Message-ID: <184302Z09111993@anon.penet.fi> Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: an43543@anon.penet.fi (Graeme Carl) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 18:34:01 UTC Subject: EXPERIENCE: Level Definition and Intro Greetings a.d'ers, 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' Please comment on the above theories. I will be interested to hear your opinions and criticisms. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this series..... Read on: Graeme. +=======================================================================+ | The Past is but Memories,! Graeme Carl | | The Future but Dreams. ! Victoria Australia Earth (mostly) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi. ============================================================================= Message-ID: <192406Z09111993@anon.penet.fi> Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: an43543@anon.penet.fi (Graeme Carl) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 19:22:28 UTC Subject: EXPERIENCE: Level 2-3 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 , so I wont! !" 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. Graeme. +=======================================================================+ | The Past is but Memories,! Graeme Carl | | The Future but Dreams. ! Victoria Australia Earth (mostly) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi. ============================================================================= Message-ID: <200533Z09111993@anon.penet.fi> Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: an43543@anon.penet.fi (Graeme Carl) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 20:02:09 UTC Subject: EXPERIENCE: Level 3-4 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. Graeme Carl. +=======================================================================+ | The Past is but Memories,! Graeme Carl | | The Future but Dreams. ! Victoria Australia Earth (mostly) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi. ============================================================================= Message-ID: <200304Z09111993@anon.penet.fi> Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: an43543@anon.penet.fi (Graeme Carl) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 19:54:54 UTC Subject: EXPERIENCE: Level 4-5 (Read This!!) 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. Graeme Carl. +=======================================================================+ | The Past is but Memories,! Graeme Carl | | The Future but Dreams. ! Victoria Australia Earth (mostly) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.