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The Psychoactive Coffee Spirit?
Let me preface all this by saying that I am not a coffee drinker. I’ll have maybe one or two cups every 3-6 months, if that. Typically I only drink it under unusual circumstances, and it’s almost always because a friend who I haven’t seen in a while is offering me some. So the other day, I was on a long train ride and hadn’t slept much. The man in front of me sits down with a cup of coffee, the smell of which wafts back to me, and I suddenly have to have a cup. So I got one, and about 40 minutes or so later, I started feeling… I don’t know if “high” is the right word, but let’s just say extremely unusual with lots of weird mental things happening to me that don’t usually happen.
Is anybody else affected by coffee in such a way as this? I really felt for the first time ever how much of a straight up drug it was. Although, maybe I was feeling something else…
That is, about 20 or so minutes after the train left the station, a young guy about my age asked me if I wanted a brownie. I looked at him for a second, unsure what to make of it all, as nobody’s ever offered me anything in any kind of train situation. He seemed nice and normal enough though, so I figured, what the hey. And accepted graciously. It tasted completely normal, but I’ve also never had a pot brownie before, so I wouldn’t know what to expect if I did have one.
Anyway, I guess I should have just asked before I ate it - or not eaten it at all. But I can’t really imagine somebody offering me a “magic” brownie at 10:00am on a Tuesday on Amtrak. That just seems so bizarre to me. And yet I had a very weird almost high experience about an hour later. So I’m still puzzling over whether this could have just been a weird reaction to the caffeine in my system, or if my super-up paranoia about being “dosed” by a stranger on the train could actually hold water. I also debated most of the day whether I should just straight out ask him if that brownie had anything in it, or what. But I was already feeling paranoid enough, and didn’t want to just give in to it, and turn out looking stupid when he claimed it was a totally normal brownie. What would I say then, that the coffee got me high? That almost sounds crazier.
Hehe. I guess this all probably sounds pretty ridiculous to the casual observer, but hey, it’s a little glimpse into my twisted psyche
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October 27th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
That whole story struck me funny. Probably because the first time I ever got high was from brownies (which incidentally was last year, at the age of 29. I know, I’m a late bloomer). To me it would seem surprising if the brownie wasn’t dosed. I don’t know, it just seems to surreal to be otherwise. Did you see any kind of wrapper, or was the brownie definitely homemade?
Although, now that I think of it, pot brownies do definitely have kind of a bad taste.
Coffee is definitely a drug, and maybe even a somewhat harmful one. I’m quite sensitive to it myself, so I know what you’re talking about when you say it made you feel funny.
One super fun thing (for me anyway) is to mix pot and caffeine. I find that if I’ve been high anywhere withing the last 12 hours, caffeine will “re-activate” it. And if I mix the two right away… whoa. I stopped doing this, though, as it tends to lead to some pretty freaky psychosis.
—
When I first saw the title of your post I thought you were talking about the “spirit” of coffee as an egregore. Like how different organisms have spirits and subtly influence human development to keep themselves alive and prominent. For example, agriculture could be thought of as a conspiracy by grain to make itself a more dominant species.
I once thought the spirit of coffee beans and the spirit of corporations were in evil cahoots with one another. Look at how much coffee is consumed by office workers!
October 27th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
Whoops - forgot to close italics tag. Should’ve closed after the word “wasn’t.” Your live comment preview doesn’t work on the stupid IE I have to use during the day.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Wow, I wish my days were half as interesting as that. Anyway, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone exhibiting symptoms of being ‘high’ after just one cup of Coffee. My friend is pretty much a Caffeine addict and only gets ‘high’ after many cups, or concentrated Caffeine pills. He’s kind of a lunatic, but that’s beside the point.
Any way, Caffeine is present in many different foods and drinks, as well as different medicines. Which means your body is probably at least marginally used to Caffeine. So assuming you don’t avoid all Caffeine like the plague, or your Coffee had some other active ingredient, I would say you had a weird reaction, or that really was a Magic Brownie. But then again I’m certainly no expert on this, so who knows?
Respectfully,
Jimmy
October 27th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
Kylark, I fixed the italics thing for you.
Yeah me too, I seriously felt like I was going mildly nuts trying to figure it out during the train ride. But it was also a very long ride (9.5 hours), so it made it that much more interesting to have this kind of weird super-charged feeling during it.
Well, it came out of this white paper bag - the kind you might get from a bakery. Although, presumably you could get it anywhere that sells white paper bags, so who knows. The brownie didn’t taste especially weird, honestly.
