I spent Saturday March 14th shopping, cleaning and lounging around like I often do the day of mushroom trips. My evening meditation was particularly nice. At 8:45 my roommate and I split a tea made with around 5 g of shrooms, taking half each. I had been fasting for around 23 hours.

Almost immediately after ingestion, a knock came at the door. A friend of M (my roommate) came in and sat down. He asked what we were up to and I told him we had just drank some mushroom tea. He indicated he was jealous and then began talking about music with M. After a few minutes, another knock came on the door and two strangers were standing there when I opened it. They were looking for my roommate's friend. He gave them some money to buy liquor and they left after a few minutes. A minute or two later the other guy left as well. Although it wasn't a stressful scene particularly, I was somewhat discombobulated to have three people I didn't know in my living room as I was starting into a mushroom trip. And by the time they left I was definitely feeling the shrooms.

M had put on one of the cds his friend had loaned to him while the guy was still there. It was a DJ Spooky ep, pretty cool electronic dance stuff. I was lying on the couch listening to it, and even though it was interesting music and I was enjoying it, I really didn't want to listen to it. I was eager for the cd to end. It was making me uncomfortable and I found it very distracting. It seemed like the mushrooms didn't want to mesh with the experience. I did have some interesting visuals as the stereo seemed to throb in time with the music.

It is noteworthy that at this time I was somewhat nauseous. It was fairly mild but it persisted into the second hour and I did feel in danger of vomiting a couple of times. I found that if I layed still the nausea would mostly subside. After the cd ended I remembered I was cold and went and got a flannel to wear.

When I came back from my room I layed down on the floor to calm my stomach after movement. While I was down there, with the music off, I could hear sounds coming from the surrounding apartments. Some of our neighbors were having a party and it was fairly loud. The voices and laughter floating up seemed simultaneously surreal and humorous. My hearing seemed to be especially acute to be picking up such relatively quiet noises with extreme clarity.

My visuals were fairly impressive, but they didn't go into the mushroom visions. They were more abstract and psychedelic, but with a style that reminded me of Aztec artwork. The patterns of smoke coming off the incense I was burning seemed to crytsallize shifting fractal chaoscapes all around me. The candles we were burning for illumination made intricate, shifting eddies of light and shadow and the colors (red, yellow, orange) pervaded throughout.

The reason I had chosen this dosage (roughly 2.5 grams) was to see if mushrooms and marijuana might mix again into a good music listening experience. I had noticed previously on a one gram trip where I smoked pot that I got deeply into music and had some tremendous visuals. I was hoping to repeat the experience with this higher dosage of mushrooms and some better cannabis. The plan was to smoke some kind bud at the 1.5 hour point and then listen to Tool's Aenima.

Around and hour and ten minutes after ingestion, M went to lie down. I decided to start the Tool disc. I went to put it in and found it missing. It took me close to ten minutes to find it in the bemushroomed state. I'm sure it would have been quite comical to anyone watching as I wandered around trying to figure out where it was. I finally found it and put it in the player. Then I sat down and got some kind bud ready.

My first taste of the kind bud made me very aware that it was hydroponic weed, as I could taste the chemicals used to fertilize. Icky. Give me organic grown in dirt any day...Not being one to complain I took another big hit and sat back as my head started reeling. After a few minutes to let the high settle in and diffuse I turned off the light and started the album.

The first powerful chords coming out of the speakers set off a wave of glee in me. It was actually somewhat distracting. I was having a hard time concentrating due to the overwhelming waves of joy coursing through me. It took me a minute or two to settle down to where I could really listen to the music. I began to get quite into it, but decided after a few minutes to put it on headphones and listen that way (so as not to disturb my roommate and to hear it better). I got on my phones and got everything ready and then layed down on the floor to listen.

This time as the cd started I relaxed into it and tried to just listen to it. With eyes closed the music was sparking visuals in deep blues and greens, twining through space so that it seemed like I was underwater. The music of Tool caressed and hammered at me and I was able to get quite into it. Some of their lyrics seem especially suited for psychedelic journeying and their music is complex, intricate and very powerful. Beacuse they are such a heavy band, they probably aren't for everyone. However, if you do like them, I think listening to their music while tripping is an experience not to be missed.

Around the third song I filled and inhaled a balloon of nitrous. It helped me sink into and merge more fully with the music. I took additional hits of pot when I felt I needed them. During the fifth song my roommate emerged from his room and I put the album back on speakers so we could both listen to it. One of the neighbors came over later on in the album, but I was too busy listening to it to pay him much attention and he left before long. I spent the remainder of the album lying prone and nearly motionless listening to Tool. I did another balloon during the last song which was quite enjoyable.

Although I found the music to be awesome and powerful, I wasn't able to lose myself in it to the degree that I often do with LSD. My mind continued to run throughout the experience, which was kind of distracting. I thought about a lot of things, and managed to get a fair amount of insight into some of them, but I would rather have just relaxed and shut off my mind and saved the thinking for another time.

After the album ended I listened to part of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon as I sat and thought about my trip. I thought about doing various things, but the motivation never came to really move anything beyond the "thinking" stage. Finally I decided to eat something. Although I had been quite hungry at the start of my trip I found my appetite almost nonexistent. I was able to eat, but I didn't get much satisfaction out of it. I thought about going to visit some friends, but decided they were probably out for the night.

The rest of the night was spent just hanging around, listening to music and smoking more cannabis. I sat up until around 4 a.m. and then fell asleep on the couch. I finally made it into bed around 7 a.m. when I woke up and noticed the sun was up. I slept until 11 a.m. and awoke somehwat tired but feeling excellent.

This was an excellent and enjoyable trip. It wasn't as serious or deep reaching as some mushroom trips but it was very powerful and positive in its own way. I didn't think the mushroom/cannabis synergy was quite as profound as the last time I tried it, but it was pretty cool. Mushrooms don't seem to mesh easily with music, but there is defintiely some potential there. I plan on working with it more in the future. I found this dosage level to be very nice. It was intense but not flattening. Roughly equal in intensity to three hits of slightly better than average acid. This is probably the level I will use for experimenting with mixtures with shrooms.

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