Hi forum, this is my first post here.
It seems appropriate to introduce myself as I'm a reasonably seasoned psychonaut and also because yesterday, I embarked on three hypserspatial excursions using a spice enriched herb. I'm 42, and haven't (until yesterday) embarked on such entheogenic adventures for probably somewhere in the region of eighteen years.
Previous notable adventures are listed on Erowid, just Google 'Psychohedron', and 'Umpsquamadic Peel'
All other voyages since then have been purely grounded in regular dream journaling, lucid dreaming and meditative practices.
However, as Terence McKenna planted seeds in my mind sometime around 1993, that there was something one could do to experience 'elf space' I had been very interested in following his advice, unfortunately, it took twenty one years to actually meet a man who knows a man... Needless to say, patience pays off eventually.
So, back to yesterday. I'd tried dipping my toes a couple of weeks ago, just to gauge how it felt. Nothing close to a breakthrough. Yesterday was all about breaking through. Sitting one was quite a joy, all apprehension that has built up to the experience evaporated very quickly. The sense of having entered another place was something I initially struggled to articulate, however as I arrived there, in the bewildering bombardment of rainbow geometries, I was acutely aware of the presence of someone there waiting for me, it felt like a friend who was both pleased and amused to see me. The 'friend' was doing something to me that somehow involved those incredible arrays of tessellated geometries. Then it began to fade. I caught myself saying aloud to my co-pilot
"They're waiting for you...."
"My God, we've got friends in high places."
And then I laughed because it was his turn next and he too, up until that point, had been a spice virgin.
Sitting Two ( a few hours later)
Having both been blown away by the previous episode, we decided to go again. I felt very little apprehension this time, sure there is the racing heart as the journey commences, but once outer orbit is reached, all tension falls away.
Now I'm paying attention, really looking to comprehend all that was shown with eyes wide closed. This is the most difficult part to articulate because I'm fully aware that much of the experience is abstract.
Almost as if directly continuing from earlier, I started to realise that the friendly intelligence (of which there might have been more than one) was desperately trying to show me something. Absurd as it might sound, I felt as if 'they' were roughly three to four shadowy men wearing straw boater hats, they stepped around my witnessing consciousness and seemed to be holding something open like a bag full of shifting geometry spewing out all over me. The sense that this was like some kind of magic trick, each sweeping gesture as they gathered around me felt very much as if they were saying 'Look...Look...LOOK, LOOK at THIS'
Once again, it started to fade, body awareness returned. I've never known anything like this, I've really seen some phenomenally weird things, but this ...THIS, really defines the expression 'A sense of the uncanny'
I'd forgotten to mention two things earlier: One, I found deep, fourfold breath (as in meditation breathing) really helps with bringing about a sense of calm during the experience.
Two: Common to all experiments so far, there was a definite sense of an inner light source. The light being on, being the thing that allows one to see in the otherwise darkened room that is the everyday state of being in one's own head.
Sitting Three.
How could we resist a third and final voyage for the day?
This was perhaps the most intense and seemed to characteristically follow in a linear continuity of the previous two sittings.
Now utterly intrigued and ready to explore further, two magical deep breaths and...in!
Those shadowy figures in their boater hats still danced around me, like some weird kind of mime artists dressed almost like stage magicians*, a sweep of a cape or the revealing of a large bag erupting with immense geometry "Look,LOOK!" It was clear that they were conveying it, wordlessly with elegant rainbow like gestures. I looked and I began to realise that there in their flow of cascading geometry was a kind of Aztecan antechamber, and a distinct light source. This was the same light that was filling my mind, enabling me to see that which was hidden before.
The light however was elusive, occasionally being blotted out by the veil like cascades of geometry , only to appear somewhere else a moment later. But I felt "They are showing me the light, they want me to see it".
It seemed to be the point that dawned upon my witnessing mind as bodily awareness crept back in. With a sudden drop in intensity, I opened my eyes to see the shifting mandala, that Is my personal laboratory still undulating and pulsing in the most delightful manner. I told my friend that such visual effects are like a 'Parting gift from those guys on the other side" My friend seemed to know exactly what I meant.
Just as well, because it was his turn next.
He managed two deep breaths and handed me the still smouldering launch apparatus...it would have been rude to leave it alone....
AND back in again, except this time, bucking previous trends I decided to keep my eyes open to behold what may ever accompany that experience. Admittedly, I was shocked all over again, where they making my room/lab happen? It looked like they were dancing in my peripheral making the space around me erupt into a super 3D, high-def version of its ordinary self. Every surface backlit with the brilliant light of those skilful dancing others. I glanced ahead at the flowing damask wallpaper, pleased that I'd chosen it for such moments as these. I was momentarily surprised when another layer of geometry, like a wireframe Lego cube manifested in the air in front of the wall. I thought to myself "And I thought having my eyes closed was bizarre!"
Meanwhile my companion had managed to somehow prepare and consume another deep breath...at some point near the end of his own adventure, he let out a little laugh. It appeared that the living pyramid entity that had been entertaining him had decided that having got my friend's full attention, it would have a little fun, It manifested a pouting mouth that broke into a radiant smile. My friend seemed to get the humour just before he was propelled back to terra firma.
*About those shadowy people who may or may not be magicians wearing boater hats. This is the hardest and most abstract definition I can offer, they weren't elves, it would be a incorrect to say they were human even, it seemed that they could only be seen in an odd kind of peripheral vision. Perhaps it was because they seemed to dance, perhaps because something of their strange gestures reminded me of arms moving in a dramatic way. Remembering them now, I can see them in my mind, yet I cannot. Like a physical thing collapsing into a metaphor, no longer having defined edges, eyes, a nose and a mouth.
So yes, one day in your life can change so much about your outlook. For me, its the knowledge that they are there, there is that place and yes, I have returned with more questions than answers. I will read through this forum and try to establish ways of making a more prolonged contact. I have a friend who has a friend called Aya, I've been invited to meet her so perhaps....
In the meanwhile, delighted to meet you and share this experience.