At the very beginning of summer I decided to get out and rave again. I'd had the desire to go since the last one I'd attended but hadn't managed to actually make it happen. Finally I had talked a couple of friends into going and one of them A, actually did. With great anticipation he drove us about 15 miles out of town to a remote, beautiful location.

My intention for this evening was to explore the shamanic aspects of the rave experience, get some exercise and enjoy myself. Dancing for hours on end under the influence of psychedelics is a unique and powerful ecstatic experience. Tremendous energy is focused and relieved at raves and I hoped to bring some of that energy back with me into every day life. It was to be a beautiful night out to praise the universe for being.

We arrived and I met up with another friend of mine. Together we ate 3 hits of LSD apiece, of similar strength to what has been around. We split up and I went out to dance while waiting for the acid to come on. Unfortunately I had been working all day and tired out quickly, going to rest after less than 20 minutes of dancing.

I sat near the river that ran by the location and watched the water while trying to catch my breath and waiting for the acid to start working. I alternated lying down and staring at the sky with sitting up and watching the river. After forty minutes the acid was becoming apparent. The first alert was a tense feeling in my chest and "lightened" feeling in my head.

Around the time I was becoming aware of the acid the DJ played an Orb track, and I was forced to get up and dance. I felt sort of "tight" and couldn't really let go and flow with the music. Regardless of my difficulty in letting go, it still felt wonderful to move. Again I was thwarted by my body's perceived need to rest and after a short time I went again to lie down beside the river and rest.

By this time the acid was coming on strong, twisting my perceptions. Colors and trails were flowing off the edges of everything. The world was "breathing", expanding and contracting and twisting in my vision. The guy I came with broke out some nitrous balloons and gave me one. As it came on I closed my eyes and watched candy colored kaleidoscopic patterns surge and swirl on my eyelids.

A girl saw us doing the balloons and offered to trade a backrub for a balloon. My friend didn't have any extra balloons, so I offered to give her a left over hit of acid. She thanked me and gave me a backrub in trade, which was quite nice. I ran into some people I had met about a week before and we sat by the river and talked a little. They were candyflipping (combining ecstasy and acid). I asked them how their trip was going and wished them luck before heading out to dance again.

We had brought some glowsticks and it was great fun to dance with them, watching trails flow off the ends of your arms. However, it was very tiring, since it definitely encouraged one to wave their arms about more than they would have otherwise. My shoulders got pretty sore and made it hard to keep going. Since I was unable to enjoy them fully myself, I began loaning them out to people around me. Throughout the night I probably loaned them out to a dozen different people, each of who was kind enough to bring them back when they were done with them.

About the time the acid peaked I was a little worried that maybe I had taken too large of a dose for a public venue. The open eye visuals were pretty intense, obscuring reality to a fair degree. While talking to people there was enough psychedelic interference to make it difficult to see them directly. Instead I would see angles coming off their face and colored auras that would writhe and twist around them. I sat down to catch my breath and decided that as heavy as it was it was still manageable and once I stopped worrying I found there was nothing to worry about.

I danced off and on throughout the night. Even though I was tired I found that I would semispontaneously start dancing from time to time, as the beat simply called to me. I could have resisted, but didn't want to. I was there to dance after all!

By 3:00 a.m. or so the acid was just starting to decline and I had decided that I was too sore and tired to do much more dancing. I was ready to sit and chill and just watch everything for a while. I loaded up and smoked a little pot. Just a few hits kicked me back into heavy trip territory and took the edge off my soreness. I found I was able to dance again, and as a bonus, the tightness I had been feeling all night slipped away and I was finally able to totally relax into the groove and just let go to the beat. It sort of made me wish I had smoked a little sooner.

I continued dancing on and off as the sun began coming up. I smoked more pot off and on whenever I felt it warranted. As it got lighter the venue looked even more surreal than it had at night. I danced towards the back of the crowd and watched everyone. It was a really beautiful scene, hundreds of young people dancing to the beat and having a great time. There was no violence or hostility, just a bunch of people having a great time. It was very inspiring.

I overheard some conversations around me and it seemed that most of the people there were on X. I had never tried X at a rave before and decided I would have to do so sometime. My experiences with it wouldn't necessarily suggest that it was the ideal dance drug, but the overwhelming popularity of it at these events seems to imply it must have something to offer.

I was still tripping surprisingly hard at 6:00 a.m. Lights were surrounded by halos and I saw faint but definite patterns in the sky. I was exhausted and sore but I was having a great time, as was everyone around me as far as I could tell.

Finally, around 6:45 we decided to leave. By that time the trip had faded to a slight glow. When I got home I sat around listening to the Cure and smoking dope until I had relaxed enough to go to sleep. I slept until mid afternoon and awoke still fairly tired and very, very sore. I decided that I needed to go to more raves to get in better shape and really explore the possibilities of these events. So far, every one I have gone too has been a great time. I look forward to more good experiences.