A Psychedelic Experience

my first psychedelic trip. an amazing experience.

I already knew this day would drastically alter my perceptions of the world around me. I had heard so much about it; how the mundane becomes the sacred, how reality becomes... hyperreality. How the world becomes limitless in both its complexity and its simplicity. How humanity becomes so miniscule in comparison to the vast expanses of unknown Universe; how yet both become so intimately connected, on a physical and on a spiritual level. I only came to understand these ideas from this one day: I had heard so much about it, yet hearing is not exactly understanding. And I wanted to understand. So I chose to take the plunge and allow for my mind to take the most interesting and revealing journey of metaphysical discovery I had ever embarked upon - completely unknowingly, at the time. I never knew the true nature of what was going to happen - I had a beautiful, romanticised image of what I would see and what I would experience, yet this forethought was nowhere near to the idyllic journey I really experienced. Looking back at this day, it certainly bears fond memories of both enjoyment of the company of which I was in and of self-discovery that unfolded over the following few days.

                I left my house at roughly 2:45pm, guitar in my hand, and began the short walk down to a friend’s house. I arrived, and we instantly began in deep discussion of what the rest of the day, evening and night would entail for us both. I was perplexed at the vivid imagery he was using to describe his previous experiences doing this - this all the more increased my desire to begin immediately, yet we waited for more of our friends to arrive prior to beginning out of respect. A wise decision. They finally arrived, and we took the decision to take our tabs.

“See you on the other side”, a memorable quote from of the group.

And so the agonising wait began. Considering this was my first time, I was completely oblivious to the sheer length of the wait before any effects could be felt. However, a few hours later, everyone (myself included) certainly began feeling the effects and the trip had finally begun. The room we were in was equipped perfectly for the mindset we found ourselves entranced within; scores of psychedelic images scarred the walls with their hypnotic beauty and fluorescent lights glowed throughout the room, projecting a luscious, ambient aurora throughout this vastly transformed landscape. What was previously a normal room, albeit containing several psychedelic patterns on the walls, became a canvas of ever-changing kaleidoscopic serenity; a multitude of different colours that seemed exotic, to the point that they seemed unknown to me (and to mankind, at that moment) radiated throughout the room, with each object in view emanating a vivid, intensely coloured glow. The psychedelic patterns across each of the walls began to move and hypnotise us all - a collage of images within the affectionately named ‘snug’ in the room became more comparable to the macro-scale workings of the universe around us; they were interconnected, and functioned together in such remarkable harmony and cohesion. Its beauty was indescribable. So we sat - and basked in the utopia that had formed around us.

                As we reached the peak, five of us made the decision to extend our sensory stimulation beyond the house - to the world of the outdoors. We boldly traversed up the road for what seemed an eternity, yet was probably no more than five or so minutes in real time. We reached the top of the road and were met with the majestic view of a grand tree just ahead of us; we stood in silence, in awe of its visual excellence. A solitary lamppost stood next to it; just an ordinary lamppost. Yet after one of the group remarked of its bizarre spongy texture, we all just had to touch it. And so we stood stroking a lamppost, hysterically laughing at this discovery, for minutes. Enjoying the simple things in life, like we all should.

                We proceeded at a snail’s pace to a small, local supermarket. We entered, and the energy of the lights in contrast to the night’s darkness outside proved to be a sensory delicacy for us all. After persuasion, I bought a bottle of semi-skimmed milk. Another wise decision. We left our light-sanctuary behind and after several consecutive digressions regarding where to go or what to next, we made it our objective to reach the larger supermarket higher up in the village, something that one fellow tripper had stated “but we’ve never done that before... Oh my god, we should do it!” And so we did. We walked up the hill gradually: we stopped an immeasurable amount of times, digressing in our conversations or frequently forgetting and being reminded where we were going. A main road snaked its way up the hill alongside us, directing the way to our objective. To the observer, we must have looked truly bizarre: walking three metres forward, stopping, continuing, stopping again... three of us were carrying half-full mugs of milk, one of us had a random green hat and a pair of John Lennon-esque round glasses with purple lenses, and our host for the night was wearing a striped Vivienne Westwood coat that had apparently cost him £670... We certainly looked odd " but we soldiered on, undeterred, to our objective.

