BF and I took 1 tab (150 micrograms) AL-LAD and 50 mg of 5-MAPB, plus 2.5 mg Adderall IR at about 7:30 pm Friday. We had eaten at around 4 pm and had green tea and ginger shots at Whole Foods right before dosing to settle our nervous tummies. Since we are smart, we booked a hotel not 100 feet from the venue of the show we attended that night. As soon as we dosed we walked across the street to the venue and posted up at the upstairs bar. We were expecting a wiggly, fun, and relatively manageable experience.
+20: By the time we had been there for 20 minutes I was shaking and shivering and things began to wobble. I had been expecting first alerts like 45-60 minutes in but it hit like a monster truck. We went downstairs to the main area and within ten minutes dimensions were totally askew - depth perception was anyone's guess, and we stood in the designated "comeup area" where a couple dozen people were sitting on the floor quietly.
The first DJ came on and it quickly became TOO MUCH. The ominous red lighting coupled with the growing crowd in the room and loud thumping bass and changing beats melted together in a circus of noise. We stumbled to the bar and just barely managed to order water bottles. Tried chewing watermelon gum and that was WAY TOO MUCH. Feelings of claustrophobia set in and we tried going outside to the small smoking area. The foul smell of cigarettes and the security guards laughing at us were not much better than the swirling masses of humanity indoors, and being in NYC the size and scale of Outside quickly became scary. We went inside after a few seconds and tried to stand still, at this point just clutching each other's hands for stability.
I had a rather tough time coming up on LSD at the beach on our anniversary last summer, but this was a real challenge being indoors. All I could think of were the dozens of trip reports I had read here and elsewhere about how forgiving and euphoric AL-LAD is, and I wondered if I had somehow ingested a humongous dose and would be stuck looping like this for several days.
+45: Visually I completely left where we were and experienced every advertising campaign aimed at children ever - tropical cartoon like parrots and flamingos, purples and pinks and totally alien cartoons flashing before my eyes. It was the visual equivalent of Willy Wonka branded candy packaging, if I had to use words to describe it. When I came back to the venue, the people dancing in the room were moving at absurd speeds like a tape being fast forwarded. It felt like my brain was projectile vomiting rainbows, and "control" was not mine in any way.
+1 hour?: Somewhere in there the second act came on (Desert Dwellers). We tried going outside one more time but when someone asked us if they could borrow a phone and we didn't know what a phone was, it became apparent that we needed to be safely indoors away from the world and people. We were so scared we both thought about leaving, but honestly had no idea how we would get back to the hotel 100 feet away!
The realization that we were terribly vulnerable set in and we retreated to the "comeup corner" again. There were some really strung out looking guys slouching on the floor who I tried not to notice. At the same time the lighting was red and thirst set in, which made everything feel desert like and hopeless. I started talking to a sober kid (who looked a bit uncomfortable) and babbled about how we were thirsty and having a hard time until I realized I wasn't really communicating. We flopped over toward the bar, threw money at the bartender and got more water, returning to the same area.
+2 hours?: I held BF's hand and we did some meditative breathing exercises. "Focus on the breath," I repeated, and suddenly I found myself freezing time around me. The mass of people and sound stopped, the visuals of the energy and sound waves intact, and I elevated myself above the canopy of the world. At the top, I saw my neighbor whose Zen meditation group I attend. We were above the clouds and trees, enjoying perfect calm and silence and stillness. It was as though Neo in The Matrix had realized his abilities on the set of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This scenario played out a couple more times - I practiced slowing down and stopping time and sound a few times, and when it became too difficult, I just let go.
And my ego began to die, and a wash of incredible euphoria and relief poured over me. I smiled so hard that my smile swallowed my whole head a million times. Visually, stars, nebulas, planets and space motifs - as well as greenery and forests, mountains, waterfalls, all the pleasurable earthly images available - filled my field of vision.
