DOSE:

2 hits

oral

LSD

(blotter / tab)

BODY WEIGHT:

75 kg

My 2022 Psychedelic Review - Installment #2.

The following is the second installment in my 2022 Psychedelic Review:

August 2022. LSD (2 tabs, advertised as “320ug” each, probably more like 100ug (??). In total approx. 150ug-250ug range, nothing to accurately compare it to, so let’s call it “a 200ug dose”). - +++ - A good plus-three during many parts of the long peaks and plateaus, followed by a mellow plus-two for a nice, slow comedown, and I was able to drive to the Youth Orchestra Concert, much later in the evening; I had dosed very early in the morning, perhaps as early as 5:30 a.m. – I still had a “barely-threshold / afterglow effect” that night and the next day. The concert featured the students (full orchestra + a singer) and a professional trio (Piano, Cello, Violin), all of whom sounded great!! A few glasses of slightly-substandard red wine helped me coast through the evening, confident and comfortable. After dark, went to buy some good-ass weed at a newly-opened, fully-legal shop, then slowly home and to sleep.

Let’s see – I would call this a pretty good example of a “full dose” of acid. I got all of the standard effects, at a pretty high level of intensity. A small, light blue birthday balloon in the corner of the ceiling could look impossibly far away, and then it could be made to come closer, and it started to suggest an Arctic scene, against the “snow and ice” background of the ceiling plaster, or a Georgia O’Keeffe painting of the sun-bleached pelvic bone of some long-dead desert beast. I laughed and stopped this little game too soon, before I “drive myself crazy putting too much meaning into a fucking balloon” [Author’s note: More like, before my wife comes in and asks why I’m staring at the fucking wall, ha-ha]. Lots of very pleasing colours, patterns, designs in everything. The anchor on the wine bottle was “dancing”, as were the multi-colored patch cables on the “Moog” album cover, the picture frames, and everything else...

The recorded music was excellent – analog synth versions of dynamic classical pieces, complete with synthetic audience noise. The acid definitely agreed with the listening experience – The trippy synthesizer-classical stuff sounds so dated but in a good way… Synthesizers were really expensive back then, and they were only owned by universities, major film studios, etc. They were also monophonic, so the musicians had to play and record one note at a time to build up the full orchestra. These modular Moog synthesizers were huge and took up most of a wall, with all sorts of interconnected electronic sections, with wires going here and there like an old telephone switchboard. ‘Switched on Bach’ is the most famous example of Moog synth classical pieces from the mid 1960’s; The record I was listening to today was from 1973. This listen also prepared me a bit for the concert I’d be going to later that evening.

My perception was constantly shifting, as was the cheap picture frame holding the two tickets to a screening of the classic film ‘Easy Rider’ (which incidentally has an iconic LSD scene towards the end of the movie – a must-see for those interested in 1960’s culture). It was difficult to concentrate on basic tasks (rolled a really sloppy joint, etc), and I definitely would not drive, even a short distance, during the peak.

As in the previous experiment [with 4g of mushrooms], I did not listen to a lot of music during the peak, as I was hearing all kinds of cool symphonies continuously forming and playing themselves out in my mind. It would be amazing if there were a way to capture it all, but it comes and goes too fast. This made me think later on about famous, “genius” musicians from days of acid’s past – John Lennon & Brian Wilson are obvious examples [I was seeing a lot of Beatles-Rubber Soul-style visuals throughout the trip too, kind of silly and cliché but they must have been there for a reason, ha-ha].

… But previous to the 60’s, in earlier LSD and Mescaline experiments, the musicians participating would have more likely been classical conductors, jazz guys, etc. Alexander Shulgin – The Late-Great Dr. Drugs himself was a violinist/violist. Imagine what type of nutty stuff they heard in their “inner-ear” but couldn’t slow down long enough to notate or otherwise record… So, for every ‘Pet Sounds’ that millions of people have loved, there’s an infinite number of even more insane and way less commercial stuff that probably went through Brian Wilson’s head during his big “Spiritual Experience” trips, preceding that “psychedelic landmark” work… etc, etc, etc. Kind of clarifies the old saying “He couldn’t get what was in his head down on tape…” [My wife heard the train & dog noises at the end of the ‘Pet Sounds’ album and was like “What the hell?”, so I explained to her that people in the 60’s thought it was super cool to record random stuff like that, hahaha, it was a hip time].

