The Mushroom Diaries - An Evening with Lucy

 It's been a while since i've dabbled in the more chemical side of things as they say... in fact i had to go back through the old mental calendar and think quite hard about when the last time i actually tossed a small bit of paper into my mouth and waited for the sun (as i used to say)... you see my early thirties were the last time i had actually taken acid and then it was the Night of the Ridiculously Strong Sugarcubes followed by the brief period of time, roughly a year or so, when i had somehow lucked into some purple microdots from a friend of the long gone Hippie Jack, a lovely guy with a white afro that would give a young Rob Tyner a run for his money... and since i hadn't seen them for a bit i of course bought ten hits to keep myself supplied for the near future... and of course great fun was had by all... or maybe just me because though i tried to share a few hits with friends no one ever took me up on the offer and so i spent ten nights/days tripping on my own... and it was a grand old time...

A very good friend of mine has come to the psychedelics game late, not that it's ever too late but he's now taken a keen interest in it, especially after discussing it with his brother and i over the past few years and it is that same brother, a guy a couple years older than me, who has found a connection (one has to love the restaurants of the world for they are truly a haven for scoring any number of substances, albeit some less harmful than others)... there seems to be an abundance of mushrooms and LSD to which my friend now has access... said friend being interested in relieving some of the stress and anxiety of his job and life in general he tends to want smaller doses and so his brother cuts the hits up very carefully and delicately... he's offered me a hit a few times but due to ride duties or having to work the next morning i have declined, shocking to the reader i know as there are very few moments in my personal history where i have declined any narcotic substance but let's just say as i skip merrily towards the void i've become a bit, dare i say, wiser? about things... and seeing how things are around the asylum these days i most definitely have to be.. 

--- side story-- the other day boyo numero uno (a name borrowed from the Kid), came home one fine Thursday from school... we were supposed to do some project, mainly cook this dinner and take pictures so he could make a short film for his food class, a class that should be an easy A but that said boyo is still fucking up... now let me state the boyos know nothing of my current explorations into inner/outer space but they do know that their parents are not novices when it comes to psychedelics, something none other than the BW let out of the bag one night at the dinner table... once at home said boyo was fucking about and not doing his work and when questioned by the BW he began having one of his patented tantrums but then a few minutes later asked to speak with me, he had now been home roughly two hours and i was in the middle of doing something so i said i'd be up when i was finished... the tenor of in his voice that told me something was up and so i went to his room to see.. he was standing there fidgeting and i told him to sit down and then he explained that a kid had handed him something at the end of school which he thought was a 5mg THC gummy but as it turned out was not... he admitted to trying mushrooms once or twice so he figured he might have taken a hit because while it wasn't exactly the same it was similar.. i calmly listened and told him to stand up and come look into the light... he did and he was fucking pie-eyed so i explained he most definitely did not take and edible and his assessment was correct... now seeing the last thing i wanted to do was send him on a bad trip i calmly explained to him that he needed to just chill in his room, relax, and ride it out... that while i was not going to say shit to him now that tomorrow we would have a little talk and he should understand that he was most definitely in deep shit with his parents... he said he understood and thanked me for being cool about shit to which i told him i'm being cool because i know how to handle people in this state but i wasn't exactly thrilled, i also told him how fucking stupid it was to put anything in his mouth without knowing what it was...  which of course is mighty rich coming from a guy who threw a ton of hits into his mouth not to mention the other illicit substances imbibed by our hero... do as i say not as i do... what i did explain to him was that i was a bit older when i got into this shit and that he and his pooh-butt friends had no clue what the fuck they were doing which is how people end up in trouble... now back to the post ---

And so it was one fine Saturday evening i went over to the Dub and Dabs night which on this night was Dead and Dabs night and took a tiny piece of blotter and placed it gently on my tongue... i then proceeded to to take a few hits off the pen while my good friend rolled a large and fine joint of a good indica... then i sat back and waited... and up came the sun... i can say from my vast experience in this field that this was a quality hit, clean as we say, not speedy and cut with bullshit but very high quality Lucy and while there was a moment when looking at the small plastic container with about eight little squares in it i thought about taking two and i can actually say that for once erring on the side of caution paid off... as this one little square turned out to be more than enough to set me off on a fine evening... 

