A TRYPTAMINE EXPEDITION
. . . a note from underground
by "Gracie and Zarkov"

Copyright August 1985 by Gracie and Zarkov Productions. We believe that 
in a truly free society the price of packaged information would be driven 
down to the cost of reproduction and transmission.  We, therefore, give 
blanket permission and encourage photocopy, quotation, reprint or entry 
into a database of all or part of our articles provided that the copier 
or quoter does not take credit for our statements.

Introduction

This paper is about the strangest trip that we have ever had. 
Furthermore, in our discussions with other experienced heads it became 
clear that this trip was one of the more peculiar trips that we have even 
heard of!  That in and of itself might not warrant an article. However, 
the possible implications of this trip are such that we have decided to 
write about our experience to add to the store of 'stubborn empirical 
fact' that make up psychedelic phenomenology.

We are also aware that this trip was outlandish enough that its retelling 
may cause our readers to believe that we finally have either lost it or 
are resorting to creative writing.  We would like to assure our readers 
that what you are about to read happened exactly as described (within the 
limits of our powers of observation).

In this paper we give a description of the trip, our beliefs concerning 
the phenomenology, and our tentative conclusions regarding our 
experience.  It seems impractical to reproduce the entire trip narrative 
written right after the experience since it runs to twenty typewritten 
pages.  Therefore, this paper is a highly condensed version of the trip 
narrative.

Backqround

The weekend prior to our strange experience, Grace had decided to take 5 
grams of potent stropharia mushrooms by herself.  While it is common 
practice for us to trip together, Zarkov's high dose mushroom trips have 
been uniformly negative ever since he established contact with certain 
insectoid creatures who claimed to have engineered the mushroom for their 
own purposes.  (See, High Frontiers, Issue no. 2 and Note no. 8).  Gracie 
was going in alone to perform reconaissance.  After ahout an hour and one 
half of arguing with the voice and being unable to see any visions, she 
began to "interview� the voice which seemed quite amenable to 
questioning.  Gracie called in Zarkov and together we interviewed the 
voice in Gracie's head for about two hours.  One of the raps was that 
Gracie had trouble entering the vision state because she hadn't practiced 
enough visualization and was afraid to leave her body.

Now it is true that despite how much talk there is about how hard it is 
to get into the far-out mushroom states, Zarkov would just 'fall down the 
rabbit hole' on any dose over 3 grams without knowing how he did it, 
while Gracie had much more elusive contact with the mushroom vision 
states even at doses in the 10 gram range.  However, given Gracie's 
consistent ability to see the "visible language" on DMT (which Zarkov has 
so far only briefly glimpsed) and her other visionary experiences on DMT, 
this rap seemed rather unlikely. 

But, the mushroom voice held cut hope.  Gracie should practice building a 
fantasy world in her head and maybe, if we both took mushrooms together, 
she could "show" her fantasy world to Zarkov.  Zarkov was extremely 
skeptical of the whole rap.  It seemed very enticing and very unlike his 
experiences with the mushrooms.  That week Zarkov went to the East coast 
on business and left Gracie to work on her fantasy world.

Upon Zarkov's return on Friday, Gracie announced that she had worked 
diligently on her fantasy world and would like to show it to Zarkov that 
weekend using mushrooms.  The only description she gave of the world was 
that it was a barbarian bronze age planet run by Goddess-worshipping 
group of priestesses and that he was cast as a high-tech off-worlder.

Zarkov was apprehensive, since he didn't want another "alien space wars" 
trip on the mushroom.  The experimental protocol that we agreed on was to 
do a DMT shot at noon on Saturday and if the experience seemed positive, 
to take the mushrooms later in the day.  The first shot was inconclusive 
because Zarkov didn't get off but he did get a terrific case of the 
tryptamine giggles.  He decided to take another dose.  The visions in the 
noontime sunlight were exquisite.  Over the next half hour, we each 
consumed betweeen 100 and 150 mg of DMT in four separate "trips".  The 
experience for Zarkov had been glorious.  His relationship with the DMT 
over the last four months of regular usage had been uniformly positive 
even when it had been terrifying.   The idea had came into his head (from 
where?) that by presaturating himself with the DMT, his previous problems 
with the mushroom could be avoided.

We had fasted since Friday night and had been especially careful with our 
diets all week.  At 2:00 PM, we both took 5 gms of potent stropharia 
mushrooms.  We washed down the 'shrooms with ginger ale. We stayed in the 
bright sunlight until the closed eye visions began to come on strongly 
(about 30 mlnutes).  We then went into our darkened trip room.

