The Limit.

This trip happened just over 10 years ago, but some aspects of it still send shudders down my spine when i think about it(which i must admit is fairly often!).It happened in manchester,england in november 1989.At the time i was a medical student who had managed to fuck up his first year at university through too many chemicals and not enough studying.Thanks to alot of begging and a few bare-faced lies designed to arouse sympathy from the powers that be, i managed to get a second chance and, at the time of this trip, i had been in manchester, after a spell with the parents, for a couple of weeks.On my way back from the med. school library (where i was actually working properly, mindful that i couldnt mess up again) i happened to bump into a good friend whom i hadnt seen for 4 months.We got chatting and as was usually the case in those days the subject of getting off our faces arose.This conversation took place in the street about 10 minutes walk from where i lived, at about 3.30pm.It so happened that a friend of mine (known as "chris hippy" because of his appearance, demeanour and taste in music) who lived 2 minutes from my place had been picking mushrooms everyday that week; i told my friend this, and he was very interested as he was a "shroom virgin",as it were.He'd taken a few tabs of acid before and so had i.I also had done a couple of mushroom trips but nothing too hectic (at the most, 90 dried liberty caps or so).The decision was made to go see chris and get some off him.My friend, dan, was hungry so he bought a kebab on the way.I hadnt eaten all day but had had a few coffees and cigarettes during the day (as poor lazy students do).In any case we went and saw chris who swapped a sixteenth ounce of hash for a big bag of fresh liberty caps picked that day.He had several thousand mushrooms strewn around his room, at differing stages of dryness so he could afford to be quite generous, particularly as he was effectively getting £7 of hash for free!Everyone was happy so we went to my place and made a brew.We got a pan and began throwing mushrooms into it.It was then that male bravado came into play and we kept saying to each other "theres not enough in there, chuck some more in!" without fully appreciating what we could potentially be letting ourselves in for.In the end a rough guesstimate would be of approximately 500 caps in this brew, between the 2 of us.I know guesstimates can be pretty inaccurate, but i'll leave you to judge from it's effects what the dose may have been.There we were, with a half-pint mug each of this foul earthy-flavoured satans piss, sipping away with the Doors playing in the background.Since that time ive had a few trips where i have thought that i was feeling an effect within 10-15 minutes of ingestion but apart from 1 other experience this has been a psychosomatic effect,but on the occasion i'm telling you about i was halfway through the mug and i began to feel something for real.It was nothing too major at this stage, just a physical buzzing and a tightening in the head.I continued sipping away gingerly but 5 minutes later the feelings became undeniable, so much so that i turned to Dan to ask if he was feeling anything and he said no; on reflection i guess that the kebab in his stomach was retarding the absorption of the psilocybin.Not wanting to lose face i continued with the brew till it was finished.By now my body buzzed so much it was a real effort to stand and the visuals were rapidly evolving.I knew at this stage that this was gonna be one hefty trip but i could not at this point conceive how far this would go.We kind of decided to go round to another friends place who lived minutes away.Out in the street it was dark and the distortion of the sound of passing cars was seriously impressive already.The physical effects were so strong that it felt as if i was lurching from side to side and the ground felt distinctly spongy.The slabs were displaying a swirling lace-like pattern that wouldnt keep still.At Mikes place (the friend) we managed to inform people that we were tripping, sat ourselves down and then it really hit me i was fucked all ready, less than 1 hour into the trip.I knew then that it would screw my head up if i tried to fight it in any way at all and i had no choice but to relax as much as possible and let it do its thing.The next hour is very hazy indeed but i can still recall seeing the air shimmering infront of my eyes,and people saying things to one another and me being convinced that i knew what they were going to say before they said it.
Don't get me wrong, i was in no way freaking out or paranoid,but it was fucking weird.Every time they spoke their words confirmed it.This didnt last long, for a short time later any words they said sounded as if they were talking some foreign tongue underwater.In my head the usual tripped-out thoughts were going in but i had no idea whether the words in my head were simultaneously coming out of my mouth at the same time.This raised thoughts that i was speaking out loud but was being ignored by those around me.I remember thinking that they were doing a fine job of ignoring me, probably because they knew i was mashed.All the time the effects were getting stronger, things were seriously colourful and distorted.Only when one is pretty heavily tripped-out do the walls of the rooms on the television have impressive patterns on them, such that you can't help but notice.This was one of those trips but my mind only gave this a passing thought, despite never having seen this before.At the very peak i was totally detached from the whole world; my head was completely empty of all thoughts and i was gazing around the madly distorted room without taking any of it in- at least not in a fashion where i could have any response or reaction to my surroundings.It wasnt good or bad or indifferent- it was total detachment that ive never ever felt since.After a time thoughts started forming in my head again and i felt the most overwhelming feeling of relief that i was still intact.I knew then that i had experienced something amazingly profound and there was no way that i could have been anymore out of it.A bigger dose would just have kept me there for longer, perhaps fucked me up for good.Now i could appreciate the amazing visuals but even now they still seemed pretty insignificant when compared to what my head had experienced.There was no conceivable way that the remainder of this trip could be anything but wonderful, and so it was.We left Mikes place a little later and walked 1 mile or so to see Dans girlfriend.The other abiding memory i have is of how great the comedown was, both physically and mentally, better than even E.Needless to say, Dan was seriously out of it too but i think from what he says, not as much as i was.I wonder if any of you tripheads have found that an empty stomach can magnify the power of a mushroom brew? To conclude, im glad i did it but the thought of living through that comeup again scares me.Losing it on the way up could easily do your mind some serious damage.Oh, and if you're interested i finally did qualify in 1994 and have been practising medicine since. Scary thought, dontcha think?