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Cactus in Alaska
Cacti - T. peruvianus
Citation:   Dave Ray. "Cactus in Alaska: An Experience with Cacti - T. peruvianus (exp21304)". Erowid.org. Oct 22, 2003. erowid.org/exp/21304

 
DOSE:
90 g oral Cacti - T. peruvianus (dried)
BODY WEIGHT: 200 lb
2 years ago I joined the Army. To make a long story short, I got sent to Alaska, hated the life, and used other mind altering subtances to intentionally fail a urinalysis. Now I'm out, now I have a job, and I want to have fun again. Alaska is well known for its marijuana since the laws here are quite a bit less complicated than anywhere else, but I've never been a big fan of the stuff. In my short lifetime I've ingested more hallucinogens than anyone I've actually met in person. My drug of choice: lsd. I've been through a lot of experiences and seen a lot of different things, and I loved it. Now I'm in Alaska and I can't get shit. Weed and meth, that's all I see in Fairbanks.

Once again, I hurry the story along to the decision to find some cacti. I failed in my first attempt. I ordered a whole San Pedro cactus of a different variety, skinned it, boiled it down, dried the skin. In my excitement, I opted to drink the juice, powder and try to swallow the skin, and eat the darker green chunks of fruit. Boy was that a mistake. No matter what I mixed everything with, the result was a substance so bitter and foul tasting that every swallow made me gag and almost lose it all. Once I had finally choked it all down I had a horrible two hours of almost losing every bit of the substance. Eventually, my stomach quieted down and I began to feel the onset of something very very new. My skin began to tingle over every inch of my body, slowly at first, I wasn't sure if I was imagining it. As it slowly incresed however, I knew something was happening because my mind just dropped off into a dreamy state. For the next three hours I sat there touching things that felt new and interesting, and waiting for everything to kick in.

When I started to come down and feel normal again, I did everything I could to keep tricking myself into thinking it was only getting better, and that I would see something any second. The more I stared waiting for the hallucinations, the more I triggered tiny acid flashbacks and excited myself for a few seconds. In the end I was depressed, I came back to the real world without any new or profound experiences to sharew with everyone. I had done something wrong, perhaps I had the wrong cactus, perhaps I should have doubled the dose. I don't know, but at least I had no ill side effects.

Take 2:
Here comes another installment of my military bonus. I have discovered that the peruvian torch contains a larger amount of mescaline than the original cactus that I had sampled. I find the perfect thing, I order 90 grams of the dried skin of a tricocherous peruvianus. It arrives and I get to work. Using a normal hand blender and a coffee mug I begin to grind it all. It works very well. I bought 00 sized empty capsules at the nearby hippie health store. To my dismay they did not have any capsuling tools available. By hand I loaded over 70 to 80 capsules. By the time I was done I didn't have the patience to look for anyone to help me sample the goodies. I broke out the orange juice to make sure the extra acids in it would break down the cactus quicker than I could digest it and pass it through and began downing pills two at a time. By the time I finished a couple hours later, I felt sick to my stomach from the amount of orange juice and funny tasting large pills in my stomach, which was otherwise empty.

I suddenly had a sickening realization... in my research I had read an article in which someone using this same method (who claimed to be a veteran acid user from the 60s) had eaten approx. 60 grams of the same material and had ended up 'tripping' harder than he ever wanted to. I worked up a nice 'fuck whatever happens' attitude and settled down in the back of my friend's car to await the arrival of something I could already feel would be good. I remained very very ill for the coming on stages, so ill that I couldnt be sure anything was even happening for a while. After the ride from hell, in which I was sure I was going to lose all my hard work, time, and money, I settled down in a recliner and leaned back while my friend played a well known video game including cars, hookers, and killing.

So here I am, my eyes are closed, I'm gritting my teeth, and I'm listening to the music on the game trying to drown out the hell that I'm in. Somewhere along the line, and I can't say exactly when though, the music became better I should say. I found myself listening very closely to the music of the video game and enjoying the hell out of it. In fact, my stomach problems had left. I was in a very dreamlike state, and felt that perhaps I was sleeping. Another half hour had passed, in which time my friend decided I was sleeping, considering I hadn't moved or opened my eyes. I could feel the music creeping through my eyelids, which was very strange for me considering that all memories of taking the pills had long since left me. All of the bass was very well pronounced. In fact it was coming in waves, waves that I could see behind my eyelids. The waves of music would wash up and down to the beat and I was quite content to sit with my eyes closed and listen to what was probably a rap song about death and rape, and believe that it was music from heaven.

The memory of taking the pills came back to me once the waves of music began to take shape. Now, I've noticed with acid that there are phases, or moods if you will, that change throughout your experience. I don't mean to sound pornographic, but my first phase could only be described as horny. The waves of music became three women dancing to the music, so real, so there, but lacking bodies... they were made up from vibrations. Now I won't go into detail but these women responded to my thoughts and whims, which I will admit were on their basest of levels. Everything became real, I could feel, taste, sense, smell everything that was happening all the while ignoring a strange electronic buzz in the back of my brain. I'm not sure how long I flopped around on that chair with imaginary women, but eventually my friend turned off the game, everything disappeared and he asked me what the hell I was doing. A little embarassed, I simple told him that 'this shit is definitely working.' What I was in for though... I had no clue He told me that I'd better be decent enough to come out for the punk show that night. I naturally told him that I'd be fine.

Exp Year: 2003ExpID: 21304
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 22, 2003Views: 16,062
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Cacti - T. peruvianus (69) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Preparation / Recipes (30), First Times (2)

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