I'm attracted to the high places, the deep places, the remote and unusual places. This is what led me in the summer of 2007 to a cave, deep in the Tatra mountains in the Slovak highlands. The cave is only known to local alpinists and speleologists, luckily my friend was one of them, we geared up and took the bus to the last bus stop. From the bus stop it would be several hours of hiking through rough terrain, which ended in the final climb to the cave, a near vertical rockface of about 200 meters high. The cave itself was twisted around the mountain, to get to the main cave we had to crawl through several smaller caves, these caves were once part of the main cave but now lie eroded by the millenia of raw elemental force. Once at the main cave we dropped our gear and needed some time to catch our breath, only then I noticed the magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and pristine pine forests, nature in all it's beauty without the scars of our ''civilized'' world, it was a scene that left me in awe. After making a little fire and roasting some sausages it was time to explore the cave. The entrance was huge, after walking through the cave for about a 100 meters we came to what appeared to be a dead end, after looking around with the light we found multiple ''corridors'' running in different directions. To get to a corridor we had to climb a couple of meters over slippery rocks, when we got there the corridor was about another 100 meters, there were small pools of water, water dripping from the ceiling a process that slowly creates stalactites and other beautiful structures. The cave was beautiful we explored a couple of other corridors as well after about 2 hours we had to get outside for it was quite cold and very humid in the cave, by the time we got outside it was already dark but still warm and after we made a fire we felt very comfortable.
This good setting was perfect for a nice trip, I packed 5 grams of dried psilocybe cubensis ''equador'', which would be just enough for two people. We both ingested the mushrooms and then came the waiting period of anticipation and excitement. After about 30 minutes the initial effects manifested as a tingling in my jaw and upper legs, this tingling spread through the whole body and gained in intensity. At this point I noticed the visual effects, the pine trees looked distorted and started to vibrate rhythmically. The surrounding hills were bathed is some kind of bright light, it took me a while to realize that this was because of the bright star light, stars filled the clear mountain sky aswell. When the psychoactive effects were at their peak we decided to explore the cave again, luckily I had the flashlight in my pocket or else it would have been impossible to find it. At fist we started to walk into the darkness without the flashlight, it proved to be quite hard because there we lots of large boulders and smaller rocks about but the visual effects were ecstatic, fractal patterns of great complexity morphed out of total darkness, with colors, which were more vivid and intense then colors during daylight. A little further in the cave the flashlight had to be used in order not to fall off some rocks, with the light we could see the walls of the cave which looked alive, the surface of the wall was covered in vein like structures of mineral deposits which were throbbing as if the cave was a living entity based on inorganic chemistry and governed by the geophysical processes.
When we got to the main open area about a 100 meters into the cave we put the light out and enjoyed the dark in silence, though the cave was all but silent water was dripping slowly on many sides which was hypnotic and very pleasant. A gliding sound startled us out of our meditative state which turned out to be a bat flying around us in circles, after figuring out it was a bat it got me quite exited for the sound was very nice and intense when it passed by within centimeters of us, actually feeling the wind which it produced. After the bat left to do its thing the focus was on the fractal patterns again, which were morphing so quickly as hard to describe the shape, it was like flowing water of multicolored particles. We found a small hole in the wall after we switched the light on so I went to explore it, I had to squeeze trough the first 10 meters and after that it widened a bit though the floor was basically mud and very sticky then after another 10 meters there were puddles of crystal clean water. So we went back to the claustrophobically narrow place and decided to stay there, I found some chocolate in my pocket so we broke it up and ate it while I put the light out to enjoy the total darkness a bit more. After some time we went outside to warm up next to the fire, the visual effects were slowly ebbing away so I went to lie down in my sleeping bag. I found a beautiful caterpillar, which I must have watched for at least an hour for when the visual effects of the mushrooms subside eye sight is much keener then normal, this allowed me to see every tiny detail of the caterpillar even the moving jaws of the little insect it was quite fascinating. While lying in my sleeping bag it started to rain, luckily we were covered by the cave wall overhead or else we would have been completely wet for we had no tent. I fell asleep after hours of contemplation on whatever topic came to mind, something like free association.
The thing I most like about low doses of mushrooms is that it lets you look through the eyes of a young child, everything is novel, fascinating and adventure lurks around every corner and this is something that has seeped into my waking life, hallucinogenic experiences have left their mark on me in many ways. Life seems to become more fascinating by the day, novel experiences can be found everywhere you just have to seek them out same with adventure and as I grow older the possibilities are just increasing.
|
Wow, a cave trip. I live about 4hours south of the DeSoto caverns, but I've never been there. I've never seen a cave at all. I can only imagine how wonderfully interesting it was, even before the cubes. Sounds like one of those nights that stay in your mind for the rest of your life.
-------------------- My favorites are weeping willows, which aren't really weeping at all. They're very wispy, witty and will dance in the breeze with you. Nothing like a tree that wants to dance with you. Although it doesn't like its thin limbs being pulled at all, it absolutely LOVES it when you walk through them, letting them gently slide over your face and shoulders. If you're naked, the willow considers it to be sex. It will orgasm on your mind and you will blow dream chunks into outer space. All very fun until your neighbor sees you. -The Joekenorer
|