Bicycle Day
It was a sunny, clear day on April 19th, 1943 in the small town of Basel, Switzerland, when, completely by accident, the first person in history tripped on acid.
Albert Hofmann, a Swiss-born chemist, was studying the fungus ergot as part of his research into a respiratory and circulatory simulant when he first synthesized LSD-25 on a stormy November day in 1938. However, not realizing the potent psychedelic substance he’d invented, he set the chemical aside, not to be touched (literally) until five years later, when he accidentally absorbed a tiny dose on his skin. After journaling about the curious sensations that could only have been a result of the chemical, he decided to deliberately swallow 250 micrograms (ug) of acid.
Now, Hoffman didn’t have access to the pages of Erowid trip reports that we can easily access today - if he had, he would’ve known that 250ug of acid is considered a very high dose. As he biked home from his lab, the clear, breezy spring day morphed into a fantastical world full of new colors, sensations, and thoughts.
I had to struggle to speak intelligibly. I asked my laboratory assistant to escort me home. On the way, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror.
A few hours after experiencing his neighbor turn into a witch in front of his wife and children, his symptoms passed, and he woke up the next day feeling tired, but alert, happy, and appreciative of his surroundings.
And so, April 19th - Bicycle Day - was born.
About 15 years later, acid was fueling the flames of one of America’s most culturally explosive moments in history. With the Summer of Love and the Vietnam War in full swing, Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychology professor and the most famous pro-psychedelic-proponent in history, stepped up to the mic in front of 30,000 people at a Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park and said the words that would electrify a generation.
“Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
Dropping Acid
In one study in the late 1950s, English psychiatrist Humphry Osmond gave LSD to alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous who’d failed to quit drinking. After one year, 50% of the study group had not had a drink—a success rate that has never been duplicated by any other means. Just like with Magic Mushrooms, the anecdotal and scientific results of dosing psychedelic substances to manage mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and PTSD strongly support increasing the amount of research that goes into experimenting with these substances to ween the world off its obsession with prescription pills.
If you’d like to know about the physiology behind psychedelic’s effects on the brain, The Science should give you a good overview. Importantly, just like mushrooms, LSD is 100% non-toxic and non-addictive - it’s impossible to die from overdosing on LSD, and your body builds up a rapid tolerance about an hour after ingesting the drug. It takes about 3-4 weeks for your body’s tolerance to fully reset, and yes, other psychedelic substances have cross-tolerance effects with LSD (though not 2-CB).
Tolerance? I barely know her.
LSD tolerance is no joke - at a music festival, I took one tab of acid on the first day, had a wonderful time, and then took almost two tabs on the second day and felt nothing. Literally zero effect. Don’t waste your tabs, and respect the balance.
Sourcing Your Substance
Acid comes in two forms - paper blotter tabs onto which precisely-measured liquid has been dispensed, or on gel tabs that have the acid mixed in. Both methods require you to put the tab on or under your tongue (sublingual, in pharmacist-speak) for about 10 minutes. If you swallow it, that’s fine, it’ll just talk a little longer to kick in, since it needs to go through your digestive system.
While you’re letting that tab sit under your tongue, avoid talking animatedly, and keep track of where that tab is. It’s all to easy to spit out the tab while talking, laughing, or generally being nervous about dropping this drug for the first time.
After about 10 minutes, feel free to swallow the paper.
The dosage or strength of a “tab” of acid is really dependent on your dealer. Most times, one tab is 100ug, but this isn’t always the case. If your dealer doesn’t specify, ask. If they don’t tell you, don’t buy from them. If a tab is purported to be above 200ug, it probably isn’t, and you’re being sold a fake, or something very watered down.
Avoid an N-bomb
NBOMes are a group of psychedelic drugs that have similar effects to acid. Since they’re cheaper and easier to synthesize than LSD, they’ll sometimes be sold to people looking to buy regular LSD-25. So-called “n-bombs” can have extreme neurotoxic effects (think seizures and cardiac arrest), so you don’t want to be mistakenly taking them. Fortunately, NBOMes are very, very bitter to taste, so, when you place that tab on your tongue, if it’s bitter, it’s a spitter.
Dropping at a Festival
Taking acid at a rave is very different to taking it in a regular setting. Acid is, in my opinion, the best drug you can take at an electronic music festival. You’ll never be more locked in on the stage, the music, and the lightshow than when you’re dosed on half a tab. That said, a festival like this is probably one of the worst places to be tripping on a large amount of acid, so if you’re dropping at a festi, here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind:
- Stick to 100ug or less. 50ug if you’re a first-timer, 75-100ug even if you’re a pro. Above that things will start moving, which isn’t really that fun at a big event.
