phishing trip

Phish was coming to town for two shows early in August and I couldn't wait. I'd gotten some shrooms and I was saving them especially for the occassion, figuring it a good environment for a light trip. I decided I wanted the trip to be extremely light since I'd be tripping in a very crowded place with lots of unfamiliar faces. I packed somewhere between 1 and 1.5 grams of shredded shrooms into some gelcaps and brought them with me to the show.

I ate them at around 6:30pm, 45 minutes before the show. For nearly two hours I felt almost no effects. I'd had a big dinner and thought maybe my full stomach was keeping the shrooms from entering my system. I noticed colors seemed a little brighter and the music was totally enjoyable, but it didn't have that old familiar tripping feeling.

After awhile I began to feel I wasn't going to trip at all. So while I was dancing in the lawn someone passed me a joint. I took a few tokes off of it, thinking that if I wasn't going to trip I might as well get high. A few minutes after the smoke I felt the trip coming on. It wasn't slow like I was accustomed to... I was rocketed into level 2 tripping in minutes. I was dancing and loving the change coming over my body. Everything was well with the world. Then intermission came... the band stopped playing and my friends left to go to the bathroom. I was left alone on the lawn surrounded by thousands of people, none of whom I knew. My mouth was bone dry and I could feel my entire body begin to tingle. I began to feel like my skin was rippling uncontrollably like it were liquid and I had to sit down. The weird feeling didn't go away and I tried to talk to a few people near me, but they just looked at me like I was nuts. I guess I was talking nonsense, although I don't remember exactly what I was saying. I realized I was well on my way into level 3. I wanted nothing more than my friends to come back and comfort me a bit. Being alone on the lawn was really getting to me. Hundreds of people were passing in the aisle near me and everyone who came by looked just like my friend and her sister. I kept waving at people only to realize that it was not them. I looked across the whole of the lawn and swore I was looking at everyone with a pair of drinking glasses over my eyes. Everything was totally distorted and bent out of shape. The tripping was coming on in intense waves. I felt one minute like I could get up and walk around and then only seconds later I was terrified to the point of balling up on the lawn, feeling like I would pass out and be carted off by the police or something for taking the drugs. I kept wishing audibly for my friend to return so she could take me to a less crowded spot where I could ride the trip out a bit.

The intermission was a good 45 minutes long and I kept checking my watch every so often, thinking that my friends were lost and I was stuck here by myself tripping like mad. Waiting 45 minutes for anything in a state of full-on tripping can be agonizingly long and it seemed like at least 2 hours since I'd last seen my friends. The show started up again, and I figured the music would erase the bad feelings running through my body. I got up and danced with my eyes closed. The music was excellent. Every note of every instrument was creating a different flow of color in my mind's eye. When the music stopped though the awful feeling came rushing back in. My friends returned shortly after the first set started and I immediately told my friend Rachel that I was extremely messed up and in a very bad place. I told her I had to go to the bathroom. She offered that her brother take me, but I insisted she lead me through the crowd. I grabbed her hand tightly like a little kid and just walked. I couldn't register much since it was dark. We walked through a crowd of swirling, dancing people and I thought how much I would be loving the concert if I weren't tripping so hard. I explained my situation to her and told her that I would be fine, but I was just really messed up psychologically and needed her for support. Thankfully she's a good friend of mine and didn't mind me gripping her hand so intensely and constantly hugging her.

She led me back to our spot on the lawn and I couldn't stand being there any longer. I just felt too out-of-it to be near all the people. So I made her lead me back to an open area where we just sat and listened. I watched people and noticed quite a few who were much more drugged out than me, and strangely that was comforting.

During the first encore I made her take me to the car. I wasn't about to fight with the crowd of exiting people. I'd calmed down a bit, but was still tripping pretty hard and was very afraid of people. There were cops everywhere and I felt like they were all watching me, although I'm sure that was all paranoia. Once in the car I felt like I was in some spaceship, riding along at night with all the bright instruments. The reflective road signs were all intensely bright to the point where I couldn't read them. I kept thanking Rachel for driving and taking care of me. She patted my head most of the way home and made sure I was feeling all right the whole way. The yellow road line looked like it was flowing in space and was eerily in synch with the music on the radio. The road looked like liquid flowing up and down and everywhere else. I knew then though that we were on the way back to a warm house where I could talk the rest of the trip out and maybe have a stiff drink and fall asleep.

All in all I guess it doesn't sound so bad, but for awhile I was in hell at that concert. The big lesson to be learned is don't get left alone anywhere in public while tripping and make sure you have someone supportive there with you while you trip. I feel an unusual bond to Rachel now because she was so caring and understanding. Mushrooms are an interesting drug that can rocket you into outer space even when you take small amounts. I've eaten quite a bit in one sitting before and not had a trip nearly as intense as this one where I ate less than 2 grams. The next time I'm just going to stick to weed at the concerts.