Homecoming Parade - My First Psychedelic Experience

I had been studying psychedelics since I was a sophmore in high school. I'm not entirely sure why, but something in the back of my mind told me to wait until I was a little older and wiser. My life was a crazy one, in and out of different schools all of the time parents always fighting and eventually divorce. Raised in many different types of backgrounds: violent inner cities, farms, suburbs of smaller cities etcetera. You can sort of say I experienced the full spectrum of experieces here in the good ole states. It built a lot of character though, and it led me to be a ciritcal thinker but I was obssessed with materialism.  

Summer of 2015 before my first year of college, I worked for this old rich guy who owns literally 80+ housing developments in one of the richest counties in Kansas. We met because I was in foster care. My mom was in prison and step-dad was in a different state. This man had a foundation he founded for foster youth and homelessness, which I got involved in which then lead to me eventually getting a job literally building houses. He would pay me under the table to avoid taxes, and I made a lot of money. Also, my Chemistry teacher in high school offered to take me in after I aged out of the foster care system, and they became a second family to me. 

I was gifted a 2007 Jaguar, which did not do any good for my ego as a young man about to go to college. It made me feel like I was on top of the world, and it sort of took me down a path for awhile that was sort of sad. Eventually it got totalled by some chick whom I think purposely t-boned me because she revved up instead of slowing down lol anways, once that happened my life began to change a little. Before the accident, I would literally drive around trying to impress women because for some reason they truly were impressed by this car. It was the center of my life for some time but after the crash, I now drive a fuel efficient Toyota. Driving around in the Camry makes you realize that these women were never really looking at you, they were looking at your car, and it truly humbled me. Also made me realize the type of woman I was trying to find probably wasn't the one I was riding around trying to impress. It really did provide a unique perspective shift and allowed me a lifestyle change. This actually happened during college after my first psychedelic experience which I wanted to touch on because I truly believe the two are connected.

I was in a fraternity, and we always smoked bud together in a group of like four or five usually. Well one day there was talk about doing acid, and instantly I was intrigued. We talked about safety and what the experience might be like, and also when we were thinking about doing it. It was decided that we would all drop a tab two hours before the homecoming parade that was in a few days. We were a part of the homecoming parade. We had our own personal float and everything that we worked on for a few months, as well as all of the other fraternities and sororities. There was supposed to be an estimated thirty thousand people if not more in total, and I had decided this is how I was going to go through my first lsd experience. 

Homecoming day, we are all sitting together talking, getting ready to take it. I was sort of nervous but at the same time I felt prepared and confident, so I put it on my tongue to see if there was a taste. Encouragingly, there was no taste, so I kept it in my mouth until it was basically dissolved and then swallowed the remnants. Everyone was excited so we collectively decided to go outside and walk around. My foster brother from high school lived near by so we visited with him for about twenty minutes, then we decided we should probably head back and start getting everything prepared so we can get to the parade. It was only a short 10 minute walk, but before we got back I started to get butterflies in my stomach and the colors were beginning to become slightly more vibrant. There were beautiful trees everywhere with multicolored leave because it was indeed fall, which made the come up so blissful. 

Once we got back, we gathered our things and a sober guy drove us to our float which was already setup somewhere in the parade. Momentum from the car accelerated everything around me and I had a really amazing euphoric rush come over me. We finally made it to our float, and we were literally in the middle of thousands of people on top of a hill. It was so exciting, it seemed like the mass of people started to move sort of like a rollercoaster and we were all building up our own momentum and energy waiting for it to start. I am so happy that I decided to only take one tab, because if I had taken more I'm not too sure I would of been able to make it to the end! It was all pretty fun but there were some very deep insights that I learned about people and the college culture. 

You know how at parades, there are kids and parents on the side expecting interaction from the people in the parade? Well, I noticed that there was an alarming amount of people who were drunk and cussing, hardly paying attention to the people and sort of making a lot of it embarrassing for the rest of us. Even some of the members in my own fraternity were being just complete idiots, and it was fascinating to see everyone's ego literally radiate from their bodies. Take my fraternity for example, the main concept of the whole shabang was to basically sustain a white culture that disenchants people from nature and to promote igorance and bigotry, in my opinion. 

It was not until some time after my crash and a few more experiences with mushrooms to really have an ego check. Actually for awhile it seemed like this lucy experience sort of encouraged a big ego and I noticed a very scary trend within the fraternities and sororities, it seems like people use psychedelics to literally brainwash people in a sense to agree with their memo and culture. This culture is the white power dynamic that keeps the structural racism, institutional racism and rampant capatlism alive. People are so absorbed in the college experience, but their whole lives they have been conditioned and taught to think a specific way and so when they use these powerful substances, I truly believe it unfortunately reinforces their morals and ideologies. 

I went to college for mechanical engineering and eventually changed my major to anthropology. This path led me to meet extraordinary people who have been fighting the good fight before a lot of us were even born. A linguist who allowed me to take my critical thinking abilities that I had acquired largely through mushrooms and got me working with indigenous peoples trying to restore language. A cultural anthropologist who expanded my knowledge of the Amazon and indigenous practices from all over the world. This first psychedelic experience taught me a lot about other people but I did not learn much about my inner star. I think this is a huge way people misuse these medicines is in a recreational mindset surrounded by people. Especially when those who administered it to you are pushing bigotry and reinforcing industrialization, big agricultural and pharmaceutical monopolies etecera. It is known that the government used and probably still are using them against the ones who know the truth, and I think they even have a scheme that allows these medicines to get into the hands of the people that they know support them 100%. Not only do they use sporting events as mass distractions, they use religion to trap their mind in this conflicting battle for their soul that does not allow them to think for themselves.

My reason for saying all of this really is to shed some light on this. People get so wrapped up in alcohol and the media, that they never even think about life in any other perspective. Also the fact that you have to pay so much money to attend college, and also a good amount of money to be a part of a fraternity or sorority just shows the wealth gap when you really sit down and observe the whole thing. There is this trend of division everywhere; this college vs that college, this team vs that team, this political party vs that one etcetera, and it is ingrained in our minds from a very young age. But don't lose hope!!! There is also a movement happening right now and I do believe consciousnesses are rising so keep fighting the good fight! <3<3<3