A serious question about a friend and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

[Kaz The Original]

Allow me to give you some background to this story. I am 20, and used drugs from the age 16 to 18. Mostly I simply experimented, but was for a brief period (two months) heavily into harder drugs.

Regardless, I have been clean for two years (saying clean seems like I disagree with my previous use. I do not. I have no objection to what I did, and do not regret it. I am merely showing that drug use is common amongst my friends. No moral judgements please.

So, my friend was telling me about a mushroom trip. He's a bit of background on the friend :

He is not violent at all, very passive, talks in a monotone sort of voice. He is popular at his school (he is two years younger than me and most of my friends and still in highschool). He has had many girl friends, and generally seems content in life.

The trip he told me about gave him flashes of his parents murdered. At one point he was going to pet his kitten and he got a flush of it's severed head with blood everywhere.

When recalling this trip to me, he described it with horror and how he forced himself to stay in his room the whole time.

What do you think?

(Drugs are bad replies will be ignored).

[A_C_Slater]

Staying in his room was the best thing he could do. When experiencing a "bad trip" the best thing to do is to "make a stand" in a single location. To start moving around to look for a "better place" to ride the trip out will only make things worse as each new location you go to will only reaffirm even more that "nothing is right anywhere" and that's when the true horror begins.

Although I've never had a bad trip on mushrooms, only acid, but the theory should hold the same weight.

[Kaz The Original]

lol not quite the reply I expected, but certainly pertinant advice and good old fashioned horse sense.

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

drugs are bad mmmmmkay?

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
drugs are bad mmmmmkay?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sometimes they are in the short term. But even a bad trip has huge advantages in the long run. Once you undergo the horror of a bad trip all previous fears turn into petty nonsense. "Am I liked and respected?"

"Does she really love me?"

"Will I be able to get a good job?"


In order to get past the everyday fear of being a man you first have to experience the loss of all hope. Only then can you acheive clarity.


"Their are four natural enemies for a man of knowledge. Fear, clarity, power, and old age.

Fear, clarity, and power, can be defeated, but never old age. It's affects can only be postponed, but never overcome."

---Mariano Aureliano (some wise old peyote taking indian brujo I play poker with at Soaring Eagle casino.)

[toots]

[ QUOTE ]
In order to get past the everyday fear of being a man you first have to experience the loss of all hope. Only then can you acheive clarity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. Never thought of that. Sadly, I never had the nerve/opportunity to try any hallucinogenics, and probably never will. But, that is a starkly interesting point.

(Sort of like after I spent a day on a sailboat in the atlantic in the middle of a squall line. I tell people that absolutely everything that's happened since has been "comfortable" by comparison.)

[Rduke55]

It's a psychoactive drug, these are effects of the drug this time, get through it without hurting yourself or others and you'll be fine.
I agree with the "take a stand" idea. Just hole up.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In order to get past the everyday fear of being a man you first have to experience the loss of all hope. Only then can you acheive clarity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. Never thought of that. Sadly, I never had the nerve/opportunity to try any hallucinogenics, and probably never will. But, that is a starkly interesting point.

(Sort of like after I spent a day on a sailboat in the atlantic in the middle of a squall line. I tell people that absolutely everything that's happened since has been "comfortable" by comparison.)

[/ QUOTE ]


Well.... You don't necessarily need drugs to acheive clarity. There are many other ways. This is basically what advanced Buddhist meditation is all about. Drugs are just quicker and lazier. Traumatic experiences can work as well, and even better than drugs in some extreme instances, car crash, plane crash, brutal beating, you're stranded in the Atlantic or the desert (Moses), etc...


But of course with drugs you can create a "controlled chaos" scenario. And meditation is just plain boring.
Yet deliberate and careful meditaion, while being the most work would acheive the best permanent results. But that applies to everything in life.


"In this life, no one meets you half way" ---Sylvester Stallone in the movie classic 'Over the Top.'

[The Goober]

I find that most people who use mushrooms / acid eventually reach a point where they just stop doing them because its not fun anymore. Unlike other drugs, there tends to be a defined moment where you just kinda know you are done with it. Your friend probably just reached that point.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]

"In this life, no one meets you half way" ---Sylvester Stallone in the movie classic 'Over the Top.'

