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Text File | 1995-11-30 | 19KB | 474 lines

I want to thank everyone who replied to my post a couple of days ago. So to pay you back, here's a summary of what people said: My reactions to the suggestions are in []'s (The second part of this post looks like it could be the beginning of an interesting FAQ) I asked two questions. One: 1) One person in this group wants to take two hits, and has only taken one weak hit before. He didn't show an incredible sensitivity to it, and I've known him for years and can attest that he has no deep-seated psychoses that would well up. Is it harmful for a "newbie" like that to take two? He wants to get visuals, he says.... Here are various replies (no names attached) ---- that would be a big no! especially if this stuff lasts over 12 hours! gads.. give him one....if he whines, give him maybe 1 1/4...but don't give into him.. he'll regret it and so will you...you may not think that there is that much difference between batches or that 1/4 a hit isn't that much a difference, but it is! unless you want your friend to be terrified, don't do it...it will be much more happy for all of you if he just takes 1 [Turned out alright - he still didn't see anything unless he closed his eyes and put them right next to a light. He did feel a little edgy, too, but he didn't freak out or anything.] ---- Not harmful, but he needs to be sure of a good mindset, and a good environment. I've had a fair amount of variation on my trips, but generally have "tight grips" on reality, so it takes more to make me see the light show. I took two hits a few weeks ago for just that reason, and it was pretty extreme. I was a bit tense about it at times, but it was a good trip overall. I did have a very attentive babysitter in my girlfriend, but even without her I think I would have been ok. [Yes, the environment was a problem. Half of our group decided they couldn't attend at the last minute, creating a big damper on the fun... he and I both have "tight grips" on reality too...] ---- I never understood this. I have always had visuals, no matter what the dosage. Tracers, phosphenes, breathing walls, and symmetric patterns at low doses; people spontaneously growing hair & turning into people-cats & things going into motion at higher dosages. But I found, though, that with experience I learned what to look for. I have probably learned to coax out the visuals. [yeah, that's probably most of it there - learning to coax it out] If the guy has some experience, and had a good time with it, he can probably handle two. Just keep a kind eye on him, and prime him for having an awesome wild time. Keep the lights low and encourage him to spend some time watching the inside of his eyelids. ---- giv him 1 1/2...it's not that he'll have a bad trip...but it;s like having your feet swept out from underyou...it can be a big shock..trust me, my boyfriend has a very tight grip on reality and kept wanting to get back to the level of his first trip,..so he took 1, 1 1/4, and then one night 2 1/4.....he spent most of the night in panic, not knowing what was going on, how to deal with it,e tc....it can be a big shock [No real panic ensued, but he was starting to sketch when a friend who had dropped by for a while took him to the supermarket at three in the morning (over my objections!). Not a good thing...] ---- Will you be doing this in the evening? Do you have a quiet, dark closet somewhere? Suggest to your friend that he check in to such a space for a few minutes and enjoy the show on the inside of his eyelids. One hit of the strength you describe should be adequate. [We were inside most of the time, at night, mainly because there wasn't much "outside" where we live, and it was a very dark night] ---- If your acid is not strong enough to induce visuals 2 hits should not be too much. You caould also have your 4 friends take 1 and 1/2 each at the start. I use to do this sort of thing. And then if it's not enough after and hour and a 1/2 take another 1/4 or 1/2. But make sure you wait at least that long, 'cause the lag time is considerable. ---- Now, my other question: 2) Speaking from experience, I know that while tripping even looking at a piece of graph paper can entertain for hours, but I was hoping I could help create a mood at this Acid-Test that would help heighten the experience. I already have the music - the Orb, possibly Pink Floyd, maybe some techno if we feel really energetic... but I was wondering what sort of visuals and toys would be great (and really cheap, too). I already have Fractint as a possibility, as well as a number of computer screen-drawers such as O-My-God. I also know from experience that TV can be a really jarring