Reckless Endeavor

My first experience with shrooms was an exercise in recklessness. I had just dried my first batch of Cubies and had no idea how many I should take. All the advice I'd read on the subject was related in grams, and I had no scale. So I just fished out four average size specimens and ground those bronze beauties up in some tea. I chilled this in the fridge while I worked up the nerve, then poured it into an empty Coke can and headed towards an old woodlot (the closest thing to nature around here) to partake. Let me tell you, chilled shroom tea is a smooth, refreshing brew that I'd almost drink just for the taste of it. I was alone, which may seem unwise, but hell -- I was skeptical the damn things would even work. I kicked around the lot and played in the stream while I waited for effects.

About 20 minutes later, this warm, sensual feel flooded me (and I'm not a very sensual sort). After pondering these sensations for awhile, I had a notion to close my eyes. Immediately, I was seeing; no, *standing before* an oriental temple of impossible grandeur. I absolutely could not believe the lucidity of it. Soon I was marching with parades of soldiers as they carried forth mutable standards. I stood before monks as they meditated in sacred halls; staggered across embattled wastelands where tattered flags flapped from charcoaled timbers. I felt that I was observing the history, hundreds of years of it, of some exotic corner of the universe. Then 3 faceless women bearing orange orchids approached me. They shoved the flowers in my face and as these encompassed me utterly, I was rocketed from my reverie.

Opening my eyes, I decided I'd better get home before the trip got much heavier. I wandered from the woodlot and across a park. Ordinary patches of darkness in the lawn had arranged themselves into huge glyphs. I floated more than walked across the dream-like landscape. Then I saw the tree. An ordinary tree had been transformed into a reddish metallic sculpture beyond description. As I stood transfixed by it, I noticed a patrol car that had passed me had pulled off to the side. The officer was watching me! I got my shit straight and continued on my way, and the officer did not follow.

Impossibly regular herring-bone clouds hung above the city. It was near dusk now, and the light and angles of the city had assumed alien forms. I was having trouble finding my way, and whenever I closed my eyes I was immersed in swirling chaos. "My mind is blown!", I told myself over and over with genuine astonishment.

Finally I made it to my apartment. There I watched some 3 dimenional (!) Star Trek on TV. The space in my apartment was really distorted, with hollows here and there that you could get dragged into if you weren't careful. Finally, these sucking rents in space were no longer avoidable. I fell into level 5.

What can I say about that? I just laid on my sofa dissolved in an unintelligible datastream of inconcievable throughput. No thought; no conventional sensory input; just a spark of perception propelled by torrents of kalaidoscopic chaos. Some people find this state desirable, but it was frankly way to much data for me to absorb, and I've not sought it out since.

The come-down was pure pleasure. I laughed hysterically at a comedy on TV and reminesced over old photos. My mind felt as if it had been rinsed clean in a pure, cold mountain spring.

All my trips since this one have been a nice, cozy level three. But I'm sort of glad my introduction to these mushrooms was a mind-melter, even though it was damn reckless and might nearly have gotten me busted. I had to share the experience with you all even though it's now four years old or so. May you all continue safely to enjoy the fruits of the earth (or the cowshit as the case may be).