[/ QUOTE ]

Clearly, one of us thinks this board needs more quotes from movies about arm-wrestling.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to shove a shiv into my skull to stop the pain.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]

Clearly, one of us thinks this board needs more quotes from movies about arm-wrestling.

[/ QUOTE ]


This sounds like someone who doesn't know the proper grip from which to have that extra edge in an arm wrestling contest.

Flex the fingers.

Flex 'em.

And come...

OVER THE TOP.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[aflaba]

You seem to know your stuff. Any more arm wrestling advice? ... I'm trying to beat this huge dude...



For the original post, that he imagined/got flashes of crazy things means nothing. He's not crazy for that.

Did I forget to say that drugz are bad?

Dude, feeling blood pumping through your muscels is waaay better and waaay underrated.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]


Dude, feeling blood pumping through your muscels is waaay better and waaay underrated.

[/ QUOTE ]



Uhhhhh.... Are you talking about working out?

[cardspeak]

Kaz:

Are you wondering whether your friend has latent violent tendencies? Does he want to kill his parents? Are his visions prophetic or simply hallucinations?

I'm sort of a libertarian at heart. I feel everyone (if adult) should be free do what they feel is right, provided it doesn't involve hurting others. With drugs I wish more information was provided on the best way to use them to minimize the side effects, which can of course be anywhere from mildly to hugely negative.

IMO hallucinations should be treated exactly as that and not as any reality. They may reveal certain aspects of consciousness, but more likely perhaps how dreams symbolically access the unconscious. They are useful, if not treated literally. Your friends images of death and blood are, of course, coming out of his unconscious. I believe everyone has latent violence, or more likely in this case fears about death, blood, violence especially associated with people we love. Who hasn't feared for harm to anyone loved? Who hasn't gotten mad at these same loved ones? In a hallucinating state few people have control of which part of the brain is going to be accessed. Tripping, to use an old term, implies going wherever the drug takes you.

Certain spiritual points of view treat every image, every sensation, thought and feeling as creations of consciousness. It is the identification, the getting lost within the conviction that these creations have inherent reality that becomes a snare and a self-deception. To me, that's one of the biggest downsides to most drugs, they impair one's ability to discriminate.

Anyway, if it were me, I'd treat it as an unimportant hallucination (I understand that's not how he must feel it), but it's a choice to not elevate the images as anything more than they are, just a side effect of the drug. The only problem might be if he becomes obsessed with it. I agree with one of the other posters that this may be a signal to quit the hallucinagens. It seems the longer one uses any drug, the smaller the positive effects are and the larger the negative effects are. I'm not speaking morally here, just practically and even clinically. The fact that he's had this bad experience is likely to create even more fears to be amplified by the drug.

I hope my response is in the ballpark of your concerns.

[Kaz The Original]

Cardspeak, you hit the crux of my point here. I was not really concerned that he would have violent tendancies, but wondered what someone who knew a bit more about psychology would think.

[Seether]

Um, are you sure that those visions were from doing shrooms? I nor anyone I know has had hallucinations like that.

[A_C_Slater]

Their are many different types of mushrooms. There is no way you could get a good sample size from casual usage to make sweeping generalizations like "no shrooms are bad, dude." I however concur, that I've never had a bad experience with mushrooms ---sample size; about 8 times.

[Hermlord]

Many psychologists, including Jung and Stanislav Grof (http://holotropic.com) believe that self-development mirrors the birth process, or birth is the archetype for self-discovery, or some variant. The initial state is bliss, but unaware. Then comes an intense and sudden trauma, with no explanation or end (hell). Then still pain but progress, and finally birth into the new world, completing the cycle but with open instead of closed eyes. This can easily be turned into a religious/metaphysical story as well.

Now if you believe drugs have some sort of significance, rather than just creating random weird nonsense, your friend was undergoing the "hell" part of the growth process -- encountering the negative aspects of the psyche directly for perhaps the first time. This is necessary to evolve, as ignoring them will simply allow them to fester. Meeting them is painful but necessary to become a fully realized person.

