People Are Strange

As a preface, this is my first report so any thoughts, advice, or dialogue pertaining to my report or tripping in general are extremely welcome!

This past weekend, my friends and I discussed the possibility of acquiring some shrooms for a trip on Saturday night or Sunday morning (being patriots fans some of us did not want to risk emotional distress if the game did not turn out well, which it didn't).  But, as has been the case in many of my attempts to shroom, contacts fell through and we were unable to find any.  Feeling let down after our failed attempt and the tragic outcome of the Superbowl :'( I decided to spend monday getting ahead on some class work. But through some magnificent twist in the universe, my friend Nate received a call from a friend that we thought had stopped selling, saying that he had a 1/2 oz of the magical fungi that he would sell it all for $80. Realizing that this was not only a flash of destiny but also a deal we couldn't pass up, we convinced 5 of our friends that as long as ate them around 5 or 6, no one would have a problem waking up for their early classes.  

We then quickly drove to our dealer's house and he informed us that they were very strong and to be careful as he had flipped out the night before after taking too much (a little less than a 1/4). The fact that this guy, who we knew to be extremely experienced in the world of psychedelics, was that wary of their potency got us pumped up for a great night. We decided that we were comfortable enough to trip on campus (we go to a pretty conservative school but our floor's RA is pretty chill) and we set up a little tripping room in my friend Rick's dorm, decked out with black lights, trippy posters, an awesome sound system, a couch, and hordes of blankets and pillows.  To kids who spend most of our time drinking or smoking the ganja, the feeling of a slumber party just seemed hilarious so some of us changed into pajamas (a great idea: so comfortable!).  I rocked some spongebob pajamas that had tons of eyes on them which I thought had the potential to be really trippy. With the environment set and some Animal Collective playing in the background we split up the 1/2 oz into 7 2g parts and ate them.

Now this was my fourth time tripping so I was excited to completely get past the stages of attempting to compare tripping with other things and just experience it.  While we waited to come up a couple people went to take showers in their rooms which left 5 of us in the room.  All being musicians (we go to a primarily music oriented college) we decided to jam a little on some instruments in the room. This was fun and passed some time during the come up until my friend Mike broke out his viola.  I was starting to get a bit of anxiety that I normally feel towards the beginning of my trips.  So far I have always been able to quickly push this out of my mind, but his viola playing had a very eerie sound to it that made me uncomfortable.  Luckily he decided to switch to guitar after a few minutes which put my mind at ease.  

We stopped playing after 15 or 20 minutes and when I stood up I realized that my come up was happening fairly quickly and I was starting to trip. This sudden realization brought back some of the anxiety making me question my ability to handle a harder trip than I had previously experienced. To make myself more comfortable I laid down next to the couch and wrapped myself in a blanket.  This simple action worked wonders and all anxiety was chased out by a pure joy that would stay with me the whole night.  After talking briefly with a friend I decided to take a journey down the hall to my friend Jack's room, naturally wearing my blanket as a cape.  In his room I found Jack and my roommate, Sam, (both part of my tripping group).  At this point I realized just how good these shrooms were since I was tripping much harder than I expected on around half an 1/8th.  Jack and Sam were talking about music and I remember hearing something about one of my favorite bands, The Doors. Upon hearing this I instantly began singing "People are Strange" which surprised me because there are other Doors songs that I could see myself singing first.  But in combination with my blanket cape, spongebob pajamas, and dancing/stumbling around like a tripping fool, the song developed a deep meaning in my mind creating an extremely strong desire to be "strange". 

This led me to jump onto a chair and proclaim, "Let's leave our sanity in the depths of reality.  Come be a child with me!".  Then, realizing the similarities of my actions, to a scene from The Doors movie I quoted, "I am the Lizard King, I can do anything!"  After laughing at my insanity, my friends invited me to sprint down the hall with them.  We opened the door and made an exaggerated attempt to check if "the coast was clear".  While staring out the door down the hall (his door was at the end facing down the hall) I had the sensation I was looking down a vertical shaft and the door on the other end was the floor.  This caused me to say "I'm going to fall" which made me laugh.  After sprinting up and down the hall a few times (a rush that I could never explain in words) we decided to return to Rick's room.  

