DOSE: T+ 0:00		oral	Cacti - T. peruvianus	(tea)
T+ 8:00		smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

135 lb

Dosage: Tea made with 40-75g dried Trichocereus Peruvianus flesh.

Subject: 21 year old male, 135 lbs

Method of ingestion: Oral

Duration: 10 hours (possibly longer; effects wore off during sleep)

Set and setting:

SWIM had been wanting to eat cactus again for a long time. He had been going through an extended period of relatively fast personal growth, and was feeling rather bloated, both physically and mentally. SWIM had been employed at 2 pretty good jobs (14 hr/days, 6/week), and was, as usual, acting like a millionaire...barely making rent, if he ate nothing but rice and bananas for the last week of the month, while the other three weeks consisted of smoking a pack a day, 1/4oz-1/2oz a week, getting drunk 5-6 nights a week, eating expensive and shitty food.

Due to this sort of behavior, SWIM had no time for true curiosity, and found himself trivializing everything, from his philosophical beliefs, to his food, to his friends...Everything, and everyone had become boring to SWIM, and SWIM tricked himself into believing that this was not boredom, but clarity. SWIM was previously very disciplined, and had acheived things, and arrogantly thought he could lax in his practice. This arrogance, compounded with the lack of practice, lead to a sense of superiority over others, detachment and finally boredom. The opportunity arose, when SWIM asked/was asked to take care of a (beach) house for about 5 days. He had intended to eat cactus with 1 or 2 friends, but as one friend was not mentally able, and the other had a previous engagement, SWIM was left to go solo. SWIM was MORE than fine with this.

Preparation:

Various artifacts, and forms of nourishment were required to fully prepare SWIM for his 'engagement.' These things included, fresh fruit (figs, apples, bananas, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries) orange juice, 'off-gassed' water, a cigar, cannabis, buffalo sage, and some literature and music he felt calming. SWIM had selected clothes to wear, camouflage pants, green shirt, and a large-knit multicoloured cotton sweater, with a zig-zag pattern on it.

The day of, SWIM wakes up hungry, as he has eaten nothing since last breakfast, and slowly stretches his body and guts (with breath) before standing-up (SWIM slept on floor). This stretching, is similar to Hatha Yoga, SWIM has found...SWIM was lucky enough to find certain techniques on his own, and finds reading about them later, 'sweet dessert.' This stretching helped alleviate the knot in his stomach. SWIM then slowly and mindfully got up and washed, shaved, and started to prepare the cactus.

The cactus was prepared in the following;

60-90 grams of dried cactus flesh was picked over, and all the white and yellow pieces picked off and seperated, resulting in 40-75 grams green flesh (probably about 55 grams). The yellow pieces were taken outside, and buried. The green pieces were powderized, and added to about 2.5 Litres of 'de-gassed' water, in a stainless steel pot. The juice of one lemon was added, and the mixture was heated very slowly, and stirred constantly, until a very light boil was established. The mixture was then mostly covered, and left for 7 hours.

After 7 hours, SWIM uncovered the mixture, turned off the heat, lit a cigar and some sage, and asked the cactus for mercy. SWIM also burnt a cannabis bud over the pot (this was suprisingly hard!). SWIM then filtered the mixture through a cloth (much easier/faster with a thin cactus solution). The flesh was squeezed, and then buried with the yellow pieces. The liquid was returned to the cleaned pot, and gently reduced over 2 hours, into about a cup of liquid.

In the meanwhile, SWIM refrained from smoking cannabis, and spent the day meditating, walking and relaxing, having aquired everything except the orange juice, well in advance.

Ingestion:

After the 1 cup of liquid had cooled sufficiently, SWIM poured it into a glass, saluted, and drank it all in one go. SWIM left a little in his mouth, and moved it around, just to see how long he could handle it without reaching for the O.J. (trying to find something he likes about it).

SWIM went outside and lay on the grass, and waited. 20 minutes later, SWIM feels nauseous and uneasy...he gets up, and begins pacing around, keeping himself calm by paying attention to his feet.

The purge, the last two times, has been annoying for SWIM. They both came very unwillingly, as though SWIM had to puke, but couldn't, all he can do is gag, and spit up small amounts of slime. So SWIM decides to hold his purge, then walk to his 'purge spot' focus on the base of his abdomen, and as he pukes, contracts his muscles from bottom to top, squeazing it all out like toothpaste. 3-4 goes like this, and he is done, he can feel it.

SWIM rinses his mouth, and goes and lies down outside, in order for his stomach to get back to normal. On his way there, he notices a sort of '4D' object in his vision. Like those 'cross-eye' puzzles, SWIM can't tell whether the 'object' (more of a dent) in his field of vision, is a indent, if it is flat, or if it coming towards him...looks like a combination of all 3, minus a defined shape...SWIM tells the object he can't deal with it right now, the 'object' seems to understand completley, and suggests another time.

