I never really gave shrooms much of a second thought, although I always wondered what it was like to trip out on them. I have a few friends who had tried them and I was fascinated with the stories and experiences they would share with me. Stories of the way trees looked when you were tripping, and the altered states of consciousness you went through. I became extremely interested and I felt ready to try them.
The day started as I sat down in my philosophy class and pulled my phone out of my bag. I had received a text from my friend Matt, asking if I was down to throw down for some mushrooms. It was finally time to try them, and I was way more than down. I suddenly became excited and throughout class, mushrooms was all I could think about.
The day went on. I was at Manana and I went to my car in the parking lot to get myself a cigarette. I see Matt and Charlotte in his car chilling and I go up to them. They told me the shroom adventure was still on but we had to wait a little, so we skated for a bit. After a few moments, it was time to drive up to palisades to get the shrooms. I dropped my car off at the Wal-Mart parking lot and hopped in with Matt and Charlotte. The sun was getting lower as we drove up to palisades. I've never done shrooms before. In fact, all my life, the only substance I've done was marijuana, so I knew I was about to experience something completely different and mind altering. I was beyond excited and beyond nervous.
We get to this guy's house who was sort of the middle man, gave him our money, and waited while he walked to get the shrooms from Kevin, one of the guitarists from Dubkonscious. I sat in the back seat of Matt's car, waiting while watching the sun fall behind the mountains on the west side of the island. After what seemed like forever, the middle man comes back and gave us a bag of mushrooms. They looked so weird and ominous when I looked at them. They were smaller than what I thought they would be, and they had dirty-white stems and brown caps. I almost didn't know what to think. So we leave Palisades and go back to Wal-Mart to stock up on some provisions. On the way there, I mentioned that I felt really nervous, and Matt and Charlotte told me that every time they're about to eat mushrooms, they have this weird anxious feeling come over them; not just in their mind, but in the stomach as well. I asked if that was a bad thing, and Matt simply replies, "That's good! It means you're gonna have a good time." That made me feel a little better.
So we get to Wal-Mart where I scooped a fat bottle of water, a red bull, and Charlotte grabbed some M&M's for us to eat with the mushrooms. We get back to Matt's car, where we distribute the mushrooms evenly. Matt and Charlotte hand me a small handful of mushrooms. I was tripping out wondering how something so seemingly insignificant can make you trip out harder than you could ever trip out. We had our palms cupped and filled with mushrooms, holding them out towards each others hands, trying to see who needed more or who had too much. After careful examination, we each had equal amounts of magical, mystic mushrooms. Charlotte opens the bag of M&Ms and pours the candies into our hands. M&M's and mushrooms...bon appetite. I remember us putting our fists together and Matt saying, "Catch you on the other side." I found that super funny, and it was at that instant where I felt completely ready to eat this mind altering concoction and embrace the psychedelic world for the first time. I ate half of the mix at a time. I didn't even think of the mushrooms as nasty, because although I was eating them with M&M's, I had been smoking weed all day, and still being stoned, I just looked at them as munchies. To me, the mushrooms tasted like something between nori and peanuts. After I ate my shrooms, I had the urge to pee, so I told Matt and Charlotte to hold up while I ran to the bathroom in Wal-Mart. I get back, "I didn't wanna have to pee when I'm tripping."
We leave Pearl City as I popped open my red bull and lit up a cigarette, the whole time just waiting for the mushrooms to kick in. I noticed that I didn't feel anxious anymore, but more relaxed knowing that I finally ate them, and unless I forced myself to throw up, there was nothing that I could do to stop the trip. As we're on the freeway near Aloha Stadium, I felt more than just stoned. I felt this strange unknown feeling creeping up on me from within. I had a hunch it was the mushrooms. We drive on, and I could feel the strange unknown creeping in on me more and more. It was near the place where the Zipper Mobile is kept when out of nowhere, Matt says, "Dude, look how much cones there are!" A couple lanes on the left side of the freeway were coned off. I stared at them, and for some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off of them. There were just hundreds and hundreds of cones, one after the other. I've seen cones like this many many times before, but for some reason these cones seemed different. I don't know why. As I was staring at them, I remembered something Charlotte told me: "You know you're tripping when you're staring at something for a really long time." It was when I remembered this when I started thinking that I was at the door of the psychedelic trip, and it had just cracked open, and it was slowly starting to open wider and wider. We kept staring at the cones. "DUDE! WHAT THE FUCK! There are so many cones!" Matt kept saying, and I began cracking up. In between laughing, I just remember shouting "OH FUUUUCKK!!!! HAHAHAHHA DUUUUUUDEEEEE OH SHIIIIITTTTTT!" Just laughing uncontrollably, feeling more and more euphoric the more I laughed. I felt really good. Not just in my head but my body as well. It was right around this laughter episode when the trance music Matt was playing started becoming increasingly amazing. The music matched the sights I was seeing, the speed we were going, and it just fit that moment in my life perfectly. I thought that song was made just for that moment. And I wasn't just hearing and feeling the music, but it felt as if the music was weaving itself into the fabric of my perception of reality; weaving itself into my universe so effortlessly. It was like Matt told me about music while on shrooms; You don't just hear it, but it feels like the music is just undoubtedly part of the natural world. Part of reality.
