My First Trip

My First Real Mushroom Trip! Not My Last

Who would have thought that a  57 year old grandfather would decide to take a trip on mushrooms. Sure I have strong memories of the 60%'s but lets get real, I was only 6 when they started and 16 when they finished. I came from a Police father family and expected to walk the straight road and hallucinogens didn't even enter my vocabulary.

I am a late bloomer, started drinking at 35 and smoking dope at 40. Both of these substances I like very much and even though I am moderate in my drinking now, I can see marijuana playing a part in my life always.

I have been happy with hooch and booze and had never thought of trying anything stronger or even anything much different from those two friends.

That was until my well meaning son told me about www.stumbleupon.com, a website tuned to your interests that randomly shows you other websites about those interests.Try it, you'll like it.

It was here that I stumbled upon Terence McKenna, a 60%'s child , enamoured of hallucinogens and their entheogenic (Spiritual)  properties. I was intrigued and devoured everything McKenna had to say.  McKenna spoke fondly of the Magic Mushrooms and their Shamanistic Abilities. This of course led me into more research, more obsession and more desire to try this magical fungi.

My entire focus on this mushroom adventure was for enlightenment, a look into my psyche and  a glimpse of another world/dimension. I expected hallucinations and other effects but my primary goal was to find another world and to focus on that goal, ignoring any distractions. 

I was searching for answers and I was not to be dissuaded.

I had researched for about 6 weeks when I finally decided to go for it. I had read about 100 reports of trips, listened to 100 hrs of video and read a thousand pages on the subject. 

I knew the good and the bad of what to expect, I knew the dosages that are safe, I knew how safe the mushroom was and I was ready to go.

I had a  friend who was experienced about shrooming and knew what varieties to source locally. We organised an expedition and within 2 hours had picked 10 grams of Aussie Golden Tops (Psilocybe subaeruginosa). My guide said this would be enough for the two of us to trip.

I was excited and planned to trip with my guide.  In my excitement I shared my plans with my friend In Queensland. He immediately flew down to share the experience.

At this point I was totally unaware that 10 gms of fresh mushrooms was about 1/10th of the amount recommended for three people. I guess ignorance can be bliss.

My dear wife was going away for three days, my mate was coming down to visit, I had no work worries for three days and I was excited.

My mate flew down and we went to visit my sister and to trip in the mountains. My guide got ill and withdrew from the adventure. Good, more for us.

I had air sealed and frozen the shrooms 3 days before the planned trip. I was going to take the mushies first and If I didn't die then my mate would have ago. I thawed the 10 grams and divided the load into thirds. I mixed my incredibly disgusting, liver like, unfrozen mushrooms with passionfruit yoghurt and scoffed the lot, only gagging once.

I then sat down to wait. I smoked a couple of joints, as I usually do. 

After about 30 minutes I felt a warmth permeate my body and I sank deep into a very languid state. I felt I had melted into my chair and was as relaxed as I had ever been.

I conveyed this to my mate and he decided to join me. He took a little less than me and then made tea from the balance.

After about an hour I was still relaxed but kept wanting to close my eyes. When I did, I could see brightly coloured psychedelic patterns and geometric shapes. Just a few but similar to what I have always seen depicted as psychedelic. I also felt that I was being pulled further into the darkness by an unknown but friendly force. Very gently and very lovingly but persistently.

I consciously resisted and decided I wanted to spend time awake with my friend and sister to share time and chat. So I just opened my eyes. I noticed an increased feeling of love for my sister and my friend and this persisted for hours. According to my sister my pupils were very dilated. I was also unsteady on my feet when I did try to move. My mate was laying down on a couch outside by an open fire.

Speaking of my mate, he was as relaxed as me and was experiencing some minor visual distortions. If you rate trips on a scale of one-five, with one being the mildest and five being the strongest then we were experiencing a level two trip. More information about trip levels can be found here.

https://www.shroomery.org/6255/Trip-Reports

This mild experience lasted for about 4 hours and was fairly consistent in affect. I slept well that night with no dreams ( Marijuana has stopped my dreaming at night, so I didn't really expect to dream)

The next day I woke refreshed but feeling unfulfilled. I had expected something mind blowing and although very pleasant, it certainly wasn't mind blowing. 

