A trip in the woods (over 1 gram)
(This report is compiled solely from my memory since it occured
outdoors and I was in no shape to take notes.)
There is an interesting note to this experience in that it involved
some unusual lighting conditions that may shed some insight into DXM
visuals and how they work in the brain. Most of visual hallucinations
happened in a tent during a full moon with the faint, white light of the
tent roof acting like a movie screen. I have read that staring at a
background of off white color during a meditative state often produces
alpha rhythm activity in the brain. It is believed that the brain
enters an alpha state during meditation and hypnotic trance states.
This lighting can be easily reproduced by cutting a ping pong ball in
half and placing both halves over the eyes.)
It was a chilly October evening and my girlfriend and I had just
attended a Renaissance Fair in the country. We were going to camp out
at a nearby state park for the night and stopped off at a grocery store
to pick up some supplies. As we passed by the pharmacy section I shot
her a grin and motioned toward the cough medicines. She had tripped
with me on DXM before and knew exactly what I meant. We bought six bags
of Sucrets cherry cough drops and headed off for the woods.
We started eating the cough drops on the way and each of us finished
two bags by the time we arrived at the camp site. Each bag contains the
equivalent of 300mg of DXM. We knew from experience that we had about
an hour before the effects kicked in so we hurriedly threw up the tent
and got situated.
Soon we were both sitting in front of a glowing fire enjoying the
silence of the piney woods. The moon was full and lit up the trees and
glowed brightly on the surface of a nearby lake. I was feeling brave
and decided to finish off the third bag and half of a fourth. This
amounted to just over a whole gram of DXM.
For a while nothing happened as we sat making small talk and fed
sticks into the fire. In a short while I began feeling slightly drunk
as if I had downed a six pack. I got up to urinate and found my balance
was off. My vision didn't seem to be blurred much but the light of the
fire only provided a short circle of awareness in the dark making it
hard to tell for sure.
I sat back down near the fire and stared at the flames. The drunk
feeling was growing stronger and seemed to be getting more intense.
Soon I felt fully 'stoned' and noticed the ground pushing hard against
my butt. I looked away from the fire and had trouble focusing on the
orange backdrop of tree trunks around me. Then all of a sudden I became
aware of seeing the camp fire from different angles. Even though I was
sitting still it was as if I kept moving to a different location and was
looking at the fire from differing angles. As this continued, the fire
seemed to be stretching and taking on a variety of horizontal shapes.
By now my concept of time had completely changed. I felt as if
several moments of time had been chopped into small segments and
scrambled around, as if events were happening out of sequence. Yet at
the same time, part of me still comprehended normal time, albeit in a
drunken hazy way.
My girlfriend said she was feeling pretty stoned herself and was
standing up poking a stick into the fire. I knew she was saying
something out loud but I couldn't bring myself to follow her words. I
looked up at her and she appeared to loom way above me. I felt like a
tiny insect watching her from some weird angle close to the ground.
I made a conscious effort to talk with my girlfriend to keep touch
with reality. It was then that we both seemed to notice a strange
humming sound. The sound didn't seem to come from anywhere in
particular. We both had the distinct impression that it was coming from
the ground itself. At times the sound seemed like mumbling or singing.
The effects seemed to be getting stronger and hitting me even
faster. Even though I was experienced with DXM I had never felt this
out of control before. I told my girlfriend that I thought it was a
good idea to get into the tent now while I still had enough control of
my body to make it.
She headed off to the tent and I stumbled over to some nearby pine
trees to relieve myself. Walking was extremely difficult and I propped
myself up between two trees facing the lake while I did my business. As
I looked up towards the water, I felt an incredible rushing sensation as
if I were being lifted into the air. I looked up toward the top of the
trees and watched in awe as they transformed into two large Aztec stone
statues. The faces of the statues seemed to be looking down at me. For
a second I wasn't sure where I was.
I had experienced all sorts of strange dreamlike states under DXM
before, but I had always felt totally in control of the hallucinations.
This time the visuals were hitting me with a new intesity and force of
their own. Needless to say I was starting to get sort of scared. I
hadn't aniticipated losing control of reality to such a degree.
I made my way to the tent and lied down. The tent was dark but as my
eyes adjusted I could tell it was faintly lit from the full moon.
Subtle shadows danced along the walls from the fire burning outside.
