infectedmushroom
Bluelighter
Substance:
Psilocybe Galindoi (truffles)
Dose:
5g (roughly 2.5g dried mushroom equivalent)
Setting:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The day began as any tourists day should with a spliff. It was myself, and my friend who I’ll call L. We'd been travelling through southern and eastern Africa together for the past six months and that in itself was a trip; we split briefly, me going to London for two weeks and his good self going to Egypt. Our reunion happened as a fluke; I was a tired, bleary eyed clueless backpacker straight off the plane who struggled to find the right way out of Centraal station. I spotted L literally across the street who had come to search for me as I was an hour later than expected.
So - after settling in for a few days and experiencing the mind blowing cannabis the place is famed for, we decided the itinerary for this particular day would be the famous Amsterdam truffle. I should note that my experience with psilocybin extends to a few moderate dose experiences with freshly picked golden tops; and even from them I knew I had only begun to scratch the surface of the deep wonderful world of psychedelics. I was very keen to take truffles not only as a sort of must-do but also because I love psychedelic substances.
We visited a modern looking smart shop and spoke openly with the shopkeeper about our past with psychedelics and our goals for the trip, who advised that "galindoi" would be best for a strong yet not unnerving introspective trip. "Sounds like my cup of tea," I thought. The recommendation was to split a 20g box, (10g) each, which would roughly equal 4g regular mushrooms each. Now to me, this sounded a little much. My golden top trips where in the range of 2-3g, and I was nowhere near comfortable or ready to move out of that range. I'm a purposefully slow climber when it comes to certain drugs; psychedelics are one of them.
So we purchased the box of brown, slightly blue bruised delicacies and made our way to Vondelpark. It was a blue skied, mild day - t-shirt weather - and we found a small spot of grass in front of a large row of bushes away from the busy central lake to set up a little picnic and watch the people mingle by the waters. (It's bizarre coming from Australia to see Europeans treat parks like beaches.
)
L and I popped open the box and enthusiastically began to smell, squeeze and tasted the little rocks. I began casually munching my portion, not wanting to eat the whole dose (10g) in one go but rather taking only 5g and waiting for the effects. L thought, in his classic way, "Why not?" and munched his 10g rather quickly. I found the whole ritual of mushroom followed by dark chocolate (apparently it aids absorption) pleasurable and relaxing. We didn't speak too much during that time, simply taking in the peacefulness of the park on a tranquil Sunday afternoon.
It should be noted I spent the majority of the day rather stoned. Now, I know travel books always say, "Be careful of that Weed in Amsterdam - it may be a little stronger than what your used to at home!" I say; fuck that. It is far and away the most potent, mind bending cannabis I’ve ever smoked. As someone who had been smoking clean earth grown African ganja multiple times a day for almost 6 months, I thought I’d have some sort of tolerance. Wrong! I began my trip already quite psychedelically minded, if that makes sense.
The first effect that took place was a light mood lift. Nothing spectacular or euphoric by any means, but definitely as if a mental weight had suddenly been lifted. What then took hold was a release of self awareness - I knew physically and mentally I was sound and present, but I was not negatively self-conscious of it. This began to build. Through a quiet focusing of the mind (sort of meditation, which felt easy) I felt a beautiful sense of presence. No thoughts of the past or future entered my consciousness. I was simply there; simply existing in the moment – disconnected by previous mistakes and negativities or future worries and troubles. The regular mental chatter I’m sure we all experience - money, self image, what other people think of us etc. - more or less disappeared. I existed in pure blissful presence, simply enjoying the warm sun on my face and the presence of an old mate.
An interesting part of the trip came about in the form of multiple (strangely enough) urination breaks. Both L and I needed to piss incessantly. The park was busy; families, couples, anyone and everyone was out enjoying the day. So finding a bathroom and communicating with the public at first presented an interesting challenge. It was clear L was tripping quite hard and was un-enthused to interact with the general public. Something in me said "you will have no challenge communicating clearly with anyone, as long as you are present and clear." I could have engaged anyone in a conversation; I smiled at all who passed almost hoping for pleasantries and expecting a chat at any point. It was a wonderful sense of ease and relaxation. I have to say, the Dutch (or at least Dutch Amsterdam residents) are extremely patient open minded people. It was such a pleasure knowing it was ok and accepted I was tripping (if people did get the sense I was on something funny.) However, I carried myself normally and had no trouble conquering what at first seemed like a complicated task.
The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging in the sun, feeling it’s rays on my face and staring into the cloudless blue sky; listening to children play and adults casually socialize; listening to slow dub step and basically talking shit and mucking around with my old mate L. The afternoon gelled into one long break from the mental noise and irrelevant nonsense which impinges on our happiness every day.
We made the half hour walk back to our hostel in one piece with the setting sun on our backs. Of course we had to roll up a doobie to come down from the experience and relax. A nice Indica and Juliper capped off the night.
The experience was another small notch in I hope to be an ever expanding belt into psychedelics. Whilst by no means intense or life changing, and I can't speak for L who definitely had an intense experience on 10g, it has made me more comfortable to perhaps try a large dose at some point in the future or perhaps move onto higher level psychedelics like LSD. It seems psychedelics power to draw one’s mind completely to the present could serve as a powerful tool for humankind itself.