We get to the end of the long stretch of freeway near the airport, and thats when we noticed the street lights. The freeway grew brighter as we looked up at them. There seemed to be so many of them. They were more than just street lights. They looked like huge silver rods jolting out of the ground with bright, beautiful lights shining at the ends. They looked like trees growing over a path or a road in a forest. They were covering the sky and they seemed to sway around, much like trees swayed in the wind. I couldn't take my eyes off them. They were so beautiful. I knew I was just staring at street lights that I had seen countless times before, but they seemed so different. So majestic, superior, breathtaking and new.
The rest of the car ride was pretty chill. I remember seeing faces in the bushes and trees, and on the freeway near the Ward cut-off, there were these plants that were growing on the walls, and the flowers looked as if they were trying to get loose from the vine, reaching out, trying to get us. It was weird. This was where the freeway took on a new reality and it felt like we were getting sucked into an endless cosmic stream of bright red and white stars. "DUDE WE'RE GONNA GET SUCKED IN!!"
Fast forward a few minutes to us driving toward the zoo on the strip. By this time the shrooms were starting to come down harder. Looking out the window, there was so much going on. So many bright, beautiful and bizarre lights, scenes and sounds. It was as if everything was trying its hardest to fascinate me; all wanting my attention at the same time. It felt unworldly incredible to have the world wanting ME, rather than the other way around. I smoked a cigarette, relaxed, and just chilled in the back seat while the world begged for my attention, but I was free to give my attention to anything I wanted at anytime. I felt supreme. Supreme, and very giddy. There was a point where I felt an urge to take off my clothes, run out the car and just scream for no reason. I told Matt this and he said that's why people at music festivals are always dancing and frolicking naked; because they're tripping out on drugs. I kept blurting out random stuff, and Matt and Charlotte told me to chill out. It was around this time when I got a text message from my other friend Matt. I got out my phone to read it. I forget what it said, but I remember the words were vibrating and moving around in a wave-like motion. Looking at my phone, all I said was, "What the fuck!" I told Matt and Charlotte what was going on and Matt simply told me to forget about communication while on shrooms. I took his advice: "Sorry, Matt! I won't be replying to you anytime soon!" I said as I put my phone back into my bag.
Finally, after a high-inducing, mind altering car drive, we arrive at the parking lot of the Honolulu Zoo. Matt parks the car, and begins to bring out the gear for a quick burn sesh. Matt had a bag with some buds in it, but as simple and effortless as it seemed, neither Matt, Charlotte nor myself could open up this bag. Being intoxicated on marijuana and mushrooms, it seemed like a near impossible task, but finally we got it open. We smoked a bowl, and the piece we smoked out of looked super psychedelic, especially cause we were starting to trip. GOOD SESH. I opened the door, got out and finally got up to my feet. As soon as I shut the door, time seemed to slow down. I gazed down at the ground of the parking lot and I saw that I was standing on an intricate pattern of black, gold and the washed out sepia color from the parking lot lights, all intertwining with the leaves, twigs and dirt. I closed my eyes, tilted my head back and put my arms up in the air and took a deep breath as a breeze brushed passed my skin and ruffled my hair. Everything felt right, and whether it was the "drugs" or I myself that had me feel this way, it didn't matter. Everything felt right, and I wasn't gonna let that go unnoticed and unappreciated.
We were getting ready to leave the car/parking lot as I walked over to Matt who was still sitting in the driver's seat. He was sitting there, very focused, tapping and rubbing his pockets, "Keys, wallet, cigarettes..."
