Group 42-Sells Out! - The Information Archive/Group 42 Sells Out (Group 42) (1996).iso/drugs/psychade/graeme.txt

Text File | 1995-11-30 | 66KB | 1,107 lines

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

The Following Series of Posts relates my attempts at
describing some of the more notable of my experiences with
psychoactives. In just over seven years I have "tripped" around 60
times. During this period I have been paying careful attention to the
effects of various dosages and have come to the conclusion that the
dosage-response curve for both Psilocybin (mushrooms) and LSD is
non-linear. This non-linearity is different from person to person but
the essential shape of the graph is consistent. The following ascii
diagram is an attempt to portrey this information:

  5 I                                 ooooooooo
    I
  4 I                          ooooooo
L   I
E 3 I                   ooooooo
V   I
E 2 I            ooooooo
L   I
  1 I     ooooooo
    I
    Iooooo______________________________________
   0      2      3      5      13     20
40
             D O S A G E   (in Fresh Mushrooms)

I have scaled the X-axis in mushrooms, since this is a known
quantity, whereas attempting to scale it in terms of micro-grams of
LSD would not be possible without accurately knowing the dosage
contained in paper trips. (Yes I can hear many of you proclaiming that the
dosage uncertainty of mushrooms is much higher..... but read on!)
The essential shape of the graph is all I want to get across here,
since the actual dosage varies from person to person sometimes by
a factor of two.

Unfortunately the variation of LSD content in trips is very wide, but for
a while, there was quite a few consistently strong trips going around called
"Clear-Lights" (This was about 5 years ago) I would guess that two of these
would place most people near the realms of level 5. In terms of trips available
at the moment, I would guess that 4 or 5 would be necessary. All this is purely
subjective of course.

The mushrooms in question are:

****
Psilocybe Subaeruginosa (Victoria Australia)
CAP:             Up to 5 cm in diameter,
                 conical when young but later
                 convex and umbonate, edge
                 inturned when young, smooth, a
                 pallid biscuit brown when dry
                 but darker when wet.
STEM:            To 10 cm long, rather slender
                 but often a little swollen
                 at the base, somewhat mealy
                 above, with a cobweb-like veil
                 when young, which sometimes
                 leaves a trace of a superior
                 ring, but this is often
                 lacking, whitish with grey stains
                 and often blotched and
                 greenish blue.
GILLS:           Adnate to adnexed, deep,
                 close, pallid smoky brown
                 becoming blackish.
SPORES:          Purplish brown in print,
                 ellipsoidal, with a germ pore,
                 10-15 x 5-9 um.
SMELL AND TASTE: None.
DISTRIBUTION:    Solitary or in groups on soil
                 in forests. ACT, NSW, SA,
                 Tas., Vic.

Gutzman and Watling (1978) suggested that this
species consists of four very closely similar
species, which differ in the characteristics of
the cystidia on the gills. (See Gutzman G. and
Watling, R. (1978) 'Studies in Australian
Agarics and Boletes. I. Some species of
Psilocybe', Notes from the Roy. Bot. Gard.
Edinburgh 36, 199-210.)
****

On a personal note: They do have a faint but distinctive mushroom smell, and
eating them raw really lets you know how bad they taste!

In order to further standardise the dosage for testing, large numbers
of mushrooms were picked (300-600) at a time. These were then
dried at a constant temp, crushed and mixed to ensure they were
homogenous. This was done to avoid the sometimes vast differences
in potency that exist between single mushrooms.

The following list is my attempt at explaining the various levels and
how to recognise them. I felt that Shulgins "3 plusses" system was designed
more for measuring the general level of effect, rather than specifically
locating ones' consciousness on an accurate scale and hence I felt it
necessary to define the following:
Note that this is only an experimental "pigeon holing" of my own 60 or so
trips from 1986 to the present (October 1993)

Level 1:
        This level produces a mild 'stoning' effect, with some visual
        enhancement (ie. brighter colours etc) Some short term memory
        anomalies.
        Left/right brain communication changes causing music to
        sound 'wider'
        ["El cheapo" paper trips or 2 or 3 mushrooms]

Level 2:
        Bright colours, and visuals (ie. things start to move and breath)
        some 2 dimensional patterns become apparent upon shutting eyes.
        Confused or reminiscent thoughts. Change of short term
        memory leads to continual distractive thought patterns. Vast
        increase in creativity becomes apparent as the natural brain
        filter is bypassed. (*)
        [3 - 5 mushies]

Level 3:
        Very obvious visuals, everything looking curved and/or warped patterns
        and kaleidoscopes seen on walls, faces etc. Some mild hallucinations
        such as rivers flowing in wood grained or 'mother of pearl' surfaces.
        Closed eye hallucinations become 3 dimensional. There is some confusing
        of the senses (ie. seeing sounds as colours etc.)
        Time distortions and `moments of eternity`.
        Movement at times becomes extremely difficult (too much effort required)
        [5 - 13 mushies]

Level 4:
        Strong hallucinations, ie objects morphing into other objects.
        Destruction or multiple splitting of the ego.
        (Things start talking to you, or you find that you are feeling
        contradictory things simultaneously) Some loss of reality.
        Time becomes meaningless. Out of body experiences and esp type
        phenomena.  Blending of the senses.
        [13 - 20 mushies]

Level 5:
        Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to
        function in the normal way. Total loss of ego.
        Merging with space, other objects or the universe.
        The loss of reality becomes so severe that it defies explanation.
        The earlier levels are relatively easy to explain in terms of
        measureable changes in perception and thought patterns.
        This level is different in that the actual universe within which
        things are normally perceived, ceases to exist!
        Satori enlightenment (and other such labels) (**).
        [20 - 40 mushies]

Notes to the above:

*       In order for the human entity to survive, it must learn from an early
        age how to shut out (or filter) the masses of information reaching the
        brain. This process of selective filtering allows us to become centred
        on a single thought. (Imagine being completely aware of all the signals
        coming into your body at the one moment, imagine being aware of every
        square inch of your skin and how it felt. Imagine being eternally
        aware of your tounge in your mouth, that itch on the end of your nose
        or the sound of the airconditioning hissing softly in the background.
        I believe that tripping brings back those awareness that have been shut
        out ever since we were three.

