January 3, 1998 I decided to visit the mushroom again. In preparation I restricted all other drugs (caffeine and cannabis), white sugar, eggs and milk from my diet for three days prior. For the last 24 hours I fasted, drinking only water and peppermint tea. My final preparations consisted of getting my things together and doing a quick invocation. At 7:00 p.m. I ingested approximately 5 gm powdered mushrooms in orange juice. I should note that my dosage is eyeballed, and not weighed out, since I am currently without a suitable scale.

After ingestion I moved into my bedroom and sat on the floor. I left the lights on and let my mind wander. After 8-10 minutes I started feeling alerts, mostly a pressure on my temples and in my sinuses. I felt the urge to lie down, but resisted it. The light took on a peculiar quality, hard to describe. I continued to feel the urge to lie down, so I finally shut off the light and did so.

Once the lights were off the mushrooms rushed in with a vengeance. Squealing filter noises and liquid oscillations soon manifested themselves for my listening pleasure. Mushrooms often have a strong audio component, especially as they are first coming on. My stomach was in distress as usual, so I concentrated on lying very still to minimize upset.

I quickly entered a deep trance state. My ego began dissolving and before too long I had little or no conception of who or where I was. I began identifying with and experiencing existence from the point of view of various different people I know. I was confused as to who I actually was. All my familiar boundaries and reference points were absent.

During the time I was lying on the floor in trance, I felt quite ill. In addition, I felt a strange pressure on my face, especially the upper half. It felt like my skin was being pulled tight. It wasn't painful or even uncomfortable, just weird.

After a while I got up to use the bathroom. I opened the door to my room and walked into the bathroom. In the bathroom, with lights on, I saw complex patterns crawling over every surface, and forming in the air in front of me. As I stood in front of the toilet pissing, my mind started to slip back into a tranced state. I had to concentrate to maintain focus to finish the job at hand.

After I finished, I didn't leave the bathroom, but sat in the doorway. After sitting down I went back into trance and my mind began rushing along at a tremendous rate. I felt giant energies moving through me. It felt like the energy of suns was exploding within my brain. It was very overwhelming. I was lost in this maelstrom.

At this time I began wondering exactly what I was doing. I had a flash of science fiction paranoia, where I thought I had been compelled to seek out and take mushrooms by some alien force. I was unsure whether or not I wanted to be tripping at this moment. I had the usual feeling of "I'm dying". It seems no matter how often one goes through the process of ego death, there is always part of your mind that insists "This time we really are dying". I remembered to let my mind flow, rather than being tense or trying to force the trip into a certain direction and was soon in more friendly territory again.

My vision seemed to be remarkably clear. Although I wasn't wearing my glasses, I was able to see quite well.

My thoughts were circling on the origin of religion. I thought about some things I had been reading about Sufis believing their religion is the basis of all religions, and my own thoughts that all religion is basically the same. The thoughts about Sufi gave the trip a middle eastern feel, and the phrase "The genii is back in the lamp" leapt into my mind.

I was having flashes of the previous few days. I was reliving moments from my very recent past. In addition, I began experiencing variations on recent events, things that didn't happen but could have. For example, I recently watched the Dark Crystal with some friends of mine, and in my "flashback" of the event, I had my daughter with me, though she wasn't there in real life. I felt like I was plugged into the database of all existence, able to view all the events of my life as they had occurred, and as they hadn't occurred, but might have.

I also had flashes of other's trips. I am in the midst of reading Leary's High Priest, which details a number of different trips. I experienced flashes of some of these trips as I sat there.

About this time I was lying on the bathroom floor. My nausea was still present, but not as fiercely as it had been. As I was lying there tranced out, I suddenly knew I was going to be sick. I struggled up and made it to the toilet. I was violently ill, puking around four times. Afterwards, I felt 100% better, lighter than air, and free of all the negativity of the earlier part of the trip.

My imagery and visuals began to take on a snakelike aspect. I had spent part of the day earlier looking at eels at an aquarium store, and the night before I had had a vivid dream about snakes. Images of worms, eels, and snakes entered my brain.

One of the other main influences on the trip was Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. This is one of my favorite books. I had finished rereading it only days previous. I spent a fair amount of time exploring themes from the book, and applying the language and point of view of the story to my trip and life in general.

The trip felt suffused with plant energy. I felt I was experiencing a plant's viewpoint, feeling water coming through my roots and the sun on my leaves. I looked at my salvia plants later and felt a deep connection to them.

After a while I returned to my room. I curled up on the floor and let myself slip back into trance. My mind explored various aspects of my trip as I lay there. I felt completely suffused with joy, and I found myself making these strange "happy noises". I decided to turn on my tape recorder and record some of these. I started tape and got a sample or two on tape. I decided while I had the recorder on to explore some vocalizations. I spent fifteen or twenty minutes making noise and recording it. It was fun and it sounded incredibly cool. I also played with a small hand drum, recording my performance.

I was able to return to any point on my life and feel as if I were there. It was like perfect recall of the memory. While I was "in the past" I could also see the present, and how the actions I had taken then led to where I was. I explored some parts of my childhood and some of my early entheogen experiences in this manner.

At various points in the trip I was thinking about my job, and specifically my attitude towards it. I was able to release a lot of job related stress and refocus my energy on doing my job correctly, as I see it. I thought about a lot of the people I work with and how interesting it would be to shroom with some of them. It also occurred to me that company mushroom trips would really help boost morale and teamwork, if only I could convince my boss to implement them...

While I was lying on the floor zoned out I had a strange experience. There was a small band of light in my visual field, that was coming in through the slightly open door. In the middle of this band of light, a little door appeared and opened and an elf peeked out, then shut the door, which disappeared. It wasn't manlike in any way, just a strange psychedelic imp. The word elf popped into my mind when I saw it. It seemed like a little "easter egg" in the sense of the hidden jokes in some software.

After an hour or so of this I decided it was time to go see some friends and wind down the trip. I spent a few minutes cleaning everything up and reflecting back on the trip. On the walk over to their house it was intensely beautiful. It was cold and foggy and everything looked enchanted. I couldn't have been in a better mood.

When I arrived at my friends I did some stretches. I was able to put either leg behind my head with ease, something that is normally impossible for me to do. I was very flexible in general.

We sat around talking about the trip and smoked some cannabis. I hung out over there for a few hours then returned home to write and listen to music for a bit before going to bed. I awoke in excellent spirits, feeling wonderful.

This was a superb trip. It started off a little rough and somewhat overwhelming, but smoothed out into a first rate experience by the peak. As in the best trips, it gave me new perspective on several issues I had been contemplating and left me feeling spiritually refreshed and ready to return to my life. A very positive experience.