The Most Mentally Intriguing Night of My Life
Mushrooms & Cannabis
Citation: Piper at the Gates. "The Most Mentally Intriguing Night of My Life: An Experience with Mushrooms & Cannabis (exp50431)". Erowid.org. Sep 29, 2007. erowid.org/exp/50431
DOSE: |
1.5 g | oral | Mushrooms | (dried) |
0.5 g | oral | Mushrooms | (dried) | |
smoked | Cannabis | (plant material) |
BODY WEIGHT: | 140 lb |
My first REAL experience with psilocybin mushrooms was a few nights ago, and only now can I retell this experience with a bit more clarity. As far as my previous experiences with drugs, I have been a daily marijuana smoker for about 6 months, I have smoked Salvia once, and tried mushrooms twice in high school (a few years ago, I'm a college student now). In addition, I finally worked up the courage to try LSD, but there were little to no physical effects, just minor visual distortions and a bad headache.
When word spread across campus that someone (a friend of mine) had acquired some mushrooms I was instantly intrigued. Though I had tried them in high school, the effects were not what I had envisioned. In stark contrast to most experiences, they were very mellow and simply produced a body high and a few minor visuals, not nearly the eye-opening experience I had hoped for. In retrospect, I believe this was due to their being mixed in chocolate, and for those wishing to be introduced to mushrooms this might be a moderately safe route to take.
The trip:
My two friends of relatively similar stature ate what was 'eyed-out' to be a half-eighth of an ounce, a 16'th in theory, though I think it was much more than that, as the 'eighths' looked much like the halves of marijuana I am quite familiar with. This was around 7:15 PM or so, and I had to finish some schoolwork, so while they ate their bags relatively slowly, I ate my '16'th' around 7:40, consuming all of the shrooms except maybe a half gram in about 3 minutes. There were a lot in the bag, I consumed maybe 4 or 5 full mushrooms, with assorted stems and caps mixed within. The full mushrooms were about an inch to two inches tall, and primarily brown with a bit of white.
After about a half hour of hanging out in the dorms with some kids who were just drinking, the three of us decided to go for a walk around campus. Our campus is a very serene place, I wish I could disclose where it is, but it is relatively wooded, with a few open spaces with large, old, beautiful buildings making for great nighttime scenery on this slightly-cloudy evening.
First we walked behind the largest (and oldest) building on campus, where it is very secluded and wooded. At this point I was beginning to feel a bit different, and suddenly was reminded of the 'upswing,' anxious feeling I got when I had done mushrooms in high school. The treeline comes to an edge behind the building where there is a 4 foot stone wall that we looked off of at the nighttime city below. While at this point there were no visuals or anything of that nature, it must have been about 20 after 8 or so, and I was definitely feeling numbness and a strong, marijuana-like body high. I had an increased appreciation for what I was seeing in the city lights and the cool temperature became less-important, replaced by a warm feeling telling me the inevitable: Something BIG is about to happen.
As we stood staring off at the big sky and city below, my friends started tripping. They were noticing patterns in the lights and the clouds, and admittedly I was a little jealous as they kept repeating they were on the same wavelength, and I definitely was not. Little did I know my turn would come. Around the courtyard we were in was a brick facade, with a side-door made of wrought-iron on either side. When I say courtyard, I mean this thing is probably a square mile, and we were in a less-traveled part, so we were pretty secluded and felt very safe, or at least I did. As we exited the courtyard, and after my friends climbed off of the brick wall, I closed the wrought-iron gate behind us and 'R' noted that 'You just closed a chapter to the book.'
Well my book was actually opened shortly thereafter this, because I took about 10 or 15 steps after that and my body was overcome by some indescribable sensation. I dropped to my knees in the long grass behind the courtyard, near a place where we usually smoke a blunt. I felt the long grass all around me and it felt silky and smooth, suddenly my entire perception was changed. It was more subtle than I describe, because my dropping to my knees and then getting up to move on was actually about a minute long, but it seemed like a half hour.
Next we ventured back to my room, as my roommate (one of the three of us tripping, we'll call him 'Z') reminded me I should finish the bag. I ate the rest, after a little difficulty with the lock to my trunk, and we went to a walking path that runs along the outside wall of our campus. On one side is the train tracks, and on the other is the wall, and both sides are flanked by trees. As we started down the path, I definitely started tripping. Out of nowhere, everything began to disappear around me and the concrete path I was walking on turned white, and the scenery around turned white. I was in a dimension of stark white wonder, at this point my sense of reality began to disappear.
After some reassurance from a fourth person who had (somewhere, at some point?!) joined our party on the path, we agreed that he would drive us to a friend's house, where she lived with a few other people that go to my school, two of whom were also 'shrooming.' As we piled into the car, the visuals began. Suddenly all sense of feeling and time were gone, it just felt as if I were floating along, the car carrying me effortlessly on a pillow to the house. When we arrived, we received some funny looks from a few of those who weren't shrooming, and we sat down on a couple of couches.
