DOSE:

15 g

oral

Mushrooms

(tea)

BODY WEIGHT:

13 kg

It was my first year at university, and for a long time I had wanted to try psychedelics. I had read plenty of psychedelic literature and immediately knew that throughout the course of my life I'd have the desire to take these substances. Sadly, I hadn't yet been able to get my hands on any; previously I had only had wholly unsuccessful experiments with Salvia and Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds, and this time I wanted a proper trip. Luckily, one vendor was generously offering 15 grams of Magic Truffles for free as an introductory offer. I had nothing to lose, so placed the order.

Setting: University Halls of Residence – simple bedroom.

Set: Eager and excited state of mind. Empty stomach, as the truffles were to be taken first thing in the morning, just before breakfast.

Preparation: 15g of Sclerotia Hollandia were cut into small pieces, and then crushed using a (makeshift) mortar and pestle. Water was brought to the boil in a pan, and subsequently mixed with the powdered truffles. 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of honey, and a splash of cranberry juice were added to the mixture, for taste.

+0h00 Started drinking the tea. An unpleasant taste, but certainly bearable.

+0h10 Tea seemed to get progressively worse. The truffles hadn't been fully powderised and ingesting the 'mush' at the bottom of the mug left me close to vomiting, but I made it through. Fully finished the tea with the help of a glass of water, and to get rid of the taste I brushed my teeth immediately afterwards.

+0h20 Quicker than I had expected, I start to feel the first effects. I can feel a definite heaviness in my head, similar to the early onset of drunkenness. My peripheral vision starts to shimmer. The heavy-headedness becomes more intense and my mind feels like it is being pulled in all directions. This is not an unpleasant experience, but definitely very strong and strange.

+0h25 I notice the pattern on my curtains start to shimmer slightly. The colours begin to fuse into each other. I'm listening to music, and the shapes on the curtain seem to dance with the beat, which makes me laugh. I'm typing a text document on my laptop, and the words on the screen start playing a variety of visual tricks; sometimes they melt away, other times they jump around excitedly. I know that this is just the very beginning of my trip, and am ridiculously excited about what the day has in store for me.

+0h40 I can see strange shadowy creatures at the edge of my vision. When I try to look at them, they disappear only to re-appear the second I stop searching for them. I get the vague feeling that they might be menacing but don't let it ruin my mood. I close my eyes and am greeted with some fairly intense visuals; a kaleidoscopic fractal show. Again I'm surprised to be tripping so hard so soon, but am loving every minute of it. When I re-open my eyes the real world comes as a huge shock; a sensation similar to abruptly waking from an intense dream.

+0h50 Thought it would be fun to look at myself in the mirror and see what happens. The first thing that happens is that I grow and turn into a hyper-muscular version of myself. I go to the gym frequently, and wondered if perhaps this meant I was too hung up on body image? Then I revert to normal size and my neck turns yellow. This makes me laugh, and I decide to stop searching for meaning, and to just enjoy the experience.

+0h55 I am hit with a sudden wave of nausea, and rush to the toilet to retch. Whilst this might seem like a grim and potentially unsettling direction for the trip to take, I found it very funny. I appreciated the way in which my mind and body were juxtaposed; I felt like I had finally removed the filter on my brain and was experiencing Huxley's 'Mind at Large' and all the while I had my face in a toilet bowl trying to be sick. After three retches the nausea subsides, and I return to my room.

+1h00 I put on a Shpongle track, which seems to intensify the experience immediately. I feel an unpleasant numbness so I decide to lie down. My room is a psychedelic chamber. I look out of the window and the view is boring and sober, but in my little box the colours are intense, the light is dancing, and everything is shimmering. I am crawling on the floor and staring at a crack in the wall and it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen; it feels like my eyes have been truly opened.

At this point the desire to write dropped, so I am less confident of timings. What takes place next is the peak of the experience, and happens over the course of ~4 hours.

Soon enough the nausea fully disappears and is replaced by euphoria. I am on my back in fits of laughter, feeling like a perennial Buddha. What we call reality is clearly not so and I am amused and contented with human's unavoidable ignorance. This is the most perfect mind state I've ever been in and I feel a surge of anger towards governments who literally try to control our consciousness. My mind works more quickly and efficiently than ever before but thoughts come and go so fast that I struggle to remember them. Sometimes I get stuck in a thought loop and am surprised to snap out of it many minutes later.

