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Flying Ointment and Having Visions
Belladonna, Datura, Mandrake, Valerian & Cinquefoil
Citation:   grimmr nyr drengr. "Flying Ointment and Having Visions: An Experience with Belladonna, Datura, Mandrake, Valerian & Cinquefoil (exp111164)". Erowid.org. Nov 16, 2020. erowid.org/exp/111164

 
DOSE:
  transdermal Belladonna (extract)
    transdermal Valerian (extract)
    transdermal Mandrake (extract)
    oral Belladonna (tea)
  2 leaves oral Datura (tea)
BODY WEIGHT: 150 lb
Flying Ointment & Belladonna-Datura Tea

As a practicing occultist very interested in the old-fashioned, traditional ideas of witchcraft, as well as “primitive” shamanism, the Solanaceae family of plants (belladonna, henbane, datura, mandrake, etc.) have held a strong interest for me for quite some time.  The legends of witches and warlocks lathering themselves with the “flying ointment” and having visions of flying to Mount Brocken to hold wild revelries and orgiastic rites with demons or the Devil himself are widely known and recounted vividly in many medieval witch-hunter’s documents.

I did extensive research before I finally decided to order some belladonna and datura off the internet.  I looked at a wide variety of articles and experience reports to try and get a general idea of what was a safe psychoactive dose as opposed to what was a deadly dose.  After I felt confident I knew what I was doing, I ordered some “witches’ flying ointment” as well as some belladonna plant matter, as well as 2 oz. of datura.  The datura was all parts of the plant (stems, leaves, flowers and some seeds).  The flying ointment contained belladonna as well as mandrake, valerian and cinquefoil.

1st Night….
When I finally received these items in the mail, I waited until the evening and first lathered a moderate-sized dab onto my temples, wrists, the back of my neck and also my chest---as recommended by the seller.  After about half-hour I began to feel slight effects coming on… the first sign, as many have said before, was the drying out of the throat---the feeling of thirst which drinking cannot quench.  Secondly, my vision began to become warped.

After about an hour, nothing more happened so I realized it had not been a high enough dose to experience the psychoactive effects.  I had a calming, sedative sensation.
I had a calming, sedative sensation.
 My heart felt warm.  I looked in the mirror and my pupils were slightly dilated.  But nothing more than that so far.  So I took a small pinch of the belladonna and two datura leaves and made a hot tea out of it.  I waited twenty minutes for it to cool and drank all of it.  It did not taste bad at all, just planty like a lot of herbal teas.

About 45 minutes later, some mild psychoactive effects began to kick in.    The effects I got now were mildly psychedelic.  I kept hearing what sounded like whispering voices that seemed to come from everywhere, but when I listened closer I could not catch what they were saying… just ghostly, disembodied mumbling voices.  The more I tried to listen to them to hear what they were saying, they would get quieter or stop like they knew I was listening and didn’t want me to hear them.  I also kept hearing the sound of a powerful, ghostly, moaning wind---although looking outside, there was no wind.  I looked in the mirror again and saw that my pupils were hugely dilated now.  Everything seemed to kind of sparkle and everything seemed impossibly beautiful.  Things that I would normally take for granted or pay no attention to suddenly held an inexplicable allure.  I was mildly delirious and forgetful, trying to turn off lights that were already off and forgetting what I was doing and staring off into space for who knows how long before realizing I was standing in place like a statue.

But after that, no more profound effects occurred.  I realized it still hadn’t been a high enough dose for a serious “trip” or ‘mystical experience.”  So I soon went to bed, as I found it made me very tired (probably partly because of the valerian in the flying ointment) and I had some of the most vivid lucid dreams I’ve ever had in my life.  In the dreams, I was floating down long dimly-lit corridors and making beautiful things and people appear for my amusement.  I remember flying in all my dreams that night.  Some of the dreams were sexual in nature, and when I woke up a couple times in the night, I found that I was extremely aroused.  I did some research on this possible effect of plants from the Solanaceae family and found that belladonna has, in some cases, been used historically as an aphrodisiac for men, but from what I gathered from my research it is not likely to have this effect on women.

The next day I awoke and found that my vision was quite blurry but this was gone by evening time.  The strange thing about this blurry vision is that only certain things were blurry.  Most things I could see clearly, but writing in particular was so blurry that it was almost impossible to read.  I couldn’t text all day because I just couldn’t see what I was writing worth a damn.  But like I said, this side effect was gone by the following evening.

2nd Night….
When my vision and equilibrium was back to normal the following night, I resolved around 11PM to try it again, and this time to use twice as much, hoping to reach the proper dose for a mystical and/or divinatory experience.  So I lathered on two liberal dabs of the flying ointment in the same places as before.  I went and made another tea, this time with two pinches of the belladonna plant matter, two datura leaves and one datura flower.  

