the great tree (long

Ever since I decided to try mushrooms, I've been eagerly anticipating writing my first trip report... this may seem a little weird, but I've been reading these things for the past year in preperation for my voyage into the mushroom world. So, hopefully this will turn out alright!

This trip had been planned for most of the fall semester (2001), it was to be a small group (six of us) and four out of the six were experienced shroomers. This was to be mine, and my girlfriend's (the author of the trip report "wise mother") first time using any sort of hallucinagenic drug. I obtained 3 8ths of what I've been told were excellent mushrooms. Each person was to consume half an eighth.
Leading up to the trip, I was extremely excited, but also a bit worried. Basically I was worried that my girlfriend wouldn't have a great time on mushrooms, simply because she might not feel comfortable in the environment or around the people we were shrooming with. To avoid this, I tried to make it so that everyone knew eachother very well, and my girlfriend got accustomed to my dorm for a few days before the trip. Still, as the day approached (january 3), I felt nervous.. how was I suppose to make sure that she was having a good time if I was freaking out, wandering around, or marveling at the color of my floor??? I didn't even know that I'd be ok, so I really couldn't be sure that I could check up on her... I decided that worrying about this was pointless, what was to be, was to be.

In preparation for the trip, I stayed drug free for a full 24 hours before I was to ingest mushrooms (this is no small task at college over winter break!). We decided to eat a small meal before having our mushrooms, so we got salads from a super market. This was a light enough meal to not cause us to be too full, but also kept us from eating the mushrooms on a completely empty stomach. The first four of us, me, my girlfriend BB, and two of my roomates, DB, and MB, were going to eat our shrooms at 1:30, while the other two people, JB, and WD, were going to arrive at 3:30 and then eat their shrooms.
At 1:30, we ate our mushrooms by dipping them in honey and washing them down with orange juice. They really weren't all THAT bad, they tasted like pumpkin seeds mixed with a little bit of manure... anyway, it took us about 15 minutes to get them all down. At this point we went into the lounge and sat around. I was shaking because I drank ALOT of orange juice, and it was very cold... so basically I was shivering from the inside... this worried my girlfriend, but it was no big deal to me since it happens whenever I drink alot of anything thats really cold.
After about 20 minutes, I felt strange... I knew that I was not sober, but I couldn't really describe any effects... it was during this time that I had my first negative thought, basically I just doubted that this was a good idea. I quickly shook that thought off, however, because what was done was done, and besides, I had been looking forward to this for a long time!

After about 40 minutes, my roommates were already feeling the mushrooms, as was I, I just did not know what they were supposed to feel like. My girlfriend and I went to my room to lie on my bed... it was here that the first visual effects became apparent. I have a blue tapestry above my bed, with intricate designs and several large circles that get smaller as you approach the middle of the tapestry. I stared up at my tapestry, and for a second, it shifted to the left and then shifted back... I had just seen my first trace of a hallucination, and I was excited! I told my girlfriend all about it, but as I was telling her she got distracted by the ceiling. She pointed out to me that the ceiling was swimming, and sure enough, it was! I was forgetting my worries at this point, and getting extremely excited for the effects to kick in harder. My girlfriend seemed apprehensive, however, because our stomachs were quite upset by these wonderful mushrooms. It seemed as if my stomach hurt for 3 minutes out of every 5. This didn't worry me, as I had read many times that any stomach discomfort goes away as the effects kick in.

While my girlfriend and I were staring at the ceiling, my roommates came running in the room, looking like madmen with huge smiles. DB was carrying the guts from his phone, he had decided he hated it and smashed it into pieces! DB, MB, and I declared a sort of war on technology at this point. DB jumped over to a radio clock, and unplugged it from the wall, this sent us all into a celebratory fit of screams, in which I proclaimed "Us: 1, Time: 0!!!!", we had defeated time!

