Trip Reports
November 21, 2007 5:38 PM   Subscribe

People's written reports of their psychedelic experiences based on the level of their trips after ingesting "magic" mushrooms. (level one, two, three, four, or five) The site includes a dosage calculator for anyone tempted to try them.
posted by augustweed (132 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
Shrooms on a train with harry potter 7, good times
posted by Rubbstone at 5:42 PM on November 21, 2007


"Level 5" is a bitch.

Thanks. This will entertain for awhile.

Though: I live in Canada, in British Columbia so shrooms don't come around a lot. ?!
posted by dreamsign at 5:46 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Obligatory mention of Erowid Experience Vaults.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:49 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


If you stare at the wall long enough, it will start undulating without the use of drugs. Drugs are overrated. Imagination is where it is at. Too bad more people don't talk a walk on their own wild side and journey through their own psyche without the crutch of drugs.
posted by 45moore45 at 5:50 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


This is an excellent site, if you're into that sort of thing. Like an extremely focused erowid.
posted by paxton at 5:51 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Drugs are overrated. Imagination is where it is at.

You might want to try both. Simultaneously.
posted by dreamsign at 5:53 PM on November 21, 2007 [11 favorites]


45moore45 is right. I get high on life.
posted by puke & cry at 5:56 PM on November 21, 2007


urrghh, SO close to eponysterical!
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 5:57 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


45moore45:

Yes, you can experience all sorts of weird stuff without the use of drugs, but I, for one, haven't accomplished anything close to the complete loss of ordinary consciousness that shrooms can give you, without them. I'm not saying it's necessarily desirable, but I can't agree that the experience can be obtained while sober.

On second thought, I could believe that similar results can be had with meditation, if you're dedicated.
posted by Zero Gravitas at 5:58 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


There is a paddock near Cunungra where you can pick fresh Goldtops. There is a creek and a swing rope to help you with your trip.
posted by mattoxic at 6:01 PM on November 21, 2007


When I tried mms, I experienced nothing but a body high and got really frustrated that everyone else in the room couldn't follow what I was saying. We were all on different pages. Then I realized everyone being on different pages is part of the fun.
posted by HotPatatta at 6:01 PM on November 21, 2007


As an artist, there is an altered state of reality I can get to when I am in the flow of painting. It's a pure state, I think the closest non-artists get to it is with sex, but it is only momentary with sex. For sustained experiences, you really have to plumb your own depths while simultaneously getting out of your own way.

I am not one of those "high on life" types. I am just saying it's possible to do it without drugs.
posted by 45moore45 at 6:02 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Bah, real men drink Dextromethorphan.
posted by dhammond at 6:04 PM on November 21, 2007 [2 favorites]


I tried shrooms once, long ago, and it was very much like parts of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. It was good until I got intimidated by a rug that became a pile of writhing rats.

The best was smoking Moroccan? hash soaked in opium oil. I spent about four hours playing in Disneyland from about 10k miles away.

Whew! What memories!
posted by snsranch at 6:05 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


The worst thing about ingesting these mushrooms (or shroooms) is the taste, which I would compare unfavourably with chewing on floppy chalk. After much experiment, I have found the solution is simultaneously eating chocolate pudding. Yum yum whoa.
posted by stinkycheese at 6:06 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


first shroom experience: total disconnect from reality. "there's a time and a place for everything, children, and that's called college."
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:09 PM on November 21, 2007




Wow. Now that is one hell of a liability.

Don't use that calculator. It's pretty stupid and all, considering it takes no account for body weight - much less the true potency of any given wild and/or cultivated fruit, which varies greatly even before drying.

Man, the titles alone of some of those experience reports are enough to get under my skin.

*click, click, winces painfully, grumbles omniously*

And why is it that most common 'shroom fans' today totally drive me crazy and make my skin crawl?

Is it the seemingly willful disregard for accurate or factual information? The blatant destruction of grammar? Is it the Spicoli-esque "Dude, bro!" utterances, the penchant for smelly Birkenstocks and saying annoying things like "got any yummy KB snapples"?

No, dude. I don't have any "spange", either. Go away. Don't touch me. Don't you even think about hugging me. No, I don't need the flow of my fucking Chi adjusted, you filthy grommet, and if I did, you'd be the last crusty I'd ask to do it - it's that I want to avoid catching the lice I see crawling in your dreads, you nappy dirtfucker. Peace begins with you delousing your knickers, dudebro, before I do it with my foot!

*breathes*

Sorry. Trying to quit smoking. Snarking at useless, uninteresting cookie-cutter dirt hippies actually seems to be helping.
posted by loquacious at 6:10 PM on November 21, 2007 [12 favorites]


45moore45 writes "As an artist, there is an altered state of reality I can get to when I am in the flow of painting. It's a pure state, I think the closest non-artists get to it is with sex, but it is only momentary with sex. "

It's called "flow". Really common experience for coders. I get it when I'm coding, drawing, doing involved shit with photoshop, or writing a really tight grant proposal.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:13 PM on November 21, 2007 [2 favorites]


Here is a picture of me on mushrooms at the Jersey shore, sometime before I waded into the ocean. It was one of the best days I can remember. By this site's metric, though, I don't think I've ever gone past a level 3.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:19 PM on November 21, 2007


Mushrooms are pretty great.

Except when they're not.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 6:21 PM on November 21, 2007 [7 favorites]


One time I looked at a Bush and there were these two children in it... made out of it, the were like a real life hummel figurine with none of the schmaltz. It was in the top 10 most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. They were just sitting there holding each other like they wanted to protect each other. Or were sharing a secret.

This other time I walked down to the river and I needed to pee, when out of the corner of my eyes I saw a Frankenstein's monster. Looking at me! I was embarrassed because he could see my wiener. I tried to put my weiner back in my pants but I didn't realize I was already peeing, so I pissed my pants. Not all the way, but there was piss on my pants. My friends laughed at me a little, and I explained Frankenstein was trying to look at my wiener. And my friend asked me if he had bolts in his neck. I said yeah. He said that he probably wasn't trying to look at my wiener her was just trying to look at me and my wiener happened to be out. That made me feel so much better.
posted by I Foody at 6:22 PM on November 21, 2007 [10 favorites]


Drugs aren't called mind expanding for no good reason! Psychedelics seem to minimize existing cognitive biases and allow different parts of your brain to communicate. Given all the antidrug propaganda fed to me in my youth, the personal and universal insights drug use led me to were mindblowing to say the least. Happy shrooming!
posted by polyhedron at 6:23 PM on November 21, 2007


As an artist, there is an altered state of reality I can get to when I am in the flow of painting. It's a pure state, I think the closest non-artists get to it is with sex, but it is only momentary with sex.


As an artist, I also get the same thing from skateboarding, body-surfing, long-distance cycling, DJing, making improv/experimental music, writing and meditation.

As someone who meditates and plumbs the internal depths pretty deeply - as someone who will readily argue that there's nothing weirder than reality itself - I must strongly argue that none of these things compare with the direct intensity of psychedelics. "Reality" or "natural" methods are, of course, much more complex and subtle, but not nearly as direct or intense.

