Mind on Magic Mushrooms (2)

More Lessons from Magic Mushrooms:

There was this one time when I took 1g mushrooms (in capsule form), at evening time, in Kanpur. I had my privacy and would remain undisturbed. But I made a few key mistakes on this occasion and suffered the well-deserved consequences.

Firstly, I had not fasted for 8 hours like I usually do. On the contrary, I had had a very spicy meal just a couple of hours before starting my mushrooms experience. This truly haunted me physiologically, during the ceremony. I felt uneasy throughout in my stomach – the mushrooms really didn’t like being in company with all that spicy food. Really!

Second, I had definitely not cleared my mind or meditated beforehand – I will admit here that I had done quite the opposite actually. I had been copiously consuming Korean TV content in the preceding days. No exaggeration required. I had been a binge-monster. Watching non-stop TV for days and weeks. Sheesh!

This really whooped my ass and coloured my ceremony big-time. It was so frustrating – As soon as I began to feel the effects of the Golden Teachers in my body and energy, behind closed eyes, I was standing inside a large multi-walled mansion of sorts. Each wall had multiple tile-like panels. When I moved closer to a wall, I could see that each tile was a moving picture. I forgot who I was. Yes, just like with Ayahuasca, I forgot who I was, what I was.

As time passed, I kept entering each tile one by one. Each tile belonged to a different Korean Drama character – and their story. Their story, looped up. I was sucked into each story, one after the other. I embodied each XYZ character and began playing out their story in hyper-speed – I was trapped in their particular emotions and circumstances and couldn’t figure out a way out of it, repeatedly.

It was like being forced to wear one mask after another and made to read from one script after another. I couldn’t escape this. I couldn’t run away from this mansion. I was trapped, literally. Everywhere I turned, looking for an exit out of that building, I was stuck in yet another Korean Drama story arc. It may sound silly, but it was torture – well-deserved torture.

I would feel the character’s desperation and angst, and get so immersed in them, completely dissolving into it/them, totally forgetting my Self. Whenever I would realise that I wasn’t – let’s say – Son Ye-Jin from Something in the Rain who is trying to win her mother over, I would be so disheveled – trying to get my bearings, but then again ZAP! I would be merged with another tile-screen on the wall, immersed in another storyline and character. It was a seemingly ‘endless’ nightmare.

After some time passed, having experienced this crazy unpleasant role-play, I could remove myself slightly from what was happening in my head and began apologising to the Mushrooms. That was another ‘mistake’. Its not like the mushrooms ever want to ‘punish’ me/us. They only elevate/ tune our frequency a bit higher than our natural one, so that we may experience hidden realms and parallel realities, meet our own depths, the otherwise inaccessible parts of our own psyche.

That’s it!

That’s what most of these substances provide for us.

They just help tune our energy and body’s vibration to other realms, which we don’t ‘normally’ otherwise perceive (other than maybe with meditation or in our dream-states). It is Yourself You are meeting when You are communing with these substances. Nothing more, nothing else.

Anyway… ever since this particular episode of me torturing my own self by not having cleared my mind beforehand, and having consumed too much stimulus for days on end, before initiating a meeting with the mushrooms – I have gained much more respect for the process/ protocol. I try not to be callous, even in the slightest way, anymore. Its for the good of my own learning.

Whenever I have approached mushrooms without being overstimulated (food or media or thoughts), they have rewarded me with clear insights, with clear experiences that I can recall and tap into whenever I wish to, with my own story rather than borrowed ones, with my own beauty, my own power, my own psyche and of course the mushroom world’s gems as well.

I still always open my eyes once or twice in the middle to look for the green Mowgli-like lady, covered in mud, with that mischievous smile on her face meant for me, to check if she might be standing in the corner of the room I am in. Maybe one day I will see her again and she will tell me what I need to know/ understand.

I am grateful to the mushroom species, forever. Its not just psilocybin mushrooms I am grateful for. I consume a large amount of button mushrooms every week (yummy in my tummy!) and adore them. And ever since I started paying attention to, revering and respecting magic mushrooms, they have been sprouting around me in the most unexpected surroundings!

