Just a little trip in nature :)

Last weekend, SWIM and 4 other guy friends drove out to a popular nearby natural hot pool armed with a couple of cases of beer, some weed and a bag of about 60 dried mushrooms (p. subaeriganosa which SWIM had picked himself the previous week). We made our way down to the pool and got ourselves settled in. At this point there were about 20 other people in the hot pool but we knew they wouldn't hang around as long as we were planning on. We settled into a few beers, a couple of joints and a few mushrooms each. We just chilled out, made jokes and talked for quite a while.

I guess the mushrooms kicked in after about 30-40 minutes, though it's hard to say exactly with the presence of weed and alcohol in the system as well. SWIM often has feelings of anxiety and/or phyiscal unrest and nausea with mushrooms, but not this time around, it was a very comfortable rolling buzz. The hot pool was very comfortable, pretty much exactly at body temperature so it felt as if you were floating in a pool of amniotic fluid or were still inside a womb. It was actually very cold and raining quite hard at this time, but being in the pool was the most comfortable thing imaginable. There was a little cave where we had set up some candles we bought with us for light. We were chatting to various groups of other people using the hotpool, swapping some beer for some whiskey, playing with someone's dog and generally just having a good time. I guess this lasted about an hour and a half, during which time all the other people had started peeling off and eventually we were alone. At this point we all simultaneously felt a sense of relief and a general change in the mood for the better (even though it was fine with the other people there). Shortly after this some more of our friends, 3 girls who we were expecting, finally turned up. As soon as they got in the pool and got comfortable we gave them some shrooms and all had some more ourselves. Almost immediately after eating roughly the same amount again, SWIM started to feel the effects much more strongly. SWIM was rolling about 8 or 10 beers deep at this point. He likes to combine alcohol and mushrooms as he finds the alcohol reduces the anxiety and results in a more relaxed and fun trip. The feeling of being surrounded by nature, and actually being inside of nature, at this point felt amazing to the point where SWIM was concerned at the prospect of having to eventually leave the hot pool. Conversations centred around the hot pool, there was even talk of evolving into an amphibious creature that lives in the hot pool and feeds off detritus being washed downstream. This resulted in powerful insights about evolution and the history of how different creatures came to adapt to their environments. SWIM decided to take off his boardshorts and be completely naked in the hot pool, which made him feel so good, almost euphoric, about being in such complete contact with nature. His whole body was tingling and buzzing, a feeling that when combined with the constant white noise of the small nearby waterfall which feeds the pool, the smell of geothermal activity and the flickering, changing light of the candles, was like a continual stimulation of all the senses.

Although the trip was quite a sociable one with many friends present, after spending about 6 hours in the hot pool there was still plenty of time for introspection. The pool was big enough to swim/wade (the water is only about 2-3 feet deep for the most part so pretty safe) away from the group far enough so that you are out of the candle light and unable to hear their conversations due to the white noise of the waterfall. I think most us took the opportunity at least once to make this little journey within ourselves as is common on mushroom trips. I remember realising that I have more leadership potential in my life than I give myself credit for at any other time, and that I'm often too hard on myself which leads to me feeling depressed at times. Unfortunately I can't remember anything else too specific from my introspective moments (this is one drawback of drinking alcohol during the trip). 

Eventually, we all turned into wrinkled prunes and had to brave the cold and get out and leave. I think if it wasn't for our designated driver getting bored I could have stayed another couple of hours easily. On the whole this was a very fun trip, and it made me realise how important nature is to me and how it affects my moods. Being in the wilderness isn't something I necesarily grew up with but it has now become almost essential to my happiness.

The end, thanks for reading.

TL;DR - took shrooms in a hot pool and it was rad.