DOSE: T+ 0:00	1.5 g	oral	Mushrooms	(dried)
T+ 0:00	Repeated hits	smoked	Cannabis	(flowers)
T+ 5:30	Few glasses	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine	(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

85 kg

Previous experience: Alcohol, Cannabis (oral/smoked), Mushrooms, Amphetamine (snorted), MDMA crystals (oral/snorted), 2CB (oral), LSD (subliminal), Cocaine (snorted), Ketamine (snorted, oral)

Date of Experience: 12th May 2023

This trip happened last week. I've recently got very close with a new group of friends at university, and since the weather has been looking good, we felt that a trip was a great idea. There was a group of 10 of us, with 9 tripping, and 1 who was just smoking, having had a bad trip a few days before. I live with two of the people, so know them quite intimately, whereas the others have been fast but firm friends. We had extremely varying levels of experience with mushrooms and psychedelics in general; there were a few first-time trippers (indeed one girl had never tried anything stronger than weed), a few (like me) who have tripped between 10-20 times, and a few more experienced (50+ times) trippers. I was in a very good headspace, and the setting was a huge park with grassy and forested areas. It was a partially cloudy but very pleasant day, and the trip began at around 3pm.

T+(0:00) – We scaled up our doses, initially intending to take 2g each, but with a warning about the strength of these mushrooms, decided to bring it down to 1.5g for the more experienced, and 1g for the less experienced. We ate them straight in somebody’s flat, washing down with water – some people had eaten meals recently, which proved to be a mistake, since those people seemed to have a much less intense trip.

T+(0:30) – Everybody convened, ready to walk up to the park. I and several others were feeling ‘funky’ as we walked up, as well as feeling a bit of nausea coming on (mushrooms have never sat well for me, and 2CB also makes me feel quite nauseous). We had all decided to dress in our finest hippie/psychedelic attire for the occasion, and got many odd glances as we strolled, despite the liberal attitudes of the city we reside in, such an extraordinary group we were. We found a spot on the grass, protected from the wind by some trees, and set up for the trip.

T+(1:00) – The come-up had well and truly arrived for me. We had excellent music selection all day from one member of the group, and at this time he was playing some Ethiopian experimental jazz (check it out – it’s awesome!). I was seeing purple tracers everywhere, and beginning to get some surprisingly intense visuals in the clouds above me – conical, fragmented geometrical distortions, immediately pushing away any annoyance I felt that it wasn’t a perfectly sunny day. I firmly had the giggles, and was uncontrollably laughing at literally nothing at all. I had a permanent smile on my face, which is a common theme on my trips, and was feeling absolutely incredible.

T+(1:20) – By this time, it was very clear that people were at very different levels of tripping from one another. Interestingly, myself and the two other most experienced users of the 9 of us seemed to be the ones most feeling it. It was around this point that I looked into the clouds and saw a man trying to break through those clouds, with some force holding him back. I reached my hands out to try and help him, but I was frustrated in my efforts. I asked my friend to play Starman by Bowie, and thoroughly enjoyed linking the lyrics to what I was seeing. Waves of nausea were coming and going (to the point where I considered a tactical vomit), but despite this I was tentatively eating some biscuits, and found them to be absolutely perfect. I was also getting some interesting facial distortions on my friends, and I could not have told you how much time passed here.

T+(1:30) – Around this time, cannabis was suggested – as a group we smoke virtually every day, and so had various bits of bud lying around. A few of those who weren’t feeling the trip expressed intent to digest some more mushrooms, and I believe a few did an extra 0.5g or so, though I did not. A few spliffs started to go round, and I partook in small amounts. During this, I started to feel a real pull towards nature. I was incessantly picking up any rubbish and cig butts that were anywhere near us, even though most of it was there beforehand, and actually getting quite distressed when I’d see a friend toss a cig on to the grass.

T+(1:45) – Around here half the group decided they wanted to walk, so we split up. They walked off, and me and 3 or 4 others stayed – the ones experiencing the more intense trip. I definitely felt more of an affinity to these people who were near the same level of me, and in the days past one of those people expressed a similar sentiment to this. I think this was partially due to relating to each other’s experiences and feelings at the time.

