This was my first ever time ingesting magic mushrooms. For a bit of background, my boyfriend is a psychonaut, and has deep respect for all psycedelics, particularily mushrooms. After months of hearing about his ego-shattering trips, and the new knowledge he brings back from them, it was only natural I developed a curiosity. I had been wanting to try mushrooms for a while, my boyfriend gave me cautionary tales, told me what to expect and how things can become unexpected.
I would get my chance to try them for the first time during a small birthday vacation to a very rural area of Australia, 2.5 hours from the city of Melbourne. We brought some mushrooms with us, and my original agreed upon dose was at 3.5 grams. But after measuring out my dose, and then measuring out his, we still had some left, so we continued to split the rest between us a little more, probably landing me at around 4 grams.
The mushrooms were bought already dried, but instead of just eating them, we put them in a small food processor and then shotted them down with water (we had no lemon or orange juice). Dosage time was about 10:30am. Whilst waiting for the trip to begin, we sat on the outdoor balcony talking and looking out at the forest. We were so far into the country that the nearest town was 20 kilometres away, and we were a two minute walk and a river cross away from just pure wilderness. I was hyperaware of every second after ingesting the mushrooms, trying to notice the exact second I felt things would begin to change. I was unsure what it would feel like.
About 20 minutes in, the thing that signaled the beginning of the trip for me was noticing how the smoke from the chimney was flowing behind these two beautiful rosella birds sitting on the balcony railing. They just looked so vibrant and full of life, and I was fascinated with how the smoke moved between the trees. I tell this to my boyfriend, and he responds that he too was beginning to feel it. We quickly get up and leave the house, because we agreed previously that we would trip while we explored nature.
The walk down to the river was interesting, because I could feel the trip slowly build. It felt like my head was filled with clear air, and I got a bit giggly. Colours were slowly coming to life more. It was so, very, very green. I also really felt like talking, because I was loving the way that words were sounding.
We cross the river by walking across a fallen tree, which was easier than expected. We make it to the other side and walk along an old camping trail, hand in hand. The hand in hand bit is important, because as we continued to walk and talk, keep each other up to date with how our come up was going, his hand started to just feel like a piece of meat. I shook it around a bit, kind of like how you shake your own arm when it falls asleep because you lay on it for too long. And then I just had to let go of it completely because it was freaking me out.
Now the visuals really started to kick in, things started to get distorted, eyes were appearing everywhere, the branches of the trees and the ferns began to morph into curly triangle-like shapes. I also kept seeing a certain face everywhere if I looked long enough. The face was wide eyed, looking at me from the side, and its mouth was wide open. It kind of looked like me if I really concentrated. I didn't really like this face, because I remembered it from a previous LSD trip, and I thought the face was out to torment me. Other visuals included pulsing colours (like if I stared at a rock, it would pulse brown, then black, then red), seeing the ferns and moss breathe with life, and noticing how everything stood out the more I stared.
I was very happy, and my head was surprsingly clear. I became very interested in particular objects, and would request my boyfriend to walk with me to each particular object just so I could reach out and pet it a bit before moving on. I spent a decent period of time petting a large rock covered in wet moss, because I felt like it had the same significance as a dog.
We used the old camping trail as a guide through the forest, chosing random points along it to walk off track and explore and climb. At one point, my boyfriend remarked how he felt like we weren't boyfriend and girlfriend, that I was like his friend and we were like two kids out exploring and having fun together, and I agreed. We climbed up a steep muddy hill, and then he promptly rolled down the hill and declared a mud fight. I was now covered in mud, but still so very happy and talkative and clear.
We came across a shallow river, and whilst my boyfriend barreled on through I skittered nervously along the edge, reluctant to go in and get my shoes and the ends of my pants soaked. I think I was trying to find a way around the river, but that was obviously impossible. I had been doing this for some time, ending up climbing a tree and wandering downstream looking for an alternative.
"What are you doing, just go through the river!" My boyfriend shouted.
"I don't want to get wet!" I whined.
"This river is your ego. Conquer it."
It struck me how true his words were, so I did my best to cross it. Somehow, I ended up in the deeper section upstream, and the fast moving water almost knocked me in. Successfully crossing the river took a bit out of me, and from this point on I think the trip started to tamper down gradually.
We began to make our way back home, almost deciding on sitting inside an old hollow tree trunk, before realising the space was filled with spider webs. We became struck how this hollow tree was a home for all these spiders and other creatures, and just stood their admiring it instead of destroying it.
As we came down more, the feeling of being romatically involved came back, and we no longer felt like two neighbourhood kids playing. Holding his hand again felt natural. It was at this point I lost the energeic vibe and clear head, and started to be a bit foggy and relaxed.
I tried my hand at closed eyed visuals now, because I had forgotten to earlier; I was too amazed by everything I was seeing. They were 3D, and kind of like a lava lamp, only from all directions. Squishy, checkered spheres that floated around and into each other, on and on into the distance.
By the time we got home, it was around 4:30pm. We reteated back to the balcony, were we smoked some joints and slowly came back down.
This experience was so positive, and put me in a very innocent and carefree mindset. The only meaningful epiphany I had was my struggle with the river, otherwise it was a lighthearted, fun adventure with my boyfriend that I feel brought us a little bit closer on some important level.
Soon I'm looking to do my next trip from a batch of mushrooms we picked and dried ourselves recently. I'm tossing up between upping it to 5 grams, or doing a similar dose.
This trip has stregnthened my interest and curiosity for the mushroom, and I'm looking forward to a future where I can start really upping the intensity level.
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