Spirit & energy medicine: Mushrooms

In recent years plenty of folks I never thought would partake of magic mushrooms have expressed the desire to eat them or drink them
established older people in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s
folks in the military, in the hardcore sciences, in industry
folks well embedded in the rational, logical, material and reasonable universe
you might on occasion call them conservative
I see this trend following in the veins of self improvement, personal growth, empowerment and human development, going way out to explore the edge in all the ways
or perhaps it is just the seasonal flavor of the month, innate human curiosity, fascination with drugs of all kinds, and a kinda of circular timing that brings us back to where we started
like a sick bear in the woods chewing on roots and leaves and things
looking for some kinda medicine that will heal it from that tummy ache or head throb or mental angst or existential don’t know
don’t matter what it is, I won’t reflect on the why too much, more on the how and the what for the seekers

Basic instructions:
You are having communion with an organism that is about three thousand times older than humans, has worldwide dominance, and is the ultimate recycler destroyer. Have some respect, take the time out to slow down, take flight, come back to land and ground, reflect. If possible, give it a good two days. Say Saturday afternoon into Sunday rest. If that is not possible, cause you gotta rush back to do the million things on your calendar that are really important and your mind is going a billion miles per second with notifications and updates, then at least devote a good six hours to being still and listening to the earth’s rhythmic beats.

The easiest is to make tea. Drop the mushrooms in a pot of water and let boil say 12-14-16 minutes or so. Best to cut em to little pieces rather than leave them whole. That may help the extraction of psilocybin into solution. Boil till the water is colored and has that shroomy smell. Boil as much water as you can drink happily. Strain and pour it in a thermos for going somewhere or in a cup for drinking on the spot. You can eat the bodies of the mushrooms, or not. Probably get a lil extra kick if you do, but most of the goods is in the tea. Some folks like to add a bit of honey to sweeten it up but I prefer it bitter, like my coffee. Almost forgot, if possible, fast before, say all day until you drink the tea. Or even the whole week leading up to the day of, eating super plain foods like rice or plantains and a bland protein or two. That is like priming the engine of the guts. Keeping the intake simple and the body more or less cleaned out, focus for a special event.

Where is the best place to have your tea party? It has to be safe and warm enough to be comfortable, without distractions. That is the basic. Ideally outdoors is better than indoors. Cause the sky and the mountains stretch into infinity, while a house is a box of a square cave no matter how luxurious. Plus in the great outdoors there is the sound of the wind, songs of birds, and the changing light. Think old time native vision quest where you go off in the desert and sit still in a circle. That would be ideal. But, in modern times, you might be sitting there, and an ATV will roar by, then the helicopter, then five recreationists on their mountain bikes, then a couple of climbers strolling past hauling fifty pounds of rope and clankity clanks, and so on. Then the yahoos shooting up the signs too. LOL. Yeah no good. Especially when you are in the thralls of fantastic visions.

Next best would be a quiet back yard or living room space that you are familiar with. Just let people know what you are up to, so the kids don’t suddenly barge in with five of their friends and start cooking in the kitchen, the Amazon delivery doesn’t keeps ringing the bell, and your partner does not call you for a ride cause their car broke down, and other such ongoing interruptions. If you are indoors, try to shut down the modern stimuli and stage the primal ambiance. By that I mean no TV phone computer blah, and yes to sweet scents like frankincense and myrrh, palo santo and copal. Have a lighter ready for those resins. They help to scent and ‘clear the air’. When staging try to mimic a calm, beautiful garden of sorts. A little music is nice, again ideally a person (you?) is playing rattles and clapper sticks, or hollow wood and goat hide drum skins. The music keeps the energy flowing and in motion. See below for accompaniment and reasoning.

Do you do this alone, with friends, or ?? Should there be a ‘sitter’ in case something goes south? So you drink tea but they don’t and can keep an eye on things? Call for help. Can they be trusted to sit quietly with you the whole time without getting antsy bored and start watching videos on their phone or making sighing noises and falling asleep? Or, maybe yall should drink together, 2-3 friends or so and make it a nice lil party. Each person taking an active role in the whole process. It is like anything really, theres some experimentation, guesswork, and practice involved before you get it down. Alone is nice if you are comfortable with yourself, with friends its more fun and there is less of a tendency to get bogged down in your own thoughts. If you want to do it once to be able to just check it off your list, then that is the experience you will have, ‘did it, done, now the next thing’.

