DOSE:

3.5 g

oral

Mushrooms - P. cubensis

(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

138 lb

Trip Background Info: I was 18 at the time, and was off school for the summer, at least until I shipped off to college that August. My summer had been great so far and I was in an extremely positive and uplifting mindset for the majority of the summer; both my mom and dad worked during the day and I was unemployed, so I had the house to myself from morning till early evening every day. As for my other background issues: I've been a minor drug user for several years, sticking to mainly cannabis (my heaviest use of this was to a point where I smoking once or twice a week for two or three months) and snorting painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin, sometimes Xanax.

This was my first experience with mushrooms; or with any psychedelic drug, for that matter. I was ecstatic about being able to do shrooms, since I had waited for several months to obtain 3.5 grams from a close friend of mine (we'll call him T) and I eagerly anticipated a fully engaging sensory and mental experience; originally, I was supposed to get the bag back in December of the previous year (the trip happened in July of 2007, so I was originally supposed to get the shrooms in December of 2006), but due to some problems with supply, I had to wait a few more months. It wasn't a big deal, however; that gave me the opportunity to prepare mentally for my undertaking, and to schedule out the day of the trip.

On a day in early July, T stopped by my house with his girlfriend to drop off the mushrooms. I was in awe of them upon their arrival; the fact in itself that I was holding in my hands a revered psychedelic drug was humbling, and I planned to make the day of my trip a valuable experience. I had done tons of research on mushroom trips for months, so I knew exactly what I was getting into, but I kept an open mind about everything and stayed humble. T gave me a few pointers for making the trip the best it could possibly be, and reminded me about set & setting, as well as the tripper's mental attitude. I kept all of this information in mind, since I knew it would prove valuable when coupled with what I already knew.

I continued to keep a positive outlook on everything and spent a lot of time meditating and reading philosophy, interacting with the outside world as little as possible to make the mushroom trip a very mental and private thing. I began listening to more ambient music and soundscapes to shape my attitude going into the trip, and also prepared a playlist for the trip, consisting mostly of ambient and some instrumental trip-hop. For the time being, I stored the mushrooms in a dark, dry place at room temperature for holding until the day of the trip.

The day of trip finally rolled around: It was a bright, beautiful summer day in my neck of the woods, and my country home was as peaceful as ever. My mom hold told me earlier that morning before she left for work (when I was still sleeping) that she wouldn't be home until later in the evening because of a doctor's appointment, and that my dad had to work overtime as well. Which, obviously, excited me and erased the fear that they may come while I was still moderately inebriated. I woke up with a refreshed and positive attitude, grabbed a moderate breakfast, and decided to read a bit more philosophy before undertaking the trip. I had originally considered having a good friend of mine being a trip sitter since it was my first time, but later decided against it since I knew I wouldn't be leaving the house the entire day and knew that although I was taking a strong dose, I was well-grounded enough in the real world to still think sensibly of what was and wasn't responsible, even while tripping.

After meditating for a few minutes shortly afterward, I prepared: At 10:45 that morning, I recovered the bag of mushrooms from its storing place, got out the bread and peanut butter, poured myself a large glass of milk, and put the entire contents of the bag onto the sandwich (which came out to 3.5 grams, or an 'eighth'). Trying to eat the mushroom/peanut butter sandwich combo was somewhat challenging because of the overwhelmingly chewy feel, but I managed to get it all down and made sure that I thoroughly chewed up the mushrooms. The peanut butter, for the most part, masked most of the mushroom flavor, which in itself wasn't as terrible as I expected. I downed the glass of milk and immediately sat down on the couch to brace myself: no television, no music, just me and the silence around me. It was strangely comforting, in a way, just being able to think about what was going to happen and the excitement that was bubbling inside of me.

No more than 20 minutes after eating the sandwich, things started changing: I noticed that some of the lights around me seemed brighter and that the clock on the wall had a slight 'shimmer' effect to it: The numbers seemed to have a wavy sensation to them, and it almost seemed like I was seeing double of the numbers. For some reason, though, I couldn't make sense of it; I was trying to figure out if my mind was playing tricks on me or if I was actually coming up on the trip.

Suddenly, I felt stomach discomfort; it wasn't overbearing, it was just annoying. It was more like a cramp that came on and off than anything else. Nothing huge, so I shrugged it off and went to my bedroom. In my bedroom, it was totally dark sans that beams of sunshine coming into between the tops and bottoms of the drapes of my bedroom windows, as I intended. There was just enough natural light to illuminate the general structure of things in my room; it illuminated my bookshelf and all of the posters on my wall. I turned on my stereo and proceeded to start the playlist I had compiled, which began with a few chill tracks from Aphex Twin. Which was amazing, by the way. When the music began pouring out of the speakers, I was dumbfounded; there seemed to be so many layers and so much depth to the music of which I had been previously unaware. I was ecstatic with joy and gratefulness for the gift of the music, letting myself be wrapped in the warm synths and layered drum tracks while looking at my surroundings.

Note: At this point, I really started to lose track of time: Certain things felt like an eternity, and the time-dilation factor added a lot to everything.