The Trip:  Content and Comments

The basic phenomena of the trip were as highlighted below.

o  Gracie saw none of the visions described below.  In fact, she
   saw no visions during the trip.  She was high and the trip
   roam took on a beautiful jewelled quality.  She had no
   tendency to drift into a trance even though she had taken the
   same dosage of DMT and mushrooms as Zarkov.

o  Zarkov could not resist the trance.  Strangely, he could talk
   with ease but could not maintain any other semblance of
   contact with reality.  Any attempt to do so resulted in
   overwhelming stomach cramps, full body shivers, vertigo and
   throbbing headache.  All of these body symptoms went away if
   he paid attention to the trance state.

o  Zarkov's first vision was a stadium full of hostile giant
   insect creatures that he was familiar with from previous
   mushroom trips.  However, immediately the DMT "banshee"
   creatures floated in and sang this message, "Aren't they a
   dull and pompous bunch!  But don't worry, they can't get at
   you because we are here."  These "banshee" creatures were a
   common occurance in Zarkov's DMT trips.

[imagine a picture of two smiling banshees here... my ascii-art
 capabilities just aren't up to reproducing them -cak]

o  The next series of visions were of various aliens that seemed
   to be trying to sell Zarkov various visions.  The banshees
   continued to accompany the visions and offer comment.

o  At about the chemical peak of the trip (one hour), the house
   had a rash of poltergeist phenomena that were jointly observed
   by both of us.  Furthermore, the cats noticed them and
   followed them as they made their way through the house.  The
   banshees advised Zarkov not to worry about them because
   "things like this happen."  This was the last point in the
   trip where Zarkov could maintain contact with ordinary
   reality.

o  The banshees formed a gate next to an alien selling visions
   indicating that Zarkov should "buy into" this vision.

o  By "going" through the gate, Zarkov found himself someplace
   else.

o  This some place else was another world.  It no longer seemed
   like a psychedelic vision, but rather it seemed like a real
   world.  The sun felt warm; when it went down Zarkov felt cool.
   To move around it was necessary to walk.  Wherever he looked,
   there was a realistic amount of detail.  No insubstantial
   visions, just a real world wherever Zarkov looked.  He could
   eat, walk, swim, fuck and talk to the other characters.

o  The world was Gracie's fantasy world.  Even though she
   couldn't see it, Zarkov's verbal description matched her
   world.  She could give instructions to Zarkov that he could
   follow to get around.

o  The world was a bronze-age city.  In the background were green
   and fertile mountains.  The architecture was of massive
   granite blocks with a poured concrete look about them.  The
   style was neoclassical crossed with Minoan with a touch of
   Jack Vance.  The mise-en-scene made sense and did not appear
   contrived.  The aesthetic sensibility, while of the wretched excess
   school, was coherent.  It was the most beautiful place Zarkov had
   ever seen, in shades of pink, mauve, purple and gold.

o  The story line was that of the wierdest heavy metal video ever
   designed.  There were barbaric artifacts and luxury items all
   over.  The world was inhabited by buxom, bottom-heavy,
   voluptuous nymphos.  Zarkov found himself in an elaborate
   caped outfit, somewhere between Darth Vadar and Ming the
   Merciless.  His entourage was a group of cretinous,
   long-haired sleazos in heavy metal dress and carrying guitars.
   The trip consisted of a tour through the city from the wharf
   to the main temple where a three-day orgy took place.

o  The world somehow seemed like an isomorphic metaphor to
   Gracie's personality structure.

o  The world was coherent and consistent.  It had internal rules
   as inexorable as the "natural laws" on earth.

o  It had its own linear time.  Subjectively, Zarkov spent three
   days in the world.  Yet this voyaqe was encompassed in a
   normal six-hour mushroom trip.  Furthermore, any attempt to
   reestablish contact with earth left huge gaps in the story
   since the world proceeded at its own pace, even if Zarkov
   wasn't paying attention.

o  It did not seem like telepathy or a projection from Gracie's
   head.  Rather, we believe that somehow the fantasy world was
   lifted from Gracie's head and placed in the tryptamine
   "library of all time and space" where Zarkov "read out the
   diskette .

o  The only psychedelic aspect to the world was the continual
   presence of the DMT banshees, albeit they were "disguised" as
   a sort of observer/chorus as bats, orchids, etc., throughout
   the experience.

o  The DMT acted as a tuner of some sort for the mushroom
   experience.  Certain aspects of the vision seemed
   characteristically DMT, like the banshees, the extreme time
   dilation, and the bejewelled colors.  The mushroom contributed
   the epic quality, the exfoliating details and the practical
   joke quality of the whole set-up.

o  Such an experience, if controllable, would be extremely useful
   to a shaman trying to treat mental illness.  He could walk
   through the streets of his patient's mind without the verbal
   filter of analysis.  It might even be possible to make changes
   in the landscape to effect a cure.  The demons lurking in the
   shadows would be a constant danger, "You might not come back."

Conclusion

Zarkov has not attempted to repeat the experience.  Gracie, however, has 
used the DMT predose before a lower dose of mushrooms (3 grams) and found 
herself in an irresistible trance with a series of faint visions.  This 
was outdoors at night with a friend who did the same mix and also found 
herself in a trance, although her visions remained state-bound.

We don't know what Zarkov's vision means or how he got there, but we 
encourage anyone with visionary tendencies to try exploring these modes.