#2 Experiences on Marijuana

The previous post was purely a scientific and logical way of reasoning what weed does to the human body. In this, I attempt to narrate the experiences one is privy to when high on this drug. It is prudent to always take any account of experience with a pinch of salt since these write-ups always vary subjectively. The below are glimpses and recounts of some experiences I’ve had on the herb over the last two to two and a half years.

The unparalleled euphoria, extremely delightful moods, an incomparable feeling of ‘everything in the world is right,’ time dilation and pleasing images- these are trademarks of a weed trip. But hey, there is more to it…

• Visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations:

It is a no-brainer that on all psychedelics, hallucinations happen. The intensity and duration of hallucination decides the power of the matter consumed. Weed, on this scale is probably at the least when compared to the other hard drugs. But having said that, visual hallucinations are possible albeit only on considerable doses.

When high, with music, one can see immensely beautiful and vivid patterns moving and morphing into one another. The patters also sometime vary according to the music you hear; eventually, all these are produced by your own brain and the music input has some bearing on the matter.

The easiest way to explain the vista of a visual hallucination is the “Visualisations” on Windows Media Player. When you play music through WMP and view the visualisation, you will understand what I mean by objects and patterns moving and morphing into one another.

On considerably high doses tactile hallucinations can be felt. One has to be extremely sensitive to feel the hallucination happening. But if one reads the feeling, it grows immediately into a palpable experience. I once felt that the whole world was titling to my left hand side and at one point snapped back to reality only to realise that I had not moved an inch on my bean bag.

Once on a very high dose in Amsterdam, I was walking towards the hostel when the whole world felt like it was contracting and expanding alternatively. Another commonly associated tactile hallucination is the feeling of spiralling. It is extremely joyful as one feels like they are spiralling into a point. Tactile hallucinations are extremely mild on weed.

• Unbook-marked memories:

This is, something I feel is unique that happens to me as I’ve never come across anybody or any post on the internet.

Unbook-marked memories are those memories which do not hold any significance in your life, according to you. It might be something like a very mundane event that happened in school 12 years ago; who’d remember that?

But when high, I always receive a few of these lost memories; like the shape of a stain on a mica stool that was at my house a decade ago, a scene from about 7 years ago where we stopped to buy mangoes on a road trip in Karnataka, the old Sun TV logo commercial with extreme vividity; It is as though on weed, the human brain decides, ‘Okay, this memory will now be displayed’ and throws the memory on your screen of perception.

On a very recent trip, I remembered the huge space between the front and the back buildings of my school which was once used as a cycle parking lot. It looked unnaturally huge and after the trip, on my notes, I struck it assuming that it was an exaggeration. But a couple of days later, I understood that I had been shown the view of the place the first time I had seen it. And, the first time was when I was 8. It is well known that objects seem to appear bigger when you are small.

• Discerning the presence of the Solar Plexus Chakra:

The Solar Plexus Chakra or the Manipura is the third primary chakra of the human body. It is told that the Solar Plexus chakra radiates prana (life) into the human body.

The truth in this can be realised when high on weed. On almost every single trip, I can very easily notice the intense throbbing of the chakra. On one of my notes, I had mentioned that it felt like “the place” was pumping energy into the body. It was months later, when reading on the internet I understood that the feeling I had described was the chakra’s radiation of life into my body.

The pumping of this energy is unbelievably blissful. It would feel like a mini-orgasm constantly rushing up and down your body for a considerable time. It is quite an esoteric event that one might really fail to convey with the might of words.

If I relax and concentrate on the phenomenon, I realise that the radiation or “pumping” as I had described it is always rhythmical. One will understand that the heart does not hold any significance and life is from the Solar Plexus chakra and not the “scientifically acclaimed” heart.

If observing the feeling of life being radiated to your own body is not interesting, then nothing else probably is…

• Paranoia:

When God created the Earth, he put Adam, Eve and paradise. In the paradise though, he placed the forbidden fruit. That is how the feeling of paranoia is in the paradise of weed high. It is like a typical computer virus. Once it enters the system, it quickly spreads its roots and begins to wreak havoc.

The feeling of paranoia does not usually accompany the high in any form. But if the brain doubts the security of your current state, fear creeps in. In a short while, this fear turns into paranoia. Once fear escalates to paranoia, it begins to tear apart the high and bring you down instantly.

Once when I was on a trip floating through realms and enjoying the hallucinations, I felt a knock on my door. It was 1 AM in the night and who’d go daring to the door when you are alone unless you are expecting some one? The feeling crept slowly into the system and decimated the high in minutes. The worst part was that there was no knock. The knock was an auditory hallucination.

Another very common paranoia factor is the music’s volume. This happens to a lot of people; they would be unsure if the music is really loud or if their hallucination is making it loud. In the death of night, high volumes can cause neighbours to create unwanted problems. This feeling breaks the high for a lot of people.

• Enjoying food:

Like I mentioned on my previous post, the channelling of concentration creates enjoyment even in the minutest of things. What I enjoy most on eating when high is the way I can clearly differentiate between the taste of cheddar cheese, the onions, the tomatoes and the bread on a vegetable sandwich (one of my favourites). Similarly, chocolate can break barriers and create an even pleasuring environment by increasing the blood sugar levels.

Adding the enjoyment that one gets on eating and the physical need of hunger and thirst created by the drug, food becomes an extremely coveted phase on a trip.

• Hitting the Sacral chakra (sex chakra):

It is quite common for me to trip when viewing intensely fast moving images, like the brief span of time in the video of ‘Ghost Town’ by Adam Lambert when images of women dressed in seductive clothes flash across the screen. This can trip you to an acutely high level in a short span of time.

Also with this comes a general feeling of sexual arousal. I realized that there are a few songs (beats/instruments) which hit the Sacral chakra or the chakra of sexuality. These will immediately arouse my body, creating a need for sex.

It is also believed, commonly that orgasms on weed tend to last longer due to the natural time dilation that happens along with psychedelic’s natural effect. Whether with a person or solo, orgasm on weed is extremely blissful and incredibly satisfying.

• False placing:

It is easy to trick the brain when one is high on weed. I often play a first person HD video of driving through New York and Brooklyn at night. This way, I guide my hallucination and put myself in a vehicle which is driving around Downtown New York. This way, one can falsely place themselves and continue to hallucinate on it. I once tried placing myself on one of my school corridors and attempted to walk along them. It was quite a success until I lost the tenacity to hold on to that thought.

Marijuana is a very interesting drug in a way as it gives people what they seek from it. People smoke it up and begin working; their productivity increases tenfold; people use it to meditate and contemplate on it heading along the path of self-inquiry; a few use it to relax, enjoy and produce art. For an outsider who believes the every word of the society and finds the usage of this as a crime, it will forever be that. And those who open up to possibilities will be shown greater possibilities only to strengthen the thought of what a huge infinite the universe we live in is.