Trip report

A trip report, also known as a psychedelic experience report, is a written account of a subjective psychedelic experience by a person who has taken a psychedelic or other hallucinogenic drug.{{cite book | last1=Bååth | first1=Jonas | last2=Nordgren | first2=Johan | title=Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication | chapter=Trip Reports | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=London | date=27 October 2022 | isbn=978-0-429-05814-1 | doi=10.4324/9780429058141-26 | url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429058141/chapters/10.4324/9780429058141-26 | access-date=26 April 2025 | pages=328–341}}{{cite journal | last1=Miceli McMillan | first1=Riccardo | last2=Reynolds | first2=Jack | last3=Fernandez | first3=Anthony | title=The phenomenology of psychedelic temporality: current knowledge, open questions, and clinical applications | journal=Philosophical Psychology | date=25 November 2024 | issn=0951-5089 | doi=10.1080/09515089.2024.2433522 | pages=1–28 | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515089.2024.2433522 | access-date=26 April 2025}}{{cite journal | vauthors = Tagliazucchi E | title = Language as a Window Into the Altered State of Consciousness Elicited by Psychedelic Drugs | journal = Front Pharmacol | volume = 13 | issue = | pages = 812227 | date = 2022 | pmid = 35392561 | pmc = 8980225 | doi = 10.3389/fphar.2022.812227 | doi-access = free | url = }} They are often published on online websites like Erowid, Bluelight, Lycaeum, Drugs Forum, and Reddit, among others, with Erowid's Experience Vaults containing thousands of trip reports.{{cite journal | vauthors = Bogenschutz MP | title = Drug information libraries on the Internet | journal = J Psychoactive Drugs | volume = 32 | issue = 3 | pages = 249–258 | date = 2000 | pmid = 11061675 | doi = 10.1080/02791072.2000.10400447 | url = }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Mosurinjohn S, Roseman L, Girn M | title = Psychedelic-induced mystical experiences: An interdisciplinary discussion and critique | journal = Front Psychiatry | volume = 14 | issue = | pages = 1077311 | date = 2023 | pmid = 37181886 | pmc = 10171200 | doi = 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1077311 | doi-access = free | url = }}

Among the most famous trip reports are those of chemist Albert Hofmann when he discovered LSD, including Bicycle Day (April 19, 1943) and his initial accidental lower-dose exposure a few days earlier on April 16, 1943.{{cite book | last=Olive | first=M. Foster | chapter=History of LSD | title=LSD | publisher=Infobase Publishing | date=2008 | isbn=978-0-7910-9709-0 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5F20qtRfEsC&pg=PA21 | access-date=26 April 2025 | pages=21–33}}{{cite book | author=Albert Hofmann | chapter=History of the Discovery of LSD | pages= | editor1-last=Ladewig | editor1-first=D. | editor2-last=Pletscher | editor2-first=A. | title=Fifty Years of LSD: Current Status and Perspectives of Hallucinogens | publisher=CRC Press | date=15 August 1994 | isbn=978-1-85070-569-7 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3s5vkfmXKNUC&pg=PA7 | access-date=26 April 2025 | page=}}{{cite book |last1=Hofmann |first1=Albert |title=LSD: My Problem Child |date=2013 |orig-date=1980|publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-963941-0 |page=22|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glPNoC2N-IgC&pg=PA22}} Writer Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception (1954) is a book-length trip report about his first experience with mescaline provided by psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond. Chemist Alexander Shulgin's books PiHKAL (1991){{cite book | author1 = Alexander T. Shulgin | author2 = Ann Shulgin | title = PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story | date = 1991 | publisher = Transform Press | edition = 1st | location = Berkeley, CA | isbn = 978-0-9630096-0-9 | oclc = 25627628}} and TiHKAL (1997){{cite book | author1 = Alexander T. Shulgin | author2 = Ann Shulgin | title = TiHKAL: The Continuation | publisher = Transform Press | date = 1997 | edition = 1st | location = Berkeley, CA | isbn = 978-0-9630096-9-2 | oclc = 38503252 | url = }} contain short trip reports for hundreds of psychedelic drugs.{{cite journal | last1=Walker | first1=Scott R. | last2=Pullella | first2=Glenn A. | last3=Piggott | first3=Matthew J. | last4=Duggan | first4=Peter J. | title=Introduction to the chemistry and pharmacology of psychedelic drugs | journal=Australian Journal of Chemistry | volume=76 | issue=5 | date=5 July 2023 | issn=0004-9425 | doi=10.1071/CH23050 | doi-access=free | pages=236–257 | url=https://www.publish.csiro.au/ch/pdf/CH23050 | access-date=26 April 2025}}{{cite journal | vauthors = Sumnall HR, Evans-Brown M, McVeigh J | title = Social, policy, and public health perspectives on new psychoactive substances | journal = Drug Test Anal | volume = 3 | issue = 7–8 | pages = 515–523 | date = 2011 | pmid = 21744515 | doi = 10.1002/dta.310 | url = }}

In the 2020s, researchers have started to analyze trip reports as part of scientific research into the effects of psychedelics.{{cite journal | last=Luke | first=David | title=Anomalous Psychedelic Experiences: At the Neurochemical Juncture of the Humanistic and Parapsychological | journal=Journal of Humanistic Psychology | volume=62 | issue=2 | date=2022 | issn=0022-1678 | doi=10.1177/0022167820917767 | doi-access=free | pages=257–297 }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Ballentine G, Friedman SF, Bzdok D | title = Trips and neurotransmitters: Discovering principled patterns across 6850 hallucinogenic experiences | journal = Sci Adv | volume = 8 | issue = 11 | pages = eabl6989 | date = March 2022 | pmid = 35294242 | pmc = 8926331 | doi = 10.1126/sciadv.abl6989 | bibcode = 2022SciA....8L6989B | url = }} As an example, the pharmaceutical company Mindstate Design Labs processed 70,000 online trip reports with artificial intelligence (AI) and selected 5-MeO-MiPT as a candidate with unique subjective effects for development as a potential pharmaceutical medication.{{cite web | last=Bayer | first=Max | title=After crunching 70k 'trip reports', Mindstate looks to test first AI-derived psychedelic on humans | website=Fierce Biotech | date=13 March 2024 | url=https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/mindstates-first-ai-derived-psychedelic-heads-clinic | access-date=10 November 2024}}{{cite web | author=Microdose NewsDesk | title=Mindstate Design Labs AI-Designed Trial Gets FDA Approval | website=Microdose | date=10 September 2024 | url=https://microdose.buzz/news/mindstate-design-receives-fda-approval/ | access-date=10 November 2024}}{{cite web | last=Meissen | first=Andrew | title=Mindstate Uses AI to Design "Next-Gen" Psychedelics Combined With 5-MeO-MiPT | website=Lucid News - Psychedelics, Consciousness Technology, and the Future of Wellness | date=20 September 2024 | url=https://www.lucid.news/mindstate-uses-ai-to-design-next-gen-psychedelics-combined-with-5-meo-mipt/ | access-date=10 November 2024}}