The top of the tent was glowing with a bluish white light.
Within minutes I began having intense open eyed visuals. Most of
them I can't remember but the ones I do were very intense and detailed.
At times I found myself standing amid a fantastic city. There was one
scene I recall vividly of being in front of a stone, vine covered wall
of some ancient ruins deep in a jungle. At one point I was walking
through a massive cavern with incredible hues of light on the ceilings
and walls.
All of the visuals were detailed and had one thing in common. A
strange sense of silence surrounded me, more like a vacuum, an absence
of audibilty beyond plain silence. At times I was aware of a being
present in the scene I was seeing. The being kept completely silent and
still as it watched me. For some reason this began to annoy me.
Something about the super-silence seemed frustrating.
The visions were getting so intense and overwhelming that I began
forcing myself to move about the tent and focus on my body and
surroundings. I was getting apprehensive about losing touch.
At one point I gave up and lied still. I have no idea how much time
had passed. My girlfriend was lying beside me having an average DXM
trip and enjoying her own holo-deck dreams. I remember telling her that
I was a bit worried about the intensity of my trip but all she could
manage was a sedated mumble of concern.
I closed my eyes and surrendered to the darkness. At one point I
began feeling completely disassociated from my body. This really
started worrying me. I was sure that my heart had stopped and that I
was dying. With some effort I managed to move my arms and reassured
myself that I was fine. I knew deep in my mind that I was alright, but
some inner child like voice was giving way to fear. It reminded me of
being on a rollercoaster and being convinced that a critical bolt would
break just this one time sending me plunging to my death.
Eventually the effects began to settle down some. I had to urinate
again and grabbed a flashlight and made my way out of the tent. I
staggered towards the shadows and turned the light on. I must have
strayed a good distance from the fire as I was totally surrounded by
darkness. When I turned the light on and pointed it at the ground, it
was as if all that existed was the little patch of light in front of
me. I had the distinct impression that the darkness had a density of
it's own. I could have sworn that I was walking on the deep ocean floor
exploring some lost ship wreck as I made my way through the woods.
For some reason I decided to keep walking and soon found myself on a
trail. I stepped onto the path and turned off the flashlight. My eyes
began to adjust and I stood very still taking in the silence and
shadows. I had the feeling of being at one with the woods and could
sense objects around me. My night vison seemed enhanced and I began
walking down the trail through the darkness. I was really enjoying
myself when I noticed I was still hearing the strange buzzing sound
coming from the woods.
I went back to the tent and told my girlfriend about the experience
with the flashlight. She also wanted to try it and we both set out into
the dark woods. She agreed that it was like being on the deep, dark
ocean floor and exploring the bottom. I made a comment to her about
mushrooms being in season and told her it would be cool to find some.
She told me that in the darkness it would be impossible to find any in
the underbrush. Suddenly I got a weird feeling that I knew where a
mushroom was. Without a word I walked about ten yards and sure enough
there was a large Russula mushroom right at my feet. For some reason I
just KNEW right where it would be.
After a while we both went back to the tent and lied down. My open
eyed visuals began again but this time I wasn't worried. At one point I
began reflecting about my life. My eyes were closed and I found myself
thinking about a traumatic event from my childhood and how it effected
me still. I began to see my mind as a sort of liquid cave and started
journeying to different parts of it. I found myself narrating my
journey out loud and my girlfriend said that she could also see the same
thing. Whether she actually saw the exact visuals I don't know, but she
said that she had the impression that I was leading her along through
these tunnels of my psyche while I also had the feeling that she was
right there with me. The experience was a lot like the scenes from
Fantastic Voyage where the tiny ship floats through the man's body.
Aside from more visuals, nothing more of signifigance happened till
we fell asleep. The next day we had quite a cognitive hangover combined
with a cheery, peaceful feeling.
The experience was unique in it's intensity. The shared sense of
audible and visual hallucinations were very interesting. I contribute a
lot of the effects to the unusal setting and light conditions. Also,
the woods can seem extremely quiet to a city dweller and probably
produced a mild teninitis which was amplified by the DXM. I also took
an unusually large dose. The trip was very pleasant and memorable. I
recommend tripping in the woods. The flashlight in the dark outdoors
was really cool.
-Melvin
©1998 The Third Plateau
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