Experience with Mushrooms
Mushrooms & Cannabis
Citation:   Ben'Jammin. "Experience with Mushrooms: An Experience with Mushrooms & Cannabis (exp971)". Erowid.org. Jan 7, 2001. erowid.org/exp/971

 
DOSE:
2.0 g oral Mushrooms
BODY WEIGHT: 200 lb
I had been considering taking a more potent psychoactive drug about a week before I took the mushrooms. I had only smoked marijuana to this point. I mainly wanted to eat the mushrooms to see how it could change the human mind, if it would give me insight into things that the mind alone cannot grasp. Humans are ignorant. I believe that we cannot perceive reality, but just what we want to recognize. I hoped the mushrooms would change all of this, and allow me to have a better understanding of earth, nature and everything. I wanted the mushrooms to give me, in essence, a '6th sense' (not like the movie). One that would let me experience feelings I hadn't experienced before.

I had read a lot about mushrooms on Erowid before taking them. I wanted to know what to expect, and how to handle it if I began to have a bad experience. This became crucial later on and I recommend to everyone to read up on a drug before taking it. I read that set and setting are very important, so I planned a stress-free day. I avoided confrontations with my parents and so on. I took off of work the entire day. I went fishing to relax myself and to be in tune with nature.

Later that evening I went over to my sister's house. She was to be the 'sitter' and make sure everything went ok. I told her what to do if we started to have a bad trip and she complied.

Me and my girlfriend ate an equal amount of mushrooms on a piece of pizza around 7:45pm. I had read that I might throw up because they can be unsettling to the stomach. After I had eaten them my stomach was queasy. This made me nervous but I knew I had to remain calm or I would have a bad trip. About 20 minutes later I started to feel a sort of floating effect, sort of like a mild buzz from drinking. I thought this came on fast since I heard and read it usually takes an hour to kick in. (This was the least of the effects I felt.) We decided to go and smoke a cigarette. It was chilly outside, but I felt unusually cold. We smoked a cigarette and I began to look around. It was as if something was just different. Not that I was bouncing off the walls tripping, just that there was something extra going on. Something I really enjoyed. The street lights had more meaning. Different sounds were grouped in different channels that came to me from different directions. It was awesome. I was still handling it at this point, but it hadn't fully kicked in. We finished the cigarette and after some of the giggles (my girlfriend was laughing hysterically, almost uncontrollably, to the point that I thought she might not be able to stop) we went back inside. We decided to pack a bowl of marijuana. I smoked about 2 hits or so, my girlfriend didn't have any. This was about 45 minutes after eating the mushrooms. At this point I started to have much more feeling. I gazed endlessly at nothing, seeing odd colors and movement. I still enjoyed it at this point. Then while sitting around the table I was drinking a soda. I looked at my hand holding the cup and it was as if it wasn't my hand at all. I had to look at and follow my arm back to my body to tell it was mine. This began to worry me, but, I couldn't flip out so I tried to shrug it off. I glared into the cup, the ice was more shiny, more glistening than before. It was almost magical, like crystal balls.

I remember having a stupid but funny conversation, but it really wasn't important. One of the hardest things to comprehend while on this drug was time. It was as if it didn't move. I couldn't remember what I was doing literally 3 seconds ago. (I could only recollect all of these events after it had worn off, the next day.) At this point we walked outside on the porch and back inside to watch TV. This time is still blurry to me. I remember watching Dazed and Confused. The colors on the TV were different, and the people moved different. I was still enjoying the drug.

The next stage I remember was deciding to go to 7-11 to get scratch-offs and slurpees, why I don't know. This actually proved to be a very bad idea. My sister was the one driving. I could barely navigate myself to the car. My girlfriend and I had to share a front seat because my sister had boxes in the back. This was strange. We piled on one seat very clumsily. While driving there we struggled to stay on the seat. She was sitting on my lap. Her arms and my arms were waving around. It felt like our bodies had merged into one. I couldn't feel the difference between her arms and mine. This began to scare me.

We pulled up at 7-11, I HAD TO GET OUT OF THE CAR. We got out, went into 7-11. We were all really excited and happy. Inside we were buying scratch-off lotto tickets from an 11 year old boy. I kept thinking he's too young to work here. I took my money out of my wallet. I didn't really know what to do with it. I wanted to get scratch-offs. I gave him my money and asked for a particular one. I got it and he gave me the change. I put 4 dollars into my pocket and scratched off the card. It wasn't a winner, at least I think it wasn't. But it didn't matter. I still wanted the card so I carried it with me like a token. My girlfriend asked me for money so I took it out of my pocket. I saw myself holding the dollars, but the money really wasn't there. I couldn't feel it. I gave it all to her, I didn't care, it didn't matter, it was trivial compared to what I was experiencing.

Then I noticed something bad, my girlfriend's face was very red and puffy, like she was having a reaction to something. I began to panic and I didn't know what to do. My sister noticed it, and she thought it would be ok. I had to trust her because she was the most sober. I couldn't let my girlfriend know because she would have flipped out. I had to keep it from her.

This is when the bad part of the trip began. I love my girlfriend. I care about her immensely. I dragged her into this, I didn't want her to get hurt. It was my idea. These thoughts were all true, but they led to my downfall. I began to feel really bad. We had to leave 7-11, I couldn't take it anymore, it was too bright, there were too many sounds, and I was very worried my girlfriend had something wrong with her.