So SWIM is lying on the lawn, the time is about 6:30-7 pm, and the sun is making its way down (Its late August)...SWIM hears people starting to cook dinner, kids excitedly recounting their days on the beach, fathers cracking beers and jokes and starting barbeques, mothers listening to the kids, while phoning guests and helping with food....SWIM neighbour pops her head over the fence, and asks if SWIM is alright. He assures her he is fine.

SWIM gets up, and goes inside, takes off his clothes and lies on the couch, very sedated by the cactus, and tries to work with it. It seems, though, that the message that the cactus is giving him is 'you know all this already' 'You don't need to have it hammered into you...' So SWIM thinks, 'Ok, what I need then is motivation/strength to express my good intent' 'That's right' says the cactus.

Ok, so SWIM gets up, and starts eating the fruit...Bananas don't look very appealing, apples neither...raspberries are good, though SWIM can't eat many...SWIM has a fig, enjoys it but doesn't want another...SWIM tries the black berries, and after swallowing one mouthful, he gets a burning sensation in his chest! As though his heart is on fire! SWIM eats a handful of blueberries, and it seems to cool it immediately. He tries a few more blackberries, and the pain nearly floors him. He ate only blueberries for the rest of the night.

SWIM puts on his clothes again, and now that it is dark, decides to go out for a walk. There is a strange sort of caution that goes with being on cactus, as though one has to be delicate with everything, for risk of it becoming repulsive...there is also a 'lightness' of the body (contrary to before) so that SWIM is inclined to creep and stalk, and to walk and move very gently.

So SWIM creeps around a community garden (this is a small community, so there were few people about). He is noticing the beauty of the flowers, as seen at night, when he hears whispering and notices 2 girls behind him about 50 feet. He freezes, and hears them whispering 'I think theres someone there (SWIM)' he also hears further off 'Where did those 2 get to?' 'They went ahead'

Uh oh, thinks SWIM, 2, 10 year-old girls, plus, sounding (smelling?) by it, another 2 older girls, plus 2 full grown females and 2 full grown males. Fuck. SWIM smiles at the girls, and makes his way out of the garden, smiling at the incoming group. Sure enough, 2 more girls (maybe 14) 2 women, and 2 men.

He then heads further down the road, to a beach, that is relatively busy, and consists of lots of tables, a playground and a massive bird/wildlife/wetlands refuge next to it. This is where SWIMs experience got particularely interesting. He was walking around, it was now dark, except for street lights, and SWIM could see/hear/smell people moving around...he could hear what they were talking about, the nuances and tones of their voice, he could hear their body language, smell their level of fatigue/intoxication, their age, sex, menstrual cycle, whether they were looking for a mate or had one...SWIM came to the conclusion, there is no EXTRA sensory perception (do you see any EXTRA sense organs?) there is hyper sensory perception. Though SWIM could not prove that what he was experienceing was true, beyond age and sex, SWIM felt as though he was using his senses in a way that didn't seperate information into sound, sight ect. But as ONE experience, therefore much more flavorful and whole, and more resistant to second guessing.

SWIM got away from people, and made his way through the reserve, and noticed 2 women holding hands, about SWIMs age, SWIM could tell by their behavior and talk, that they loved each other, but behind them was one of the girls mothers, trying to look hopeful and a bit behind her, was the girls father, obviously (to SWIM) uncomfortable with his daughters sexuality, but trying hard to be accepting...SWIM got the idea (no idea where from) that this man had wanted a boy, but was given a girl, and after he had learned to accept the girl, had to accept a lesbian...so he essensially got what he wanted (a son), but not in the way he expected. SWIM smiled at the father, who weakly smiled back, and he said a prayer for them.. and continued on his way, where he got to a bird look-out, climbed up, and marveled at the 360' view/sound/scent ect.

SWIM returned to the house, noticing he was looking more at the stars than the street signs. He got a little weirded out by this, as he had only gone maybe 10 blocks away, but he realized that the stars were MUCH more familiar to him than ever. A voice, laughingly said that 'there are way less streets than stars, but you are much more familiar with stars, cause they have been in the same place, since before streets were even created.' As though his 'street map' was trivial, because most streets look the same, and cannot be immediately compared to others. Stars, like streets, are defined by their relativity to each other, however, stars are IMMMEDIATELY compareable, and on a much larger scale of reference.

SWIM also appreciated some cops(!), who were being very reasonable to this shit-faced fat bitch, and taking her SUV, while she was bitching and puking and screaming about the fact. Stumbling around moaning and whining...