"C'mon dude, you trippin?" I remember saying something to him along those lines. "No, just making sure I got everything." We gathered some change together and put it in the parking meter. I remember telling Matt and Charlotte that I thought it was crazy that we were BUYING time. "What the fuck, you can't put a price on time!" Matt and Charlotte started laughing.
So we bought some time and took our first steps of our journey. We were walking on the sidewalk across the street from the gay bar when Matt says, "Okay, let's cross here." I heard him say that and automatically tried to cross the street but luckily I caught myself when I saw a car coming. "Not now!" Matt said, laughing. I realized I wasn't all there, but I had the mushrooms and weed to blame for that. We were standing at a crosswalk, and I remember saying, "Dude, we're gonna look like the Beatles when we cross the street." The coast was clear and we walked across the street. Sometimes I do it just because I want to, but this time, I felt it totally necessary that I walk only on the white lines. I don't know why. We were walking pass some store and Matt noticed something and told me to check it out. It was a normal, round stand up fan with these small lights behind it. The colorful lights seemed to blink and pulsate behind the rotating fan blades, and it felt as if the lights were streaming out the fan towards me with the air. All I could say was, "So WEIRD!"
We sat down on a ledge near the long cement walkway thing at the end of the strip that went out into water, right at that intersection, facing the shore. We lit up cigarettes and chilled for a minute. All the lights of the streets and buildings were indescribable. I was looking at some hotel, and all the room lights that were on all looked different from each other. Some were dim, some were bright, some orange, some yellow, some that looked like the all-seeing eye thing in Mordor from Lord of the Rings. I told Matt what I saw and asked, "What do you see?" I cannot recall what he said. In between gazing in awe at the lights, I would be straight tripping out on the dirty sand under our feet. It was just rust colored sand, but I could see layers of patterns in the sand that I can't even describe, all spaced apart: Some layers seemed to float above and around my feet, some seemed to hover below the sand. It was amazing. We finished our cancer sticks and stood up. Matt and Charlotte began walking off when I stopped and looked at one of the palm trees we were sitting by. I put my hand on it, and I saw the same type of layers that I did in the sand. "WHOA..." and I followed Matt and Charlotte.
The next thing I remember is feeling sick to my stomach and I dry heaved near one of the trash cans on the sidewalk. Matt and Charlotte were ahead of me so I don't think they saw me dry heave. The shrooms felt overwhelming by this point. I remember seeing about three cops on foot and thinking to myself, "Chill the fuck out man...cops..." I felt slightly paranoid.
From there on out I don't remember much details, just a bunch of random sights that tripped me out. I remembered seeing a tree that looked like a cross between a fire and big fuzzy mustache or something dancing in the breeze. Everything was a trip. I could hear every single sound individually yet simultaneously. Music, cars, chit-chat, footsteps, utensils striking plates, shopping bags bouncing, etc. People's voices seemed to vibrate and echo. The lights were equally if not more trippy than the sounds. This may not make any sense to anyone else, but I remember the red brake lights from cars and the stop lights had reverb and would echo. Random lights would seem to turn into indescribable sounds, and vice versa. My perception was going crazy. I also recall talking to Matt and Charlotte about how everyone that wasn't us seemed so fucking weird. EVERYONE was a straight up weirdo. The white tourists, the asian tourists, the bums, the few locals, everyone...fucking weirdos. Everyone seemed extremely strange, but only once did I think, "Wait, aren't I a fucking weirdo? I must look like a fucking weirdo, staggering around, barely keeping a consistent stride/pace, stopping, staring into space, licking my lips, glossy eyed...I've gotta be weird....WAIT, aren't I tripping out on drugs?" But no, I was normal as far as I was concerned.