experience, but I was thinking maybe there might be something that I could rent that would flip some lids, like a David Lynch film or something. Remember, the keyword is cheap, household, etc.... Replies: ---- cheap toys? we got a whole closet of them...k-mart is a mecca of fun.. here's just a quick list-- 64 box of crayons and big sheets of paper finger paitns slime kaledioscopes dragon lenses pinwheels bubbles tinfoil (crinkle it up and see what the wrinkles form) sponge cubes painted with fluorescent paint books of optical illusions a ball of yarn unravelled (fun to get tangeld up in) whipped cream (fun to stick your fingers in) shiny junk jewelry patterned clothing (paisely, tie dye, etc) black light bulb [bubbles worked well, so did crayons. We got flourescent markers and crayons and went nuts (he had brought a flourescent lamp)] food is important too....you get the munchies and it's fun to play with-- [One of my friends couldn't taste a thing, while the other was going nuts over the bubbles in a glass of Sprite.] music-- the orb is good [YES YES YES YES!!!] klf-- chill out [Not bad, it's good when you're coming down] anything by negativeland [A little rough for us; too choppy] soundtrack to the last temptation of christ (passion by peter gabriel) childhood records- mr rogers, sesame street,e tc movies-- depending on your attention span...this weekend i nearly went edgyand whiny because fantasia was sooooo long the grinch who stole x-mas the mind's eye-- a video availiable at raedio shack and blockbuster taht is computer generated graphics [Mind's Eye was GREAT!!! It's a nonstop medley of computer video images; not talking heads going on and on about their new piece of SGI equipment. Very flowing, lots of movement, which was great.] tapes of collected very old cartoons (ones from the 50s are great) [Ren and Stimpy was SCARY.] [As usual.] children's movies don't get the wall or anything depressing or that has death...everyone will be very upset ---- My advice: Avoid Pink Floyd No, I'm not flaming the music. I like the music. However, I find much of it to be quite depressing. Not the type of thing to screw with on acid. ---- My main advice would be to make it less a pre-planned, psych. lab type of experience. If they feel like going outside, get 'em up to Tilden Park to look at the stars. Or just turn the lights off and let them focus on their own thoughts; if you're bombarded with sensory input, you often don't have the focus to make the kind of intellectual insights that are the real value of an acid trip. Also, don't make it too serious. The oddest things can be deleriously funny on acid. I once spent a half an hour dosed with friends listening to a muzak station on the radio and cackling hilariously. All those saccharine trivializations of rock songs (Stairway to Heaven) seem so much more absurd. ---- Toys: K-Mart has, in the party section, six packs of various fun things for kids. Most of them make good trip toys as well. My favorite is a set of different lenses that look like dragonfly eyes etc, and make multiple images. Another fun thing is diffraction glasses. You look goofy, but there are neat effects you can see with them while tripping. Rentals: Two recommendations, _The Mind's Eye_ (should be able to get from blockbuster) and _Fantasia_. I also have some Psychic TV videos, but they are hard to find and expensive. Computer stuff: Fractint is good, but can get boring, because it's so complex and you have to do lots of stuff to make it look interesting. Something simpler, like the Satori portion of After Dark (a screen saver) would be better. Music: the KLF is excellent, especially things like _Chill Out_. Other ambient house (like the Orb) would be good. The newest Orb single is excellent trip music, but will run you over $20, since it's an import. [The Blue Room is BEAUTIFUL. Towers of Dub seemed as little too choppy for us. Acid house and more creative Techno (Orbital, Give Peace a Dance Vol. 2 and 3, Hypnotone's album) worked great.] ---- A cheap toy that's a guaranteed winner: Get a bowl, fill it half full or so with corn starch or potato starch; add water until the starch is all wet, but don't make it too watery. This makes a VERY weird substance that will freak you out cold sober. Give it to your pals when they start to peak, and they won't believe it. [Didn't get to try this.] ---- Let me see... _The Mind's Eye_ is a computer animation video that you can get at Radio Shack (ack!), which a lot of my friends tripped to last semester. I was high on life at the time (:-) but it was really cool. Other toys that I like: candles, mini-maglights (a type of flashlight, indispensible), kaleidoscopes, koosh-balls, any sort of stone with intricate patterns, Fractint (now that