First trip.

I had my first mushroom trip rather recently (towards the end of July '06, it's August 13, '06 as of this writing) and it was a rather pleasant trip.

I had a normal (I guess the word would be) mindset the day of my trip. Nothing bad happened to me recently; the days prior were relaxed and easy going. I had decided to trip with two of my good friends, L and B. It was L and B's first time also, so it would be a brand new experience for all of us. I had read from various sources, mostly here at the Shroomery and the all-purpose Erowid, that being outside is an incredible and unique experience, so we decided that outside would be a great place to go.

We didn't exactly make any preparations for the trip, other than reading up about what to expect and what it was like. We also cleared our schedules so we didn't have anything to do.

The day prior, L, B, and I each bought 2 grams of psilocybe cubensis. I read that 1.5g was a great trip for someone that was new, so all three of us took 1.5. In total, we had 1.5g left over from all of our goods. We ingested them with some chocolate syrup to cover the (from what I heard) bad taste around 2:20pm. We all had empty stomachs.

At around 2:40pm, we decided to venture outside. While I was walking out, I had a strange "rising" feeling. It was subtle, but noticeable. We made our way to a park near my house and sat down on a hill for awhile. We talked to pass the time, but it wasn't long before more and more of a body high started hitting me. Suddenly, rubbing my hands together felt very pleasing and almost "new" in nature. A buzz started running down from about my armpit to my hands; it was mostly on the underside and felt very strange. I noticed that the trees and sky around me were somewhat brighter in color than they were previous. The blues were that much bluer and the greens were that much green. It seemed that I noticed the striking difference between the colors more than I would before.

When I took time to gaze at the trees all around me, the leaves looked as if they were more clarified and every movement was noticeable. In my friend B's words: "All the trees seemed to be dancing." At this time, I was starting to be filled with a wonderful feeling of bliss. It was an incredible feeling. The outside was suddenly beautiful and I didn't worry about normal, average, everyday things. Frugal and stupid things that you think about day-to-day. I laid back on the grass and stared towards the sky in wonder, watching the clouds change and swirl and dissipate and recollect back into clouds ago. I noticed slight geometric designs in the sky that only became visible when the clouds move over them, making striking hexagons. I took a deep breath and exhaled. It all felt so wonderful. It seemed as though unfortunately until now I had failed to notice how incredible the great outdoors was.

L and B were sitting besides me talking amongst themselves still, having an occasional small fit of laughter and quiet silence. I looked towards L and his face looked as though it had a double image over it, moving slightly out of the boundaries of his face every time he moved his head. It was quite cool.

At this point, we decided to move around a bit. Standing was something completely different; walking was the same. We made our way to a wooden bench and sat down. It was at this moment that the visuals started upping the ante. The wood grain of the bench started slowly flowing in opposite directions and the cracks in the wood seemed to "grow back" with small, infrequent twinkles around it (that's the best way I can explain it). I again looked at L's face and this time the double vision and even harder. His "second face" was moving quite frequently, but it allowed me to still view his regular face with ease. Time seemed to slow at this point because of B's cellphone being out, with its clock on the front screen. The tops of the pine trees around us seemed to bend also.

The three of us were often overcome with confusion on what to do next. Extremely indecisively, we made our way through the field near the hill we sat on. Along the way, the grass flowed wonderfully. It was like in movies where you can "see" the wind on tall grass, pushing it in such a way you can visibly see the gusts. We sat down about one or two times along the way to my house (I wanted to experience both environments to judge later ones), essentially forgetting about our destination. Eventually, with some trouble, we made it home.

My bedroom was a unique experience. The walls seemed to bubble and breathe and the posters on my walls followed suit. I laid on my bed while L and B found a place to sit or lay. The ceiling of my bedroom is what's called lowered ceiling. You've probably seen it. The ceiling with the white rectangular or square pieces that find in perfectly with one another. Anyways, the numerous holes and lines in them were fantastic. A large pattern would often "bleed" through the ceiling and make itself known, with each square having a unique makeup. It was very visually appealing. It still had a wonderful feeling about me and felt connected with L and B, who were laying and staring at the ceiling while talking among themselves and me. I closed my eyes and had some enjoyable and strange closed eye visuals. They seemed to be emitted from a single point within my vision, sort of like a kaleidoscope or a typical representation of a trip you'd see anywhere. Minutes seemed even longer at this point due to the alarm clock near my bed. "We are in the domain of the 40," I remarked when 4:40 seemed to never pass.

I then tried my hand at drawing. There was a noticeable change in how drawing felt, but my drawings were subpar still (haha). I was never much of a Picasso. However, we did have a good laugh with L when he showed us his drawing. It was nothing more that an anything but circular circle with an anything but straight line near that. It was great. B then asked for a bag (the reason escapes me), so I reached under my bed and pulled out a box of plastic bags from various super-super-outlets: Best Buy, FYE, etc. I realized then that saving all the bags was essentially useless, especially seeing as all of them were *neatly folded* and put into place. I messed them up and smashed them them into the box to make the fit in spite of them.

It was at this time that our trips started trailing off. It was around mid five o'clock. In total, it was about three hours long. The rest of the day I noticed slight visual disturbances out of the corners of my eyes and sometimes in my field of vision, especially when I laid back in a recliner. It gave everything a look as if it were at a different degree, like looking at a road going to the horizon. I was also still filled with a good feeling and an almost emotional tenderness and openness about things. I felt as though I could really connect and talk to L and B. I suppose you could relate it to the social aspect of Ecstasy (I haven't taken E for myself, so I haven't experience it), which I've heard can get you talking to people for quite some time on end.

After the trip, I decided that mushrooms were definitely worth doing again (which I did). I found them to be an enlightening and eye-opening experience. I would recommend them to other people. L and B both had great trips also and came back happy that they did mushrooms. I'll write back soon about our second trip, which was without-a-doubt a completely absurd and developmental adventure.