        Have you ever noticed children walking into a shopping mall? If you
        notice next time, they appear to be tripping, staring wide eyed at all
        the amazing colours, walking along looking up at the ceiling and
        and watching themselves in the mirrored surface. As childred age, they
        gradually learn to shut out the onslaught of information, they no
        longer seem to notice the world as their younger siblings do! By the
        time adulthood is reached, these sensations are even lost to memory.
        Perhaps this explains why so many first time trippers, seem to feel
        a strange sense of familiarity, a feeling that the trip reality is
        somehow more real than their straight reality.....

**      Satori enlightenment, instant Zen, Nirvana etc etc. You may find many
        of these Eastern terms used in conjunction with Ergo derivative drugs.
        In my (humble) opinion, true Zen enlightenment is reached only when
        the ego has been completely overcome, only when the 'ox' has been
        tracked, tamed and ridden back to town. This, unfortunately cannot be
        achieved in the altered reality of the tripping universe.
        The 'flashes' of Satori which may be experienced by the fortunate
        whilst tripping, are perceived as momentary periods of absolute peace
        and calm, periods where for a short time, the ego is so diffused,
        that the mind is no longer enslaved by many of the passions that
        normally arise.

        I dont believe that true enlightenment can be attained by the use of
        drugs, but I do believe that exposure to such experiences can be very
        valuable indeed, and may provide the encouragement for further study
        that otherwise may not have been attainable.


I have spent the majority of my trips at levels 3 & 4 and have now
achieved level 5 twice! The first instance was mostly spent in level
4, but I had a few flashover experiences, where I jumped
momentarily up to level 5 then down again. This state occurred with
a dosage equivalent to 20 large fresh mushrooms (It was actually 40 dried
mushrooms which has about the same potency)

Two days ago  I consumed the equivalent of  30 fresh mushrooms
(60 dried or about 12 grams of dessicated mushroom) This dosage caused
me to spend about 3 hours of real time (years and years of subjective
time) inside level 5.

In the following series of posts I will attempt to relate some of my
experiences to you and classify them in terms of the Levels I have defined.
I have attempted to be as objective as possible, hence the reason for the
somewhat "clinical" style of the first two documents.

Those of you wishing to "jump to the good bits" should read the post on
LEVEL 5 or 'Journey out of the Universe'

=============================================================================

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

The following story could be classified as existing near the boundary
of level 2 and level 3 since the majority of the experience exists in
level 2 but there are a few flashovers into level 3.

The style of writing was reflective of my science course at the time.
Please excuse me referring to myself as "The Subject" but it made for
a good laugh. <-;


                "Mushies in the Evening"

12/06/89 A Study of the effects of a Psilocybin induced state.

10/06/89 Late Saturday Evening
        1:40am consumption
        2:10am still no obvious effects noticed, although some
tightening of the skin about back of the head could be felt.
        2:25am At this stage the subject was quite positive of a change
in his perception of reality, walking felt different, although there
seemed to be only a minimum impairment of ability. There was some
degree of change to the sense of balance. A very significant
reduction in the concentration span was observed. The brain seemed
to be constantly distracted by an influx of new sensations. Each time
the mind was distracted by something, the subjective time spent
observing the new event was small, since the mind would very
quickly become absorbed in some new and completely different
event.
        Walking around attained a new quality. It seemed that the way
the balance information was used, was entirely new, although still
able to function effectively. Some time was spent just walking
around in a circle to experience the new feel to walking.
        Sitting in the living room, looking through the bar/servery to
the kitchen, a wall hanging could be observed to be moving relative
to the servery window. After placing a bottle on the edge of the pool
table, The plain curtains on the wall billowed continuously out
towards the table.
        The patterns on the curtains covering the main windows,
appeared to move up and down in waves, relative to the curtains. The
cushioned chairs appeared to breath slowly in and out. The rate and
timing of this breathing was independent to that of the subjects.
        Viewing the faces of other people in the room, the subject
observed red and green glowing lines crossing their faces
horizontally but following the contours of the face. One of the other
participants in the room was wearing glasses, the rims of which
glowed intensely red as though they were red hot, and the subject felt
he observed fire in the persons mouth.
        When the subject tried to drink, he found that his arm and the
cup felt much lighter than they ought to be and he kept lifting the
cup too high to place in his mouth. It was as if something kept
pulling the cup up too high so that it reached the subjects nose
instead of his mouth. This was intensely humorous, making the act
even more difficult to perform whilst laughing.
        The subject noticed that his arms feeling very light and
seeming to have a life of their own, when told to reach for
something, they reached out at a great speed with no additional effort
needed on the subjects part. This continually surprised the subject
causing him to repeatedly pull his arm back.
        In one of the back rooms there was a pillow which had a
pattern of black dots on a white background. When viewed it seemed
as though all the dots were swimming about relative to each other on
the pillow. When a hand was placed in front of the pillow in the field
of vision, the pillow's pattern could be faintly seen on the back of the
hand as if the spots on the pillow had leached through the hand.
        The wall paper in the bathroom was a complex pattern of many
colours, to the subject it seems as though the overall colour changed
from red to deep purple and through orange and green. The subject
also saw the white part of the pattern as being a glowing red colour,
similar to the shade viewed on the faces of other people.
        When viewing the pool table again the subject could see sparks
emanating from the points of the ball pockets and arcing down to the
floor.   When one of the cues was picked up and held behind the
head so that it was out of view, the surface of the cue felt as though it
formed part of a hoop. Running the fingers along the cue produced
the feeling of a curved surface of radius one meter.
        When one of the other participants picked up a cue, it appeared
to the subject that the person had picked up only one end of the cue,
the rest of the cue followed slowly, such that the cue moved from an
'S' shaped stick slowly back to a straight line.
        During the session, there was a portable CD player playing
music. The subject reported an extra quality of liveness to it and an
increased spatial quality to it. Just purely listening to the music gave
the subject far more enjoyment than usual, the sound seemingly
flowing through him such that it could be felt. The subject also
observed that the music could be seen emanating from the speakers
as a sort of brownish flow of powder, although the subject seemed
puzzled by the fact that the powder flowed out of the speakers as two
parallel streams rather than in the direction that the speakers were
facing. (The speakers were positioned such that they pointed along
the sides of an equilateral triangle. One particular track which is
about one and a half to two minutes in duration seemed as though it
lasted about twenty minutes of subjective time.
        When venturing outside for the first time, the subject became
fascinated by the stars and stood staring at the sky for some time, the
subject noticed some extra stars which winked in and out of
existence, although this was not what was so interesting. The
transfixing part of the experience was the strange indescribable
feeling associated with viewing the sky and the surrounding horizon.
(The subject felt that he was unable to further define his experience
at this point)
        When viewing the lights of a distant town, it appeared, to the
subject, as if the lights were joined together by blue lines.    The
subject found great pleasure in exerting himself by briefly running as
fast as he was able, he commented that his body did not seem to
respond as it normally would, since there was no obvious quickening
of the breath or perspiration after the exertion.
        Every object viewed seemed new and strange, each having new
and unique properties, for example the texture of a stick absorbed the
subjects full attention for a few seconds, briefly interrupting his plan
to walk down some stairs.
        The subject attempted to do some writing and found that the act
of writing was very different, almost as if someone else was moving
the pen. The writing was fast and untidy. Some of the things written
were:
        "I am writing this to prove I can whilst the table moves beneath
the letters."
        "I don't know why I wrote this"
At the suggestion of another participant he wrote:
        "I don't want to write <expletive>, so I wont! <EXPLETIVE>!"
Some patterns were drawn, with an explanatory message added next
to one which read:
        "The underlying pattern of the universe. If you look closely
enough at anything, you will eventually see this pattern."
The pattern consisted of three rows of circles, each row offset such
that each of the circles of the next row touched two circles in the
previous row. The subject saw this pattern in everything, it was most
clearly visible with the eyes open and with a dim light present in the
room.
        On the servery table where the writing had taken place, there
was also a serving tray with a mother of pearl base. To the subject,
the surface of this base appeared to flow like a slow liquid.
        Whenever the subject closed his eyes, he was presented with a
dazzling array of colours and patterns. Most of the patterns were of a
repetitive nature, resembling mandalas. The predominant colours
were red and green and the predominant patterns were formed from
circles and octagons. Some of the patterns consisted purely of lines,
in some of the patterns, the lines consisted of square chains (all chain
links had curved corners) Some of the patterns were three
dimensional, consisting of the same basic pattern, but forming peaks
and valleys. All of these patterns had the components continually
moving relative to each other and the two colours swapping slowly
between adjacent components.
        When listening to the music with the eyes closed, the patterns
and shapes moved in time with the music, and new sounds in the
music brought forth new shapes and objects in the images
experienced.
        When going outside for the second time the 'underlying pattern
of the universe' could be clearly seen as green lines on the surface of
some small red pieces of metal. The subject decided to walk into the
darkest part of the yard in order to test his sense of fear. This attempt
was defeated by a sudden distraction. A piece of rope was tied
between a tree and the fence at eye level, the subject then proceeded
to experience the sensations associated with placing the rope
between his teeth and tasting it and supporting his weight with it. He
was convinced at one stage that there was a piece of dew on the rope
which "stayed together" when placed in his mouth, such that he was
able to move it around with his tongue. This entire experience was of
such an intensely sensual nature, that the subjects awareness was
confined totally to an act of raw sensation.
        4:30 Approximate end of significant effects.
sleep was attempted and eventually achieved after watching closed
eye images for around half an hour.

