First Trip Report 3.5G Dry.
(Previously posted on a different thread I started before having this experience which explains a few references not visible here). I thought I would share my experience here as well in case it is helpful for anyone as reading many other people's experiences has been very helpful for me 
I decided to take the mushrooms as a tea mixed with peppermint tea leaves. I found it really easy to drink and didn't experience any nausea or discomfort after so will most likely opt for tea again in the future.
I did a short meditation and prayer and then sat and spoke with my friend/sitter until I started to feel the effects. Initially I felt a warmth/euphoria and tingling throughout my body which was very pleasant and found myself laughing quite a lot.
As I hoped to have a more introspective experience and as we were out camping I headed into the tent and put on my sleeping mask/headphones with the playlist I had created for the trip.
There were quite a few realisations that came up in the experience but my sense of time got quite distorted and once I had sobered up my recollection of events isn't completely linear/lucid so hopefully the experience won't seem too disjointed.
Quite early on I was just staying with my breath and allowing whatever came up in the experience. I had a realisation that going into the experience I had on some level clung on to having a particular kind of experience. This clinging was both based on internal and external expectations. Internally, there was this sense of wanting to have a significant spiritual experience (as can probably be seen in the original post) and externally wanting to have a positive experience which I could share with my sitter/close friends and on here. I felt all of this just drop away, and I just had this deep acceptance and knowing that everything was okay in this experience exactly as it was and that it didn't need to happen in any particular way. This realisation was accompanied by a lot of inner joy and a good sense of humour.
I noticed as well my minds attempts to try to alter the experience. A part of my ego trying to control the experience/produce a particular kind of experience would start turning the music up and down, questioning the position I was in. Questions like 'should I focus on the breath or not' 'should I just listen to the music' 'should I pray or be completely passive'. Basically just a lot of overthinking which my mind is often quite good at. I found the same when I went on a meditation retreat last year. I noticed my mind doing this and I just let go of these efforts and just enjoyed the experience. I noticed that the effects weren't too intense (I'd probably place the overall experience at level 2/3) but instead of trying to make the experience something it wasn't or complaining I just enjoyed it and it was very beautiful.
Around this time I noticed this inner sense of feeling almost invulnerable (which was interesting as I assumed I would feel more vulnerable on mushrooms). Fear almost seemed very alien to me at the time and thoughts which would have usually made me feel very uncomfortable, such as being tortured/in a lot of physical pain (which I worry/think about quite a bit sometimes) I was just able to notice and accept and they didn't seem to effect the state I was in in any way.
At one point I remember sitting outside the tent and speaking to my friend and telling him to write down 'that I shouldn't be afraid to go for the higher doses' as I felt like I might forget and wanted to let myself know that for the future.
The spiritual path/journey is something that has been very important to me for the last 4 years or so since a spiritual awakening I experienced at 19. I felt a strong sense of being on the right path. Previously (probably due to general religious/spritiual conditioning in literature I had read as well as my own doubts) I had been quite conflicted around using psychedelics/drugs. Thinking back now I recognise that weed had been very helpful for me in becoming more introspective and I think it actually had a significant part to play leading up to my initial spiritual awakening (This was my only previous drug experience apart from a very small dose of MDMA). I remember having my first spiritual experience when I was sober and this is something my mind clung on to. At the time I was a very cynical/questioning person (which I still have traits of but in a more balanced way)and I felt that had I had the experience whilst under the influence of any kind of substance that I would have doubted it's validity.
Having this experience though I realised very much that my mindset had shifted and I just had a real acceptance of the use of psychedelics in my life and just felt a real encouragement to continue exploring them going forward and that I was on the right path. I have come to feel a real reverence for psychedelics and am almost surprised that I was closed off to them for so long.
Another interesting insight I had helped to resolve a small inner conflict. Last year I graduated with a degree in Philosophy, before studying philosophy I was very interested in becoming someone who was (or at least seemed to others haha) very articulate/intelligent. At this time I seemed to place a lot of value on the intellect and I would look up to figures who could argue/articulate themselves very well. Whilst studying however my interest went more and more into the spiritual realm and I became far more drawn to different spiritual traditions and spiritual teachings centred in the Heart. It very much feels like an ongoing journey from the mind/intellect to the heart/soul (I found a lot of inspiration here from Ramana Maharshi, Ram Dass in this regard). I had this funny sense of my mind trying to explain my experience in an 'intelligent way' or trying to seem intelligent and in a very kind way just laughed about how silly my mind's attempt and need to appear intelligent were. I am not saying we shouldn't use our minds/intellects (I realise they have a very important role in our lives) but I noticed how my own mind was so focused on them not for their own sake but for external validation from others. I just laughed and realised that in this inner experience of what we could call joy or love or our true nature that these labels and external validations were so unnecessary.
My sense of time was quite distorted during the experience and I realised in the almost 'waves' of coming down that my reccollection had become a bit more hazy.
One thing I did notice which I found challenging was coming down I heard some people describe an 'afterglow' but I very much did not feel this. I actually felt more vulnerable after the experience, I felt very heavy in my body for a while and very solid again (which I didn't like). Something that helped me here was remembering that accepting everything that comes up is not limited to the few hours where I am tripping but is a good approach to take to life in general.
Notes for a future trip- any opinions here would be much appreciated.
I noticed coming back that during the experience there were periods which were not entirely lucid/difficult to recall. I thought about wanting to maintain a clearer awareness/recollection if possible during future experiences. Two questions were one maybe the confusion/haziness would be less at a higher dose (due to greater intensity), the other was meditating upright during the experience which I saw someone mention in a post above. I would like to find out whether these would help with a great sense of clarity both during and after the experience.
As mentioned above coming back I felt this heaviness come over me again which is quite a depressive mood that I experience from time to time. After the spiritual awakening (unlike before it where I was in a very negative state of mind most of the time) my overall mood is generally much more positive but I still get periods when it comes over me. When this happens I tend to feel very low/lethargic and generally hopeless. There was this sense afterward of feeling like I would like to get to the root of this and feeling as if Ayahusca (which might purify on a more physical level) or a higher dose of mushrooms might help me go deeper into realising the roots of this. The reason it encouraged me for a higher dose is that this experience whilst beautiful wasn't strong enough to really shake things up and no point did I feel what could be described as 'intensity' or being out of control. This could be due to the potency of the shrooms as mentioned above as my friend had stored them for a while.
Thank you so much to everyone for their advice before I went into this experience. Thank you again to everyone on Shroomery for posting their own experiences previously as they really encouraged me to take this first step for which I am very grateful. I feel at the beginning of a new path of discovery and look forward to exploring more in the future! I hope you enjoyed reading.
Much Love and my best wishes!
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