British Sea Power shroom trip ends in compound fracture
Indie rock outfit British Sea Power writes in to Clash Magazine (no relation to the band) this week with exactly what can go wrong on psychedelic mushrooms. Kids, pay attention: It’s all about mindset (positive), setting (low intensity)—and staying out of the trees.
“The last time I ate mushrooms, though, it ended in disaster. ... I hear something crack and see my friend lying kind of weirdly.”
[Read the full story by clicking the ‘More’ link]
A friend had come down from London with a bag of beauties, and I decided to follow my no-four-walls advice and eat them on a country walk. We munched them down and set off into the hills and valleys of the South Downs, and the awe-inspiring countryside opened itself up for us. We start to really feel the earth, and, far from any houses, I see a tree that looks good to climb. “Come on you pussy,” I chide my friend as she struggles to get up. She reaches the branch I’m on and starts to wobble, so she decides to jump down. I hear something crack and see my friend lying kind of weirdly.
I jump down, feel her leg and find that the lower half of her shin is flopping about, whilst the split bone inside is making stomach turning crunching sounds. She starts to turn a sickly green. We’re both off our heads, two miles from the nearest road, the sun is setting, and my friend’s leg is sticking out at a 90 degree angle. I manage to go to emergency default, and, miraculously, my phone ekes out a bar of reception.
999 sends out a helicopter, which whisks my friend away but leaves me, due to space and fuel constrictions, babbling in a pitch black valley miles from home. She spent a week in hospital and now has a metal bar holding her lower leg together as a permanent reminder of the dangers of the natural world, whilst I have a heavy guilt complex whenever I see her.
Mushrooms, they can fuck you up.