11/06/89 Sunday Morning
        10:30am Awakened, to find all effects gone, except for a slight
image of  the recurrent pattern on the retina. The subject reported
that an attempt at a recurrence of the effects using self-hypnosis was
met with only a very limited success, a slight increase of the visual
perception of the pattern was achieved with relative ease, although
further effects could not be achieved at that point in time.

13/06/89 Tuesday Evening
        11:00pm Whilst in a lightly hypnotised state and listening to a
track from the CD which had been playing on the 10th a strong
'flashback' occurred. The subject experienced the same feeling of
strangeness, and was able to observe the furniture in his room
breathing. The curtains were his main object of study, since they
appeared to be moving in waves, as though there were a wind
blowing them, the curtains seemed to be moving a total of ten to
fifteen centimetres from their natural position with a period of
around four seconds. The total effect of the movements experienced,
seemed greater in intensity to those noticed on the 10th, although
during the 'flashback' there was almost no detectable light patterns.
Standing up and moving around produced the same, although
somewhat less intense, feeling of strangeness. There was also a
marked decrease in the concentration span and memory, with the
subject forgetting why he had decided to get up and walk to the other
side of the table.
The effect latest around five to ten minutes.

14/06/89 Wednesday evening
        11:30pm The flashback sensation re-occurred with the subject
able to mentally force some of the visual experiences. The subject
noted that the main difference between the drug induced images and
the normal 'dream like' images is that the drug induced images seem
to originate in the eye rather than in the mind and that the patterns
were more line and circle oriented and glowed with a light of their
own, in contrast to visions and images produced previously using
meditation techniques, which appeared as though illuminated by an
external source.

The Long Term Effects Observed:
        The learned response: It was observed that the brain learned to
attain some degree of these effects at any time and that these effects
could be accessed via methods normally taken to access functions
beyond conscious control. This fact appears to explain the
occurrence of uncontrollable "flashbacks" in the average person.
        With further research into attaining these flashbacks, it was
found that a certain degree of effortless duration to the effects could
be achieved. When manipulating the mind in a particular manner, it
was found that all the usual symptoms appeared, but that the sudden
ceasing of these symptoms was not attainable. This may be
explained by the possibility of the brain learning to produce
chemicals mimicking the effects of the drug, or by the brain
chemistry altering in a manner which would normally take the drug
to induce. This effect was strongly observed when the subject was
once again placed in the presence of other participants consuming
hallucinogens. The subject found that for a minimal effort, he could
achieve the same effect as previously attained with the drug, but
without consuming anything. This second incidence was reported by
the subject as being more intense than the original consumption.
Interestingly during this second incidence the subject noted several
new phenomenon which he later observed under the influence of
pure LSD. These being mood shifts associated with changing music.
Also the visual effects were not as noticeable, with the 'underlying
pattern of the universe' being almost totally absent. This was offset
by a series of intense colour and spatial distortions exactly the same
as those covered in the partner to this document (LEVEL 3).
        In all three episodes the subject noted that during the
experience, he felt very relaxed, and in fact under LSD his pulse
gave a reading of 60 with normal blood pressure.

