I stumbled upon the devils herb by accident as a teenager - it was offered to me by a drop out I used to score hash from. As this guy didn't work he had lots of spare time to spend reading books on many weird and wonderful things - Datura was one of them - he located the plant for sale in a local garden centre - he went back that night to pinch it. The plant was always in his room kept as a normal houseplant and I often heard his stories about the infamous plant, the powers it held and how it would be ready to try when the pods were more developed.
A friend and I visited him one day looking for hash and he informed us the Datura had been harvested and a small group of people would be trying the brew - we booked our seat at the table and waited for evening to arrive. The brew was cabbage like and bitter - not at all nice.
Shortly after drinking we all fell asleep except for my friend who fought back the urge to pass out - I think I drank another cup of the brew before passing out.
When I awoke I felt ok - a bit thirsty but fine - my friend kept falling off the stool he was sat on - we decided to head home and on the journey my friend kept falling down non existent trap doors - shouting as he fell and then using his upper body strength to pull him self out - this happened several times on the way home.
When we got back my world changed - although I was in a friends living room I thought I was in my bed room and could not work out what his videos were doing in my airing cupboard
I found my self in his kitchen - naked - selling hash to long lost friends and my dog Spike - these friends would appear and disappear but in this strange world that was just their way of moving - they didn't need to walk they were where they wanted to be - My friend got me out of his kitchen and settled me down in his living room but I wanted to go outside and smoke imaginary cigs - I probably did that for an hour before crashing out.
The next morning I awoke to feel normal again - or so I thought - I just wanted to get back to the safety of the familiar surroundings of my own room - I went to pick up my friends phone to call for a lift home but the phone teleported from one shelf to another - each time I reached for the phone it teleported somewhere else.
On arriving home all of the objects so familiar to me seemed to belong to me ,but a me from another dimension - it was like I had returned from my trip but not landed quite where I left off - I was slightly out of sync with the world. I spent the next week on my own recovering from what I now know to be a near death experience- I could interact with pictures and objects in my room - an Indian brave sculpture I had would answer deep and meaningful questions I gave it with either a knowing smile or a disapproving head shake.
My hi-fi played tunes I did not own and had not heard. I took the dose on the Friday evening - I returned to work the following Friday but still looked that ill my boss sent me home thinking I still had the flu I was using as an excuse for looking so wasted and needing time off work. I could not read properly for days after and had extreme difficulty forming sentences - this slowly got better but probably took 12 months for me to become confident enough in my speaking to address a stranger or talk to more than one person at once.
That was about nine years ago - my speech is now what it used to be - I can spout off funny one liners to colleges without fear of stuttering my words or getting words in the wrong order. So has it caused long term damage - well all I can say is my ability to deal with life changing events has gone - I recently lost my best friend due to a tragic accident and split from my partner which sent me into a nasty place - just like the place I was on Datura - a isolated place with only bad feeling and lost companions for company - it has completely changed my out look on life and in one way I am glad I did it because I believe what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger - but if I could go back in time I would probably give that brew a miss and load another bong instead.