To be honest i didn't set out to compare and contrast the merits of acid vs. shrooms, it's not really a contest as they are different but the same, the old yin-yang but not exactly... if you get my drift... as i sat hanging with my friend i could feel the lysergic acid begin to work it's magic... strangely my head was incredibly clear, even with the large joint we smoked and the number of rips off the pen, the mind remained quite limber, the ideas coming quick and fast and being easy to verbalize, which does happen on mushrooms as well but maybe not quite as easily, i'd say it is more a inner dialogue with mushrooms and more of an outer one with acid... the other main issue when it comes to this is the relative size of the dose, something that is much easier to ascertain when dealing with the fungus than when dealing with bits of paper or even a bottle of liquid and even then it is still not as precise as when taking mushrooms because unless someone has taken the same stuff it's still iffy... is that a pro? or con? don't really know but it's something i dwelled upon once back at the old house and sitting on the couch with Phat Paco... 

The old electric hum was still there but it felt slightly different... granted psilocybin and lsd are maybe a bit more like cousins than brothers when i think about it... call it the wisdom of experience (or something like that) but looking back on things i noticed the difference much more now than when i did when i was younger... the decade of my 20s and early 30s was spent getting fucked up for fucked up's sake... i liked to take huge amounts of just about anything, not the smartest move obviously but something when one is young, stupid and (thinks) slightly invincible happens... granted psychedelics, mushrooms in particular, are considered the safest of substances topping the list right ahead off cannabis, so in those instances i was never worried about "kicking it" more just an exploration of how hard can this psychonaut trip balls while wandering the various streets of Podunk U., then Ocean City and then North Oakland and the East End... but that hum... 

If there was one thing i noticed about the tiny piece of paper i tossed in my mouth that night it was the hum was there but it was tuned to a different station, or something of the sort, could i still feel the electric pulse of the universe? yes and no... now maybe i'm biased or maybe i need to do more research (nudge nudge wink wink) but while i greatly enjoyed my trip, dug the music, was probably more social than had i taken shrooms, there was something i couldn't quite put my finger on that seemed to be missing, the thoughts and ideas were there, the tingling of every synapse and nerve in the body was there, granted maybe i just needed to take a bit more but yet the dose felt comparable to a decent dose of mushrooms... so what was it that felt different? that is what i've thought the most about since that night.. 

The biggest and most obvious difference is that one substance is organic and one man made and if the the truth be told i'm a much bigger fan of the organic... not to be misunderstood, i enjoy them both but the mushroom seems to be of the universe, made from it, naturally occurring, a cosmic accident or a cosmic gift, it doesn't matter... science is a brilliant and beautiful thing and i fully believe that substances like lsd are invaluable for humanity (see Timothy Leary and his study of acid and alcoholism) but there is something about the mushroom that trumps them all... when the electric hum starts it is a different feeling and experience, of course one could argue that it was due to the dose taken but i've taken small(er) doses of mushrooms and there was still a difference... so what is it? 

The interesting thing about the acid was just how clear and concise my thoughts were, i was most definitely under the influence of it and the doors were open but it was different than taking mushrooms, it was more a constant hum so to speak, there was none of the rhythm, which is the only way to describe it, that one gets with mushrooms, what i love about the mushroom is the way it works with the body and mind and universe, yes i may sound like some psychedelic wastoid who has taken one dose too many but that's just how i see it... a long time ago i read that it takes about seven minutes for the blood to circulate through the body, what amazes and what i love about mushrooms is that they are tuned in, one can feel them, like breathing, as they rise and fall, the intensity reaching a crescendo every seven minutes where at the height of it there is no thought there is just being, that electric hum or song of the universe vibrating through you and while you can get that feeling somewhat with lsd it's not the same, acid opens the doors as well but in a different manner, maybe it's just me and how it affects me but the connection with the world around me feels and is much stronger on and after taking mushrooms than when i take a tab, granted at my age (nudge nudge wink wink) i would definitely say i could eat a tab and go out for the night at the same time but i've already done that with shrooms (see the fabled Flaming Lips show) but having dipped back into the lysergic pool i most definitely could have a good time with acid... another big difference, i could still drink beer on acid while when taking mushrooms it's strictly water... it could be my strange and warped view of things but the mushroom is a bit sacramental to me while acid is more like a party... though i'm sure with enough practice those roles could be reversed... 

And so i spent the night talking with my friend and riffing on any number of subjects, from the trials and tribulations of the boyos, to the meaning of it all, from politics and of course the futbol... i then got my ass home where i spent the next few hours wandering around the Cave, the downstairs room where i now reside for the most part, listening to music and wandering about, watching a bit of telly, talking with Phat Paco about how cool he is and in the end it was a fine evening with Lucy... something i most definitely look forward to trying again... Major Kono to ground control... over and out...