(Related questions: Do I need a sitter? A shaman?, Avoiding Demonic Possession)
There are certainly some things you can do to avoid a "bad trip", but first, let's define what a "bad trip" actually is.
A bad trip, in my opinion, is not a trip that produces negative emotions. That is to be expected, at least in part, at least sometimes.. since after all, "Life is (full of) Suffering" is Buddha's First Noble Truth. But there are a few tricks for turning a bad trip good (hypnosis vid, shadow vid). And predosing with Lion's Mane is always a good idea. DMSO and PalmitoylEthanolAmide can both be very effective at calming and grounding. One super power mind trick that turns bad trips good is Metta meditation which is good to do before, during, and after. Another one is contemplating Dependent Origination.
A truly bad trip is one in which you have no new insights (usually the result of focusing on external things outside of your innermost being/non-being). Such a trip is a waste of time. Even if it felt like the best experience of your life, if you gained no insight from it, then what was the point? Furthermore, whose fault is it if you wasted your time? Look at it this way: a trip is just another experience. It might be more powerful than other experiences, but in the end, it's just another experience.
What can we learn from say, just being bored, lonely, angry, etc.?
Until you can learn from every experience, you risk wasting your time with psychedelics. And once you are able to gain insight from any experience, you won't need psychedelics. And once you have gained sufficient insight, you won't need/want to be reborn after death, nor will you feel you are really even existing during the life of this body/mind called you.
So what is the insight that can always be gained from any experience? Contemplate the Three Marks of Existence (all things are impermanent, stressful, and there's no self/no essence anywhere). Those aspects of conventional reality/existence that Buddha taught are present in every experience. It is thru contemplating those aspects of "existence" that are very difficult to see moment to moment, that we stop hiding from the obvious truth. When we stop hiding, we let go of attachments, we become disenchanted with this illusion/dream called existence. That itself is the direct spiritual path.
There are certainly some things you can do to avoid a "bad trip", but first, let's define what a "bad trip" actually is.
A bad trip, in my opinion, is not a trip that produces negative emotions. That is to be expected, at least in part, at least sometimes.. since after all, "Life is (full of) Suffering" is Buddha's First Noble Truth. But there are a few tricks for turning a bad trip good (hypnosis vid, shadow vid). And predosing with Lion's Mane is always a good idea. DMSO and PalmitoylEthanolAmide can both be very effective at calming and grounding. One super power mind trick that turns bad trips good is Metta meditation which is good to do before, during, and after. Another one is contemplating Dependent Origination.
A truly bad trip is one in which you have no new insights (usually the result of focusing on external things outside of your innermost being/non-being). Such a trip is a waste of time. Even if it felt like the best experience of your life, if you gained no insight from it, then what was the point? Furthermore, whose fault is it if you wasted your time? Look at it this way: a trip is just another experience. It might be more powerful than other experiences, but in the end, it's just another experience.
What can we learn from say, just being bored, lonely, angry, etc.?
Until you can learn from every experience, you risk wasting your time with psychedelics. And once you are able to gain insight from any experience, you won't need psychedelics. And once you have gained sufficient insight, you won't need/want to be reborn after death, nor will you feel you are really even existing during the life of this body/mind called you.
So what is the insight that can always be gained from any experience? Contemplate the Three Marks of Existence (all things are impermanent, stressful, and there's no self/no essence anywhere). Those aspects of conventional reality/existence that Buddha taught are present in every experience. It is thru contemplating those aspects of "existence" that are very difficult to see moment to moment, that we stop hiding from the obvious truth. When we stop hiding, we let go of attachments, we become disenchanted with this illusion/dream called existence. That itself is the direct spiritual path.