This is a brief report covering my first two low dose mushroom experiences. Compared to my later explorations with the Mushroom, these are relatively uninteresting. However, I thought it would be interesting to have complete records of my mushroom experiences available.

My first encounter with the mushroom took place at a campground in Ohio. I was there with some friends who were going to see the Dead. The whole campground was full of Deadheads, and I was looking to pick up a new experience. A nice old guy sold me an eighth of mushrooms for $20. I was excited.

That night I wrapped about half of what he had sold me (around 1.5 g) in some bread and munched my mushroom sandwich down. I didn't find the taste too objectionable. It reminded me of unsweetened baking chocolate. Bitter, but not really unpleasant. It took a while to come on and was very mellow. I was used to LSD, and in comparison mushrooms were positively sedating. I felt good, and altered, but I wasn't really "tripping". It was probably equivalent to a half hit of blotter acid. Pleasant, but not strong. I noticed that colors were particularly groovy. I spent some time walking around the campground with a guy named Snoopy. We were talking about death, and my fear of it. He said "You can't get out of life alive" which struck me as very profound. I still repeat that phrase to this day, when it seems appropriate. I stood outside of someone's tent and listened to Jane's Addiction playing inside. I asked if I could come in and sit for a minute, and they rudely told me to get lost (frat guys at Dead shows...). It was a mellow but nice evening. I wasn't all that impressed with mushrooms, though. I thought of them as a mild LSD.

My second experience was years later. On that occasion, some friends of mine from out of town came by with some shrooms. I didn't really feel like tripping, but my girlfriend talked me into it. We ate a cap and stem apiece, then split another. Total weight ~.75 g.

We were watching the movie Broken Arrow while we ate the shrooms. By the time the movie was over, I was starting to feel the familiar psychedelic "headspace". We sat and talked with my roommate and our friends for a while, until M, my girlfriend, decided she wanted to leave. I was kind of put off by this, since she had talked me into eating the shrooms and was now seemingly abandoning me. But she wanted me to go with her, leaving my friends. I was kind of displeased with her, since I hadn't seen my friends in a while, and wasn't sure when I would see them again. However, this was the first time we had tripped together, so I went.

Walking outside was lovely. Everything seemed very organic and beautiful. All the trees seemed very alive. It felt really good to be walking. I was a little paranoid to be outside, but at that point in my life, I was little paranoid all the time. We got in her car and headed off.

On the ride over I was remarkably calm. Usually, I do NOT like to be in a car while tripping. Especially when the driver is also tripping. However, I felt completely in control of my faculties. Even though everything was grooving and flowing and being trippy, I wasn't out of it at all. I was extremely calm, as well.

We arrived at her house, which was full of people. I didn't mention I was tripping, just sat there and smiled at everyone and tried to be inconspicuous. M was running around, being a bit of a spaz. She had gone on this "child reversion" type trip. She wanted to color and play with toys, and she was insisting I join her. All I really felt like doing was sitting and grooving on the shrooms. She got frustrated with me and went off to play by herself. I put in a CD and chilled out.

I remember there was a spider plant in her living room. It was very vibrantly alive, and a beautiful shade of green. As I was looking at it, I became aware that it wasn't merely a thing, but another being. I didn't make any judgements about its intelligence, just noted that it too was alive.

M decided to give me another chance and returned with her crayons and coloring books. I did my best to be interested, but in truth I was mostly annoyed. I had been having doubts about our relationship for a while and I realized, quite suddenly, that it (the relationship) was over. I seriously considered breaking things off right then, but I thought I should think about it for a day or two before I made any rash decisions. Deep down, I knew it was right, however.

We hung out for a while longer, then returned to my house to spend the end of our trip. We smoked some dope and sat around talking and listening to Julian Cope until about 2:30 am, when we went to bed and had sex. Although it was on the tail end of the mushrooms, it still had the aura of psychedelic sex (which in case you haven't tried it, is quite impressive!). This is the one time (so far) I have had sex while on mushrooms, but it was very pleasant.

That's about it for my first two mushroom trips. In case you wondered, M and I did part ways soon after, just as I knew we would. I put it off for a few days, but my mushroom realization was 100% accurate. Low dose shrooms are nice, but not nearly as impressive (or distinctive) as high dose adventures.