=============================================================================

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

The following account could be classified as a Level 3 trip with a
few flashovers into level 4:

                  "LSD in the Afternoon"

A study of the effects of the intake of one "Window Pane".
22/07/89 13:30:00 Intake.
        The Subject was one of eight people, all taking LSD at the
same time. The dosage took the form of a small red slice of gelatine
called a "window pane". This was dissolved on the tongue. The
subject noticed a slight but unrecognisable taste.
        After approximately six minutes the subject claimed to be able
to observe some small effect, although none of the other participants
noticed anything for around twenty to about thirty-five minutes.
        The initial effects took the form of slight apparent movements
in stationary or fixed objects such as curtains flowing  and benches
and walls breathing.
        The subject then proceeded to ring a friend and get him to
come over at around three O'Clock to drive some of the participants
around in his car.
        The intervening time was spent observing and communicating
with the other participants.
        At three O'Clock the friend arrived and the subject went with
him on a twenty minute drive. During the journey, the subject
noticed a severe perceptual distortion of time, space, velocity and
acceleration. To the subject it appeared as though the car decelerated
impossibly slow at traffic lights. The speed of the vehicle did not
seem to be as fast as it actually was and the subject felt that cars
turning into the street were coming close to crashing into him. This
feeling did not involve any portion of fear. In fact the exact opposite
was true. The subject felt that a crash would be a most interesting
experience, although he did not wish it upon himself.
        Once the car stopped at the lights the subject began to feel a
little uneasy, and kept telling the traffic lights to hurry up and
change. The subject was quite talkative and spoke readily to his
friend about how great the 'trip' was and how amazing everything
was. After some time the subject became uneasy about being on his
own with someone who was not tripping, and repeatedly  asked the
driver if they were nearly back yet. The subject lost all ability to
determine his whereabouts. He recognised landmarks but could not
place where they were in his mind and would not have been able to
navigate his way. Once back at the house the subject was greatly
relieved and suddenly felt that he wanted his friend to leave. He
worried for a bit about how to tell him that he wanted him to go and
would have used a simple statement like "Can you go now!" but
found that he could transfer his wishes easier just by saying goodbye
and waiting for his friend to leave before returning into the house.
This worked and the friend drove off, without any hard feelings.
        Throughout the experience, the subject noted that colours were
far more vivid than usual, the difference between colour brightness
being greatly expanded. Also noted was the apparent increase in the
difference between colours. Reds becoming more different to
yellows than they usually were and so on.
        Once again entering the house, the subject mingled with the
other participants.
        To the outside observer, the participants seemed to be
constantly distracted and amazed by things which normally would be
boring and uninteresting, seemingly finding something in these
objects hidden from the perception of the onlooker. It is interesting
to note that the 'extra' details and qualities perceived by the
participants were constant from one person to another, ie. they all
saw precisely the same extra details and occurrences simultaneously,
even those consuming the drug at a different starting time to the
others.
        At this stage the subject moved into the bathroom, noting on
the way that the wall in the hallway was distinctly curved, bulging in
the middle out into the hall. Once in the bathroom the  subject gazed
at his own reflection in the mirror, noting to himself how ordinary it
seemed, whilst still watching, he then gazed into his own eyes and
felt a curious sinking feeling. The subject had previously been
warned about looking into ones own eyes in the mirror by one of the
other participants, so was hesitant to pursue this activity further. At
this stage the subject was just on the verge of leaving the mirror
when he noticed a curious change in the appearance of his skin. It
seemed to go a greyish colour and to assume a mottled appearance.
Shaking his head and blinking to get a clearer view, the subject then
proceeded to observe himself age with incredible rapidity. The
reflection grew old before his eyes, the hair became long, wispy and
grey, the beard turned a whitish grey colour and increased in length
to around three feet long. The skin on the face became incredibly
aged and full of very deep wrinkles. The eyes lost their brightness
and became sunken sallow pits, the pupils shrinking from their
previously dilated condition, to small beady  pinpoints. Looking
away from the mirror for a couple of seconds and then back again
restored the normal appearance.
        Moving into the kitchen, the subject looked at the clock on the
wall, it appeared to have every aspect twisted and distorted, for
example, the time seemed ludicrous and the subject had to ask every
one to see if the clock told the correct time or if it had stopped or not,
secondly the second hand seemed to take around three minutes to
traverse one second as marked on the face of the clock, and thirdly
the clock itself seemed to protrude about half a foot from the wall.
(compared to an inch or so as it should have) Afterwards the subject
claimed that time had no meaning. It not only stopped but ceased to
exist, things still happened but inside no frame of time reference. It
was quite possible to think about some object for what seemed like
an eternity whilst watching it suspended in mid air as it dropped to
the floor. It became possible to observe a stop start motion of an
object under the influence of gravity.
        At this stage the subject was given a piece of candle to walk
around with, many of the other participants felt that they needed
some object to carry around with them during the experience and
they naturally assumed that the subject would as well. The candle
seemed very odd and had an almost fluid plasticity about it. At one
stage the candle seemed to blob down such that the ends came
almost together and the middle bulged out  and sat upon the hand as
if the candle were actually a rubber balloon filled with water. The
surface of the candle felt positively slick and it felt quite strange to
manipulate the candle in the hand. It was almost as if the hand
belonged to someone else or that some one else was moving it for
the subject by remote control.
        The subject was then offered a piece of sausage which had been
cooked and he was surprised that there was actually some possibility
that a question of eating the sausage could arise.
        The sausage felt very strange in the mouth, there was a distinct
distance to the whole affair, as though the mouth and sensations
actually belonged to someone else. One of the other participants,
watching on felt sure that the subject had been inadvertently eating
the candle rather than the sausage and told him so. This rather
disturbed the subject since he was not completely sure that he had
not been. At this point an independent non participant was brought in
to adjudicate the situation, and it was decided that the subject had
not been eating the candle after all and it was in fact just the
imagination of the other participant.
        One of the other sensations noticed by the subject was the fact
that the mouth and face felt very odd. The part of the cheeks where
they meet the cheek bone seemed continuously numb and the teeth
felt distant and as if they belonged to someone else. The subject also
reported that he felt that his mouth was physically lower down and
distant from his eyes.
        The subject felt that things seemed to be more real than normal,
since he could see more detail and further into any object viewed.
        Most of the participants had moved into the kitchen and were
engaged in tasting and smelling things. The subject noted that smells
did not seem distorted but only much more acute. Drinking water
was quite an experience and the subject spent some time indulging in
the sensual experience of swallowing, feeling the way the water
caressed his throat. The water itself tasted strange, as if it had many
other undiscernible tastes mixed in with it. The most striking thing
about it was the way it flowed in the mouth and down the throat and
the way the water felt as it was run over the hands. The subject then
tried drinking some straight cordial, this, he claimed, tasted like a
fine wine.
        During the experience there was a complete change in the way
sounds were heard. The ear seemed to hear sounds impossibly
compressed, with the loud sounds and the soft sounds being heard
with equal volume simultaneously. At one stage the subject was
listening to the music from the CD player inside a separate closed
room and noting how perfectly the treble was coming through the
wall, as if the wall was totally transparent to the sound. Also there
was a distinct loss in the ability to distinguish sound directionality,
this was most likely partially due to the compression of the sound
volumes. The compression itself was not absolute, there was still
loud and soft sounds, and the subject noted that his hearing gradually
seemed to adjust to the new mode  of perception such that sound
directionality slowly became apparent again, though this did not
reach its former level.
        The loss of the meaning of time meant that the subject had no
reference plane in which to place the results of his decisions. Before
initialising the change of state, the subject had decided to attempt
two things whilst in the state, these being to attempt at some stage to
mentally reverse the effects of the drug and try to force his
perception back to normal, and the other being to attempt to enter a
state of meditation. This decision was all very well when
experiencing the understanding and knowledge of the concept of
time. The loss of time meant that the subject understood that he had
wanted to attempt these two things but he had no way of deciding
when he should do them. This caused him some worry and he
contemplated at one stage the idea of deciding an exact time in
which he would attempt them, but then thought the better of this idea
since he realised that he would be forever coming out and checking
the clock on the wall to see if the time had arrived yet. The attempt
eventually occurred when the opportunity for seclusion arose, the
subject proceeded to an empty room and lay on the bed and was
immediately presented with an amazingly vivid array of