you mentioned it, it is great, but have the .gifs ready, generating on the fly is too slow for me), bubbles, especially the huge ones. Of course, you never know what some people will like. That same night, I had people feeling my hair, and going nuts over a cafeteria style cup. HMMMM... My personal favorite though, is nature. Trees, shrubs, the sky, stars, flowers... get outside if there is a nice (harmless) environment to wander though. School is great for me, we have 6 campuses together, and a few of them are beautiful. Write back with any other responses you get, or the results of your friends' trips. Oh, one awesome piece of listening - Negativeland! Truly bizarre, take my word on it. Designed with LSD in mind I would believe. Not really music, just sound effects with weird dialogs, if I remember right. Check it out! ---- Have yet to try LSD, but if you're looking for mind-fucking movies, then definitely Lynch's Eraserhead is a major idea. Or Jacob's LAdder. [I wasn't EVEN going to try this. I've seen Jacob's Ladder. You don't need to be on anything to get the wind knocked out of you by this film.] [Thumbs down!] ---- Don't rent a David Lynch film. While I am a D.L. fan, I do not reccomend him on acid. I watched Wild at Heart while coming down, and the violence really bothered me. [Agreed. And basically trying to follow ANY plot becomes difficult.] ---- Set and setting. Your main job, I think, will be taking care of all the details that your friends will be too preoccupied to think about. Or rather, you don't want them thinking about the grand plan behind the stereo wiring... Keep the atmosphere safe. Turn the phone off, or the answering machine on "destroy" mode. Clean the bathroom. Don't turn on bright lights-- candles are good. Choose music that your trippers like, first of all. I would tend to choose calmer, more "textural" music-- Eno instead of the Buzzcocks, the Orb instead of whistley techno. Be careful about the emotional tone of the music. Your friends are going to be very suggestible & emotionally open. Some fun cheap toys: a black light and fluorescent crayons marbles, especially the big clear kind glow-sticks kaleidoscopes Fischer-Price letter magnets a Scrabble set... try playing in the early stages Expensive toys: plasma globe Visual stuff: Max Ernst's "Frottages" spirals op-art patterns We have a book of 3D mazes which is also fun. Animals are fun. Definitely coax the cat in to get fussed over, if a cat lives in the house you'll be using. Some friends with snakes & lizards once trotted them out to get looked at. If lizards don't make your friends nervous, they might enjoy the patterns on the skin. [My animals were afraid of _us_. Oh well :] If the neighbors aren't going to get annoyed, and you have access to musical instruments, let them bang around on them. A guitar with a phaser or flanger is fun. Fractint is probably a good idea. If you have access to a color Macintosh, the After Dark module "Satori" is astounding. I'm told that Sonic the Hedgehog is also a lot of fun. [Fractint was amazing. Color-cycling for an hour.] Video/TV/movies: I've never been interested in watching tv, though people tell me that they get into MTV. Fractal videos *are* fun, though. Todd Rundgren's "GrokGazer". And if any of you are wealthy enough to have a video camera, video feedback is fun. We had one with a "NOT" button, that inverted the color. Beautiful chaotic patterns... which we wisely taped for future viewing. ---- You'll discover why those grotesque tye-dye shirts are soooo popular :-) Seriously, art books with abstract patterns are very fun. [yes, and simple, black and white illustrations were just as cool, if not more, than real busy photos] --- Fractint is _great_ to look at. Great! I've never tripped, but I showed a friend that program when she was tripping, and she didn't want me to trun it off. Even the next day, she wanted to see it. Anything that catches your eye is a good idea. Anything that looks as if it might spin is good. Mirrors are good, but that can make a half bad trip into hell ("My skin! What's cralwing all over my skin!"). [The other two, like most people, have a self-esteem on the low side, and looking in a mirror didn't help that] Also, one of the _best_ thinks around is a poster by Susan Sendon Buleat (sp last name), Go to your local magik/spiritual/occult store and ask for her, and you'll get a poster. $5 max. great stuff. Her stuff looks like a person, but, wait, is she an eagle? Or a tiger? Her eyes look like a at, but her nose and forhead look like a bird! But she's a woman! Wait a sec! :-) ---- Fractint is just great. On the other hand, you probably won't have the attention span to watch a film... unless you were just planning it as a