I remember when us three would stop in the middle of the sidewalk and just look at random things and trip out. We must have looked really strange. I remember pointing at the top of some building - "Look at that!" The top of this building looked like a cake to me, with candles. "So WEIRD! ...I'm trippin' out.." We kept walking til we stopped in front of the Apple store. "Dude, check this out." Matt said. There was a giant iPhone in the window, and on this iPhone was a demo or something showing the thousands of apps. They were all different colors, and they were just shooting out from the center of the screen, getting larger and larger till they disappeared off to the sides. I was staring at this, tripping the fuck out. The apps seemed to come out the screen and shoot out towards me, and I felt like I was in a big portal of flying apps, with all the bright, fast moving colors flying past me. This is perhaps one of the trippiest things I saw that night. "Dude thats a fucking TRIP! I don't like it, let's go." I said, sorta frightened. "Isn't that what we're doing though?" Matt made a good point, but we continued on our way anyhow. The whole time I was either on the side of Matt or Charlotte, or behind both of them. I kept bumping into them on accident and stepping on their heels, but it felt instinctive to stick close to them. I felt like they were my guardians that would keep me safe from everything that was tripping me out. Another one of the trippiest things from this night was my speech. It was slurred and it felt slow, even when I wasn't talking aloud, but the trippiest thing was not knowing whether I was talking to Matt and Charlotte, talking aloud to myself, or talking to myself in my head. I couldn't figure it out. I barely knew what I was saying. There were times when I was confused to whether I was even talking or not. I would think my mouth was shut at the same time I thought I was talking. There were times where I would think that I just said something but being confused to whether it even came out at all.
Our plan all along was to go check out this photo gallery that I had been to before, but it was all the way on the other end of the strip. Coming from the zoo, it is kind of a far walk, but tripping out on mushrooms made it seem like a 3 hour urban hike. Time was so distorted and contorted, and every block we walked felt the same from the last. It seemed as if we were walking in place, going nowhere. Finally we get near Senor Frogs, which is right near the photo gallery. We were across the street from the Yardhouse restaurant when I was at the peak of my trip. I was sweating like crazy and I felt dizzy. The peak of a mushroom trip is indescribable. Everything is just CRAZY....FUCKING CRAZY. I don't know what else to say. I was tripping out harder than I could ever imagine. I told Matt and Charlotte that I had to sit down, so I sat down on this ledge that was at the intersection we were standing at. I sat down, and Matt and Charlotte did the same. We sat for a minute when Matt and Charlotte got up..."K, let's go."
"Noo.......wait..." My mumble was slurred. We sat down for a minute longer til I got up again. We crossed the street when Matt asked me where the photo gallery was. Since we left the spot where we smoked our cigarettes, I kept asking, "What are we doing? Where are we going?" The mushrooms made me forget everything. There were some instances where I completely forgot that I ate mushrooms, wondering why everything felt so weird. I told matt I didn't know where the gallery was, all the while wanting to take off running to the beach or a field or something because all the lights, people and sounds were driving me crazy...literally crazy. I was trying my hardest, and I mean my honest all trying not to freak out. I've never been so scared in my life. I was absolutely terrified. I remember being so terrified and confused that I felt like I would peel the skin off my face, and just thinking that freaked me out more. I was going crazy. I had to constantly anchor myself to reality by telling myself that it was all just the mushrooms, but being on mushrooms, my mind was just in a completely different plane of thinking, so it was a constant struggle.
We continued walking around til we somehow came across the photo gallery we meant to go to all along. We walked inside...and holy shit....
I've been in this photo gallery once before. Some guy travels the world and takes these AMAZING photographs, and this was his gallery. His photos are displayed all throughout this gallery, and they're very big.
I remember one of the first photos we tripped out on was this photo of a wooden boat on the shore of a beach. White sand, blue water and blue skies. Staring at it, I felt like I was IN the photo. All of a sudden I wasn't in some photo gallery in Waikiki, but on a beach somewhere, with this fucking boat. I snapped out of it and we checked out the rest of the gallery. These photos seemed holographic. They popped out the surface. We saw faces in the photos. The photos moved. I remember we went into this little room with some couches and chairs in it. We sat down on these seats and Charlotte and I were questioning if we were allowed to sit there...or if we were even allowed to be in the room at all, when in reality, we were, but mushrooms just make things weird.
We tripped out in this photo gallery a bit longer then we left. Walking outside along the sidewalk I remember we heard some music across the street. I think it was like Rod Stewart or Earth, WInd & FIre coming from Senor Frogs. It was funny for no apparent reason. All of a sudden we're inside the Wyland art gallery. What a trip. Statues and paintings of whales and undersea life that seemed to twist and churn, vibrate and melt before my very eyes. There was so much going on in this place. We just walked around and looked at shit, when Charlotte and I noticed, or thought, that we were in some kind of office that we weren't supposed to be in. All of a sudden I got some really bad vibes. It felt like we didn't belong there; The entire universe just wanted me to get the fuck out of there. I told Matt that we had to go, and when he asked why, I simply replied, "This place is WEIRD!"