This is not a really a qualitative statement, but a quantitative one. YMMV.
posted by loquacious at 6:23 PM on November 21, 2007 [6 favorites]


The last time I wrote a really tight grant proposal I saw God, dude.
posted by Tube at 6:28 PM on November 21, 2007 [4 favorites]


45moore45: Too bad more people don't talk a walk on their own wild side and journey through their own psyche without the crutch of drugs.

One man's "crutch", as you say, is another man's rocket fuel. Or at least another man's Hamburger Helper. I can understand when folks are anti-drug--I've never tried, say, heroin and have no desire to--but do you people have to shit on the positive experiences of others? Using your imagination and taking drugs are not mututally exclusive towards acheiving "enlightenment" (or whatever).
posted by zardoz at 6:30 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


You'll need to add liberal doses of nitrous oxide if you're hoping to enter the two dimensional universe of shimmering gelatin that you can make quiver if you lick at it with your electrified lizard tongue.
posted by The Straightener at 6:31 PM on November 21, 2007 [7 favorites]


The worst thing about ingesting these mushrooms (or shroooms) is the taste, which I would compare unfavourably with chewing on floppy chalk. After much experiment, I have found the solution is simultaneously eating chocolate pudding. Yum yum whoa.

I've...heard...that peanut butter is pretty good too.
posted by mayfly wake at 6:31 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


I don't get the taste objections... except when put in an omelette (ugh). Do you people not like, er, garden-variety mushrooms? Not much different.
posted by dreamsign at 6:34 PM on November 21, 2007


Oh man, sign me up.

If you read the full trip report, the person did shrooms, freaked out when they thought they were about to be busted by the cops, and then went home and did more shrooms. All by themselves.

Not to sound unsympathetic, but that's a recipe for disaster. I'm not at all surprised they wound up having a bad time.
posted by stinkycheese at 6:35 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Do you people not like, er, garden-variety mushrooms?

Speaking for myself, no.
posted by stinkycheese at 6:39 PM on November 21, 2007


If you stare at the wall long enough, it will start undulating without the use of drugs. Drugs are overrated. Imagination is where it is at. Too bad more people don't talk a walk on their own wild side and journey through their own psyche without the crutch of drugs.

It's not the same.

I think the closest non-artists get to it is with sex, but it is only momentary with sex. For sustained experiences, you really have to plumb your own depths while simultaneously getting out of your own way.

That sounds like new-age poppycock and the idea that "artists" are capable of experiencing thing that "non-artists" can't is, like, kind of offensive. I mean, where do you draw the line between an artist and a non artist? I mean obviously there are some really great artists who can do things that way outside the capability of a normal person, but there are also tons and tons of crappy artists too.
posted by delmoi at 6:46 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


Is there any way to favorite something that hasn't been posted yet? Because I totally don't want to miss it when why I am I freaking out I took some but i thought it was only a cap but know there gone and i think I ate more but i';m not sure what do, oh shit my moms house pops up on AskMe.
posted by dhammond at 6:48 PM on November 21, 2007 [4 favorites]


Oh Christ, take a pill. You know you want to. I'm not shitting on anyone's parade, go drug your brains out. It is a crutch. I also don't think artists are the chosen people but I do think we tap into things that many people miss in their mission to have constant distraction in their lives. We've become an absolutely passive society waiting for something external to tweak us because most have lost the ability to keep themselves entertained for 5 minutes unassisted. Bah.
posted by 45moore45 at 7:06 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Too bad more people don't talk a walk on their own wild side and journey through their own psyche without the crutch of drugs.

Umm, most people I know use drugs to get the hell out of their own psyches.
posted by jonmc at 7:06 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


go drug your brains out. It is a crutch.

Why go see a movie or read a book?

Can't you think of a story?
posted by dreamsign at 7:11 PM on November 21, 2007 [8 favorites]


Are there any psychoactive mushrooms that don't taste like fermented shite?
posted by meehawl at 7:12 PM on November 21, 2007


go drug your brains out. It is a crutch.

*gasp*
posted by jonmc at 7:13 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


For the record, I've never done shrooms. I've done blotter acid twice. It was neat, but after all the hype I was expecting cosmic enlightenment or visions of Elvis on a flying cupcake. It didn't live up to it.

*goes back to sipping vanilla vodka laced eggnog*
posted by jonmc at 7:16 PM on November 21, 2007


I was on super-duper hippie shrooms (but for real Loq, I feel you babes, too right. Sometimes you have to listen to half of Bob Marley Legend before they let you out of the fucking room.) the night Nixon died. They were the kind where you start crying and salivating like mad well before the height of the trip hits, but you know it's going to be a toothchipper right there.

Anyway we were peacefully watching Montel Williams or whatever (after having been walking around in the snow and getting chased by Michael Jordan's jersey as it swooped over the horizon again and again) and Abe Lincoln and dude from the Guardian Angels was on, Curtis Sliwa, I think, which was pretty cool, when they cut in to announce that Nixon had kicked it. We thought that was extremely momentous and wondered if it was because we had taken so many shrooms that the devil had finally come to collect his due or what, when the half hourly repeated news cast (broadcast tv, upstate New York) announced that Nixon was dead "OH Holy shit yo, Tricky Dick's dead, fucking hell man..." Every half-hour on the hour, we were so high we had that short term memory amnesia, every half-hour until six am we re-experienced the death of Richard M. Nixon as if for the first time. They we went to breakfast and pushed bacon and eggs around our plates for an awkward hour.

I'm not saying art is better than drugs, nor am I saying drugs is better than art, by the way. I'm just saying make sure you have enough cigarettes and something to drink before you do shrooms some trustafarian brought back from Cali.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:23 PM on November 21, 2007 [9 favorites]


Anyway we were peacefully watching Montel Williams

I remember watching him on Vicodin and thinking he was profound and being fascinated by his shiny head.

Montel is the Rosetta Stone on this.
posted by jonmc at 7:27 PM on November 21, 2007


Yes, Montel Williams is a shiny headed genius. If this isn't the anti-drug Exhibit A of the future, I don't know what is.
posted by 45moore45 at 7:30 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Montel Williams Likes to Smoke Doob
posted by dhammond at 7:33 PM on November 21, 2007


Ingredients for shrooming good time:

a) close friends
b) sun and nature
c) interaction with sober folks optional
d) something smokable to ease your angry stomach afterwards

Don't knock it till you try it. Preferably not on your own while paranoid about being busted by cops in your mother's basement. Shrooms magnify both fun and stress.
posted by anthill at 7:44 PM on November 21, 2007 [5 favorites]


You know those Alice in Wonderland/Nintendo red-spotted mushrooms? They're called Amanitas, and they supposedly grow wild pretty much wherever white people do. Anyway, I read a story about a guy who ate some of them, and shortly afterward two human-sized Amanita mushrooms knocked at his front door to tell him that if he ever ate them again recreationally, they'd be back to kill him.
posted by Camofrog at 7:50 PM on November 21, 2007 [13 favorites]


One of my closest friends, in full Degrassi fashion, jumped off a cliff on shrooms. He only broke his leg, but still. Have a sober and trustworthy babysitter around so you don't die or something.
posted by Reggie Digest at 7:56 PM on November 21, 2007 [2 favorites]


I once watched Mars Attacks while on mushrooms. It took me about six hours to get through it.......I was watching it frame by frame, deliberately. Tim Burton is a genius.

