DOSE:	15 g	oral	Mushrooms - P. tampanensis	(plant material)
		smoked	Cannabis
		oral	Cannabis - Hash	(edible / food)

BODY WEIGHT:

89 kg

I am a 27 year old male working for the British governement, I have two young sons and a partner of 7 years. I had taken psilocybe mushrooms several times before but only in Amsterdam. Now being lucky enough to live in England where currently a loophole in the law allows the legal sale of FRESH psilocybe I decided to mark my 28th birthday with a camping 'trip'.

I acquired 90 grams of psilocybe tampanensis for my friends to ingest on said trip, they were quite expensive and I was dubious as to their potency. After all the idea of a hallucigenic truffle seemed rather ludicrous. But I trusted the headshop owner and hoped for the best.

I realised that setting was important, we needed to be far away from the press of regular more sober humanity so we decided to head for Shell Island off the coast of Wales. Unfortunately we chose a very popular camping spot on a bank holiday so by the time we reached our destination it was overflowing with families, sober or worse drunk. There was no room at the Inn, and this brought my hopes for the day crashing down. Realising that staying positive was important If I was to have a pleasant, constructive experience I tried to keep my spirits up. This was hard, it had been a long hot drive and tension was evident amongst our normally very relaxed group. For the next few hours we searched the unfamiliar coastline for somewhere we felt comfortable to camp AND trip. It was a fruitless search and the tension grew along with my dissapointment, my birthday experience was panning out to be a crock of ass candy.

We decided to head to Balla Lake a huge mass of crystal clear water at high altitude. It was a place we were familiar with and it was also about halfway home. We just had to find a place to relax now.

When we arrived there was thirty minutes of bustle and hustle as we hastily dragged bags and firewood down the train track to our preferred spot by the edge of the lake far away from the car park. Our whole attitude seemed to change after we had set up our tents, the sun was now low in the sky and the view of the hills across the lake was breathtaking. I felt the same thing I always did before I trip, which is a sensation of something looming in the future, ominous and exciting like the onset of a thunderstorm.

Of the 11 people there 7 of us were partaking of the magic truffle. The rest were babysitters, who were only mildly drunk/stoned with only my favourite babysitter Andy being completely sober. It was a good idea for so many babysitters to be present as large bodies of water and mind altering states do not mix well. The truffles were presented to the group for ingestion and inspection. They look like mummified turds to be honest and taste like battery acid, the taste was a good sign to be sure. I chewed my 15 grams and swallowed them whole, I wanted them to hit me fast. Once everyone had dosed it was time to relax and sample some of the half ounce of Skunk we had brought with us.

The initial effects I felt within 10 minutes, my pre trip feeelings are always the same. Fuzzy head (could be the skunk), tingling in my forearms and thighs, general numbness. This is the part of the trip that is akin to a rollercoaster, it moves inexorably upwards and I am drawn along with it awaiting the inevitable freak out on the other side. It is important to remain calm during the initial effects, accept as much as I can and be at peace with substance and situation, there's nothing I can do to change it.

The smoke from our fire was filtering through the sunbeams that were focused through a leafy canopy, it was very nice to look at and hinted at the complexity of our reality. These mild perceptual effects kicked in at 30 minutes and were accompanied by a virtually unnoticed numbness and lack of body awareness. This part of the trip is known as 'the lifting of the veil'. I was able to see my environment for its true normally unseen beauty, I could not only see this beauty but feel it.

My initial reverie was broken by my good friend and experienced tripper Stead and boy did he look startled. His eyes wide in amazement he informs me that we could spend A LOT of money on these truffles, I agree heartily. He then tells me of his macroscopia experience in the tent. He was lying upon his sleeping bag staring at the tag (as you do) when the whole tag zoomed in to occupy his entire field of vision each word on the tiny tag seeming as tall as a man. I smile and say 'cool'.