We leave the Wyland gallery. Since the peak of my trip, I felt an undying urge to return to Matt's car. I felt like his car, where we began our journey, was the safe haven that would protect me from my trip. It felt justified, because his car was the closest thing to home, so when it came to the time for us to walk back, I felt a little relieved, and embraced my psychedelic trip without fear. I think the walk back was more of a trip than the walk to. I remember looking up at a palm tree on the sidewalk, gazing up at it's height. It seemed to go up forever. I remember raising my head, looking at this tree. I swear it felt like my head wouldn't stop tilting back. This tree looked infinite. Weird. I think the walk back was more of a trip because we walked on the side with all the street performers. I remember we walked past this guy in what looked like an elmo suit. A fat, fuzzy-red suit, but his head was exposed, and I think he was crying, or pretending to cry. I remember staring at this, being scared, when Matt says to this guy, "What up?!" -----The only thing I remember between the emo elmo guy and returning to Matt's car was hearing Mike Love's voice. We were waiting to cross at an intersection, when we made out Mike Love's voice. I don't know with who, but he was performing at Tiki's. I remember how beautiful his voice sounded, and it really made me relaxed. We stood there on the corner of the block, staring up across the street, just listening to the sound of familiar music. It was awesome.
Finally, we get back to the Zoo parking lot. The first thing I did was go behind a tree to pee in some bushes. It felt like the bushes were gonna swallow me or something. After that, I sit down in Matt's car and drank some of the water I had bought earlier. That drink of water was the first thing I consumed since I started tripping. Holding the bottle up, I noticed the water shimmering from the lights around us. It felt like I was drinking crystals. And with that drink of water, it was time to head out. We were all still tripping, however not as hard, but still tripping balls nonetheless. We still wanted to do something before heading back towards Pearl City side, and for some reason, we decided to go to the big Safeway in Kapahulu to look at the vegetables and fruits. On the short car ride there, I remember reality was just totally different. Just the way I thought and perceived everything around me was so completely different and new. I kinda felt confused, wondering why I looked at the world and thought of my life so differently, but the word "differently" cannot even come close to what I truly mean. Like I said, mushrooms bring you to a completely different plane of thinking and consciousness that you will never experience or even begin to fathom what it is like unless you eat some. It is so unreal and amazing.
We get to the Safeway parking lot and chilled on Matt's trunk for a bit while we smoked cigarettes. I remember telling Matt and Charlotte, "K, we walked the strip, and now we're at safeway in Kapahulu! Everything is weird because we ate mushrooms!" All while hitting my hand into my palm, as if I was trying to make a point. Matt told me to not talk so loud cause there were people around. I said that because it almost felt like an epiphany to realize what I was really doing; sort of poking my mind through the psychedelic barrier that kept my mind out of the sober reality for the last few hours. I was in both the psychedelic world and the sober/waking world I've known all my life.
All of a sudden we're walking through the beer aisle. All I could say was, "Green bottles!" We were asking the workers where the bathroom was, but the problem wasn't that we couldn't find it; I just think we had difficulty taking directions. Walking around the store, it was very bright, and the colors of all the different foods were so vibrant. Matt and Charlotte go to the bathroom while I waited for them outside. They come out, and finally, it's time to call it a trip.
The drive back to Pearl City was a chill trip. Matt was playing the Feathers record from Dead Meadow, which is basically the soundtrack to a psychedelic mushroom trip. OUR mushroom trip at least. There were things I saw while looking out the window that I want to describe, but I know I can't because it's beyond words.
We get to Gourmet's in Pearl City where all our friends were chilling. Matt parks the car, and I open the door and step out. The instant I stepped out of the car, I was completely over the trip and entered the afterglow. The afterglow to a mushroom trip feels so good. I remember feeling happier than I've ever felt. I was happy just to be alive, and being happy and content with where I was and who I was with. It made me happy to see all my friends just doing what we do; hanging out and chilling; enjoying each other's company. Vibes were good. I felt good because it felt like absolutely nothing could bring me down. I thought of all the little problems in my life and realized it was nothing to fret over. I felt like I could do anything. Matt and I busted out our boards and skated around the parking lot. I remember skating right alongside Matt, smiling and laughing, being more high on life than on mushrooms. I rode the mushroom trip, and now I was riding my skateboard, all while riding the high of life. I'm so glad I discovered mushrooms the way I did. Nothing could've been better. I look at even the littlest of things so much different now that I've seen them in the psychedelic light.
I urge everyone to try some mushrooms at least once. It'll change your life. It definitely changed mine for the better, forever.
