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Inside Rachmaninoff's head
Mushrooms & Cannabis
Citation:   Scorpio. "Inside Rachmaninoff's head: An Experience with Mushrooms & Cannabis (exp49580)". Erowid.org. Mar 25, 2008. erowid.org/exp/49580

 
DOSE:
3.5 g oral Mushrooms (dried)
  1 bowl smoked Cannabis (plant material)
BODY WEIGHT: 130 lb
I've had LSD two times prior this trip on an 8th of shrooms, so I was sure I would be able to handle it and not totally freak out. That 2nd time tripping acid I thought me and my friends we're going to have a gay orgy...but that's another story.

I had finished my classes for the day and decided to consume the 8th of magic mushrooms I purchased from a fellow dormmate a few days prior. It was a Friday and I had work on the weekends, but seeing is my last class ended at 2:00PM I figured the shrooms would last about 4-6 hours, and I'd be good for work on Saturday morning. I as well smoked a bowl of bong rips of some high grade bud to help mellow me out.

There is a lounge in my dorm with a black baldwin baby grand piano. I've been learning Rachmaninoff's prelude in G minor for roughly 8 months and had it about 2/3rds finished. I was still waiting for the shrooms to kick in when I started playing. The first two hours I started getting a body high and accentuation of hearing, and my fingers felt numb as they struck the keys--it was more like the piano was playing me instead of me playing the piano--and the sound of the song sounded more 'organic' I guess is the only way I can put it. I took a short break just to see how I was doing and if I was getting any visuals, the touch of the keys and sound of the music was overwhelming my senses as is, so I really couldn't notice visuals without stopping for awhile.

I looked around and I can only describe as that the room seemed 'alive'. The pattern on the carpet was pixilating and the pixels were moving around each other. Now that I had noticed the visuals, the trip started getting more intense. I began to play the piano again and now I was getting visuals while playing, the sensations of sound and touch and my concentration of playing the song was no longer canceling out the visuals--which were absolutely incredible, given the set and setting of me playing music on a very nice piano. The notes on the sheet music seemed to hover on the paper, moving gently as if excited for their turn to be played--it was like they were living creatures.

When I looked down at my hands as I played there were notes shooting out of my hands. The golden letters spelling 'Baldwin' on the front of the piano had turned into golden musical staffs with golden notes that my brain perceived as 'ancient musical scales', these had extended further into the black color of the piano, it was as if there was an eternity of musical scales. My fingers would leave a rainbow of swirling musical notes after they would strike a key. Pretty soon my entire field of vision was being clouded with what I can only describe as 'electric musical notes', glowing, flowing, and swirling. I just kept playing the song over and over, having what I can only describe as an all out religious experience. It was getting too good, I stopped playing again as I started hearing horns, trumpets and other instruments playing as well. The trip began to get very mental.

There is always a mental aspect to the psychedelic experience, and this trip was no different. It had turned out that the other instruments I was hearing was the school band playing on the lawn outside the dorm I'm in. Tripping however, I looked out the window and saw the sky glowing in a bright brilliance and thought it was the sound of the heavenly orchestra descending upon the earth, they wanted me as their piano player so I kept playing for them, direct orders from the head of the universe. Then I saw the roman style architecture of my dorm and thought I was in an ancient roman forum, hearing 'my colleges' practice their music along with me, both of us engaging in a field of knowledge that is also pleasurable for others.

I then remembered I was playing Rachmaninoff and the piano itself turned into Rachmaninoff and I had a conversation with him, although I don't remember what was said. Things were happening all so fast in my head, the last thing I remember before ending up on the floor curved up into a ball next to the piano is that the sound of the song are stored inside the sheet music's notes, and that the notes are a 'zip file' of Rachmaninoff's thoughts--the song being a product of a series of thoughts in the language of music that Rachmaninoff 'thought up'. I had taken a trip inside Rachmaninoff's head. The whole thing was so profound that I found myself on the floor and everything spinning slowly back into focus. I checked my watch, it was about 8:00PM. '6 hours I thought, I should be done tripping anyway.' Not a good thought to have.

You can't just 'stop tripping'. As I got up to go to my room I started feeling the effects again. I managed to get to one of the study lounges before I felt myself fatigued and confused, setting my glasses on one of the tables and laying myself on the floor. I awoke to someone passing by, having forgotten about my glasses. The paranoia set in, I asked him if he knew where my glasses were, but then thought he took them knowing I was tripping. He pointed to the table where I picked them up but saw them appeared damaged. I inquired of this, thinking I had smashed my face against the wall and damaged my glasses, but this was all my imagination he assured me, the glasses were fine, their distortion merely accentuated the paranoia of the situation. He assisted me to my room, where I laid down and awaited the come down, my roommate getting a little spooked at my gripping at my head and moaning. I was merely fatigued and mentally exhausted, and finally came down at about 10:00PM, so I tripped for about 8 hours.

Even though I had a little freak out in the study lounge, this was the best trip I ever had.

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 49580
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Mar 25, 2008Views: 5,545
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Mushrooms (39) : General (1), Glowing Experiences (4), Music Discussion (22), Alone (16)

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