Recently, the Trippingly team met Andrew Zhao, the CEO of ThrowLights.com, a company that produces some of the best glovesets out there. He introduced us to several amazing artists using psychedelics to elevate their craft.

When Alex “Truffles” Lopez takes acid at home, he often spends the first hour or two self-reflecting and journaling. Then his creativity kicks in.

Lopez puts on his gloves, featuring multi-colored LED lights at the fingertips. He’s a glover — someone who gives light shows, often at raves.

When he’s on psychedelics, Lopez says his light shows are that much better. “Sober, I know 10 moves ahead,” he says. “Psychedelics, I know 100 steps ahead. Everything is more clean and precise.”

That’s because psychedelics help him to achieve a hyper-focused state of flow. “When I'm on psychedelics, it dissolves my ego completely,” Lopez says. “So I'm able to create without resistance… Every subconscious thought is gone.

“There's moves that I can’t even do in my sober life that I've been able to do in an altered state of consciousness.”

Lopez is part of a growing community using psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin and DMT to enhance creativity and performance.   

That’s because psychedelics are said to facilitate a state of flow — how we describe that feeling of being so immersed in what you’re doing that the world melts away, time flies, and nothing else seems to matter.  

Many report feeling when they’re on psychedelics, a quieting of the ego and analytical mind, allowing them to form an intimate and hyper-aware connection with an activity at hand. This state can be achieved through micro-dosing and larger doses, depending on the person.

But when glover Ruel “Dafuq?” Smith takes psychedelics, it’s not just to connect with gloving on a deeper level. But to feel a cosmic connection with someone he’s giving a lightshow to.

“I could care less about the high. It was the connection I was making with the people,” Smith says.

“When I'm giving someone a show, I'm giving them a show as if I was giving myself a show, but as them. So I'm basically looking at my lights through their eyes. Not even like the glimmer off their eyes, but like basically through their eyes. So I'm creating that spiritual — that soul bonding connection because I'm transferring my energy, my mentality and my thought into them and then creating it for them.”

Smith says he needs that interpersonal connection in order to feel that he’s in a state of flow. That’s why he primarily gives light shows on psychedelics at music festivals.

“I could be on a 10-strip (of acid) at home by myself and put on the gloves and throw the worst show ever,” he says.

If you’re interested in trying psychedelics to further your creativity and/or performance, here are six tips from Lopez and Smith.

1. Set an intention

Lopez: “So when you take it, you want to set an intention on, hey, I'm going to be more creative this time and I'm going to practice. Definitely setting intention is going to amplify that.”

2. Start small

Smith: “I would definitely suggest taking it slow. I've had friends trip on two tabs and they're losing their minds and I've had friends trip on five tabs and they're like I barely feel anything. It's definitely one of those things where you should take it slow, know your body. Don't overdo it. I get you want to get to a certain level, but you'll get there. It will come. Just, just wait.”

3. Have a good music playlist ready to go, if you’re at home

Enough said.

4. Be careful about who else is home

Lopez: “Don't have anyone around that you like are iffy about. Like if someone bugs you, don't have them around when you're doing psychedelics because it's going to bug you even more. Don't live with your parents. You can't have anyone around you that's going to be like, what are you doing? I mainly do psychedelics by myself. Because when you're by yourself, you're not having a projection of anyone else's energy.” 

5. Get to know your body on psychedelics before taking them at a festival 

Smith: “You should condition your body. You should never go into a situation that you've — not never been in, but never been in in that state, because once you get there, it's going to be so different, completely different from what you are not only used to seeing, but what you're expecting to see.

“I think people have a lot of expectation and what a lot of time I see acid do is it crushes their expectation and either overly exuberates it or underwhelms it to a point where they're either not enjoying because they just don't feel that high or they're having too much of an overexhileration and they're just overwhelmed. They just don't know what's going on and they can't make heads or tails of it, you know? So I would suggest taking lower doses, conditioning your body and making sure that's something you want to do.”

6. Have someone with you if you’re fairly new to psychedelics at a festival

Smith: “If you don't think you're going to be able to handle it, one, I wouldn't suggest taking it. But if you do decide to, I suggest having someone with you. But honestly, you don't always need to. Just knowing yourself, if you're good, like you never had to be babysat when you're either drunk or high or whatever, and you just want to take like two tabs and you want to go enjoy the night, I say go do it.

“Just knowing yourself, like if you feel like you might need a baby sitter... The first time I did any drug, any type of drug, I always had a babysitter, always. Even if they're experienced tripper or not, because I don't know how I'm going to react. I don't know how I'm going to react, like bottom line.” 

7.  Consider taking acid if you want to try psychedelics at a festival 

Smith: “A lot of people choose acid over mushrooms because it's not so intra-personal. A lot of people — and as shitty as it is to say — don't like themselves. And that's just the reality of our world, you know, and it's unfortunate.  If I'm going to suggest anything, acid, because it has the least mental repercussions. I don't say that as every psychedelic has a repercussion. Anything you do has a repercussion behind it, whether it be positive or negative.”