kaleidoscopic colours and shapes he quickly sunk into a deeper state
although found that self hypnosis was almost impossible to achieve.
The subject continued to sink into a deeper state and found that this
meditation had the effect of narrowing the consciousness and
allowing a more concentrated train of thought to arise. At this stage
the subject noted that his mind had split  into a considerable number
of parts (possibly around twenty pieces) all of these parts being
almost identical. Whenever the body did something it was only some
of these parts which did the initiation of the action, whilst all of the
other parts looked on and observed, occasionally placing comments
into the field of thought. The subject found that he could not reverse
the effects of the drug although he could synchronise his mind to a
stage where he could easily hold a train of normal thought. This
effect was held by the subject for approximately fifteen minutes until
discussion with one of the other participants caused a lapse in
concentration leading to a return of unsynchronised parallel thought.
        Returning to the lounge room the subject proceeded to play
some music which normally would have been heard to have a fast
tempo, this music seemed incredibly slow to the subject, the distance
between the beats seeming to take around four times as long as
usual, and when the vocals came in the voice was distinctly slowed
and slurred. The subject also felt that the pitch was lower than usual
and he proceeded to sing along at the slow speed with one of the
other participants in a mocking manner. The track being played
quickly reverted back to what was being played before by general
consensus.
        One of the things occupying the subjects mind was the problem
of whether or not he should be feeling hungry or not. The  subject
reasoned that he should try to eat food at around the times he
normally would, but he felt no desire of food intake whatsoever.
Another basic function which was distorted was the ability to know
when urination was required. The subject felt that he might need to
urinate, but he was not sure. He eventually went to the toilet to find
out and he discovered when he got there that he did need to go after
all. The subject noted that thinking about the act made it impossible,
in order to perform the act he had to think of something else and
allow his subconscious to perform the actions as if it were an act
normally excluded from conscious control.
        The subject distantly heard someone talking about going to the
local shop to buy some food and drink. Pricking up his ears, he
instantly rushed out to give his order. After he and the three others
had finished deciding what they wanted, they suddenly discovered
that there was no-one to go to the shop except themselves. The four
of them then proceeded to walk to the shop, since driving was
completely out of the question in their given states. It seemed to take
forever to get to the shops, with many pauses along the way to
observe items of interest along the side of the road in peoples front
gardens.
        Upon reaching the shops, the subject looked into one of the
windows and observed that one of the shop owner's eyes had come
loose from his head and was following his progress past the shop by
sliding along the side of the proprietors head. This was viewed by
the subject as intensely amusing, since the shop owner has badly
turned eyes under normal circumstances
        Entering the fish and chip shop was an experience in itself
everything in the shop moved and shimmered and the subject found
he had to restrain himself from staring at things and try to look as
normal as possible. There was around five other people in the shop,
and the participants had to keep putting off the shop owner with
"we're still thinking" each time he asked for their order. It was very
hard to decide what items should be purchased and what quantities to
get. After the order was made the participants  were presented with a
numbered ticket, and they found that they had to continually keep
checking the ticket to make sure that their number was not being
called. Two of the participants could not keep themselves from
laughing and eventually had to leave the shop. To the subject it
seemed that the shop owner felt that they were laughing at him
because of his turned eye, although he seemed to be used to people
laughing at him and accepted it with an air of persecuted defeat.
Back at the House:
        One of the other participants was keen on attempting to swap
bodies with the subject. The two sat opposed with joined hands and
proceeded to stare into each others eyes. The subject noted that the
others face became more and more defined, eventually assuming
incredible detail. Also observed was the fact that the other persons
head kept changing shape and the skin kept altering in hue. The
other person was a nineteen year old girl with very light blue eyes
and hair medium in length. The subject noted that he did not feel the
sinking sensation as strongly as he had when looking into his own
eyes or into one of the other male participants eyes. After a short
time the subject seemed to loose  feeling and control over his
shoulders and it seemed that when he tried to move them that the
other persons shoulders moved. This did not surprise the subject at
the time and he continued to stare into the eyes of the other person.
At this stage there was a sudden shift in the colour of the
surrounding room and the subject found himself staring into a third
eye which had appeared in the exact centre of the girls forehead.
This new eye was of a distinctly darker colour and did not possess
the usual attributes associated with eyes, such as lashes and lids. The
new eye seemed different from the rest of reality in that it was not
clearly defined and seemed more deeply sunken in the head. Staring
into this eye produced the sinking feeling ten time easier than staring
into the normal eyes, and the subject forced himself to look away.
Into his field of vision came several other of the participants, each
having a dark spot in the centre of their foreheads. The subject was
surprised and thought that he must have been going cross-eyed in
order to be able to perceive this other eye. He then proceeded to test
this theory by forcing himself to see another eye on the girls head.
This induced eye was in the centre of the forehead and looked totally
different to the darker eye. Also bits of the bridge of the nose
distorted its appearance. The subject then noted that by going cross
eyes he had forced himself to see two of the darker eyes as well.
Breaking the hand contact with the girl the subject noted that the
darker eye flashed out of perception.
        At this stage it was early morning the following day and many
of the participants were beginning to 'come down'. The subject
seemed able to observe this in the other participants. He felt that
there was some unique sense which allowed him to see glowing lines
connecting all of the participants who were still included amongst
those in the state. The subject sat opposite a VCR and TV which
were currently displaying a computer generated kaleidoscopic image.
Above the television was a large colour picture of a forest into
which, the subject felt, a part of him went wandering. Shortly after,
the tape reached the end and the images abruptly cut off. The subject
felt that this left a piece of him cut off inside the picture.
        Once of the other participants had brought a number of small
tin bells of different sizes and tones. When these were rung, the
subject noted that different coloured lights could be seen to emanate
from the bells.
        The last participant to consume the drug, decided that he had
come down and was about to drive home. Interestingly enough this
precise situation came up last time and resulted in the individual
tripping while driving home and relating later that it  had felt like he
was in a large spaceship flying over long white lines. The subject
and two other individuals had decided to go to the local Seven
Eleven store, all three feeling as though they were on the way down.
Reaching the car it was decided that they could be dropped off at
Seven Eleven. The car journey was absolutely fascinating. Riding in
the car gave the participants the feeling that they were riding in a
large, immensely strong and sturdy machine of incredible weight.
The journey seemed abnormally smooth.
        Reaching the shop the driver had decided that he was still
tripping. (As expected) The shop was amazingly vibrant and vivid.
At this stage the subject found that situations were far more
manageable and he could safely sit inside his own perception of
reality without anyone being the wiser.
        The two men running the shop appeared incredibly grey and
dreary and seemed to be less real than the shop itself.  After
purchasing several items, the participants proceeded to hop back into
the car. At this stage the driver was not so keen on going home and
instead decided to go for a drive along the freeway. The further he
drove the more intense his trip became but he assured all present that
he was quite capable of driving and that driving was easy. The car
reached speeds of up to 140 Km/h at which point the driver switched
off the headlights and drove for a short distance with them off. The
subject was busy observing the amazing colours and spatial quality
of the sky and the lights in the distance and felt slightly concerned
about the driver only somewhere in the back of his mind.
        The subject noted that when the car left the freeway that the
lane into which the car moved seemed to be about a quarter the
width of the cars body. Also noted was a curious effect of blue
lightning playing about the reflectors implanted in the road.
        Upon returning to the house, the subject proceeded to lie
between the two speakers in the lounge room and listen to some
synthesised music. (Shadowfax) This had the effect of bringing the
subject to full intensity where the complexity and clarity of the
images observed with the eyes closed reached a maximum. At this
stage the subject felt that a part of his conscious left his body once
again, this time not entering a picture but rather to wander through
the house observing the appearance of each of the rooms. The
subject noted that his point of observation hovered somewhere near
to the ceiling such that he looked down onto everything. In this state
the colour intensification was at its maximum, whole rooms
appearing to be an intense purple. Later on the subject had
commented to another participant that he had been visiting purple
rooms. The subject also noted that he heard the voices of the other
participants strongly within the music, even though the others were
in a closed room on the other side of the house.
At the eighteenth hour into the trip, the subject decided that he
should sleep, although he felt that he could happily continue
'tripping' for another two hours at the least.

