DOSE:		oral	Alcohol
		oral	Cannabis	(edible / food)
		oral	Mushrooms
		oral	Melatonin	(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

165 lb

My partner 'Susan' and I went to a friend's 50th birthday party. It was a standard, hip, middle-class-yuppie affair at a golf course clubhouse about 10 miles from home, with about 100 people in attendance. Before leaving for the party, we each had a couple glasses of wine and, if I remember right, a couple pieces of homemade 'cannabis candy.' Needless to say, we showed up feeling good and mellow. When we greeted the guest of honor, he smiled and pulled out a 'magic mushroom' stem and said, 'Take a bite of this.' I laughed and took a small bite and gave the rest to Susan. The bite I took was a flat piece of stem about 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) long by 3/8 inch (1 cm) wide; a mere fraction of a gram. As a veteran of a few hundred psychedelic excursions over 20 or so years, I didn't expect to feel more than a little 'clearing of the cobwebs,' if that. We ate dinner, which I accompanied with a couple glasses of champagne.

Within the hour I was staggering out to the car to 'drift check my gyros.' I rushed into total psychedelic, leaving-the-body, where am I going? where will I end up? will I end? wig-out. Not just the disorientation, at what floor will the elevator stop? trepidation, fear thing -- or not just that -- but the swirling colors, bizarre images, distorted sounds, warped visions, 'people are strange when you’re a stranger,' total ego dissolution, over-the-falls shit I associate with the initial rush of LARGE dosage. I became convinced that the party-boy (or whoever had given the 'shroom to him) had soaked the thing in LSD, and I was coming on to 500-or-so mics. (Not necessarily a bad thing mind you, but the Set and Setting were ALL wrong for that kind of foray into the abyss…) Now and then I would shake myself out of it and things would be sorta normal... for a few seconds... and then it would start over... and over... and over again.

Somehow, as this funhouse-nightmare was unfolding, it occurred to me that Susan and I were only two of many 'innocent' victims at the party. And since we were late comers, everyone else who had been dosed were about an hour ahead of us. While I was sitting in the car I watched as a lot of people were leaving into the rainy night, and 'realized' that they were all freaking out; that they had to get out of there to wherever they had to get to be where they had to be, and they were in a manic rush to get out of there to wherever they had to get to be where they had to be, and had to get out of there to wherever they had to get to be where they had to be, and, and, and, and there was a very strange looking couple who got into a van beside me and just sat in the van, I knew, to try and cope and mellow out, and forever later this entity in white came and took them away. (Well, it was some guy with a flashlight and wrapped up in a raincoat; then I realized it'd gotten out of hand and the 'authorities' were involved…)

About an hour later I was manageably better (which made me realize that whatever was going on between my ears had nothing to do with 500 mics of LSD), so I decided to go back in and find Susan. Just then, she showed up at the car, rather high, but otherwise okay. We talked a little, went back inside for a few minutes, and then went home.

A LONG drive home…

Wellllllll, turns out that wasn't what it was at all... it was just ME... I guess the melatonin &/or the nasal steroid I'm using &&/or-or the 'candy' and alcohol helped &&&/or-or-or it's-midnight-and-I'm-finally-turning-into-a-pumpkin just opened the floodgates further than expected. Very few had tasted the 'shroom. Those who were leaving had finished eating and well-wishing and were heading home, NOT in any particular hurry. (I don't know what happened to the people in the van though... but I'm fairly certain their scene wasn't drug-related... or drug-induced... I think... I think... I think I am... therefore...) All-in-all it was a rather interesting experience. I was a bit disoriented for a couple of days, but all seems well at the present... the present... the present... the... 'hello, my name is HAL... it can only be attributable to human error... Dave, what are you doing Dave?... my mind is going; I can feel it...'

A NOTE AFTER THE FACT:
After mulling over the 'forced consciousness expansion' I'd been subjected to, I've become fairly certain the experience was due to the melatonin (and perhaps a bit to the 'Pumpkin Factor') mentioned in the last paragraph.

The amount of cannabis candy I'd eaten, although of high quality, was only enough to relax me and induce a mildly dreamy, but functionally lucid, euphoria; a nice place from which to launch, and a definite enhancement, but in no way accounts for what transpired! And long ago I discovered that alcohol is virtually a non-issue when it comes to psychedelics, because psychedelics simply overpower the effects of alcohol.

Then there's the obvious: although Susan did get off on the small piece of mushroom she ate, she didn't get blown into the far reaches of the galaxy the way I did. The hour I was in the car 'white-knuckled on the rollercoaster,' she'd spent inside socializing.

I'd been taking +/- 3 mg of melatonin nearly every night, for well over a year by that time, to alleviate chronic insomnia. Over time, I discovered one of its side/after effects was that it was mildly, but persistently, psychoactive (like coming down off a low dose of LSD), with a residual effect that persisted for quite a while after I stopped using it. I eventually stopped taking it because its usefulness at relieving insomnia diminished and the psycho-drift, though interesting at times, got really old.

Although I hadn’t taken any melatonin before the party, I believe the lingering residual effect of the melatonin I’d been using may have had the 'psychedelic receptors' in my brain primed for lift-off, only awaiting the right catalyst. Since this psychoactive quality of melatonin is not, as far as I know, a widely reported side effect, I have to attribute my reaction (aside from something purely idiosyncratic) to an extensive use of psychedelics that's left me with a sensitivity to this mental space many times greater than that of the 'average' person. (On the other hand, maybe I'm just a nutcase, I dunno...) On more than one occasion during my 'melatonin phase' my partner had asked me if I'd dosed, because of the general psychedelic spaciness I exuded at times.

I have tripped since being away from melatonin with 'normal' results. I think an interesting possibility is that, if it can amplify the psychedelic experience to a similar extent in others as it did me, it'd be a useful way to stretch a stash ;-) Or, more importantly (and without the intended tongue-in-cheek of the previous sentence), if my experience did happen because of the melatonin, others using it should be aware of the potential, so as to avoid mixing the two, unless a conscious choice is made to do so. And be ready for the ride. I'm positive I would've had no problem if I'd been aware of what was happening and been in a more appropriate Setting.

Exp Year: 1997	ExpID: 45882
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 40
Published: May 30, 2006	Views: 18,774
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Mushrooms (39) : Large Group (10+) (19), Combinations (3)