REPORTHey all! I’ve just had my first mushroom trip and begun what I hope will be a long journey with psychoactives. The experience wasn’t without its problems, but it was a success overall.
I had been planning and preparing for quite some time and had constructed the perfect tripping space in my basement with surround sound speakers, comfy furniture, and soft lighting. My best friend had agreed to sit for me and came over in the evening. At around 11:30 (we waited until late at night to avoid interruptions), I brewed a tea with 1.25 grams of Mazatec mushrooms, lemon, ginger, chamomile, and peppermint. I drank it and sat back to wait for the effects to begin. Time passed, and I felt nothing. I waited and waited, and at about the two-and-a-half-hour mark, I still had felt no effects. I had been fasting for most of the day to try and avoid nausea during the trip (I have a really queasy stomach, and I hate vomiting) and I was incredibly hungry. I hadn’t felt any nausea, so I decided that it was time to eat something. I ate half a container of trail mix, then I chatted with my friend, and made a controversial decision. A decision I almost NEVER make. I decided to take more. I figured that if the peak of a trip was 3 hours in, and I hadn’t felt anything at the two-and-a-half-hour mark, I wasn’t going to feel anything. I decided that I must have either made the tea wrong, or I had bad mushrooms. I measured out 1.1g and decided to eat them whole this time. I was a little bit nervous, since I had just eaten all that trail mix, but I had been planning this evening for so long, I was DETERMINED to feel something, so I took the risk of vomiting and ate the second dose. I almost immediately felt a burst of energy and began pacing the room, speaking to my friend very quickly and animatedly about various topics. I assume this was just the effect of my blood sugar spiking after not eating all day, but I may be wrong about that. I sat and had a long conversation with my friend, talking about death, happiness, education, life, and whatnot for an hour or two. By this point it was about 4 in the morning. I felt a mild stoned effect, and I was probably having slightly deeper thoughts than usual, but other than that, I was really feeling no major effects. I was also still feeling very energized and did not feel the need to sleep, but my friend was very tired, and it looked as though I wasn’t going to be feeling any serious effects, since it had been about 2 hours since I had taken the second dose, so I told him he could go to bed. We turned off the lights, and I sat there in the dark, listening to ambient music by Brian Eno. As soon as I stopped talking and began to turn my focus inward, I started to feel something. My eyeballs almost felt like they were vibrating in my head, and I felt very connected to everything else. I closed my eyes and began to experience very light visuals. At first, I really had to focus to see the visuals, which were just multicolored patterns, as though I was imagining them, rather than seeing them, but slowly the things in my mind’s eye took on a much more realistic effect, requiring less effort to see them as they solidified. Two of the visions I remember particularly vividly were that of a papercraft dragon curling itself around a massive tree (think Teldrassil from World of Warcraft) and that of shooting down a multicolored tunnel, with the feeling that it was some sort of blood vessel, but filled with life energy, rather than blood. As I reached the center of this circulatory system of energy (some sort of heart) I felt the closest to losing control and being overwhelmed in the whole trip. The visions almost felt like waking dreams. I had no control over the visions like I would in a lucid dream, rather I just sat back and observed as my mind created what it wanted to. I felt very in control for most of the experience (if I felt overwhelmed, I simply opened my eyes, took a deep breath, and grounded myself), and only had a few moments where I felt as though the drug was really taking over, but I can definitely see how little control you would have on a larger dose. The effects started to disappear around 5 or 5:30 in the morning, and I felt too energized to actually sleep until about 6:00, when I finally dozed off for a while. To my surprise, at no point in my trip did I feel any nausea of any sort. I slept for a good chunk of the next day to catch up on sleep and had a slight headache in the evening, as well as a slightly upset stomach. Overall, it was a good experience, even though the timing was a bit weird. I think that I’ll try growing some of these mushrooms myself, since they were a bit expensive, but I am definitely going to try this again in the future with a slightly higher dose and better timing. I’ll also be trip sitting for my friend, since he’s interested in trying the mushrooms as well, and I believe I’ll be able to be a good sitter now that I understand the experience a bit better. Thanks for all the advice in helping me get started on this adventure, and I look forward to being a member of this community.
PRE-CONDITIONS(mind)Set: Very good. Happy and excited to be experiencing the trip.
(physical condition) Set: Healthy and energized.
Setting (location): My basement, which I had specifically designed as a place to trip.
time of day: (12 or 24 hour system, daylight? starlight? overcast?)First attempt at 11:30PM, second at around 2AM.
recent drug use: (list also any kind of medication) Had consumed a fair amount of caffeine earlier in the day, and had had one small alcoholic drink the night before.
last meal: (Time and type) Had a slice of pizza at around 5PM to tide me over, the only thing I'd eaten since a piece of toast in the morning. Before taking the second dose I ate al large amount of trail mix (this contained peanuts, cashews, almonds, m&m's, and raisins).
PARTICIPANTGender: (m / f) m
body weight: (in kg pls) 80.8 kg
known sensitivities: none
history of use: (experienced, novice, first timer - in general and for this specific substance/form) Never used mushrooms before. Only previous drugs used are cannabis edibles and alcohol.
BIOASSAYSubstance(s): (list all taken substances) Dried Mazatec Mushrooms
Dose(s): (in the same order as Substances pls, use metric system i.e. g/ mg/ �g) 1.2 g(first dose), 1.1g (second dose)
Method of administration: (dissolved in water, capsuls, insufflated, vaporized...)
Mixed into tea (first dose), eaten whole (second dose)
EFFECTSAdministration time - Timing was funky with the multiple doses. Will keep better track next time.
Intensity (overall): (use HRS-like scale i.e. 0-4: 0 = "Not at all;" 1 = "Slightly;" 2 = "Moderately;" 3 = "Quite a bit;" 4 = "Extremely."
2
Evaluation / notes:
OPTIONAL
Pleasantness: (0-4) 4
Implesantness: (0-4) 1
Visual Intensity: (0-4) 2
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AFTER-EFFECTS
Hangover: (0-4 ; what type of impleasantness ; duration) Slight headache the day after.
[b]Afterglow: (0-4 ; what type of positive effects ; duration) Felt pretty happy and positive the day after.
“ Thousands of years ago, the work that people did had been broken down into jobs that were the same every day, in organizations where people were interchangeable parts. All of the story had been bled out of their lives. That was how it had to be; it was how you got a productive economy. But it would be easy to see a will at work behind this: not exactly an evil will, but a selfish will. The people who’d made the system thus were jealous, not of money and not of power but of story. If their employees came home at day’s end with interesting stories to tell, it meant that something had gone wrong: a blackout, a strike, a spree killing. The Powers That Be would not suffer others to be in stories of their own unless they were fake stories that had been made up to motivate them.”
Excerpt From: Neal Stephenson. “Anathem.”