Who Needs LSD?

Trip Date: August 20-21, 1999.

Trip Report: August 21, 1999.

Author: Kafka

This report comes about, _of course_, as the result of many years of hard-work and persistence in my lucid dreaming studies. Thanks to a friendly, caring government, I know how dangerous all illicit substances are, and would never dare sample one. My curiosity however, demanded that I attempt to find some way to experience altered states of conciousness. Well, one night I was able to have a particularily lucid dream, which went something like this:

Time 11:04 pm - Ingested roughly two grams of what I believe to be Ps. cubensis mushrooms. I had heard a lot about how absolutely horrid the taste was, but my experience was quite the opposite. The flavor was subtle, and not all that unpleasant. I was able to eat the two grams with no trouble, although I did use some fruit juice to chase it down. I turned my lava lamp on, turned my lights off, and lay down in bed. My choice of music was Tool's Aenema, which in retrospect probably too aggressive for a first-time trip.

Time 11:37 pm - Maynard's whispered lyrics became audible, similar to my experiences with marijuana. Some very slight nausea is felt, but not enough to detract from the trip. A warm, pleasant pressure can be felt in my mouth, especially in my top gums.

Time 11:43 pm - At this point I thought the trip was in full force. I went downstairs to the washroom with the desire to look at my reflection in the mirror. Except for massive pupils, there were no obvious differences. Then I looked at the shower mat. Wow! The carpet was breathing heavily, and the threads seemed to be crawling back and forth. After taking some time to enjoy this sight, I turned to look at the wallpaper. Again there was a lot of movement, with things crawling up and down.

At this point my notes became extremely messy and my memory blurred. I'll relate what I can remember, and hopefully try to put it in correct chronological order.

I returned to my room, got into bed, and decided to see if there were any good movies playing behind my eye-lids. I listened to the remainder of the CD, but forgot to remove the headphones when it finished. I decided to try out a snack I had brought for myself: a ripe pear. I would reccomend against eating this fruit when tripping on mushrooms, unless my experience was exceptional. The fruit tasted very bland and unappealing, rather than being enhanced by the trip. I was barely able to eat half of it before I put it in the garbage.Until this point I had been tremendously enjoying the trip, and was confident in my ability to control the experience. Feeling I had approached the peak (it was somewhere around 12:40am), I decided to smoke some cannabis to intensify the experience.

Perhaps the mushrooms sensed my arrogance, because things rapidly became more intense and confusing. I found it almost impossible to make a decision: should I turn my lava lamp off, or my stereo? I hope other people can relate to this - I couldn't make up my mind about even the simplest things. In the next little while I proceeded to switch both off and on, as my emotions dictated. I would decide to turn the stereo off, do it, and feel a large wave of relief. This was soon followed by anxiety (it was always the notion that I was moving towards a bad trip) that would lead me turn either the stereo or the lamp back on. Eventually I turned both off, and they remained that way.

At about this time I was flooded with a very strange sensation that would last the remainder of the trip, form what I can remember. I felt (perhaps "felt" isn't strong enough - I knew) that I had done this before, a million times. I was completely removed from the normal stream of time. I wanted the trip to end at this point, as things were very uncomfortable. I would look at the clock, and calculate the amount of time until the trip should wind down. Then I would count my breaths, or anything else to pass the time. When it felt like a long period of time had elapsed, I would check the clock again - only to find that it still read the same time! Another strange sensation was that not only had I done this before (the trip), but that I was stuck in this moment in time, and that my life was moving forward without me. I thought about getting my parents out of bed and explaining to them what I had done. I knew this would be a stupid thing to do, and that I'd regret it once the mushrooms wore off. Although I decided against going to them, it felt like a part of me already had, and that when I woke up I would be forced to deal with my actions. I had this same sensation when I thought of going to my brother, and sleeping in his room.

I was beginning to panic a little, thinking I was removed from time, and that my life would move forward without me, leaving me trapped in this horrible trip. I got out of bed, turned on my lights, and curled up into the fetal position on the floor. I can't say how long this lasted, since I was soon realized that I was likely to be caught if the lights were on, and I returned to bed.

Not too long after, I either fell asleep or passed out. I vaguely remember waking up several times during the night, and noticing with trememdous relief that the effects were waning. I woke up in the morning with feeling a little dull and tired, but this passed by mid-afternoon.

As a conclusion, I should point out a few things. First of all, it was foolish of me to take the mushrooms with the set that I had. I was stressed from work and a fight with my parents, I didn't prepare for the trip adequately, and I had no sitter or contact person, even though this was my first time. I realize that the negative aspects of my trip were my fault, and because of this I am looking forward to trying the experience again, with a better set and setting. While the whole trip may sound like a negative experience, it most definetly was not. I enjoyed the first half tremendously, and got a wonderful body high - warm, pulsing sensations throughout. I felt I was better able to understand much of the music I was listening to, and some ideas I had been grappling with. The visuals were wonderful, much better than I had expected.

PS. While looking through my trip log, I found a few scribbles that I was able to comprehend. Most of them don't make much sense, but there is one message, maybe a warning to myself: "Who needs LSD?".

-FK