That is all.
posted by ashbury at 8:00 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


Alright 45moore45, you've made your point, you've rocked the hobby-horse with due strength, mazel tov. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

No hope in dope kids.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:10 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


45moore45 is just so above all you druggies. You losers just don't understand his genius.
posted by puke & cry at 8:13 PM on November 21, 2007 [2 favorites]


Nonsense. I saw him freebasing Ovaltine.
posted by jonmc at 8:15 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


Alright 45moore45, you've made your point, you've rocked the hobby-horse with due strength, mazel tov. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Whut da fuck you talkin' bout Willis?

I find it so interesting that people are getting pissy because I am not for drugs. Maybe a better question is why are people so into them? Why is just living the human experience not enough? You have to go screwing with your brain chemistry and do so to do stupid shit like watch a movie frame by frame or shave the cat or whatever. Wheee.
posted by 45moore45 at 8:18 PM on November 21, 2007


Oh, I guess my membership in the terminal hipster club has been canceled. *sob* Since I don't want to go plucking mushrooms out of cowpies in the middle of the night, I must be hopelessly uncool, because tresspassing in a cow pasture in the middle of the night to eat something growing out of cow shit is the coolest thing ever.
posted by 45moore45 at 8:23 PM on November 21, 2007


We need to have a special shroom-centered MeFi meetup.

Mostly because squares like me wouldn't even know where to get some in the first place.
posted by Avenger at 8:23 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


Why is just living the human experience not enough?

I think you're confusing mushrooms with werewolves, 45moore45.
posted by Reggie Digest at 8:25 PM on November 21, 2007 [7 favorites]


I find it so interesting that people are getting pissy because I am not for drugs. Maybe a better question is why are people so into them? Why is just living the human experience not enough?

I think it's because for lots of people, the "human experience" has become so divorced from what we are naturally equipped to relate to that we use drugs to return us to these baselines of reality.

Also: Unless you have tripped, how do you know what you are talking about?
posted by Camofrog at 8:38 PM on November 21, 2007 [2 favorites]


I would suggest, 45moore45, that rather than imagining that your special snowflake is being threatened, that you should picture a bunch of people who are not TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT and move on from there. You've made your point, thanks, it's compelling and perfectly articulated.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:44 PM on November 21, 2007 [4 favorites]


I find it so interesting that people are getting pissy because I am not for drugs.

That's not why people are pissy. People are pissy because you came in all I'm not for drugs and all you people who are are just a bunch of crutch-using losers, not an artist like me who's tapped into consciousness with the power of my own soul. Or that's how I read it.

Shrooms make me too sick to my stomach to enjoy the trip, so no love there. Oh well.
posted by rtha at 8:45 PM on November 21, 2007


Maybe a better question is why are people so into them? Why is just living the human experience not enough?

Well let's get a biochemist in here to suck the endorphins out of your system. You don't need em. Endogenous opiates are for losers.

Drugs are part of the human experience. You just enjoy a less controlled sampling. So be it.
posted by dreamsign at 8:45 PM on November 21, 2007 [4 favorites]


Yes well I don't think I need to have tripped to have a discussion. If you read what I wrote, I was talking about the ability to transcend your own mortal coil without the use of drugs. If that makes me Skippy freebasing Ovaltine, and worthy of a pile on, I'll leave you to that because I'm over this thread now. Nothing from what is posted here is any testament to the power and beauty of getting high. It is all about killing time and tuning out, not tuning in. We live in a culture that creates people who need constant stimulation and have an attention span of a nano-second. I think that is really just a pathetic way to live. I am for medical use of weed, I think that has a benefit, but reading this thread and the experiences described don't make me want to have anything to do with it. You can stop addressing me in this post now, I'm done.
posted by 45moore45 at 8:49 PM on November 21, 2007


Haven't tried shrooms for near on ten years now. Will probably try again within the next five. But it saddens me that these sorts of experiences are so often treated as recreational larks (and incidentally I think it's this kind of thing that rightly irks folks like 45moore45), and that even those of us who don't want to treat them that way are pretty much without a reliable map. A couple of the MM experiences I had when I was younger were quite powerful, but I was groping around without a flashlight, and I think it's a shame I spent hours somewhere without knowing even a bit of the language, so to speak. Who knows what I could have learned.

I have this (quite possibly entirely fabricated) idea that at some point, or somewhere, there were or are people capable of guiding someone through a psychedelic experience in the context of it being a way not to escape or "trip out" but come to real, liberating - though possibly quite difficult - insights in to themselves and the experience of modern humans, embodied wisdom that could be applied beyond the trip, through meditation, art, politics, love, life.

I know there are people out there who are attempting that, but they seem outnumbered by the cookie-cutter dirt hippies. Seems like this society has increased exponentially the potential for permanent low-level madness, while destroying any traditions of wisdom for finding true guidance in intermittent intentional madness.
posted by regicide is good for you at 8:50 PM on November 21, 2007 [5 favorites]


45moore45:
We've become an absolutely passive society waiting for something external to tweak us (my emphasis)
+
Why is just living the human experience not enough? You have to go screwing with your brain chemistry

Ah, the naive realist (or naturalist). Implicit in your comments is the demarcation between natural and artificial. If you have the time, read this older thread before this one becomes a regurgitation of it.
posted by daksya at 8:51 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


I find it so interesting that people are getting pissy because I am not for drugs. Maybe a better question is why are people so into them? Why is just living the human experience not enough?

First up, I want to say that I think your posts over in Relationship-Filter are really good (OK, translate that as "she says what I think, only more articulately").

But onto this topic, I think you're on the wrong track:

Why can't drugs be considered as part of "the human experience?". Sure, any of us can live without drugs. We could also live without music or art or books. We could live without good food and wine, and just eat the most basic, simple food. We don't need to travel - why see the Taj Mahal when I already live in a house? There are a million things in life that we don't need to do, but yet improve the nature of our lives, make them more interesting. While I've never tried mushrooms, it's clear that many people do find them to be a valuable and interesting part of their lives.

I don't see any real differences between enriching one's life through the external stimuli of appreciating someone else's art, and through the external stimuli of a drug experience.
posted by Infinite Jest at 8:59 PM on November 21, 2007 [4 favorites]


45moore45: I also don't think artists are the chosen people but I do think we tap into things that many people miss in their mission to have constant distraction in their lives.

So, in other words, true, real artists don't need drugs to tap into that. Need? Perhaps not. But if I may quote from Bill Hicks:

"If you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, then go home and burn all your records, all your tapes, and all your CDs because every one of those artists who have made brilliant music and enhanced your lives? RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrEAL fucking high on drugs."
posted by zardoz at 9:02 PM on November 21, 2007 [6 favorites]


I'm with Antihill - the setting and the mood are very important.

My one bad experiece with shrooms was when I was alone and in a place I wasn't comfortable in (just moved into "summer residence" shithole after 2nd year) and was testing a batch I got.

Every other time was great; architecture is awesome, as are the trees when the wind's rustiling through them. Clouds, too. And other people.

