From: phil osborn (philosborn@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Dec 18 1999 - 00:34:36 MST
For a couple of years - about 1968 - 1970, I smoked cannabis regularly - on
average every other day, as I carefully calculated my dosage to minimize
habituation, etc. (Some people I knew in college were doing an ounce of
hashish per day in Sweden, where it was dirt cheap - you definitely build up
a tolerance VERY quickly with THC.)
While the symptoms discussed here are very familiar to me - and several
people who I turned on - high-school friends, etc. - DID hallucinate,
something happened to me the first time I got stoned which I have only heard
from one other user. Basically, at some point, after smoking joint after
joint, pipe after pipe at the SDS Christmas party - as a Libertarian, I got
along better with them than my fellow YAFers - I slipped into a completely
altered state in which I completely lost touch with perceptual reality -
like Snow Crash, literally - my entire perceptual field fell apart into
smaller and smaller segments and finally into undifferentiated snow.
I was still conscious, but I couldn't see, hear or feel. Possibly -
probably - due to my objectivist background - after an immense internal
struggle, I was able to formulate a thought (I couldn't remember any words
for several seconds). It was: "Existence exists, independent of my
consciousness." After that, I could think, altho I still was completely out
of touch with perceptual reality.
Then the initial process reversed itself and the snow swirled into a carpet
of patterns and then back to normal.... Except that my senses were working
at about ten or twenty times normal efficiency. I could totally isolate the
music from the two separate stereo speakers accross the crowded room. Then
I started focussing on the separate conversations that were going on - about
15 or 20 in a LOUD party - and I listened to one and then two and then three
and then finally 15 or 20, simultaneously, keeping all of them separate.
Finally I dared move and s l o w l y raised my arm to read my watch. I
could clearly hear my pulse along with everything else, so I counted it. It
was about 180. My normal was around 60. Then I started feeling incredibly
HOT!!! I managed to get up and walk to the door, ignoring the questions and
looks (I was looking very strange, I'm sure). Outside it was about 20
degrees F, but I felt perfectly warm and comfortable in my shirt. I went
out into the dark and sat on my little Honda 50. The heavy, solid door to
the party house was closed, but I could still follow the conversations.
Suddenly everything got quiet. The music stopped. I heard anxious
whispers: "Hey, where'd that guy go? He was really looking weird, man!"
"Oh, you mean the YAF guy?" "YAF!!! What's he doing here?" "Hey, he's cool
man." "Somebody better check on him."
So I listened to them approach the door, open it and then peer out into the
darkness. I couldn't remember how to talk, so I tried to stamp my feet to
alert them to my presence, but they didn't hear and went back inside. About
then, I suddenly felt COLD!!! I went back in and asked for a blanket, and
another, and another, and great shuddering shivers wracked me as they piled
coats and other odds and ends on me.
The other person who had almost the identical story to relate was a high up
in the LP. It only happened once to either of us. I believe that the
brain/mind system resyncs to whatever permutations a stimulant like THC
introduces, so that really different experiences like this one are rare and
generally non-repeatable. Too bad...
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