Shrooms, Computers, and the Dead

Last night I embarked on my second trip in 4 days. I would have never tried any type of psychedelic drug if it hadn't been for my exposure to the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia in particular) and Widespread Panic when I was a young child. My aunt sand with Widespread during the early years of my life, and it was her who actually caught the ears of Capricorn records in the early-mid eighties, but JB and the boys decided that they would much rather have a male sound rather than a female vocalist, so slowly but surely she was pushed to the back of the studio until she finally was asked to part ways from the boys and move on. It wasn't a bad "break-up" or anything, but she never gets any damn credit for her contribution. Regardless, when I was a kid I was always hanging out with my cool-cat aunt and her blues singer husband, so between them and my parents, I was raised to be a hippy and a Grateful Dead lover to boot!

As I grew up, I got to meet all the guys in Panic on a pretty regular basis, but they just weren't much compared to my love for the Dead. As I look back on it now, I was never impressed with Panic until later in highschool, but I was born to be a lil' Deadhead. Skeletons, dancing bears, tye-dyed sheets and shirts... that was my childhood man... so back in 1995 (my favorite year) I was devestated to hear that Jerry Garcia passed on into the spirit realm and that I would never be able to see him live, or shake his hand like my aunt got to a few times. I was going to go see the Dead that summer with my aunt; my first show other than seeing Panic or my uncle Tinsley, but all of that faded when I got the terrible message from a sobbing aunt. My mom was a youth group director in my dad's church, and a lot of her highschoolers were bigtime Deadheads and Grunge-rockin' skaters, so as soon as they all heard they came over to our house and we all kinda talked and worked through it. On guy, John, had a catalog with some Jerry Garcia memorabilia so I got a window sticker painting of Jerry and I even talked to it like it was my little shrine or something. I just had no idea how to deal with the awesome experience that death had denied me...

Well, move on up about 10 years to the present day... Last night I cleaned my room for the first time since I've been here in summer school. I was bored off my ass, my best friend was working instead of chillin' with me like he thought he was going to be able to, and I wanted an adventure. I set up some lights, read some books (packing for the trip), watched some documentaries, and calmed my mind down. Around 11:00, I downed a healthy dose with some orange juice and I started listening to a lot of the minimalist musical suggestions offered on erowid.org. After a while, I was sick of listening to that mellow bullshit, so I searched around for a good movie/music movie to watch during the trip. Pink Floyd has been overdone in my mind, so I thought about Led Zeppelin, but that seemed more than what I wanted... Then it hit me! I could watch a Grateful Dead show on my computer and it would be just like being there.... well almost! As soon as I came to this realization, it was as though the mushrooms were simply waiting on me to figure out this amazing combination before the hit me full-throttle! I started trippin' like never before, and the dvd itself is editted to show cosmic scenes, visualizations, and so on... so as the patterns and colors were disected off the screen, the were also showing up on the screen as well! Technology had allowed me to see the Dead and trip at the same time!!! It was simply beyond words.... but it was incredible to say the least!!! I highly recommend tripping and watching the dead for all who feel robbed of that glorious experience!!!

 

good old technology.

 

Wow i never got to see the dead either!

 

Nothing left to do, but smile smile smile

 

Youtube + good computer speakers is as close as I can come to seeing the Greatful Dead live too. I have seen them when it was just The Dead without Jerry at least though. But luckily youtube is full of jam concerts.

I wish my aunt knew Panic. That is awesome.

 

The Grateful Dead-Box of Rain-Shoreline Amphitheatre

 

Pretty cool

 

ripple?
you know that machines and objects have personalities....often they can be perceived while the mind is in a psychedelic state. they are there all the time we just do not notice as we screen most information out because of our need for a organised way of being..most of the time.

 

Very cool report. Lots of people say that tripping is best in nature, but there really are some cool possibilities that technology offers to the tripping mind.

 

Indeed! Tripping + computer = getting lost in the pixels.

 

I never got to see the Dead either (although I'm 54!!) because I was living on the other side of the Pacific in Australia....but we got all the good vibes all the same. I loved the Dead, Airplane, 13th Floor Elevators, Count V, Byrds, etc., so I grew up with this psychedelic bag. I started on my PC trip only 10 years ago (my generation didn't grow up with pooters) and a friend of mine told me that us 'oldies' had it made for using computers and digital tech because it was part of our DNA.....you know, she was right!!