"Spiritual" effects of mushrooms last a year?

[dr_mabeuse]

BTW, I've done acid, 'shrooms and peyote, and prefer acid. The main advantage of the others is that you don't have to commit to a 12+ hour trip - 2-3 hours more like - but I always felt that the physical effects were more "edgy" and the experience more "peaky" - you soar very high very fast, fall back from that peak fairly quickly, and then for about have the duration gradually drop back to normal. Acid comes on slow, keeps you at a fairly steady high for a long time, and then also gradually returns you to normal.

I did them all too, as well as dimethyl- and diethyltryptamine, MDA (the precursor to Ecstasy), PMA, and some others, and I agree: acid was best. I worked for NIMH synthesizing experimental psychoactive drugs for animal studies and back then I used to skim a little for me and my friends to try. Those were brave days.

All the entheogens pretty much fall into one of two classes; the phenethylamines (like peyote (mescaline), MDA, and Ecstasy) and the indoles or tryptamines like psilocybin, LSD, DMT, ibogaine and ayahuasca. I always found the phenethylamines had a more mood-altering affect, producing euphoria and feelings of trust and well being, probably because they're structurally related to amphetamines. All psychedelics seem to work by opening the filters on the brain's limbic system and admitting information that we usually repress or ignore, and the phenethylamines were kind of notorious for creating hallucinations of mandalas and other highly symmetric pattern-recognition fields: grids, radar screens, aural glows. They were very social drugs; there was an inherent excitement to them.

The tryptamines were more subtle and allowed a wider repertoire of pattern-recognition material into the consciousness, including human-interaction pattern-recognition, so people's actions became novel and filled with portent and meaning, and that's what caused some people trouble, as they couldn't deal with the threatening ambiguity. But if you could get past that by being with people you trusted, the heightened pattern recognition and flood of new information enabled you to grasp things like the logic of architecture or the meaning of art or beauty of nature or the subtleties of music with shocking, visceral clarity, as if you were literally experiencing them for the first time. The detail of the world around you was infinitely engaging and miraculous, and it was all quite real. There was nothing hallucinatory about it. Rather, you realized how impoverished normal life was.

Pure LSD-25 was the best in terms of pharmacology, which means side-effects (none to speak of), release profile, half-life, and overall drug effect. No doubt this was due to its chemical purity, since acid was synthezised in the lab, compared to mushrooms, which were grown and stored, and could therefore vary tremendously as to psilocybin content and freshness. (Psilocybin decomposes rapidly when exposed to air.)

Towards the end of my drug days, they were selling all sorts of crap as LSD and from what I hear, they still are, but I was so impressed with my drug experiences that I abandoned my english degree and went back to college and got a master's in organic chemistry and became a pharmaceutical chemist because i wanted to know how these things worked. Never did find out though. No one knows to this day.

 

[rgraham666]

Last time I did an hallucinogen my bed was breathing. Haven't touched the stuff since.

I have enough perceptual problems as it is.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

. . . All psychedelics seem to work by opening the filters on the brain's limbic system and admitting information that we usually repress or ignore, and the phenethylamines were kind of notorious for creating hallucinations of mandalas and other highly symmetric pattern-recognition fields: grids, radar screens, aural glows. They were very social drugs; there was an inherent excitement to them.

The tryptamines were more subtle and allowed a wider repertoire of pattern-recognition material into the consciousness, including human-interaction pattern-recognition, so people's actions became novel and filled with portent and meaning, and that's what caused some people trouble, as they couldn't deal with the threatening ambiguity. But if you could get past that by being with people you trusted, the heightened pattern recognition and flood of new information enabled you to grasp things like the logic of architecture or the meaning of art or beauty of nature or the subtleties of music with shocking, visceral clarity, as if you were literally experiencing them for the first time. The detail of the world around you was infinitely engaging and miraculous, and it was all quite real. There was nothing hallucinatory about it. Rather, you realized how impoverished normal life was.

Great description and analysis, thanks. Makes me nostalgic and appreciative of what great experiences we had.

 

[AllardChardon]

I experienced LSD-25. A triple dose version called STP was the first LSD I took. I threw up into a trash can all over some flies next to a food stand while coming on and probably spared my body the full dose. It was the smell of the food in the trashcans that pushed my buttons and made me vomit. I felt sorry for the flies until my friend reminded me that they were flies and loved shit. It was like a bath of milk and honey to them, he said. Then, I was just fine again. Ha.

Doc, thanks for the informative breakdown of the chemicals and their effects. I had a feeling there might be a "hippy" of sorts lurking around in your past. I was really into it, of course, and my hippy name was Tulip, in honor of my gorgeous lips. Those were some really fun days in L.A. at the Shrine Exposition Hall. I could tell you acid-drenched stories for days...

Roxanne, I think we might have been best friends if we had ever met back then...

Thanks for a great read.

Allard