Tranced
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2003
- Messages
- 10,875
Psychedelic: my introduction
The year was 2002, Autumn in Britain. Having tried cannabis for the first time in the June of that year, I had started my foray into the world of drugs. Eager to explore consciousness the doses were high; the effects trippy. I used to get very, very high, and had no fear of doing so. A visual snow, or static, had appeared permanently in my vision, something induced by the cannabis, which I noticed I could see when it was dark.
In the September I tried ecstasy at a large trance event in my home city, as did two friends. It was at this event that we were introduced to what have now become known to me as poppers. The effects were as you'd expect; I was instantly substantially more fucked for about a minute or so, then wanted more as the effects resided. Exactly what I needed to supplement my first pills in a big arena. Afterwards, me and my two friends knew we needed more of whatever that stuff was. And so it came to be, that we found ourselves at a local head-shop, looking for this fabled 'instant more-fuckedness' substance. We knew that you inhaled it and, somehow, that it was legal, but that was all.
So anyway, there we are looking through the various legal substances on offer, when something caught our eye. Salvia Divinorum. It had hallucinogenic effects when smoked, apparently, and they lasted for a few minutes. For some reason we were convinced that this was the stuff we'd tried in the arena; "yeah salvia, that's the one, I'm sure of it!". This was the general muse as we convinced ourselves this was it.
And so it came to be that I was in possession of the most potent psychedelic on planet Earth. Salvia Divinorum. Of course, I had no idea. No idea at all. We actually found it amusing that something hallucinogenic could be legal, and severely doubted this could ever be the case.
Not soon after I was proven very, very wrong. Probably that very same night in fact. I always imagine now that where I bought this from wasn't a normal head-shop, but that it was more kind of like the shop where they buy the gremlins on Gremlins 2. It wasn't an ordinary shop; it sold special things, powerful things.
We were at the "bucket spot", the area where I smoked copious amounts of buckets (the smoking method known as a Gravity Bong in the US), with my fellow cannabis explorer and friend Stephen. The area was basically a forest at the edge of my home town, and this was the place where night after night, Stephen and I had began travelling further, and deeper into our minds.
The instructions for the Salvia Divinorum indicated that a very high temperature was required for the Salvia to be activated, and that bongs were generally ineffective. Always been the case! I knew that a bucket was a sure fire way of nailing a hit (if this stuff had anything to it at all) and so it was that one night in Autumn, three 16 year old's tried to get high off a 'legal high'.
After a few buckets, a strange mellow buzz took hold. It was nice and gentle and we assumed this was about as 'trippy' as things would get. A let down by all accounts; though at least it did something. Then, after a minute or so, Nass suddenly proclaimed that he thought he might be hallucinating. There were two long tree branches lying parallel to one another on the forest floor, and he declared that they might look like railway tracks. We all agreed, we were tripping! We could vaguely imagine that two tree branches lying parallel could maybe, just maybe, look like railway tracks. Is this it? Needless to say, both Stephen and Nass declared it as 'shit', and gave up. I didn't.
I smoked bucket after bucket, determined there was something more locked inside. There was.
BAM!! (haha, I've just laughed at myself for typing that)
Suddenly, my reality was no longer what it previously was. At all. This wasn't just 'wow errr I feel a bit different' style different, THIS WAS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT! My entire sense of perception was fucking totally fucking off the wall.
I was hit by this very, very powerful sense of deja-vu. I KNEW I'd been there before. It was like remembering that this was what dreaming was, but it wasn't dreaming; it was THERE.
The red visual snow I mentioned previously started assembling into something. It looked like a red x-ray like exoskeletal structure, weaving itself into something of which I have only ever been able to describe as a reality grid. Quite specifically it reeked of altered realities.
This advanced, x-ray like structure; the reality grid, it weaved itself piece by piece, bit by bit, into a cartoon duck on my friends head. I have always felt that the duck resembled Howard The Duck, a character I recognised from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (where the fuck did that come from?!), however, it was highly advanced, and as I recognised what it was, that it was this duck that I knew; made of this technological membrane, it winked at me. And it wasn't just any old wink, it was a 'knowing wink'. It was letting on that it knew something, it really KNEW.
And then it all dissolved away, I can't quite remember how but I feel it was fairly instantaneous, and I was back to the other reality, this one right here.
PSYCHEDELIC.
I knew what this word described now. That term, suddenly prevalent in my head. I'd barely considered the term previously, I'd given it no thought at all during the course of my life. But now, clear as day, I understood what it all meant.
I knew now that the railway tracks were nothing but wanting to hallucinate; pretending something was happening.
But it was deeper than that.
Psychedelic. I got it. This was it. This was tripping. This is what it meant.
My reaction was that of frenzied awe, and I tried my best to persuade my friends that they too could 'really' trip if only they smoked more.
"Nah, we've already tripped, it's shit".
Had they fuck. If they did, they'd have been a frenzied shrieking maniac, recently back to Earth and standing in the middle of the woods like me.
I fucking got it.
And that will always be with me. That feeling, that I was onto something. All of a sudden, everything was deep. Divine Mystery. Psychedelic. I could feel its essence.
And I've been further with Salvia now, with psychedelics. I've met her, I've met the Goddess.
It all started in the forest.
And now I know why that fucking duck winked at me.