Thanks for reading.
-infected
Psilocybe Galindoi (truffles)
Dose:
5g (roughly 2.5g dried mushroom equivalent)
Setting:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The day began as any tourists day should with a spliff. It was myself, and my friend who I’ll call L. We'd been travelling through southern and eastern Africa together for the past six months and that in itself was a trip; we split briefly, me going to London for two weeks and his good self going to Egypt. Our reunion happened as a fluke; I was a tired, bleary eyed clueless backpacker straight off the plane who struggled to find the right way out of Centraal station. I spotted L literally across the street who had come to search for me as I was an hour later than expected.
So - after settling in for a few days and experiencing the mind blowing cannabis the place is famed for, we decided the itinerary for this particular day would be the famous Amsterdam truffle. I should note that my experience with psilocybin extends to a few moderate dose experiences with freshly picked golden tops; and even from them I knew I had only begun to scratch the surface of the deep wonderful world of psychedelics. I was very keen to take truffles not only as a sort of must-do but also because I love psychedelic substances.
We visited a modern looking smart shop and spoke openly with the shopkeeper about our past with psychedelics and our goals for the trip, who advised that "galindoi" would be best for a strong yet not unnerving introspective trip. "Sounds like my cup of tea," I thought. The recommendation was to split a 20g box, (10g) each, which would roughly equal 4g regular mushrooms each. Now to me, this sounded a little much. My golden top trips where in the range of 2-3g, and I was nowhere near comfortable or ready to move out of that range. I'm a purposefully slow climber when it comes to certain drugs; psychedelics are one of them.
So we purchased the box of brown, slightly blue bruised delicacies and made our way to Vondelpark. It was a blue skied, mild day - t-shirt weather - and we found a small spot of grass in front of a large row of bushes away from the busy central lake to set up a little picnic and watch the people mingle by the waters. (It's bizarre coming from Australia to see Europeans treat parks like beaches.
) L and I popped open the box and enthusiastically began to smell, squeeze and tasted the little rocks. I began casually munching my portion, not wanting to eat the whole dose (10g) in one go but rather taking only 5g and waiting for the effects. L thought, in his classic way, "Why not?" and munched his 10g rather quickly. I found the whole ritual of mushroom followed by dark chocolate (apparently it aids absorption) pleasurable and relaxing. We didn't speak too much during that time, simply taking in the peacefulness of the park on a tranquil Sunday afternoon.
It should be noted I spent the majority of the day rather stoned. Now, I know travel books always say, "Be careful of that Weed in Amsterdam - it may be a little stronger than what your used to at home!" I say; fuck that. It is far and away the most potent, mind bending cannabis I’ve ever smoked. As someone who had been smoking clean earth grown African ganja multiple times a day for almost 6 months, I thought I’d have some sort of tolerance. Wrong! I began my trip already quite psychedelically minded, if that makes sense.
The first effect that took place was a light mood lift. Nothing spectacular or euphoric by any means, but definitely as if a mental weight had suddenly been lifted. What then took hold was a release of self awareness - I knew physically and mentally I was sound and present, but I was not negatively self-conscious of it. This began to build. Through a quiet focusing of the mind (sort of meditation, which felt easy) I felt a beautiful sense of presence. No thoughts of the past or future entered my consciousness. I was simply there; simply existing in the moment – disconnected by previous mistakes and negativities or future worries and troubles. The regular mental chatter I’m sure we all experience - money, self image, what other people think of us etc. - more or less disappeared. I existed in pure blissful presence, simply enjoying the warm sun on my face and the presence of an old mate.
An interesting part of the trip came about in the form of multiple (strangely enough) urination breaks. Both L and I needed to piss incessantly. The park was busy; families, couples, anyone and everyone was out enjoying the day. So finding a bathroom and communicating with the public at first presented an interesting challenge. It was clear L was tripping quite hard and was un-enthused to interact with the general public. Something in me said "you will have no challenge communicating clearly with anyone, as long as you are present and clear." I could have engaged anyone in a conversation; I smiled at all who passed almost hoping for pleasantries and expecting a chat at any point. It was a wonderful sense of ease and relaxation. I have to say, the Dutch (or at least Dutch Amsterdam residents) are extremely patient open minded people. It was such a pleasure knowing it was ok and accepted I was tripping (if people did get the sense I was on something funny.) However, I carried myself normally and had no trouble conquering what at first seemed like a complicated task.
The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging in the sun, feeling it’s rays on my face and staring into the cloudless blue sky; listening to children play and adults casually socialize; listening to slow dub step and basically talking shit and mucking around with my old mate L. The afternoon gelled into one long break from the mental noise and irrelevant nonsense which impinges on our happiness every day.
We made the half hour walk back to our hostel in one piece with the setting sun on our backs. Of course we had to roll up a doobie to come down from the experience and relax. A nice Indica and Juliper capped off the night.
The experience was another small notch in I hope to be an ever expanding belt into psychedelics. Whilst by no means intense or life changing, and I can't speak for L who definitely had an intense experience on 10g, it has made me more comfortable to perhaps try a large dose at some point in the future or perhaps move onto higher level psychedelics like LSD. It seems psychedelics power to draw one’s mind completely to the present could serve as a powerful tool for humankind itself.
Thanks for reading.
-infected
