Will I have a bad trip from a truffle ceremony?

This is the question that comes back in almost every intake call, and usually not first. People have heard stories, or know someone who was left with a bad experience. Those stories exist. They just almost never concern a guided ceremony.

Our experience is that here, in practice at least, there have been no people who had a bad trip.

That is a statement about this practice and about the years we have been doing this. It is not a guarantee and not a statement about truffles in general, and we do not mean it as one.

We have had people in for a conversation who did it somewhere else, or alone.

We have indeed had people here who did this somewhere else, or on their own, a bit irresponsibly, and who got into a kind of panic because of it.

Two things recur in those accounts: the dose was not tuned to the person, and there was nobody who knew what they were doing. If something then comes up that frightens you, there is no one to help you through it. That is the difference between unpleasant and damaging.

Worth knowing: grief, fear or panic coming up is not in itself the problem. It happens, and it is often the very thing it is about. What matters is what happens next.

So if you do get panic or fear or grief, and it really comes up, then you still have the feeling that you are safe and that someone is helping you through it.

There are always two guides present with a maximum of ten participants. If you keep going round in circles in a thought, someone sees that and can say something about it.

For that case the practice keeps something ready to bring someone out of it sooner. Kelly on that:

We also keep some things here in case it really goes wrong, to bring you out of it, but in all these years we have not had to do that once.

• A dose tuned to you, to age, height, weight and experience.
• An intake call beforehand, in English, in which we go through your health, your medication and your reasons. We do sometimes say no.
• Guidance that stays present all day, and a fixed place where you lie.
• Music put together in advance, which carries you along rather than taking you by surprise.

We do not say that it is safe, and we promise no outcome. A ceremony is not a medical treatment and does not replace regular care. There are situations in which we will not do it, and those are set out on the risks of a truffle ceremony.

If you find it daunting, you are in good company. According to Kelly it would be odder not to. Put it to us in the intake; that conversation carries no obligation.