After SWIM got some more fruit, he went out (now about 1:30am) to do some more exploring. The stars were fascinating. They all seemed to be connected by lines made of star. Infact everything around SWIM including SWIM seemed to have 'strings' made of star (not stars) connecting him to everything else, and everything to everything.

SWIM followed a couple of these strings to an elementary school. The school seemed deserted, but SWIM heard some voiced maybe 300m off. He crept along the side of the school, towards the noise. He reached a corner on his left, but the sound was coming from his right. But instead of heading right, SWIM stays next to the building and goes left. This next wall, ran the entire length and hight of the school, and so if SWIM faces it, he hears all the sounds being amplified off it. The voices to his right have just been amplified 5 fold, all due to SWIMS (counter-intuitive) change in location. He learned how to use his environment/orientation to enhance his senses.

SWIM starts making his way towards the voices, that seem to be coming from some abandoned field/park. There's 4 of them; 3 guys, 1 girl (half chinese, don't know how he knows), SWIM can hear them talking about another girl, and a failed relationship of one of the guys, with said girl. The girl present seems to have a calming effect on the guys, they seem to be very understanding of the failed relationship, and the girl involved, and are genuinely trying to understand, instead of calling her a bitch or a slut (which he's sure they would have, if the girl wasn't there). Its almost as though the girl got them out of an unproductive thought pattern, and at first they seemed just to be playing along, but over time learned the value of being understanding. All this was heard from over 150 meters away, as SWIM crept through shoulder high grass, in timing to the wind (as to disguise his sound).

SWIM made his way back to the house. He was getting tired, it was about 2:30-3 am, he could feel himself loosing the layer of cold sweat that seemed to have been on him all night, and noticed that his senses were feeling duller. SWIM resented this, but was also relieved, as he was tired, and knew he couldn't sleep like that.

When he got back, he packed a bowl (1st in 2 days), lay outside and smoked it. This was it. The cannabis seemed perfectly complimentary to the comedown. The cannabis seemed to turn all his hyper-sensations into colour. As though he was receiving the sensations for aesthetic reasons, not informative. SWIM marveled at the gold trimmed, padparadsha coloured objects, floating around his mind...SWIM decided to go back inside, he locked all the doors and fell asleep infront of the gas fireplace.

Conclusion:

The next day, SWIM got up at 8:30-9ish, though not tired, he took it easy, cleaned up from the day before...SWIM was a bit disappointed, he had been hoping and praying for some kind of overhaul, and had wished that he could have gotten it over and done with, then and there, on his own. Instead the experience seemed to be more 'earth based' as though one has a 'super map' of reality. SWIM was not expecting this, so he feels he failed to fully utilize it. However, due to being able to read into situations, even ones that were completely alien to him, SWIM has felt as though he has somehow 're-connected' with people and things. Alien situations were made familiar, just by paying alot of attention, they became so familiar, SWIM could almost predict what they were going to say. So, in a way, SWIM was taught a way to re-connect to people, but isn't sure how it works...all he knows is, is that there is a correlation between being a good listener and empathy, which leads to familiarity and a fascination with other peoples realities.

So even though SWIM doesn't know how this connection is made, he knows it works. Now SWIM sees people as hilarious, fascinating, beautiful creatures. SWIM is no longer really disgusted with people, he sees people as works of art. Though they may be as repulsive as a Jakob Gillig painting, or as dark and vulgar as Carravaggio, they are all masterpieces, and stunningly beautiful in their ugliness.

Even if someone is mean to SWIM, he now thinks ' Oh, you're being an asshole, isn't that so CUTE!' 'You're trying to make me feel like shit! And you try so hard! You're like a cute little bad tempered dwarf, mining away all day for insults! Spending so much effort on something that won't work! All for such childish reasons! One day you'll laugh at yourself too!'

SWIM has also been waking up laughing/crying with joy. And not only that, but SWIM finds himself giggling during the day, just at being alive. People ask him whats so funny, and he starts laughing more, so they think hes crazy and THEY start laughing! Other people know what is so funny, so they don't ask, but they too laugh at the unspoken joke. The Original Joke.

Summary:

55 grams (approx) made into tea. Consumed in a quiet, private setting. No phones.
-20- minutes after- puking
-40- done puking, sedated, hightened senses
1h.30- Highly sensitive to food, clothing, jittery
2h- introspective, but not very productive, got the feeling he should go outside
2h-8h- Super enhanced senses. Able to use senses individually or wholly.
8h-10h- Combined with cannabis, very comforting, relaxing, visual.

SWIM feel like the cactus could be very useful on a less populated planet for finding mates, or game and for being aware of your surroundings while hunting.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 88644
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 21
Published: Jan 15, 2011	Views: 6,545
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Cacti - T. peruvianus (69) : Alone (16), Nature / Outdoors (23), General (1)