Well, when I first wrote it, I was planning on talking more about how I feel when I get high. At times, it’s almost like this feeling of my internal being broken up into overlapping layers. And I feel like there’s this extra layer of sensitivity that I get, where it’s almost as though some other spirit is in there with me, or I’m somehow communing with it. This is especially pronounced for me the few times I’ve used salvia divinorum. Definitely feel the presence of the plant spirit. Sometimes on pot too. But this time, I felt like I was weirdly communing with the “coffee spirit” which surprised me, because I’d never heard anybody talk about such a thing - and yet the drug is clearly psychoactive.
I’m open to the possibility that I simply had a weird reaction to caffeine. I’ve had to cut down my intake of it over the past six months. I used to drink a lot of iced tea especially, but then I would end up shortly thereafter with this weird awful feeling of tightness in my chest, and rapid heartbeat. I mostly cut it out of the diet, and that was that.
The other possibility I was entertaining during the train-ride was that I was having some kind of weird spontaneous kundalini activation. Or maybe I’m finally starting to lose it. Seems about as plausible as anything else, I guess.
October 27th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
At times, it’s almost like this feeling of my internal being broken up into overlapping layers.
Oh yeah. Laminated. I get that too. It’s really cool; I usually come away with a lot of insights about my own cognition and perception.
October 27th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
Suspect that it probably wasn’t a laced brownie. Based on personal experience, whether it’s a brownie or ice cream or a “Reefers” Peanut Butter cup, what have you, the taste of the pot is very strong and not really something one would miss when eating a laced food item. How much had you eaten or not eaten, slept or not slept before you got on the train and had the coffee and brownie? Coffee definitely has a strong affect on kmee…anywhere from getting fidgety to hyper-focused to having mild shakes, so I generally avoid it and caffeine altogether (except in real mild tea); but if you had been weaning yourself off for awhile and hadn’t eaten properly and/or slept well, that might explain the reaction. That, and the caffeine interacting with all the sugar and chocolate in the brownie.
It would be cool if it was a kundalini thing, though.
October 27th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Yep, all three of those, definitely. Who knows what else on top of that. I rather suspected that if it was a pot brownie, it’d taste really weird. In any event, I came home and was in bed before 9pm, which is supremely unusual for me. If it was a caffeine-spirit high, I definitely want to try doing it again in a more intentional way - because it had a seriously wild effect on me. I’d venture to say that it was distinctly different than the feeling I get from pot, although I can no longer really remember exactly how.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
That actually freaks me out, if that’s the same thing that I’ve experienced. I felt like I was getting lost in each individual layer, one at a time, followed by temporary amnesia, almost like I had Alzheimers or something, in this cycle that made me feel incredibly lost, having to readapt to my perception every 20 seconds. Maybe I’m just a control-freak over my own thought processes and I couldn’t handle giving up my normal thinking processes and structure, but it really made me never want to smoke ever again.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:23 pm
I think, to be quite honest, your coffee experience was just a circuit 3 experience (caffeine, nicotine, etc induced). Most people tend to operate in between circuits 3 and 4 now because we drink so much soda, smoke so many cigarettes, etc. For those who don’t do that too often, when you do have something strong (like a Clove cig, or a coffee with an extra punch, mmmm expresso), you’ll slip farther into circuit 3 then you ordinarily would. And like any “altered-states” experience, you see things differently, mentally.
Same thing happens to me when I go awhile without smoking, and then do smoke a clove. That, added to a nice walk to myself w/ music, and the thoughts come pouring in.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
I didnt know that was such a common occurrence for people when they were stoned. Its especially problematic for me if I’ve been drinking alcohol before I smoked. The reason being that I can tell its a different “layer” that is drunk from the layer that is stoned. And the layer that is stoned almost always tries to forcibly eject the poison of the alcohol from my body - ie, vomiting.
I know there is mention in various traditions of the human energetic body being composed of multiple overlapping bodies or layers or auras or something. But I don’t know too much about it. Perhaps this is what we’re all experiencing.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
Hehe. I don’t really see the need to include the word “just” in that statement, as though to somehow diminish my experience. It’s a very tricky territory to try and tell somebody what they experienced. I actually sort of like the uncertainty of all of it and the creative energy the whole thing seems to have released in our interactions.
October 27th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Okay. First, as a confirmed caffiend and coffee addict–a lot of times, the aroma can get to you. Trust me, I know.
Chocolate also has caffeine, in addition to sugar. What goes into brownies? Yes, that’s right, chocolate, and sugar. That’s a souble whammy, right there. If you are not normally a coffee drinker then the caffeine will get to you, and chocolate… Well, as a chocoholic in addition to my status as a caffiend, I can assure you that the euphoric conditions are compatible and supplement each other.
I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re not addicted to chocolate of caffeine, right? So no biggie. Not like some of us (a few of whom are actually going into National Novel Writing Month starting November 01 with an eye towards feeding our writing, caffeine and chocolate addictions. *grin*
October 27th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
If you’re not a regular coffee drinker, then it was most likely a reaction to having a cup plus the sugar from the brownie. What brand of coffee was it? Was it caffinated or decaf? If it was ‘decaf’ then it’s a placebo effect.