Also see Joseph Campbell, especially his book Hero with a Thousand Faces. It equates the mythic archetype of the hero's journey to the underworld and back with every person's life story of growth. The underworld is dangerous but also provides access to nonordinary realms of knowledge, and must be overcome for the hero to realize his(/her) own potential.

Drugs are not bad, they are just very powerful. Your friend should not ignore this experience but caution him to stay sober for awhile until he's had time to process it.

As for dealing with a bad trip, this obviously varies but here's my experience. Finding other people, talking to them, esp. leaving the room, all help to "break the spell" but are sort of a denial approach. Some people like TV but it always gets me paranoid about The Man, keeping the masses sedated, etc. Maybe a good (non-mindf_ck) movie will work. If you want to meet it head-on, the worst thing to do is to fight it. For me, music and breathing meditation both work to subdue the by-then wildly out-of-control energy and redirect it in healthy ways, as well as discovering some really useful things about my head.

Like I said, drugs release a whole lot of powerful stuff, and it could be dangerous if not handled right. The old transcendence manuals are filled with warnings about initiating these things unprepared.

And if you think I'm a total wacko, just wait -- death is a trip for everyone. But if you're doing things right, so is life...

[Kaz The Original]

My hallucinations on mushrooms usually take the form of objects swirling, melting and conforming. Light is probably the most dynamic.

I have had "bad" trips before, but they (like most of the experience I get from mushrooms) take the form of thoughts. "No body likes me, these people are not my friends" etc.

The vast majority of my mushroom trips were not "good" or "bad" in terms of emotions, just various sensations, images and thoughts.

None the less, the friend is a credible witness to what he encountered and has had much experience with mushrooms (we've probably done them at least 40 times).

[Hermlord]

Oh yeah, I forgot cigarettes for a bad trip. Brings you back to earth and after 2 hours of mental hell, they are soooo good. Sorry smoker-haters, but they work. Man, do they work.

[gazarsgo]

[ QUOTE ]
The trip he told me about gave him flashes of his parents murdered. At one point he was going to pet his kitten and he got a flush of it's severed head with blood everywhere.

[/ QUOTE ]

I get these kinds of negative visions sober (in a mostly lesser intensity than described, but occasionally with equal intensity) and I have never taken acid or mushrooms. You can make up all kinds of names for them; I'm pretty partial to calling them negative disconfirmations. They are a product of bottled up resentment and anger, and basically it is his subconscious letting off steam.

I am very much like your friend -- very non-violent, very passive. I get excited as much as the next guy though, but being so nonconfrontational physically leads to a lot of suppressed anger which I've only recently been learning to take care of.

If you really want to help your friend, talk to him about anger. I had to re-learn how to become angry and when anger is appropriate. It could be that your friend is depressed, but it's equally likely that he's just easy going by nature. Anyway, I am not a professional or anything. Your friend doesn't necessarily need professional help in my opinion as long as it looks like he isn't experiencing depression. If he is depressed, as I was very recently, then a strong case could be made for him to see somebody.

[A_C_Slater]

Listen to Hermlord.

Stanislav Grof is the man.

Anyone who is interested in this thread should read "Beyond the Brain" by Grof.


The book is about his patients experiments with LSD psychothreapy. Through large doses of LSD and guided hypnotism he was able to guide patients back to the memory of being born! The descriptive recounting of the experience is some of the strongest stuff I have ever seen printed in the English language. And these people are not professional writers.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
sample size; about 8 times.

[/ QUOTE ]


I think you should know from being a member of this community that "8" isn't a good sample size -- you're at least 99,992 short of a proper sample group.

Seriously, though, as to this topic, I don't think it means your friend is violent. Dreams and hallucinations often have things that won't actually occur in real life EVEN with optimal opportunity. Take it as a weird experience and nothing more.

Dr. Al might be able to add some professional insight...

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[A_C_Slater]

Actually, it's best to treat everything as "real" because if it's happening to you, then how can it not be?


It's when we dismiss things as not being true that we then end up going in circles and confusing ourselves. EVERYTHING that is experienced in the course of your lifetime is real, especially if it has an emotional impact. It is the feeling of an experience that matters.

