I'm looking to grow some fun mushrooms since I'm going to be growing some culinary, just for interest and the adventure of it. But, I haven't tried them since 2016, my first and, as of now, my last time. It's very much on my mind.
As with 99 percent of my trip experience, it started with hanging out during a weekend with my friend, Diamond. We had done LSD together a lot, but were looking to mix it up. I didn't really have a "guy" to get stuff from, I had previously scored LSD mostly from the dark web. But I lived in the SF Bay Area, so I figured it'd be part of the trip to find shrooms.
So, we did the most contrived thing and went to Haight-Ashbury, hung out at Amoeba Records some and then went to Golden Gate Park to find a source. It was ridiculously easy, we saw a bunch of kids hanging out in the woods, asked them where we could buy a quarter. They told us to wait down the path with some cash. We did, then another kid skateboarded over and the transaction happened. Quicker than going through a fast food drive-through.
With that success, we went back to my place to make it happen. I'm guessing we got back in the late afternoon. Because we are masochists, we just split up the quarter, and stuck it in our mouths and chewed it down.
I don't remember everything in detail about that evening. I do remember it hitting rather quickly. The air turned thick and multi-colored, earthy colors, like it was a melted earth rainbow. The most ungenerous way of saying it was that I used to fuck with Diamond when we got high, but that wasn't it. I liked to test my own limits and also I liked having a friend around to share. After it had hit for both of us I tried to think of the weirdest thing to look at.
I really enjoy re-examining everyday things while high on psychedelics, I've always found it more trippy than consuming purposefully trippy content. I'm not super into pop or anything, but I knew at the time Sia had a song out with a video with Shia LaBouf dancing with Sia's pre-teen stand in dancer in a cage, both in leotards. I decided to put that on. He was genuinely disturbed. He asked me several times if this was real, I assured him it was.
The rest of the night probably wasn't due to that choice, Diamond had probably already went down the route of paranoia and disassociation, but I do wonder if it would've gone different if I took another tact. At some point thereafter he hid in the bathroom. I got worried about him and asked if everything was okay. He answered, "I'm afraid that you're going to kill me."
This wasn't entirely delusional. I mean, I was not going to kill or hurt him. But in a previous psych experiment with LSD at my place, I thought it'd be neat to play disturbing music and outlay my wood working tools to gaze on. He also describe my living arrangement previously as "serial murder chic". I'd like to think it as more Bohemian, it was a studio apartment that was rather bare, I decided not to buy any furniture aside from a futon mattress and some work surfaces I could move around on a whim.
I felt a lot of concern and sympathy for him, and was worried he was in a very bad headspace in the bathroom. In my addled state, I thought maybe he was in his own world, and it might be helpful if I non-intrusively gave him a sign the outside world exists and might be different, so I slipped a bandana I used to wear under the bathroom door to create a bridge between us, and told him not to worry and to come out when he felt comfortable.
Eventually he came out, but he was nauseous and I was getting a bit nauseous as well. I had a thought that maybe the shrooms we bought from those kids weren't even shrooms. Maybe it was something weird they cooked up. There's a Whole Foods right by Golden Gate park. Maybe they just bought some dried mushrooms there and sprayed Raid on it or something? I suspected that this was a pretty stupid idea, but I also was very high, but I kept the thought to myself even though it nagged at me.
It was clear we were going down the bad path, so I decided to try to do something to calm us down. I suggested we watch something that felt familiar. We talked it over and decided on Star Wars. But there was a problem, I didn't really have any DVDs or anything and it was pretty much impossible to stream Star Wars at the time. I was definitely not in a headspace to figure out how to pirate it. I announced that George Lucas didn't want us to watch Star Wars. I remember I was incredibly sad about this, almost to tears sad.
I suggested Star Trek as a backup, and we put it on, but it looked really fucked up and really didn't help. It probably would've looked fucked up no matter what, but later on I circled back, and figured out that it was a very early episode, and Spock's make-up was especially green he had different ears, bigger, and everything else was a little off.
After that we were very nauseous and I was really starting to get worried. I told him that there probably was nothing to worry about, and it's probably the drugs talking, but maybe just in case we should induce vomiting. He wondered if we should call an ambulance. I was like 50% sure that we were just having a bad time, so I said let's just wait and see. In hindsight I was very relieved we didn't call an ambulance. That would have been stupid, and a really bad trip, indeed.
We took turns sticking our fingers down our throats in the bathroom. Actually, I didn't even have to use a finger, it just came out, like I just willed a vomit. I could hear him retching behind the closed door.
Diamond began asking me if he was real, and I assured that he was. I sat down with him and showed him the website for the company he worked for and some of the stuff he worked with. He wanted to call a friend in Pennsylvania just to verify, It was like 3 in the morning there, and I was a little paranoid about somebody calling the hospital or something, but I thought it was okay and said that was a good idea. She woke up and helped him out.
Things calmed down after that. I found the most chill show I could think of, Cheers, and it worked, it was like the TV show equivalent of bland saltines on a bad stomach. I wrapped a blanket around Diamond, who devolved into a pile of ego-less goo, which felt for the best, it gave me less I had to actively handle. I looked at the clock, and it seemed to freeze, while I was trying to wait it all out, but eventually and slowly the worst of it lifted.
Toward the end I put on Pet Sounds on the record player, and there was nothing more beautiful than that.
All's well that ends well? It's something I will try again in better circumstances.
Edited by lonlaz (06/22/23 02:40 PM)
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