GREAT->BAD->GOOD=MAD

This was about the fourth or fifth time I had ever taken shrooms. I had been waiting all year for the season to start again, now it was October, and well into the season. There is a golf course near where I live, which is in County Durham in north-east England, and there are thousands of shrooms growing on it, literally thousands. After an hour or so of hunting on this golf course my friends and I had roughly 1600 Liberty Caps, so we decided to call it a day. That night, we made a 500-brew, boiling the mushrooms first. None of us experienced a "trip" per se, although all of us reported subtle changes of state. I later discovered that boiling the shrooms to kill the bacteria also destroys a large portion of the active chemicals in the mushroom, thereby reducing the potency. My friends decided it had been a waste of time, and as there were too many shrooms left to preserve we decided to do away with the rest.

For some reason I decided to keep a hundred or so, so I dried them on some newspaper and hid them carefully under my bed. I forgot about them for a while until an old school friend and long-time smoking buddy Oz (not his real name) gave me a call. When he heard we had thrown away about a thousand shrooms he was mortified, because I owed him a few hundred from last season. He had never had the chance to try them yet, but he came over for a smoke anyway. Whilst going through my stuff under my bed (dont ask why) he came across the dried shrooms which I had forgotten about. He begged me to share them with him, but I didnt think it would be worth it after the disappointment of my last trip. He finally won me over, so instead of boiling them we just chucked them in some o.j. and mashed them up. As soon as we had necked them I began to feel queasy, and this feeling wouldnt leave me until I woke up the morning after.

We decided there and then to walk to J's house, which is a few miles away up the road, but as there is no path alongside it we decided to head along the Derwent Walk pathway. This direction would normally take about 45 minutes to an hour at most. To reach the Derwent Walk we had to go downhill for about a mile or so, and walking down the hill made the shrooms churn up in my stomach. By the time we reached the flat road just before the Derwent Walk, I was feeling bad. The floor was moving underneath me, my arms were numb and I had an overwhelming desire to sleep. This had never happened to me before, so I assumed that I had eaten some fakies, which made me panic. When we reached the Derwent Walk, we immediately headed off the side of the path to lie down in a field. I felt sick, tired and numb. After about 10 minutes we decided it would be better to keep moving otherwise we might not be able to get up in a while. As soon as I stood up, the numbness left me and an immense wave of euphoria rushed over me. We rejoined the path, and I started to hallucinate at this point. The floor was moving like water, and all the leaves were spinning on the spot. I said, "Oh shit!" and looked up at Oz. This was when I realised I was lying on the floor again. Oz helped me up, and I said "Man, look at your eyes, they're like saucers!". Oz burst out laughing, which set me off. When we both came around, I opened my eyes and there were psychedelic patterns everywhere. The path looked like it headed up to the sky in the distance, and the trees surrounding the path looked like those multicoloured feather-dusters you get.

We helped each other along the path until we reached the viaduct. The view from this viaduct is immense even when you're hung over, but now it was just fucking SPECTACULAR. The sun was setting behind the forest on the hill in the distance, the sky was about 50% cast over with clouds, and there were horses galloping along beside the river in the fields below. This was before you take into account the fact that we were both tripping our tits off at this point. The clouds looked like they were following the sun down behind the hill, before twisting around to fill the sky, changing colours all the while. The forest on the hill looked like some kind of magic carpet, also heading towards the sun. The bridge we were on looked like it was boiling, with white, red and blue bubbles popping all over the surface. There was a lovely strong breeze blowing in our faces, and the viaduct felt like it was swaying backwards and forwards. We must have stood there for about an hour just looking over the side. I still felt queasy, and so did Oz, so we walked on towards J's. To get to J's from the Derwent Walk we had to go off through a place called Hollinside Manor. This is an old ruin on the side of the hill next to the Derwent Walk, with a field next to it where shrooms grow. As I walked up towards it, I realised I had never been here before in all the years I had walked the Derwent Walk. I dont know what it looks like normally, but in my state it looked like a magical land. There were insects which looked like fairies, and luminous "things" growing out of the ground, and all kinds of grass which looked so soft and lush. I could see small rodents running around, which I thought was normal at the time, but looking back I realise that they dont exist! Some were black, some were red and some were blue, and they reminded me of teddy bears. By this time the sun had almost disappeared behind the hill, and it was creating a brilliant beam of light which changed colour from ice white to flourescent green, depending on which way I turned my head. Oz spoke to me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin because I'd forgotten he was there. He was saying "I think I'm peaking," but it sounded all slow and echoey, then his face started distorting. I said "I am too," but I couldnt hear myself speaking. I didnt know at the time, but it was only just beginning.