[BullChip]

Your friend bad tripped. Happens.

No big deal but if he continues to feel like that when he trips off drugs perhaps he should stop for a while.

[CORed]

I have to agree with other posters who said staying in familiar surroundings was probably best. I really can't say based on experience. I did acid and 'shrooms several times in college years and while in my 20's, and never had a really bad trip. I can remember a couple of acid trips that were a little too intense at the peak, but even those were mostly enjoyable. Several of my trips were sheer extacy, lots of laughs with good friends. I also did a few fourteener climbs on acid. Those were great.

I also remember getting completely lost (mentally, not physically) in a sunset in Canyonlands, surrounded by giant hands (actually rock fins, but they looked like hands in my altered state). Maybe your friend is a little young for such intense drugs. In general, I liked to be very active physically when on acid, but tended to stay in one place and contemplate the meaning of life while on 'shrooms. I always knew what the meaning of life was while high on acid or 'shroomss, but I never could remember what it was when the drugs wore off. One more thing. Pot can help calm things down at the peak, if they are getting too intense. Curiously, if you smoke it when you're coming down, it will reactivate the trip for a little while.

[A_C_Slater]

"The meaning of life is too prepare for death."--Plato

One prepares for death by enhancing and increasing awareness.


"Whoooaa"---Keanu Reeves.

[Cheeseweasel]

"To be is to do" - Aristotle
"To do is to be" - Sartre
"To be do be do" - Sinatra

[Autocratic]

That whole experience sounds way too intense to be straight mushrooms. I'm very surprised that the visual could be so vivid and powerful, especially in such a negative manner with someone like that. Staying in your room is always the best option. And never, ever trip alone.

[Hermlord]

[ QUOTE ]
That whole experience sounds way too intense to be straight mushrooms. I'm very surprised that the visual could be so vivid and powerful, especially in such a negative manner with someone like that. Staying in your room is always the best option. And never, ever trip alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can absolutely guarantee that mushroom trips can be this powerful and more. I don't want to say how I know exactly, for obvious reasons, but believe me they can be. Don't start thinking that someone added some other crazy drug, while I won't say it's impossible it is so unlikely as to be disregarded.

As to tripping alone, I guess that depends on what you're looking for.

Anyway, if you haven't gotten what you needed from this thread so far, you need http://www.erowid.org

[Kaz The Original]

You guys are a bunch of wacked out, drugged up hippies.

I like it.

[BadBoyBenny]

One of the effects of tripping, whether it be on LSD, shrooms, mescaline, or something else, is an amplification of emotions and sensory perception. This can have all sorts positive or negative effects. It can be something as simple as music sounding better and clearer than it ever has before, or causing someone to laugh uncontrollably at something only slightly funny, or causing someone to be overcome with a negative thought or feeling in a way that makes it feel impossible to refocus on something else. The only "bad" trips I ever had occurred when some negativity, (fear, distrust, etc.) got into my head and started balooning out of control and taking control of my stream of thoughts. It's been my experience that if a negative feeling gets out of control and is not interrupted by some distraction it leads to this kind of wild delusional fanatasy it could be a persons own mental horror movie, or wild conspiracy theories that seem perfectly reasonable and validated by perceived innuendos in everyone's actions.

Staying in his room the whole time was probably a good thing as he most likely didn't have the capacity to yank his mind away from the delusions at the time. He would have ended up seeming totally insane, or possibly pulling his fellow trippers away from their own enjoyment.

Some people I know have had a trip like this and have not been able to enjoy tripping on anything ever again, somehow the fear of repeating the same bad trip ends up being a self-fulfiling prophecy for them. For others, it was a one time thing caused by some stimuli either in their mindset before the trip or their surroundings during the early parts of the trip.

I would recommend to your friend that if he wants to trip again, don't do it for at least a month or two, and to make sure his next trip takes place in a positive setting and is done when he is in a positive frame of mind. Also make sure that your friend isn't preoccupied with his last trip when using the next time.

[aflaba]

lol, yeah.