At this point, all 3 of us started tripping REALLY hard. R began asking all sorts of rhetorical, philosophical questions such as, 'Where is God?' 'Are you guys on the same page as me right now?' Gradually communication became less and less feasible, and we started getting quiet with moments of sporadic, unusually deep conversation. I remember remarking of how unfathomable it was that nations have boundaries, that we divide the Earth amongst ourselves when we should be living in unity. R continued talking, some of it made sense and some of it didn't, but at the time I believed most of what he was saying.
I remember some intense visuals at this point. I didn't want to look at Z because he was turning into a lizard of some sort, reminding me of Reptile from Mortal Kombat 2 fatalities. Random, I know. Also, in the middle of the room was a glass coffee table with a red carpet around it. The more I looked at the carpet, the more I was sure there were red waves in it, and after awhile it was completely fluid. We all agreed on feeling very enlightened, like we found out the meaning of life, everything we could ever want to know. I kept facing everything in my soul that had burdened me face to face, one at a time. My thoughts were racing so much, my mouth couldn't keep up. I would say something but I was already thinking of something else, so I would stop mid-sentence when I became bored with my current speech. I noticed this the most when I attempted calling a high school friend, and he seemed a bit confused. I realized that speaking to someone not on mushrooms was pretty unreal.
As the visual distortions became more vivid, I started getting 'the fear.' I was feeling very, very scared, wondering if my mind and body would ever come out of this altered state. It was like I was another person, it was another self I had never known that was walking and talking and looked like me, but wasn't. I was a complete virgin to reality, like I was reborn. The world was a new place, and I remember writing 'Everything is so old, but so new.'
Since I was tripping with a couple of guys, when one (sober) girl came down into the basement who was very pretty I felt overwhelmingly relieved for some reason. I kept asking 'Am I going to be okay? Is everything all right?' to which she replied 'Yes, everything's okay, you're safe here.' At this point we agreed that the female gender was very soothing, comforting, and gentle. We were all speaking to her like we were children and she just sort of laughed at our absurdity. At this house, most of (if not all) the people had tripped before, so as weird as we were acting the remaining people (4 or 5) that weren't tripping were very, very welcome and supportive.
At various times during the evening we attempted smoking some weed, but it was pretty impossible. Our sober friend 'S' rolled up a blunt, so I hit it two or three times but felt nothing really so I left the room in a state of confusion. I vowed (for some crazy reason) that marijuana was pointless, and that it was unnecessary to smoke anymore. The three of us agreed that from now on, we would go out and be productive, that we wouldn't waste our potential. R noted our presence in a humorously and accurately-titled 'drug den,' though the house is actually a 2-story, well-furnished and adorned suburban cookie-cutter house, just inhabited by stoners and e-droppers.
Gradually we split up at various points, at one of which I retreated to the seclusion of the den and by chance there was a blank envelope and a pen on the table, and being an avid writer, musician, and lyricist I began writing what was for the most part, complete nonsense, but never have I written anything straight from the soul. From reading this 'letter' I have learned a lot about myself and what I want to accomplish in my life, and as it is a little vague now, at the time it seemed as if every second was bringing a new and different epiphany about myself and mankind and the world. The entire experience was deeply spiritual, more so than any church, synagogue, mosque, or any religious temple could offer.
As the most intense portion of the trip wore down, I remember feeling REAL bad, while the upswing was wonderfully anticipatory, the coming down was very scary, as I was unsure of what I would be like when it was over. Would I retain the knowledge attained, or would I forget everything? Fortunately, I remember bits and pieces very well, but the vast majority was a mental illusion courtesy of the mushrooms. For awhile we were up in 'S''s room as she and 'Z' and I played with some change, throwing it all around the room.
At one point I attempted to eat a homemade candy apple (R unsuccessfully attempted this earlier) and after a few tries, finally got it, which felt pretty good as food was unappealing just an hour before. I started coming back to reality a little bit, or so I thought, but just when I thought I was sober I would get a surge through my body, or a crazy thought, or the fibers of the couch would move in and out of each other. So I came to the conclusion I would need sleep if I wanted to sober up.
Fortunately, one person who had their license on them was there (and sober) so he drove us back to campus where we passed out. For the next day I was really uneasy and unable to put together any impartial recollection of the previous night, but after a good night's sleep the next night I was back to normal and now am in the state I right in at the moment.
Exp Year: 2006 | ExpID: 50431 |
Gender: Male | |
Age at time of experience: Not Given | |
Published: Sep 29, 2007 | Views: 6,560 |
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Mushrooms (39) : General (1), First Times (2), Various (28) |
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