Psilocybin mushrooms does taste nasty (I love all kinds of eating mushrooms) and I've found putting it under the cheese on meaty pizza or just eating it quickly (remember to chew, though - otherwise it'll take longer to kick in and you might be tempted to eat more than is good for you or to take other substances) are the least bad solutions.

As for drugs as mind/mood altering experiences and those who don't like drugs as such; stop listening to music or appreciating fine art or talking intimately with members of your preferred sex, or watching TV or...
posted by porpoise at 9:02 PM on November 21, 2007


People have always sought altered states of consciousness sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes purely recreational. It's the false puritanism that's unnatural, if it is meant to be judgemental.
posted by readery at 9:03 PM on November 21, 2007


Obligatory Onion reference: Drug Use Down Among Uncool Kids

I enjoyed taking psychedelics. I used to do it probably three or four times a year, generally when the seasons were changing. We'd go car camping by a lake somewhere, drop acid or gobble some caps and hike or bike and enjoy the day, then drink a little whiskey to get to sleep that night. Wake up and fish for breakfast. Good times.

Psychedelics are neither a window into ultimate meaning nor a harmless party drug. Taking LSD and mushrooms helped me viscerally to feel the truth of insights I'd theretofore understood only intellectually. Nothing ground-breaking or revelatory, really. Just the kind of mental growing-up we all do in our 20s. I'm glad I did it. YMMV.

*goes back to huffing paint thinner*
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:06 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


---every half-hour until six am we re-experienced the death of Richard M. Nixon as if for the first time---

I wouldn't use that as an opening line in any conversation attempting to dissuade a young person from engaging in the great cowshit hunt. That right there is the pullquote you'd put on the outside of the box if you were selling the stuff.
posted by peacay at 9:08 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


45moore45,
No, really, you don't get it. We understand that you don't use drugs and you don't want other people to use drugs. Thanks, that's fine.

Personally, I am no longer inclined to use most, if any, drugs. In fact one of the only things that makes me want to use drugs or encourage their use in others is the prattling of someone who doesn't recognize where their head ends and someone else's begins.
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:12 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


There is an interesting BBC documentary entitled LSD: The Beyond Within which can be found elsewhere. They show a good number of minutes of an experiment in which the BBC filmed(but never broadcasted) the future Lord Christopher Mayhew taking mescaline and reporting on the experience in real time.
posted by well_balanced at 9:16 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Nothing from what is posted here is any testament to the power and beauty of getting high.

*sigh* I will try to dampen any dismissiveness I feel regarding this statement because you at least tried to describe your own peak experiences au natural. But seriously, nothing anyone could say in this thread would come close to "describing the power and beauty of getting high". I don't even like saying "getting high". That sounds like smoking weed out back of the garden shed. That's not what we're talking about here.

Back to taste: I've heard all this before and I just don't get it. I mean, it's a good idea to make a tea of the stuff and sip it throughout. Smooths things out a bit and extends it, also. If you don't like the taste, you're not going to like that. Chocolate? Man, think about what you're saying. Forget the "magic" part: chocolate and mushrooms. Eeeesh.
posted by dreamsign at 9:17 PM on November 21, 2007


All I want is something that will give me lucid dreams on demand. I fucking love those things man.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:23 PM on November 21, 2007


Ok, pack me off to New-Path. I realize that last post sounded a bit far gone.

CF12: there are some pretty good techniques you can learn to have those on a semi-regular basis.

Try here and here.
posted by dreamsign at 9:35 PM on November 21, 2007


That right there is the pullquote you'd put on the outside of the box if you were selling the stuff.


Peacay, my friend, if anything kept me taking hallucinogens well past the point where I derived any benefit from them, it was the faint hope that I could maybe do for another one of those murdering bastards. I've always been community minded.
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:39 PM on November 21, 2007


I speak from experience when I say that:

Shrooms + "Cosmic Bowling" = TEH AWESOME
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:43 PM on November 21, 2007


Also, if you're that worried about the taste, just grind them up in a food processor and mix them into a smoothie.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:45 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


My favorite shroom story comes from my high school friends. They had finally gotten their hands on some good shrooms and were telling me how cool it was going to be. Having baby sat tripping people several times before I had little interest in doing so again, so I took off for the night.

I found out the next day that it had gone pretty badly. One of them thought that they had dislocated their jaw and that it had somehow broken off and traveled down their neck and dislocated their shoulder. He was insistent about getting to the hospital but they couldn't figure out how to work their cell phones to call me to talk them out of it. Instead, they had to use the house phone and just ended up mashing the speed dial until they found someone who didn't hang up on them. It turned out to be the guy-with-the-"dislocated"-shoulder's sister. She brought him to the ER where they figure out that there was nothing physically wrong with him and stuck him in a bed with a saline drip.
posted by 517 at 9:53 PM on November 21, 2007


One hallucination inside of another. Nothing to see here. Move along.
posted by milarepa at 9:56 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


i always have thought that a good red wine was a good way to wash 'em down, myself.

i also found this site useful. i've tripped less than ten times in my life, and except for a bout of simultaneous/unrelated food poisoning that left me tripping and puking my guts out at the same time (but what wonderful colors!), they have been some of the most beautiful moments of my life.

i have had transcendent moments while hiking (straight), writing (straight and smoked), and running (teenaged and straight). they were great. but shrooming was likewise beautiful in an intense and fabulous way.

i read a lot about shrooms (and altered states in general) before i took them (never more than a level three), and have always treated them as a gift of the gods and to be respected as such. i would never, say, take them to make a party more fun. but shrooms plus

-camping mere steps from Lake Michigan was like being on the edge of the world...
-camping on an island in the middle of the St. Louis River made me see millenia in that very spot, like witnessing the passage of the ages...
-meditating in my room with candles brought me into contact with my deepest self in a way that helped me learn to meditate (straight)....
-watching the State of the Union Address--OMGWTF!
-a solo Beltane celebration (my first time! alone! it was awesome! and scary!) gave me my own personal Tim Burton movie, where i fell in love with my apple tree and learned to face my psyche and my fears....

45moore45, you would have been fine if you had left it at your first response, but you ended up sounding like someone afraid and stubborn in your beliefs. kinda like a fundamentalist. or someone who abstains from sin and resents anyone else who takes part in such things without regret. how dare they enjoy themselves when i pursue higher planes the old-fashioned way!

and yet psychedelics are something that humans have used since the beginning of time, religiously. spiritually. my attention span is just fine, thanks. and i don't "get high" on shrooms because i'm bored. thanks for attempting to shit on my personally orchestrated congress with the universe.
posted by RedEmma at 9:58 PM on November 21, 2007 [8 favorites]


Though: I live in Canada, in British Columbia so shrooms don't come around a lot. ?!

Indeed. When I was in high school it was sort of a rite of passage to go and pick mushrooms in Cates Park on the North Shore. You looked for the little ones with the bluish tinge to them. They tasted beyond horrible, but once you got past that...
posted by jokeefe at 10:31 PM on November 21, 2007


I find it so interesting that people are getting pissy because I am not for drugs.

