DOSE: T+ 0:00		oral	Cacti - columnar	(fresh)
T+ 1:30		oral	Ginger	(tea)
T+ 0:00		oral	Ginger	(fresh)
T+ 0:00	0.75 tsp	oral	Syrian Rue	(ground / crushed)
T+ 1:35		oral	Cacti - columnar	(fresh)

BODY WEIGHT:

70 kg

Foreword:
This is an interesting account of an interesting experience that was told to me not so long ago by an interesting young man I met on a train.

It was my grandmother's birthday and I was at her house celebrating the occasion with the family. After the candles were blown, we all enjoyed a generous piece of rich cherry-chocolate mud cake and a glass of red wine. As the evening progressed the conversation quickly wound down over politics and then finally ceased after watching the world news. I used this opportunity to go outside and enjoy the last half hour of decent sunlight. I strolled through the greenhouse, which was becoming increasingly unattractive as my grandparents grew tired of maintaining and watering the plants. The plants are mainly cacti and orchids with just a couple of other ornamentals. Most of the cacti collection was originally my mothers and had been adopted many, years ago. One of the tall cacti at the back had taken my attention a couple of times, but previous attempts to identify it from books were unsuccessful. Another thing to note was that its condition was so bad that it made it difficult to grasp an idea of its original form.

This time I noticed a fresh new growth extending from the base. This new growth reminded me of a baby Trichocereus bridgesii I once cared for, however the old growth beside it was very similar to that of a T. peruvianus for at least 15cm. The skin was dark blue-green (on most of the old growth) and covered in scabs and necrosis, the new growth was light green. It is 5 ribbed, ~5cm in diameter, from the base the spines are in clusters of 5 short (less than 10mm) and soft to about 15cm, then the spines harden and 1 of the cluster becomes much larger (up to 25mm), continuing up the column are clusters of 1-2-3 long spines (to 35mm). A separate 2 foot long piece (broke off months ago) had only singe long spines. I asked my grandma if I could take a picture of it to post up on the web for identification, because I was intrigued to find out what it was and was told I could take it with me. I was given a T. bridgesii about a week before and it had only a slight resemblance.

When I got home with my new cactus I jumped on the web to try and find a match for it. After searching through many archives and reading various descriptions I concluded that I had no idea. Possible suspect I consider are T. peruvianus & T. bridgesii or both.

*[I have previously eaten San Pedro and had no significant effect. ]*

I decided that if it contained any 'goodies' I might be able to taste them and figured that the chance of it being toxic was very low. I started off be peeling away a bit of skin on a section that had over 50% necrosis (tissue death), I found a few nice little chunks of dark green flesh here so I proceeded to consumption. To my surprise it actually bordered on tasting pleasant. A little bitter and a little salty, also oddly enough a bit gritty, really no worse than salted cucumber with sand (I imagine). I ate several of these dark green chunks over about an hour while I was searhing online.

11:30pm After about an hour and a half I left the computer to have a munch and noticed I had a very slight headache (probably screen gazing) and slight energetic buzz (like coming up on a pill). I had my light snack and went back to the computer. After a few minutes later I was reading through a cactus page again when something I hadn't read in a long while caught my attention. Potentiators, unlike the last time I had read this, I actually had a few decent ones about. Listed were thing like ginger, liquorice, syrian rue, melatonin etc. I decided that it'd be nice to have a little bit of tea while I was researching anyway and all this talk of mescaline was getting me a little excited.

So I went to the kitchen grabbed a small piece of fresh ginger (~1/2 tsp) and some Vata tea (liquorice & ginger, cinnamon etc). I threw in the tea bag, poured the water, crushed the ginger in my mouth and went to my room to find some ground syrian rue seeds. I chewed on ~3/4 tsp of syrian rue seeds with the ginger and washed it down with the tea, tasted nice. Five minutes later I decided to consume some more of the cactus to ensure some activity and potentate my potentiators. All up I only consumed about the equivalent of a 50mm section (just the dark bits), I spent the next 2 hours buzzing and writing/ replying e-mails.

~2:30: I was feeling happier than usual and a little energised. It felt similar to ~75mg of MDA. It was when I left the computer to get a drink that I noticed some (apparent) mescaline action happening (I don't know what that means). On the way back I passed the mirror in the hall and my reflection gave me a cheeky grin.

Woo. . up!

I peered back around the corner at the mirror, all seemed quite normal except my pupils were large and my eyes blood-shat (no typo). It was looking at my pupils that gave a distorted layer effect that replicated my first 'Magic Eye' experience, only the mirror was the paper and my mind the hidden image. I am well acquainted with mirror gazing and in seemingly infinite secrets from my mushroom adventures. I must have spent a good half an hour playing with simple mind games in the reflection of my hidden personalities, all opening up at the subtle light changes when I moved my head. That was all pretty fun and differed only slightly from a shroom experience in that my mind was more focused and less easily distracted. It was ~3:45, when I decided that a good nights sleep would be of value to me.

Although aware of the annoyance of trying to sleep while tripping or even coming down, I thought that my tiredness overweighed the strength of this mild experience. While lying in bed a little restless, I noticed a faint yet interesting pattern on a wall made from the warm orange glow of a surge protector plug. As I stared at this faint pattern I noticed a some movement building up as though it were to soft vibrant music. At first it was just a few swirls and flickers but soon I was appreciating the mysteries of Mescaline. I can only relate the transcending, morphing imagery to two visual depictions, the first is Homer's trip from the 'Guatemalan insanity peppers' and the other is from Bevis & Buthead do America, when Bevis eats a strange rock-like desert cactus. For half an hour I lay on my bed being entertained by this 2-3D slideshow of morphing, animations some of which resembled episodes of Ren & Stimpy drawn by Salvador Dali and M. C Escher.

The next two hours I lay in bed having irritating thoughts that kept me from sleep, but I still had an okay relaxed feeling deep within me.

Exp Year: 2001	ExpID: 12129
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Dec 29, 2004	Views: 9,308
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Cacti - columnar (10) : Alone (16), General (1)