T+(2:00-2:30) – We decided that it was time for the group to be re-united, and I felt an intense urge to get into the forest, away from prying eyes – I become sometimes quite paranoid about how sober people will see me when I’m intoxicated, but the urge was more so that I could look at some trees and plants closer. When walking towards the forested areas, we all began to experience a peculiar loop – we felt that we were on an ‘Earth’ or ‘Universe’ treadmill, and that despite walking, we were going nowhere. This was probably triggered by the weed (triggers thought loops for me) and by the fact that the grassy area we were walking over was vast. It was light-hearted for everybody though – we were in touch with reality enough to laugh about it and really enjoy the sensation, though a few of us expressed the fact that if we were tripping slightly harder it could have got scary. We found our way into a goat sanctuary place which we all knew about – there was the rest of the group, sitting on a rocky ledge. The view was quite honestly indescribable – the sunlight rippling, and trees everywhere were moving and distorting like crazy. A moment of silence spread around – I was scared to break it, and did not – nobody did for what honestly could have been a few minutes or 20. I felt utterly at peace with myself and my life situation, and a real appreciation for life and existence that I can find hard to come by at times.

T+(2:30-3:20) – At this point, there was another spliff going around, and I indulged more heavily, feeling in control of my trip at this point. More people expressed intent of taking more mushrooms, though I didn’t, and I’m unsure if it actually happened. This coincided with a general theme of finding it very hard to make a concrete decision of what to do next – lots of ideas were thrown around without anything happening. We eventually decided to go deeper into the forest itself (though this was largely an illusion – the forest was not deep in the slightest in reality). It was cooler under the branches, and I felt slightly like I was the character from the Temple Run mobile games that we all played as kids, hopping over exposed roots on the ground and vaulting over fallen logs. Interestingly, at this point I expressed to one of my friends the thought that I wanted to take more, but that I was completely unable to discern whether this was because I truly wanted to, or because I felt my relatively intense experience was invalidated because of only taking 1.5g – not a dose that is seen as intense. I resisted the urge, and we came to a very cool tree.

T+(3:20-3:50) – My friends had begun climbing this tree, and having not done this for at least 5 or 6 years, I delightedly did so too. We stood/sat at various parts of the tree, talking and thinking, for quite a period of time. I vividly recall being fascinated by the tree bark and leaves, being suddenly able to look at them in ultra-high definition. Little bugs drew absolute focus and attention from me. Most people moved off the tree onto the floor, but I stayed up, lying on a branch with half my body dropping down. Another spliff was passed round, and I again indulged fairly heavily, by now getting to a point where I would have probably been quite stoned just from the weed. I had a curious experience when eating a peanut covered in a coating that my friend gave me – I didn’t really like the flavour, but was absolutely engulfed in it at the same time. When I got down from the tree I got on my phone for basically the first time (unusual for me, as I definitely have a social media addiction), absent-mindedly opening Snapchat, not thinking about how it would come up with a picture of my face. It was pretty horrible, for a reason I can’t really explain – often, looking into a mirror when tripping is amusing for me, but not this time. It was as if my least favourite features were being exaggerated towards me, almost in a gloating or teasing way. I moved off of this as quickly as I could.

T+(3:50-4:30) – The encounter with my own face moved my thoughts onto the topic of pictures. Many of my friends in this group are avid picture-takers, and will constantly be taking photos of everything and everyone – which is awesome to have to look back on. I was caught up on the idea that I was loving when nobody was taking pictures – because of the fact that once a moment had passed, nobody could ever capture that moment. I liked this, and started to get a bit of resentment towards those people who were constantly snapping pictures. I didn’t, but wanted to tell them to live in the moment a bit. However, I know that when I’m tripping I like to have my own direction, and reminded myself that I was working on being a more relaxed and accepting person. We left the tree, and worked our way through some growth that made me feel like an explorer, though it was probably nothing much more than a few stray branches. We encountered a guy training hill climbs, which was our first introduction back into society. It definitely pulled me back into reality a touch, and if I remember rightly there was some discussion about the upcoming end-of-year exams, which I pretty firmly did not want to hear about.