People are being pissy because you're being an asshole about being not for drugs. You as much as say you despise those who use drugs. That never plays well when your audience is socially diverse, let generally well-educated and geeky enough to put up with using HTML in our comments.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:33 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


What I'm basically hearing in this thread is that I need to get a bag of shrooms, a room of comfortable pillows and music, a keeper, and an attitude of wanting to learn something about myself or the universe.

Sounds good.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:34 PM on November 21, 2007 [3 favorites]


Skidoo!
posted by hortense at 10:35 PM on November 21, 2007


I love this thread. And all of you!

Drunk. I can't get anything other than legal drugs around here.
posted by dreamsign at 11:01 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Yes, it is amazing that so many people can pass judgement on experiences they have never had. "Fundamentalist" is a good descriptor.

By the by, artists often feel that theirs is the most creative and insightful profession; however, mathematicians and scientists probably have the edge there.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:02 PM on November 21, 2007


"...do stupid shit like watch a movie frame by frame or shave the cat or whatever..."

I'm sorry, but this statement indicates to me that you're not half the artist you seem to think you are. now, if you'll excuse me, i have to get back to watching home movies of me shaving the cat, frame by frame.
posted by dvdgee at 11:34 PM on November 21, 2007 [4 favorites]


Nonsense. I saw him freebasing Ovaltine.

Who put the benzedrine in 45moore45's Ovaltine?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:42 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]


Fact: Bit-O-Honey Candy, chewed along with funk-tasting fungi, will mask the taste.
posted by Fupped Duck at 11:50 PM on November 21, 2007


I also don't think artists are the chosen people but I do think we tap into things that many people miss in their mission to have constant distraction in their lives.

I say thank God for artists and their drug free vision. No amount of acid or mescaline I took ever brought me visions like this and this?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:02 AM on November 22, 2007


There is only one thing more tedious than listening to people talk about their psychedelic experiences and that is listening to people talk about their fantasy football team.
posted by Arch_Stanton at 12:03 AM on November 22, 2007 [2 favorites]


Magic mushrooms will make you a better person.
If psychedelic drugs do not improve your quality of life, you just aren't taking them right.

In Amsterdam, there is an infinite supply of hoteliers who for a modest fee will provide you freshly laundered towels to grind and gnaw as you watch your consciousness dissolve into reruns of Reno 911. They help absorb your saliva and keep things fresh, clean, and fantastic. Vomiting is optional, the tile floor of the bathroom will absolve you of all sin if you make a concerted effort to respectfully melt into it. With the proper dosage Dutch becomes completely comprehensible to an English brain, and the sound of a Dutch woman making the "ch" sound is revealed as the purest essence of human sexuality since the time we built ziggurats in Ur.

All this and so much more for the most reasonable price of 30 euros (disregard the large "never take more than one package" sticker on the front, you'll want two just to be on the safe side). Be sure you have at least a dozen beer and a couple of doobies on hand, and wear comfortable stretch-fit clothing. Oh, and don't misplace your comfy blanket! The comfy blanket is mission-critical gear!

See your closest smart shop for more details.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:27 AM on November 22, 2007 [8 favorites]


Since I don't want to go plucking mushrooms out of cowpies in the middle of the night, I must be hopelessly uncool

That's not how it works.

Mostly because squares like me wouldn't even know where to get some in the first place.

Dude, you can buy the spores legally in the U.S and grow them yourself! Right on the internet (I'm not going to link here though, I don't know how matt would feel about that. Google "sporeworks"). I haven't used that site in a couple years, but it's not a difficult process. Keep in mind that once you actually implant the spores, the mycelium may contain Psilocybin and would therefore be illegal, but before that, you're not breaking any laws (that I know of, IANAL, state laws may vary, etc, etc, etc).

Mushrooms are not used often enough to really get the attention they "deserve" from regulators. They were not outlawed in japan until 1998, and fresh mushrooms were just illegalized in the UK recently. They're legal in the Netherlands. And, the spores are legal in the US (as far as I know).

Yes well I don't think I need to have tripped to have a discussion.

Well you don't but why should anyone take you seriously? I don't think mushrooms are the greatest thing in the world, but for me they are pretty fucking great for other people, not so much. Some people are not affected at all.

Personally, I am no longer inclined to use most, if any, drugs. In fact one of the only things that makes me want to use drugs or encourage their use in others is the prattling of someone who doesn't recognize where their head ends and someone else's begins.

It took me a while to realize you were talking about 45, and not someone tripping on shrooms :P

Not knowing where your head ends and the rest of the world begins is a pretty common effect with 'shrooms :)
posted by delmoi at 1:32 AM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Me & Meatbomb need to hang out.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:54 AM on November 22, 2007


If you hate the taste of mushrooms, I recommend eating peyote. Once you've done that, mushrooms will seem delicious by comparison.

Actually, an old boot marinated in Aqua Net and dogshit will seem delicious by comparison.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:43 AM on November 22, 2007


Oh Christ, take a pill. You know you want to. I'm not shitting on anyone's parade, go drug your brains out. It is a crutch. I also don't think artists are the chosen people but I do think we tap into things that many people miss in their mission to have constant distraction in their lives. We've become an absolutely passive society waiting for something external to tweak us because most have lost the ability to keep themselves entertained for 5 minutes unassisted. Bah.
posted by 45moore45 at 7:06 PM on November 21 [+] [!]


Good God you are Full Of It. You seem to be under the impression that you are an Artist who is capable of understanding things in a way mere mortals struggle to, and as such these lesser beings ingest drugs to achieve your state of indescribable "high" reality.

I would wager you are rather ignorant of the creative process of those other than yourself, for it's not a coincidence that Dionysos is the god of the vine and the God celebrated for allowing for the creation of art--nor is it a coincidence that up through the period of romanticism he was praised by the vast majority of poets for, quite simply, getting them drunk and opening up their minds. I could go into a long list of poets who have used alcohol, opium, tobacco, etc. in an effort to release the chains of self-awareness and write freely. These are poets who are generally deemed canonic and who are widely read as the geniuses of their time. Baudelaire and Rimbaud come immediately to mind, but you can fill in the rest on your own.

What's my point? What may work for you does not work for everyone, and it's incredibly selfish and short-sighted--surprisingly short-sighted for one claiming to be an Artist with a capital A--for you to take your experience and claim it holds for everyone else on the planet. Historically, artists use intoxicants to access their third eye, and this holds true today. There are countless poems on the subject of wine and its grandeur--or does alcohol not classify into your narrow definition of drugs?

Lastly, you really have no basis to judge. It's pretty obvious you've never done shrooms--and who knows as to the other psychedelics, weed being a soft and easy example--so your equating it with painting is absolutely useless. You can't imagine an experience you've never had, so keep sitting atop your moral high ground and judging people and activities you Do Not Understand.
posted by nonmerci at 4:25 AM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Those polka-dotted mushrooms, Amanita Muscaria, are dangerous. Yes, they will get you high. But too much will kill you. They do grow all over Michigan's UP. Their size is in no way uniform, I've seen them as big as 10" across. Unless you seriously know how to determine dose, please, don't mess with them.
posted by Goofyy at 5:27 AM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Why is just living the human experience not enough?

