Set & Setting

As I wanted to try LSD for quite some time already, I decided to try 1D-LSD (legal derivative in Germany) in the holidays, where I would have enough time to reflect and recover. As I am already experienced with psychedelics in general, mostly through personal experiences with psilocybe mushrooms, I wanted to start with a slightly higher dose than usually recommended for a first time (150ug), which would turn out to be a strong trip, as promised by PsychonautWiki and several other sources (friends and the The Drug Users Bible).

In terms of preparation, I acquired some fruits to try during the trip, put on nice music, cleaned the apartment and got some blankets. I also brought my sketchbook and a pen to scribble around in, which would turn out to be a really good idea later in the trip. I had my partner as my tripsitter and they also made sure to write down the keynotes for this report.

Dosage

I ordered two blotters, each 150ug, so I took 1 1/2 blotters total and placed them under my tongue. I held them there for around 20 minutes and swallowed them with a few sips of water after that. As of my personal research, I also found a few people, saying you would need to keep the blotters under your tongue for around 40 minutes, but I couldn’t find any actual reasons to do so, so I didn’t. During the trip, I found 200ug to be a good dosage, even though I wanted to try the full 300ug at first, which my partner thought to be a bit much for an inexperienced individual. I feel like 300ug could be a good amount for another time, but I’m not entirely sure if I can handle any more than that for now.

Effects

All effects listed are taken from the Subjective Effect Index (SEI)

Trip timeline

I took the LSD at around 3:23 pm. I originally wanted to start a bit earlier, and later in the trip, this would have turned out to be a better idea, as I originally expected the trip to be around 12 to 16 hours long. I haven’t done much research as to why it seemed longer, but it might’ve been the specific derivative.

T+00:00: I cut one of the blotters in half and took both the whole and the sliced piece under my tongue.

T+00:17: I swallow the blotters with a little bit of water. No effects so far as expected.

T+00:44: While sitting next to my sitter, I notice their scribbles on a piece of paper to be a bit more interesting to look at than usual. I also find enjoyment in watching blinking lights on electronic devices across the room. I couldn’t quite pinpoint any actual effects yet, but I remember rambling about some random topic for several minutes and having a specific feeling in my head. No headache or anything, just a rough observation.

T+01:01: I lay down and get a comfortable blanket. I feel very excited, almost childlike. Although they’re not too strong, I notice fractal patterns to form on the ceiling near light sources. At this point, these patterns still go away when I look somewhere else, but quickly form again, as soon as I look back. The texture of the ceiling seems to flow as if it was melted metal. Music is much more enjoyable and I remember heavily connecting to a song’s lyrics. Quickly after that, an effect of the walls and ceiling breathing starts to set in, which sparks a strong feeling of joy in me.

T+01:07: I notice myself breathing more heavily as I feel more physically strained by the effects of the substance. I don’t feel exhausted, but definitely somewhat tense. For a short while, my right ear feels as if there was a certain pressure on it and my vision starts flickering heavily for a few seconds.

T+01:11: The fractal patterns on the ceiling start to show more and more depth, sometimes looking like rocks and sometimes more liquid-like. Inside those edges, there seems to be noise, somewhat alike to reflections in video games. The longer I look at things, the more detail starts to form in their texture. I notice having a slight headache and the berries I prepared seem to taste more bland than before.

T+01:15: When my vision spaces out a bit, everything starts moving heavily. When I move my hand, long traces are noticeable with my fingers being visible around 2 seconds after I moved them away. I test if my skin has fractal patterns too by holding my hands close to a lamp, but I can’t see any patterns. I still feel like my hands are unusually interesting and somewhat aesthetic, even though I rarely feel that way normally.

T+01:21: In addition to the headache, I also feel strongly nauseous, but my bed feels very comfortable, which helps me focus and stay calm.

T+01:55: Intense fractal patterns are everywhere. I feel the need go to the bathroom and my sitter reports hearing me laughing from the other room. They also noticed my hands being slightly sweaty and a bit cold.

T+02:26: My perception of my body and especially my face feels very distorted. I feel like my head looks way different from what it actually does. Objects around the room appear fully 2D, as if they were made out of paper.Additionally

T+02:29: I feel like I can’t adjust my voice to situations accordingly and as if I lost all reference to how loud sounds, music and my own voice is in relation to everything else. My sitter reassures me of my voice not being too loud or too quiet. Traces of quick movements intensify to delays of up to 5 seconds and colours shift between grey and purple (Probably because of a banner on the wall, which features similar colours).

