💾 Archived View for gemini.spam.works › mirrors › textfiles › drugs › ALT.DRUGS › colors-theory captured on 2022-06-12 at 07:16:26.
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-10-31)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A transcription of my first LSD induced experience
The night of Nov. 10, 1995
{Editor's post-trip comments appear in brackets}
{Subject is a male, 19 years of age, and of above average intelligence
and literacy}
{Note: Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect
the guilty.}
K, W, D and I dropped acid around 6:30 PM in J's room. D and I wanted
to take one hit, because we were very afraid of taking too much. {It was
the first time for all of us} K and W were fully convinced that they
needed between 2 and 3 hits. Eventually W took 3 hits, K took 2 and a
half, and D and I took one and a half.
We had asked N. what we should do to prepare for our LSD
experience, and he said to put on some sturdy boots and to bring a
knapsack because we would be doing some traveling, and left the rest to
us. It appeared to be {and was} sound advice.
To pass the time until it kicked in, we went down to the TV
lounge and began flipping through channels, to find something
interesting. We began watching some early eighties movie about high
school, called _Three O'Clock High_. It was a fairly absurd movie, about
some school newspaper reporter geek who was going to do a newspaper
article on a new transfer student, who was some kind of punk that had
been kicked out of other high schools for fights and drug abuse (leather
jacket, long hair, switchblade, etc.). The plot was that the newspaper
reporter accidently touched the ruffian's jacket, not knowing that the
tough had a reputation built on kicking the shit out of anyone who
touches his leather jacket. The movie was fairly amusing, but on the
whole it had not much to do with the over-all direction of our trip.
When we were about the first hour into the movie, the LSD began
to affect us. We were all very giggly and hyper, and were amused to no
end by the movie. We laughed and laughed and laughed and essentially
used a whole lot of energy in the form of laughter. D and I were
absolutely entranced by the movie, and our full attention was focued on
the movie and the humor it brought us; W and K, however, seemed to be not
as fully into the movie as we were. W became very, very hyper during the
movie and began moving his legs and feet back and forth violently, and
kept commenting on how his legs were fluctating between 2 inches and four
miles long. D and I were mildly annoyed by his extreme hyperactivity
because it took some of our attention away from the movie. At one point
in time during the movie, some people came in wanting to watch _The
Simpsons_, and were not happy about having to miss _The Simpsons_ because
we were watching some early eighties movie. At that time I felt very
threatened by them (I found out later that D felt threatened also).
Fortunately they left and did not push the issue, because looking back
now I know that I would have become *very* violently emotional if they
had attempted to turn off the movie. {Especially since this was about a
half an hour before the peak of the speedy, amphetamine like effects of
the LSD}
Eventually the movie ended and then, for D and I, the speedy
effects began to peak. W and K were outside smoking cigarrettes, and D
and I went outside in out traveling clothes, and were waiting for them to
finish smoking cigarrettes and began traveling. All of us were going to
walk over to C's place together. D and I were absurdly hyper-active, and
D began running around and doing forward rolls, and I was jumping
around. D and I began to dance on the front steps of our dorm. It began
to rain, and D and I stayed out in the rain, while W and K went inside
with John. {John is the tripper whose story appears here, titled, _all I
can say is, Star Wars relates to absolutely everything_. John was
"babysitting" all of us, as it was the first time for all 4 of us.}
D and I thought that they were going to get their coats on, but they were
really up smoking some weed. It seemed like we waited for them forever,
and we were really hyper to start traveling, so we decided to go walk to
a stop sign that we could see the front steps from, and then walk back.