[J_V]

I've never done mushroom or acid. I wanted to try mushrooms as I heard they were relatively safe for you. Many of my friends have done them and love them. However, nobody can seem to get them as I live in the Midwest.

I'm just curious about mushrooms in general and was hoping someone could fill me in on their experiences.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
I live in the Midwest.


[/ QUOTE ]

I've heard about how hard it is for vegetation to grow in the Midwest...

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[JKratzer]

[ QUOTE ]
nobody can seem to get them as I live in the Midwest.

[/ QUOTE ]

What, Midwest Asia?? I live in Iowa and while I've only done shrooms a couple times they aren't that hard to get. You need better friends /images/graemlins/grin.gif

I haven't a bad trip, so I can let someone else relate that to you, but when I use them I find a strong desire to be in nature, with beautiful scenery. I make plans on being in a park and generally walk around gazing at the beauty of nature around me. I haven't had hallucinations like described by the guys friend, but all in all it was always extremely tranquil.

Also, if you're gonna do it, only be with other people doing it. People that aren't tripping can be detrimental to the experience I've found, especially if they're drunk.

JKratzer

[Breadfan]

I have to start by saying that this was a very interesting thread and I believe everyone has done a good job of explaining the experiences of mushrooms.
As an aside I like to add a little story with some poker content. If you are into mushrooms you absolutely must try playing no-limit duece-to-seven when booming.
If this is not a crazy enough game anyway, it really gets hairy on mushrooms. My roomate and I decide that we shall play the "Shroom Classic," a head-ups match of NL 2 to 7 lowball. It's a $10 buy-in plus the winner get's to eat the last cap. The hand in question is this: I'm in the big blind and look down at AAKKQ. Another friend is sweating my hand and basically has no clue what is going on (with the game and in general) I say to him "this about the worst possible hand you can have in this game." After hearing that my roomate promptly raises my blind. Thinking that he is a steal i call and draw five...he then draws fours.(What a game) I end up catching the nuts on the next five and as you guessed he pulls the second nut and I am crowned champion of the "Shroom Classic."
Definately a hoot if done in the right environment with good friends.

[mr pink]

[ QUOTE ]
One more thing. Pot can help calm things down at the peak, if they are getting too intense. Curiously, if you smoke it when you're coming down, it will reactivate the trip for a little while.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is very true...

[mr pink]

yeah you definitely dont want any other people around who arent tripping for a number of reasons:

1. they dont know what its about
2. they will think its funny to [censored] with you
3. they are really annoying
4. you might not be able to understand them and they you

the worst situation you can find yourself in if you're really tripping hard is a party with a bunch of drunk people that KNOW you are really [censored] up. someone will try and exploit the situation thinking its funny... it is not.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
It's been my experience that if a negative feeling gets out of control and is not interrupted by some distraction it leads to this kind of wild delusional fanatasy it could be a persons own mental horror movie, or wild conspiracy theories that seem perfectly reasonable and validated by perceived innuendos in everyone's actions.





[/ QUOTE ]


Very articulate and dead on accurate description of a "bad trip."

When I had mine, I thought that people were signaling extremely sophisticated coded "orders" to one another with their lighters and their goal was to destroy my soul for everlasting eternity.
It was nightime and a bunch of my friends were chain smoking outside (they all smoked) and I was convinced that it was true.

[Autocratic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That whole experience sounds way too intense to be straight mushrooms. I'm very surprised that the visual could be so vivid and powerful, especially in such a negative manner with someone like that. Staying in your room is always the best option. And never, ever trip alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can absolutely guarantee that mushroom trips can be this powerful and more. I don't want to say how I know exactly, for obvious reasons, but believe me they can be. Don't start thinking that someone added some other crazy drug, while I won't say it's impossible it is so unlikely as to be disregarded.

As to tripping alone, I guess that depends on what you're looking for.

Anyway, if you haven't gotten what you needed from this thread so far, you need http://www.erowid.org

[/ QUOTE ]

Erowid is essential for just about every drug. I've never had a mushroom trip that was very visual, let alone so intense, though.