Seeing as the use of opioids, alcohol and cannabinoids go back as far as human history records, and a civilisation has yet to be found without some way of achieving intoxication, and most have some kind of hallucinogen, I'd say they pretty much were part of the the human experience. A part you appear to be missing out on, except for liberal libations of the "just say no" kool-aid.

Psychedelics are neither a window into ultimate meaning nor a harmless party drug.

Word. I may have done it lots and lots years ago - experimenting with amounts and combinations, solo and group (Of course I may not have and am only saying this to appear hip, he denied plausibly), but now I'm older I just don't have the inclination to hunt them down. Meatbomb makes a fascinating point, however.
posted by Sparx at 5:27 AM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Isn't smoking angel dust until you're trying to eat the eyeballs out of a cop's face part of living the human experience, too?
posted by The Straightener at 6:27 AM on November 22, 2007


The Straightener, it may be, but one would advise to avoid that specific experience on purely utilitarian grounds, rather than one's metaphysical inclinations.
posted by daksya at 6:44 AM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


The next time someone tells me they are "high on life" I'm staging an intervention.

If you are going to be all blissful and content you better have an excuse, such as some heavy duty chemicals floating around in your bloodstream.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 7:25 AM on November 22, 2007 [4 favorites]


Bah, Goofyy - poppycock. They will cause pretty severe stomach cramping, this is true, and taking full advantage of the hallucinogenic properties usually requires some amount of pee-drinking, but you won't die. Maybe if you ate pounds of them, but if you over-dose you'll probably just puke a lot and feel nasty for a day. Fly Agar grows all over the place, and there are certain regional differences (it has been postulated that the species native to Siberia gave rise to the transition from dynamism to anthropomorphic faith systems).
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:17 AM on November 22, 2007


You have to go screwing with your brain chemistry and do so to do stupid shit like watch a movie frame by frame or shave the cat or whatever. Wheee.

Please allow me to try and explain it.

Going into the forest and walking around = Yay! Nature is cool!

Going into the forest on shrooms and walking around = WOAH! NATURE IS FUCKING RAD!
posted by Totally Zanzibarin' Ya at 9:22 AM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


I always thought I'd like to try mushrooms some time, but then I figured out that I was too old to be trying new drugs.

Plus I'm kind of afraid they would send me from half-crazy all the way round the bend.
posted by sugarfish at 10:32 AM on November 22, 2007


My friend Chris and I went into the forest and found the song "Treefingers" by radiohead. Then, we had a 4-hour conversation with it, while throwing walnuts at each other.
posted by tehloki at 10:57 AM on November 22, 2007


I always thought I'd like to try mushrooms some time, but then I figured out that I was too old to be trying new drugs.

I am one who is prone to not enjoying mushroom trips (I get too sad about things), but most are very gentle, regardless. Learning the right dosage is key. I wouldn't worry to much about going round the bend. This side of the bend is overrated.

You can also skip straight to level 5 with a few tabs of LSD. A much better deal, imo, but usually more of a time commitment.

Why is just living the human experience not enough?

Why does anything evolve? Humans will not be humans forever, ya know.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:25 AM on November 22, 2007


The next time someone tells me they are "high on life" I'm staging an intervention.

Guy I know used to have as his sig: "I used to get high on life, till I found out it was cut with idiots".

Some more trip reports.

The Straightener: maybe not that particular experience, but I'd say that negative experiences can be interesting and valuable, too. One can always try to learn from them.
posted by Infinite Jest at 11:37 AM on November 22, 2007 [2 favorites]


are mushrooms/psychedelics a crutch? in the same way that an airplane is a crutch. (i was going to compare it to an automobile, but decided that's too mundane in usage.)

i mean, why fly? there's no reason to go so fast to somewhere far away. there's plenty to deal with right where you are. and there are so many other ways to get around. we don't *need* to fly, and really, goddamnit, isn't it kinda crazy to go swooping around in the ether? you could die that way! people do all the time!

and some people use airplanes to do some pretty stupid shit. they don't know how to use the things properly and crash. some people use them as ego-strokers and a way to show off their wealth. to make themselves appear more "cool" than others. and some use them while committing horrible crimes, like bombing people and terrorizing them. it's just not like the old days, when only experts flew and were expanding scientific knowledge.

it's too bad that we all know people who misuse airplanes, but you won't see us not using them anytime soon, unless we run out of the resources to make them go.

shrooms are a tool. a way to get somewhere when you only have an afternoon to get there. some people don't know why they're going, and don't know what to do with themselves when they get there. some act like insufferable tourists. but some research into the destination, maybe a tour guide if you need one--these are good ways to travel.

just because we run into occasional vagabonds who have lost their way while traveling doesn't mean we don't want to go to Shangri-la.
posted by RedEmma at 12:15 PM on November 22, 2007 [5 favorites]


I always thought I'd like to try mushrooms some time, but then I figured out that I was too old to be trying new drugs.

I'm really sorry to hear it, sugarfish. I don't think anyone is ever too old to find out new things and to grow as a person. Too old to find out about the infinite love energy that binds us all with God? Too old to learn that walls and carpets are living breathing entities? Too old to learn that you are a timeless part of the cosmos? Bah, poppycock. Get yourself to Amsterdam, it's never too late.

When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die. - Lillian Smith
posted by Meatbomb at 12:36 PM on November 22, 2007


by The Straightener: Isn't smoking angel dust until you're trying to eat the eyeballs out of a cop's face part of living the human experience, too?

Expressing a subconscious desire?
posted by augustweed at 2:29 PM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


So how does one go about getting shrooms or LSD or such?
posted by five fresh fish at 5:02 PM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


NARC
posted by dhammond at 5:18 PM on November 22, 2007


five fresh fish: you simply have to make some friends who are into this sort of thing before you even consider doing it. Here are some reasons:

- It's really, really hard to come across psychedelics in everyday life nowadays. It's not the 60's anymore. You have to know people.

- It's quite a good idea to have an experienced tripper along with you as a sitter and a guide. You know, in case you get to level 5 and you were only aiming for level 2.

- It's wonderful to have somebody to share the experience with, and personally, I don't enjoy the weird looks when I tell one of my straight friends/roommates/coworkers/whatever how I saw eternal 8-dimensional essence bathing my limbs when I ate those shrooms

So basically the short answer is... hang out around the right people, and they'll find you.
posted by tehloki at 11:09 PM on November 22, 2007


I was actually pretty surprised by how nobody in the regular pot chain would touch shrooms when it came to supplying somebody. Very fearful of getting caught. So kind of seconding what tehloki says. You probably want to find someone who has an in. Discreet inquiries will probably not yield any, er, fruit.

You know, in case you get to level 5 and you were only aiming for level 2.

Heh. I made that crack about level 5 at the start of the thread, so I guess I'll have my Personal Metafilter Moment and say that one night in Holland I was aiming for what this site might consider a 3, but due to a few factors, I overshot that mark by quite a bit. And was so very, very alone. One thing this site's level definitions don't seem to touch is time distortion. Well everything and I do mean everything goes bye-bye, and I'm left with: a) no sense of time whatseover, and b) the distinct impression that I had dreamed my entire life. That was a long night. About a thousand years by my estimation. By the time morning broke and I was sensing things again, I was deliriously grateful to climb into my bed of gently writhing snakes and call it a night.

