Dose - Question about Mushroom Experience

[TyaGE]

I have used the search engine but couldn't really find an answer to the questions I had after an experience, so here it goes:



Last week three friends and me tried psilocybin mushrooms. For me it
was the second time. The first time (a couple of months ago) I had
taken 1,5 gram fresh and barely noticed anything. Now we had dried
ones. We decided to make tea out of it. I personally I had a total of
3,5 grams all through the evening, drank all the tea and ate the
mushroom residu that was left on the bottom. At the end of the evening
we even tried smoking some left-overs, rolling them into cigarettes,
but for me this had no noticable effect.



All in all it was al very cool experience and we laughed our asses off.
First of all, it made me very, very active, to the point where I had to
stand up and leave the room, pacing through the hallways for a while. I
experienced some closed eye visuals, in the form of very complicated
and yet extremely orderly figures and delicate intertwined shapes and
patterns. Lights were brighter, especially a TL-tube-light in the hall
and flames from a big candle. Later on we all had some hallucinations,
one we all saw at the same moment when two of us had their hands placed
close to each other on the floor in opposite directions. The fingers of
the hands seemed to slowly come together and forge into one, while I
could at the same time reason and see for myself that both hands were
not moving. Later on (only after staring/focussing for a couple of
seconds) I saw the arm of one of the guys turn into some sort of
strange, very old, hairy, brown cloven hoofed animal paw (not
intimitating or scary) and later it even transmorfed into a tree-legged
chicken paw or something. I also experienced a very mild disconnected
feeling of looking down at my life and I remember thinking some strange
and funny things, which I don't remember anything. I also felt some
distrust towards other people that were sober and in the building (not
in the same room) with us, and who I didn't know (very well). I
remember not wanting to have anything to do with them. Overall the
night and the atmosphere was very funny, and we really could laugh
crazily about almost anything it seemed.



All the experiences mentioned above were very mild and not at all
overwhelming. I could feel where it could go if the trip would be
stronger and what it would feel like, but it never crossed that border
of where you lose control. I am not saying that it wasn't nice or
enough, because it was, it was a very cool experience; The intensity
was just not what I expected to get from 3,5 grams, and I am curious as
to why that is.



The questions that I now have are:



1) 3,5 dried seems like quite a dose, but the trip wasn't as heavy as I
expected it to be. What could be the reason for this? (I weigh 101 Kg,
didn't eat for at least 4 hours before ingesting, dosage?)

2) How long can you keep dried mushrooms before they lose (some of)
their potency? We kept them in closed bags at room temperature and had
bought them a couple of months before we really took them. Is this too
long?

3) We made tea out of them, because one of the guys had done this
before and had had good experiences with this. (The first time I took
them I ate the frsh ones) I have read somewhere else on this forum that
heat can make the mushrooms lose their potency. We chopped them up and
cooked them for half an hour or so, to make sure most of the psilocybin
was extracted. Coud this be too long? If you make mushroom tea, what is
the best way to do it?

4) What about smoking mushrooms? Is there any sense in this? Half of
the group really thought they felt the intensity increase after doing
this, I didn't. We smoked them with tobacco.

5) Does smoking pot intensify the trip? We tried this too, but again it
had no real effect on me. On our previous trip the mushrooms really hit
hard with one of the other guys after smoking a joint. He hadn't felt
much beforehand, but lost his mind completely for several minutes after
smoking pot, when he was in the bathroom taking a piss.

6) Does it make a big difference in the intensity of the trip if you
take an extra, smaller dose of shrooms halfway into it? Does this just
prolong the trip or also intensify it? I've read that with MDMA it
doesn't work when you take extra afterwards (that only the speedy
effect is prolonged, if speed is included in an XTC-pill, but not the
feeling you get from the MDMA). Does this also apply to psilocybin?



Well, thats enough questions I guess. If anybody can help me, thanks!