[lil_o]

interesting side note:
if your friend ever has another bad trip (not that i condone drug use) read up on "full attention" in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

[tdp]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"Their are four natural enemies for a man of knowledge. Fear, clarity, power, and old age.

Fear, clarity, and power, can be defeated, but never old age. It's affects can only be postponed, but never overcome."

---Mariano Aureliano (some wise old peyote taking indian brujo I play poker with at Soaring Eagle casino.)

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a direct quote from Carlos Castenada's "the teachings of Don Juan"

[Zygote]

Mushrooms are a great drug, however, they are not for everyone. This particularily includes anyone who is not emotionally confident, doesn't have a strong will, or has recently experienced depression, tragic events, or stress. Unfortunately, there are not many studies on the effect of psilocybin, therefore, there is not much known about mushrooms. They are speculated to be relatively safe, however, the phsychological effects can be very damagin if you are not emotionally qualified to use the drug.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"Their are four natural enemies for a man of knowledge. Fear, clarity, power, and old age.

Fear, clarity, and power, can be defeated, but never old age. It's affects can only be postponed, but never overcome."

---Mariano Aureliano (some wise old peyote taking indian brujo I play poker with at Soaring Eagle casino.)

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a direct quote from Carlos Castenada's "the teachings of Don Juan"

[/ QUOTE ]


Well.... Good for you smart boy. I was hoping someone would recognize it.

This book is required reading for anyone really interested in this topic.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
Mushrooms are a great drug, however, they are not for everyone. This particularily includes anyone who is not emotionally confident, doesn't have a strong will, or has recently experienced depression, tragic events, or stress. Unfortunately, there are not many studies on the effect of psilocybin, therefore, there is not much known about mushrooms. They are speculated to be relatively safe, however, the phsychological effects can be very damagin if you are not emotionally qualified to use the drug.

[/ QUOTE ]


Those are exactly the type of people on whom mushrooms would offer the greatest benefit. It's the pleasure seeking hedonists who put this remarkable fungus to waste and fail to understand it's true value.

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah you definitely dont want any other people around who arent tripping for a number of reasons:

1. they dont know what its about
2. they will think its funny to [censored] with you
3. they are really annoying
4. you might not be able to understand them and they you

the worst situation you can find yourself in if you're really tripping hard is a party with a bunch of drunk people that KNOW you are really [censored] up. someone will try and exploit the situation thinking its funny... it is not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd like to point out that being around the _right_ sober people is actually a very good idea, particularly if you're not experienced with hallucinogens. Problems arise when the people around you are assholes.

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
However, nobody can seem to get (mushrooms) as I live in the Midwest.

[/ QUOTE ]

They grow in cow poop. No, seriously. So I assure you _someone_ is supplying them near you. As far as experiences, go read http://www.erowid.org.

[Zygote]

maybe i've tried different mushrooms then you. From my experiences, which are quite numerous, i've learned that if you're in a good mood, it makes that mood X100 better. But if you're in a bad mood and don't have a strong will to come down to earth or you dig yourself deeper in your thoughts, your experience will be like a lucid nightmare. I've rarely taken small amounts of shrooms, so can't relate much with that "drunk" type high that you supposedly get on small amounts. This might be effective for a depressive person, i don't know, but there is no way i'd want to go on the 'trips i've been on during bad emotional weeks of my life.

[Autocratic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
However, nobody can seem to get (mushrooms) as I live in the Midwest.

[/ QUOTE ]

They grow in cow poop. No, seriously. So I assure you _someone_ is supplying them near you. As far as experiences, go read http://www.erowid.org.

[/ QUOTE ]

Especially this one (http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=2078). Hands down the best description I've ever read.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
maybe i've tried different mushrooms then you. From my experiences, which are quite numerous, i've learned that if you're in a good mood, it makes that mood X100 better. But if you're in a bad mood and don't have a strong will to come down to earth or you dig yourself deeper in your thoughts, your experience will be like a lucid nightmare. I've rarely taken small amounts of shrooms, so can't relate much with that "drunk" type high that you supposedly get on small amounts. This might be effective for a depressive person, i don't know, but there is no way i'd want to go on the 'trips i've been on during bad emotional weeks of my life.