Also: tehloki! I thought you were kind of an urban myth. Nice to see you.
posted by dreamsign at 12:03 AM on November 23, 2007


i think the time distortion thing is why i've never wanted to do acid more than the one time i did in college. i mean, if 5-7 hours *feels like forever*, then why spend 12?
posted by RedEmma at 11:36 AM on November 23, 2007


- It's really, really hard to come across psychedelics in everyday life nowadays. It's not the 60's anymore. You have to know people.

Again, bullshit. Almost all the mushroom trips I've gone on used mushrooms I grew myself, with spores I purchased over the internet with a credit card -- all legally (as far as I know). I had to wait a few months months before the cultures were 'ready', though.

I did "know" people who, who did the same thing, but I did everything myself, and assuming nothing changed (this was about 2 or 3 years ago) I could do it again, and so could anyone in this thread, at least those in the US (except a few states)
posted by delmoi at 4:14 PM on November 23, 2007


Can a person who steadfastedly refuses to explore all the capacities and dimensions of the brain's perceptions really call himself an artist?
posted by five fresh fish at 5:52 PM on November 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


Let's not raise the word above what it needs to be. I can finger paint and be an artist.

Of course, my finger painting is sublime.
posted by dreamsign at 9:12 PM on November 23, 2007


Especially when high. Why are they called fingers? Why not just fings? And look, the fingerprints in the paint and the whorls of your strokes, why, it's like fractal, man!
posted by five fresh fish at 11:32 PM on November 23, 2007


delmoi: Growing your own psylocibin mushrooms isn't really an option for people who have no idea where to buy the ingredients, let alone those which don't have a reasonable environment in which to grow them. Think of families with kids. As a side note, my friends and I have tried to do this multiple times, and have had only one minor success. The whole setup seems to get contaminated by bacteria and mold every time.

What I meant by my statement is that you're not going to be standing on a street corner and have somebody coming up to you saying "Wanna buy some mushrooms, dude?". It's never happened to me, or anybody I know, for that matter. I've always gotten them by either seeking them out via established channels (friends of friends, etc), or by having a friend who was into them purchasing a large amount and wanting to share.
posted by tehloki at 1:18 AM on November 24, 2007


Especially when high. Why are they called fingers? Why not just fings? And look, the fingerprints in the paint and the whorls of your strokes, why, it's like fractal, man!

Dude, you have no idea. Seriously. That's so not it at all.

(Besides, the proper quote is, "Why are they called fingers? I've never seen 'em fing.")
posted by Reggie Digest at 3:42 AM on November 24, 2007


Apologies for the misquote. As for "That's so not it," that's the funny. It's the ridiculous made-for-TV stereotype.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:33 AM on November 24, 2007


Well, no, that's the (actually quite accurate) stereotype for potheads. What I meant to convey is that there's a big, big difference between the respective effects of pot and shrooms which you do not appear to understand.
posted by Reggie Digest at 10:17 AM on November 24, 2007


Ah, I see. It's not so much as not understanding as it was that I was referring to being stoned. Feel free to contribute a stereotypical shroom funny.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:07 PM on November 24, 2007


delmoi: Growing your own psylocibin mushrooms isn't really an option for people who have no idea where to buy the ingredients, let alone those which don't have a reasonable environment in which to grow them.

First of all, I already told you where to buy 'em. Second of all all you need is a warm place to store the containers for a few months, and then a bin with some light.

Think of families with kids.

A lot of people grow non-psychedelic mushrooms, I wouldn't want kids getting into them. All you need is one closet that locks, though. They don't need much care, just water them a couple of times a day while they are fruting.

As a side note, my friends and I have tried to do this multiple times, and have had only one minor success. The whole setup seems to get contaminated by bacteria and mold every time.

Hmm, I tried two different strains when I ordered, one was Psilocybe mexicana and one was cubensis. The cubensis basically failed, but I think the cultures may have been to small. The mexicana was super awesome, though. There was only a little bit of mold on the cubensis, long after teh mexicana fruited a couple of times.

Anyway, to say that it's 'very hard' to get ahold of mushrooms is totally false, in my experience.
posted by delmoi at 11:58 PM on November 24, 2007


Anyway, to say that it's 'very hard' to get ahold of mushrooms is totally false, in my experience.

Never thought of the self-growing thing, but as I noted before, "seeking out established channels" seems to magnificently fail, at least in certain places, even when the go-between is a good friend known by all involved. It may depend on local laws just how paranoid people can get over this.

What I meant to convey is that there's a big, big difference between the respective effects of pot and shrooms which you do not appear to understand.

This same friend had cut out pics from some magazine of ten people on various substances, with guests to the house at some point during their stay invited to try to name what each was on. An interesting exercise.

Me: 6/10, but I was young.
posted by dreamsign at 6:29 PM on November 25, 2007


delmoi: I even have access to "established channels", and I still have to say that you have simply had more than a bit of luck in the mushroom area. Mushroom deals fall through with surprising regularity for me.
posted by tehloki at 10:54 PM on November 26, 2007


As a side note, my friends and I have tried to do this multiple times, and have had only one minor success. The whole setup seems to get contaminated by bacteria and mold every time.

PFTek is pretty hard to fuck up, delmoi seems to illustrate that well enough.

Funny that he'd bother to grow them up there, Ames/Iowa City are the hippie vectors of IA. Good on him though, it's a great experience to have just like plotting and maintaining a garden.

Be sure you have at least a dozen beer and a couple of doobies on hand...

The only bad trip I ever had was alone, when I was drunk enough to decide it would be a great idea to eat a gram for each beer I had consumed... 7 grams and 20 minutes later...

Also, everyone who complains about the taste - make some tea! Any coffee grinder will work, throw in your material and powder it, add it to your steeping tea and let sit for 10-15 minutes. I like something citrus like a Lemon Zinger - add some honey! You'll come up smoother (especially as a group) nobody will have problems with stomach cramps, naseau or gas later on in the evening and you don't have to endure slugging down a wad of slimy, macerated fungus. Everybody wins!

Heat will not destroy the actives, this is constantly debated on the Shroomery but the fact is you can basically boil the powder for 30 minutes before you even add the tea to steep and nothing will change.

How did I miss this thread? Oh... right
posted by prostyle at 7:00 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


Bah, real men drink Dextromethorphan.

Woops, sorry I missed this earlier, I meant to address it.

No no no a million times no. I don't care how much you want to trip, and how hard it is for you to find anything worthwile, but DXM is not and never will be analogous as it's a dissociative. Cheap PCP, as if that's an even remotely plausible distinction. If you are stupid enough to drink a whole bottle that also contains Guaifenesin you will hemorrhage and die, blood pouring out of your nasal cavity. If you want you can extract the actives using Naptha, Ammonia and Citric Acid you can slug down a shot of it the size of a wad of phlegm... but I wouldn't recommend it unless you feel like poisoning yourself with the impurities that are sure to carry over through the "ziploc bags and coffee filters" or whatever other half baked pseudo crack lab BS you can concoct.