=============================================================================

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

Well, this is it, the last in this series of Posts. I hope you have
all enjoyed reading these. (I certainly have enjoyed writing them (
and experiencing them, for that matter))

The following trip was experienced by myself two days ago and can
be classified as a Level 5 trip. I have decided to switch to "First
Person Singular" in order to portrey some of my feelings and
sensations. I don't believe that it is possible for me to remain
objective about an experience which goes so far beyond the
explainable. Any impressions portrayed by this document can only
be dim shadows of the incredible alter-reality of the experience.

                 "Journey out of the Universe"

        Myself and five acquaintances decided it was time for another
trip. All of us decided that we would exceed our usual amount and
dare to move into the realms of the unknown. I had three times my
usual dosage of dried mushrooms, the others increasing their doses
by a factor of a half.
        The house was new to me and I purposefully decided not to
explore it until things were really moving. It was an old
weatherboard house and was mostly dark and cold. The living room
was small but it had a crackling fire burning in the fire place which
cast flickering shadows on the peeling paint walls. There was several
candles burning on the mantle piece above the fire place and the six
of use ceremoniously downed our dried mushies at "T minus 0
minutes" (around 8:00 pm)
        I had brought my video player over and a "Trippatronics" tape
which I had created by editing bits from hundreds of MTV video
clips together along with exerts from various computer graphics
documentaries. Sid put one of his CD's into the CD player in the
adjoining room. It was something by "The Art Of Noise". I found
myself seated in a large beanbag facing the fire, with the TV on my
right at 90 degrees to my field of vision. I wasn't too interested in
being able to see the screen since I had watched it countless times
before whilst tripping.
        Someone looked at a clock and announced that it was 8:10 pm,
I quickly calculated that things would be settling back to normal at
around 1:00am in the morning.
        We all sat around, not saying much. The couple that owned the
house were not that well known to me so I was a little concerned
about tripping with them, but not too much.
        Ten minutes later at 8:20 I noticed something jump out from
the TV screen and sail through the air towards Melony, she seemed
not to notice. Ah Haaar. The trip begins. I usually notice the onset
before everyone else so I wasn't too worried about seeing things this
early.
        At this stage I decided that I needed to take a leak, so I got up
to go in search of the toilet. The kitchen was to my right and from
there I could glimpse the toilet door open through the adjoining
laundry. I wandered through the laundry, feeling myself move into
level 1. Once I was in the toilet I reached level 2. I closed my eyes
for a second to check. First there was nothing, then a couple of
seconds later the familiar two dimensional patterns appeared.
Opening my eyes revealed that the toilet was already beginning to
expand. The dimensions of the little room had suddenly doubled. I
quickly relieved myself as I pondered the rapidity at which the trip
was advancing.
        Back in the lounge I sat in the beanbag again.
        BANG! Things started getting really WEIRD!
        The fire became an animated city, Buildings and Cars could be
clearly seen shimmering within the flames. Highways of tiny
vehicles made their way along the grains of the logs. Several of
participants began to "piss themselves laughing" at various things
and I joined in, laughing so hard all else became invisible. I noticed
that each time I laughed, the trip became more and more intense,
although whilst laughing, I could perceive nothing. Sid and Mel
were really getting into laughing. Mick and Carol, wandered out the
back door of their house, conceivably to investigate the garden. Sid
and Tim wandered to the lounge where the stereo was playing. Mel
seemed still infected with hilarious laughing and giggling, she
amused herself by watching some of the video. I was very quickly
moving into deeper and deeper realms of strangeness. The beanbag
vanished and became an incredibly comfortable wicker chair and I
was just pondering how comfortable the headrest was when I realised
that I had placed my hands behind my head and it was them
supporting my head not the imaginary chair. At this stage I launched
into uncontrollable shivering. "God it was cold" it seemed that the
temperature had dropped by at least five degrees. I had to keep
stopping myself from tensing my entire body against the cold. My
jaw was chattering mercilessly and I wished that these amphetamine-
like effects did not occur with psychoactive drugs. Eventually they
faded and vanished.
        I was deep into Level 4 at this stage, time had ceased to have
any meaning. I watched holes open up and close in the floorboards.
The room kept expanding and shrinking and the fire became a
swirling blue vortex into which images from the TV were being
sucked. I closed my eyes. And the image remained, it actually got
clearer, so I opened my eyes again. No difference! I closed my eyes
and held my hands in front of my face. I could see them lift up in
front of me, but they were strangely warped and I could see the fire
through them.
        Carol came back into the room and curled up into a ball in front
of the fire. A few of the others wandered in and out of the room
making various comments and then igniting more of the infectious
laughter. I was busy laughing uproariously and observing the
universe splinter and shatter with each cycle of the laughter. It
seemed as though the energy released from the laughing caused my
vision to fracture and fragment.
        I noticed that Carol was in a strange mood, she seemed almost
angry and upset about all the laughing, she remained motionless and
dark beside the fire. Mel broke into another fit of helpless laugher
which gradually sounded stranger and stranger. Carol took this
moment to exclaim aggressively to her "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!!!"
"ARE YOU QUITE RIGHT THERE!!!" This seemed to quieten Mel
down a bit, but she seemed to draw in upon herself like a frightened
rabbit.
        The music was weird and unrecognisable. Sid had only
intended on letting the first two tracks play before the CD was
changed, but no one had remembered to change it. Suddenly things
started changing.
        Mel seemed to be getting into trouble. Her eyes had widened in
fright and horror and she was making exclamations like "Oh no!,
NO!" and starting to shout with horror. Something was wrong.
Simultaneously my own universe jumped and flickered into new
heights of weirdness. Things were morphing uncontrollably now. It
became very difficult to work out what I was actually looking at.
I kept thinking "Damn! my eyes have stopped working".
Mel became more and more disturbed. Something in me started to
realise she was launching into a bad trip, and this something decided
that the most obvious answer was to change the music. I stood up. Or
I tried to. My legs leaped to the standing position, but they had
become detached from the rest of my body which was still resting in
the bean bag. I looked at my legs in surprise. I could clearly see the
backs of my legs and the top of each of them ended in a stump. Slowly the
rest of my body floated up and came to rest in its usual position. My
legs did not seem to re-attach properly and as I walked out of the
room, they seemed to be a couple of steps ahead of me. I found the
door into the lounge room and moved into the darker room, I saw
Tim seated by the stereo, at least I think it was Tim. The only way to
describe what my eyes saw is to compare it to the scene in
Lawnmower Man where one of the protagonists had broken up into
tiny marble sized pieces which were buzzing around like flies and
formed the approximate shape of the body. Tim's eyes were separate
from his body and I could see air gaps around them and I could see
the chair through him. The chair itself had broken up into pieces,
some of which were protruding through Tim. The vision was too
bizarre, so I looked away to increase my chances of coping.
        Mel had started screaming by this point, the screams got louder
and more frequent, until it reached the stage where she was
continually screaming her lungs out. It sounded like someone was
