stories
DMT-Nexus Publishes First Issue of New e-Zine: ‘The Nexian’
Check out The Nexian, the first ever e-zine produced by members of DMT-Nexus. It’s a free PDF download with 56 pages of trip reports, horticultural advice, interviews, and DMT-inspired artworks by members of the Nexus community. One feature that stands out to me is Jungle Stewing: An Interview with Antrocles. Antrocles is Antony Galvan, a DMT enthusiast who runs a healing retreat inspired by his work with the Secoya tribe of the Ecuadorian Amazon. He talks about the relationship between language and the psychedelic experience: If there’s one thing I’ve really gleaned from these tribes is that if...
One Last LSD Trip The Beautiful Death of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley was known for his incredible books and essays, among them The Doors of Perception, a 1954 book discussing his experiences with mescaline, and Island, a novel about a utopian society. In Island, the citizens inhabit a constant state of acceptance thanks to meditation and a psychedelic agent they call “moksha medicine.” A character describes moksha as “the reality reliever, the truth-and-beauty pill,” allowing users to “catch a glimpse of the world as it looks to someone who has been liberated from his bondage to the ego.” Huxley was an elder statesman of the psychedelic movement, one who advocated the intelligent and cautious use of...
Steve & Steve, a brilliant web comic about an acid trip
Steve & Steve, an online graphic novel by Patrick Farley, follows fictionalized versions of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as they embark on an LSD trip in Silicon Valley, 1975. Together they discuss lost love, the Cold War, the history of human evolution, and much more. The second “issue” was just released, and it’s just as incredible as the first. Patrick Farley is also the creative force behind electricsheepcomix.com, perhaps best known for bringing Terence McKenna’s “Stoned Ape” theory to life in the form of an animated comic called The First Word. Check it out, it’s just as trippy as...
Jason Grapples With a Star An Interstellar Trip Report
Setting: The riverfront in Hartford, CT. Chemical Lens: 25I-NBOMe, a “research chemical” with effects resembling LSD Jason and I settle down on a green patch of grass in Riverfront Plaza. The fireworks are spent and the crowds have gone home. We are alone except for the cleanup crew, who rustle around collecting garbage and putting away equipment. They give us some strange looks as we remain there into the wee hours of the morning, but mostly they leave us alone. Floodlights illuminate the city park. I feel like we are lying in the middle of a football field, complete...
Shrooms for Five: My First Psychedelic Experience
It is a wet February night, and we are gathered at Lee and Dan’s suburban apartment. There are five of us — our hosts, plus Alex, Jason, and me. We have a larger group of friends, but the rest of the crew is not into “serious” drugs. The five of us jokingly call ourselves the “Psychonautic Subcommittee” ever since we tried MDMA for the first time together last fall. Tonight, it’s time to explore a new psychedelic frontier. We each grind an eighth of an ounce of dried mushrooms, mix it with orange juice, and gulp it down....
Tierra Vida: An Ayahuasca Journey
There have been a flurry of ayahuasca documentaries lately, but I think this one takes the cake. In 2012, Alex Ward lived out of a backpack for 8 months, participated in over forty shamanic ceremonies, and went exploring “far beyond the veil of reality with Ayahuasca.” A freelance artist and filmmaker, Alex was originally looking for artistic inspiration to spur his creative pursuits. But as he puts it, “I got a little more than I bargained for.” Lucky for us, he made a short (26 min) video testimonial about the experience and what he learned from it. Check it...
Hella_Brad live-tweets his first acid trip
This is from a few months back, but is so full of innocent wonder that I have to post it! In September, @hella_brad took his first dose of acid and decided to live-tweet the trip. Considering the frequency and quality of the tweets, not to mention his ability to walk around and socialize, I imagine he took a low dose. Some have questioned the veracity of the tweets, but to me it seems real, and it would be a silly thing to fake. Hella_brad’s Twitter persona comes across as genuine and endearing, not just in these tweets but...
Radio interview with psychedelic pioneer Jim Fadiman
Public radio show “To the Best of Our Knowledge” interviewed psychedelic pioneer Jim Fadiman. The full 45 minute interview can be downloaded or streamed from their website. Jim Fadiman is one of the original psychonauts – a friend of Richard Alpert and Ken Kesey in the Sixties – who went on to do pioneering research on psychedelics and creativity, and helped found the transpersonal psychology movement. In this EXTENDED interview, Steve Paulson talks with Fadiman about a lifetime of unconventional thinking. The interview covers a variety of topics, from Fadiman’s days as a graduate student in the psychedelic...
Free Book: The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley became a pioneer in the (practically nonexistent) field of modern psychedelic literature in 1954 when he published The Doors of Perception, a short but detailed book about his experience with mescaline. Many people would hesitate to publish a book about such a controversial and personal topic even today, half a century later, but Huxley staked his claim smack dab in the middle of the 1950s. The term “psychedelic” hadn’t even been coined yet (though Huxley would contribute to its creation a few years later). This book represents one of the first and best-known “trip reports”, at...
My First Solo LSD Experience Discovering the Inner Sanctum with Some Molecular Assistance
I had taken LSD once before, but it was a smaller dose taken in a social setting. This time it would be 250µg, alone in the comfort of my apartment. Here are a few anecdotes and musings from that sunny April day. Some were written in my expanded state of mind, while others were recollected in the following days and weeks. It was one of the most remarkable days of my life. I peer in the mirror, in awe at the living being before me. My hand is pale but splotchy, a red and purple thing against the...
Hypnagogia, the Limbo of Sleep
I have always liked this story about Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher. You’ve probably heard it before in one form or another, but it’s a perfect opener for today’s post. Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction!...