T+(4:30-5:00) – At this point I became very detached and introspective. I examined a leaf for a good ten minutes, again partaking in a spliff that came round. Three of our friends (all sober), who had work to do during the day, met up with us, and this was not a development that I welcomed with open arms. One of them was a girl who I very plainly have feelings for that are not reciprocated, and I became slightly on edge, almost as if I felt that I could no longer express my psychedelic thoughts and feelings in the same way as I could before. I had known that there was not a potential future there for a few days, but I think I really realised how much I cared about that fact. I think I also was on edge due to the general fact that I become nervous about what I’m saying when people might not be on the same ‘wavelength’, so to speak. I go through periods of struggling with social anxiety to the point where I feel physically sick at the thought of interaction, and I admittedly use psychoactive drugs as a way to feel more ‘normal’ in social scenarios, probably to the point where I’ve become somewhat reliant on them for the purpose. We decided to exit the forest, and came to a perfect clearing. It was around here that I first put my headphones on – not because I didn’t enjoy the music being played, but simply to escape a bit. We lay on the grass enjoying ourselves, until somebody pointed out that the sun was beginning to set and that we should go to a spot we know to see it.

T+(5:00-5:30) – As we exited the clearing, I put on a song (Bittersweet Baby, blackwave. & Konteks) that I’ve been loving recently. I started feeling the urge to bop to the song, and before long was properly bopping along as I walked/jumped/ran. The sunset was truly beautiful. The colours in the clouds were perfect. We came to the cliff edge which has a great view, and jumped up to the railings. We smoked again, and I started listening to a song (Someone New, Hozier) that absolutely captivated me for whatever reason. As we smoked and watched the sunset, I listened to this song at least ten times on repeat on my headphones, dancing as if there weren’t at least 15 other groups of people around us watching the sunset. I’ve never appreciated a song like that in my entire life, and it was fascinating how I simply did not get bored of the song despite so many listens. It very almost felt like a light ping, and indeed I had used MDMA a few weeks prior and had been having a feeling that I would describe as ‘re-activating the ping’ after getting high on Ketamine and 2CB previously. By this point, I would no longer say I was tripping as I once was, but was certainly not sober. A funny/ terrifying moment came when somebody dropped my friend’s speaker (who we call Jarvis) over the railing, and very close to the drop. Going against every single rule of drug use and common sense ever, somebody went over the railing to retrieve it, but all was fine and we laughed off the absurdity of the situation, where we were treating Jarvis as a member of the group who needed to be rescued.

T+(5:30-7:00) – As the sun set, we suddenly realised that it had gotten pretty cold out of nowhere. A few people ordered food to the spot we were at, so after getting this we meandered back home. Upon returning, I had a few ice cold beers, which complimented the comedown to a T. This gave way to me trying some deeper thinking, with somewhat frustrating results. As the ‘flavour’ of the trip had been going for the past few hours, I was thinking about the girl previously mentioned, and generally about relationships. I slipped into thought loops that were not really producing many answers, which became frustrating pretty quickly. I knew that I needed to get rid of these feelings (I spend virtually every day with this group of people, including the girl) because they were starting to piss me off, but I had really no revelations of how this was going to happen. I kept returning to the darker place that I’ve been at recently; I have what I would call a track record of physically attracting girls, before things not working out when I’ve been getting to know them. As you could imagine, this does not tend to make me feel good about my personality.

I spent the rest of the evening/ night fairly deep in thought, but with the recurring theme of being able to identify issues within my life strikingly well without being able to come up with any solutions. After waking up the next morning, I was remarkably clear-headed, and thought about things for a while. The mushroom afterglow has always been good for me, and I was sitting in the morning sunlight, truly appreciating life. I thought about how lucky I was to have met this group of people, and even as I type this, am realising more and more that all good things have to have their drawbacks. I’ve been given an amazing friend group who I already love, and all I’ve had to pay for it is feelings for a girl that won’t go away. Not that it has necessarily solved anything, but I’ve realised how irrational those feelings are.

Overall, this trip started as an intense but manageable set of visuals and mindset that I immensely enjoyed. It took on a different direction towards its latter stages, but my music and dancing was an aspect of unadulterated joy that I truly appreciated. The latter stages of the experience helped me identify issues that need to be dealt with in my life; I’m hoping to find answers, but for now I’m grateful for my friends and for what this trip has given me.

Exp Year: 2023	ExpID: 117278
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 18
Published: Feb 8, 2025	Views: Not Supported
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Mushrooms (39), Cannabis (1) : General (1), Combinations (3), Difficult Experiences (5), Glowing Experiences (4), Nature / Outdoors (23), Music Discussion (22), Relationships (44), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Small Group (2-9) (17)