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A Village on Fire
Cannabis
Citation:   Eskimo. "A Village on Fire: An Experience with Cannabis (exp62585)". Erowid.org. Dec 25, 2009. erowid.org/exp/62585

 
DOSE:
2 bowls smoked Cannabis (plant material)
BODY WEIGHT: 120 lb
It was the late-spring of 2006. By then I had been doing drugs for about 6 months, my track record including salvia, coke, psilocybin mushrooms (my favorite drug experience) and pretty habitual weed consumption. I was spending the weekend at my friend A's house, who lived with her parents on a ranch way out in the country, with over 20 acres of forest land. It was around 11 at night and we were all sitting around a campfire outside on the patio, Me, A's younger sister (who was my age, 15), Alyssa (my older step sister), Andrew and Chris (who were both friends of A).

We had been passing a pipe around the campfire, just talking and smoking, for what must have been at least a half-hour, and I'm guessing I had to at least toked 2 bowls worth of weed myself. Eventually conversation started to dwindle, as all of us started to feel the effects of being 'really high'. I kind of completely left conversation and just started staring into the flames of the camp fire. Staring into the charcoal and burned papers and garbage beneath the flames, when I started to notice the shape of what seemed to be a village. I dismissed the illusion early on, tagging it as just an other odd visual byproduct of being stoned, not even a real hallucination. Then, a couple minutes later, Chris started talking about seeing a village in the flames.

As soon as Chris mentioned it I got really excited that he also saw it, confirming that maybe what I saw was more than just a crazy illusion, and I stared deeper into the flames with a new perspective. On a double-take, I was amazed. It was as if all of the objects and garbage placed at the bottom of the fire was placed individually and intricately by some artistic genius, taking thousands and thousands of hours to carve out little homes made of ash, with doorways and window, all lit by flame. I could see little cobblestone streets and castles and churches, even parks and trees and mountains. All made out of the ash of garbage. To put this in size perspective, the base of the fire must have been at least 2 feet in diameter, with the illusionary village filling up the whole base, and the size of a single house seemingly equal to the size of a house you'd find on an expensive model train set.

Eventually I dismissed all of my ultra-detailed views of the village as my own personal illusions, and figured it a coincidence that Chris also saw a village in the fire. But as I looked up at my friends, I was surprised to see that they too were staring into the fire, with perplexed expressions on their faces, as if trying to decode a secret message in the flames. On closer inspection of this fantastically complicated village, I caught eye of what appeared to be a small broom next to one of the houses. The broom was so small and so intricate I was convinced noone else could possibly see it, as, of course, there wasn't really a village in the fire, it was all just my own illusion. Then Chris spoke up again and asked me if I saw a broom. My expression was pretty much the equivalent of if someone were to look into my soul and state my exact perspective on everything in the universe. I couldn't believe it. Then Andrew and Alyssa said the saw it too. I was so amazed I asked them if they could point it out to me, and the pointed to the exact same spot that I had saw it.

I'm not sure if I can properly convey how I felt that night in words, but it was as if we were all in a perfect mental sync. Like we were all thinking the exact same thing, and that, at that moment, we shared the same perspective of reality. I looked at Chris and it seemed like he was thinking the same thing I was. It was unbelievable, we couldn't possibly be experiencing the same exact illusion down to such minute detail. It may sound like I'm taking this single high experience a bit seriously, but can honestly say that that experience has spiritually effected my life more than any mushroom trip has. It was the first drug experience for me that really made me question my perspective of reality and spirituality.

Exp Year: 2006ExpID: 62585
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 15
Published: Dec 25, 2009Views: 4,316
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Cannabis (1) : Mystical Experiences (9), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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