There was definitely a roller-coaster, “it comes in waves” effect, where I’d feel damn-near sober for a minute or two, and then come right back up to peaking. Five or so N2O balloons were consumed midway through the experience, probably after the bulk of the peak had passed – There were a few moments of very strong blissful states, which sadly did not last. During the nitrous peaks, I had some extremely vivid CEV’s [closed eye visuals], mostly of the “Tool album cover” type – it makes me wonder, does the artwork inside of ’10,000 Days’ stick in my mind and inform the CEV’s subconsciously? Or did they make that artwork specifically to look like stuff you see on an acid trip? I think the latter is more likely, but the only way to really know would be to experiment with people who have never seen any Tool-related art or anything that basically looks like it [aka whatever ancient stuff Adam Jones & Co. got it from], give them LSD & N2O, and then have them describe / draw or paint what their CEV’s looked like… This nitrous blast would be nice to do lying down, in the dark – I was in my office, sitting at my desk this time.

I decided that while this was a successful experiment, there was still a bit much “noise”. If I prefer my trips to be as smooth as possible, it seems to me that the best way to do this is to make the body as comfortable as possible, prepare everything that you may need so that it’s within arm’s reach, set the aircon, relax and then the mind is open with less distractions. CEV’s seem to be more interesting to look at than OEV’s [open eye visuals] – this comes as a surprise to me, as I always kinda thought that OEV’s were the “whole point” of tripping, but indeed this is because OEV’s are really the only effect of drugs which is / can be portrayed even remotely accurately in media, art, movies, etc, so that’s what you expect, and that’s what you focus on. In reality, OEV-time can sometimes feel like little more than blurred vision, and it interferes with motor co-ordination, etc. This time around, the CEV’s were more of the “city of brilliant jewels” type, and less of the “art deco” of the previous psilocybin experiment. I want to focus on these different “genres” of CEV-art a lot more going forward.

Anyway, the last two [mushroom experiments] have showed me why the traditional Mexican Mushroom ceremonies were held in the dark. Getting the body-distractions down to an absolute minimum is the name of the game here. The longer duration of LSD allows for plenty of time both outside and inside. One complication here is the intense tropical sun, which can be uncomfortably glaring on psychedelics.

LSD is kinda whacky… It makes it tough to concentrate, so simple processes seem to take forever (maybe that’s why people think that time is slowing down?), visuals are persistent and fast, maybe there’s some stimulant effect but it’s not focused. Jonathan Ott said a small dose of LSD is “very similar to methamphetamine”. I did not find this to be the case…

The acid tabs which are available are frustrating because of the uncertainty regarding dosage and type of substance on the tab. I really wish I had grown up in California, that way I’d have been doing better drugs when I was younger. Seriously, the East Coast sucks for good times – it’s all about coke, booze, crack, heroin, etc. There were no hippies to speak of where I grew up and I never saw acid there at all! If I’d grown up on the West Coast, I’m sure I’d have been hanging out with hippies and drug nerds from an early stage in life – and thus, I’d have a much clearer picture of what 100ug vs 200ug of LSD actually feels like, what the analogs feel like compared to regular LSD, and so on.

Mushrooms are the only drug that has ever produced a very strong feeling of “oneness with the universe”, ego-softening or whatever, and only on a couple of occasions, for me anyway, but I understand all of these drugs can do it – I don’t know if I’d want to try it with LSD though for instance, as I’d have to take like 4 tabs or something and that would probably be too much.

N2O is not a psychedelic, but for whatever reason it mixes really well with psychedelics and catapults me into badass visuals, full-body orgasms, and thought patterns that are like a cassette tape with parts cut out of it, re-arranged, and spliced back in. Problem is, it can be a bit hard on the lungs if I take too many large hits, and if we’re being honest, it does feel kinda sketchy – the reason they call it “hippie crack”. When you’re refilling the sweaty, saliva drenched balloon as fast as you can, you know it’s time to put it down, ha-ha. Not a very dangerous drug, but not something to do all the time either. When I come down from the peak feeling of the nitrous, I'm still in the peak of a psychedelic trip. It’s funny that you can get such a potent drug at the bakery shop down the street…

I smoke weed like normal people smoke cigarettes – in Thailand marijuana is fully legal at the national level, so I bought a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of 100% Sativa, outdoor-grown Thai Stick for less than $250. This means I basically smoke all the time, and stay high – weed doesn’t get me too fucked up while I’m on psychedelics. It definitely goes well with almost everything, for me.

Aftereffects: As an amateur / hobbyist in this field, I don’t expect to break any new ground, but I definitely find that I get far more out of these experiments than just “getting high”. At the same time, I suppose I’m getting just a bit less of the “wow!!” effects – but I guess that goes along with my set & setting, expectations, etc. I’m thinking about the drugs in a somewhat scientific, academic, inquisitive way, as opposed to a religious way, or a party way, etc, so that all definitely colours the quality of the experiences I’m having, for sure…

Exp Year: 2022	ExpID: 116716
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 38
Published: Oct 19, 2022	Views: 384
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LSD (2), Nitrous Oxide (40), Cannabis (1) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Music Discussion (22), Combinations (3), Various (28)