- Don’t mix weed - you can take one or two tokes off a joint, but no more. Drug math rules are in effect - 1+1 = 7. Drinking isn’t synergistic, but if you’re doing acid there’s no real need to get tipsy.
- Candy flipping is mid. For me, so do ask your friends about their experiences.
- Kitty flipping, I’ve heard, is peak. Ask your friends, or give it a go and send me an email.
In general, you shouldn’t be aiming to trip at a festival - you’re doing acid to focus and enhance the music.
Now, have I broken the first three rules? Of course!
Tripping
I will never forget the moment I realized what it meant to trip on acid. This was my second experience with the drug, and my friend I decided to go big. He dropped 300ug (not something I’d recommend for your av-er-age bear - he has a high psychedelic tolerance), and I dropped 225ug. After this, we met up with some friends, and headed over to the UBC Triple Os. We were sitting at a table in the back under the warm orange lamps, the night windy and brisk outside, when I felt that familiar roller-coaster nervousness in my stomach, and glanced down at the table.
The entire wooden surface of the table was moving. Like oil in water that had been lightly shaken, patterns in the grain swirled and merged into each other with an undulating, calm lethargy. I looked up at my friends - the surroundings were normal, their faces were normal. I looked back down at the table, and said;
*“Woah”
After that, it was a wild night. Coming up, I had to take off my glasses the acid was so strong. Walking around in public was not the move - I just wanted to climb a tree in the forest and survey my realm - the visuals were kicking my ass like The Rock in Fast and Furious, Hobbes and Shaw.
At higher doses, you’re going to feel very, very distracted on acid. If you’re inside, you’ll want to go outside - and will spend about 45 minutes being distracted by absolutely nothing but your thoughts (and your trip-mates thoughts) as you collect the water, blueberries (snack of choice) and backpack you’ll need to head out for an experience. Seriously, do not underestimate how distracted you will feel. You may be thinking about the most important spiritual discovery of your life, and after a moment realize that you’d forgotten your initial point to begin with. This can be frustrating, and you may spiral a bit. Just relax, and remember, “it’s just the acid”.
Don’t try to hold on to thoughts - instead, appreciate them as they pass through you, and feel the breeze and grass on your skin.
Once you’re outside, you’ll walk and walk with no destination in mind, marveling at the world around you. Trees will take on the spirit of eldritch beings, lights will shimmer and glisten - you’ll feel more powerful than you ever have before. Look up at the clouds - if you’re lucky, the sky will feel like a rippling asperitas formation.
Keep in mind, your brain will not make up images that aren’t there. Existing forms will be twisted, melted, and re-formed into different versions of themselves, but at their core, they’ll still be a tree, some grass, and some clouds. Your brain won’t spawn a demonic 7-foot tall butterfly just because you’re tripping on acid.
While you may not see things that don’t exist, sometimes you may feel like you can do things that your body wouldn’t normally risk. Climb walls, walk on ledges, that kind of stuff. Be very careful while doing these things - the only time people have been injured and died while on acid is when they’re tripping hard and take risks that they have little control over in their impaired state. I’ve injured my back and my foot while on acid while contorting my body in ways that I would know not to if I was sober.
At times, this awe-some beauty will be overwhelming. Just like I mentioned in my post on Feeling Overwhelmed, if you’re feeling existentially fearful, take a moment to follow the steps in that post, remembering before you start the trip that your set and setting, and mental headspace about a week before the trip will make all the difference during your psychedelic experience. If you’re in the right headspace, you will experience some of the most beautiful sights the world has to offer.
A picture of Jason I took while tripping on acid in late April
The come-up and peak of acid will last for, at most, four hours. After this, your visuals will wear off, and you’ll be in for an antsy, distracted, six hours of an aching body, zero appetite, and no sleep. Remember, the full effects of acid don’t wear off until about hour 12, so be prepared to commit a full day and likely a night, to the experience. You won’t be able to sleep, but that’s ok - put on a long, deep and spiritual movie. I remember geeking while watching the original Blade Runner at 3am in a pitch-black dorm room.
Weed? Oui, but...
Be extraordinarily careful with your weed ingestion while on acid. Only smoke after 8 hour mark, and be prepared for it to kick your visuals back stronger than before. On the same night my friend and I dropped those large doses, we smoked around the six hour mark, and within five minutes realized we were approaching hyperspace. We barely made it back to our dorm rooms before tripping hard for the next hour.
When you eventually fall asleep (and you will, don’t worry), you’ll wake up the next day tired, but refreshed - a similar mild afterglow to magic mushrooms.
Overall, acid is the strongest of the non-toxic, non-addictive drugs, and while it’s chemical composition isn’t physically harmful, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be respected and treated with the same care as other substances. Start low, go slow, do your research, and at the end of the day, it’s all in your head.
Have fun out there, psychonauts 🧙