It was beginning to get dark, so we headed up through Hollinside Manor. The quickest way to J's was through a big farm, but the farmer was working in the farmyard, and he had two huge alsatian dogs with him. This made us paranoid, so we made our way round the farm. We somehow ended up back in the woods beside the Derwent Walk, so we sat down to get our bearings. The plants were now growing up around my head, with drops of light falling off them. The trees were breathing and singing, and I realised that I couldnt rely on my sense of sight any more. A man with two kids was walking along the Derwent Walk, but I couldnt tell if he was to the left or in front of me, or even behind me. I thought I could see the path in front of me, but when I turned my head the path would still be in the same place in my field of vision. It was getting really dark now, and the man started to multiply into 4, then 8, then 16 and so on. A big, wet dog came out of nowhere and licked my face, and I started to yell and panic. One of the kids came up and asked if I was all right, but I couldnt understand him, and I didnt know which one of his many forms was the right one to reply to. My hands started to feel all wet and sticky, and I was really panicking now. I thought I was trapped inside a dream which was turning into a nightmare. Oz decided it was time to go, so he dragged me up the path back towards the farm. By now I was really tripping hard, I felt sick, I didnt have a clue where I was, it was dark and we were in the woods. Oz led me back up through the woods into a housing estate, it turned out to be the bottom of the estate where J lived. I now knew where I was, but I didnt recognise it at all. Oz informed me I was having an asthma attack, but I couldnt find my inhaler. I was really panicking and tripping now, I was begging Oz to get me an inhaler from his house. My legs began to vibrate suddenly, but it was just a text message arriving on my mobile. It was from my girlfriend who was staying in Blackpool for the week, and she was having a really bad time because she was lonely, and she was beginning to think I didnt love her any more because I hadnt rang all day. At least thats what was going through my head, and I was so worried because I couldnt phone her in my state. I was having a bad trip now, there was blood coming out of the walls and forming pools on the floor. Oz, who was straight now, decided we had to get to J's straight away before I freaked out completely. We reached the main road next to J's, and it was the busiest time of the evening for traffic. I just ran out over the road, and into the trees on the others side. I sat on a rock, hyperventilating and looking all around me. The cars on the road looked like they were coming straight for my head, and driving on my shoulders. Oz was pleading with me to go straight to J's with him, but I was begging him to leave me where I was. I was genuinely scared, but I dont know what of. I started retching but I couldnt bring anything up, so Oz grabbed me and dragged me up towards J's. I was in a right state, I was asking Oz if I had just been sick because I couldnt tell if I had or not. I thought my legs and feet were absolutely caked with mud, and my hands were covered with something sticky. It was an absolute nightmare.

When we got to J's, his little sister answered the door and I rushed straight in and ran my head under the tap. I felt better immediately, I was probably just relieved to be indoors. Now there were bright green decorations all over J's ceiling, with different colour lights coming out of the corners of the room. J's sister and her friends were the only ones in, J was on his way home from work, and they were all sitting around snorting speed and E. They all looked like they had painted their faces with blood, and smeared the walls with it too. A pattern was spreading from a crack in the wall, the lampshades were doing a mad little dance and the carpet was producing a psychedelic magic carpet similar to the one I saw earlier on the viaduct. I realised everyone was looking at me, they thought it was cool because none of them had ever tripped before. Suddenly, Cradle of Filth came blasting out of the stereo right beside my ear, and an immense wave of euphoria rushed through me. I was enjoying it until the room went dark, and I realised they were trying to freak me out. Just then J came home, and put Pink Floyd on his stereo upstairs. I hadnt seen J for ages, and he was starting to resemble John Lennon a lot. Me, J and Oz went up to J's room and smoked buckets. It was absolutely tranquil, and I really enjoyed watching the patterns and movements gradually becoming more and more subtle. We played on J's playstation until I gradually came down. I phoned my girlfriend, and everything was just fine. It was like the calm AFTER the storm, if you know what I mean. I had to walk along the road back to my house in the dark, but I was OK, just slightly on edge. My trip had lasted just over 6 hours, and I had only had 50 or so Liberty Caps, the least I have ever had in one go. Needless to say, I wasnt expecting anything close to that experience, but I will still take shrooms in the future. I look forward to my first level 5 experience!