Post-trip psychosis

Two friends and I ate some mushrooms (PC Cambodia) on New Year's Eve. We each ate three grams - I figured that would be enough for good open and closed eye visuals.

Anyway, we chowed down at 10:30 p.m. I had no idea just how potent the Cambodian strain was until I felt the come on after 10 minutes. I could tell the trip was going to be very clean, energetic and long-lasting (and it was). The build up was quite intense. I would feel waves in my stomach and experience exteremely intense tripping "sensations" and then some visuals. The build up happened in "segments" of 10 to 15 minutes each. By the time I grew accustomed to each come on stage, it would only intensify.

The peak started around 11:15 or so - hard to remember exactly. But I was enjoying the massive visuals, consisting of bursting and unfolding geometric patterns, color distortions, faces inflating and shrinking (in the movie we were watching) and tons of surface ripples. I also had sometimes heavy auditory hallucinations - and I frequently fell into the music we listened to later on. My body felt like it became a part of the songs.

Anyway, I enjoy strong trips and have found pleasure in finding the point were I almost can't handle the experience. After my one friend and I came down totally, we noticed a distinct change in our other friend.

He'd gone totally silent for a while, then asked if he was either going to die or be killed that night. We chalked the behavior up to his general weirdness and went on with whatever we were discussing. A minute later, he developed a blank stare and dropped a glass of water on the floor. Then the nightmare began...

Our friend was gone. His mind seemed to be in pieces. He'd stare silently then erupt into a horrible laughter unlike anything I've ever heard. A haunted cackle or a possessed howl. We tried to communicate with him and get him to snap out of it. We tried to be very caring, then we tried to be a bit more forceful. All the while he laughed and then fell silent.

Then he lost control of the right side of his body. His arm flailed about and swung around recklessly. We grew worried that he was gone and wasn't coming back. He had done his share of drugs over the years - earth oriented and sunthetic - so we knew he could handle himself. But this was different.

My friend and I had no experience dealing with this sort of behavior - at least AFTER a trip. Most behaviors can be excused during the trip - but keep in mind, this insanity happened after we came down. Although I was more or less sober at this point (ok - totally sober from the sheer terror I felt about my friend's safety) I was in no shapre to drive. Enough illicit activity had taken place at the house - so 911 was out of the question. But we had to get him to the hospital (one was VERY close by and they are totally uninterested in where the drugs come from).

We were scared shitless about getting too close to him - when the mind is shattered like that physical contact could set the person off into a rage - who knows?? We weren't about to chance it even though we could have restrained him. So we tried talking to him. Somehow, by talking to him like we would a child, we were able to get him to the car, get him in and go the ER.

He was seen immediately. The doctor started asking him sequential type questions to try and get his mind back on track. After a few hours, he just snapped back. He sat down next to me and asked what we were doing at a hospital. I had the painful task of telling him.

He was able to tell me what was happening while he had lost his mind. He said that he saw horrible things 0 all evil and devlish. He saw terrifying faces and he said he felt rapture - the end - and it was beautiful. He also said he relived every moment of his life at once, over and over again. He said he was in another world and time didn't make sense. When he heard us speak, it was like we pulled words out of random sentences and put them together in new ones. And again, this all happened after we had all come down form the trip!

While we knew he wasn't going to die, we couldn't vouche for his sanity. Thank goodness he's ok now and we have our friend back.

Peace.