Hey MerryPrankster! After reading your horrifying report about your experience with Artane, I'd like to try to put into words what I experienced with this drug very many years ago. I was living in South Africa too at the time - the country where I was born and grew up.
It was a friday afternoon and my friend and I were visiting the guy who introduced me to weed and where we could smoke and listen to cool music we had never heard before. I was about 15 and my friend was even younger.
The guy we were visiting had often mentioned this 'Artane' word but had never told me about his experiences with it. While he was out of the room I suddenly saw a whole lot of the pills lying there somewhere, and on impulse I took a whole handful and gave my friend some too which she also swallowed.
I really don't remember how I got home but I do remember very well just how shocked my mother was about the 'state' I was in. She called a doctor who came around to our house and gave me some injection.
My mother had big things planned for that weekend. We were living in a town called Potchefstroom. We had been invited to a wedding which took place in Pretoria and right after the wedding we were to attend the opening of a brand new church in a town called Stilfontein. I still can't believe how my mother, who had been a nurse before, could insist on still going to these functions and take this by then totally 'out of it' child along with her and my stepdad.
After the injection I just lay in my bed and tossed and turned and don't remember much about how I was feeling. My mom kept looking in on me and at some stage decided to take me to her room, probably to keep a better eye on me. My stepdad was probably working night-shift about 30 kms away in a gold mine.
It was then, in moms bed, that I had my first serious hallucination! We were lying there in the dark when I suddenly saw a small pitch black figure next to the bed. It opened the bedside drawer of my stepdad and took out his gas pistol. I wasn't afraid. I jumped up and made my way after this little figure who had headed in the direction of balcony adjoining the bedroom. I had often heard about the 'Tokoloshe' and to my drugged out mind, the figure I had seen was him! It seemed to have gone right through the door. I ripped the door open wanting to catch it and to get the gun back. By then my mom was right behind me on the balcony, on the first floor of the house and pulled me back in. The little figure was gone and mom tried to get me settled back in bed. I must have fallen asleep then as I don't recall anything more happening in the night.
Next I can recall is that I was sitting in the bath tub, fascinated by the hot and cold water taps that looked like beautiful little tin soldiers. Suddenly I saw the mother of the guy who's Artane I had taken, sitting on the toilet and started talking to her! She just looked back at me and didn't say a word. My mom then came into the bathroom, probably to check on me and to get me to start getting ready for the trip to the wedding.
Next thing I remember is that we were in the car on the way to Pretoria. I kept 'dragging' on my fingers on an invisible cigarette! When I looked at my fingers and didn't see it, I was worried and looked all over for it. Then, suddenly, right out of nowhere, my friend who had also taken Artane, was sitting right there next to me on the back seat of the car. I was half amazed to see her and spoke to her. I asked my stepdad to stop the car because she didn't want to come with us and that she wanted to go home. By then she had just disappeared again.
I don't remember much about the wedding or the reception thereafter. Nor do I recall how we eventually got to the grand opening of the new church.
I remember sitting with my parents in the church, dragging on my imaginary cigarette again, and being shocked at myself for smoking in a church! I kept looking on the floor to see where I had dropped my smoke too.
The church choir had started singing and I really couldn't believe it! They were singing a song from the 'Jesus Christ - Superstar' musical! I nudged my mom and told her how weird that is to hear them singing SUCH a tune in the church - I knew it just wasn't the place for it.
Well, those are the 'highlights' of what I can recall. I don't know how we got home again or how I eventually got back to 'normal'. I often wonder what the people at the wedding and the ones in the church must have thought when they saw and heard me!
I never asked or spoke to my mom again about the whole thing and to this day I cannot recall ever having experienced anything like that weekend on any other drugs. I did some good and bad acid much later on when I got to Europe but never again did people or figures materialize/dematerialize.
The only thing I remember my friend telling me about her 'trip' is that she had gone home and had painted their whole garage orange!
All I can say too is: Please don't do it!!