In old times there was sometimes a guide, something like an odd combo of a non formally trained doctor, musician and poet. The generic term these days is shaman. Supposedly they had access to the invisible spirits in the universe and would channel them for healing, or had been gifted some kinda magic powers to suck out the illness that is ailing you and disperse the darkness so to speak. I dont know about this, cant corroborate or disprove any of it. Are there modern day shamans? Are they a bunch of cons going through motions and song and dance routines? Theres got a be an authentic one somewhere, in the jungles of the amazon or the mountains of the himalayas or the deserts of the gobi? if i pay em enough money will they fix me? again I have no idea sorry.

At the tea party, imagine that there are energy gates or mind portals that are opening and closing. Theres the psychic drama and emotional hurt baggage we all carry around with us. Plus there is the societal hardened shield shell plates we wear that protect us from dealing with things we dont like to deal with or that defend our basic ego core. Add to that the blinders prejudices tunnel tubes that limit what we want to see of the world. If under the influence of shrooms these are all shed then some folks start to melt down or have these cathartic crying type journeys. Yes you gotta face em and come to terms with em. Who you are. What are you. The good part about the old time shaman was that they could help you out there and do some symbolic gestures, give you some reassurance, hook you with a tune, and carry you outa there, the scary stuck place. This is the kind of scenario that does not happen if you have that recorded speaker playing new age meditation falling water indian flute music in the background, because the music is then not in tune with or dialed in to the dynamics with the highs and lows of the experience. That is alright. What is important to remember though is that the whole idea with such substances is that the metamorphic elements is on you in you, it is within. If you place too much emphasis on the heroic shaman external type figure for life saving then you are missing out, and tend to fall into this ongoing ‘help me help me’ theme which in old times societies few people did because they emphasized self reliance and personal responsibility as a matter of survival and outlook. Change comes from the inside. Didnt nobody have satellite phones and emergency beacons, airlift helicopters and things.

Sound is important because that is the chain and drive of the natural world. Crickets frogs rain pitter patter bird melodies swishing leaves the whole thing. This comprises a pattern repetition and steady almost monotonous rhythm that is more cyclical than linear. That is what you want to mimic in the tea ceremony. Hence a simple clapper stick of elderberry, a ki kaw ki kaw of a rasping stick, or the fast boom boom boom of a three legged water kettle drum or a thundering taiko. They all serve the same function, the beat goes on, life is full of movement and motion, keep going in a circle but forward in time, planetary orbit stuff. Traditionally this is the case. But, that said, if you want to bust out the guitar and start playing some Johnny Cash song, or press the play button for Katey Perry on your spotify, that is okay too. I might save that though for the last part of the journey when you are coming down and hopefully at ease. Don’t know, music and its ties are real personal. I do know that if you are playing dj busywork while you should be meditating concentrating that takes something away from the trip.

How much should I take? There is the matter of dosage. Have people died directly from overdose on hallucinogen psychedelic entheogens the way they do on alcohol or amphetamines or opiates? Did they have some kind of pre existing health condition already? Or did they die from a mental freakout leading to an accident? Not sure. Maybe somewhere it has happened. Do I know how to use a scale and calculate milligrams per body weight in kilos? To be absolutely sure I am taking 50 and not 150 milligrams of said alkaloid. Do I do that no I do not. There is a lot of variability in a natural product that is hard to measure and standardize. My feeling is that if you are going to fly from San Francisco to London the plane should go at a high altitude, and fast. If you are going swimming in a cold lake you ought to just jump right in rather than putting in a toe pausing for ten minutes, then another toe. If you got to kill a chicken for supper I would not do an elaborate ritual for the soul of the chicken, pluck off every feather slowly, then take little cuts on it until it is bleeding all over and finally dies. Just go!!!

