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It was during the pandemic. I was with my partner, Adam, who had dropped acid a few times already, all before I had met him. For those of you new to psychedelics, acid is a slang word for LSD, which stands for lysergic acid diethylamide. It was synthesized by chemist Albert Hofmann in the 1940's. He took the very first acid trip, known as Bicycle Day.
But this is about my first trip. My Bicycle Day, if you will.
Adam found someone in Vancouver who shipped vials containing liquid LSD. I was curious and excited, but also quite apprehensive. I knew dropping acid was something done by a lot of creative and artistic people. Though I was, and still am, always on the hunt for whatever is going to push my own abilities to the next level, there was one memory that held me back.
Ms. Pavel was my grade eight science teacher. Once we reached the drugs portion of our curriculum, Ms. Pavel made sure to drive the fear of god inside us about dabbling with drugs. She informed us that if we ever made the mistake of experimenting with drugs—more specifically, acid—we would risk the possibility of getting acid flashbacks at any time for the rest of our lives. I made sure to remember this very important piece of information for when other teens or strangers tried to seduce me with drugs in the future.
Almost two decades later, the only time I came across LSD was when I started dating Adam. We were in the trenches of COVID-19, we barely had anything to do, our mental health was suffering, and we were just so fucking bored. We had done mushrooms together already, and we were curious about exploring the world of psychedelics together. The world felt like it was ending almost every day, and we had a lot of extra time on our hands. So, we ordered that little blue vial with liquid LSD from a stranger in Vancouver.
Adam took a full drop, a standard dose of 100µg (micrograms). I refused to take it until about an hour in, just in case he started throwing up or dying and I needed to take him to the hospital. The opposite happened. Adam’s mood improved immensely and he felt good. I asked him to give me a half dose. It was my first time, after all.
We were watching ‘Solar Opposites’, an extremely entertaining and adventurous animated show. I could tell when the onset of my trip came on because the colours in the show and the lighting in my apartment became so much brighter and warmer. I felt blissfully content. I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I was experiencing such a lovely evening with my partner. My small apartment living room felt like a wonderful, vibrant space. There was a lot of laughter that evening.
Every trip since then has been different, but there are two things that have stuck with me about my first:
One is how alive my body felt. I felt as if until that moment, my entire body had been in hibernation mode. There was a primary rippling sensation where I felt every part of me waking up. I truly felt alive in every sense of the word.
Second, I was overcome by a desire to create. Generally speaking, my artistic skills and pursuits have been between writing and acting. But now, suddenly my attention was on a huge, untouched stack of construction paper sitting at the bottom of one of my shelves.
I ripped apart the colourful paper, creating strips and stapling them, gluing them, taping them with washi tape, making weird things. I had shiny gold paper and used it to outline rainbow themed cards. (Where are they now? In a box I dubbed my creativity box. Have I ever had the same urge to touch that box again? Nope.) It was a unique part of my first trip.
For at least a week or so, my anxiety subsided. I hadn’t even realized how bad it had gotten until I tripped. The freedom and lightness I felt in my thoughts afterwards felt so liberating and heavenly. In a time where the world felt dark and our futures looked muddy, acid gave us a bright evening of laughter and contentment, and has done so many times since.
What about you? How was your first time? We’d love to hear about it. Leave a message below or email us at support@hofmannhangout.ca. And if you are still new and curious about LSD, let us know about that too! Adam and I are always happy to connect.
All my best,
Lucy