Alright guys,

I've tripped many times. I've had some beautiful experiences, and some stereotypically "bad" trips (running around my house panicked and yelling with no sense of self-identity while my grandma was home and well-aware of this, telling my parents I was tripping because my friend had left me alone during my come up and I was terrified, etc.). I preface this post with that because I don't want someone saying "oh you've never really had a bad trip so you can't speak on the subject of preventing them." Believe me, I've had times of immense fear while tripping. Those incidents are in the far past, though, and through practice and experience, I've gotten better at tripping successfully through following the advice I'm about to layout. One thing I find myself doing a lot is reading lots of trip reports. The ones I tend to learn the most from are actually "bad" trip reports. I often like to pinpoint exactly where I think the user went wrong in their trip that lead them down a negative pathway. I use this to learn as I think about how I would prevent something like that happening. I've made a post already about psychedelic advice, but that was intended towards more inexperienced users. This list is comprised of advice I feel can greatly steer any decently experienced user away from an unenjoyable trajectory. Some things to keep in mind, in no particular order:

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1. The things you experience may be jaw-dropping. They may seem very real. But they are not. They are hallucinations. Do not tell me that everything you are seeing is actually happening on some spiritual plane. Your brain is making everything up. Taking what it's showing you literally is a sure way to lose yourself. As Socrates said, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing," so don't leave a trip thinking you absolutely, without question, know the answers to the Universe or something. Don't worry, interpreting your trip as a metaphor doesn’t withdraw any of the beauty and impact it has. Although your brain is just manifesting archetypes and symbols in the mind that one already knew about, it still is deeply meaningful and powerful.
2. You are not your thoughts. The fact you can observe thoughts means you are beyond thoughts. Be unattached to thoughts, let them come and go. Thoughts will simply be passing clouds which can do literally nothing to you as long as you are aware that you are aware of these thoughts. Easier said than done and takes practice. But this is a powerful mindset.
3. Let go. Let go. Let go. Accepting your lack of control is how to overcome trip anxiety. It's critical to have faith but not hope. Have faith that you're going to get through your experience regardless of its details. Do not wish it could be over. Trust that you're going to make it through, just shut up about it. Hoping is blind and that's where the fear originates. People get a vague sense of not being ready for whatever might come and they get sucked into the fear which causes their imagination to go ape shit and fill in the blanks. This justifies the feeling with whatever it knows is going to bother them. Anxiety comes from a disconnect between what a person is experiencing and what they want to experience. Give up those expectations and hopes and the anxiety will soon disappear.
4. Once you effectively do #3, laugh at "scary" things if they still come into your thoughts and/or vision. Act like the trip is playing a joke on you. Laugh along with it. Like I said earlier, it's not real. If you treat it like a joke, you can make it funny. You can find humor in almost anything honestly. Think "Look what this little tab of paper did my brain! That's hilarious!" That doesn't necessarily mean laugh your ass off the whole time you're tripping (although there's nothing wrong with that lol), but treat the trip almost as if you are watching a comedy. When watching a comedy movie, there are certain parts that are funnier than others. There are also sometimes parts that are more sad or emotional than others. During the "sad" parts of the movie, remind yourself that as a whole, the movie is still a comedy. Why couldn't you watch a horror movie as if it was a comedy? Exactly. You can. Get what I'm saying?
5. Remember to breathe. I mean really breathe. Pay attention to your breath. I can't stress this enough. It seems simple, but it's essential. Breath is such a profound tool. It's the one thing we can always remember to do. The breath will ways bring you back home. You can control your fears and hormonal responses by taking control of your breath. Being in control of your breath allows you to lose control of everything else and be perfectly fine with it. Sometimes you may be in a state of not understanding anything that is happening and not knowing who you are, but breathing reminds you that you're still there. It doesn't really matter who you are because you can still breathe! I know this, you know this, we know this, but I just had to include this last point. Breathe baby, breathe!

I know that my pieces of advice alone are not going to 100% deter a challenging trip, but for this reason, feel free to add/subtract to the list in the comments! Safe travels y'all :)