Trip report: My first "real" trip. Also, why are mushrooms illegal?

Let me start by saying I've tripped on LSD about three times, and mushrooms about six times before this experience. I have tripped pretty hard on both, but two nights ago I had the kind of experience that made me realize my previous experiences only scratched the surface of psychedelics. Before I was always pretty apprehensive about taking too many mushrooms and getting too high for comfort. After this experience, I am going to take a shitload every time I trip.

So, my girlfriend and I almost always trip together, and two nights ago I bought 14 grams of mushrooms because before we always had an eighth each and most of the time it just didn't feel like enough. So, this time we took an eighth like usual with the plan of taking more later if we wanted. My girlfriend usually gets nausea on shrooms, but this time (for whatever reason), she got REALLY sick, throwing up several times and going to bed after about only four hours because she just wanted to sleep it off. After she finally got to sleep, I wanted to take more and salvage the night for myself at least. So, I took just a little bit more, and that made me feel higher, but not much. So, at that point (even though it was five in the morning) I just said "fuck it" and took the remaining seven grams. As I said, I was a little scared before about taking a really big dose of mushrooms, but during the trip I kept saying over and over to myself "this is the best decision you have EVER made" . I remember the come up being WAY smoother than usual. I just very subtly and quickly slipped into a state of being high as fuck.

An interesting thing I've noticed when tripping before is that a lot of the time when I don't feel high enough (whether I'm coming down or just didn't take enough) I can get REALLY bored and nothing I normally do sounds interesting or fun. This time it was like the mushrooms were guiding me on what to do. Usually I'm also indecisive while tripping, which doesn't help with boredom, but on this trip it was like I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I was watching TV while waiting for the come up, but soon I had a strange urge to lay on the floor. So, I put down a blanket and stretched out on the floor. I brought my iPod and went immediately to Phish and just put all their stuff on shuffle and then began to draw (again, it almost felt like the mushrooms were guiding me, like my brain thought "of course I'm listening to Phish and drawing right now, what else would I do?"). After drawing for a bit, I had a sudden urge to record myself. I just had an incredible desire to log my thoughts and trip while it was happening, and I found writing to be too difficult. And man, from now on, I'm gonna try recording myself for every trip I do, because it was so much freaking fun (it was especially fun the next day, because I smoked some weed and listened to my recording, which was both hilarious and interesting). As I've said, I've tripped before so I knew the effects mushrooms had, but man, I just never expected the pure, indescribable beauty I saw in everything, or the euphoria that was by far the most intense happiness I ever felt. Probably the most interesting aspect of the trip though was that I wasn't completely out of my mind. One of the reasons I was hesitant of doing a large dose before was because I was afraid it would be a little like being way too drunk in the sense that I thought I would have no control over myself and/or not be able to remember anything. What I found however was that I was perfectly aware of exactly where I was and what I was doing the whole time, and I can remember the trip well. I had plenty of moments where I would let my mind drift off, but even then I was aware I was doing it (I even said in my recording at one point "I'm sick of talking, I think I'm just going to fly out into outer space for awhile".

And my thoughts were all over the place. For awhile I felt like I was on meth (not literally, I've never tried it) because my mind was going 1,000 miles per hour, and I would have spurts of energy where I felt I needed to walk around, go outside, or just explore in general. After an hour or so of that though I felt the complete opposite, just stoned and couch locked. Another interesting thing I noted was that this was by far the most intense trip I've had, yet it had some of the weakest hallucinations. Before I've gotten high enough to that people on TV look like they have giant heads, or the room will shrink and expand. This time though, things were just a little wavy and colors were brighter, nothing very intense at all. Once the trip was over, I had afterglow like never before. Usually when I get afterglow it will last a few hours and/or until I go to sleep, but yesterday (the day after my trip) I felt amazing all day... happy, at peace, and just in a great mood all day. Even today, the afterglow is less, but I still feel much happier and less anxious than I usually do.

Definitely the most interesting aspect of the trip was the sense of spirituality I felt. I'm an atheist and have never been spiritual, and I still only felt purely secular spirituality, but it was still something I've never felt before. I felt connected to everything, and I had an overwhelming feeling of enlightenment. I completely understand now how religious people can have such intense spiritual journeys on psychedelics. And that feeling of nirvana I had was just so amazing, just feeling like everything is perfect and beautiful the way it is.

