DOSE:

167 mg

smoked

Cannabis

(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

85 kg

Type of experience: Mystical/Retrospective

About me: I am 22 years of age, consumed till now cannabis (monthly), DXM (thrice), tobacco (a pack / two days), alcohol (occasionally – but on these occasions 500ml+). No medical history whatsoever. Psychology and arts student. Reports of pure cannabis use, show up in the Erowid archives – but I didn’t read any that describe the profundity of my experience.

We were three friends gathered in a college dorm room: TS, BD (the room was his), myself. We weighted out half a gram of high quality bud and rolled it into a joint. We all were recreational users of weed, smoking every second week or so.

All of our girlfriends were out of town so we decided to do something for which we rarely have occasion – have some quality time together, only us. This influenced the set and setting profoundly, in a positive sense: the inner glow of freedom and security and the outer social bond that felt almost like tying together a family. This practically made the difference between a horrible and a spiritual story.

The joint was lit and smoked. The onset was in 2-3 minutes but very subtle – we thought we were in “reality” and “nothing really happened” but it was not so. BD came up with the idea of playing a video game. We haven’t played a computer game in quite a while, since we got in college we didn’t really have time for games. The choice landed upon Jericho, a game inspired by a Clive Barker novel. A horror game.

The game was launched and we watched the intro (you can find it on youtube). The intro was vast, 10 minutes or more and started out as a black screen with some abstract shapes resembling fire. The voice-over was made by a bad actor but it seemed to us that it was the voice of a prophet we are hearing. He talked about the Firstborn: God’s first, failed, creation, locked away in a reality inside of our own. The story is incredibly complex and under the influence of cannabis you can imagine that it built up an entire world around us.

This world was incredibly menacing – I literally felt that our world was a world in which the Firstborn is present and nobody knows about him besides us. It was sickening. By the end of the story the abstract shapes have grown into muscles and tendons, covered by a swarm of flies. But this was only the beginning.

The intro was followed by an in-game cinematic showing an intervention team entering a tomb in Al-Khali, the middle of desert. A location which was fought for by many great leaders but forgotten in our days. They discovered corpses dripping of blood in that place, still fresh, although they were the first to enter there in more than a decade (if not a century). They acted very soldier-like, spreading out and investigating the perimeter like it was the most unsurprising occurrence ever. Then they were attacked from all sides and met their horrifying end. After this followed a weird dream sequence came up and you are shown getting a phone call (in the middle of the night) and going to the airport.

You, in a helicopter, going to the same tomb where the previous team died, but knowing nothing of what happened to them. This was the moment that all clicked together and all three of us got a very very powerful feeling of pressure: if we don’t do everything by the book, the world will perish. We felt like the “heroes” might have felt in the time when Gods existed (think antique Greece). Incredible force and incredible risk: the fragility of life directly proportional to the power wielded. Power and visibility of God but with the mortal life force of a human.

At this moment I knew that this was one of the most profound experiences in my life. The highest point of my spiritual existence. It was so overwhelming that I left for the bathroom, took a pee, washed my face with cold water and looked in the mirror for about a minute. All, trying to snap out of it for a few seconds, just to see if reality is still there. But I still was in that universe, even in the bathroom, knowing that the Firstborn was there somewhere and we hold ALL responsibility for the future of the world. It was not the first time I got a psychotic episode on weed but it was the first time I could not stop it. So I relaxed, accepted “this world” and I didn’t regret my decision.

We barely talked between us, but from small fragments of conversation we understood that we were all in the same trip. Our personalities showed through the veil of dropped words: I was anxious and delighted (i.e. “be careful! be careful! do you know what means if we die?”), BD was joking but the jokes adhered to the coherence of the story (i.e. “we are all screwed, but TS, you are almost dead!” TS being the one manning the soldier), TS living a mélange of lightheadedness and despair (i.e. “noooo!”).

TS soon gave up the controls. He needed a break. BD took over, than me. That was when it started to fade (around 35 min. must have passed). Although I still felt the cognitive effect of the material, I was not so linked to that world, the despair has evaporated. I was more like a soldier doing his job. Maybe I succeeded entering the trip of the fighter I controlled. Also, the game became very monotonous. The level design was not shining and the story became a thin broth. Action consisted of killing an infinite number of monsters every ten steps so thoughts began drifting away and soon we all snapped out completely of the game's world...

Conclusions:

I observed many times that under the influence of THC the most reality-altering phenomenon is “literary coherence.” Even the most fantastic story, if told coherently, builds up a fantastic world. My opinion is that the greatest asset in a group is a good storyteller. When we lack that, but still want an engaging trip which takes you in a different reality – we can play a computer game, recite a book (Clive Barker and Lovecraft work wonders) or explore the city. I am very much against watching movies because I feel like they draw people apart instead of together. Also, I never underestimate the value of smoking alone as it is practically the only occasion during which I can reflect/create/write undisturbed.

I don’t know if there exists a good game recipe to play while on marijuana. We also tried Dreamfall and we were fascinated every inch of the way through the city. Agon: The Mysterious Codex creates a solid setting too but can get frustrating. Myst seems like a good choice - I haven’t tried yet but I imagine that it can get frustrating. Condemned 2 might ring a whistle. Fact is that you can believe in scary things more readily, live them more thoroughly.

All in all, I consider cannabis to be a great substance for living stories (medium to large doses, 100-200mg+ high quality/pers.).

Thank you for reading.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 69806
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 27, 2017	Views: 950
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