When we got to the intersection where the stop sign was, {in a
queit residential neighborhood} D and I both noticed the the first
psychedelic effects (versus amphetamine effects) of the LSD. {This
intersection is referred to hereafther as "The Purple Place"} We both
noticed that the sky appeared intensely purple. (at the time we did not
know it, but this was the most important and defining event of our trip)
We were very excited about seeing the purple sky, and we decided that we
would just forget about W and K and proceed over to C's place, and meet
them there. We went past the row of Frat Houses that lines the street to
campus. We crossed the street and walked out onto the grassy mall. The
mall is surrounded by dorms and classroom buildings. We then turned our
attention to a freshman dorm, Smith Hall. {All the figures in this
account were section-mates in Smith Hall during their freshman year} We
saw some psychedelic lights coming from O's old room, and we went to
check them out. We knocked on the door, but nobody was home. We started
walking around Section A. {our old section} We tripped out on our old
Resident Advisor's door, since he had all these strange jungle pictures,
and we both noticed our clothes were wet, and we were both hot and steamy
and it was really hot inside Smith Hall. (this strangely did not affect
the direction our trip took) I saw Bob {Freshman} as he was leaving, and he
could
tell that we were fucked up, because we were acting really weird. I told
him we were on acid, and then he left with his friends.
D and I then left Smith, when we saw M, D's girlfriend, by the
front door. She was working in the Smith dining hall. They were all
cleaning up from a formal dinner they gave for some foundation that had
given money to the college. We talked to M and told her that we would be
at C's place.
We then went outside, and a lot of people, apparently from the
dinner, passed us. They were all wearing name tags, which D and I
thought was really funny. We mocked them as they walked past us.
Then we started walking across the grassy mall, and were again
tripping out on the purple sky, when we saw this strange green light in
front of the Hall for Social Sciences, where there is a security phone.
At the time this was of no significance to us, but this was the first
time we noticed the color green, which was to play a major role in the
rest of our trip.
Shortly thereafter, we found a faculty name tag for "J.D."
We guessed he was from the dinner, and this was very amusing to us.
On the rest of the way to C's house, we role-played. Our premise
was that we were faculty members, discussing this strange new phenomenon
of the purple sky. We role-played that we were going to give a talk over
in Smith Hall, that we were going to be speakers at some formal dinner
there, and we were trying to get more grant money for further research.
(so we can get more ACID) We got to C's house, and continued our
role-play in his presence, and we all had some laughs about the purple
sky theory.
In the living room of C's flat, we saw Dave Mustaine (no
relation), and N., both drinking beer. C was drinking with them, and
there was some strange music playing in the background. D and I ceased
the role-play, and then we began to notice that the room was not purple,
like the purple sky outside, but instead it was primarily green. We
heard Dave talk about the video game "frogger," and noticed that that
everyone in the room was wearing a green shirt. N, C,. Rick, Dave, and
Dave's Girlfriend Gabrielle were all primarily wearing green. D and I
began to leave the room to conduct some more research.
As we walked downstairs, we saw M, {D's girlfriend} who was
also wearing green. {a green sweatshirt} We talked to M, and were
fascinated with her purple earrings. We took her back up the
stairs, where she started drinking
beer with Dave and C. D and I began to notice that the whole room was
becoming intensely green. (primarily meaning that we noticed green over
all the other colors) Everyone in the room was drinking Moosehead,
which is in green bottles, and the bottles were intense green,
everybodies' clothing was green, the couch was green, C's psychedelic
poster above his phone was intensely green, D noticed that C's Ministry
poster was intensely green, and we didn't notice anything but the color
green because the intensity of the color was so *strong*.
Rick (who was also at C's, hitherto unnoticed) asked D
if he could see distortions or shape changes in pictures, but neither of
us saw anything change, the only things we could see were the colors and
intensity of the colors of things. Then Dave asked D if he could see the
face in one of his drawings. We could not see any face but the obvious
face on his H.R. Giger {the alien drawin' dude} calender, which everybody
could see. D said, "I can't see any face, it's just FUCKING GREEN!" At
this point we were becoming frustrated and fairly angry, and the room
just kept on getting more and more intensely green. I walked over to
where D was talking to M., and we started talking about how FUCKING GREEN
the room was!