If you people think Shrooms taste bad, you need to see someone regurgitate a full bottle of Robo like a fire hydrant and you'll think twice.

I only say this because the few times I've seen people ingest this substance, that was their train of logic. "I can't find anything else, all these people on the internet have done it, what's the problem?"
posted by prostyle at 7:43 AM on November 30, 2007


I too saw the DXM reference earlier, and choose to ignore it at the time, but your 1930s-style scare campaign there made me feel compelled to comment, prostyle.

I am a responsible grown-up now and haven't touched the stuff for many years, but in my younger days, I went through a period of several years with a crowd who very regularly did D (as we called it). We started out drinking the smaller bottles but later on, it was not unusual to drink two large bottles in a go. We also eventually figured out how to extract it and shrink it down into capsule form, as you suggested.

Yes, it's not a great taste. We would simply drink it straight (waiting a few hours after eating, of course), and then, in my experience, you could expect about a half hour of your stomach feeling pretty bad. I'd usually lie down in a dark room for this period & I never threw up once despite doing this drug many, many, many times.

After this half hour or so, we would experience highs very different from LSD or magic mushrooms. All I can say on that score is that it was amazing stuff; I remember one time doing D & then smoking hash, I was (painlessly) enveloped in flame for a good hour or so. Just walking around, talking to people while I was on fire. Good times.

Eventually it stopped working for me, no matter how much I took. So of course I stopped. Some of that crowd went on to harder club drugs & got into meth eventually. And BTW we certainly never did it b/c we couldn't find anything else. It was just what we liked to do best. No one died from DXM in my crowd, no one ended up in the hospital even; I have heard of other people who were not so lucky.

And yes, I am familiar with DJ Screw, who apparently died from DXM (or codeine or meth or a heart attack, it depends what you read). Perhaps mixing it with soda pop allows to take more than your body can handle, I don't know. I am not a doctor, and don't recommend DXM to anyone. Like I said, I just ignored the reference initially & figured this was all better left unsaid. But I figured a little balance on this score was necessary after your post. As always, YMMV.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:44 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


...your 1930s-style scare campaign...

Quote something I said that is untrue, and I will concede to your assessment.

I wouldn't feel compelled to have made the comment in the first place had I not been witness to some fantastic events. Namely watching my best friend dose on dex and go over the edge into full blown schizophrenia, exactly one year before he blew his own head off with a shotgun.

YMMV, indeed.
posted by prostyle at 11:09 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


Well prostyle, I can quote you as describing DXM as, "cheap PCP...pseudo crack". You also state that anyone drinking a whole bottle which contains Guaifenesin will die; I followed your link and read the following:

(Guaifenesin) is sold as pills or syrups under several brand names such as Guai-Aid, GuaiLife, Ethex 208, Humibid, Mucinex, and Robitussin.

Now I can tell you for a fact I've drank two large bottles of Robitussin at one sitting with no ill effects beyond which I already described. This would have been in the 1990s. Possibly Guaifenesin has been added to the syrup since I drank it, possibly it's been reduced. I don't know.

I am truly sorry to hear about your friend. As I imagine you're aware, many psychedelics are known to potentially trigger latent schizophrenia. Is DMX use beyond that dictated on the bottle potentially dangerous? Undoubtedly. Is it likely to put a person in the grave, as you've now twice suggested? Based on my experience, no, it's not.
posted by stinkycheese at 12:48 PM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


Well prostyle, I can quote you as describing DXM as, "cheap PCP...pseudo crack"

You should have quoted my entire sentence, although it's completely convenient to forgo the modifier "as if that's an even remotely plausible distinction" and skip to the last part of my paragraph that describes the extraction methodology and compares it to "whatever other half baked pseudo crack lab BS you can concoct."

"Cheap" is the implausible distinction in regards to PCP, because a prized or expensive disassociative hallucinogen does not exist in my mind. DXM, PCP, Ketamine are all in the disassociative hallucinogen family so I do not feel the comparison to "cheap pcp" is sleight of hand - especially on a comparable scale of Anslinger's dog and pony show of the 30's and onwards. Absolute hyperbole on your behalf.

...is it likely to put a person in the grave, as you've now twice suggested? Based on my experience, no, it's not.

I'd be willing to bet money that the hospitalization rate of DXM versus any other recreational hallucinogen is incredibly skewed. Law enforcement has noted sporadic patterns of its usage throughout the last two decades, there are pockets of this abusive behavior that spring up around groups who discover its effects but not its detriments. Then one of their friends is an innocent casualty, the unlucky one.

One is that about 7% of all Caucasians (the rate varies with other ethnic groups) have a genetic mutation known as CYP2D6 deficiency. This is a liver enzyme that is critical in metabolizing DXM. It turns out if you are one of the unlucky 1 in 14 or so that have this mutation, DXM at recreational doses will likely be an unpleasant, psychotic nightmare.

The first and only time I consumed this substance, I hallucinated for 18 hours straight. Turns out I was unlucky. Do you know what it feels like to look at your tripmates, two hours after they have come down and your eyes are still wide as dinner plates, with no explanation in sight?

Unless you are on an MAOI this could never happen to you with mushrooms, and even then the level of your plateau would seem to scale, not the time it took for the narcotic to be metabolized by your liver.

For another thing there's the expectorants and other additives in the various formulations of the OTC medication that contribute in many fantastic ways to cerebral hemorrhaging, which is often the impetus for hospitalization if psychosis has not brought them there. I listed one of those, there are at least two or three other common additives that contribute in this fashion to a similar end result.

Look, the plural of anecdote is not data and that is true for both of our stories, however opposing they may be. The reason I wanted to address this topic was comments that were in the vein of curious but perplexed, because they have no source for mushrooms.

I find it to be remarkably inappropriate the way that comment was composed, and then favorited. I can only presume the authors intentions, but any way you slice it I wasn't liking it. That's entirely tangential, but it was my immediate emotional response.

Anyone can walk down to a Walgreens/CVS and buy a full bottle of Robo for $12, and all it takes is enough curiosity to get you to that point. I apologize if you feel as if my attitude is a little too crusader like for your tastes, but I honestly have enough trouble living with myself every day after seeing what I have. I would not want anyone else to ever experience anything like that, especially under the misguided notion that all hallucinogens are the same blank slate. My comments on this topic are only my base instincts to try and help other people avoid disaster, because I couldn't help my friend, and I'll never be able to... I'm sorry in so many ways, and this is my only penance.
posted by prostyle at 2:34 PM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


My best experience on shrooms were outside, warm weather and sun. My first experience, in a double bed with two guys and another girl in a cold room in Toronto on a freezing January, not so great.

I haven't done D (I always worried about the damage to my stomach lining) but I have been around a lot of people who have chugged bottles dozens of times and I have never seen any bad effects from it. I can respect that you had a really bad experience from D prostyle, but you really are making it seem like the worst drug ever when there are other contenders out there (meth comes to mind but I know people that have overcome their addictions to happy lives). Horrific as losing your friend is, schizophrenia (drug induced or not) does not always equal sucide. The regrets after suicide are always the hardest. My sympathies.
posted by saucysault at 3:01 PM on December 1, 2007


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