backdrop. But David Lynch? You said you have a novice among you - do you really want to play with paranoia? I think Dennis Hopper would be a bit much. ---- GO OUTSIDE! Toys and music are fun, but I think that's something to be reserved later, when the trip has been going on for a long time. I love being outside, parks are especially nice, but if these people are novices I think avoiding crowds is a good thing. Just remember to tell them that really, no one will know. (You always think that people know you're tripping but they don't) Also, if one person took it, and it lasted for only 4 and a half hours w/o vis auls (this was one hit?) then 1 and a half or 2 is definately my recommendation. If there's any nervous moments, tell them that it's really nothing to worry about. The key is that you HAVE control. If you want to look at your hand and it appears swollen and wierd and nnot your own, you could be frightened, but if you choose to look at it and realize how amazing it is (think of everything th at your hand can do) then, suddenly, nothing is frightning..... Anyway....have a good time! BTW some toys are quite entertaining! Prisms especially. Sometimes kalidiscopes too. ---- One of my favorites id to listen to Surrealistic Pillow -- That Jefferson Airplane 1969 sound was made for acid. Also, old Frank Zappa (We're Only in it for the Money (original mix please)). Note that I was 8 when this stuff was coming out, but it's superior trip music. Those with true cerebral fortitude can try Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica -- I never understood the words to this album until I dropped and heard it. Visual toy to die for: This kept a roomful of people happy for about 5 hours one time (but it was a considerable dose -- mega visual). We had a hanging lamp in the middle of the room -- from a long cord we hung one of those round multio-faceted cut-glass baubles. Then just at the center where it was hung we put a lit candle. When we swung the crystal in a circle we could wath 4 or 5 little balls chasing each other around a glowing central sun. When the facets made prismatic flashes, the remained hanging in the air before our fried retinas, so that the ball(s) seemed to be following a bright track with rainbow speckles. Have fun -- trippers can be amusing companions. Then again, one of my favorites is just to sit in the dark with "special music" your cortex can construct a pretty good atmosphere all on its own. ---- Try video games! Flight Simulator is great while tripping, but on a less technical note the advanced "Space Invaders"-type games can amuse for hours. A movie I find relaxing, visually stimulating, and enjoyable, on or off acid, is "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. You get the feeling the Beatles deliberately wrote much of the animation for their tripping buddies in the real world, all the way from the Blue Meanies to PepperLand. Your local video rental place should have it. As for toys, since LSD enhances the senses (or at least distorts them) use of simple toys with wild designs and textures works great for tripping. I suggest: Koosh Balls, kalediscopes (the real kind, though the computer kind works too), rubber balls, orange concentrate eaten WITHOUT dilution, lightsticks, Christmas tree lights, strobe lights; anything with a strange texture, wild pattern, or weird light. $5 will get you enough trip toys in any variety store for a 12-hour trip, and be sure to stop by the grocery store for interesting foods! ---- A personal favorite of mine is camping. If you're not in the mood for work, just make it real low-impact (bring a longburning fireplace log, water, food, lawn chairs, etc). I've had some incredible experiences sitting by the campfire listening to music and staring into the flames... Incidently, I almost always prefer the outdoors for tripping, whether camping or not. Walls get me down :) Mostly great recommendations. The acid test itself could have been better, but there were two main things wrong: when two of the four trippers cancelled, it put a damper on the rest of us; and all three of us decided we liked tripping with lotsa people around. Secondly, we were going into this expecting the drug to be the main focus of our entertainment, whereas we should have just tried to focus on doing something else really actively, and letting the drug just alter our experience of that other activity. Also, I have a small 10mw laser, so my friend decided to rent a fog machine to see how it looked. It looked WONDERFUL, especially when we played around with this crystal candlestick holder in the laser beam, causing all these insane angles. GREAT stuff. (I was always manning the laser so they would try to look up into the tube or anything ...)