After the screaming and craziness, my roommates left me and my girlfriend to my room... she was mesmorized by the ceiling, as I was by the tapestry. The visuals were beginning to get more and more intense, my tapestry would be full of constantly moving patterns, and the ceiling was moving like the ocean. This was awesome! At this point, my stomach only hurt for about 1 minute in every 10, so I could clearly tell that it was getting better... this seemed to erase any trace of apprehension or fear that was still inside of me. At my girlfriends request, I put on some music. Luckily, the only CD I could find was Sgt. Peppers. Basically, all I have to say is that the beatles KNOW. During the album, I danced around the room, feeling better than ever. It was towards the end of the album that the effects were now kicking in full force, and my stomach was completely better. My girlfriend was having a great time lying on the bed, playing with the covers, and staring at the ceiling. This is when JB and WD arrived and consumed their mushrooms... I was trying to explain to them what wonderous joys awaited them in the next 2 hours, but I was sure they already knew. For the next 30 - 45 minutes (i'm not sure at all, it could have been 10 minutes... i literally had NO concept of time what-so-ever, and all of the clocks in my dorm had been turned off in our war against time!) my girlfriend and I sat in my room, sharing with eachother the various interesting things we saw and decided. I came to the conclusion that being inside was bad, and that we needed to go outside. My girlfriend, however, was too happy on the bed to move... So after pleading with her for what seemed like hours, she finally decided to join me outside. The rest of our group had already ventured outside and were probably roaming the campus somewhere.

We somehow managed to get our coats on, but realized that the task of putting shoes on was going to be entirely too hard... so instead we decided to wear slippers outside. We walked out and downstairs, and I slowly opened the door to the outside world... everything was incredibly surreal, the sky was winter-grey, but entirely inviting. I could feel the air around my body like never before, I could literally tell that I was moving through the air as I walked outside. It was somehow awesome to not have a ceiling over my head. As I stepped outside, I saw the rest of our fellow trippers hanging around, and in, a tree. We all met up, with me proclaiming how great it was outside, and decided to go to the "great tree." This was the oldest and biggest tree on campus, and was only a 2 minute walk from my dorm. It was fairly cold out, something like 38 degrees, but I really didn't care. This was completely different than not being able to feel the temperature, I could tell that it was freezing, but I just didn't care at all, it was too wonderful outside to go back in! We all made our journey over to the great tree, during this time I could tell that I was approaching the peak of my trip. Visually, everything was melting slightly and people's faces just looked like giant smiles with eyes. However, the most noticeable effect, and definitely the best, was a feeling of complete bliss as we all walked through the grass towards the great tree. I felt like I was 7 years old again, and I literally had no care in the world. When we got to the great tree, it was like I was transported to another universe. I became obsessed with the idea that this tree was alive, and had been far longer than I had lived. As I stood next to the tree, I felt as if it was talking to me non-verbally. It seemed to say "i am old, i am wise." Basically it wasn't really like the tree was talking to me, but this was the impression I got from it. The tree didn't care that there is a war on terrorism, or that there are taxes to pay and jobs to go to.. the tree just did what it did. I dont know if this makes much sense, but I really feel like I understand the life of a tree far greater than I could have ever imagined. I highly recommend visiting a tree while on mushrooms (or any other time for that matter)!

During our visit to the tree, which lasted for probably 2 hours, we all felt an incredible bond with eachother. As a result of this, we declared ourselves the "fellowship of the tree" and swore to remember how much fun we had had in the middle of campus on a cold tuesday afternoon. During this time, I felt incredibly close to my girlfriend, and I even thought for a second how weird it was that I knew someone as well as I know her. The weirdness quickly turned into gratitude for my luck to find such a wonderful person. Eventually, we left the great tree, although I found it quite hard to say goodbye to it. I really felt as if i became friends with a tree, and regardless of how crazy or stupid it may sound now, as far as i'm concerned, i did.

Since this has been WAYYYYY longer than I wanted it to be, and probably no one has actually read up to this point, i'm gonna summarize the rest of the trip. We headed back to my dorm, ended up hanging outside talking for another hour. Finally we returned inside to the warmth. I decided that I hate flourescent lights, and that mushrooms were the greatest drug in the history of the world. We spent the remaining hour or so of our trip sitting and talking about the absurdities of the man-made world, and our general euphoria that we all experienced throughout the day.

Sadly, the trip ended and I returned to my normal state of mind. I've taken away several things from this experience:
- inside sucks, inside doesn't even exist, we invented it!
- technology is not really all that great, the most advanced computer can't compare to the complexity found in one branch of a tree!
- mushrooms are unbelievably fun!

So thats the end of my report, I hope it wasn't too long and that its useful for some people to make their decision on mushrooms. And just for the record, the final score was Us: 4, Time: 0.