textfiles/drugs/ALT.DRUGS/clouds

OK, some of you experienced druggies are going to get a chuckle
from this.  This is a description of my first trip.  I grew up
in a real conservative environment.  I always wanted to hallucinate
but I was real scared of LSD.  After all, it causes chromosome
damage and a lot of the people that trip on it either jump out of
windows or end up in a permanent psychosis.  Some of the lucky ones
that make it through the trip ok suffer from uncontrollable flash backs 
for the rest of their life.  Pretty scary stuff.

I never was around people that used psychedelics much.  The few times
I had the opportunity, I was unable to find out enough about the 
source and quality to put my ignorant self at ease.  It seemed like
I was never going to get to have a psychedelic experience.

Well, I was surfing the net one day and decided to test the reach of
information contained on it.  I was trying one exotic topic after
another in Yahoo.  I was amazed at the knowledge contained on the net.
I decided to push it to the limit.  I asked about psilocybin.  To
my amazement, a few indexes to documents came back.  I quickly 
down loaded them and started studying them.  I was astonished to find
out that the spores for Psylocybe mushrooms could be mail ordered 
because the spores did not contain any controlled substances.  And best
of all, there was no overdose for psilocybin.  

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what I was thinking!
The net contained bits and pieces of information.  I was able to learn
some of the basic concepts for growing shrooms but there was a lot
of uncertainty and contradictions in the information I had.  I kept
increasing the depths of my searches on the topics.  It eventually
became obvious that my best chance of success lay with Psylocybe 
Fanaticus' method.  I promptly ordered their Tek Notes and a spore
syringe.

I followed their directions and had cultures well under way soon enough.
But, I was frustrated with their humidification techniques.  They did
not work for me even though I experimented like crazy.  My job
involves doing research and development at a high tech. computer
company.  I was determined to solve the problem and make it easy for
others with access to the net to succeed.  I found a few people on the
alt.drugs news group that had vast mushroom growing experience and they
helped me with advice that got me over some of my initial problems.

I was going home in a few months on vacation to visit old buddies.
I told them I thought I was going to be able to bring some shrooms
so we could all trip together.  They freaked with joy.  I have a basic 
personality flaw.  Anything worth doing, is worth doing to excess.
I didn't know how many shrooms I would need so I figured I had 
better grow a couple pounds.  I worked out the problems I was
having and simultaneously ramped production.  I had a couple pounds
of dried mushrooms by the time I headed north on vacation. 

We were at a friends cabin on the lake when the time was right.  I 
broke out my stash of shrooms as we prepared to go out on the lake
fishing.  Of course I offered some advice about what I thought was
a reasonable first dose, but then I made the mistake of trying to 
comfort them with the information that it was impossible to overdose
on psilocybe mushrooms.  My friends have my same basic personality
flaw about doing things to excess as I do, except worse.  The closest I
can figure, I ate about an eighth of a cup of crushed, dried shrooms and 
they all ate about twice that.

Being the scientific type, I grabbed my cam corder just in case we needed
to document anything and we headed to the boat to go fishing.  The
first 25 minutes seemed pretty normal, but then I started to feel myself
coming on.  I had done enough research to know that the peak experience
was a good hour away.  I kept fishing.  Soon I had to put down my pole 
and just watch my buddies.  I just had way too much stuff going on to 
be holding my pole.  

I had heard that the most basic visual experience was how colors became 
vibrant while tripping.  I kept looking for this, but never noticed it.  
I was wondering if we dosed high enough or if I had gone to all the
trouble to grow these damn things and eat those awful tasting 
shrooms for nothing.   I started to feel a little down.  I just stared at
the seat where one of my buddies was sitting.

Suddenly the seat was alive.  I became mesmerize by how the grain
in the wood seats of the boat would not stay still.  Every time I looked
at the seat, it would ebb and flow.  Too cool!  The surface of the
water was even more intense.  The patterns formed by the little ripples 
and waves were unbelievable.  I was frying big time.  Even though my
buddies dosed way higher than me, they seemed unaffected.  They just
kept fishing and cracking jokes.  I was still 30 minutes from peak.

I was looking across the lake at the far shore.  There
were lots of clouds blowing across the sky.  I was enjoying just 
watching them.  Then it happened.  It became obvious to me which
clouds were going to break apart into little clouds and which
little clouds were going to combine to make bigger clouds.  I spent
a lot of time trying to figure out if I was just imagining this ability
or if I could really do it.  I just kept watching the far shore.  Eventually
my buddies noticed my fascination with the far shore and I became the focus
of their jokes.  They still didn't seem like they were tripping.  I
told them about my new found ability.  That only encouraged them to make
more jokes.  I challenged them to predict which clouds were
going to break apart and which ones would combine.  They admitted that
would be impossible.  When I told them I thought I could do it, the
jokes really started.

Naturally, I had to prove I wasn't making up this ability.  I started
pointing and telling my buddies which clouds were going to do what.
They were real skeptical at first, but finally I convinced them.  One
of them realized that we ought to get this on the cam corder tape or
nobody would believe this had happened.  It was a little work to get 
the cam cord setup because we were so fucked up, but I got about 5 
minutes of this on tape.  This was real valuable in making me a 
believer that psychedelics really can expand your mind and give you 
insight that you never had before.

Later that day, everybody commented on how they thought they were the
only one affected by the shrooms.  We were all having a good time, but
nobody recognized that the others were tripping hard.  I was only at
1/2 the dose my buddies were at, so it's not too hard for me to believe
they were really looped.

The next day, everybody wanted to trip again.  I gave them some advice.  
I told them that a person's tolerance builds quickly to psilocybin and 
that they would have to dose significantly higher to get the same effect.  
Interestingly enough, they all thought they wanted a little less of
an experience.  The first trip had tired everybody emotionally and
intellectually.  Strangely enough, that day, straight or tripping, I was 
unable to repeat my cloud predictions.  It seems to have been a one
time experience.  Yet, I know and have proof I was able to do it that
one time.  It turns out the real life value of being able to predict
cloud behavior is pretty small, but the important point is that
psychedelics can give you insight you would not have had otherwise.

When we got back to town, all my buddies wanted me to teach them how
to grow shrooms.  My buddies are not very scientifically minded people.
I have been trying to get them to use computers and get on the net
for a long time with no success.  I did not think I could just explain 
the steps and have much probability of them succeeding.  I thought about 
this problem for a little while.  I wanted to write a comprehensive guide 
for the people on the net and I wanted to get my buddies on the net.  I
could kill two birds with one stone.  I told them that if they figured out
how to get on the net, I would have a simple guide there for them to 
follow.

It turns out the previously mentioned guide is available at:

	http://www.paranoia.com/drugs/

There is a link on the main page under 'Items of Particular Interest'.
Ultimately, it's supposed to be in the mushroom growers directory.
Check it out, and let me know if you can predict cloud behavior.