I thought I was dying. It was wonderful!!!

It was summer time and I was home from college. I had been very eager to have an
enlightening experience with psychedelic drugs for a while and now had a buddy
with a constant supply of shrooms. I had read all the great books by Timothy
Leary/Albert Hoffman/etc about their experiences, read web page after web page
of what people experienced, and so on. I thought I was ready for anything, I
was wrong.

My first couple 'trips' were quite mild and boring after ingesting very few run of the mill cubensis. I was testing the waters, just getting my feet wet. Those trips only produced very mild open eyed visual hallucinations ( wood patterns oozing/moving, colors in pictures moving ).

Now my friend with the infinite mushroom supply had some different mushrooms.
Psilocybe Azurescens. He said they were more potent than cubensis. My
purchase of a very large 8th was entirely one mushroom cap. It was the biggest
cap I had ever seen. It was very dark and ominous looking. I had to wait a few
days until it would be a good time to do it.

Today was the day. My parents were both gone, my sister was going to a friends
house, it was the perfect time. I was so excited I had a chance to do it, it
didn't matter that I had a cold with a runny nose and sore sinuses. Most people
aren't fond of the taste or texture of mushrooms. I don't mind that if it's for
a good cause. I cut the large cap into many small pieces and soaked them in a
cup of orange juice to moisten them up and mask their taste. I let them soak
until they were soft and began to drink and chew my orange juice. The mushroom
bits were clinging to the sides of the cup so I had about two more cups of
orange juice to be sure all the pieces were washed down.

People always seem to discribe some rules for first timers. I was going to
break them. I always read to have a friend - I was alone. I always read not to
look in the mirror unless you have a high self-esteem - bullshit. I don't have
a high self-esteem yet I did this too. At the end I will give you tips for the
biggest most intense trip imaginable. Okay, back to the story.

My sister's friend ends up coming over to our house. No worries. They will
leave me alone. I sit down at my computer to listen to some music. I already
had a playlist ready - full of good techno/dance/trance tunes. I wouldn't be
needed it. I started to play the playlist when I noticed that the walls were
already moving!!! On my weak trips it took forever to notice any motion in
in-animate objects. I had also read that it could take an hour for the effects
to kick in. It had been only about eight minutes since I finished eating them
and already it was more intense than the previous two times.

As I notice the paint on the walls twisting and twirling around into patterns
and shapes I started to feel quite different, down in the core of my body.
I get up and travel to the bathroom to check things out in there. I probably
had to pee since I drank all that orange juice, but I never managed to relieve
myself. I check out my face in the mirror and everything looks wonderful. My
shirt is alive and flowing all around my body. My pupils are HUGE! I can hear
this crackling in the background that sounds like electricity snapping and
popping.

I go back to my room and after I sit down my sister tells me my friend in on
the phone. I go grab the phone and have a little trouble hitting the right
button to talk. I say hello and tell my friend that I am on my way to tripping
balls! He laughs and asks me for my address to list me as a reference for a job
application. I try to tell him my address and am unable to ever finish. I
can't get past the house number... I keep thinking I am accidentally giving
him my phone number. Some reference, I can't even give him my address!

I say good bye and realize it sounds really noisy in my room so I attempt to
turn down my stereo. I fiddle with the controls and can't tell if I am doing
any good. I grab the remote and just stare at it and can't make heads or tails
out of it. I eventually find out that I had the volume all the way down the
entire time, so what was I hearing?

Now I am sitting in my chair and about to have total ego seperation. I start
having very conflicting sensations that I want to do everything and also
nothing at the same time. Very confusing at first. I feel wonderful and full
of love and happiness. I start to feel heavy and light at the same time. I
just close my eyes and feel very wrong. I am thinking I must have eaten a
poisonous mushroom and that I must be dying. I close my eyes and feel like I
am floating in outer space that turns into black emptiness. I can relive and
view multiple past memories simultaniously. This is when I actually belived I
was dead. How can this be happening if I am not dead? I had to remind myself
that I just ate some mushrooms...

After realizing that I wasn't really dying I continued to sit in my chair at
my computer with my eyes closed and felt like I was transported to another
planet. I was in a long hallway that was lined with monitors mostly filled
with static. There was an empty chair at the end of the hallway that looked
very comfortable. I knew I wasn't on earth when I looked outside the windows
of the hallway and it looked I was on the moon, or rather a planet whose
surface looked like the moon's.

I get up and out of my chair for a change of scenery. I try folding my arms
over my chest and it feels like they are moving through each other without any
resistance. I close my eyes to more amazing visions and can't even tell if I am
standing or sitting. I have to open my eyes to find out. I go over and lay
down on my bed. I close my eyes and have visions of geometric shapes moving
and changing into other shapes. Then I am viewing walls covered in different
patterns of green and white, with more goemetric shapes forming from the walls and sliding all around.

All of a sudden my bedroom door opens and my dad is standing in my doorway! He
wasn't suppost to be home for a while! He says something to me that I can't
understand at all. My dad looks like he is a very far off in the distance. I
was able to clearly say ( in my mind anyways ) that I wasn't feeling good, and
then proceded to turn over and close my eyes as I lay in bed. That was a lie. I was feeling pretty great!

I continued to have some great visions for a while, but all good things must
come to an end. I remember standing in my room and my senses all a sudden came
back. During the entire trip I didn't feel like I had a cold at all, it was
great. Now my nose was running, my sinuses were sore and I had to pee like
crazy! I also felt hungry like I had never eaten before. It was strange
to have these sensations just turn on in an instant like someone flicked a
switch. For quite a while afterwards I had funny little open eyed visual
effects in which it looked like ripples in a puddle, only in my normal field
of vision. Colors also seemed much more vivid.

It was a great trip and I hope to have more like this in the future. If dying
is anything like what I experienced in the beginning, then it will be a rather
pleasant experience. Even my dad coming the room and muttering incohearently
to me didn't lessen the experience any.

I mentioned in the begining I would end with some tips for a really big
experience. So here is my advice.

1) Plan ahead. Make sure you have nothing to do that day that will get in the
way.

2) Find a quiet spot. Turn off music/tv/computer. These devices don't allow
your brain to focus on the importance of a great journey.

3) Make surroundings comfortable. Blankets, pillows, etc.

4) Don't eat anything else. An empty stomach helps you digest more of the
mushrooms faster.

5) Orange juice works great to mask taste. I have never tried mushroom tea
because heat destroyes psilocybin.

6) Don't use any other drugs. If at a rave or party then by all means, but for
the best mushroom trip don't do anything else. I did have a great experience
at an outdoor rave in the middle of nowhere with mushrooms/marijuana/LSD -
dancing was something else!

7) DONT PANIC!!! If something feels wrong or you are experiencing total ego
loss ( feel like you are dying? ) remind yourself that you just ate some
mushrooms.

Good Luck!