Every story on this site is a composite: assembled from patterns that come back again and again in published experience reports and studies, and never the account of one real person. There are no names, ages or places in them. Each one ends with the facts behind it: how long the substance lasts according to research, what the law says in the Netherlands, the UK and the US, and the risks that matter most.
How these stories are made
We read published experience reports, such as the collections in the Erowid Experience Vaults, alongside surveys and laboratory studies that describe what people go through. Details that turn up often become part of a story: the yawning before truffles start, the laundry that takes all afternoon on LSD, the laughter after salvia, the bucket at a San Pedro day or an ayahuasca ceremony. Rare and dramatic details are left out, unless they are the point.
The stories are told in a mix of tones on purpose. Most real reports are calm or ordinary, some are funny and some are hard. A site full of only beautiful or only frightening stories would give the wrong picture.
The clock differs more than people expect
The single most useful fact in many of these stories is how long it lasts. These are the figures we use, with sources on each story page.
| Substance | Typical duration | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Salvia, smoked | About 14 minutes on average | Survey of 500 users, Baggott et al. 2010 |
| Magic truffles | About 3 to 4 hours, not yet sober after | DRUGSinfo (Trimbos Institute) |
| Ayahuasca | Peak at 1.5 to 2 hours, roughly 4 to 6 hours | Riba et al. 2003; Brito-da-Costa et al. 2020 |
| LSD | 8.2 hours on average | Controlled study, Ley et al. 2023 |
| Mescaline (San Pedro) | 11.1 hours on average | Controlled study, Ley et al. 2023 |
What this site will not do
We do not give amounts, recipes or preparation methods for controlled substances, and we do not say where to get them. Of everything described here, only magic truffles and salvia are legal to buy in the Netherlands, and only for use there. For truffles, our guide from mild to strong explains how Dutch-Smart ranks its strains. Read more about who publishes this site on the about page.