Shrooms
By: Trevor Thompson
Tags: Hollywood, Shrooms, Weed, Cannabis, Drugs

Shrooms

Nina, Clay, Dwayne & Myself aka “The ILLegal Eagles” in the Hollywood Hills

In September of 2018 I traveled to Los Angeles, California for a solo-birthday trip. I stayed with a couple of friends in Sherman Oaks, but ventured to nearby neighborhoods & eateries.

My last night there, I hung with friends who lived near Little Armenia…let’s call them “Savannah”, “Nina” & “Clay”. Savannah’s brother, “Dwayne” also flew in to hang with us, from Colorado. The apartment we stayed in before venturing out for our day trip was a boho-chic efficiency littered with eclectic cannabis paraphernalia of every sort, as Savannah is an instrumental voice in the women-led cannabis revolution. We smoked a fair amount, then Ubered into the Hollywood Hills.

Myself, Nina, Savannah, Dwayne & Clay aka “The ILLegal Eagles” in the Hollywood Hills

Once we reached a point suitable for hiking, we began making our way through million dollar mansions, while goofily conversing & playing in the streets, as pretentious onlookers glared from their windows & yards. Clearly we weren’t “Hollywood” & dubbed ourselves the “ILLegal Eagles”, citing how free we felt doing something that’s stupidly illegal. After making our way through a maze of neighborhoods, we arrived at a dirt trail leading us directly above the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. Once settled, everyone begin to advise me on practices that would make the experience more lucid & memorable, as they’d all done Shrooms multiple times & I was the only psychedelic-virgin. Clay began playing rhythmic instrumentals from a portable speaker, Nina began blowing bubbles, Dwayne began handing out Sour Octopus candies & Savannah began distributing colored sunglasses to each of us, along with Shroom stems. Once ingested, we began dancing & taking Instagram-worthy pics while continuing to smoke weed pens, as the sun began to set over the Los Angeles skyline. 40min in everyone but me was CLEARLY trippin’ balls. I was then given the bag of Shrooms by Savannah, who told me “Ok, I was trying to baby you, but whatever you take from this point on is on you. I’m so surprised you don’t feel anything yet?!” I proceeded to take 3 large stems from the bag & forcibly chew them into a paste, before swallowing & chasing them with a half empty bottle of water.

LA Sunset from above the HOLLWOOD sign

20min later, Nina blew what I’m sure in reality was 10–12 bubbles, but now fully under the influence of Shrooms, presented themselves to be something like 10,000 bubbles. I began excitedly freaking out, screaming “WOAH WOAH WOAH, HOLY SHIT, WOAH!” Everyone began to laugh, now realizing I was on the same psychedelic-plane as them. We continued watching the sunset, while having odd, quirky conversations about everything under the sun. Each person saying things in conversation more odd than the last, while we all noticed Dwayne handling his trip like a seasoned vet of Shrooming. Apparently he’d ingested Shrooms so many times before that it was most likely the equivalent of Seth Rogen operating under the influence of weed. It was freakishly impressive.

Nina, Clay & Myself

As LA began to go dark & stars appeared in the sky, a giant beam of light, reminiscent of the heavenly beam seen in “THIS IS THE END” began shining on us, getting closer & closer, while dust from the hills kicked up. We all freaked out, while shielding our eyes in panic & confusion. Suddenly a voice off in the distance yelled “YOU CAN’T BE NEAR THE SIGN AFTER DARK! YOU BETTER MOVE BEFORE THE COPS SHOW!” We hurriedly gathered our belongings & began laughing & sprinting the trail back into the Hollywood Hills, through the maze of mansions & tiredly arrived at a cross-street on a steep incline. As we collapsed in a patch of gravel-riddled grass, we caught our breath from exhaustion & fits of laughter, while ordering an Uber.

Fits of laughter after avoiding an LAPD chopper

As we waited for the Uber’s arrival, Clay’s clip-on speaker continued to play bassy, rhythmic music, while sat on the ground, slightly resting on my foot. The most odd sensation since the bubbles, then occurred. I began to have an episode of Synesthesia, as I could see the music pulsing from the speaker, into my foot & make its way throughout my body in a breathtaking array of colors. On top of an already trippy experience, I had an embarrassingly odd, orgasmic like sensation take place, due to overwhelming stimulation of my senses. As I tried my best to silently let the sensation take place & waited for it to subside, our Uber finally arrived. I’m not sure how it happened but I ended up riding shotgun. It sucked.