[EDIT] Forgot to mention: We had Stropharia Cubensis.


Edited by: TyaGE

[sterling77]

3) Forget the tea. I really don't suggest it, it's so ineffective. SWIM has made mushroom tea three times and only once got some baseline effects. Just suck it up and eat them. And why were you cooking them?

4) I really don't suggest smoking them either. Smoking mushrooms is the least effective method of consumption (I think).

5) Pot definetly intensifies the trip. A small amount of people might disagree, but it definetly does. The first time SWIM partook of the shrooms he waited an hour and a half without feeling effects, so he decided to smoke a joint out of frustration. About 10 minutes later he broke through and had the time of his life.

6)It would be most intense and probably best to take one large dose all at once. If you did take a booster dose later on it would prolong the trip and increase intensity, but not as much than if you had taken them all at once.

Hope this helped

[TyaGE]

And
why were you cooking them?

Because
that was supposed to be the way to extract the psilocybin from the mushrooms, into the liquid. Also I forgot to say it wasn’t
really full blown cooking, more like letting it stand on a small flame and keeping
it just below boiling point for 30 minutes. Since this is such an ineffective
way to take them, strange that most people I know over here in my town make tea
out of it.

I guess
next time I just need to take a somewhat bigger dose than the first time, about
2 to 3 grams dried, and just eat them. I don’t even find the taste that
repugnant, especially dried. It was more like: “Well, last time it didn’t work
that well, let’s try it this way now.”

Thanks for
the help!

[turfshark_40]

I weigh almost the same as you do, and 3.5 grams is enough for a medium trip for me, although I just eat them.


I would also say that they were left out at too high of a temperature fortoo long. The best way to keep dried mushrooms is to vacuum-seal them with a dessicant pack(those things they put in vitamins and stuff to remove moisture) and put them in the freezer.Edited by: turfshark_40

[motorhead]

It sounds to me like you had a very positive pyscheldelic experience. Laughing is a good thing. You had hallucinations and feelings of disasociation. These sound like good things to me. Losing control on pyschedelics can be a memorable experience or a horrible one. But hey, Im all for the safety thing and all, but if you want a crazier trip-just take more.


PSTo much heat can destroy some of the alkaloids. if doing tea dont boil it to long. Ive never heard of smoking shrooms, sounds like a waste. do a search on how to properly prepare tea, that will help.

[TyaGE]

Thanks
for the replies and tips!

It
sounds to me like you had a very positive pyscheldelic experience. Laughing is
a good thing.

Ow it
was, really, don't get me wrong, it was very, very pleasant! It is just that I
expected a heavier trip considering the dosage, I've read some books (Terence
McKenna, some Dutch stuff) about this and searched the Net before taking them
and that led me to believe this. It is more curiosity as to why this didn't
happen. Of course I am also very curious to explore and get a harder trip, but
I am in no hurry.

Losing control on pyschedelics can be a memorable experience or a horrible
one.

I have
read much about this, and I know a couple of guys who have had frightening
experiences, but only now I can sort of imagine what it would feel like. At
some point during the trip I felt myself getting sucked/pulled into some sort
of strange state of feeling/being (hard to describe) and although this was
still very light, I can imagine what it could feel like if this gets
uncontrollable, and that it could be hard to get a grip on yourself. On one
hand I can see it leading to something fantastic with a huge impact, on the
other I also understand that this could become something really terrifying,
especially when there are people you don't trust or know present. We will see
what happens next time.

Ive
never heard of smoking shrooms, sounds like a waste.

I hadn't heard of it either. It wasn't really a serious plan, we just had two
small parts of shroom left and one of us mentioned it, so we thought what the
hell, let's try it. Didn't have much effect, but then again we didn't smoke that much.

[motorhead]

Right on man, do your thing. Just remember to take a sitter with you if your planning on trippin really hard. Read some of the threads and stuff on how to prepare for a trip and stay safe and all that. Have fun.