Photo by leyre del rio on Unsplash
We boarded the yellow school bus and headed for the back seats. Our bus was one of two that would leave our high school parking lot to travel the highways from Peterborough to Toronto to watch the Blue Jay baseball game.
We laughed as my girlfriends passed around a mickey (13 oz) bottle of vodka. I didn’t drink at all, as I had already taken LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide – also known as acid.
Acid was my drug of choice because it provided a “feel good” sensation similar to the brain chemical serotonin. Because I was odorless, the teachers couldn’t smell it on my breath and I wouldn’t be caught carrying a bottle.
It was also easy to buy. My friend Donnie knew when Rory would pull up to Becker’s Convenience store in his green pickup truck. Rory would ask how many hits (pills) we wanted and charge $5.00 a pill.
This suited my pocketbook as I earned a salary of $3.25/hour as a part-time employee at the Bake Shop of Food City grocery store. I would split the pill in half and only take half at a time.
I never got a full hit because I wanted to get high twice. But also why the pill scared me.
While I liked how it changed my mood, it also caused hallucinations and psychedelic effects that sometimes scared me. One night at a party, I saw an image of the devil talking to me on a television. When I turned around to ask if my friend could see it too, I realized the TV wasn’t on.
In those first few moments after the pill was placed under my tongue, I felt both excitement and dread for what was to come. The pill lasted up to 15 hours, so I knew I was in for a long, unpredictable night.
The bus ride to Toronto took a couple of hours, but it went by quickly as we talked, laughed and played games. We only stopped once, at Mcdonald’s, for a toilet break.
We arrived at Exhibition Stadium in plenty of time to find our seats. Although I was excited to watch the Jays play, I was more excited to see the birds flying in the sky above us.
When I was going home, most of my classmates passed out. But I couldn’t sleep. My heart was beating fast, and even as I closed my eyes, I saw vivid colors dancing in the air.
Once home, I quickly said goodnight to my parents and crawled into bed. But I knew sleep would be elusive. I decided to watch the images before my eyes and try to enjoy the journey.
But the atmosphere in my room was heavy, oppressive. The images so real. One such grotesque image was Medusa. This monster had writhing snakes for hair, and I recoiled and squinted as it approached. I covered my mouth to hold back my scream.
When I slowly opened my eyes again, he was gone.
But there was an arrow floating in my room. It was all the colors of the rainbow and spun around the room from end to end. I followed with my eyes until he turned and, with a burst of speed, headed straight for me. I screwed up my eyes and felt it hit my forehead, pulling my neck back.
Lying flat on my bed, I opened my eyes again. The room was quiet. The air lighter. The demon’s presence was gone.
Shaking my sheets, I learned firsthand how drugs can open a person to the demonic realm. I had heard that mind-expanding drugs could transport people into the realm of demonism, and the Bible warns against getting drunk and making choices that lead to relinquishing control of our bodies and minds.
1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) says, “Be sober. Be careful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
We must live under the control of God’s Spirit and not provide a gateway for a demonic spirit to enter our body.
As I believed in God, I also believed in the devil. I believed we have a spiritual enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy. But experiencing it in such a personal way shook me to the core.
From that moment on, I vowed never to do psychedelic drugs again.
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