I’ve had a coffee-and-brownie cocktail many times. I had to stop after a while.
How big was the brownie? I ask this because (due to the average serving size of any given brownie, laced or otherwise) eating an entire pot brownie will FUCK YOU UP. Not only will you feel funny an hour later– you might not be able to move, depending on how well the brownie was made! The potency of the pot won’t have much bearing, because the whole act of cooking it activates the THC– whether it was “bitchen hydro” or “downtown brown” you will get FUCKED UP off of one pot brownie.
Not to chastise, Tim, but I would NEVER eat a brownie given to me by a stranger, even if it was still in the wrapper. Pot is the last thing you need to worry about being in a foreign brownie.
Now, if it was a pot cookie, on the other hand, you may feel a little funny an hour later. But it’s the hour thing that interests me, because that’s about how long it takes for orally-ingested pot to begin to act.
October 27th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Ok, firstly if you had ever eaten properly prepared Alice B Toklasized brownies you would definitely know it beyond mere suspicion. The psychoactive effect is much enhanced not to mention the herbal character of the end product.
THC is fat-soluable, and is largely absorbed out of the leaves and buds into the butter after simmering for only a short time, at which point the plant material may be strained out. This gives the brownies a delicious THC-rich flavor without having a “leafy” texture. In addition, bodily absorption of the THC is improved due to the prior extraction of the drug into the butter.
An easy recipe for those who want to try, is simply grind some herb in a coffee grinder and sautee in the amount of butter your particular box of brownie mix calls for strain out the leaves and prepare as directed on box. Smells great whilst baking too.
October 27th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
oops that was me, above, I make a kick ass psilocybin chai to wash those brownies down. To 1quart boiling water and 25 p.cubensis caps add 3 tblspoons whole cloves, 3 tblspoons cardamom pods, and one cinnamon stick, and 2 bags Darjeeling, reduce (by boiling) chai/cubensis mix by one third and add enough sweetened evaporated milk to lighten to your preference, strain mix into glass pitcher and ice or drink hot.Serves 4-6, Happy Trails.
October 27th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Oh I know, and I don’t plan on doing it again, trust me. My girlfriend gave a similar warning when I told her about it after. I guess I just get tired of having to be suspicious of everybody constantly… you know?
I also don’t think it was pot because the guy ate multiple of these brownies, like more than 2-3 I think. They weren’t big, maybe three inches across or so. But still. Plus he slept the whole train ride after that. I don’t know about anybody else, but if I was gonna eat a bag full of magic brownies, I’d more than likely not be able to sleep for 9 hours on a bumpy ass uncomfortable train. But who knows. I just don’t like sleeping stoned. Maybe some people do.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
Ok and here is where I must come off sounding as terribly naive, but what does this say about our culture if we have to be afraid to take a food offering from a fellow traveller. For centuries the sharing of food has been a ritual of friendship, I often shared food with travellers on trains in Europe, and never felt the slightest bit paranoid.
Could your altered consciousness have been triggered by coffee, chocolate,sugar, and a cortisol triggered panic attack? A fight or flight reaction to your fear of being dosed by a stranger?
I promise never to offer any of you guys any of my special shroomy spaghetti and sauce. Harumph!!
October 27th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
Yeah, I agree Gina. That’s why I took the brownie in the first place. Because he was offering it to be nice. And I regret even hesitating to question the whole thing. It’s not how I want to live my life and interact with other people.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
you will get FUCKED UP off of one pot brownie.
Word. It’s something I’d actually like to try again at some point.
October 27th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
happy trails….that`s just funny.
regarding taking food from fellow travellers. dangerous in modern, urban times, but one needs to develop or preserve the natural trust we have inside or eventually it will be gone for good. a chance well taken, i would say. train/bus travel is one of those areas where we still have some chance to experience humanity. i could see where you felt the need to be in that moment. there is a kindness afforded by strangers that still seems to surface when we travel that isn`t available in many other environments. to much urban culture, i suppose.
and , yes, if those were loaded cookies you would have had no doubt within a half hour or so.
October 27th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
Any of you catch that show on the Travel Channel, “Stranded with Cash Peters,” I’m sure a lot of it is staged, but the premise is tres cool. This Englishman is dumped in some remote or off the beaten track place and has no money, and must find a meal and a place to sleep.
He’s written a book that suits this topic perfectly :
Gullible’s Travels: The Adventures of a Bad Taste Tourist
October 27th, 2005 at 9:21 pm
There’s nothing wrong with getting food from a stranger, esp. if they are eating from the same source. And I’ve ingested enough non-food items on a spur of a moment to know that sometimes you just have to trust people.
But I would think twice about a brownie or a sugarcube, simply because of the drug connotations.