My Annual Trip

I had not tripped in over a year, because my last experience ended up being a terrible bad trip (due to poor choice of tripping companions). Yesterday, I decided to try them again, so I picked seven grams of potent cubensis primordia and invited a good friend over. We waited until dark and each chomped 3 1/3 grams of mushrooms at around 7:00 PM. We felt the first clear effects within a half hour, and by 8:00 we were both in another world. We rarely spke to one another, but instead listened to a (loud) long mix of five DJ Sasha albums in a dark house with lots of colored candles. At roughly 8:30 I began to see some serious hallucinations, at first simple red and blue grid of spots, like television pixels. Meanwhile, the ceiling began to swirl and move like it was alive. My vision (already poor) got really bad, except for a few isolated patches of extreme detail and brilliance. At some point after this, I went to the bathroom and tripped out for a while just looking at my reflection; the person looking back at me was a completely different person -- a stranger who was somehow vaguely familiar. The vivid detail of my hair made it almost possible to count the individual follicles, but everything else was fuzzy and intermixed with occasional flashes of what appeared to be green dashes. I took a short walk around the house and investigated odd corners that I had not paid any attention to for months. Everywhere I went I saw strange scenes underscored with brilliant halos, rainbow patterns, and numerous flashes of color. I felt like I was on the top of the world, and I had nothing but goodwill for all the world. At some point afterward (by now, quantified time was nothing more than a distant memory), I returned to the living room and sat laid down on the floor near my friend. Neither of us spoke, except for the occasional, "You hanging in there, darling?" So far, it was pure bliss. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of forgetting to unplug the telephone. At exactly 9:32 (checked the caller ID the next day) the phone rang and I became slightly disoriented. I quickly unpluged it without answering and went back to the living room. But the damange was done. I began to find myself being hounded by negative feelings, and I could sense that a bad trip was on its way. However, the music was good, the companionship was good, and the environment was familiar and nonthreatening. As a result, I managed to pull myself out of the hole and continue with a brilliant positive trip. I had a few other temporary moments of "turbulence," but I managed to recover each time. This gave me a wonderful sense of confidence, which made it easier and easier to control the mood. Shortly thereafter, I was in the prime of my trip. I simply laid on the floor and writhed with ecstacy and pleasure, and I lost myself in the pleasure of the music and the light show. When I closed my eyes, I saw three dimensional strings of DNA, the building blocks of life. Althought I had tripped a lot in the past, this was the first time I had seen defined three dimensional shapes in the darkness. To say the least, it was mind blowing. After a couple more hours of mostly pure pleasure and intense compassion (abiet with a few isolated incidences of temporary "turbulence") -- I began to become aware of reality. At this point, my intellectual thought process was moving faster than I ever thought possible. I lay on the floor, listening to music, and analyzing my life. I felt like I had been completely stripped down to the bone and exposed to the objective analysis of the world at large. I thought about my relationships, my career, my future, and a number of other ensightful thoughts about the nature of life, birth, and aging. At the time, the hallucinations were still there, and I seemed to be more aware of them than before. After midnight, I went on a journey through my house, again. This was more interesting than the first, particlurly since I knew I past the danger of having a bad trip. After a while, I went back to the room and laid down, completely mellow and thoughtful for another hour and a half. Unfortunately, mild hot and cold flashes kept me awake until nearly four o'clock, but I was still quite content to just lay down and think. I eventually fell asleep and awoke completely refreshed and thoughtful, after a few hours of intense dreaming. This trip ranks at the very top of my list, even higher than my very first trip. For the first time, I felt like I could actually control my trip and direct it in the way that I wanted. After a year of fear and adversion to mushrooms, I have rediscovered their joy. I am writing this today feeling profound, humbled, and full of happiness. I learned a great deal from my trip and it easily ranks at the most powerful experience that I have had in many moons. I feel like I have rediscovered the thrill of living, after many months of feeling rather apathetic about life in general...