"Axe Murdering" her. I listened for a moment to the screams and the sheer
horror contained within them. The fear and horror became real and tangible.
It solidified as a material object, some sort of mental snake which started
slithering towards the centre of my being.
I shuddered and purposely distracted my line of thinking into the practical.
Part of me started to realise that the Police were going to be called.
Another part of me remembered that I was going to change the music.
Finally I reached the point in space where the CD player was supposed to be,
but when I looked in the direction I thought it existed, my eyes had started
refusing to work again. The masses of swirling colours and shapes and
perspectives that I saw was definitely not a CD player.
With great concentration I managed to get the CD player to coalesce
into a Level 4 image and I bent down toward it in order to change the
CD. Halfway to the CD player the universe ceased to exist.....
        There remains almost no way in which I can describe what
happened at this point other than to say that I had reached Level 5.
Everything changed and became unrecognisable. When I say
Everything, I do not just mean objects and people and self, but The
Universe Itself became undone. There was no-longer anything in the
ordinary sense. It was like being in an amazingly comfortable chair,
but not existing at the same time. Vision, Smell, Hearing and Taste
all became meaningless. They did not just disappear, but they ceased
to have ever existed. Time melted into nothingness. I did not
perceive time, but looking back later I can say that the subjective
experience must have lasted literally years. There was no point of
reference, I could no longer distinguish anything even slightly
recognisable, although something somewhere could contemplate a
great many somethings. It was not me. It was not anything like
thought or perception. It was not anything which could be described.
It is extremely difficult to even remember much about it but to say
that it was so different to anything that it defies explanation!
        Woah, suddenly I was back, and I was still in the act of
bending down towards the strange mess of colours I thought must be
the CD player. I wondered who I was and why I was there. I struggled with
remembering, but I could not make sense of it. I had no idea about anything.
I knew I was tripping but that was about it. Whose house was I in? Who am I
tripping with. Did I drive here or did someone else. What was happening. I
really had no idea. This somehow disturbed me. But not too much. I recognised
a Tim-like entity swimming around in my vision and exclaimed to it,
"What's Happening?" and I meant it from the depths of my soul.
        Tim didn't seem to know either. The CD player pattern made itself
obvious again and I realised that I was changing the music. My hand was still
reaching for the CD player.  Another thought occurred to me.
"What do I do when I get there?" I could barely see the damn thing,
how am I going to operate it? At this point I turned to Tim for help.
"I need to change the Music", "Why?", Tim was enjoying it thoroughly and
had not yet noticed the trauma in the next room. I explained the situation
to the weird looking floating creature somehow, and between the two of us
It only took about "6" hours to manage to change it. The CD player
was new to both of us. It seemed to have way too many light and
numbers. The buttons had something marked on them, but we were
beyond being able to read. We resorted to randomly pushing buttons
until the required result was achieved.
        The new CD was some classical guitar (Vivaldi) But after a few
minutes it became apparent that this was not going to help. Mel
continued screaming at the top of her lungs.
        At this stage, her boyfriend Sid had found her and was trying to
comfort her. I was convinced that another change to the music might
help. I ended up changing the CD again, several eternities later, to
"White Winds" by Andreas Vollenweider, this seemed to have the
desired effect after a while. Mel seemed to be responding to Sid's
efforts at bringing her back to stable grounds. She related afterwards
that she had completely lost track of reality to such a degree that
she was afraid that she was going mad. All the normal anchors of reality
had vanished one by one until there was nothing recognisable left. She became
horrified that she was going to remain there forever. Sid told me later that
he was watching her face, and slowly the expression on it would change and
start to become distant, if he didn't immediately say something to her that
she could grip with her mind, then she would withdraw and start screaming.
Once she had reached this point, no amount of talking or touching could get
through to her.
        My trip was still getting stronger, part of me was still worried
that the neighbours were going to call the police, and another part of
me was completely unconcerned and was in fact enjoying itself
immensely. By this stage my body had disappeared, I no longer had
any sensation of comfort/discomfort my eyesight was beginning to
malfunction again. I could no-longer see anything of meaning. One
moment I would be looking at something, then it would dissolve into
a mass of swirling colours. The rooms of the house were beginning
to move around and merge with each other. I decided that I needed a
glass of water, so some part of me got up and went to the kitchen,
leaving the other part sitting up against an electric oil heater. Moving
through the halls of the house was completely weird. Parts of the
walls, arches and ceiling protruded down into the hallway and passed
through my body as I walked along. At one stage I walked through a
wall and felt it open up and then coalesce behind me. Once in the
kitchen part of me filled a glass, then I split into two again, one
staying in the kitchen, the other walking back to the first body. I was
now in three places at once. One in the kitchen, one in the hall,
holding the glass, and the other sitting with Tim in the lounge. From
this point onwards I again moved into Level 5 for some 3 hours of
real time (I think!)
        Tim said something to me and I raised my eyebrow, it detached
and floated off behind my head, I went to look at it out of the corner
of my eye, but the eye came away from my head and floated off
towards the eyebrow. Weird. I flicked my tongue around inside my
mouth, and my head seemed to detach itself above my jaw, my
tongue flopped helplessly about on top of the throat and lower jaw
like a fish out of water. My upper head continued floating upwards
and slowly bobbed around so that I could look down my own throat.
My body looked like the lower half of a decapitated buddha sitting in lotus
position up against the heater.
        After a while I stood up next to the heater and drifted in and out
of the universe. For most of the time I had no Idea that I was
standing. Mel was still breaking out into fits of screaming
occasionally and at times I was so completely out of reality that I had
to ask Tim, "What's happening?" I had no idea who or where I was,
only that something was happening, the details of which I was
unsure! He seemed to be in a similar state and responded with a
shrug which separated his body into about twenty more pieces.
        Level 5 became the dominant state, with momentary flashes of
Level 4, where suddenly the Universe would flicker back into view
for a moment and I would realise that I was standing up or sitting
down or more importantly, that I existed.
        Slowly the flashes of Level 4 became longer and longer. Tim
said to me that He thought things were getting more normal. I replied
that I didn't think they were (I didn't want them to) Eventually I had
to concede, but I told him that we wouldn't be back to normal until at
least 1:00am, he then replied that it was in fact 1:10am. Whoah!!!
        Things gradually became more and more normal as I sank into
the familiar morphy land of Level 4, then I dramatically dropped to
Level 3. The drop was so sudden, that I exclaimed, "What happened?
Something has changed!"
        The final stages of the trip were long and slow. Mel had found
reality again, although she and Sid looked completely drained. To
my trippy eyes they looked as if they had aged ninety years, their
faces were long and drawn and Sid's face looked like something out
of the trenches in Pink Floyd's "The Wall"
        Once we were down far enough, we drove home. The car
journey, as usual, was interesting and I was glad it was the middle of
the night and I didn't have to cope with any traffic.

