On the whole, sex is great. Psychedelics can make it even better. Not only can they simply improve the pleasure of sex, but they can help people overcome fear and discomfort, connect on a deeper level, and just add a bit of variety into your sex life.

However, psychedelics are incredibly powerful drugs that can be scary, confusing, and disinhibiting. Therefore, it’s important to have a proper discussion about matters before you take anything, as articulately communicating once you’re high might be difficult.

In exactly the same way that psychedelics can enhance sex, they can also make it particularly uncomfortable and weird. So going slow and being prepared for any changes is essential. But so long as you communicate and act in a loving way, all should be well.

Can You Have Sex on Psychedelics?

Absolutely. Having sex on psychedelics can conjure profound feelings of intimacy, open up hitherto untapped depths of trust, and cause tactile sensations to become an entire and shared universe. Sex on psychedelics is capable of greatly increasing both the emotional and physical aspects of sex. It can also make sex deeply confusing and very funny.

Different psychedelics lend themselves to slightly different purposes, although they all share the same general characteristics. MDMA is more emotional, and likely to encourage a lot of talking. Mushrooms, on the other hand, are intensely physical, and communication tends to be more non-verbal.

Just accept that you might be tripping quite hard, and that things can look a little weird sometimes.

Combining Sex & Psychedelics: A Brief History

The use of sex and drugs together is not a well-documented part of history. There are records of certain drugs such as opium and blue lotus flower being used as aphrodisiacs, but whether psychedelics and sex have been a big part of human history is hard to say.

But we can speculate. Magic mushrooms, for instance, have been a large part of history, with artistic representations dating back as far as 9,000 BCE in caves in Algeria. From east to west, fungi have been with humanity for a long, long time.

And so has sex. Whether the two have been historically used in conjunction, though, is up for debate.

More recently, the combination of psychedelics and sex gained a lot of traction in the post-war world, most heavily associated with the hippie movement and sexual liberation. Until MDMA became banned in the US, it was used in couples therapy to improve empathy, including sexual empathy and closeness.

Can Psychedelics Improve Your Sex Life?

If used properly, psychedelics can improve your sex life. However, they can only facilitate things that are already there. They may be great at helping overcome shyness or enhancing sexual pleasure, but they won’t turn you on when you’re not, and they won’t make you love someone who you just don’t. That being said, they may catalyse an honest and loving conversation about moving on.

Physical Pleasure

An obvious use of drugs in bed is to enhance physical pleasure. Most drugs cause an increase in tactile sensitivity, meaning that bodies and sex can feel incredible.

And not only the simple act of sex itself, but physical closeness in general. In fact, depending on the drug taken, other forms of touching may be better. For instance, while physical contact on MDMA may feel incredible, reaching orgasm (especially for men) can be difficult for some users.

Emotional Closeness

This is inextricably tied up with the first point, but psychedelics can serve to increase emotional closeness and sensitivity too. However, you must be comfortable with the person or people with whom you are taking them, because if you are not emotionally comfortable, this will become more apparent on psychedelics, not less.

Nevertheless, if you are with someone whom you’re comfortable with, expect to physically and emotionally meld into a single emotio-physical entity.

Overcoming Fears

Again, this is bound up with the former two. Perhaps you have some sexual shyness, and find that it's holding you back from fully enjoying sex with people. The opening up caused by psychedelics can help to overcome this and allow a user to “let themselves go”.

Once again, though, ultimately the drug is just facilitating this; it is the partner(s) that is really essential here. If you don’t trust them, you can be certain that taking a psychedelic is not going to make all your fears disappear.

The Best Psychedelics To Have Sex On

As mentioned, different psychedelics will encourage different sexual experiences, ranging from the laughably emotional to the absurdly sensual. In terms of which drug(s) you choose to take, this will depend on your intentions. If you want to use psychedelics to help you and a partner through some sexual difficulty, or you just fancy spicing things up and experimenting, you may opt for one substance over the other. However, whichever you choose, if the sex is good anyway, you’re likely to find it fantastic in one way or another.

MDMA

If you want to connect with someone on an emotional level, MDMA is potentially the drug of choice. Anyone familiar with MDMA will be aware how almost sickeningly emotional it can make people—now imagine this curled up naked in bed with a lover. Don’t let this put you off, though.

While MDMA can greatly increase sexual arousal and physical pleasure, it can also have some detrimental side effects, especially for men. Most men who have taken MDMA will be aware that it causes some changes, and in the bedroom, this can mean erectile dysfunction. Given how intimate and aroused one can become, this can be a frustration. However, if you’re with a woman, why not treat it as an act of radical feminism and go without an orgasm. On that note, even if you can get it up, you may find you can't orgasm.

Regardless of what does and doesn’t happen, partners are likely to feel unparalleled intimacy and comfort with one another. This makes MDMA a perfect psychedelic for working through problems with a lover, and sex creates an intimate setting for that.

Magic Mushrooms or Truffles

Sex on magic mushrooms is pretty wild, especially at higher doses. Being serotergenic, they generally increase positive feelings. However, as we know with psychedelics, this is not entirely reliable, and users must be careful to avoid a bad trip. Shrooms do not cause deep connections as reliably as MDMA, for instance.

So while it depends on the people involved, it’s safe to say that sex on shrooms is more likely to be better for partners who feel incredibly comfortable in one another’s presence. If this is the case, expect a sensory extravaganza.

With the ego reduced on shrooms, it’s likely that giving in to a partner will be even more wonderful than usual. And when you get into the heat of sex, expect the senses to meld into something almost transcendent.

LSD

Sex and the powerful trip delivered by acid may not immediately seem like the two best companions, but it can be exceptional—if not a little weird.

Sex is intense even when sober, so sex on LSD is going to be pretty mad. That being said, it can also cause a total dissolution of time and boundaries (between both the partners and your senses). Though all (good) sex involves some degree of “becoming one” with other people, sex on LSD can really make it hard to distinguish one from another, and can also mean that the pleasure of one amplifies the pleasure of the other(s).

Weed

Weed is not strictly a psychedelic. In fact, it’s not strictly a hallucinogen. It falls between the major drug categories, featuring traits of practically all of them.

What we do know, however, is that cannabis is a hugely popular sexual enhancer. Whether ingested for its psychoactive effects or applied as a topical lubricant to enhance physical pleasure and decrease feelings of physical discomfort, cannabis is great in the bedroom.

Also, due to its less intense (compared to the drugs listed above) high, it can be a great drug to test the waters with. Have a little smoke with your partner and see how you feel. It’s much less likely to get weird compared to, say, LSD. Nevertheless, still exercise caution and be extra-sensitive regarding one another’s boundaries when having sex on any drug.