Meeting The Goddess
The year was 2002, Autumn in Britain. Having tried cannabis for the first time in the June of that year, I had started my foray into the world of drugs. Eager to explore consciousness the doses were high; the effects trippy. I used to get very, very high, and had no fear of doing so. A visual snow, or static, had appeared permanently in my vision, something induced by the cannabis, which I noticed I could see when it was dark.
In the September I tried ecstasy at a large trance event in my home city, as did two friends. It was at this event that we were introduced to what have now become known to me as poppers. The effects were as you'd expect; I was instantly substantially more fucked for about a minute or so, then wanted more as the effects resided. Exactly what I needed to supplement my first pills in a big arena. Afterwards, me and my two friends knew we needed more of whatever that stuff was. And so it came to be, that we found ourselves at a local head-shop, looking for this fabled 'instant more-fuckedness' substance. We knew that you inhaled it and, somehow, that it was legal, but that was all.
So anyway, there we are looking through the various legal substances on offer, when something caught our eye. Salvia Divinorum. It had hallucinogenic effects when smoked, apparently, and they lasted for a few minutes. For some reason we were convinced that this was the stuff we'd tried in the arena; "yeah salvia, that's the one, I'm sure of it!". This was the general muse as we convinced ourselves this was it.
And so it came to be that I was in possession of the most potent psychedelic on planet Earth. Salvia Divinorum. Of course, I had no idea. No idea at all. We actually found it amusing that something hallucinogenic could be legal, and severely doubted this could ever be the case.
Not soon after I was proven very, very wrong. Probably that very same night in fact. I always imagine now that where I bought this from wasn't a normal head-shop, but that it was more kind of like the shop where they buy the gremlins on Gremlins 2. It wasn't an ordinary shop; it sold special things, powerful things.
We were at the "bucket spot", the area where I smoked copious amounts of buckets (the smoking method known as a Gravity Bong in the US), with my fellow cannabis explorer and friend Stephen. The area was basically a forest at the edge of my home town, and this was the place where night after night, Stephen and I had began travelling further, and deeper into our minds.
The instructions for the Salvia Divinorum indicated that a very high temperature was required for the Salvia to be activated, and that bongs were generally ineffective. Always been the case! I knew that a bucket was a sure fire way of nailing a hit (if this stuff had anything to it at all) and so it was that one night in Autumn, three 16 year old's tried to get high off a 'legal high'.
After a few buckets, a strange mellow buzz took hold. It was nice and gentle and we assumed this was about as 'trippy' as things would get. A let down by all accounts; though at least it did something. Then, after a minute or so, Nass suddenly proclaimed that he thought he might be hallucinating. There were two long tree branches lying parallel to one another on the forest floor, and he declared that they might look like railway tracks. We all agreed, we were tripping! We could vaguely imagine that two tree branches lying parallel could maybe, just maybe, look like railway tracks. Is this it? Needless to say, both Stephen and Nass declared it as 'shit', and gave up. I didn't.
I smoked bucket after bucket, determined there was something more locked inside. There was.
BAM!! (haha, I've just laughed at myself for typing that)
Suddenly, my reality was no longer what it previously was. At all. This wasn't just 'wow errr I feel a bit different' style different, THIS WAS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT! My entire sense of perception was fucking totally fucking off the wall.
I was hit by this very, very powerful sense of deja-vu. I KNEW I'd been there before. It was like remembering that this was what dreaming was, but it wasn't dreaming; it was THERE.
The red visual snow I mentioned previously started assembling into something. It looked like a red x-ray like exoskeletal structure, weaving itself into something of which I have only ever been able to describe as a reality grid. Quite specifically it reeked of altered realities.
This advanced, x-ray like structure; the reality grid, it weaved itself piece by piece, bit by bit, into a cartoon duck on my friends head. I have always felt that the duck resembled Howard The Duck, a character I recognised from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (where the fuck did that come from?!), however, it was highly advanced, and as I recognised what it was, that it was this duck that I knew; made of this technological membrane, it winked at me. And it wasn't just any old wink, it was a 'knowing wink'. It was letting on that it knew something, it really KNEW.
And then it all dissolved away, I can't quite remember how but I feel it was fairly instantaneous, and I was back to the other reality, this one right here.
PSYCHEDELIC.
I knew what this word described now. That term, suddenly prevalent in my head. I'd barely considered the term previously, I'd given it no thought at all during the course of my life. But now, clear as day, I understood what it all meant.
I knew now that the railway tracks were nothing but wanting to hallucinate; pretending something was happening.
But it was deeper than that.
Psychedelic. I got it. This was it. This was tripping. This is what it meant.
My reaction was that of frenzied awe, and I tried my best to persuade my friends that they too could 'really' trip if only they smoked more.
"Nah, we've already tripped, it's shit".
Had they fuck. If they did, they'd have been a frenzied shrieking maniac, recently back to Earth and standing in the middle of the woods like me.
I fucking got it.
And that will always be with me. That feeling, that I was onto something. All of a sudden, everything was deep. Divine Mystery. Psychedelic. I could feel its essence.
And I've been further with Salvia now, with psychedelics. I've met her, I've met the Goddess.
It all started in the forest.
And now I know why that fucking duck winked at me.
Meeting The Goddess
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