We started losing our shit, and we began talking louder and
louder. I held up a two-liter Sprite (R) bottle to show D the intensely
green color, and we noticed that the color was why we were becoming
nervous and angry. D yelled, "You want to know what our problem is,
*THIS* is our fucking problem!" while pointing at the color of the Sprite
(R) bottle. We then left the room, and ran away from C's place, out onto
the grassy mall. We both felt very violent as we walked outside, and
talked about how we were on the verge of breaking shit.
However, after we got outside, we noticed the intense purple sky
again, and it calmed us down. D lay down on a bridge crossing a stream
and stared at the purple sky.
We did not understand what was going on.
When we walked in front of a women's dorm, we found a purple sign
that said, "Womyn's Connection: Gender Education." It was here that we
realized that colors could change our mood violently. We then talked
about how the colors were changing.
For about an hour we walked up and down a street and looked at
colors and cars and things, and we noticed that colors were changing our
moods. We also began to notice that sound and time could influence the
colors, which then influenced our moods.
We then picked up the faculty member role play.
What we came up with, we call the "Primitive Color Axis Theory"
We thought of color as an axis, which can have any angle in
three-space, and that at certain orientations the axis would describer
the color of events that we saw and experienced as we walked around.
{essentially a color axis versus a displacement axis. [whatever that
means. Ed.]}
We then discovered that sound could affect our perception of
color as well, and noticed that sounds could affect the color axis. An
example of this was the random and intense noise of C's living room, when
it was intensely green. The sound of the room made the green color more
intense, and from there we created the idea of a sound axis that affects
the color axis. In a similar way, we discussed time and realized how
thinking about time intervals could change our perception of color, as
well.
{A simpler way of thinking about it is this: A memory of a time
period earlier in the trip could change the perception of color that they
were seeing in the present. ed.}
For example, when we remembered how C's room had been intensely
green and how green made us feel then, we became irritable and angry in
the present, and began to see predominantly green colors.
From this we created the idea of a time axis, which could affect
the orientation in three-space of the color axis.
We sort of solidified this theory a little bit, and also
remembered that we coldn't see the purple sky from the window of C's
living room. We decided to walk back to C's house. We brought the
purple sign we found, to see if bringing a little bit of purple could
make the room tolerable.
When we got back to C's place, they were watching _Army of
Darkness_, and the room was no longer green, it was purple. However, it
was not purple because of the purple sign we brought along. We kow this
due to the fact that we tried putting the sign outside of the door. The
room remained purple. {They hung onto it anyway, as a kind of security
blanket. ed.} Then we tried to explain our "Axis Theory" to C., although
he did not understand.
In trying to explain the theory to him, we solidified it. C
became sort of green as he became impatient with us to explain out
theories. We tried to explain in ways he could better understand, but it
only frustrated all three of us, and he became quite green, as the rest
of the room remained purple. Joel appeared {another mutual friend}
and he listened intently to us trying to explain our theories, and
seriously attempted to understand what we were saying on our own terms.
That his to say, he tried to grasp what we said without asking for
further explanations. We were very, very comfortable around him, and
later D and I agreed that he was by far the purple'est purple dude of the
entire night. It was in fact very strange how Purple Joel was- He had a
green beer bottle, (just like the rest of them) but it was glowing purple
just like the sky.
D and I finalized the "Axis Theory" as we sat in C's living
room. We sat in the corner talking by ourselves as other people watched
the movie.
The "Axis Theory" is really what we used to explain how color was
changing during our trip. Understanding this, it allowed us to control
our trip, instead of having it uncontrolled. We realized that motions in
the physical plane did not effect color, so we replaced the displacement
axis in 3-space with an emotional axis. From this we visualized four
axis- Color, Emotion, Sound, and Time. During our trip, a motion {change
in 3-space orientation} in one of these axis would affect all the other
axis, and that all the axis interacted.
