Tripping balls at a Mad Decent block party
This is my account of a mushroom trip I took on July 28th, 2012. The original plan was for me and one of my friends (We will call him R) to go to a Mad Decent block party being held in my city, and I was going to be going on 7 grams of psilocybin mushrooms. Early on in the day however, plans changed and a couple other friends ended up coming along too (For simplicity, we will call them K and J).
T -2.00. At 5:30pm, we all met up at my place to relax, smoke some weed, and to give me time so that I could prepare my mushroom tea before heading down town. I cut open a couple Earl Grey tea bags to put the ground mushrooms in, leaving a little bit of the Earl Grey to help combat the awful taste of the mushrooms. While preparing my tea, R asked if he could also trip, so I divided up the rest of my mushrooms. Not having enough for the full 7 grams I originally intended to do, I ended up only making a 4 ½ gram tea for myself while R took 2 ½ grams. We prepared the tea, and put our respective concoctions into travel mugs to be consumed on the road.
T-0.00. At 7:30pm, we drink our tea on the subway. The tea is surprisingly not all that disgusting; it tasted like very mild earl grey tea with an after taste of cardboard and that strange mould that grows under your washroom sink. We ride out the rest of the subway in relative silence cracking the occasional joke or observation, though I still can’t help but feel a little nervous. As the train gets closer to our destination my stomach begins to clench and the tips of my fingers tingle, and it feels as if someone is pulling slightly at the hairs on the back of my neck. In less than twenty minutes we arrive downtown, and as we emerge from the subway we are greeted with a thick crowd, a heavy driving bass beat, and the smell of weed and cigarettes.
T+1.00. At 8:30pm, the mushrooms begin to hit hard and fast. We leave the downtown square where the block party is taking place so that K can go to the local liquor store to get some booze. R, J, and myself wander the mall while we wait for K to get his booze. We bump into some friends of R, though by this point I am far too high to introduce myself or pay attention to the conversation. The marble patterns on the floor begin to shift and breath and the straight lines that divide the floor into equal grids are now glimmering waves of silver and gold. It’s clear that just outside the mall something strange and wild is happening as despite most of the stores being closed, the mall is filled with young loiterers, most with bright neon stockings, colourful bead bracelets, and clothes that look like they would be more suited on the set of Rocky Horror.
T+2.00. At 9:30pm, after stopping in a park to smoke some weed and give K somewhere to drink, we go back to the block party just in time to catch Zeds Dead hit the stage. At this point, I am flying. The mass of people mixed with the music and the hectic atmosphere is overwhelming. The neon lights from the huge billboards and ads that surround the square shine impossibly bright, to the point where I feel as if I have to squint to look at them despite the fact that the sun had already set and I am wearing shades. I follow K, who at this point seems determined to make a push to the front. We get to the center of the crowd at which point I lose sight of K as he disappears into the mass of people in front of me. It’s almost impossible for me to pay attention to the music, the ads and billboards move and sway to the beat and the neon light screen seems to jump out like a 3-D movie. I hear bits and pieces of conversation around me, though because of the crowd it is difficult to tell exactly how far or close the voices are. One girl screams “Get your wobble on, bitches!” behind me and I can’t help but crack up laughing.
T+3.00. At 10:30pm, Zeds Dead are about half way through their set, and the energy is definitely a lot different than it was an hour ago. Mosh pits are breaking out, and there is a group of topless guys to our right who are all clearly rolling on MDMA. The music from the stage makes visible waves that look like smoke or light made of fractals that fly through the crowd. It’s difficult to tell what is simply lights reflecting off the mass of smoke coming from the crowd, and how much is just visuals from the mushrooms. I notice in front of me a group of kids that look no older than 13 or 14, and I can’t help but think “I am far too high to be around kids right now, isn’t it their bed time anyways? Where are their parents?” I may have said this out loud though as a couple of them turn around and give me strange looks before moving further along into the crowd. The end of the set is mostly heavy drum and bass and electro, and I try my best to ignore the breathing bill boards and keep my balance while I jump and dance, which is especially difficult as the ground is full of empty bottles, deflated beach balls, and other assorted junk. There are globs of gum on the ground all around the square, which makes me think a large portion of the crowd is rolling as gum is typically the go to way of combating lock jaw on MDMA, or maybe I am just really high and I imagined the chunks of gum on the floor, who knows.
T+4.00. At 11:30pm, Zeds Dead have finished their set after an encore performance of their White Satin remix and we wander the now mostly empty square to meet up with K. After a surprisingly short time we find K with an old friend from high school, who we will just call S for simplicity sake. We then go to a nearby park where we find a piano sitting in the open as part of some public art instalment. K plays some tunes on the piano as we sit down to smoke some more weed. The shrooms seem to slowly be wearing off, though I still feel strange and the body high is still going strong and the visuals are weak but still prevalent as the gravel on the ground shifts and moves slightly and looking up at the sky I see the stars vibrate. As we smoke we are approached by a guy who says he’s from Munich. He asks us if he can buy some weed off us, and as K looks through his bag for any weed he can spare, the guy tells us how he used to be depressed before leaving Munich and that his dad was an alcoholic. Though, I am far too distracted by the vibrating stars to give him much attention. After he gets his weed, he leaves us and we continue our smoking session. The weed definitely brings the high back. Standing up feels weird and I can’t feel my legs and as I pace around it feels more like I am floating than walking. There seems to be more stars in the sky, all of which are still vibrating. The guy from Munich returns shortly after leaving us, he approaches us slowly and he tells us he is a rapper, and would like to show us some of his verses. We go along with it, and as he begins to rap I discretely pull out my phone and begin to record the audio. K plays a simple melody on the piano while the guy from Munich raps over it. He is clearly very anxious and he stumbles, but we generally enjoyed it and we tell him so. He seemed pleased at the kind words, and then he thanked us and walked off for a second time. Shortly after this J packs his bag and says his goodbyes, leaving me with K, R, and S.
T+5.00. At 12:30am, we leave the park and walk towards china town to get some food and some cheap beer. As we walk, the effects of the mushrooms are weakened but still lingering. The visuals are almost all but gone, the starts still vibrate slightly and the reflective surfaces of the office buildings look as if they are made of some kind of liquid that expands and contracts the longer I stare at them. We end up going to a Vietnamese restaurant to get some pho, which is relieving as I had not eaten all day with the exception of some scrambled eggs and a coffee for breakfast. I burn my tongue on the hot tea and soup, though at this point I simply do not care. The food is far too delicious for me to notice that my tongue is on fire. I take short breaks from inhaling my wonton and noodle soup to look into the broth and watch as patterns and fractals form in the murky soup. We finish our food pretty quickly and we pay the bill and head out. Once outside, S says his goodbyes and goes his separate way, leaving me, K, and R to catch a bus back to my place.
T+5.30. At 2:00am, we arrive at my place to end off the night with more weed and some good old fashioned zombie killing in the form of Left 4 Dead 2. By this point I am coming down pretty hard from the mushrooms. The walls are still breathing a little bit, but apart from that all of the visuals are gone. By 3:00am both K and R leave my place, though I am still coming down and sleep seems impossible. The night seemed to have gone by so quickly, and I end the night by making a fresh cup of coffee and smoking one final bowl of weed while watching a couple episodes of Adventure Time before finally passing out.
