DOSE:	3.5 g	oral	Mushrooms	(dried)
		smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

125 lb

It was the Fourth of July. Myself and my three good friends (we'll call them Dan, Luke, and Steve) each had an eigth and a half of mushrooms. We got our gear together, picked out a spot, and went camping. The prospect of communing with nature, mushrooms, and colorful explosions in the sky all at the same time was exciting. I remember thinking the night before, 'I haven't been this excited for something since Christmas Eve when I was a little kid.'

I had done mushrooms upwards of 15 times before that night. It would, however, be the first time I ate more than an eighth at once.

We all dosed at approx. 6:00pm. It didn't take more than 15 minutes before I felt that familiar body high sneaking up and buzzing through my body. Shortly thereafter, Luke vomitted his shrooms. 'I had to man!' I remember him saying, 'It would have been too intense if I didn't throw up.'

Luke's words started to psyche me out, and I began to feel sick myself. I needed to sit down. Then, I needed to lay down.

I crawled into the nearest tent and crashed out. It was as though the nasuea spread through my whole body, leaving me utterly weak and powerless. The inside of the tent was amassed with visuals swirling in slow motion. Everything outside the tent, however, was amassed in fast-forward hallucinations. My friends were not feeling the same way I was and wanted to do some hiking. I understand. I was left alone.

In reality, my physical discomfort was due to the large quantity of poison I had ingested on an empty stomache. In my mind, it felt as though I was on the steep drop of a rollercoaster for upwards of an hour and a half, holding on for dear life.

Tool's 3rd album Aenima was with me and in many respects guided that part of the trip. Certain lyrics echoed in my head and stripped me down to the only real meaning in life: '...to breath, to feel, to know I'm alive...'

In time, the poison passed and my trip became more pleasurable. I crawled out of the tent once the sun had gone down, about the same time that Steve returned to camp. Luke and Danny were already at the point where we they could see fireworks (about a quarter mile from camp). Steve was setting into a very powerful psychosis at that time and refused to journey with me to go see fireworks. 'How many Fourth of July's do I have to go through!?' he was shouting. I stayed with him and we completely missed the fireworks.

Soon, I became overwhelmed with a feeling of having 'to get out of here'. It was completely dark and we hadn't seen Luke or Danny in hours. I said my goodbyes to Steve and ventured into the forest alone. It didn't take long before I met back up with my other friends. They had forgotten to take a flashlight with them and had been running, acutally running!, through the forest in near total dark for the past hour trying to get back to camp. The group was whole again I was feeling a hell of a lot better.

We got a campfire going, put on some techno, and watched Luke dance with his lights. Several bowls of smoked cannabis helped elevate the things to a very glowing, even magical experience. Steve, on the other hand, was in the throws of Ego Death. It took a couple hours before we finally coaxed him out of his tent. His pants were soaked in piss. He was a changed person.

If there is one thing that stood out about that trip for me, it was how effortlessly the mushrooms could bounce me from extreme ends of the emotional spectrum. That night was both terrifying and terrific, pure hell and pure joy...as with everything, a paradox.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 26073
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 4, 2019	Views: 586
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