didn’t have a sitter. Worst experience of my entire life - if you have any sort of visual or sensory sensitivity I personally recommend you stay far away, just anecdotally