As I walked in, my visuals really started kicking into gear.  A poster looked as though it was melting off the wall and some blankets with cool patterns that were hung up became distorted.  After swaying around the room "dancing" to the music, I felt the ground pull me down.  I obeyed and sat staring at the carpet which began to wave and breathe.  I ran my hands across it for a while amazed at how it felt and looked.  

I then decided to go to my room and write some music with Sam who is the guitarist in our band.  He was playing a pretty trippy guitar part and I just closed my eyes and ad libbed some vocals.  Throughout my 4 trips nothing has taught me more than that jam.  As he played guitar, I wandered/danced around the room in a very trancelike manner, eyes closed, and attempting to envision the song that bellowed from my soul.  For the next 3 or 4 minutes I "watched" a progression of ideas which I simultaneously sang about, a spiritual journey which left me in full realization of my love for music and songwriting. 

Feeling completely rejuvenated and energized, I gathered up a few of my buddies to go explore the campus.  After donning shoes and coats, 5 of us journeyed outside.  At this point it was dark and campus was fairly empty so we walked around campus climbing and looking at trees and talking to some girls who felt our tree obsession to be a bit funny.  At this point we decided to climb to the top of the parking garage, a journey that seemed to last forever and at times feeling as if we were stuck in the painting "Crazy Stairs", but when we reached the top, the view of the city was breathtaking. 

While my friends participated in a conversation involving how we are all just numbers in society's database, I reflected with amazement on how our perception of the universe grew from the room we started in, to the residence hall, to campus, and finally to the surrounding city and the stars above.  This idea gave me great insight to how much what we perceive effects our ideas about this world and how mind-blowing this altered perception was to my preconceived limitations on what this world can be.  

We then moved from the garage to a nearby hill where my crazed child identity came out again in rolling down the hill and running around in the field at the bottom. I knew that the mere sight of a college student in spongebob pajamas sprinting around a field in the middle of the night would point all arrows to insane, but that only fueled my behavior more.  I loved the idea of being insane, because reality and normalcy just seemed so dull at the moment, and I wanted to show the world that I was not part of their number system and I was comfortable in my insanity. 

After a while, some of my friends decided they wanted to go smoke some hash. Since I was getting tested soon and couldn't partake, I decided to go with Mike back to the room to join the others.  When we got to the room we discovered that Nate was having pretty bad trip, so we tried to talk him out of it which didn't work (apparently he was very detached from reality and thought he was dying). I stayed in the room for around 20 minutes eating/throwing pixie stix everywhere, talking with Rick, and tripping out to the posters.  Growing bored and starting to come down I went outside to smoke a cigarette hoping it might bring my trip back slightly or at least give me a buzz. 

While walking outside I realized how peaceful it felt to walk around at night by myself. As I smoked I thought about my trip so far and how much I'd enjoyed it.  I then thought about my friends who went and smoked realizing I hadn't seen them in what felt like ages.  I had a feeling I knew where they were (we usually smoke in Jack's car on a street a few blocks away) and I thought it would be cool if I walked there and found them.  So I started walking down the street. It was a route I had walked a hundred times before so I was very comfortable walking by myself.  On the way I smoked a couple more cigs and thought about how funny I must have looked walking down the street.  I realized how important it is to be comfortable in who you are whether it is the lunatic in pajamas, smoking and walking around by himself in the middle of the night, or the Freshman college kid I normally embody. This sense of comfort was the greatest theme I took from the night.  

As I neared the place I hoped my friends would be I had a feeling as if I knew they were there not even considering having to walk back myself.  Sure enough I rounded the corner and saw the familiar car and felt a wave of victory wash over me. I sprinted to the car jumped in and just started laughing, feeling a sense of completion to my trip.  We spent the rest of the night talking and driving around the city amazed at the "magnitude of the architecture", a part of their trip I unfortunately missed but seemed hilarious among those who understood. 

The next day I missed my morning classes, but it was 100% worth it.  As I finish writing I'm still amazed at how much actually happened in this trip and the incredible amount of knowledge and insight I gained.  Each trip I become more and more excited about the possibilities of psychedelics and I cannot wait to see where my next journey takes me.  Thanks for reading and may good shrooms find you!