So, the short version is that I took way more mushrooms than usual and it was easily one of the best experiences of my life. I always read on forums before of people saying stuff like "I'm going to take like 8 grams and just go nuts for the night" and I always thought that sounded insane. Now that I've done it, I don't know if I can ever go back to lighter trips. And anyone out there who's like me and is apprehensive about taking a lot, as long as you've dipped your toe in the water so you at least generally know what you're getting in to, I can not recommend just taking the plunge and eatimg a huge dose enough. I realize everyone is different (especially with psychedelics), but even if it goes bad, a good trip is soooooo unbelievably good that to me it's well worth the risk.

And just one more thought I'd like to share: What the fuck is wrong with people? Alcohol kills like 100,000 people every year, and mushrooms kill like 6 and it's impossible to overdose on (to death, at least). And to top all that off, it's not even God damn addictive. Why in the hell is this stuff illegal? I had an INSANE trip, but I was never anywhere near a danger to myself or others, which is a LOT more than I can say for alcohol. With alcohol I feel like I just get stupid and have fun for awhile. With mushrooms, I feel indescribable euphoria, empathy, and overall peacefulness. Why is it that there's a drug that causes such extreme happiness and is VERY safe, but I could literally be thrown in jail for using it. And at the same time, there's a drug that's legal that causes thousands of deaths each year, and very often causes people to be belligerent and stupid (which is like the complete opposite of mushrooms). I also hear stories about how most psychedelic deaths or accidents occur because people are sold more dangerous psychedelics and are told that it's LSD, or are given non-psychedelic mushrooms that can be dangerous, which WOULD NEVER FUCKING HAPPEN IF THE STUFF WAS LEGAL AND WELL REGULATED. So, it being illegal probably causes more deaths at the expense of the taxpayer. Just... fuck the world, seriously.

 

Good Trip Report... That's great that it was so meaningful and powerful for you.

Responding to some of your questions and comments regarding Mushrooms being illegal. I agree that there should be some type of permissible way that people can explore experiences like these and alcohol is more toxic and addictive. I do feel psychedelics dissolve cultural programming and that plays a large part in their being illegal. But to play devil's advocate, I also am not so sure about full fledged legality like alcohol. With Psychedelics there can be a tremendous amount of variability in response from person to person even taking the same dose, or even the same individual taking the same dose from one trip to the next. It's hard to predict how psychedelics would be used if there was full on legalization but I speculate a lot of the emphasis on things like set/setting and going into these experiences with a level of respect would not be as reinforced. Thus you would likely have a lot more frivolous and careless use with them which in turn could lead to more problems than we may think. Amsterdam comes to mind as an example of this, while I'm sure the incidents were few and far between, there were reportings of fatal incidents involving mushrooms, often in combination with alcohol but that is kind of what I'm talking about when I mean frivolous and careless use. Another example we can glean some insight from in the US is what happened with the 'Synthetic Weed Blends' and 'Bath Salts,' granted Mushrooms are again more benign than those but the legality seems to give the general impression that there are no risks involved with taking the drugs even if there are legitimate dangers.

It's kind of hard to note some of the possible issues that may arise from a more laxed stance towards psychedelics, especially since there is so much demonization towards them and we can see how many negatives there are in the legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco but I think being able to have a balanced view of expressing the benefits and acknowledging some of the possible risks is the best strategy and approach on the subject.

 

Why do you have a thumbs down on the thread picture?

 

Sounds like a good trip. I took nearly 10 grams on my FIRST time trying mushrooms and I experienced something very similar. I barely saw any visuals and mainly it was all just a huge mind fuck! It was intense but personally is not something I would ever want to try again. I'm quite the opposite, as I enjoy a good mushroom trip off of 5 grams dried. That's just enough for me. I will never purposely ingest 10 grams again!

And beware..it's awesome that you had a good trip after taking that much..but I don't suggest going crazy with that much every time because if you were to have a bad trip off of that much....it could possibly be quite traumatizing to say the least.

 

Really good trip report.
A few points that really take me back.. especially the spirituality part. My last strong dose scared me off of higher doses for a while. Not a bad trip at all, but the things that dawned on me about life and reality and spirituality.. it was scary to feel that kind of understanding.

Yep, I agree. If most people could clearly see the madness of this world we've created, a few people would be rather disenfranchised. Of course, psychedelics are not for everyone, but I honestly feel if psychedelics were a more accepted part of our culture, it could be greatly beneficial to us as a species.

 

Glad you had a good trip ^^

As for legality, I think they just like to ban recreational drugs full stop. They seem to particularly dislike the more positive ones that chill you out or expand your mind

 

Hmmm, the government doesn't want us to be able to think for ourselves? Oh the Irony....