Unintentional Trip

I posted this trip report to alt.drugs.mushrooms a while back, and someone suggested that I post it as a report on a shroom website. The following is an edited version of that post (I removed the references to newsgroup postings, etc to avoid confusion and added a few thoughts to clarify things).

**Begin Report**

I wanted to share my..... well, seriously f**ked up experience of last night as a mild warning to all
you first time shroomers and growers, as well as those who are "curious".

A friend of mine has a very nice terrarium setup going (PF "standard" (psilocybe cubensis) spores and setup), and was cleaning out some aborts last night (a Tuesday). Being the twit that I am, I wanted to try a small one to see what all the hype about the bad taste was about (sounded like a good idea at the time... I mean, who has ever heard of a trip from a single abort that might have weighed 1/4 of a gram fresh?). So, I grabbed a cubie-et and chewed it up. This one was about the length of the last two knuckles of my pinkie finger, so I didn't bother with weighing it. In hindsight, a weight measurement might have been a good idea, just for a comparison study. Anyhow, the taste isn't pleasant, but not unbearable. Kind of tasted like a regular mushroom with a 10-W30/Mild "funk" chaser. I also didn't have any nausea, if that is important.

Went back to my apartment after chilling for a bit, ingestion was around 7:45 pm, got home about 8:30. Watched a sitcom on Fox, and then got settled in for my weekly Jessica Alba fix (god, what a BABE!) About 9:15, I got a
mild body buzz. No prob, sez I.... maybe the abort will just give me a mild glow, or I'm just having a placebo effect. At 10:00 pm, I decided to hop in the car and head out to my wifes' work, as I had to pick her up at 12:30 and
I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to safely drive if I waited any longer. Figure by now I was experiencing a mild level 1 trip (shroomery scale).... feeling good, not extremely impaired (but I could feel it picking up). By the time I got to the factory parking lot (say 20 minutes later) I had a MAJOR case of the twitches, which seemed focused on my left thigh and hand. Needless to say, I was freaking a little..... I mean, I don't do drugs often, and the strongest thing I have done to date is smoked a bit of pot a couple of times (I do drink a bit of beer with my best friends, and even that has become a kind of rarity lately. I also have a few tylenol with codeine pills that I got in Canada, but it's legal to bring back 50 pills for personal use, according to customs.... I have bad knees from injuries I sustained while in the USAF, and I use the codeine sparingly... FYI, playing while atop a 35 foot telephone pole is a BAD idea ), but I've always been fascinated by the thought of tripping.... just not one that I'm not expecting.

I recall looking at the clock on the radio at 10:45 before all hell broke loose.... my mind just went "KABOOM!" I became VERY fascinated by the clouds passing across the moon, and everything was SO clear.... the colors were phenomenal (brilliant purples, golds, and a mild, pulsating grey, the crater shadows on the moon also looked REALLY cool). I have read about trip effects, but had (unfortunately) taken them lightly. No longer. My mind
began flipping and racing from thought to thought without my being able to focus on much at all, and I started having the most vivid daydreams I have ever had (being a hopeful fiction writer, I feel that my "normal" imagination is quite vivid and detailed, but I've never experienced ANYTHING like this... I actually SAW one of my short stories being played out while my eyes were closed). About 11:00 (which I had thought to be around 12 or so.... time slowed down BIG TIME :>), I totally lost any control over what I was thinking, and had to turn off the radio to try and slow down the "bouncing" my mind was doing. I figured I didn't need anyone else helping me with screwing my mind up at that particular time

Let me say now that the parking lot of a factory is NOT the best place to trip..... it's kinda freaky. Trains running nearby, semi trucks and cars blasting by on the expressway and the security cameras that you can barely
see watching the lot and odd noises add up to major distraction and not a little paranoia. First bad move from this point: attempting to read a Beavis and Butthead book ("This Book Sucks" is the title if anyone is interested). I made it through the first 2 pages before I saw a picture of Beavis that just chilled me to the bone. Looking at it now, I can't understand why it freaked me, but not a whole lot about last night makes sense, so I'll just roll with it, and hope that someday I'll figure it out. I tossed B&B into the back seat, then climbed out of the drivers seat around to the passengers seat, thinking that if some cop DID come by, my hanging out in the passengers side would be better than sitting behind the wheel. Second bad idea: Turning the radio back on. I could NOT find anything that would calm me down (classical, pop, metal, talk radio, hip-hop.... not a thing worked). I wasn't having what I would consider a bad trip, but I was struggling to deal with everything that was going on..... maybe if I had let go, the experience would have been easier (and more enjoyable). I dunno, the fact that I was in no way prepared for this kind of screwed me from the get-go. I was also dead freaking tired, having gotten no sleep the night before.

I spent the next hour and a half laying back swearing my sanity was gone. I had written myself a note that read "Everything is cool, just relax" before I left home and I read it constantly until I curled up in an almost fetal position to try and keep control of myself. I was not
hallucinating (I'm pretty sure I wasn't, anyway. All of the visuals were CEV), and after a while, I got a handle on things, so I assume I had passed peak. By the time my wife came out, I was under control with only a strong stoned feeling left. She gave me a strange look when she saw that I wasn't going to drive, and I told her what happened. Her response was: "So, what's it like? Cool or not?" (I made a damned good choice in women, lemme tell ya :> Justifies my totally focusing on her during the worst of the freak-out buildups too).

Anyway, I came out of this with lots of good things, and some minor worries. I do plan on trying the shrooms again someday, but I'll be VERY careful of setting, dose, and my mood before I ingest. I'm also going to make damn sure I have an experienced sitter. I figure at peak, I had run a solid level 2, maybe a mild level 3 trip (feel free to correct me if you think otherwise.... I'd like to know just how fried I was).

Has ANYONE ever heard of such a small amount of cubies having this much of an effect? I know that the shroom was pure (no dusting or "boosters" added, it was straight from the cake. I also trust my friend totally, and he says it was clean), and while I do have strange reactions to some OTC drugs, they mostly make me tired, or don't do anything at all (of course, I don't try recreational doses). I find it hard to believe that my experience last night was a "fake", and I don't understand how I got so blasted on a
single abort.

**End Report**

I spoke to several people on the ADM group who said that I got "lucky" and hit a strong abort. So, keeping that in mind, I would recommend that when you try shrooms, expect the full effect, not just a taste comparison :>

Hope you enjoy the report, and I'm planning on shrooming this weekend. Will let everyone know if anything interesting happens! Be safe!