DOSE: T+ 0:00	3.5 g	oral	Mushrooms - P. cubensis	(dried)
T+ 0:50	2 hits	smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

200 lb

First a little background to give you an idea of my situation. I am a 19 year old male, currently enrolled in a major west coast university, and majoring in philosophy, which should give you a little idea of my mindset. At the time of my experience, I was nearing the completion of my freshman year; finals were about to start. I was feeling very prepared, and so wasn't nervous at all. I had just returned from a weekend with my girlfriend celebrating her birthday, so I was in a very good mood.

During the course of the weekend, I had happened to run into a friend of mine who had some mushrooms, and so I bought an 8th of an ounce from him. I planned to take them as a sort of 'last hurrah' before the end of the semester with my roommates, whom I would not see for the summer. I did not eat that day in anticipation of it, and I took the entire 8th at approximately 7:30 pm, in the company of my roommate and his boyfriend. I have had experience with marijuana and mushrooms before. I had only done them once before, and I thought at the time of this experience that I had also done an 8th that time, but that is the limit of my personal experience. However, I am a dedicated drug policy reform activist, and run a drug resource center on my campus, so I am very well read on drugs and their effects, something that I would be very glad of later. Anyway, on to the actual report. I didn't take notes, so all times are approximate.

7:30 pm: Ate the entire 8th of mushrooms straight. Swigged a mouthful of Pepto-Bismol to help prevent nausea.

8:00 pm: Definitely feeling something; getting the usual 'sense that something is different' feeling of coming up on mushrooms. Sat watching my roommate playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy on his computer until it started to make me dizzy.

8:10 pm: Interesting iridescent patterns appeared on the carpeted floor, resembling stained-glass patterns that shimmered and shifted while I watched.

8:20 pm: My roommate Mark and I decided to smoke some pot, so he loaded the bowl of his bubbler (I was too far gone by this point to do it), and we each took two large hits, which got him pretty stoned and catapulted me into the stratosphere. I popped on Pink Floyd's Ummagumma, and we both sat and listened for a while. I was heavily tripping by this point, and still coming up. The walls were 'breathing,' and I noticed pronounced shifting and melting in objects. I checked my pupils in the mirror, and they were very dilated. I noticed some differences in light effects as well, with 'halos' appearing around objects, and bright lights periodically flashing at the periphery of my vision.

8:35 pm: My roommate's boyfriend James decided to join us, and Mark loaded a new bowl. I opted not to smoke anymore, since I was already tripping heavily. While Mark and James smoked, I sat on my bed and stared at the black light poster I have, occasionally breaking into uncontrollable laughter for no apparent reason.

8:45 pm: Mark and James were quite stoned by now, so we all decided to watch some Futurama on Mark's computer. While we were waiting for the download to finish from Kazaa, I noticed that the words on the computer screen were shifting around and reforming into large letters and words. We watched two episodes of Futurama, which were absolutely hilarious.

9:00 pm: During the episodes of Futurama, Mark got the munchies and ate half a pint of ice cream, after which he handed the rest of the tub to me. By this time I was tripping too hard to eat, and so spent the next 15 minutes just running my hands over the cold tub. Tactile sensations are always excellent for me when I am on shrooms.

9:15 pm: I found a twist tie in my pocket, and was very intrigued with the sensation of twisting it around my fingers. The trip was still increasing, and for the first time I started to get slightly nervous.

9:20 pm: Mark got slightly annoyed with James, and snapped at him once. I started to pick up negative vibes from them, and so retired to my bed to watch Waking Life, which Mark had burned for me earlier.

9:40 pm: The negative vibes were increasing, and I found myself focusing on an irrational annoyance with James for pissing Mark off, even though I could tell that by that time they'd made up and everything was fine. I could tell that I was headed for a bad trip, and so decided to try to go to bed and head it off, at least until they left to go back to James' house. I put on my sleeping mask and ear plugs and laid down.

9:50 pm: I was getting really nervous about the fact that not only was I not coming down, but that I seemed to still be coming up. The lights were off, and when I opened my eyes, the fire sprinklers on the ceiling seemed to turn into large spiders and start to walk around. This was disturbing, and I really wanted Mark and Jason to leave so I could get myself under control.

10:00 pm: Mark and James left for James' house for the night. I was still tripping very, very hard, and was starting to get really freaked out. I think I peaked sometime around here. I took my earplugs out, and thought I heard people walking by outside my window talking in my own voice about the thoughts I was experiencing in my own mind. I felt like I was schizophrenic; I couldn't silence my own mind. My negative thoughts were spiraling out of control.

I couldn't figure out what was going on, where I was, or even who I was. My mind was gone. I couldn't even form linguistic thoughts; I couldn't figure out how to construct the English language. When I tried to speak or think verbally, only a random jumble of unrelated words came out. My only thoughts were strict negative impressions. I cried out in my mind for someone, anyone to help me. I'm a devout atheist, and I prayed to God, Allah, Jesus, anyone that would help me. No help was forthcoming (hence I remained a devout atheist after the trip). All I could think of was how horrible it would be to never see my girlfriend (Chelsea) again. I thought I was dying for sure.

10:20 pm: I was still tripping heavily, and still having the most horrible experience of my life. I thought that I might be dying, and worried that I'd taken a fatal dose, or had the wrong kind of mushrooms. The drug resource center part of my brain knew that this was a normal fear for a bad trip, and tried to explain this to my hysterical brain, but I couldn't or wouldn't listen. I tried to talk myself through the trip, and I think I even spoke out loud to myself a few times. I knew rationally that I would get through it, but I couldn't stop thinking that I'd gone permanently insane. I knew that this was ridiculous, but I couldn't stop thinking it anyway. I was afraid that I had triggered some kind of latent schizophrenia.

All I could think was that this was like a waking nightmare, and I wanted to wake up. I couldn't focus on any kind of logical thought for more than a few seconds at a time, and the auditory and visual hallucinations continued. I heard a voice that sounded like mine saying 'And think, just this morning I was sitting there with Chelsea.' I still don't know if this was real or a hallucination, but it freaked me out even more. I thought about calling 911, but was able to restrain myself with assurances that I would be ok within an hour.

10:35 pm: The trip started to recede. I was able to think, and I started to let myself hope that I would be out of it soon. I still couldn't think rationally, but at least I could talk again.

10:50 pm: I was down enough to call my girlfriend and tell her what had happened. She was at work, but she left immediately and went home to talk me through the rest of it. I explained what had happened, and she assured me that I would be back to normal in the morning.

11:15 pm: My other roommate, Aaron, returned from a party. I told him that I'd had a bad trip and needed to talk to Chelsea for a while. He obliged and went to talk to a mutual friend of ours who lived next door.

12:00 am: I felt well enough to go to bed, so I said goodbye to Chelsea, and went to tell Aaron that it was ok to come back. I was still tripping fairly heavily, as the objects around the house were still shifting and melting. I went to bed anyway.

I didn't sleep at all that night. My mind was still racing, but I was glad that I was coming down at last. I think I might have started to doze around 5:00 am, but I'm not sure. In any case, I woke up the next morning feeling tired, but back to reality. As I told Aaron, 'Reality never looked so good.'

I realized later that I had actually taken twice the dose I took the first time I used. I was irresponsible and stupid, and I should have calculated the dose more appropriately. It was also irresponsible of me to not have a sober sitter. I feel like I've been to hell and back, and that I'm lucky to be here in one mental piece.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 47914
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 10, 2008	Views: 6,020
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