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Discovering Delerium
Datura stramonium
Citation:   Jason Goyer. "Discovering Delerium: An Experience with Datura stramonium (exp5261)". Erowid.org. Feb 24, 2001. erowid.org/exp/5261

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
1.5 g smoked Datura (leaves)
  T+ 1:00 75 seeds oral Datura (seeds)
  T+ 2:00 75 seeds oral Datura (seeds)
  T+ 3:30 100 seeds oral Datura (seeds)
  T+ 4:00 50 seeds oral Datura (seeds)
BODY WEIGHT: 180 lb
It was a rather hot summer morning around 11:00am, and a friend of mine and I had decided to try some Datura. I felt good in both body and mind having had a good nights sleep. We started off by taking some of the leaf of a wild plant growing in the backyard and rolling it into a cigarette. I would say there was approximately 1.5 grams of dried leaf material smoked. We then decided to sit and wait for an onset effect. After a period of almost an hour, we agreed that there was no noticeable effect from the leaf, so we moved to eating seeds.

The pods from which the seeds were taken had been harvested from the same plant as the leaf. We had dried the pods for about 2 weeks before removing the seeds. All the seeds were dry and ranged from a dark brown to black. Total there must have been over a thousand. We carefully counted out 75 seeds for each of us and ate them as they were. This was followed by another period of waiting that lasted for another hour. Once again the concencus was that there was no noticable effect. This prompted the eating of 75 more seeds, bringing the total to 150.

At this point we decided to walk to a mutual friends house, and share some of the seeds we had with him. It was on the walk that the Datura started to show effects. I felt a bit warmer than usual, and I was having light hot flashes that travled up my body from feet to head. (I later found that this may be caused by the vasculardialating properties of the Atropine) I didn't have any trouble thinking, and my motor skills were unaffected.

As time progressed the effects became more intense, and I noticed that I had stopped sweating and my mouth was quite dry. I felt as though I should be sweating from the heat radiating off my body, and I queryed my partner as to whether he felt the same. He confirmed that he did, and he also suggested that we find some shade and rest a bit. We stopped at a 7-11 store, and checked the time for records sake and saw it was 1:30pm. It was when we stopped that I noticed my heartrate was well above normal. I took my pulse and got it at around 120bpm. We got some large drinks, and sat in the store drinking, and wondering if it was such a good idea to be out in the heat. The temperature outside was reaching close to the 100 degree mark.

After a 20 minute rest at the 7-11 we started off again to our destination. In only 10 minutes of walking I started to feel the beginning effects of heat stroke, and so did my friend, so we once again had to stop and rest. The total period of time we layed in the shade is unknown to me. When we felt that it was safe to continue, we walked the rest of the way. Although it was less than a quarter mile, we felt as if we had walked across the Sudan. The effects had not intensified much more with the exception of the dry mouth. It was as if every last drop of water had been sucked from my body (which it had). It hurt to swallow, and I was in desperate need of some water.

We got into our friends house at just 2:05pm, and rehydrated ourselves. We counted out 150 seeds for our friend and took 100 more ourselves. The same effects we had expirenced before got a bit more intense as time slipped by, and I noticed a definate dialation of my pupils. I also had trouble reading small print, or seeing smaller objects any distance. The waves of heat were pulsing through my body at a comfortable rate, and they made me feel at peace with myself. My friend and I had both assumed layed out positions on our back and were resting well.

At around 2:45, I consumed 50 more seeds (no one else took any more). The same effects continued for a good three hours, and I still noticed no change in mindset or motor control. However, at around 6:00pm I started to have problems with my fine motor control. I found it difficult to move my fingers, and pick up small objects. My eyesight had become a bit worse, and I definitely started to notice a major change in perception. In particular there was a nail sticking out of the wall in the room that seemed to be moving through the grain up and down, then side to side. This only lasted for 2 minutes or so, however the naps of the carpet began to twich furiously. At this point I began having to use the restroom constantly, this being the diaretic properties of the datura. I couldn't keep much water in my body, so I resorted to drinking gatorade.

I don't have much memory of waiting for the sun to go down, but I do remember waiting for that to happen. The next clear memory I have is looking out the window and seeing that the sun was down. My state of mind had obviously moved towards a lack of judgment because I decided it was safe to walk home. The time of my departure from my friends was around 9:00pm. I was no longer feeling the body high, either I had become used to it, or it had just gone away. My heart was racing at an ungodly rate, but I didn't notice unless I specificaly checked. When I reached about a quarter of the way home I began to talk to my friend who had been with me earlier in the morning as I walked. We were having an indepth conversation on a topic which I can not remember, when he suddenly veered off and layed down in a patch of grass. This alarmed me because I knew that Datura may have sever adverse effects on the body causing coma and or death. I started walking to over to him so that I might get him up or carry him to the nearest place we could get help when he just disappeared. I must have looked and yelled around for him for about 30 minutes. I finally gave up and decided it was best to head to my house.