I drank this tea and in about an hour, I began to notice the telltale sign of my throat drying out.  About half an hour later, I noticed I was having the sensation of doors opening everywhere around.  Not literal doors, but rather invisible, interdimensional doors.  I had the impression that I was becoming aware of another layer of reality spilling over into this one, and although I didn’t see them visually, I could perceive entities coming in and out of the doorways and wandering through invisible hallways superimposed over this reality.  The general feeling of the presence of others being there around me, moving quickly as if they had no time to waste in getting wherever they were going.  I did not get the impression that these entities were either malevolent or benevolent---more neutral, or even totally disinterested in humanity. The faint, inaudible whispering and the strong moaning winds began again.  My body began to tingle somewhat in places and as I was laying on my bed I kept getting the sensation of floating just above the bed rather than laying on it.  I also got the real strong urge to urinate about every thirty seconds but when I would try nothing or almost nothing would come out, and even when it did it was a strain.  The tropane alkaloid-containing plants are known for causing this side effect.  Its not at all painful, just slightly annoying.  I experienced none of the nausea or vomiting others have reported.  In fact, I felt quite good.  It actually seemed to make me very hungry, although eating was quite impossible.  I tried to eat some goldfish crackers and although they tasted ridiculously amazing, the texture in my arid dry mouth and throat was like sand and was very difficult to swallow---I had to wash it down with water.  So I gave up on eating.  Being so thirsty, I kept drinking water.  I found that I needed to take small sips because if I gulped it---which I was very tempted to do---I would feel like I was starting to choke on it.

Once again, and even more-so than the night before, I found myself delirious and forgetful, wandering around and then stopping for what seemed like a long while, lost in trance and then suddenly I would wake up and half-realize I had just been staring into space for who knows how long.  I did some scrying (gazing into a black mirror made of obsidian) for the purpose of divination, and in my trance state, I had a vision of floating across vast space and time to visit my lover, who is about two hours away from me.  I saw him clear as day in the mirror and I gave him loving, sensual energy and also took some of his, which is a practice of psychic vampirism---an energy exchange.  Whether this was real or simply a hallucinatory effect, no one could ever really know.  But I will say that it seemed as real as anything ever could.

After I was done with that, I wandered around; my balance was atrocious and I nearly fell or ran into things several times.  I also recall suddenly bursting into hysterical laughter at some profound revelation in my mind, although I do not remember what it was, unfortunately.  The sense of time was very warped as well, and time seemed to go very slowly. I remember I watched an hour-and-a-half-long movie called Mr. Jones, which seemed somehow absurdly profound to me at the time, but the movie seemed to go on for four hours.  I didn’t know what time it was because my vision was too blurred to read digital clocks.  I only became vaguely aware of how late it was when I ventured into the bathroom for about the millionth time and saw the dim light of morning shining in through the window.  

So I went to bed, very tired once again, and once again had very vivid, semi-lucid dreams, but this time they were mostly unpleasant---some were even nightmares.  I remember one of them involving me looking into the minds of many of my friends and family members and discovering what they truly thought and felt about me, and most of it was not only unpleasant, but very mean.  I remember screaming and crying and fighting with my mother in one of them---she was acting cruel and evil, very much unlike how she has ever acted in real life for the most part.  She was calling me foul, derogatory names like “faggot” and things like that.  In this dream, she hated me for being a homosexual… but in real life this hasn’t been an issue since my young teenage years.  I think that one was more of a psychological remnant of bitterness and resentment about things that happened between me and her in the distant past, which I suppose I’ve never fully come to terms with. I don’t remember much about the rest of the dreams, except for one, which wasn’t a nightmare… I saw my mother going out on the porch and unplugging the Halloween lights I had put up for decoration because it was going to rain, and then I saw her getting into her car and going to the grocery store.  Nothing epic or profound, but when I awoke I found that she had in fact done both of these things.  Psychic dream or coincidence?  Was this an out-of-body-experience in which I was following my mother around, watching what she was doing?  I couldn’t say.  Believe what you want to believe.

The next day (today) I awoke and my vision was blurred twice as bad, which makes sense because I took twice as much.  It is 12:30 at night now, and my vision is still blurred (over 24 hours later) to the point that I could not even read texts let alone respond to them.  I had to write this as a word document in huge print just to be able to see it, and then copy and paste it.

All in all, I would say a pleasant experience, although I still didn’t quite reach the level that I wanted and next time I will double the dose again.  I must say I am a fan, and I will definitely be doing it again sometime.  Of course I do not endorse anyone doing this plant solely for the purpose of getting high, because its not about that.  I believe in a certain kind of animism, and I think that the spirit or essence of these plants know when the users intentions are pure and sacred or simply vulgar recreational pleasure-seeking, and it will treat the user accordingly.  

Exp Year: 2017ExpID: 111164
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 26
Published: Nov 16, 2020Views: 7,484
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Ritual (129), Belladonna (9), Datura (15), Mandrake (33), Valerian (48) : Alone (16), Personal Preparation (45), Entities / Beings (37), Combinations (3)

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