Still outta my mind, I could only cope with the experience by getting into an upright, fetal-like position & saying a mantra I can’t recall, to myself. I’m uncertain if our Uber driver could tell we were all under the influence of anything, let alone psychedelics, but I felt myself attempting to hide it from her. Our driver, a nice, middle aged woman, began making her way downhill throughout the, now dark, twisty, curvy Hollywood Hills, which are steep & menacing at night. My anxiety was shooting through the roof & I struggled to keep what little composure I had. As she navigated the sketchy roads ahead, she notified us that her GPS had lost connection, as we were too deep in the hills to maintain a stable connection. She soldiered ahead without direction & eventually got us to residential streets.

Stimulating sights

We arrived back in our initial neighborhood, we wandered the streets, mesmerized by the effects of headlights approaching & taillights passing. We stopped for photo-ops all along the way, as LA is perfect & picturesque in this way. Eventually we arrived at Tommy’s, a world-famous hamburger spot.

Tommy’s Hamburgers

Each of us composed ourselves enough to order all the food our hearts desired at that very moment. As we sat & devoured our food in the most silence that had filled the air, since the tense-car ride home. We all knew this was a moment that would connect us for quite sometime, in a way that we’d never experienced before. After finishing such a dank meal, we all wanted nothing more than to be back in our own home-dwellings in attempt to come down, however long that may take.

Myself, Dwayne & Savannah

Afterwards, we trekked back to Savannah’s house & went our separate ways from there, hugging & exchanging socials. I ordered my Uber ride back to Sherman Oaks & to my confusion & terror, my driver looked to be, seemingly, no older than maybe 15yrs old. “Nah, it’s hard to tell from these tiny ass pics on the app, there’s no way he looks the same when he arrives”, I told myself. Sure enough, when he arrived, his picture had done him exact justice. He looked barely of age to drive one of those two-toned red & yellow Fisher Price kiddy cars. Against every instinct telling me to cancel the ride & order another, I hopped in the back passenger seat. The driver sped off & proceeded to hit the highway going around 90mph, while weaving in & out of traffic. Still having lucid hallucinations, I began to have something of a panic attack, all while the driver casually attempted to converse with me. I was too busy trying not to heave my lungs outta my mouth to even process what words were. After trying & failing to get him to focus on not making us roadkill, I finally laid down in the fetal position & pretended to sleep. I promised myself I wouldn’t “wake” until he verbally cued me to do so or until I felt a long stop, indicating my arrival.

When the nightmarish, Tokyo Drift-style ride ended, I hurried into my friends’ apartment. I crashed into the couch, buried myself under the covers & slept for 2hrs before awaking, collecting my things & heading to LAX.

After a much calmer Uber ride, I arrived, noticing insane, otherworldly things STILL happening! Lights were leaving a trail of luminous matter in the air, people’s bodies were doubling or tripling & trailing their paths of motion & other inanimate objects pulsed vivid bursts of colors. As I made my way through the line for TSA, I noticed a stationary trash can, seemingly sprout human legs & begin to run across the airport. I began to feel on edge again, losing my grip on reality, struggling with what I knew to be factual vs fictional. Gauging the lack-of reaction to what I was certain I’d just witnessed, I knew I was trippin’. I told myself mentally “It’s one thing to be a POC in the airport, you CANNOT be a POC, while also acting sketchy as fuck in an airport…THAT won’t fly”, no pun intended. I made my way through the TSA checkpoint, protocols & all, enough to continue to my plane back to Dallas, TX.

Once again, while seated on the plane, hyperventilating, I told myself “DUDE, you CANNOT be a POC acting jittery on a plane”. Unluckily for myself, I’d let my AirPods slip out of my sweatpants pocket, when I’d initially left DFW. My Uber driver was nice enough to hold onto them for me & had texted me telling me he’d meet me to return them, upon my arrival. While it was comfortable to know this complete stranger would inconvenience himself to return a valuable item, he didn’t even have to admit to finding, it sucked for my plane ride home. I had no way to zone out or calm myself with the absence of a way to privately listen to my music. Finally, I decided the best option was to close my eyes & be out of body as much as possible. Eventually, I fell into a deep sleep & once I hit the ground in Dallas, I felt a calmness & clarity that’s only ever present when I’m sober. I’d finally come all the way down from what seemed like a psychedelic-marathon.

While I’m admittedly the most anti-Texan Texan ever & have no real emotional connection or tether to this state, I can’t lie…when I stepped into my apartment & curled up in my bed, there was no place I’d have rather been. I was home.

Home

Everyone’s experience will vary drastically on such a drug, as many things influence your trip, but one shared experience I’ve found to hold true amongst others who’ve experienced Shrooms as well is appreciation for the beauty of life you’ll have afterwards. There’s nothing comparable to the beautifully trippy experience you have with this drug. You’ll undoubtedly wonder when it might be appropriate to experience again & which friends you may want to have such a life-impacting experience with next. It’s something I pray everyone gets to responsibly experience at least once in their lifetime.

STORY BY: Trevor Thompson

(@interwebTREV)