A really nice chill guy with a bandana and dark hair talked to us for a while, and after we chatted with him, we calmed down entirely and got over the hump. We told him how we were planning on taking this dose on vacation camping in the desert and how we had saved our own lives tonight, he held my hand and said he'd always remember us and knew how we felt. I asked if he was a MAPS volunteer sent to help people having difficult experiences, and we decided we would all do that in the future.
Two and a half hours in or so we were finally ready to dance and present enough to do so. I closed my eyes and grooved to Desert Dwellers, with visions of full figured dark skinned bottom heavy ladies, smirks wearing top hats, birds and a smirking ape/gibbon guy wearing a baseball cap and an expression of "I know" featuring prominently. I tapped into the male, predatory side of my psyche and imagined wolves, using my muscles and ferocity to hunt, and then saw oases of feline, alluring pleasures of the body and remembered how sensual it felt to eat fruit on LSD on the beach last summer.
Shpongle came on not long after, and here is where my memories become even fuzzier. We were feeling totally positive and in control for the entirety of his set, enjoying moving our bodies and smiling and feeling the positive energy of the whole place. At one point I felt the presence of God/divinity, as if I were a black baptist churchgoer praising The Lord, and the same ego dissolution relief sensation overcame me and I sighed and sighed and sighed.
Some people were smoking DMT during "Divine Moments of Truth" and from there we all became cavemen or dinosaurs stomping around. I hugged BF tightly and we finished out the rest of the show knowing that we had survived without going insane, losing material possessions, injuring ourselves, getting separated, or worst of all - leaving the concert and having several hours of bad trip in our bland hotel room and missing the music.
Summary: AL-LAD is MIGHTY combined with 5-MAPB, and probably on its own. One 150 ug tab was much stronger than two and a half tabs of a batch of LSD I had before. Experienced the most extreme visual hallucinations yet, massive ego death and saved our own lives from dying in the desert - all from the safety of a concert on Friday night.
It was incredible. We are both looking forward to trying a similar or comparable dosage again in a more safe and variable setting, preferably outdoors on a beautiful day and not in the desert.
+20: By the time we had been there for 20 minutes I was shaking and shivering and things began to wobble. I had been expecting first alerts like 45-60 minutes in but it hit like a monster truck. We went downstairs to the main area and within ten minutes dimensions were totally askew - depth perception was anyone's guess, and we stood in the designated "comeup area" where a couple dozen people were sitting on the floor quietly.
The first DJ came on and it quickly became TOO MUCH. The ominous red lighting coupled with the growing crowd in the room and loud thumping bass and changing beats melted together in a circus of noise. We stumbled to the bar and just barely managed to order water bottles. Tried chewing watermelon gum and that was WAY TOO MUCH. Feelings of claustrophobia set in and we tried going outside to the small smoking area. The foul smell of cigarettes and the security guards laughing at us were not much better than the swirling masses of humanity indoors, and being in NYC the size and scale of Outside quickly became scary. We went inside after a few seconds and tried to stand still, at this point just clutching each other's hands for stability.
I had a rather tough time coming up on LSD at the beach on our anniversary last summer, but this was a real challenge being indoors. All I could think of were the dozens of trip reports I had read here and elsewhere about how forgiving and euphoric AL-LAD is, and I wondered if I had somehow ingested a humongous dose and would be stuck looping like this for several days.
+45: Visually I completely left where we were and experienced every advertising campaign aimed at children ever - tropical cartoon like parrots and flamingos, purples and pinks and totally alien cartoons flashing before my eyes. It was the visual equivalent of Willy Wonka branded candy packaging, if I had to use words to describe it. When I came back to the venue, the people dancing in the room were moving at absurd speeds like a tape being fast forwarded. It felt like my brain was projectile vomiting rainbows, and "control" was not mine in any way.
