Background
I recently found Gymnopilus Luteofolius mushrooms growing on some wood chip piles. I've posted an ID request a couple weeks ago, with a positive confirmation. I've never tried psychedelics before. From other drugs, I've only done alcohol and cannabis. I probably have a couple drinks each week. My cannabis usage is zero, I haven't done it for over a decade. Not a fan of it.
I ate two of these mushrooms after having identified them. Fresh, did not prepare them in any way. Not thinking about the digestive properties of mushrooms, I didn't chew them really well. They were bitter, as expected from my readings. I got slightly high from them, stoned like feeling.
Pre-Trip
I was going to eat breakfast and fast the rest of the day. I did end up forgetting about my plans, and ate a large lunch. No dinner.
I've collected 30g of mushrooms. I've scraped each stem from soil or woodchip residue, but I didn't wash them. I've also split each cap, as I've noticed some larger ones, that I previously collected, have maggots in them. I did not find any this time around. Splicing the cap was also another way of confirming some mushroom features, the pink / purple flesh to be specific.
I've read about the lemon tek way of preparing mushrooms and decided to do that. I ground up the mushrooms using a coffee grinder and added juice from two lemons. I let it sit for about an hour. That's longer than suggestions that I've read, but I had some things to take care of before the trip.
I kept thinking about maggots that I've seen in other mushrooms as well as bacteria that may be on them. I realized I should have washed them, but it was too late as they had been ground up. As a remedy, I figured I'll add a little bit of wine to the lemon tek, a ⅓ of a cup. I'm not sure if / how things would have turned out differently, but I'm thinking I shouldn't have done it, based on what is going to unfold. I added the wine around 10 minutes prior to drinking.
Trip
8:50pm. I live out in the country. I set up a bonfire and started praying. After I was done, I started playing some music I've prepared for the event. Time to drink the lemon tek + wine concoction. It wasn't too bad. I could taste some of the bitterness of mushrooms, but didn't chew any of it, just gulped it down without an issue.
9:20pm. Not feeling much. Slightly drunk, or so I'm thinking. Some nausea combined with burps of mushrooms every now and then. Each burp reminds me that it's no gourmet mushrooms that I swallowed. Unpleasant acidic bitterness. While that's happening, I keep walking around the bonfire, managing the fire, and staying occupied in general. My mind starts racing as I keep walking. I keep looking for visual effects, and start asking myself why there is nothing happening. I keep focusing on that. These same thoughts keep repeating again and again. I don't have any anxiety though. A slight headache also starts to develop. My wife checks up on me around this time.
9:50pm. I feel like I drank a bottle of wine. Not ⅓ of a cup that I poured into the drink. At the moment, I'm thinking that it's all wine, and that I drank it all on an empty stomach. My mind keeps racing around the same questions as before, I keep looking for magic in my vision but… Nothing. I'm thinking to myself… These shrooms are no shrooms. If nothing happens in a bit, I'll go to bed. Burping keeps bothering me, I feel like some heartburn is also starting to develop. A slight headache continues.
10:10pm. I decided to call it a night, since nothing is happening. I try to force myself to puke, with very limited success, as not much comes out. Between the burps, heartburn, and slight nausea, I'm thinking, why keep all of that in there - I'll sleep better if I get rid of it. I then talk to my wife, explain that I'm all dandy, and take a shower. After the shower is over, I start to realize that it's no wine that I'm on. The shower didn't refresh me one bit, like a shower normally does to a drunk person (at least temporarily). I felt as "drunk" as I was before taking the shower.
10:30pm. I lay down in the guest bedroom, as my wife's already asleep in the master. I close my eyes and then… I start to feel like I'm dreaming. Lucid dreaming. I keep going in and out of this state, between being completely conscious and lucid, back into this dream state. My mind is overloaded with thought, most of which is blurry and has no substance. The last two hours become a dream itself and no longer feel like reality. I didn't eat mushrooms, I didn't make a bonfire, I didn't talk to my wife. It was a dream, it certainly feels like it.
11:00pm. When I close my eyes circular shapes take over… Whirlpools, galaxy-like structures, tube-like things. Shades of blue, purple and pink. Peacock feather “eyes” appear all around. Sometimes imagery becomes real, true objects start to take shape. An alien, tentacle-like thing forms at one point, with something flowing through it. I become frightened and open my eyes, I don't want to look. Some imagery persists while my eyes are open. It feels as if my mind was applying a filter on my vision. My head feels like it weighs two, three times as normal. My headache persists, but now I feel it moving through different parts of my brain. I feel my brain, different parts of my brain. I'm still overwhelmed with thought. I'm thirsty. Super thirsty. I grab a bottle on the stand and drink a few sips. Why am I thirsty? I get a thought of regret about eating these mushrooms, but I don't focus on it.
Sometimes around 1am, I think. I went to the bathroom a few times, just to pee… I kept drinking water. I'm thinking mushrooms are starting to wear out, but my mind is still racing. There is no way I can fall asleep like this.
3:30am. I've been tossing and turning. Headache still persists. I'm hot. Not comfortable. I can't fall asleep. I get up, go to the bathroom and take two melatonin gummies. I finally fall asleep sometime afterwards.
Post-Trip
I woke up at 7:30am or so. Headache persisted for another hour and a half, for a total of almost 12 hours. Other than feeling tired, my mind is back to normal. I ponder about what has happened for most of the day.
Some takeaways: 1. Research shroom-induced headaches. See if anything can be done as preparation before a trip. 2. Don’t mix alcohol with mushrooms. I was confused as I felt somewhat intoxicated by alcohol, at least initially. 3. Do eat something small before eating mushrooms. This will hopefully result in less burping and heartburn. 4. I think 30g is around 6-7g dry, so I will try a larger dosage next time. 5. Start a trip earlier. 5-6pm at the latest for a good night’s sleep.
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