CONCLUSION:
        I have noticed, that the various types of trips coincide with the
levels I have described to a reasonably high degree. The jumps
between these levels are usually distinct and obvious  and when I
have consumed a dose which is close to the boundaries of one of the
Level transition states, the resultant trip is not a gradual merging of
the two states, but more like a ping-pong jumping between the two
states. The "Flashover" point is quite obvious with a striking change
in the observed reality.
        Most of the trips I have experienced have been clearly at one
particular level and in one instance I consumed an amount of weak
dried mushroom (just the stems) , the result of which was no
noticeable effect. After a couple of hours had elapsed with no effect,
I consumed a further amount (approximately 1/10th of the original
dose) at which point I was propelled into Level 1. (ie I had consumed
enough to cross the Level 0 - Level 1 boundary)
        To me this is proof of the existence of a threshold effect. It also
coincides with a number of recipients of "weak" paper trips reporting
that they did nothing, whist others having the same dose reported
getting Level 1 or 2 phenomena. It would seem that for the former
recipients that their jump to level one dose is somewhat higher than
for the latter.
        On other occasions I have noticed that (for me) the difference
between 1.6 and 2.0 grams of freshly dried mushrooms produces no
discernible difference, but that 2.1 launches me into a Level 2 trip. In
the first instance, the extra 0.4 grams was effectively wasted.

I hope this information is of interest. I have tried to remain as detached
as possible, and have consulted many FOAF's for their opinions on my "Level"
theories, most agree, but of course this type of evaluation can only be
subjective.