What Life Actually Is About

The first time I tried Mushrooms was on a fairly sunny day in late spring with 3 extremely close friends. After initially eating them we sat in my one friend's room just talking as I noticed my entire body to feel a bit heavy, yet light at the same time. My friend's room, in which I had been in many times before, all of a sudden seemed to transform into the most interesting place I have ever been in throughout my entire life. He has probably at least 10-15 different colourful, trippy-like posters/paintaing on his walls- and I would simply just stare at each one for what seemed like forever...getting entirely lost in the different colours and textures used to create each one of these masterpieces. Each picture has its own mood, and atmospheric vibe that effected me in the most astonishing ways. The painting began to move, especially the ones with complex patterns. A framed poster of "Dumb and Dumber" was sort of scaring me...but in a fun way...I remember Jim Carrey was somehow the devil with his menacing grim...and Jeff Daniels being the helpess stupid one below. This was extremely amusing and everytime I go back to his room Iook at that movie poster differently. I remember the colours were so virbant and bright, I could have sat in his room and stared at these pictures all day....although the best was yet to come.

We turned on some electronic music. The bass, high sounds, textures, layers of noises and ambience, along with reverberation of the this music was amazing. I was hearing each and every individual sound as a distinct, yet important and vital aspect to the overall song. My friend then went to his window, opened the blinds to a shining array of sunlight that filled the entire room. I remember him jokingly saying, "Come on in God!" At this moment it truly felt like God or some sort of higher being was watching us. I remember feeling as if mushrooms were the secret to life. This higher being knew that what we were experiencing was the true experiences of life. It was as if all of sudden everything I had experienced since I was born was fake, fabricated. I was going through life on some sort of auto-pilot. This did not end up making upset or anxious in anyway however since now I was feeling truly in-tuned with my body, life, and the universe. It was as if I became grounded in every meaning of the word. This experience was so far removed from anything resembling of an artificial type high because everything was true. As I looked at my friends I realized that I had known them for years...this made so joyous. Just the simple thought of having someone else with similar interests..another human being that I could talk with, eat with, party with.....was truly amazing. I was the luckiest person alive...as was everyone else in the entire world.

I felt like I was thinking about things in the clearest possible way. Even negative aspects of my life seemed frivolous. Nothing mattered. I remember even thinking that I could die today and would be fine with it- knowing that the world would still go on, and life would go on. My other three friends were having similar experiences. There would be moments when our conversations would flow like water, having no limit and absolute freedom. I remember being so astounded by this new feeling of "realness" that my eyes at points would begin to tear up in amazement.

After having these "Revelations," we headed outside to his backyard which backs on to a large ravine and forested area that is on his property. Getting our shoes on seemed like we were preparing for an epic quest of some sort. The mood changed, and we all began to become excited and intrigued of what sorts of experienced awaited for us in the forest. We began to walk towards the entrance when all of a sudden we heard the sound of a guitar and harmonica! Turning around we noticed it was one of our friends who had randomly showed up without any of us noticing! He wasn't on mushrooms that day but is well-experienced in that area, and was going to act as somewhat of a "trip-sitter" for a while. We were so happy that he had arrived. He continued to play the music from his guitar and harmonica as we entered into the forest. It was beautiful and magnificent as the sun shone through the vibrant green leaves, and the sound of the live music playing to the atmosphere. Each section we walked through seemed like a level in a videogame. It was fairly muddy at points, and hard to walk through which added a challenge- however gave us vast feelings of accomplishments as we "completed" each section. Our friend would change his musical style depending on the terrain (intense/fast music when going up a hill or calm, optimistic music when coming to an open clearing. I remember coming upon one very large flower that stood all by itself. We were so fascinated with it....I remember saying hello to it in the most polite manner. Every little piece of wood, flower, plant, leaf, insect, animal, was truly connected and alive in a way I cannot explain. Everything had a personality. I am not usually a "tree-hugger" in any sense, however I walked through the forest so gently, trying not to step on small plants...and being conscious when getting near trees. I did not want to disturb their existence.

After getting back from this epic walk, I remember looking at a bag of Doritos that I would usually crave for. However now I was disgusted with the thought of eating these weird, artificial, man-made, flavoured potatoes. All I wanted to drink was water...nothing else...and eat only fruit, vegetables, fish, and meats. Man made food seemed pointless, unhealthy, and rather grotesque. We sat by his pool and looked at some of the clouds in the sky. Many took the forms of objects that could not possibly be seen in a cloud (ex. I remember seeing a PERFECT represention of what was the face of John Lennon). We then dived into conversation once again, and began to philosophise about random things. I remember thinking of girls that I knew, and females in general- and realized that on mushrooms (as opposed to alcohol), I was thinking about sex in a different way. I was all of sudden appreciating and realizing the how beautiful females actually were. (I imagine these feelings could work vice versa for females, and homosexuals). It was also a Saturday, and we were planning to get drunk and possibly go to our regular bar that night. This got me extremely excited for some reason, since it would have just been a regular Saturday night. This time it was different. I remember feeling so amazing, as if I had gotten a second chance to live or something. All I wanted to do was go out, drink, partyy, experience life, and live with no regrets.

As the sun began to set, the high started to wear off. I remember thinking that I was going to be sad and depressed when these feelings went away since at all times I was aware that I was on a drug. However it was not like this at all, It felt like I had been to another world- like I had been introduced to what life was all about, and now I was going to go back to living my normal life as a mortal- however I would take these experiences with me. I was a new person. I felt different...as if everything was going to turn out ok. I valued the simple things in life. I was excited about going back to school in the fall, happy with my friends, thankful for my family, appreciative of nature and its amazing gifts, and most of all becoming intuned with myself. I felt like I rediscovered who I really was...like there was a "real" me that came out while I was high. I will never forget this experience, and it was probably one of the most enlightening, amazing times I have ever had.