We left 7-11, the car ride back was better than going to 7-11. But I had to get back into the house where I felt secure. We got back in and I sat down and began watching Dazed and Confused. I kept telling myself that I was ok, that I knew what I took and that I would come down, exactly what I read on Erowid to tell myself. But it didn't work. I began to panic more and more. No one in the room realized it. My girlfriend and I went outside to smoke. I thought it might help to calm me down. It didn't. I began to sweat horribly. This made my girlfriend recognize it. She knew something was wrong. But I kept telling her everything was ok because I didn't want her to flip out because I started to have a bad trip. I was hot, very hot. Everything was confusing. I could hear my girlfriend talking and I understood what she was saying, but it was as if the drug had overtaken me. I was too preoccupied with it. It felt like I was seeing only a few frames out of what I was experiencing. Everything was in pieces. I had to go back in and sink into my chair. I wanted to come down, I wanted this drug to end right then. I had enough. It was too much for me. My girlfriend tried to talk me down but it didn't work. But I really didn't want her to spaz out too.

We went back inside. The TV didn't make it any better. Everything was still confusing. I was still having a bad time and I definitely knew it. I knew it for sure. I asked my sister if I was losing it. I felt like I was insane and I had lost my mind and I would never regain it. She told me I was fine. She talked me down, told me it's just a drug. Exactly what I told her to tell me before we took the mushrooms. THANK HER. She more or less saved me. Let this be a lesson to everyone to have a sitter with you. It is very important.

At this point it was around 10 o'clock. Looking at my watch was very hard. There were too many moving parts. Too much for me to see. I knew we had eaten them around 8pm, and I read they lasted like 4 hours. I didn't know if I could handle another 2 hours of this. My sister had to talk me down another 5-10 times. I kept telling her to tell me I was ok. It worked. I still was not enjoying it at this point. I was more or less dealing with what it is like to be insane. What it's like to not know how to piece the night together. This lasted another half an hour or so.

Then the GOOD STAGE hit. I think enough wore off and I could handle it now. I felt like I knew the secret to the universe. I knew how the world worked. This was great because this is why I originally took the drug. I wanted to learn something. I really did in this stage. I was the happiest I have ever been. Everyone was so perfect. So joyful. People were fighting in the movie. I remember thinking they're so stupid, why do they fight. If only they knew how beautiful everything and everyone is. I thought that they worried too much over trivial things, things that didn't matter. I really wanted to share my thoughts with them.

At this point, my girlfriend was experiencing the exact same feeling. We were both totally in tune, to each other, to the world, nature and everyone in the universe. We were so happy nothing else mattered. If someone suggested something, it was good, no matter what it was, EVERYTHING WAS GOOD. (This could be a bad effect if you're around the wrong people, luckily we were around caring loving people. I recommend you be around the same type of people if you take a drug like this.)

I wanted a pen and paper. I had to write all of this down. I had to share these thoughts with myself when I came down so I wouldn't forget them. I got a pen and a stack of coupons that come in the mail to write on. As I started to write, these papers became sacred. They were very important, I had to get down all of my thoughts before I lost them all. There was so much bouncing around in my head I just wrote and wrote trying to get it all down.

The main ideas that I wrote that are VERY IMPORTANT are as follows:
1 The World is Very Complex
2 The World is Wonderful, Beautiful and Worth Living a Great Life

As I wrote this all down my girlfriend read it. She conferred with me. She felt all the same emotions. Everything was in tune with each other. It was the best feeling ever.

Another revelation that came to me was that writing took too long, that I couldn't get all my thoughts down fast enough. I thought language and writing was prehistoric, that we should learn new ways to communicate that didn't take as much time. That we should all know eachothers' thoughts without wasting all of this time.

(I DON'T CONDONE DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ANY SUBSTANCE, IT JUST HAPPENED THIS NIGHT)

Now it was around 11pm and its effects were wearing off. My sister knew I was coming down and that I was fine. She went to bed. We had to leave soon. By 12:15am, I wasn't sure if I could drive. But I still had the happy feeling in me, that everything was going to be ok, no matter what I did. We left the house. We got into the car. I knew where I had to go, but I didn't know how to get there. It didn't matter. I knew that the universe would guide us, that we would somehow end up there. My girlfriend felt the same thing. She didn't know the directions, but knew we would get there anyway. We ended up on the right path. We were heading towards my girldfriend's house. The universe had pulled through, it had driven us in the right direction.

While driving, it was like I couldn't make a mistake because we were being guided still by the universe or god. I kept feeling like everything was going to be ok no matter what happened. And everything was ok. I dropped my girlfriend off and I headed home. I stopped midway down her street to put on sunglasses (it was night time now, there was no need for them). I couldn't see as well with them on, but it didn't matter, I knew I would still be guided. I got 3/4 of the way down her street and decided I better take them off to be safer. I hadn't lost faith in the universe, or the force guiding me, it just felt like the right thing to do.

I drove another five minutes and was almost home. I began to think about god. I realized that he was the force driving me. I felt very secure. I realized it didn't matter if I died or lived. That I, and everyone for that matter, would end up the same. I thought I could take my hands off of the wheel and my car would still be guided safely down the road.

I finally got home. I didn't know if I could talk to my brother or not, if I could talk normally. I was just thinking everything is going to be all right. And it was.

I really wanted to share my experience with him, but I was too tired for one of his lectures (he's my big brother). My biggest purpose when I was talking to him was how can I make him happier. All I wanted to do was share my happiness with everyone. I couldn't though. This didn't bother me, it was a trip that my girlfriend and I took, one that only we could truly understand.

I wrote this so others could try to understand, to know what it was like. It was good and bad. I don't think I'll ever do it again, and if I do, it will be with a very little bit. I encourage others to take it. But they must take the right precautions (sitter, set and setting, and reading information on it first, make sure you have a reliable source for the drug).

If you do take it, ask yourself philosophical questions, try to expand your mind!!!

Peace and Love to Everyone....

Exp Year: 2000ExpID: 971
Gender: Not Specified 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 7, 2001Views: 6,561
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Mushrooms (39) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Difficult Experiences (5), First Times (2), General (1)

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