First trip. Mild but unforgettable

So here we go. Had my first trip yesterday after finding subs last Sunday in the nearby pine forest. I came across them in about 30 minutes after stepping in the forest. There were lots of look-a-likes, which I first picked. Some were pinkish, some were yellowish, no bruising. I didn't have much hope finding subs because I had never seen them in real life before. I remembered the description though so was simply walking and checking every new type of mushroom on my way. Eventually, I picked a small pale one, not expecting anything from it, squeezed it on one side, put it in a pocket to check later for bruising and kept walking. When I got it out, the squeezed side was all dark blue, almost black. That was it! The first sub! I rushed back to that spot where I found it and there were about 60 more of them... I was so happy I was smiling with nobody around. All the way to the car I was getting subs out of the bag and double-, triple-checking them not believing my luck.

Yesterday I got 4 dried to a crisp medium size subs out of the bag with the desiccant where I kept them for a week. Couldn't try them earlier but only this Friday night, even though I really wanted to. So I put them in my mouth, chewed for 10 minutes, swallowed and had a cup of tea with some chocolate after. I had about 0.5g of subs, going for the level 1 trip. I read trip reports here so I knew approximately what to expect. I certainly didn't want anything too overwhelming without doing a trial trip first. Besides, I didn't have a guide and there was unaware wife at home. The taste of subs was all-right, i.e. I was expecting it to be worse. Typical mushroomy taste somewhat similar to pickled champignons.

Every minute I was expecting something unusual but only 45 minutes after swallowing mushrooms I actually felt something. First I suddenly felt cold so I went into another room to put on jumper. Walking was easy but something already started happening. The feeling was similar to the onset of flu symptoms but without any pain or fever. Soon after I got back to the chair the real fun began. Suddenly, I felt as if someone dimmed down lights in the room by 30% and then dimmed again even further. I was reading the forum at that time about the come up anxiety of first trips. :-) The white text appeared brighter, it was even kind of glowing. After 1 hour I noticed a few times that the shape of the display wasn't a perfect rectangle, it seemed stretched a little diagonally. Turning head was enough to get rid of the distortion. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a moving shadow. There was nothing of course but the dark side of the room with curtains closed.

I had to get up and walk to the toilet. This short walk unexpectedly turned out to be full of surprises. First I felt that my body was noticeably heavier and the prospect of walking even a few steps scared me. But I had to go so I walked slowly through the room and then corridor. The rooms looked to me unusually large. When I reached out to turn the door handle I noticed that my hand was strangely too long and a silly question popped in my head how could I be possibly touching the door handle from so far away. On the way back I could not get rid of the feeling that I was shorter than usual. I looked around, tried to judge distances between me and objects in the room: everything was suggesting I was now somewhat shorter.

Back at my desk, I put on headphones and turned on music. It was too loud or so it seemed. The pop music I could not tolerate even a minute. The beats seemed rude and cheerful singing was distracting, ruining the magic of the trip. Now I understand why people here suggest ambient music. So I had Tangerine Dreams ready, which I tried to listen to before mushrooms but found it to be not exactly my style. Now it was exactly what my mind wanted. The repetitive sounds and patterns slowly merging one into another were very relaxing. Because of the good stereo effect in headphones I could "see" the invisible sources of those sounds hanging in the air in different spots in front of me. This was truly enjoyable so I kept listening to Tangerine Dreams for 2 hours.

One funny and unexpected thing happened when I needed to go to the toilet again. I was sitting listening to music and browsing art gallery, Vincent van Gogh primarily... suddenly I felt that I almost peed myself. Somehow for a brief moment I found it hard to control this basic function. Is this common? Also I remember yawning once and getting cramps in a small muscle somewhere under chin. Never before I had cramps in this part of the body. It was quite painful and the pain lasted for about 10 seconds. It went away after I managed to relax. On one occasion I lifted left hand and touched my face. The hand and the touch seemed so light and smooth as if my hand lost weight and was like a balloon.

It was 3 hours into the trip, deep into the night, so having experienced enough weirdness I went to bed. The trip was not over yet but I got used to it and there was nothing new, all unusual sensations were now rather mild, so I thought I may as well go to sleep now... Ha! After I closed my eyes, I could not sleep for at least an hour. All sorts of visuals in quick successions were appearing in front of me. They were totally random. Some objects looked familiar, some looked bizarre but they all were mostly colourful even though not bright. The best one I remember was three grey elephants on long legs holding LED torches lighting their path.

This morning when I woke up I felt great! I remembered yesterday's trip and put it here while it's all fresh in my mind. I hope you find it was worth spending 2 minutes reading it. Maybe it will help you better prepare for the first trip if you have never tripped before.