+1 hour?: Somewhere in there the second act came on (Desert Dwellers). We tried going outside one more time but when someone asked us if they could borrow a phone and we didn't know what a phone was, it became apparent that we needed to be safely indoors away from the world and people. We were so scared we both thought about leaving, but honestly had no idea how we would get back to the hotel 100 feet away!
The realization that we were terribly vulnerable set in and we retreated to the "comeup corner" again. There were some really strung out looking guys slouching on the floor who I tried not to notice. At the same time the lighting was red and thirst set in, which made everything feel desert like and hopeless. I started talking to a sober kid (who looked a bit uncomfortable) and babbled about how we were thirsty and having a hard time until I realized I wasn't really communicating. We flopped over toward the bar, threw money at the bartender and got more water, returning to the same area.
+2 hours?: I held BF's hand and we did some meditative breathing exercises. "Focus on the breath," I repeated, and suddenly I found myself freezing time around me. The mass of people and sound stopped, the visuals of the energy and sound waves intact, and I elevated myself above the canopy of the world. At the top, I saw my neighbor whose Zen meditation group I attend. We were above the clouds and trees, enjoying perfect calm and silence and stillness. It was as though Neo in The Matrix had realized his abilities on the set of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This scenario played out a couple more times - I practiced slowing down and stopping time and sound a few times, and when it became too difficult, I just let go.
And my ego began to die, and a wash of incredible euphoria and relief poured over me. I smiled so hard that my smile swallowed my whole head a million times. Visually, stars, nebulas, planets and space motifs - as well as greenery and forests, mountains, waterfalls, all the pleasurable earthly images available - filled my field of vision.
A really nice chill guy with a bandana and dark hair talked to us for a while, and after we chatted with him, we calmed down entirely and got over the hump. We told him how we were planning on taking this dose on vacation camping in the desert and how we had saved our own lives tonight, he held my hand and said he'd always remember us and knew how we felt. I asked if he was a MAPS volunteer sent to help people having difficult experiences, and we decided we would all do that in the future.
Two and a half hours in or so we were finally ready to dance and present enough to do so. I closed my eyes and grooved to Desert Dwellers, with visions of full figured dark skinned bottom heavy ladies, smirks wearing top hats, birds and a smirking ape/gibbon guy wearing a baseball cap and an expression of "I know" featuring prominently. I tapped into the male, predatory side of my psyche and imagined wolves, using my muscles and ferocity to hunt, and then saw oases of feline, alluring pleasures of the body and remembered how sensual it felt to eat fruit on LSD on the beach last summer.
Shpongle came on not long after, and here is where my memories become even fuzzier. We were feeling totally positive and in control for the entirety of his set, enjoying moving our bodies and smiling and feeling the positive energy of the whole place. At one point I felt the presence of God/divinity, as if I were a black baptist churchgoer praising The Lord, and the same ego dissolution relief sensation overcame me and I sighed and sighed and sighed.
Some people were smoking DMT during "Divine Moments of Truth" and from there we all became cavemen or dinosaurs stomping around. I hugged BF tightly and we finished out the rest of the show knowing that we had survived without going insane, losing material possessions, injuring ourselves, getting separated, or worst of all - leaving the concert and having several hours of bad trip in our bland hotel room and missing the music.
Summary: AL-LAD is MIGHTY combined with 5-MAPB, and probably on its own. One 150 ug tab was much stronger than two and a half tabs of a batch of LSD I had before. Experienced the most extreme visual hallucinations yet, massive ego death and saved our own lives from dying in the desert - all from the safety of a concert on Friday night.
It was incredible. We are both looking forward to trying a similar or comparable dosage again in a more safe and variable setting, preferably outdoors on a beautiful day and not in the desert.
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Sounds like AL-LAD has some pretty intense synergy with 5-MAPB, by nearly all accounts 1 tab of AL-LAD on its own is a very easygoing experience. I have been wondering about combining psychedelics with the APB series. I'm going to get to try 6-APB sometime soon, and at some point I am definitely going to try combining with a psychedelic... maybe even 2C-E.
