DOSE:

5 - 6 hits

smoked

Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

175 lb

The experience I am about to describe was so powerful and profound, I am not entirely certain that it can solely be attributed to the consumption of the marijuana, but I had no other intoxicants in my system, and I had not consumed any other intoxicants for a long time previous to this experience with the exception of some minor social alcohol consumption. I was very familiar with the effects of marijuana before I had the experience I will be describing here. For some reason it was unlike any experience I have ever had before or since while smoking marijuana. For that reason, and because of how profound it was, this experience (to my mind anyhow) approaches the paranormal.

Set/Setting/State of Mind:
I was in my late twenties and had arrived in Hawaii for my brother's wedding. I was at a good place in my life mentally even before the wedding, and now I was in Hawaii, I was very happy to be with family, and everybody else was happy, so positive vibes all around. My soon to be brother in law takes my cousin and I to a local beach near his house which had the advantage of being less populated and very few tourists. Not sure set and setting could get much better than this.

The experience:
My cousin pulls a joint out of her purse and we pass it around and smoke it. I hadn't smoked for some time, which makes the effects come on much stronger, and my cousin usually gets high quality marijuana, so the effects were pretty powerful. I quickly realize I am too high to function or be sociable, but this is no problem because we are at the beach, so I just lay back and close my eyes and am planning on taking a fake nap, basically just chill with my eyes closed until I stop peaking so hard and can actually participate in conversation and socializing again.

So I am just laying there with my eyes closed, not a care in the world, and I am really enjoying how relaxing the sound of the ocean is. I start to notice some strange things I never noticed before: each time I hear the waves crash I feel the sand beneath me shift, just ever so slightly, as if I can actually feel the vibrational impact of the waves on the sand. I think at this point I may have started to experience synesthesia, because the sound of the ocean crashing I begin to perceive as motion in the sand beneath me as if the ocean is rocking me back and forth like a baby in a cradle or something. In my mind I am sort of questioning if this is even possible and just kind of think "Wow, I must be really stoned." After this the synesthesia just intensifies more and more until I am pitched into a profound mystical experience. I start hearing a low buzzing sound, sort of like a didgeredoo, but I know it's in my mind, or in other words it is not the type of sound that I think is external that anyone else can hear. The buzzing sound builds up in intensity, and then recedes, and then builds up in intensity, and then recedes, over and over again in a cycle. I am feeling the heat from the sun, and the heat gathers in intensity, and then recedes followed by a cool breeze, and this pattern is also repeating in a cycle that matches the buzzing sound that I am hearing, the sound of the ocean waves crashing, the movement of the sand beneath me, it all syncs up in a wave pattern that builds up in intensity and recedes, over and over again.

At this point I start to have the perception that the buzzing sound is coming from the sun, and that I am getting the same feeling from the sun that you get when somebody enters a room and you can feel their presence before you turn around and see them. I start feeling that the sun is a presence in my awareness, that it is alive, that the ocean is alive, the beach is alive, and this buzzing sound builds up and I have the strongest feeling that I am not alive in a world of dead matter, rather EVERYTHING is alive and I am just like a surfer on a surfboard riding this wave that is alive(given the setting, I know this analogy is very cliche, but in my opinion it is very accurate). All of this perception was non verbal - it was a feeling, a perception. All of my fear of death absolutely evaporated in an instant. The universe is alive, my life is part of this larger infinite structure that is alive, and the death of my body can not stop this infinitely unfolding living universe. Again, in my mind this was all non-verbal, and it permanently abolished my fear of death.

Retrospective:
This experience was almost two decades ago, but the effects seem to have been permanent. Something in my awareness or state of minded shifted that day, and shifted permanently. To this day, this is one of the most profound things I ever experienced, and I had smoked marijuana many times before that experience, and many times after, but I have never experienced anything like that before or since when smoking marijuana. To this day I do not feel entirely certain this experience can be entirely attributed to marijuana and sometimes entertain the notion that I experienced something paranormal, or had experienced a religious rapture or something. That is my best attempt at putting this experience into words. Thank you for reading.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 114983
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 27
Published: Dec 2, 2020	Views: 1,866
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Cannabis (1) : Mystical Experiences (9), Public Space (Museum, Park, etc) (53)