Beings I’ve met on acid.
Sit back, relax. Melt into the couch, stare into the depths of the universe. With the right chemical additive, the universe will stare back, showing you possibilities you’ve never dreamed of, or perhaps something you dreamed but never dared to remember. My God, the colours! The movement! Acid is a trip, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. Take a tab and prepare to be transported to... Beings I’ve met while tripping on acid.
1- The Face
In a queer flat party full of artists, I found myself frozen in place. The couch had held on to me, kept me hostage with my face pointing to the wall adorned with artworks coming alive one by one. Tiny figures swayed as if seaweed in a tide, but one, one stayed still. The Face.
A geometric estimation of humanity, it stared in every direction but always directed at you. Had I been able to move, I am sure the eyes would have followed me. Trapped in place, I stared at The Face, and it stared back. All-knowing but not all-powerful, it sat in silence, judging me for my every secret, but wise enough to know never to reveal them. I felt myself unravelling in its gaze. Until I was pulled back to reality between five minutes and four hours later with a ‘hey buddy, you feeling okay’? If only they knew.
2- The BFG (Big Fucking Geezer)
After sitting with my back to a bass-heavy speaker feeling the vibrations of the entire album of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”, I decided I needed a dart. Staggering to the smoko area, or at least I think it was, I pulled out a ciggie and lit it. I stared over the city until I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, a pair of pants started on the ground and towered over my line of sight.
It was not the pants themselves that frightened me, but the gigantic creature inside them. Locked in position, I could not look up for fear of what I might see, but the beast had other ideas. The pants buckled at the centre as this being bent its knees, craning down to see me. Horror overcame me. What did this giant want? To inspect me, like a flower to be plucked from a neighbour’s garden? Perhaps it just wanted to talk? Or perhaps it was hungry…
I never found out because as soon as this monstrous creature bent down enough for me to see its shape in the low light, it vanished. I guess I’ll never know.
3 - The Windmill God
It’s my birthday. I wake up at 10am to the sound of banging on my door. After a grumble and an “I’m up”, I was met with the faces of my closest friends. They greeted me with birthday wishes, a box of beer, a bottle of whiskey, a coffee, a 50 bag and a tab each of acid. “We’re going to the beach, be ready in 20 minutes.”
Fast forward five hours, high up in the rocky cliffs of Makara, four drunk dumbasses tripping absolute balls stumbled through the landscape until we came to our destination. The base of a wind turbine. We lay on our backs, looking up at the great moving structure, and felt it — a presence. The turbine itself seemed to be alive, a protector, a provider.
Hours upon hours, we spent in silence, staring, learning, tripping, until the meaning behind this great being was revealed. We learned, in our state of transcendence, that the earth did not simply revolve around the sun through silly concepts like gravity. It was carried, propelled through outer space by the collective forces of the turbines. Like a mighty sail on a tiny rowboat, we had these beings, and these alone to thank for not simply dropping into the abyss.
I’m not sure how much smarter I came out of that trip, but I certainly had a good time.
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