My First Trip

My first trip was when I was 17 years old. A freind has brought me some strange mushrooms from oregon ( I live on the east coast) and I had no idea about them, or what they were really like or anything. I later found out that what I turned out ingesting (approx a marlboro box worth) was a huge dose (2-3g or more) and I had had quite na experience, though I don't think I was quite ready for it at the time, it was an amazing experience nonetheless.

I recall it was early evening, around 6pm in the summer. I still lived with my parents, but no one was home, and so I took the container after reading just a little bit about mushrooms ( and not knowing anything about all the various types and potencies that were out there) I consumed the entire container of what I later found to have likely liberty caps (long known as one of the most visually powerful types of mushrooms.) after consuming them on an empty stomach with a little wate, it was a nice summer day and I decided to go lie down in our back yard. As I lay there, looking up at the trees and listening to the quiet sound of a soft breeze rustling through the green leaves, I began to feel a tingling in my veins, progessing towards a buzzing, and eventually on towards a tribal rhythm of buzzing. I felt at one with the rhythm of nature, I felt at peace, though I still felt quite mentally clear. The trees began to look more green, all kinds of colors became more vivid, but nothing else really seemed to happen. after about an hour of this, I decided that this was a mushroom trip, and for some reason they may not affect me as much as they effect others.... boy was I wrong... I did something that I now recognize as incredibly stupid, but it provided for an interesting trip anyway, and in my state of less-than-functional logic, it seemed like an alright thing to do.... I decided I'd go for a drive. (note: Under no circumstances do I recommend this, as it's god a pretty damn good chance of cuasding injury to yourself, others, or our vehicle, and leaves you at risk to be picked up by the police for OUI offenses... not a pleasent experience I've been told)

Anyways, I began driving down to my friend's house, and as I got halfway there or more, the mushrooms started to really take effect... I could feel the forest breathe (it made me wish I had preplanned well enough to go camping) I could see the trees as living, thinking entities with spirits, all of them gave off a glow of emotions. There were areas of trees that I drove past that seemed angry or mean, but most trees felt warm and receptive, either in shades of deep green or a deep burgandy/orange (though all the leaves were green. I could feel my surroundings, and recognized them to some degree, but I felt I was in another world of sorts... and yto some respect I certainlky was. I began having feelings of naseau at this point as well, which continued, on and off for most of the rest of the trip.. a small price to pay however, for the experience...

As I drove towards my friend's house , I began talking to myself ( something I do on a regular basis anyways) and realized I didn't sound quite right.. so I decided it would be a good idea to limit my contact with people... I pulled into a gas station, handed the guy $10 and just said regular... sounded like I had a foreign accent.. anyways, the mushrooms weren't affecting my driving as of yet, everything still seemed ok. as I pulled away, I got deeper and deeper into this netherworld, and I forgot how to get back to my house.. I'm not kidding, I got lost on some very, very familliar roads in our small tree-covered suburb, and ended up driving around for 3-4 hours enjoying some amaing visuals and looking for a place to either pull over safely ( a forest or something) or for the way back to my house. I was unable to find either for quite some time... and I was certainly in no condition to drive.. I had a digital spedometer on my car, and I had to monitor it VERY carefully...not becuase I was speeding, but because I had a tendancy to drive too slow because the rest of the world around me seemed more alive and active, and it was throwing off my speed perception. I drove for a few hours at the minimum speed limit. ( luckily for me there was no traffic, the only cars I saw were a police car, which ignored me, and an ambulence, which I was stuck behgind for an hour or so, though I didn't recognize it as an ambulance at the time, merely as a van wearing a strange hat, alive..) Familliar roads gave way to unfamilliar roads, day gave way to evening and then to night, in a stunning display of nature's beauty, pattern building on each color of the sunset in my mind. I concentrated hard on the road the whole time, which somewhat detracted form my trip... the double yellow lines sometimes seemed to branch off to two seperate roadways, but I kept focused enough to drive well, and very luckily, didn't injury anyone or even hit anything (again, this was a very stupid idea... I'd hide the keys and leave yourself a note before tripping if you think you'd have any inclination to drive). Eventually I found some familliar roads, and had no idea what time it was, as the clock looked like alien syumbols to me in the car... the radio announcers sounded like alien voices on the talk radio, and always that buzzing, still persistent in the distance... the buzzing and thumping and "carrier tone" as I've heard it described... the roar of nature, ever-present... Other than the naseau and the intermittent feelings that I had deficated on myself, (which turned out not to be the case) this was nto an unpleasent experience in the slightest... In retrospect, I just wish I had had enough forsight to do this someplace safer, asd when I found a familliar road and proceeded home on it, my parents were there and still awake... I practicved speaking most of the way home, to not come across as crazy or something... though I knew my pupils must be huge from my readings on the subject..

As I pulled into the drivreway, parking the car carefully, I began to stumble up the driveway, and carefully concentrated on my walking, making it appear what I thought was somewhat normal. I opened the front door, fumbling for a bit with the key and proceeded upstairs quickly, noticing that my mom was in watching TV and my dad wasn't home.... she asked where I was, I muttered, "at a party, I'm tried, I'll see you in the morning" and began to start up the stairs, but she had more questions.. she asked me at who's house, how many people, etc... normal questions, but annoying at that time, I re-iterated that I was tired, leaning against a wall so as not to fall over and concentrating hard on my speech, though it still came out a little funny... she simply thought I was playing games, and she came a little closer... began making funny faces at me ( as I'm sure I must've been doing the same) (my mom is sorta strange). Anyways I finally got away and stumbled some as I was going up the stairs, she quickly asked "what's wrong with you?" and I muttered "just tired", and proceeded up, gripping the banister the whole way... at least I was out of the car. She didn't qwuestion me further, though I assumed she must've thought I was slightly drunk.. which was ok, as they never really cared about stuff like that, she probably just thought I shouldn't have driven... because they're strongly anti-drug, it was much better than the reality of it ( though I cringe at the thought of mushrooms as a drug... at least in the recreational sense except perhaps to get accustomed to them your first time... They're a tool for spiritual awakening.. but, that's just my opinion.)

I finally made it up the stairs without giving away the seret... I looked at the "big-number" clock in my room... it was only 10pm, I was home earlier ( much earlier) than I expected... that explained why my mother was still awake and my fateher was still out.. Anyways, I quickly threw some covers on my bed in a hastened attempt to make it, and hopped in. Everything began becomming more real at this point, but still had a very charicaturish and surrealistic flavor to it.. my wallpaper was a blue textured material, and by looking at it, I would see strange patterns flying before my eyes, at thousands of patterns per second.. too fast for me to keep up.. to do anything but to sit back and enjoy... and it was like that, in the dark, that I spend the last 2 hours or so of my trip.. I eventually drifted off to sleep, I figure it must've been after midnight ( as mushrooms greatly impair your ability to sleep because they mess with some of your brain chemicals while you're tripping). It was still quite early from my perspective, being one who was accustoimed to staying up until 2 or 3 playing music, out with friends, or on the net, but I slept readily... quite easily, and for about 12 hours. I had a minor afterglow for about aweek of things just occasionally looking somewhat surreal, or emotions taking on a different meaning than they usually would, and then it was gone.

I went on to expirament with other types of mushrooms since then, in particular the cubensis species which was grown using the online Magic Mushroom Grower's guide.. but no matter how many I took, I was left dissatisfied somehow.. I've still been trying to track down more liberty caps, but that's pretty impossible in the northeast... I'd recommend them to anyone who hasn't tried them before, but for those venturing out for the first time, I reiterate my word of caution: hide the keys, they're nothing but trouble.