T+02:38: I try to eat a few chips (or crisps, if you’re from a certain island) and they taste incredible. When asked questions, I can’t really focus on my answers and quickly get lost in other thoughts on the way. As I touch a dry wall, my sensory perception seems to be strongly intensified and I get lost in the feelings of touching the wall for a short while.

T+04:40: My sitter and I went on a short walk through the city. I remember having a hard time getting ready and organising myself to get all the required steps into a sensible order, so this takes me way longer than usual, even though I don’t struggle with the individual tasks very much. Outside, it was slightly raining and a bit cold, but I remember both not really bothering me. While on the walk, textures of bricks and asphalt constantly feature moving fractal patterns and when I stop to appreciate them, they quickly intensify even further. Graffiti and paintings on houses feel very vibrant and sometimes even alive, giving me vibes of Chiapas in Mexico all around even though I’ve never been there before. As we come home, I feel really warm, so I quickly get rid of my jacket and shoes and return to the bed.

T+05:03: While browsing through YouTube, I am fascinated by a still image from a Community Post, which, in my vision, looks like it’s a GIF or video. While I was tripping, I couldn’t really believe the image not being animated, so I record a video of the phone’s screen. I haven’t looked at the recording again, but I am quite sure, it wasn’t a video now.

T+06:00: I started sketching around in my notebook. I feel like I am more open to taking risks when drawing and working with the mistakes I make along the way. The mistakes I make while drawing always turn out to beneficial for my artwork and I have a strong feeling of the artwork drawing itself rather than me deciding on the individual motives.

T+06:54: We decided on watching Blade Runner (I love that movie) and lights on buildings in the movie don’t always stay in their place with camera movement.

T+07:24: We stopped watching the movie due to technical difficulties and I decided to take a shower as the smell of my own body gives me a certain ick. While standing in front of the mirror, I start to think about my life, my future job and other topics, that feel important to me. I feel very in line with my appearance for the moment, which I quite enjoy, and life feels way more real than usual, as it’s often the case with psychedelics. As I try a sip of my soft drink, which usually tastes very sweet and juicy, it tastes a lot like beer for no particular reason.

T+08:00: Light hallucinations are still present when focusing on specific points and my mood continues to be generally up-beat and energetic.

T+10:36: I feel exhausted from the trip and I feel very positive about the past trip. At this point, I expect the trip to be over or at least soon, which I was very wrong about.

T+10:57: My head feels full and is if it’s still working a lot. I feel like getting to sleep is impossible at this point, but I am quite fine with staying awake for a few more hours. I also notice being easily susceptible to worries about my future, even though there’s no real reason to.

T+11:15: It’s almost 4 am now and I feel tired, but still can’t sleep.

We stopped taking notes at this point, but we stayed awake way into the late morning hours (Around 9 am or so). At around 8 am, we joked a lot about stupid topics and because of some jokes generally being considered fairly unfunny, but us still laughing about them a lot, I started to feel very anxious and worried about the trip being too much for my brain. My partner assured me of being fine, but I had a hard time believing them at that point. I also remember having medium visual distortions on the ceiling again, with flowing colours and fractal patterns all around for 5 to 10 minutes. As my partner went to get breakfast, I was barely responsive and fell asleep before they would get back, even though their absence was only around 5 minutes long. When I woke up, the anxious feelings were mostly gone. I finally felt like the trip was fully over, but I still wasn’t up to normal levels in terms of concentration. Later that day, I fell asleep again, which helped with that and as of writing this, I feel very fine besides having a few headaches throughout the past days.

We also wrote down some effects, which we couldn’t pinpoint to a specific time:

• A Coca Cola glass seemed as if it was existing in 4 dimensions, moving inside out and morphing a lot as I moved my head around.
• The ceiling appeared as if it had another, see-through layer over the actual texture, which was scrolling and flowing separately.
• Dried drips of rain on the windows appeared in fractal patterns throughout the trip, sometimes moving and sometimes still, but I could still notice them way after all other visual distortions were gone.

After effects

2 days after the trip, I feel more energetic and motivated to do chores than usually. On the other hand, I also feel a bit more susceptible to negative thoughts in a few moments, going as far as the idealisation of my own suicide, but I stay above those things and this might also be partially caused of me forgetting to take my anti-depressants lately.

As I already have experience with psilocybe mushrooms, which have a slightly different trip and a shorter duration of 4 to 6 hours, I feel like (1D)-LSD is more my type for the usual occasion. If I want to take advantage of the more therapeutic effects of psychedelics, I can see myself preferring mushrooms over other psychedelics though.

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