I was seeking transcendence and revelation and all I got stoned and happy. Not good enough.

That day I convinced my mate to go looking for more mushrooms locally and we tried for about 3 hours without luck. That was it. I was going to get some more from the original source. We left earlier, drove two and a half hours and started searching.

Within 30 minutes we had picked 20 grams and only stopped because of poor light. this was mid to late afternoon, the same time I found them before.

Clutching our haul we sped to the safety of my house and prepared ourselves. 

We divided the mushrooms in two using  scales. I vacuum packed one half and froze them.

The rest we were going to eat between us. It looked like a lot of mushroom to novice me and I was a little nervous. It was getting on to dark and time to trip.

I took my half  and mixed with the yoghurt again. I could only get down about 4 grams of fresh before I started gagging, so I decided to stop.

My mate started to eat his but being highly sensitive to foreign substance stopped at about 3 grams after he started to feel minor affects come on within minutes.

So we sat and smoked a joint each. Waiting pleasantly, expecting it to be like the previous nights event, only more colourful. 

Of course I was hoping for more and maybe that air of expectation caused the following events to occur, I don't know. 

After about 30 minutes I felt the rush of warmth through my body, familiar territory, then I started to get the shakes. It's an uncontrollable shivering that seems to circle your body. I have had this effect many times on dope and was familiar with it. It's not really pleasant but it's bearable and only seems to last 10-15 minutes then you go completely relaxed. I did go completely relaxed and decided to have another joint, probably shouldn't have.

The minute I started to smoke the joint I felt what I can only describe as a wave of energy, a tsunami of energy flow over me. It was overwhelming and I had to put my joint out and lay down. My mate was going through a similar experience. We met in the lounge room and lay on opposing couches. We talked and both had a strong feeling of nausea that was only eased by laying down.I had read that this was common and had expected it. We lay trying to talk but these waves kept coming and I just had to leave that room and go to my bedroom which I had prepared earlier. It was dark, comfortable and quiet, I thought I was was ready for anything.

As I lay down in the dark the waves just overwhelmed me, I knew that the mushrooms had taken hold and from now on everything was out of my control. This was what I had been looking for and I was now at the start of my adventure. 

I was curled in a foetal position and trying to come to grips with what was happening to me. I really had no control and this felt weird as I do like to have control. I tried meditating and this seemed to bring my brain into focus for a nano second, until I was whisked off onto the mushrooms path.

I remember seeing dark green mathematical formula and diagrams floating in front of me, I remember faces and other distractions. I remember trying to ignore these distractions and to focus on my goal. I could keep bringing my minds eye back to my meditation point in  my mind but it was like trying to fight a real tsunami.

The mushrooms then took me on what is called a thought loop for the next two hours. Over and over again a fixed scenario was played over in my mind with me being trapped until I could figure out what the scenario meant and what  specifically it meant to me. 

I kept going around and around and repeating scenarios in my head and each time I glimpsed a bit of the truth I was being shown, I felt an exponential burst in my knowledge. I understood what was happening, I understood my place in this world and this universe and this knowledge empowered me and lifted me higher and higher into what I can only describe as a plane of existence free of my body with my mind intact ready to fly.

While in this other plane/dimension, I had contact with something/someone that was giving me information telepathically about the future of the whole human race and I was just mesmerised.

I was only in this dimension towards the end of the trip and only fleetingly. I started to come down and desperately tried to hold onto what I was being told.

I landed, just like I imagine a parachutist lands, but gently. One second in another world, the next landing on this world. Straight clear headed and hungry. One hour for the up, two to three for the peak and then tapering off for the last hour.

What an amazing trip and I am still reflecting on its implications. I am a seeker of answers and I hope that the mushroom is the key to finding out the answers to  so many of my questions.

I am off again next weekend and will be using 5 gms fresh in tea. Let's see what happens.