The LSD Trip
From James Donahue’s Journal
One night Jennifer came home with little paper squares laced with LSD. She said she and a friend drove for miles to get it. They did this because Jennifer decided it was time for Doris and me to experience this drug and get a real perspective of the world the way it really is. I had been reading Timothy Leary's books about his personal experiences with this drug and was interested in trying it. After my discovery that marijuana was not the evil "drug" authorities said it was, I now was confident that all we heard about LSD was also a lie. Also, while at the Grateful Dead concert, we had been in a room where thousands of young people were using this drug. We saw nobody jumping off balconies to their deaths, or doing anything more than having a good time.
Because Doris was working a full-time job, we decided to “drop acid” on a Friday night, thus giving her all weekend to recover from any effects she might experience. That evening we attended a retirement party for a man Doris worked with. Afterwards we stopped at a party store to pick up some fruit drink and other items Jennifer suggested we might enjoy during our "trip." We then proceeded home, anxious to get the experience started. Jennifer had the night carefully planned. She rented a video of the old Beatles classic Yellow Submarine, which she said we would thoroughly enjoy while tripping. She went out of her way to make sure that our first (and only) experience with LSD was going to be a safe and pleasant one. Jennifer by then was experienced enough to understood how this drug worked. We felt confident that she was going to be right by our side, guiding us along.
We had some soft music playing. We all got in our pajamas, making ourselves as comfortable as possible, then sat on our pillows and placed the tiny paper squares under our tongues. That is the way you absorb the drug, directly under the tongue so it gets quickly into the system.
That night my view of the world was changed forever. We did, indeed, enjoy the Beatles movie. We saw each other for who we were with our masks removed. We watched television and were amazed at the ease with which we identified the deceptions flagrantly thrown into our faces. I walked in the cool night, watching the trees breathe. I put my arms around the trunk of one tree and felt it twisting and inundating: a living, breathing organism. I was in communion at that moment with that tree. From that day on, I had a new knowledge of this particular tree and liked it more than any of the other trees in our yard. At one point I lay on my back on our picnic table, looking up at the night sky. What I saw was a strange plastic sky; completely wrong. The stars were there, and so were a number of brightly lighted UFOs. They were right there in plain sight. The morning sunrise arrived in a brilliant blaze of red. It was the most beautiful sunrise I ever witnessed. Jennifer and I shared it while sipping elaborate helpings of fruit juices and passing a pipe of marijuana. We had the crazy idea that the smoke would help us slow down enough so that our tired bodies would be allowed to rest, but we were wrong. Mixing the two drugs only intensified the effect and we found ourselves whirling off on yet a new adventure of light, color and texture while we floated through the fluids in our own brains. I entered rooms of elaborate cut glass chandeliers, ornate bowls, candy dishes, cake servers, pitchers and drinking glasses. They came in all shapes, sizes and colors. I moved through decorative doll houses, and eventually glided through a literal museum of beautiful design.
Sometime the next day we decided we were hungry and needed to prepare a meal. We floated into the kitchen where Doris and Jennifer jokingly tried to overcome the effects of the drug so they could perform what would normally be routine tasks . . . peeling potatoes, frying chicken, and boiling vegetables. They somehow succeeded in putting a meal together, but the food tasted terrible. The chicken was dry and heavily salted. The potatoes were flat and tasteless. We ate the meal anyway, knowing our bodies needed nourishment.
When we finally fell back to earth, we went to bed. There we enjoyed blissful sleep. When we awoke the following day, we were rested and able to return to our plastic world of normalcy. Except that now the normal was the abnormal. We had seen a glimpse of an entirely different universe and would never forget it.
From James Donahue’s Journal
One night Jennifer came home with little paper squares laced with LSD. She said she and a friend drove for miles to get it. They did this because Jennifer decided it was time for Doris and me to experience this drug and get a real perspective of the world the way it really is. I had been reading Timothy Leary's books about his personal experiences with this drug and was interested in trying it. After my discovery that marijuana was not the evil "drug" authorities said it was, I now was confident that all we heard about LSD was also a lie. Also, while at the Grateful Dead concert, we had been in a room where thousands of young people were using this drug. We saw nobody jumping off balconies to their deaths, or doing anything more than having a good time.
Because Doris was working a full-time job, we decided to “drop acid” on a Friday night, thus giving her all weekend to recover from any effects she might experience. That evening we attended a retirement party for a man Doris worked with. Afterwards we stopped at a party store to pick up some fruit drink and other items Jennifer suggested we might enjoy during our "trip." We then proceeded home, anxious to get the experience started. Jennifer had the night carefully planned. She rented a video of the old Beatles classic Yellow Submarine, which she said we would thoroughly enjoy while tripping. She went out of her way to make sure that our first (and only) experience with LSD was going to be a safe and pleasant one. Jennifer by then was experienced enough to understood how this drug worked. We felt confident that she was going to be right by our side, guiding us along.
We had some soft music playing. We all got in our pajamas, making ourselves as comfortable as possible, then sat on our pillows and placed the tiny paper squares under our tongues. That is the way you absorb the drug, directly under the tongue so it gets quickly into the system.
That night my view of the world was changed forever. We did, indeed, enjoy the Beatles movie. We saw each other for who we were with our masks removed. We watched television and were amazed at the ease with which we identified the deceptions flagrantly thrown into our faces. I walked in the cool night, watching the trees breathe. I put my arms around the trunk of one tree and felt it twisting and inundating: a living, breathing organism. I was in communion at that moment with that tree. From that day on, I had a new knowledge of this particular tree and liked it more than any of the other trees in our yard. At one point I lay on my back on our picnic table, looking up at the night sky. What I saw was a strange plastic sky; completely wrong. The stars were there, and so were a number of brightly lighted UFOs. They were right there in plain sight. The morning sunrise arrived in a brilliant blaze of red. It was the most beautiful sunrise I ever witnessed. Jennifer and I shared it while sipping elaborate helpings of fruit juices and passing a pipe of marijuana. We had the crazy idea that the smoke would help us slow down enough so that our tired bodies would be allowed to rest, but we were wrong. Mixing the two drugs only intensified the effect and we found ourselves whirling off on yet a new adventure of light, color and texture while we floated through the fluids in our own brains. I entered rooms of elaborate cut glass chandeliers, ornate bowls, candy dishes, cake servers, pitchers and drinking glasses. They came in all shapes, sizes and colors. I moved through decorative doll houses, and eventually glided through a literal museum of beautiful design.
Sometime the next day we decided we were hungry and needed to prepare a meal. We floated into the kitchen where Doris and Jennifer jokingly tried to overcome the effects of the drug so they could perform what would normally be routine tasks . . . peeling potatoes, frying chicken, and boiling vegetables. They somehow succeeded in putting a meal together, but the food tasted terrible. The chicken was dry and heavily salted. The potatoes were flat and tasteless. We ate the meal anyway, knowing our bodies needed nourishment.
When we finally fell back to earth, we went to bed. There we enjoyed blissful sleep. When we awoke the following day, we were rested and able to return to our plastic world of normalcy. Except that now the normal was the abnormal. We had seen a glimpse of an entirely different universe and would never forget it.