There now follows a catalogue of the ways in which the Axis effect
one another.
Color Affecting Sound:
When we were in C's room the first time, the room was very green,
and the sounds in the room alsxo became very annoying and irritating to
us. The green intensified the sounds we did not want to hear,
intensifying them to such a degree that they became "Green Sounds."
These sounds included the annoying music, and the buzz of other
conversations. When we were in C's room the second time, it was
purple. We noticed that we could easily tune out the loud sounds from
_Army Of Darkness_, {C has a home theater system. it rocks. ed.}
instead of flipping out on them. We both knew the movie backwards and
forwards, and the purple room made the sounds appear as purple and
sooting, rather than green and annoying.
Color Affecting Time:
We went into downtown Tucson, and we saw a bank that was
intensely green, we tripped back in time and remembered the "green
intensity" of C's living room.
Color Affecting Emotion
Obviously the intense green color of C's room made us feel
negative, our frustrations with C for not understanding, our fear and
irritable behavior made green more intense.
Sound Affecting Color:
The loud noise and music in the room intensified the green
colors. Later, any startling, loud, or "out-of-place" noises were
referred to as "green sounds."
Sound Affecting Time:
When we were in downtown Tucson any loud truck would make me
trip back in time and see the intense green of C's room.
Sound Affecting Emotion:
The green noises like large trucks and loud noisy music made us
irritable and violently emotional. Conversely, the soft constant sound
of the rain was a very purple noise, very soothing and mellowing.
Time Affecting Color:
Later in the evening, we were able to withstand areas of intense
green color by thinking about times other than the present when things
were purple. Late at night the halls in our dorm are lit only by green
exits signs, {our dorm is a very spooky old house. ed.} but we passed
through them by not thinking about the present. The hallways then
appeared purple.
Time affecting Sound:
{Curiously, R did not include a discription of this. We must
conclude that these effects would only become apparrent at a higher
dosage, or not at all. This is the only sticking point in the theory. ed.}
Time Affecting Emotion:
D and I would become quite irritable and angry merely by
remembering any "green time."
Emotion Affecting Color:
When D and I were particularly mellow, we could look at things
which we knew would appear green under normal circumstances, {outside the
confines of the trip} but they would nonetheless appear purple to us.
Emotion Affecting Sound:
When we were in C's room the second time, when it was purple, the
loud noises from the movie did not affect me at all.
Emotion Affecting Time
Time would seem to pass slower when we were angry, or irritable,
that is, in the presence of green. Time would go faster when we were
mellow, or in the presence of purple. The time in C's lving room was
only about 10 minutes objectively, when it was intensely green, but to D
and I, it seem like two hours. Conversely, we stared at the purple sky
for objective hours (in the purple place), but to D and I, it seemed like
no time at all.
***Narrative resumes here***
The "The Axis" theory provided us with an understanding of how
color was changing in our trip, so we could control our trip and have
fun without the fear of having uncontrollable "stimulus-response"
reactions to green color. We also understood that our trip was much
different than K and W's trip, and it appeared to be bad for us to talk
to one another.
K and W appeared at C's house for a while, and they were very
green to us. They were severely harshing our mellow. D and I saw our
trip as unfolding as a series of events, and the events that D and I
shared deterministicly forced our trip to be about color. These shared
events include seeing the purple sky, the role play about the purple
sky, notice the intense green overload in C's place, etc. I believe that
we had very similar trips because we kept communicating so much.
The only really remarkable thing that occured in C's room the
first time was that Dave Mustaine (no relation) wanted us to talk to a
friend of his from ASU, and we did not want to, because the phone has a
flashing green light on it, and he kept putting it in our faces. I had
uncontrollable thoughts of rage and destruction as I thought about
grabbing the phone and bashing it to pieces with a chair. Dave was the
most green right then of anybody all night. We almost lost our shit
right then, but we stared at the purple sign we brought in, ignored him,
and listened the purple "mellow" sounds of the movie and we returned to
purple mellowness.
