Fun thread....
My first time was at a festival in ‘68 or ‘69...in many ways it was the best trip I had for decades, tho I ended weirdly. I went looking for a place to lie down, I’d never been around so many people before & I was lost. Someone pointed to the first-aid trailer, I went in and asked if they had a spot where I could down for a bit. They put me in a real brightly lit room, asked me some questions; shortly after, someone came in with a syringe & gave me a shot. They turned off the light and I was gone almost immediately. Missed *HENDRIX*....when I woke up, it was day time...and it turned out the questions they asked me were my name and my phone number...and my DAD was on his way to pick me up. Up until I wanted to. Lie down, though, it was GREAT. It took me a long time to realize that I hadn’t freaked out at all, it was just hippie-disposal. The bummer didn’t start until the ride home with my dad....
When I started again, it was 15 years later, and I didn’t like it. Felt speedy, unpleasant. Played with taking only half-hits, and oddly, that was worse. Finally decided to take TWO instead of a half, and poof - it was wonderful again!
Shit had names, but this was NOT California...names meant nothing. “Dosage” meant nothing. I remember STP by rep, and knew one kid who reportedly went gone and never got back - and yeah, the word was you kept not coming back down, over and over and over, so I stayed away. These days, I have pretty good sources. Have had some tough trips, but no freak outs ever, and still have great respect for it.
The real low-dose stuff is loved by “sport trippers”, turns out: folks who like it non-psychedelic style & mix it w MDMA. In the day, it was all about trusting the people you were with, the place you were. I was a high-schooler with trust issues, so like I say, I still treat it with great respect. Stuck where I am now, I have no opportunity to trip in peace or for fun, so I just don’t.
The first time I did it was by accident. It was put in the punch at a party and I tripped for 3 days. I swore I would never touch it again on purpose. Thank goodness I had friends take care of me til I came out of it. Never, never again. It was windowpane.
Dosing people unawares is a real asshole move, I’ll bet you were scared shitless. Not to contradict you, but “windowpane“ likely means nothing if it was in the punchbowl, windowpane is high-dose gelatin, so either it didn’t dissolve well and you got a chunk, or someone put a lot of dollars-worth in it, or it was just enough to scare you when you started to feel it & that set the tone. Not making light of your experience at all, just down-the-road perspective. Respect the never-again, you should never do it *unless you WANT to*.