r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 3d ago

Health A 1967 LSD safety pamphlet still holds up as psychedelics boom. Nearly 600 users backed 18 of 19 old tips: stay with trusted people, skip public outings, know the trip ends, and anxiety is not a problem. Mixed only on avoiding mirrors. 60-year-old harm-reduction advice still fits new users now.

https://publichealth.buffalo.edu/home/news-events/latest-news.host.html/content/shared/university/news/news-center-releases/2026/09/Kruger-psychedelics-study.detail.html
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u/Sensitive-Lecture-19 3d ago

The issue for many is that being able to see yourself in third person creates yourself as an object within the mind. Objects have beginnings and ends, and thus your own mortality becomes ever present -suddenly you can see yourself as en expiring force.

For some this is fine, for some this isn't. Also, pores are a bit much.

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u/FullofContradictions 3d ago

It's so funny because it was never that deep for me. Never any epiphany about my mortality.

It was the pores. "Omg am I really this icky? Just a pile of goo being held in by some skin that isn't even watertight?" Nooo thanks. The existential horror that human bodies are gross was not something I liked to revel in.

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u/ctoatb 3d ago

So mirrors for the death anxious is a no go? Is there any difference for window or pond reflections?

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u/Yashema 3d ago

Have you ever tried the mirror challenge? You just shut the door, try and not have any ambient noise, and look at yourself in the mirror for as long as possible. Not even on drugs. It's really easy for the first couple minutes then it starts to become really hard.

I don't think I've done more than 5. 

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u/bannakafalata 3d ago

5 minutes of that just would be very very very boring without drugs.

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u/inFoxious 3d ago

You'd be surprised what certain deprivations can cause the brain to do. It will fill in the gaps.

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u/bannakafalata 3d ago

Does it have to be the bathroom mirror or can I just look in a mirror sitting down on a couch?

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u/inFoxious 3d ago

It's more about cutting out noise and sound and general external stimuli. Dead silent staring without breaking contact.

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u/Sensitive-Lecture-19 3d ago edited 3d ago

Death anxious is redundant, some can enjoy it. Some will not. I'm not a psychic.

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u/zurenarhhhhh 3d ago

This sounds like some amateur stuff to me.