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Invisible Lightning
Diphenhydramine
Citation:   Andrew. "Invisible Lightning: An Experience with Diphenhydramine (exp49964)". Erowid.org. Apr 19, 2008. erowid.org/exp/49964

 
DOSE:
425 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 140 lb
Backround: I am 16 years old. Have tried LSD, cannibis and DXM. Fairly good state of mind, not depressed nor particularly happy. It was a saturday afternoon. I read up on diphenhydramine and decided to try it myself, convinced that benedryl wouldn't hold a candle to LSD, boy was I wrong. I took seventeen 25mg benedryls and waited.

After about 30 minutes the room began to take a maroon sort of tint, but I thought this to just be some sort of trick the sun was playing on my eyes. After about 45 minutes I gave up on waiting for the trip and began to just continue about my chatting online. After roughly and hour and 15 minutes I began to see what I later called, 'the invisible lightning'. It is very difficult to explain the appearance but it looked like the electricity in one of those tesla balls. The ones where you put your hand on the ball and all of the light will move toward your hand. The only difference is it was clear, with a light grayish tint.

I began to see it everywhere. I started to lose focus on things and began staring at inatimate objects and ended up staring at my fax machine. After roughly 20 seconds I saw the invisible lightning engulf it. Intriguied, I studied the behavior as the lightning began to move very wildly and quickly as if it were 'fluttering' as I was saying. After a minute the lightning began to take form and looked like invisible people, about as tall as a foot. There were two 'clear' people and they began to fight on my fax machine. I found this very interesting and was very pleased with the results I was receiving from some simple benedryl, but I wasn't at the top of the hill before taking the plunge on this coaster.

As I sat in the chair I began to have what I called 'corner eye visuals.' It looks as if things begin to 'flutter' and jump out of the corner of my eye. For instance I kept thinking my door was opening, but when I would look it was closed. At this time I looked to the right at my reflection in the television screen (turned off). It was wild. It looked as if my head was giant and black and I had pure red eyes, then my arms began to expand and all I could see was my giant head and my arms. The invisible lightning began to take over the television and it began to look as if spirits were flying in and out of my torso, very intense but I was able to maintain control knowing it was part of the drug and actually finding it rather fascinating.

Then the cottonmouth came, oh the dreaded cottonmouth, what a terrible thing. I stood up to get water and immediately fell straight to the ground. Walking was difficult to say the very least. My body felt like 600 pounds and it felt as if I was leaning in one direction. I managed to get to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water. My god, swallowing was extremely difficult. This was the most unpleasant part of the trip, the cottonmouth combined with the difficulty of swallowing. My god it felt as if I had to put every bit of effort in my body into swallowing a mouthful of water.

I soon began to hear conversations in my head, without me talking. There were other people talking about stuff unrelated to anything, one talking about garbanzo beans, in my head. Eventually, I began to let my eyes wander again and ended up looking down at my stomach/pants. Wearing only boxers, it looked as if there were snakes slithering around in my boxers and my stomach looked as if it was mutating. Sort of like an acid trip where things are breathing only more violently and more aggressively. At first I was startled, thinking it was my heart beating at a very rapid rate or my breathing was irregular, but after feeling it I realized it was part of the drugs effect and began to relax. Curious, I stared down at my stomach watching it mutate and watching the lightning crawl all over me.

Eventually the lightning began to build up so much energy and move so quickly that it all quickly gathered into one area on my stomach and formed into a yellow scorpion, which was clicking his pincers together very rapidly. This frightened me a bit and I looked up at the computer quickly. For some reason the computer screen never became distorted. Then I heard the most terrible sound I've ever heard in my life. My house alarm go off. My parents were home and I was tripping harder than I had ever tripped in my life. Shit, I thought, oh well I will just speak minimally, they're probably tired anyways. After 20 minutes of them not entering the room I began to think, was the alarm a hallucination? I went out to the kitchen to explore and saw the lights on, but couldn't recall if I had left them on or not. Suddenly I saw a pair of legs walking outside of the window and knew my parents were home, so I quickly scuttled back to the computer. After 10 minutes of panic my parents came in the room to talk to me. This was the single most difficult experience I have ever had in my life. Talking is the most difficult thing to do while on this drug. They're talking sounded artificial. It had some sort of echo behind it and it was difficult to make out what they were saying aside from all the other conversations I was hearing in my head.

Somehow, I managed to keep a straight face and pull out a few words to have them retreat. My god I cannot explain the difficulty I had. Shortly after my parents retreated upstairs, my cat wandered into my room. I began to stare at him and analyze him and it seemed as if his face was buldging out at a rapid pace. It is like that painting, I do not know who painted it, possibly Dali (don't hate my if I'm wrong) where there is an apartment building and there is a large bubble in the middle of it where the building is magnified and stretched out and what not. My cat's face and body was 'bubbling' rapidly.

At this point I was extremely tired and my mind was strained from attempting to act normal around my parents, so I decided to hit the sack. As I let my head sink in the pillow I think how glad I am that I was able to muster enough strength to talk to my parents and have remained calm throughout the experience, when all of a sudden I hear the phone ring. It's about 12 AM and my phone rings, fuck. My stepmom yells to tell me some girls is on the phone, how could this get worse. I actually contemplate not getting out of bed and just laying there, but realized that would cause my stepmom to come downstairs and I didn't want that. After I muster enough strength to get out of bed and get the phone I talk to the girl. She asks me if I can get her drugs and not thinking clearly and just wanting to get off the phone I say yeah sure I'll bring them to you now and hang up. After a very good night sleep I see the girl the next morning and she is slightly upset, but I explained my situation and she understood.

Overall, I wouldn't call the drug enjoyable unless your seeking a very intense trip. The cottonmouth and difficulty swallowing made it unpleasant to me, thought I continued to do it daily for a week before giving up on it. This had me saying 'Holy shit this is benedryl?'

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 49964
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 19, 2008Views: 110,415
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Diphenhydramine (109) : First Times (2), Difficult Experiences (5), General (1), Alone (16)

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