I posted this message the day after taking LSD and doing some regressive thinking/meditation into my childhood. I came to realize that the paranoia and fear was a purposeful manifestation of my brain in self-defense to being subjected to this mind-altering chemical. My own brain was trying to condition me (through panic and fear) not to mess with this drug...

I think I've discovered some insight into why we have "bad trips" at (moderately) high doses of substances like LSD.

First let me put some history of your life... From the beginning of your life... from an ovum and a sperm combining, a tiny cluster of cells, until you are around a year, to a year and a half old, you spend this whole period struggling towards what we consider "normal consciousness"... clear thinking. What you experience every day... being able to think straight, see and hear clearly. Stability, reality, hard concrete facts that you know an believe. Your mind and body put forth an unbelievable amount of work and effort into obtaining this state... years of it.

Think back to something that was very hard for you to learn... but once you did, it became easy... and eventually something you did subconsciously. (ie: math, reading, riding a bike, learning a new language). If you can remember the effort it took to learn one of these things, you can imagine how much more effort it took to learn to see clearly, to walk, to talk.

It took a LOT of effort. You had to put your whole being into it... all your drive and emotions.

Now, when you take say, a good strong dose of LSD, enough to take reality clean away, you've taken away from yourself what you've spent years developing. Now unless you have nothing to worry about at the time, have taken this in full mind of having a good time, and having someone you can fully trust around to watch over things, you're opening for invitation a bad trip. You have spent years of hard work and effort to get where you are now, and your subconscious has memory of all that effort... and just how when you stub your toe, your brain communicates to you through pain "not to do that again" (the pain conditioning your conscious mind to be more careful), your brain will also communicate to you, "not to take this stuff again", because it doesn't like the fact that this substance has taken away what it has spent years developing.

Your subconscious mind will use something that is a primal emotion to condition you not to want to take LSD again... FEAR. Unless you have a worry-free environment, you can be overcome by fear, and unable to control it because reality is gone. You cannot be sure of what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, or feeling. Your mind will assault you with some of your worst fears. Mostly fear that you'll do something stupid. Fear that whatever you imagine will become real. If you ever get to a stage like this, I offer this one word of wisdom ... "RELAX".

You might get an uncontrollable urge to regain reality, to fight for it, and you may end up smashing into walls, hurting yourself or others.

The best thing to do is relax. If you hear someone telling you to calm down, listen to them.