Low doses are better for that haha wander around recreational thrill, a higher dose will force you to go inwards because of the sheer intensity and enthrallment of senses. Every person has a different threshold and tolerance for risk, danger, fear, drugs. I will say that if you are fixed in your idea of what the world is and should be, think that there is nothing more out there other than what we are able to perceive as humans, and are ‘set in your ways’ in a manner of rational speaking, then it will be harder to crack the shell of your being. Because your will resists anything more and beyond. Because you do not believe in magic. The magic of this world, our day to day existence, the boggling forces that are at play. The awe. Another way to think about it is like that ol warrior samurai mentality where you face death daily, live on the knifes edge, and know that one day it will end, maybe today. Sounds scary and sad in a way but the end result is that you live life fully and without regrets and in all honesty. The opposite of that is living a scared fearful life of anxiety and clinginess because you are wrapped up in this material world and only this world exists so you hold onto it as tightly as you can even while you are not really partaking of it just skirting around the eventual inevitable.

If you imbibe a lot then it is likely that when you close your eyes, or if you are in a darkened place squintingesh, you may see waves of geometric colors awash all over. You may become so swamped with energy lines that you realize that these rays are traversing throughout the universe all the time and you are a part of this phenomenon. Its not just a visual thing, it is your whole entire being. Enjoy it but know that the visions are ephemeral. Hopefully the lessons you learn are not. By ‘a lot’ my experience is about four big mushrooms. For an obstinate mind that ‘a lot’ might be actually eight or ten fungal bodies to crack the nut open. You will feel something with two to three a general loosening and perception come and go of color waves, and one mushroom drunk is a real subtle inkling that maybe things are not as one thinks feels or believes but you wont be able to put a finger on it. As friend Colin once described after a few sips, ‘its nice, I feel open’. Master Bateau, a somewhat seasoned sailor on the cosmic seas calls the experience ‘wide awake dreaming’, or ‘sedentary journeying’. !?!

What is the proper mindset going into the ceremony? Love and respect, that is all there is, hold to that and you will be fine. Commonly I’ve heard people being purposeful and having intention. Do you ask a mushroom for stuff? Set goals for the experience? Have benchmarks for success and criteria to measure future expeditions? LOL. I dont know, maybe? Another common saying I first heard from friend Dahlia was that the fungus or plant or ‘teacher’ gives you what you need not what you want. But what is it that I want? Or need? I dont know that either hahaha. peace? union? in the pulse? You will figure that part out later… In essence though the mind of no mind, beginners state, no expectations pre conceived notions sort of flow being in the moment the zone that is okay if you know that state and can stay in it while just sitting. Spirit body mind all working in unison with the world planet universe all. Or if you know the mind state of a tree, that is one of the best. Grounded, bridging earth and sky, drinking sun and water, providing for all the creatures. Bird brains and ancestral reptilian minds are worthy mindsets to emulate too but now this tangent has gone far enough.

General warning: Magic mushrooms are a federally illegal substance, deemed by government to be prone to abuse and having absolutely no medical value whatsoever. You might die if you have a pre existing cardiac condition and have a heart attack. For obvious reasons if you drink tea and drive or operate any kind of power or heavy equipment that is a bad combination and not a wise choice putting both yourself and others in danger. If you drink it away from home safe sweet home then be prepared to go up, come down, settle the mind before you jump in the car and drive away. Say at least 8-10 hours total with additional safety margin. Okey dokey have a nice trip and come back safe!

PS What are some good activities to do while in tea ceremony? Well if you are being as calm as a mountain, with good posture then focus on breath. That is all there is that lies between life and death and oxygen is really great stuff. The whole six hours in and out, in and out, dont say a word. But that is pretty super hard for most people. Playing instruments or chanting is great, like I mentioned before – circular droning heart beat like rhythms in general better than the linear story time melody songs which can take you into analysis and reason modes. If you are in nature then a walkabout with mushrooms is awesome too, but mostly I’d say that is better in the last third of the voyage where the peak is over, you begin to turn that inward gaze outward, and you can use your new found perception on everything around you. Again, recommended to stay away from electronics and their screens and magnetism, and people crowds harsh stimuli. Listen to the earth, be with your mom.

fin