DOSE:		oral	Cacti - T. pachanoi	(tar / resin)
		oral	Alcohol - Hard	(liquid)
		smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

60 kg

San Pedro Trip 11/4/2009

The report that follows details my second experience with the San Pedro cactus; the first was two weeks earlier with the exact same cactus. On that first occasion, I was aware of not ingesting enough to appreciate the full effects of the mescaline contained within. The mental and visual effects on that trip were equivalent to what one would usually expect from half a tab of LSD. Unsatisfied, I was determined to ingest more, for the full trip I have heard so much about.

Finishing work that day at 5pm I walked home and smoked several cones of marijuana before heading to my friends house. I mention this, although I want to assure prospective adventurers that I smoke a lot of marijuana, so I’m quite sure that this had little impact on the trip that follows. It was here, at my mate’s place that the ‘Pedro’ was waiting. The method used for the crude mescaline extraction was as follows:

1. De-core fresh cactus keeping outside
2. Blend cactus with small amount of water
3. Boil on high for 30 mins
4. Continue to boil slowly for 3 hours adding a little water if needed
5. Strain the mixture through pasta strainer and tea towel, (keep the green water that drains out and throw away the pulp).
6. Boil green water right down and then evaporate to a green slimy goo
7. Freeze goo and eat, (it doesn’t freeze properly, (ends up like toffee) but I find it much easier to eat in this state).

I’m not sure how much cactus I actually ate because we cooked a lot in the days prior. I know I ate about 12 balls of goo, made from above recipe, around 1-1.5 cm in diameter, the size of Maltesers or mothballs, washed down with water and whiskey over about 45 mins. The eating of goo-balls concluded at about 8pm. I also drank a shot of unfrozen and only half-evaporated, (step 6-7) cactus juice in this time. It was all truly disgusting! Both times, and I’m pretty sure every time, this stuff is fierce! Each ball was swallowed under duress and immediate gagging had to be suppressed. Nevertheless, you do what you have to do.

During consumption, even before finishing, I was aware of a slight ‘trippy’ feeling. Walking felt a little like floating and thoughts became a little dizzy. In addition, my jaw and lower back were tingling chronically, making me feel like stretching the associated muscles often. This is a sure sign that psychedelics are taking effect for me, as I have become familiar with the same sensation when taking LSD, LSA, MDMA or psilocybin mushrooms.

The next three hours involved smoking several more cones of marijuana and drinking
a few glasses of whisky and coke. The ‘trippy feelings’, which I had felt almost immediately, persisted but didn’t seem to be getting any stronger. My friend, who
took his Pedro as a few shots of liquid rather than frozen balls, was talking about
moving patterns in the shadows and the room being filled with green smoke. I was
unable, despite my trying, to see any such hallucinations except for a green glow on
anything white. I was however, very aware of being under the influence of something
and was a little worried that again I had taken too little.

Unlike my friend who threw up 45 mins after drinking his mixture, I didn’t throw up until about 11:30, (3.5 hours after ingestion) when my friends girlfriend came home. Upon returning from my spew, I was immediately aware of trails left from any movement in my vision. This was fascinating and I continually moved my hands back and forth, remarking at the trails of hands I was leaving in the air. Soon after this, I became aware of patterns forming on the carpet and in the shadows on walls. When focusing on them, rather than disappearing as expected, they would grow, morph, and reproduce. In particular, I remember watching a plant grow up the side of the fireplace, seeing the flower buds sprout and then blossom into flowers as the plant grew up the wall in the style of an ornamental Chinese painting. It was beautiful.

By this point in the night, the weed had run out and the glass of whiskey I was drinking would take me the whole night to finish. The patterns continued and became more intense over the next 3 hours to the point where the whole house was a swimming mess of moving flower-like fractal imagery. I would describe the visuals as being more intense than normally associated with LSD, as they seemed to envelope my whole universe. It somewhat reminded me of a small/medium dose of DMT. Unlike DMT however, this didn’t wear off...-For ages! One thing in particular I noticed about the visuals of San Pedro is that many of the hallucinations and visions were plant or flora related. I have never experienced this before. With LSD and Mushrooms, visions seem to be otherworldly but with this cactus, patterns seemed to be made of vines, trees and flowers intertwined and writhing across every surface. Even the surfaces themselves were breathing and rippling.

