DOSE:

3.5 g

oral

Mushrooms - P. cubensis

(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

64 kg

Previous experience: cannabis, cocaine, mdma, ketamine, 2cb, lsd, 1p-lsd, many unknown substances

Having had many positive experiences with lsd and 2cb at moderate doses, I wanted to give mushrooms a try. I did a lot of research and found an awful lot of conflicting information regarding the comparison of mushroom and acid trips, so I decided to just bite the bullet and give them a try. I sourced 3.5 grams of dried Amazonian PES (P Cubensis) mushrooms and prepared for the trip.

Preparation / consumption:

I decided the simplest way to consume the mushrooms was to cut up the dry whole mushrooms and eat them with a bit of chocolate to take the taste away.

Set / setting:

Current mental state was slightly below baseline due to consuming mdma 4 days prior. I wondered if this would dampen the trip and make it less intense, or perhaps less enjoyable. In addition I had microdosed with psilocybin mushrooms the same day and wondered if that would cause a tolerance effect. I considered postponing the trip to a later date, however due to a busy work schedule in the following weeks I decided I would rather take the trip sooner rather than later. I made the decision to try and trip in a local park with a river, since I’d heard about mushrooms being more nature oriented. I was slightly nervous about taking a new psychedelic substance away from the safety of home, however since I’ve tripped at home many times on lsd I hoped this would be a new and different experience. I planned for the shrooms to kick in at sunrise.

Report:

06:45 - Consumed the mushrooms, with a bar of chocolate. Put coat on and brought only my phone, headphones, wallet and some emergency cash. Booked a taxi so I could get to the park quickly without walking through the city

07:00 - Taxi ride. I feel a bit of anxiety but nothing overwhelming. Definitely aware I have taken something but nothing obvious yet.

07:15 - Taxi arrives near the park. I planned to walk the remaining 10 minutes along a wooded river path to the main park. I realise because it’s January its still dark. and I struggle to see where I am walking along the unlit woodland path.

07:25 - Arrive at the bridge I would cross to the park, however it is closed off. Drat. How am I going to find the park now? I get slightly anxious at this point, but quickly re-assure myself that the park is nearby and there will be another entrance.

07:30 - I made it! found the entrance to the park - relief. Trees starting to look sharper, floor starting to look a little wavey, but very chilled onset of visual effects. Feel a peculiar sense of being slightly stoned, slightly wired and slightly excited at the same time.

07:35 - Spot a log, first thought is that it looks like a large snake. I laugh, and start to wonder whether this trip is going to get intense or be relatively mild. Opposing ideas start to appear spontaneously in my mind regarding how this trip might turn out compared to acid.

07:45 - Bright colours now clearly visible, with some basic geometric patterns oozing out of everything. Bloody hell, it’s only an hour in! I keep walking further until I cross a bridge and walk into the woods.

08:00 - This is a moment I will never forget. I got the strong feeling in my body / head, as well as a visual of the mushroom appearing. It took about a second, the mushroom just appeared in my head, and gave me a nod. The mushroom thanked me for choosing and consuming it. I thanked the mushroom for the wisdom it was about to impart. That was the first hint of the “magic” in the magic mushroom. From there on in I felt very at peace. I decide to allow the mushroom to “teach me”, expecting some fairly serious personal work like would be typical in an acid trip. I also anticipated the innate sense of balance between positive and negative.

08:05 - I put in my headphones and find my first track - a groovy house track called “Boogie Trippin” by Chris Stussy. Wow! That sounds awesome! As soon as the music starts I get an immense sense of fun coursing through my body. The mushroom reminds me that it is natural medicine, and will give me what I need, not necessarily what I want. I agree to the terms and conditions, expecting something challenging to come up.

08:06 - The mushroom gives me the sense that because I treated it with respect and tried to make the most out of the trip, that it would reciprocate and give me an easy time. Relief! A sense of mutual respect develops. I will bear this in mind when taking them again.

08:10 - The mushroom lets me know that what I need - is more fun in life. That was the lasting moment of the trip. It was one of the main take home messages, and it persisted for the whole of the trip. This was an amazing feeling, and I stayed in that “headspace” so to speak for the whole trip. This was in contrast to my previous lsd trips which sent my headspace to many different levels.

08:25 - A golden retriever is extremely excited to see me. Of course it is! I wondered what it would be like to be in dog mode - just wanting to have fun all the time. I also wondered why we as humans aren’t like that. Surely that is the natural goal of any life once basic survival needs are met.

08:30 - Having stopped for a minute and seen an explosion of cartoon imagery and geometric shapes, I decided that all I wanted to do was be still and sit somewhere and try staring at something for a while and meditating. I want my bed, so bad!

08:45 - Booked a taxi back home. The driver is named after a famous boxer. I chuckle, but am almost unable to read the map on the uber app directing me to where he is parked. Eventually I found him, and had an animated conversation on the way home. I don’t think he could tell that I was tripping since I managed to speak and act fairly normally (something I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do).

09:00 - Got home and get into bed. Set up dj controller and speaker and put the tunes on. Wow this is so much better than headphones! I play some music and stare at the wall for a good hour while the open and closed eye visuals keep on coming.

10:00 - Visuals and sensations start to fade slowly and I can tell the trip is beginning to wear off. I’m still in amazement at how much of a positive trip I just had, and I am left with the overall message of “letting things flow” naturally. It all feels so easy to go with the flow.

11:00 - trip is pretty much done, I decide to run a couple of errands and then try to sleep.

Summary:

I was really surprised at how positive and easy-going that trip was. There was almost nothing challenging or negative involved, and it shifted my perception a little on how to approach life in general. I’m definitely intrigued to try a larger dose, though I’m fully aware higher dose experiences will not be as easy-going as this one. Compared to acid I would say the mushrooms were definitely more unpredictable in effects, which came on very suddenly and in waves (rather than like the fairly linear lsd).

Emotionally I was much more stable on shrooms (stayed at a fairly consistent level once the trip was going) and the duration was much shorter (~ 5 hours vs the 20 hour 500 μg acid trip I’d previously had). Visually I felt the shrooms were stronger for the level of the trip (i.e. a fairly mild trip with fairly strong visuals compared to lsd requiring a fairly intense trip to get the same level). This is only one trip however and I can fully see how every trip can be unique and different. This time round there was very little “personal work” to be done, however depending on life circumstances this may be very different.

Exp Year: 2020	ExpID: 114008
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 25
Published: Feb 8, 2020	Views: 1,947
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Mushrooms - P. cubensis (66) : Public Space (Museum, Park, etc) (53), General (1)