6 min to read
A Story About Mushrooms
Psychedelia
OK. I’m in quarantine and I’d like to tell you a story about mushrooms.
My fascination with mushrooms started young; when I was 14.
A guy came up to me during lunch break in high school with dilated eyes & said “Duuuude, look! Look at this skateboard!! I feel like my whole body is riding it!!”. It was one of those little finger skateboards (remember TechDecks?) that were popular in the early 2010s.
His saucer-like ember eyes were magnified by the thick lenses on his glasses; like Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. He had mid-length, straight white hair, ghastly pale skin & a small frame standing about 5’3”. His striking features added to the trippiness of his amazement. He’s the first & only person I’ve met with albinism.
He’s normally a really mellow guy but today he was extra giddy. He told me about the ‘shrooms he ate this morning & how they were dry, kinda gross & gave him a tummy ache initially.
After about an hour, his stomach relaxed & his entire body became bubblegum… His words, not mine hahaha. Everything was bubbly, pink & lovely.
Our interaction ended as quickly as it began, except his exit from my field of vision was much slower. He walked away in slow motion but looked like he was trekking up a mountain by his slight decline & high knees.
I studied his behavior for as long as I could… What a curious thing.
I went home that day thinking about these magic mushrooms. I’ve heard schoolyard stories about fairytale trips & reality-warping toadstools, but I had never met someone who tried it until today.
I pulled out my indestructible Nokia phone with the physical qwerty keyboard & sent him a text.
He responded quickly, saying that he’s totally fine & sobered up now. He told me about his entire trip, from onset through peak & comedown. I remember how nostalgic he felt; as if he just came back from a distant planet & brought with him a bliss he’d never experienced before. He said he ate 2 grams of Cubes.
A Google search later, I found out they were called Psilocybe Cubensis!
This led me to stumble upon the Erowid Experiences Vault, where people journaled their trip experiences with all kinds of details like dosage & atmosphere. This was such a bizarre, new world to me. Down the rabbit hole I go.
The fact that this little, naturally occurring, edible thing that grows out of cow poop that you can find on your neighbor’s lawn (because us immigrants don’t landscape that fancy) could give you a psychedelic trip was mind-blowing…
I started to obsess over it a little bit.
I was too afraid to try them myself; I had read my fair share of horror stories on bad trips where people ended up in an infinite loop of suffering where all their deepest, darkest fears surfaced for a feast on their fragile minds.
Where people experienced meeting demons & being trapped in a hellish world. They would describe such intense paranoia… A state of being totally OUT of control.
All they could do was wait until the psilocybin was metabolized & out of their system; pray for sweet sobriety.
One thing I knew for sure was that my teenage psyche was nowhere near stable enough to handle that kind of experience.
My morbid curiosity couldn’t stop reading their trip diaries though. I spent a bit too long on the dark side with my research here LOL.
But still… I also read of people experiencing what they called “heaven”; profound awakenings where they spoke to God & soared to heights of enlightenment.
They felt deeply connected to everything; the birds, bees, trees, leaves, grass & seeds.
Stars shared their wisdom with them, crickets sang in worship to them, all things green breathed into their beings; expanding their awareness far beyond their physical vessel, into Oneness with the Universe.
It was all so fantastical. Everything I read was so intensely contrasted to the mundane life I lived day in & day out.
I yearned for that escape from routine; I needed to know what Life means. It seemed like psychedelics had the answer.
Of course, I spent most of my time reading about high dosage trips. Micro-dosing was very interesting too, but small enhancements to your senses were nowhere near as captivating as what I described above.
How does it work? If it’s a drug, why are there no health risks or addictive properties? Why do they cause such profound hallucinations?
It was an unusual introduction to the world of Mycology.
This led me on shroom hunts off the beaten path wherever I traveled.
It led me to research the complex world of fungi.
Led me down a rabbit hole on psychedelics to discover other compounds & ancient traditions from cultures all around the world.
I learned about Terrence Mckenna’s Stoned Ape theory; the idea that our primate ancestors consuming psilocybin mushrooms were the evolutionary catalyst that developed our brains to create language & projective imagination.
This journey has enriched my life & inspired me to see nature as something intrinsically connected to who I am as a being on this Earth. I feel like I appreciate the planet much more as a result.
While my interest in magic mushrooms has since faded, my curiosity about fungi & the microscopic world has evolved into a veneration for Life itself. Watching things grow from the Earth is like a miracle in real-time.
AND SO, in quarantine, I’ve decided to grow my own mushrooms!
They’re NOT magical, but they are delicious. The process is practically the same too.
I’m going to grow Portobello & King Oyster mushrooms from scratchhhh with nothing but my wits (AKA Google) & tools at home.
I’ll keep you updated with the progress & document the entire journey. This is my first time growing mushrooms & it is drastically different from growing other plants or food.
Update you in a few days!
Have you ever tried magic mushrooms? What was your experience like?
Are you curious about the world of psychedelics?
Have you ever grown mushrooms or food of any kind? (All tips appreciated!!)
Thanks for reading, leave a comment below & let me know what you think of the post! Let’s start a discussion.
P.S. Check out the new hairdo - first time dyeing it! LMK what you think!
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