Closing my eyes was no reprieve from the hallucinations as everything became even more intense with eyes closed. The funny thing is that mentally I was still able to communicate and speak rationally and clearly. Only at the beginning of the experience did I find myself communicating unclearly by not bothering to finish sentences, because either; I was aware my point was already understood, or was aware that it was no longer important.

The trails left by movement continued throughout the night, and at points, I felt surrounded by bugs and flies. This was due to my movement, the movement of others and the movement of cigarette smoke, etc. All this motion left trails and dots everywhere in my field of vision that added to each other and wouldn’t go away even when closing my eyes.

Looking back, the time between 1am and 3 am is a bit of a blur. I can just recall swimming in warmness and lovely hallucinations. Conversation and time however, seemed to occur coherently and rationally, (I think). I remember trying to hold on to reality at times because the hallucinations were everywhere and I couldn’t make them stop, even by closing my eyes. At other times the beauty of nature felt all around me; “how could I be so close at all times to such a thing without realizing it?” it stunned me!

At about 3am my friend, whose trip was subsiding, went to bed to join his girlfriend (who had left hours before), leaving me alone. As soon as I switched the light out, thick, black vines grew completely around the room in a matter of seconds and began swaying like reeds in water. Lying in the dark was frustrating some of the time and remarkable at other times. I would close my eyes and dream, (awake) amazingly life-like dreams for periods, but inevitably something completely crazy or scary would happen and return me to reality (or not quite!). I described this to my friend in the morning as “having a dream about friends, normal and vividly real, when out of nowhere a giant tentacle reaches in and pulls me back to the land of swirling hallucinations and cactus.”

If it wasn’t so cold and wet that night I’m sure I would have gone out walking, but the weather kept me inside. I found I was annoyed with myself at one point because it seemed I couldn’t finish a thought without being distracted by something else. At that moment, I just wished it wasn’t raining outside so I could wander. Once in the night I tried to meditate but found any attempts at concentration useless, I felt tossed around in a stormy ocean of hallucinations when attempting to focus my mind.

I kept myself amused until dawn by moving between two positions in the house. The first, in a back room where I felt cold and enjoyed the ‘fresh’ tasting air, the second, where I would run back inside and lie on a couch with a blanket over me, watching the rain outside and feeling warm but a little claustrophobic, (like the air was too thick to breath). This is funny because I am normally the last person who feels claustrophobic. Throughout the several hours I spent alone, I was constantly hallucinating indescribable patterns across every surface I could see, including the air! There was definitely no chance of any sleep.

By 7am in the morning, I was still seeing patterns everywhere but they were subsiding in waves. My friend got up around eight and we talked about our nights. At around 9:30am most of the effects were disappearing but my stomach, which had been rather uncomfortable since eating the cactus, was still grumbling and sensitive. At about 11am I went for a walk to get food and a movie, I forgot my wallet but didn’t really care as the walk felt so good so I kept going. At around 1pm I had a sleep for 2 hours and woke up feeling good. I ate bacon and eggs at 5pm and didn’t feel like sleep again until midnight, although for the whole of the day/night I was pretty ‘spaced out’. I think probably due to lack of sleep as much as the come down of the cactus.

Overall, San Pedro was a very enjoyable, remarkable and fantastic trip. It was all I had hoped for and more. The highlights for me where the remarkable visual hallucinations that persisted for over 7 hours! I’m sure that this description doesn’t capture the essence of the experience; or even many details, but be assured, this was a very powerful experience. At certain times it became almost too much and I wished for some peace, but this was only when I was alone and really felt that I couldn’t express myself without someone to talk to. I look forward to my next experience with San Pedro but will probably wait a few months and be sure of a few people who want to take the journey with me. I think outside, a warm night around a fire (or something of the sort) would be ideal.

Postscript.

I think that for the first experience mentioned earlier, I had ingested ¾ of a foot worth of fresh cactus, (the entire cactus). In the second experience, as explained above, I think that I ate what would be equivalent to 1 foot of whole cactus.

Exp Year: 2009	ExpID: 81819
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 30
Published: May 2, 2010	Views: 11,951
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Cacti - T. pachanoi (64) : Small Group (2-9) (17), General (1)