[/ QUOTE ]

How much do you usually eat?

[Zygote]

3 to 6 grams.
i mostly use either home grown shrooms, or shipped-in shrooms from Vancouver, BC. I don't know enough about particular strands to comment on that aspect though.

What about you?

[A_C_Slater]

I usually just eat the whole $45 bag I buy, which is about 2 grams, I think. I never even considered eating 2-3 whole bags. How do you keep from vomiting?

[KidPokerX]

why don't you quit it ... GOD!!

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
I usually just eat the whole $45 bag I buy, which is about 2 grams, I think. I never even considered eating 2-3 whole bags. How do you keep from vomiting?

[/ QUOTE ]

$45 should get you about 1/4oz, or 7 grams. Or so they tell me.

[Zygote]

prices will vary depending on where you live or who you are buying from. There is no reliable standard to go by. Just htink in terms of weight.

[Zygote]

if you have a hard time eating them, you should make them into tea. It is very effective and very good. The high will come in faster but wont' last as long. You should have less stmoach problems in general if you use this method.

To do so, put the shrooms into a tea bag, staple the tea bag shut (or just put them in straight w/o the tea bag, but you'll need a strainer to do this) and put it into a glass of hot water. Leave them in for about 30 minutes, remove the tea bag but don't throw it out. Put some sugar (i don't suggest milk) in and drink up. While your drinking, poor another glass of hot water and put the tea bag back into the new glass. leave this for about 15-20 minutes then drink it. You can repeat this one more time as well, but two will do the trick if you don't wnat to.

Also, make sure you get a strong flavored tea, cinamon has worked well for me.

If tea doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then put the shrooms on pizza. cookie doe works well if you mix it and just eat it raw. you can make shroom brownies. you can fry them with chicken, but don't fry the shrooms for more than a minute or two. do not smoke them though, this is very important!

[Autocratic]

[ QUOTE ]
prices will vary depending on where you live or who you are buying from. There is no reliable standard to go by. Just htink in terms of weight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely. $45 in some places is about 1/8 (3.5g). In others, twice that.

[mr pink]

try a PB and J sandwich with the shrooms ground up first. the sugars in the jelly and the oils in the pb increase the speed of digestion which gets you off better. they also both work well to mask the taste.

p.s. paying more than $35 for an eigth is getting ripped off.

[Kaz The Original]

This is far too much. You should be thinking in prices of $100 an oz, $60 a half oz, $30-$35 a quarter, and $20 an eigth.

I once ate 2 OZ of mushrooms without vomitting, but I was drunk and on cocaine at the time. The effects were stronger, than most 1/4oz trips I have done, but perhaps it was the other drugs, or the tolerance, but the trip was not incredibly different from most.

[Gramps]

[ QUOTE ]
The trip he told me about gave him flashes of his parents murdered. At one point he was going to pet his kitten and he got a flush of it's severed head with blood everywhere.

When recalling this trip to me, he described it with horror and how he forced himself to stay in his room the whole time.

What do you think?

[/ QUOTE ]

When I was in college (way back when), my friends and I did the the watch The Wizard of Oz/listen to Dark Side of the Moon while shrooming (starting CD in middle of 3rd lion roar or something like that). We were amazed at how synced up the two were, convinced that Roger Waters & Co. had sat around watching Judy Garland and friends on acid while putting together that classic album and had intentionally written everything around the movie, etc. The Black and Blue song in particular was totally synced.

Two months later, I repeated the combo while sober and realized there was pretty much nothing to it.

Drugs are bad, they can make you see things that aren't there, and think crazy things you don't otherwise think.

P.S. My freshman year at Berkeley, some dude on a bad acid trip dove head first out of a 4th floor window of our dorm, so...there's bad trips, and then there's bad trips that lead to bad things...good thing your friend only experienced the former.

P.P.S. Shrooming a couple of times with good-vibed friends in a planned out evening was fun, but after a couple of times it gets old (or at least isn't as good as the first time or two). Like all drugs (other than beer), nothing you want to chase for too long IMO. Don't even touch the stronger/more addictive stuff. I'm > 30 so I have to preach. I (probably like most people) have former friends that are living examples of the fact that (drum-roll cue) drugs are bad...