My sensation of touch has also been transformed. My hand rests on the windowsill and I notice that it has melded into it. This is weird but not unpleasant. I run my hands over various objects in the room. Every smooth surface feels incredible and every rough surface I want to make smooth. I gently push my finger into my eye, and it melts. I'm still feeling euphoric and this makes me laugh.

I look out of my window again and the view is incredible. The colours are so much more intense than before, transforming the mundane into the beautiful. The green of the grass is completely pure, the berries on the bushes bright and vibrant, the purples of the flowers majestic. The colours are peaceful and non-threatening. There is a wall opposite the window and on every section of it a happy face appears. I hold out my hand in front of me and it transforms into that of a baby, then to that of an old man, then to that of a Black man. I get a feeling of oneness and unity with humanity.

I close my eyes and the visions are powerful. Unfortunately I had no desire to 'stop the show' and write them down so many of them are forgotten. However, I do remember recurring visions of non-human spirits kissing, hugging, and making love all around me. I assume this was tied into the intense euphoria I felt.

Food and drink was incredible. A pack of cookies were devoured with absolute glee, the chocolate melting in my mouth almost orgasmically. I made myself some honey sandwiches and had a glass of milk, and giggled to myself that I finally understood the concept of 'the land of milk and honey'.

Everything I did became a hilarious challenge. I opened the door to my room and noticed that my entire world was a comic book and only changed back to 'normal' when I closed the door again. I went upstairs to get some food and noticed that the posters on the wall would chase after me whenever my back was turned. One of my housemates came into the kitchen and I managed to have a completely normal conversation when my mind was under full psychedelic assault.

I listened to music continually throughout the experience and deliberately altered the genres to examine the effects. Whatever I chose, it fit in perfectly with the trip. African drumming was provided perfect synergy for my visions. Classical music seemed to stimulate thought. Club music gave me energy and vitality. There were subtleties in the music I hadn't noticed before, I felt like I could finally hear every layer of the music.

The only slightly worrying part of the trip I had was a repeated auditory hallucination in which I heard one of my housemates being raped by her boyfriend. I recognised it as a hallucination immediately and was very confused by it as I was otherwise ecstatic and cannot think what triggered this unpleasant turn. Fortunately, it subsided quickly.

After this, I begin to come down. It has been an absolutely thrilling roller-coaster of a day, but I can feel the effects gradually lessening. The come-down lasts approximately 3 hours. Firstly, I feel an overwhelming sense of calm. I pulled the duvet off my bed, covered myself with it, and lay by the radiator absorbing the pleasant heat. My thoughts had previously been fast-paced and sporadic but were now refined and mellowed; I felt like I was seeing the world through new eyes and the artificiality of sober consciousness both amused and bemused me.

Suddenly I remembered in quite vivid detail a video I enjoyed watching as a child that I had completely forgotten about. I am confident this would have remained forgotten without the truffles.

I thought the trip was over so I decided to walk down the road to the local supermarket to get a pizza. As soon as I got out of the front door I realised I still wasn't sober; the lights from the traffic and the city were more beautiful than ever before, illuminating the cold winter night almost magically. I passed some friends on the way down and as I greet them everything starts becoming hilarious to me again – no one knows I'm tripping and the challenge to hide it from them is incredibly amusing. I buy the pizza with a similar sense of joviality, which continues as I go to collect my post, even though the porter happens to be testing out a rape alarm as soon as I walk through the door. In hindsight this could have been a terrible coincidence and altered the mood of the trip, but I was too blissful to care.

I get back home, cook the pizza, revel in how great it tastes, and finally realise that the trip is over. Although I had been an advocate for the use of psychedelics long before I had used them myself, the experience was profound and life-changing and intensified my support for these substances. To anyone considering using psilocybin - I couldn't recommend it highly enough. But research thoroughly before use, make sure your set and setting are appropriate, and if you're worried about how you might react, always make sure you have an experienced sitter to guide you along.

Exp Year: 2012	ExpID: 99372
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 19
Published: Dec 25, 2013	Views: 13,576
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