Q: How did the idea to do psychedelics before class come to you?
A: I was starting a big art project at college, but then I was stuck on finding new and creative ideas. There were different projects from different courses due around the same time which put me under a lot more pressure to come up with new things. One Saturday night, I came across this documentary series called “How to Change Your Mind,” which is a show about experimenting with psychedelic drugs to alter one’s mind. After a few episodes in, I was pretty curious if doing psychedelics purposely before doing anything related to my project would spark some creativity in me. And since I had a graphic design class on Monday afternoon, I got myself some shrooms the night before.
Q: What were the notable effects that you felt when you started?
A: I first took them first in my bedroom alone the night before class. I only had this indescribable intense feeling of happiness that overwhelmed me, but there was no other significant change in my sense of time. After making sure it was safe, I put some shrooms on my pizza the next morning. Once they worked their magic, visually, things remained more or less consistent with what I’d normally be seeing sober, but everyone sounded a lot louder, which was distracting and off-putting.
Q: How did the experiment go when you were finally in class?
A: Difficult. We had these iMacs in our classroom, and it intrigued me so much how the screen became blurry in the split millisecond when I jumped to another window. I noticed that I paid attention to the littlest things that I wouldn’t normally do since I could see everything vividly and in detail. Even the lights flickering in strange patterns that seemed rhythmic, and how my body sank in the chair – these little things were captivating to me which shifted my focus away from doing my actual project. And what I found most interesting was that I really hated being surrounded by sober people because I was the only one tripping! I don’t have anything against crowds, but at this time I isolated myself from everybody else because I felt so out of place.
Q: Would you say that the outcome of this experiment meets your expectations? If not, would you give this experiment another try under a different circumstance?
A: I was pretty disappointed because I couldn’t accomplish the result I was aiming for. I did my research after the experiment and found out that doing psychedelics would be much better outdoors in nature and just letting the open space give me freedom. I would like to think that experimenting with psychedelics should be an experience on its own, and not part of a process to reach a certain goal. We tend to do things a certain way because that’s where our experience guides us. And I think doing such experiments would be better done to add new inspirations to our brain instead of planning to achieve something. Also, being inside a room with no windows and full of people make me feel uneasy and anxious, and I think that anxiety prevents me from being productive at all.