Yes!

Just last year, on a regular walk with my tiny dog Koko, in my neighbourhood, I spotted a giant growth of Lingzhi/ Reishi mushrooms (the ancient “mushroom of immortality”, revered for over 2,000 years with some evidence suggesting use in Neolithic China 6,800 years ago) on a half-dead tree-trunk! I kid you not! This mushroom’s proximity to me was astonishing.

It is a regular non-wild residential neighbourhood and in this non-conducive environment I found this Reishi growth (with its insane health benefits)! I watched it every day with my dog, on our walks, waiting for it to fully grow. Google Lens told me again and again that it was indeed non-poisonous Reishi. It grew as big as a bouquet of flowers! I plucked it off the tree trunk at the right stage of growth (after which it would have died off maybe). These mushrooms weren’t even trying to hide – they were right there – in plain sight! I still cannot believe, and could not believe then that no one else had spotted it or tried to pluck it off from there. It was just happily growing there for Me to spot and go crazy with excitement!

Ever since Ayahuasca showed me how communicative nature and her elements are, I truly believe with fervour that insects, birds, plants, mushrooms are all trying to talk to me if I would just listen or look (For instance, when I was dealing with a recent bruising of my heart and feeling hopeless, floating in the swimming pool I frequent, a couple of butterflies flew by and finally perched on my chest as I lay there gently bobbing in the water, tears streaming down the sides of my cheeks, flowing from behind my swimming goggles – now this is highly unusual – the pool is covered, there are no plants in sight, I have been swimming there every day for 3-4 months never having spotted butterflies in that area! This kind of thing happens with me all the time – the communication is always on, it’s up to me to notice).

I made tea out of the Reishi and drank it for days.

Some more Reishi grew overnight in the same spot a couple of weeks later and I plucked that off too and enjoyed the uniquely earthy tasting tea. What a gorgeous aroma it had! I can still recall it, writing this 1.5 years after drinking the tea!

I do not know what effects it had on my body, how it benefitted me or poisoned me (this is hyperbole – I remain un-poisoned and thrilled with this event), but I perceived this event as nature and especially the mushroom bretherin showing me some love and wonderment! I thoroughly played along.

Right after I spotted the Reishi, in its infant growth stage, I noticed 2 more (inedible) types of mushrooms sprouting on different trees in different spots around my house! I was so thrilled and telling whoever would listen about my discoveries. The other 2 mushrooms were very tiny and had very short life-spans it turned out. There today, dead and shrivelled tomorrow. But it was such a whimsical thing for me to observe them. I looked at all of them through my pocket microscope. It was such a kick for my inner child. Aaaaaah! Mushrooms showed me so much love last year. Wow!

The love didn’t stop flowing my way. I attended a tiny online workshop on growing edible mushrooms at home. It was very interesting of course. After that workshop ended, the teacher gifted me a couple of mushroom-growth bags with a set of instructions to follow. This led to me growing Oyster Mushrooms in my room for a couple of months in different batches – I grew, harvested, cooked and ate them with my Korean ramen regularly!

2023 was an especially mushroomy year for Me 🙂

Then this year (2024) around my birthday (August), I was again strolling with my dog Koko in the same neighbourhood I had discovered the Reishi growing last year, I was absolutely gobsmacked to find a tiny batch of the most beautiful Golden Teachers growing on that same tree! What!!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Of course, I was too cautious to even touch them because they looked tiny, I wanted them to grow bigger. I watched out for them the next day as well. But they had died due to a sudden weather change methinks.

I won’t claim that I was going to pluck them and try to consume them – there is a risk of poisoning involved. And as I have said earlier, I never want to put the explorer Anjuri in any kind of danger if I can avoid it, I want her to be able to explore on and on and on – and do so safely.

But yet again I perceived this randomly occurring Golden Teachers (psilocybi cubensis) in my neighbourhood as a sign of love from the Mushroom world. It was a gentle yet stark “happy 40th birthday Anjuri!” from them 🙂

In conclusion, Mushrooms love Me and they love You too!

P.S. Please watch Fantastic Fungi if you haven’t already. It might blow your mind, at the least.