DOSE:

2.5 g

oral

Mushrooms - P. cubensis

(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

115 lb

This was the first time my husband, Alan, and I had done a mushroom trip with just the two of us. In my previous 4 trips, Alan and I were usually with at least one other person. This was my 4th trip and my husband's 8th. We had recently been fighting, and while we had somewhat made up, there were still a lot of hurt feelings and unresolved issues. I felt a mushroom trip might help us, as previously, it seemed that mushrooms helped me be more kind and empathetic. I also felt that I was better able to self-reflect during the trips. I hoped that these effects would help us better communicate and truly understand the other person's perspective. My husband was a bit more skeptical and nervous, but still very willing to give it a try.

We have been together for 9 years. We are both professionals, age 36 and 38. I am in medicine and he is in computer science. We smoke cannabis about once weekly. He has tried ecstasy once or twice. We are both atheists, but he is probably a bit more spiritual than I am. We do not take any prescription medications.

The mushrooms were predominantly B+ strain of P.cubensis. They were measured using a scale accurate to the milligram.

It was a comfortable sunny summer day around 2pm. We decided to go to some remote train tracks that we had discovered recently. We applied sunblock, brought some water and bubbles. We left some snacks in the car for later. We sat in the forest next to the tracks to eat the mushrooms. Alan ate his sprinkled in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ate mine in 10 horse-pill sized capsules. I'm not sure if I'd go the horse-pill route the next time, as it was quite challenging to swallow 10 of them without gagging!

I blew some bubbles for about 15 minutes. At this point, we felt a very mild body high and decided to walk the tracks. We walked for about another 10-15minutes and I began to feel more of a body high. The plants and trees began to stand out with a bit more detail.

Around this time, we walked by a house with aggressively barking dogs that came running to the tracks. I have a lot of animal experience and did not feel too threatened, as the dogs just seemed anxious, and didn't seem the type to attack. However, my husband, who is uncomfortable around aggressive dogs became extremely stressed. He was also peaking from the mushrooms, so he felt the adrenaline pulsing through all parts of his body (a tingling) as we passed by. We made it through and the dogs returned to their house.

We walked a bit further, and stopped at a beautiful spot next to a little valley of old trees and vegetation. My husband had some mild nausea for a few minutes. I was having some undulating and breathing visuals. I took my glasses off (I'm very blind), and spent some time appreciating my blind-person's visuals. It reminded me of the photoshop effect that makes things look more Monet-like. I tried to close my eyes to see if there were any interesting visuals. But I felt the urge to constantly look around, so keeping my eyes closed was too challenging to bother.

We decided to sit here for a while. During this time, we had many deep conversations. Alan told me how privileged he felt to know me and that more people need to realize how lucky they are to have me in their lives. He said the people who recognize me as great are also great because they recognized this. While I normally know that he loves me, at this moment, I felt his love very deeply. It was very validating. I felt valued not only by my husband, but by the universe. I was very grateful for him, and for people who love me.

Later, we talked more about Alan. We talked about how oftentimes, the key to happiness is internal. Personal perspective can change whether we are happy. In this conversation, we both discovered several major sources of Alan's unhappiness that neither one of us fully recognized before. We also decided that after recognizing these sources of unhappiness, Alan has a choice to either continue to think and do these unhappy things, or not do them. He identified the sources, and recognized that they are not an inherent part of who he is. He can decide to not carry these things with him.

At one point, we saw a homeless man approaching us as he walked the tracks. I felt much more open to this interaction than I would normally, and we invited him to visit with us. Turns out he lives along these tracks and was just walking from the food bank, carrying some milk. We talked with him for a good 10-15minutes. He told us various factoids about the railroad, saying that the train runs about once daily at most. He knew the names of the vicious dogs we passed earlier. He said he practically stepped on a coyote up the tracks a bit. He pointed out some edible berries. Then told us to watch out for poison oak and don't get run over by the train! We were genuinely happy to meet him, and we shook his hand as he left. His name was Steve.

We continued to walk along, now very slowly coming down from our trip. We saw the coyotes that Steve mentioned. We were in awe of all the critters and nature that could be found in this little pocket along the train tracks. Saw a hawk being harassed by two crows. Found a bunny skull and marveled at its anatomy. Tried to figure out where this railroad went, because we weren't exactly sure. We both gave heartfelt apologies for ever being hurtful to one another. We never want to hurt each other.

Then, we heard a train in the distance. Sure enough, the train was running! We waved at them. I felt like a child, ecstatically waving! It was a short, two-car train. There was an old-timer riding the side complete with his special train conductor hat! He was having a blast and waved back with a giant grin.

We walked a bit further, trying to figure out a landmark so that we could later look up where we had walked to. Sunset was approaching, so we turned around and walked back. Got barked at again by the vicious dogs who seemed much less threatening, now that we were coming down from our trip.

We return to the park where we started. This park has an enormous meadow-covered hill with a bench. So we hiked to the top and watched the sunset while blowing bubbles. The physics and optics of the bubbles were fascinating even at this very tail-end of our trip. The sunset was beautiful. It was about 8pm.

I would go so far as to say this was one of the best days of my life. We saw gorgeous natural things. My husband and I have a better understanding of each other and ourselves. I feel validated by the universe. My husband has new ideas for keys to his happiness. Of course, we do not expect to have all our problems cured instantly from this experience. But it has provided us a lot of useful insight for us to consider in our everyday lives.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 96604
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 36
Published: Oct 16, 2017	Views: 3,723
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Mushrooms - P. cubensis (66) : Nature / Outdoors (23), Relationships (44), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Families (41), Small Group (2-9) (17)