It was then that I started to notice flashes of light in the periphrieals of my vision. I looked around to discover the source of the flashes and could not find one, so I continued walking. I saw a large white puffy object that resembled a mushroom of some variety I had never seen. When I approached it, it was very large. The top had a diameter of about 4 inches, and it had a very stubby stock. This, however was not what caused me to walk over. It was the flashes of light inside the cap that interested me. It looked almost like a video of neurons firing in someones brain. It was very real to me, I could touch it. It was not untill much later that I even realized that I had been hallucinating. Everything was real to me. I had no more hallucinations on the way to my house. I did however start to have major motor control problems. My hands were almost twiching out of control, and it felt as though my knees were going to give out at times. I began to worry, and almost panicked at the fact that my knees were coming out from under me. It took all the concentration I had just to keep walking. At this point I felt that if I had fallen I would not have been able to get back up. However I did make it safely back to my house.

Upon arrival at my home I immediatly checked the time, and was flabbergasted to see it was 11:20pm. A walk that usually takes no longer than 20 minutes took me over two hours. I forgot about the time when my stomache rumbled loudly and quickly went to make myself a nice cool bowl of cereal. As I was making my cereal I remember listening to an episode of Drew Carey on the TV. It was the April fools episode with all the pop-ups like from Pop-up video. The show was coming to an end as I walked into the livingroom and sat down to eat. I ate several spoon fulls of cereal and looked up to see what was comming on next. The TV was not even on. It was at this point that I finally made a separation, and realized that I had been hallucinating. I finished eating quickly, took a long cold shower, and went to bed.

Now as for lasting effects, the only one that plauged me was the fact that my pupils remained completely dialated for a week, and I could not read any small print, or street signs from a distance. As for my friend who went to sleep in the grass, I called his house to see if he had made it home, and he answered the phone. The first words out of my mouth were, 'Oh good you made it back, you have no idea how relived I am about that.' His reply stunned me, as it still does every time I think about it.... 'I never left the house last night.' We argued for a long time, because in my mind it really happened. He was there, he layed down. And then I couldn't find him. But It was confirmed by the people who live there, that he never left the house with me that night.

I will never do Datura again. It is definitely not a recreational psychedelic. In fact it is not a psychedelic at all, it causes your body to go into a near death delerium, by raising your body temperature to dangerously high levels, Raising your heartrate to equally high levels, and drying every moisture producing gland in your body. I found it to be dangerous, and very un-spiritual. They are real hallucinations, meaning that you can not tell the difference between a hallucination and whats real. I do not recommend that anyone ever try to use datura for a recreational purpose, or at all for that matter. I feel to this day, that had I not been in as good of shape as I was that it would have killed me. However if you do decide to use datura I do have several guidelines that you should follow to help ensure your own saftey, and they are as follows:


  1. Find a place where you can remain at complete rest. You should not walk anywhere, or undertake any heavy activity. A heavy activity in this case can be defined as anything more than moving slowly about.

  2. Keep plenty of water on hand. The drying of your glands has an extremely fast and sudden onset, and your throat will become so dry that it hurts to swallow at all.

  3. Do not under any circumstances take any other drugs whether they are prescription or not, the balance of your body is very precarious when you are having a datura experience.

  4. It is imperative you have a sober trip sitter available to entire time, so that immediate action can be taken if you take a turn for the worse.

  5. If you start to feel sick, DO NOT MAKE YOURSELF VOMIT!!!! This will only dehydrate your already dried out body even more. If the sickness gets any worse, call an amblulance or have your sitter drive you to the hospital immediately.

  6. You should write down how much you took, and what part of the plant it came from. The strain of the plant is also important because there are many differant types of Datura, this is information a doctor may need in order to treat you. Do not be afraid to tell the doctor what you have done it could save your life. In the event that the hot flashes become to intense, or you are starting to feel a bit ill, you should fill a bath tub with cold water and get in. This will help keep you from overheating.

  7. Do not smoke or use anything that may raise your heartrate anymore. Heartrates have been recorded at 160 bpm (beats per minute) while on datura. This includes smoking cigarettes as nicotine is a stimulant. Whatever you do, don't try to take sedatives, if you feel that bad, go to the hospital. Yes they will pump your stomache, but a bit of discomfort beats not living any day.

  8. And my last tip is to not do it at all.



Exp Year: 2000ExpID: 5261
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 24, 2001Views: 81,432
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Datura (15) : Various (28), Post Trip Problems (8), Health Problems (27), Difficult Experiences (5), First Times (2)

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