[CORed]

Individual reactions vary. I have done both acid and mushrooms. For me, the mental effects were pretty similar, but acid trips tended to be somewhat more intense, and I usually liked to be engaged in physical activity while tripping, whether it was tossing a frisbee around or climbing a mountain. Climbing a big mountain on acid is awesome, but probably not a good idea unless you are experienced both in tripping and climbing mountains.

On 'shrooms, I tended to be more contemplative. I remember staring a climb on 'shrooms once, and ended up just sitting and enjoying the view about halfway up. Another difference I noticed was that the day after doing acid, I would feel like crap: physically and mentally drained, whereas I usually felt fine the day after doing 'shrooms.

[neon]

Okay, so this is pretty pathetic that I've been hanging back and pretty much just been reading stuff on the other forums, not really posting too often, until I read this thread and felt compelled to respond.

Drugs are bad, lots of people say . . . well, I don't think it's quite that absolute. Some of my most incredible memories from HS + College involved some pretty serious drug ingestion, pretty much clear across the spectrum, with a few notable exceptions (crack, herion, meth).

As far as hallucinogenics go, there are three factors that contribute to the experience of a trip: dosage, environment, and mindset/expectations. If any of the three are off kilter, it can really send you in the wrong direction. You can get bad ("dirty") acid, you can get bad boomers (for those who don't know, the things grow in cow [censored], and if you get a bad one, you could be in for some pretty nasty [censored]--[censored] that would make kaz's friend's experience seem taaame). You can also take too much of either (which can sometimes be fun, provided that your surroundings are chill and that you're in a good frame of mind).

Now, when all three circumstances favorably coincide, tripping truly is mind-altering, and not necessarily in a bad way. Yes, if you take too much acid, it will fry your brain, but used responsibly, I believe that there are few things more intensely pleasurable than, say, taking acid at a show outside on a beautiful day, or sitting on the beach with a cooler full of beers and some bros. Some of the thoughts you pluck from your stream of consciousness as your synapses race at 100 mph are pretty amazing.

But anyway, the thing I always used to tell me friends when they had bad trips (and myself, when I did) is that it is a drug, and in the case of acid, just about the most powerful drug out there (short of, perhaps, the ones I already mentioned i dont do/havent done). Acid rearranges the molecular structure of your brain; mushrooms are a poisonous substance that makes you delusional for the duration of the experience. Is it really that surprising that things will occasionally go wrong?

And when they do, whoa, watch out. I mean the mind plays [censored] tricks on itself, and allows a person to think some pretty outrageous things and actually think they have valence. Your friend had a bad trip, Kaz, and I wouldn't get too Freudian or Jungian or whatever with the thoughts, feelings, emotions, or fears ("visions") which manifested themselves in his state. They aren't genuine; they are the product of taking an immensely powerful drug gone awry . . . (I do think that a person's deep-seated insecuries and supressed emotions can bubble to the surface during a trip, but during a bad trip, these emotions are so distorted by the drug that Kaz's buddy "envisioning" himself murdering his parents, etc. may simply be the product of resentment over some silly little perceived slight).

Wow, sorry for rambling.

I only read the first couple of pages, so maybe somebody already said a lot of this stuff, but seeing as this was one of the first times I have felt qualified to answer a thread on two+two, i thought, what the hell. Oh, and as per my qualifications, I know acid 11 times, but mushrooms, i'm not so sure of . . . maybe 50? 60? somewhere in there . . . which of course, as someone who has taken LSD more than 7 times, makes me clinically insane in the eyes of our beautific American government. javascript:void(0)

All right, I'm going to shut up.

Later guys.

[BadBoyBenny]

I find it all to be true, very similar to my experience. That is all.

If you hate threads about drugs, sorry. Just bump some other longish post.

[warlockjd]

[ QUOTE ]
There is no way you could get a good sample size from casual usage to make sweeping generalizations like "no shrooms are bad, dude."

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, I love this forum. This line had me ROFL. It is late. heh