The Forest Dragon

I awoke around 5:00 PM and headed over to a friend's house.  I was at the onset of a four-day weekend, and decided it would be a great time to trip.  Having neither LSD nor mushrooms on hand, my friend suggested that I try LSA.  He had acquired a large collection of organic morning glory seeds.  He warned me that I would experience pretty severe stomach pains without doing a cold-water extraction, but being somehow unafraid of the prospect of stomach pain or just too lazy, I decided to ingest 500 seeds (approximately) the old-fashioned way.


I had taken wild lettuce extract just before heading over, and was feeling slightly relaxed, but not necessarily sleepy.  I suspect that the wild lettuce added to the negative experience I had at the onset of dosing, but I cannot say with any certainty.

I dosed the seeds around 9:30 PM.  Within a half an hour, I realized I had not eaten anything else that day, and decided to make myself something to eat.  I felt myself becoming physically drained exponentially, and by the time I had begun to cook my soup, I began experiencing stomach pains.  I decided to leave the soup for later, as suddenly I was too tired and pained to eat.

I went into the living room and sat on a bean bag chair, staring blankly at the empty T.V. screen.  I could only think about my discomfort and tiredness.  I put a blanket over myself and curled up in an attempt to sleep.  I felt myself drifting off further and further mentally, but somehow I knew my body was not in a physical sleep state.  I took the blanket off and decided to put something on the TV to distract myself.  There was a show on the National Geographic channel about survival.  I couldn't really pay attention, I was too taken with the sensations in my body.

I felt as if my bones had gained extra weight, like my flesh was too soft to contain my body frame, but the discomfort was beginning to fade.  Frankly, I had been doubtful of the effectiveness of eating Morning Glory seeds for LSA. but that was about to change.  Around 11:00, I told my friend that I was tired (something I considered to be a consequence of the wild lettuce) and that I was not wanting to trip.  He very wisely turned my psychology around.  He got some music and video games playing in an attempt to energize me, and suggested that I walk around for a bit.  I didn't feel like leaving the apartment, so I just paced uncomfortably.  I felt a pain in my calves, but nothing in my thighs, though I had been warned that either might happen.

Once energized and pumped for the trip to come, I sat down on the couch and began to stare at the floorboards.  I recall being shocked, and thinking "visuals?  what?"  I had no idea what was to come.  The floorboards began sliding into each other like tectonic plates, sliding under one another.

Next, I began to see what I can only describe as an oscillating representatipn of the 58 wrathful deities of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.  The bright, luminescent, and translucent, ever rotating.  I am not sure at what point this began to happen, but I noticed it when in the restroom of the apartment, which has a much lighter color scheme than the rest of the place.  This visual effect carried with me for the entirety of the trip, though the images and textures changed as to their pattern and personal significance.  Recognizable images of skulls, screaming faces, serpents, eyes, and unintelligable text all faded in and out of my constant visual perspective.

Around 11:30, I began to experience enhanced visual melting.  Objects upon which I focused loosely, (i.e. looked at, but did not consider) often glowed with a colorful aura, then moved slightly in one direction.

It was around 2:30, while the effects were still going strong, and my nausea had worn off completely, that my friend (who was also tripping on a dose of 500 seeds) suggested we take a walk outside and see where the night might lead us.  I thought we would walk a few blocks, come back, and fall asleep uneventfully.

Outside, the world was breathing in a way.   I looked at the street sign on the corner, and the numbers upon it were "rocking," surrounded by bright purple, but were still totally legible.  I found this amazing, because I have been typically unable to read much of anything while tripping any time before.  I could see an accurate image of my surroundings for a one or two block radius,and I retained my navigational skills with no noticeable difficulty, but anything I saw further away than perhaps 100 feet was subject to my interpretation, unstable, melting and shifting in color, distance, and consistency.

After walking 10 blocks or so, we encountered a fellow wearing a curious outfit.  He was drunk, and was curious as to what we were doing out and about.  I was extraordinarily nervous around this person, and my trip-mate could tell.  They conversed for a bit, until the fellow admitted he had done quite a bit of cocaine and somehow ended up with a purse which was not his own.  At that point, we wisely decided to move on.  We had been discussing ideas of dialogue and apology earlier.  I am a sociologist and my friend a mathematician, and I cannot explain how insightful and enlightening it was (and is) to gain commentary from a new perspective about the existential and social issues which occupy the greater part of my contemplative life.

We wandered several more blocks and for several hours.  I am not sure of the time frame in which we traveled, but we ended up at the riverfront maybe an hour before sunrise.  We walked to the river's edge for a rest.  As I looked over the river, I was amazed.  I have always been fascinated by the mystery of what is hidden beneath the water, and in this state, I could see an endless biosystem of mystic, tentacled creatures and leviathan-sized fish.  After staring into the water for a long while, the sky began to pick up a glow.  I saw the outline of the forest ridges across the river.  They were distant, but I felt as if there was no distance.  All things were close, even inside me.  The forest began to glow with an intense purple color, then the various ridges of trees moved separately from one another as if an animated monster from a 1950s-era film.  I imagined the ridge to be the back of an enormous, green dragon.

My friend brought my attetion to the water again.  Staring at its surface, I saw various lines forming again into serpents and tentacles.  I was drawn into this world of beauty when I was suddenly distracted by what I assume was a piece of driftwood.  As it moved along, I was unable to tell if it was alive or not.  I saw an extensive body and several flailing tentacles below the surface of the water, and was frightened that what I was seeing might actually be real.  My friend reassured me it was not living, and when he did so, the object seemed to speed toward him, which caused both of us to back away from the river in fear.  We laughed at our mutual fright, and decided that what we had seen was just a piece of wood.

I looked up to the now blue sky.  Bright tracers flew upward from the forest ridges, forming a triangle in the sky.  Rotating around the triangle was the outline of the 42 peaceful deities of Tibetan Buddhism.  I felt a rush of energy, as if a vast repository of experiences, sights, and thoughts were being uploaded to me.  I wondered about the significance of watching the sunrise, I wondered if the sun were capable of transferring information to me.  We left, stopping once more to view the sunrise for awhile.  We both reported that we were hungry and tired, but as we continued walking, our needs were suppressed.  We needed nothing.  We were nothing in a world to be endlessly appreciated and known.

If you are considering taking LSA, I suggest doing so with lots of energy, and taking things very slowly at first.  Ignore any feelings of regret you may experience while enduring physical pain, and be reassured that, given a sufficient dose, you will be able to suppress the stomach ache or any leg pain.  I definitely think this drug is most effective when used for spiritual or theraputic reasons, but I tend to carry this opinion about any psychedelic, and can imagine a potentially fun recreational experience on LSA as well.