Eventually we left C's place, and walked back to the grassy
mall. Two people were walking towards us, and I saw that it was my
friend Alex, and a girl I could not make out from a distance. As they
walked past us, I *distinctly* saw Allison Jones' face and long hair.
After they passed us, however, Derek commented on how he knew that girl
from his Japanese History class, and I looked back. I saw a girl with
very short hair and who looked unlike Allison.
That was my only definite "hallucination" of the entire night.
As we were on our way to the grassy mall, we had an intense purple
sky trip, and we later saw people kissing by the water fountain, and
drunk people laying on each other on the mall. We tripped on the sky for
a while longer, talked briefly to Aaron Brady, who was a very purple dude.
We then walked into downtown Tucson.
As we walked into downtown, our backs began to hurt, but we
didn't stop walking, or even slow down very much. All the brightly
lit signs in downtown made us notice other colors as well. We saw
blinking yellow and red traffic lights, and an intensely yellow Subway
(r) sign. We then noticed that the complimentary colors of purple and
green have the same effects of green and purple themselves. Yellow was
pleasant and happy, while red made us angry and irritable.
It seemed that yellow was more happy than purple was, purple was
just really mellow; however, we could notice no difference between red
and green.
Blue and Orange did not affect us at all- It was as if they did
not exist.
We had never realized the complimentary color scheme before,
because we had never (before in this evening) been exposed to bright red or
bright yellow colors. With this knowledge we remembered that C's
_Apocalypse Now_ poster was intensely red.
We walked past a dress shop, and almost lost our shit on an
intensely red dress. Similarly, when a person in a red truck in a red
hat parked near us, we felt afraid.
By this time we had become thirsty, so we stopped at a Pepsi (r)
machine. We were elated to see that they had Grape Slice (r) and each
bought three cans. We now had a purple beverage as well as our purple
sign to mellow us out and protect us if there was trouble. {Grape Slice
is now referred to as "The Purple Elixer of Life," Or less formally,
"Elixer".}
After purchasing the Elixer, we walked around for a while, and
eventually returned to C's place. At night, a green light shone in the
front room, cast from the digital readout of various electric devices.
It was very scary- we almost didn't make it down the hallway to C's room.
Nobody was in the living room, so we hung out on the sofa for a while,
resting our backs. Eventually, C came home, and we talked with him for a
while. He was a seriously purple dude at this time. Finally we had to
leave, so we psyched ourselves up, to walk down the hallway again. When
we went out in the hall, the readouts had ceased to be green. They now
appeared purple, due to the fact that we had prepped ourselves into
purple mellowness for the walk down the hall.
As we were walking across the grassy mall, heading back towards
our dorm, we tripped out on the purple sky. We both saw a face in the
clouds, {probably because C had mentioned how he liked to look at
patterns when tripping. ed.} D and I did not want to see this face, so
we did not concentrate on it. We only wanted to concentrate on colors,
so seeing shapes and faces frightened us.
We continued walking, and found ourselves in the intersection
where we had first noticed the purple sky. {"The Purple Place" in the
original manuscript, I paraphrased for clarity. ed.} We stood in the
purple place for two hours in the rain, just mellowing on the purple sky
and the rain's purple sound. Once there must have been a flash of
lightening, because D and I bpth saw it, and I doubt we could have
simultaneous hallucinations of the same thing. {If this is so, how could
they have had the same trip? A flaw in the theory or just the first
intimation of a new development? Stay tuned for the next issue! ed.}
Several people that we knew walked past, and they we all seriously purple
as well.
We then went back to our dorm, and hung out in the lounge resting
our backs. After a while we came down and W showed up. We shared our
trips, and went to bed around 7 A.M.
{the next day, they all noted that though they went to bed at 7,
they had trouble falling asleep. This side-effect is covered in the LSD
faq here at paranoia.com. ed.}