                And so we arrived at the supermarket... Words have not been invented that can describe the ecstasy we were feeling at that moment. The beauty of the intense lighting overhead in addition to the spectrum of colours on offer around us was genuinely overwhelming. This was sensory overload. It was a remarkable moment. We gathered in by the fruit aisle when one of our group stepped out into solitude - almost as if he was taking leadership of us all - turned to us; raised his arms slowly into the air above him; his palms opened up to the light above us... and his words, despite us hysterically laughing at this point, proved to capture the joy of the moment so perfectly and effortlessly. He simply looked up, and then towards us, and softly spoke: ‘this is it. This is what we all came for’. Never have two sentences had such a profound impact upon my mind in one moment than those two sentences, in that beautiful setting. Again, it was truly remarkable.

                However, the most amazing events were yet to unfold. We chose to continue our journey throughout the village to a vantage point where the aforementioned road could be viewed for miles amidst countless other towns and villages spread across the horizon, illuminated against the floral purple of the night sky. I decided it would be an intriguing addition to my experience at this point to take two of the three pills I had in my possession, to boost the peak we had already plateaued upon. We reached this vantage point; a solitary bench, perched upon a path dissecting a steep hillside. We sat in awe of the images unfolding before us. All of the colours of the night were beautifully intensified, to the point that it seemed as if the view of the horizon and its contents before us was nothing more than a two-dimensional piece of artwork, draped before us, to lust over. At which point, a voice broke from the tranquillity.

“I just feel... I just feel like I should just... Scream my lungs out, y’know?”

The unanimous response from the rest of us was "

“Yeah, man. Just do it. Why not”.

And so he rocked back and forth, his arms cradling a perfectly visible, tangible energy, stood, preparing his almighty scream. With each rock backward and forward, a smaller scream lurched out of his body, each one gradually increasing in both volume and intensity throughout this tense build-up.

“Argh... Arrrgh... Arrrrrrgh...”

And finally...

“ARRRRRRGH!”

We were laughing uncontrollably at the sight. He repeated it several times. Another of my friends, the host, then joined him. It was a bizarre sight - the energy they built up into each individual scream could be seen reverberating across the horizon, carried by a mysterious green force. I had never seen anything so strange, yet so amazing. I commented that just hearing these screams bellowing across the valley was truly empowering; not just for those participating in the screaming, but for us all. In a way, for humanity. We were unearthing and reliving our most primal and fundamental human desires " and it was magnificent. One of us commented the houses nearby were most probably becoming quite disturbed by our ramblings - this was met with great laughter. So we chose to leave this sacred spot behind us.

“I mean look at us; quite literally screaming like a madman.”

“... Is that even a phrase? ‘Screaming like a mad man’?” [LAUGHTER]

“I don’t even know!”

                We returned back to the house shortly after. Returned back to the aesthetic beauty of our host’s room; returned back to our psychedelic enclave. It was heralded with great affection from us all. Back to the warmth and hypnotic serenity of the ‘snug’. We laid for hours, enjoying the images swirling and morphing into our surroundings. Occasionally I arose to play my guitar - each note, each chord... Indescribably amazing. Yet even better still - our host was a significantly talented pianist. Each note he played, each chord he played... I had never heard such a tranquil, yet emotional piece of music in my life. Each note was struck with such grace and majesty - it really resonated with me, and it matched the environment we were in so brilliantly. That piano performance was genuinely one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed. So intense.

                We continued to enjoy our individual psychological journeys for a while. The effects gradually wore off; yet I felt fulfilled. I felt as if I had achieved something I had always wanted to achieve. Yet I could not quite pinpoint what this achievement was; it took three or four days to truly understand and comprehend this, and I finally realised. It was an epiphany, of sorts. That experience had provided a gateway into the spiritual realm that I had never known to have existed within me before this night; I have never been religious or spiritual, yet in that night I had awoken. I had come to understand that there is a binding force in the universe that mankind, as of yet, cannot explain. Both science and religion have attempted to act a source of answers to fill this void in our understanding of reality; but there is something more. Something within is all, and within every particle of the universe. This experience gave me the opportunity to recognise this idea; a few more and maybe I will fully understand it.

To anyone contemplating trying this, my advice would be this:

Do it, and never look back.

You will experience things more amazing than you could ever imagine.