As for my own experience it was moving along quite slowly and I felt quite lucid mentally although my vision had moments of chaos where the hills and clouds in the distance would melt together and flow like mercury flames. Several of the other dosers were staring peacefully out onto the same vista as me and were simple entranced and at peace. These rather extreme visual distortions were at the 1 hour mark and this is when I noticed my partners younger brother. It was his first time on the Shroom, and he was sitting down in posession of 'the look'. He was staring but not at anything we could see, there was tension on his face. I think he was trying to deal with the experience, so I took him for a walk on the train tracks.

Sounds dangerous eh? But these tracks are for a novelty steam railway which doesnt run in the evening. We ambled down the tracks on some errand and he talked about how he felt and how cool the sky looked, as soon as his attention was directed elsewhere he relaxed just fine. We were followed by my partner and another girl (they needed a proper toilet) and our resident lunatic Ache. The sun was setting when we reached the car park and I was fully tripping and discussing something really odd with Ache when strangers came upon us. Immediately I changed my demeanor and topic of conversation in an act of camouflage, I appeared normal for them. I was surprised at the ease with which I dealt with the outsiders, on all previous trips I had freaked out regarding sober others couldnt deal with them, Since Balla lake its so much easier dealing with sober humans. In my tripping state sober people now seem trapped in behavioural patterns and self concious, I feel pity for them and amusement at the situation.

We made it to the cars and retrieved Aches 'precious' from the boot of my car. The precious was a chocalate birthday cake with half an ounce of hashish in it. Night had descended and the walk back to the camp was strange, because my vision was perfect over short distances but completely blurred past 30 feet I could swear that there was a group of white coated people cavorting in the distance but couldnt be sure.

Back at the camp Ache found a log in the fire that looked like a giant joint he leapt onto a large rock and began to swing it around his head like a sword, it looked really cool. The mood that descended on me at the 2 hour 30 minute mark was curious, I felt as if I had 'broke through' I felt peace and a 'is that all there is feeling' regarding everything. I was bemused, I knew that everything existed in this perfect moment and that there was nothing else. This was the be all and end all of existence. Stead felt it too, he would give a hearty 'YEAH!' to express himself. It was the bus stop at the end of the universe.

It was after this moment that the strangest thing I've ever experienced happened. It was not just I who felt it Stead, Ache and even sober man Andy perceived the strangeness. Everything stopped. The wind dropped and stopped, even the fire seemed to stop flickering. But strangest of all was the lake, it was so still it looked solid like it was made of glass. Not a ripple or a wave disturbed its surface. I moved closer for a better view
'Its a bit crap this isnt it?' I asked 'I mean the stars are nice but the waters stopped working!'
'Better call someone, get it fixed' suggested Stead
'Its amazing' I stated
'Ant your standing in the water' warned Andy
I looked down at feet and they were indeed firmly in the lake, it did in no way feel wet though. It was after this that Stead, one of the most stable individuals I have ever met, fell off a rock and into the lake while staring intently into it. He attempted to dry his shoes by leaving them near the fire, needless to say it wasnt long before they were on fire.

The night wore on and the stars danced willing us to stare at them. We eat the hash cake and our gums burned. It was dark, wet and cold, I kept tripping over all the crap we had left on the floor. I couldnt see anyoneones face, I felt confused it was time for bed. If I could just get someone to skin up for me, theres now way I could do it. Ache went to bed first muttering curses his eyes burning with paranoia. Communication had broken down (as it always does when the Psilocybe wears off). I finally got a joint rolled got into my sleeping bag and knew no more.

Until I woke needing to urinate, I clambered out of the tent and was surrounded by blinding whiteness. I could see no further than the edges of our camp. I felt as though somehow our little chunk of reality had been dislodged by our shrooming and was now floating in emptiness. It wasnt though, it was just the most amazing early morning mist ever.

Back to sleep I am immediately yet several hours later woken by the sound of a small steam train loaded with happy children. I groaned, emerged from my tent and waved happily at them as they passed. They waved back.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 34404
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 3, 2007	Views: 27,805
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Mushrooms - P. tampanensis (133) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Nature / Outdoors (23), General (1)