Set & Setting Makes the Difference
Mushrooms - P. mexicana
Citation:   RaveNation. "Set & Setting Makes the Difference: An Experience with Mushrooms - P. mexicana (exp4005)". Erowid.org. Dec 25, 2001. erowid.org/exp/4005

 
DOSE:
2.0 g oral Mushrooms - P. mexicana (dried)
BODY WEIGHT: 70 kg
10:00 PM
I ingested exactly 2 grams of P. Mexicana, which is a fairly potent shroom. After about 20 minutes, I started noticing effects. The initial signs were waves of energy flowing trough my legs gently, as if something telling me that it’s gonna be a pretty intense trip. I also noticed some surface breathing and moving. There was also a slight bodily discomfort, especially in my stomach, although far from nausea. I also began feeling a bit nervous, since I’d never tried 2 grams before, and I have always had good trips on 1 gram so I didn’t exactly know what to expect, only that I was sure I could take it.

10:30 PM
I now started noticing some visuals, heavy breathing on surfaces, colors got a lot brighter etc. If I closed my eyes at this point, nothing special happened.

10:40 PM
By now, I felt a distinct stoning effect, and the bodily discomfort got a bit worse, although it was not that bad. The visuals also began to get a bit trippy.
I was now getting more and more nervous since my last experience with LSD was the first time I experienced loss of reality, and when it happened I got into a panic state and thought I have got a psychosis or something. Really terrible. Anyway, I subconsciously thought that this would happen again, but now on shrooms instead. This only got me more nervous. Really nervous.

11:00 PM
By now, the visuals became hallucinations. They also became more intense. I was tripping with two friends who I liked pretty much at the time so they were OK trip partners. Anyway, they had ingested 1.5 grams each, so they didn’t have so intense hallucinations as I had, but they were fairly “shroomed” too. During this time, we listened to Bob Marley.

11:15 PM
As we sat there listening to music, feeling uncomfortable, we decided to go outside for some fresh air. Since there’s a park just outside my friend’s place, we decided to go there. It was about 17 deg C outside, quite comfortable, although a bit nippy. The shrooms really kicked in when we got to the park. It was now I started loosing reality. It was like; as soon as I started thinking, I experienced reality loss. It was kinda scary because it reminded me of my last LSD trip. As soon as I began talking to my friends, I kind of knew where I was, but when I started thinking to myself, reality disappeared. Spooky.

Since this happened on and off, I was totally confused, and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Anyway, we decided to go inside again, since the coming-up period didn’t feel comfortable for any of us.

When we went inside, totally disoriented, Bob Marley was still on, since we hadn’t turned off the stereo. As we sat down in the couch, I heard him singing “Everything’s gonna be allright…” and it sounded like he was lying to me, and really meant that I was gonna die or something. As he sang this for awhile, I got really mad at him for singing this bullshit, so I stumbled to the stereo to change the music. I have always hated Bob Marley since then. Anyway, I found a GOA CD somewhere and put in on. As soon as the music started, all nervousness and all bodily discomfort went away like touched from above or something. It felt truly extraordinary. From a state of nervousness and discomfort, to instant bliss. I just said WOW! to my self, thinking: “Now I know how set & setting can affect you!!” and stumbled back to the couch, but this time with a big smile on my face. I noticed that my friends also started to enjoy the mushrooms. By now, I knew that it had been at least one hour or so, even longer, but when I looked at my watch it was only 11:35! My perception of time was totally fucked up.

I now had entered level 4, but in a totally euphoric state. Also, at this point the hallucinations were so intense that I saw the same fucked up twirls and shit everywhere I looked. If my eyes were closed or open at this point didn’t make much of a difference. (Dark room.)

We talked for awhile but the words seem to dance and echo around in the room before I could hear or see them. At one point, I didn’t know if I saw the words or heard them! That has also never happened to me before. Sometimes I couldn’t hear at all. I also remember that the music seemed to be coming from somewhere VERY far away. I sat next to the speakers but the sound didn’t come from them, I was sure.

12:00
I now had left the uncomfortable coming-up and entered the peak. Now the intense hallucinations had eased a bit, and I felt that I was one with the hallucinations instead. I had entered the ‘trip’. By that I mean that everything I looked at seem so new and beautiful. Everything seemed alien but yet very familiar. Now we decided to go outside again, with intention of going downtown to experience the city in this altered state of mind. At this point, I didn’t experience reality loss anymore, because I was so busy looking at the wonderful things I saw. The carpet on the floor, the trees outside etc.
Anyways, we started our walk downtown. Wow, what an amazing walk! We had to stop everywhere, just to smell a flower, lay in the grass, talk to dogs that were out with their masters and much more. Everything was so fun and beautiful! It was truly bliss. As we walked for hours, we finally returned home. When we got to the park near my friend’s home, we realized that we were coming down and the peak was gone. We didn’t feel bad over this, we just enjoyed everything. We all guessed what the time was, and we guessed that it would be about 4 am, since we had done lots of stuff. We looked at the watch, only 1:45 am! We were amazed.

We got inside, sat down and listened to some music, feeling very good about our selves. I felt like I had done a good deed to someone, and that someone was me. I felt so good about my self and thanked god that he had place the mushrooms on this earth for us. I am not a religious person at all, but still, I felt this way.

I decided to go get something to eat and the others stayed at my friend’s house. I returned after about 20 minutes or so, ate my food, talked to my friends, and then we all went to sleep. I fell asleep after only 10 minutes.

All I can say about this is: set & setting makes the difference! If I hadn't put on that GOA CD, maybe I'd had a terrible experience!

Exp Year: 2000ExpID: 4005
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Dec 25, 2001Views: 8,179
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Mushrooms - P. mexicana (193) : Small Group (2-9) (17), General (1)

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