As I was looking around my bedroom, I began to giggle uncontrollably and hold everything in a childlike naiveté and awe. Everything had come to life around me: One of my posters, which had a blue dragon and flames on it, gave me the perception that the dragon was twisting and writhing and smiling at me, its tongue lashing while the flames behind it flickered; the curtains in front of my window now had what looked like ivy patterns inside of them, all twisting and sliding past each other in syncopated motion with the music; a doll of a Troll which was given to me from a friend as a joke, looked like its wild blue hair was swaying back and forth and there was a huge smile on its face as if to say to me, 'Welcome to the trip, it's gonna be awesome!'

At this point, the closed-eye visuals took over. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see what seemed like a light show before my eyes, syncopated with every synth line, bass beat, and snare hit of the music. I laid like that for what seemed like an eternity, with a genuine love and appreciation for what I was beholding.

After lying on my bed for a while (I'm not sure how long, all of the music seemed to connect), I got up out of bed with great difficulty. My body felt so lanky and heavy, as if my limbs were made of lead. At any rate, I sat up a little too quickly; the stomach discomfort had hit me again when I sat up, and I was sure that I was going to vomit. I felt it come up through my esophagus, but instead of puking I let out a huge belch that reeked of mushrooms. I took a piss in the bathroom, which was super-trippy; the toilet bowl seemed to grow larger as I was peeing, and I remember thinking in a half-hearted way, 'Oh shit, the toilet bowl is eating me!' It was the most amazing and relieving piss I ever took, and the toilet paper beside me looked like it was fluttering in the wind. I remember turning around and looking at myself in the mirror, and though I didn't bug out, I was astounded at how big my pupils were. Shit, they took up almost my entire eyes! Certain parts of my face seemed to warp and bubble, but not in any morbid way. I stared at myself for a good ten minutes, and then washed my hands and left the bathroom.

I decided to what things looked like outside: I stepped out on my front porch, and was spellbound by what I saw. All of the trees, shrubs, and even the clouds and grass were dancing and waving in this cartoonish way, all in syncopated motion, swaying back and forth. As I looked out at the trees, something hit me: Trees, and any plant for that matter, are just as human and alive as we are; as I looked at the limbs, it almost seemed that I was able to make out human forms such as arms, legs, and even torsos. I've always had a deep connection with nature, but this took it to an entirely new level; I was so grateful for what I had been given in my life, especially the fact that I've always been surrounded by nature since I live in a rural area.

Moving back into the house to chill out for a bit and still filled with total joy, I let the music on my playlist take over and I, of all people, found myself dancing with the music. I'm usually a VERY reserved and quiet guy, even at home. But I eventually lay back down, and the more 'mental' part of the trip kicked in.

The visuals were now at their peaks: As far as open-eye visuals go, things could still be described as cartoonish and textured; the remote for my stereo felt larger than life in my hand, and I felt like I had control of all the music in the world when I changed a song; the posters on my wall were still shimmering and writhing, and I noticed that the wood grain of my floor looked like rivers, which I stared at for at least 20 minutes. But the closed-eye visuals were what really caught me: Everything took on a dream-like quality. I remember seeing a flower when I closed my eyes, surrounded by a background of morphing and warping geometric shapes, and it slowly turned into a dragon; a field of yellow flowers morphed colors and was populated with creatures way beyond the boundaries of imaginations.

Here was probably the craziest thing about my trip, which had now caroused into some kind of trance-like state: At this point, I was having auditory hallucinations and it seemed like I was totally in tune to my inner-body chemistry; my heartbeat, the blood flowing through my veins, and me swallowing all seemed in beat, and I occasionally picked up this low bass frequency out of the air that simply rang in my ears and then disappeared. At any rate, I visualized an ocean and my friend T on its shore: He asked me if I was having a good trip, and to remember everything he told me. The communication felt genuine, like I was actually talking to him about how my trip had been so far.

I'm not entirely sure how long this lasted; tons of other things were happening in my mind at the time, all of which pertained to my life and things I had been meaning to change about myself. None of it really became overwhelming; it was intense and revealing, but not negative. Physically, I felt like I weighed a thousand pounds, but every time I shuffled around, it felt incredible. Getting up out of bed felt like such a chore.

I woke from this state, feeling refreshed and new. At that point, I had more or less come back to baseline. The visuals were now back to the 'bright lights and stars' around light sources that I experienced on the come-up, and I felt totally normal as far as my sensory and physical senses, with an added sense of joy and thankfulness. Or as it's called, the 'afterglow'. After I had come to, I wandered out on the front porch again with a new-found appreciation for my life and everything around me.

My afterglow lasted for a good two or three days, and I can only describe it as a new-found contentment and bliss with my life circumstances and surroundings. Mushrooms gave me mental revelations which are too vast to be explained here, and the visual experience was exhilarating. I'm excited to do them again whenever I get the chance, and to submit to the mushrooms again as a pupil to a master.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 71449
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 18
Published: Oct 12, 2009	Views: 19,836
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Mushrooms - P. cubensis (66) : Alone (16), Music Discussion (22), First Times (2)