Part of my effort in writing this is to bring awareness to an old view but one that is very different from many of the more common current points of view in Western society. My first 2 posts on Steemit were about plants and some of you that have been following me know that I have a passion for plants/gardening/plant-based diets/psychedelics/plants as medicine etc. I ask you to keep an open mind as I invite you to have a look at my honest attempt to convey something that means much more to me than I will be able to do justice with words. I will be as clear and concise as possible and it should be obvious that I am not trying to sell anything but only to convey the truth as I see it.
I knew as soon as I heard about SteemFest being in Amsterdam that I was going to do everything I could to make it happen. I think Amsterdam is an outstanding location to have an event that promotes freedom and self government. I decided that I would not make mushrooms an essential part of my trip because I think it can be dangerous to force something if it is not time for it. I have learned to pay attention to my intuition in certain circumstances I decided that if everything fell into place, I may decide to take some of the sacred visionary plant medicine, but if not, that's ok, SteemFest would be awesome with or without this experience.
Just like cannabis, mushrooms have sacred status in many cultures. I am not the only one who considers eating this fungus to be not only an acceptable practice but a powerful tool that can be profoundly beneficial to people in many walks of life. If you are opposed to this idea, please keep reading. I have you and the psychonauts in mind as I make this effort to write an honest piece about why I decided to take this plant medicine and the experience that followed.
I have written about my experiences with psilocybin in the past. It is no secret that I am a believer in all that is natural. I don't believe that psychedelics are an essential part of everyones journey but I do believe they are powerful tools that have been there from the beginning of our evolution as animals and the Stoned Ape Theory. I should go ahead and say here that I am both a deeply spiritual person and a scientific minded person.
My father once explained to me that spiritual belief and science did not have to be at odds with one another. One may hold deep spiritual concepts to be true even though they may have neither been confirmed or denied by science. Many of the greatest scientists were also deeply spiritual or even religious persons.
Because of my views on nature, god, reality, and life, I find psychedelic experiences have been a crucial part of my empirical review of this life experience in my effort to get to the heart of this thing. For some reason, I have had a burning desire to have the answers to certain questions that are very hard to really know. I sort of envy people that do not have this burden.
I have noticed some of my best friends are people who could care less about those deep burning questions that I have. They have decided that they are unknowable and there is no use in thinking about such things. Most of these friends are atheists or agnostics. I enjoy my conversations with these dear friends, but I must say that we are very different in our philosophical approach to life.
I guess that is about as good of a short description of the reason I find psilocybin experiences to be a worthwhile endeavor. I hope you will understand more if you decide to continue reading about my experiences.
The Truffles and The Idea
Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced.
-Terrence McKenna
Please watch this video as Terrence does such a great job explaining Stoned Ape Theory that there is no point in me trying to do a better job
I have also noticed that even if someone takes a therapeutic dose, it does not necessarily have a profound effect. In a way, it can be similarly used like cannabis to enhance whatever experience you want to have. It is true that you can get lost in the intricacy of whatever you focus on, at least that has been my experience and that of many others. It's kind of like that that Cowboy Bebop episode where they all eat mushrooms and get lost in their own intricate trips. It may be that because I have always been preoccupied with truth and love, those are the concepts that dominate my experiences with mushrooms.
At a certain point while walking around the city center of Amsterdam, my vision was drawn to a mushroom above a smartshop. The mushroom was a cartoon version of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom like on Mario Brothers. My attention was drawn in a way that I decided it was intuition and went into the smart shop.
There were two men at the counter. I told them what I knew and asked for their advice. One man began to tell me that truffles were actually was what was legal. He explained that mushrooms were available at some places and it was tolerated but they sold truffles there because it was legal. He also began to explain some things very similar to what I have just said. He also emphasized that it was important to connect with nature if possible because that is an important part of the experience. I wish I could remember exactly what he said, but I remember feeling like I was talking to a genuine person and he was speaking my language enough that I felt comfortable to buy some truffles.
We decided on 1 box of Mexicans and 1 box of the ones that were supposed to be euphoric. I put the boxes in one of my coat pockets and we continued our day of shopping and wondering around the city. We had missed the boat tour earlier in the day and had planned on meeting up with the rest of the Steemians in Amsterdam later, but got so carried away with all the fun we were having together that we didn't make it to the SteemFest dinner. I am glad that I saw some great posts and pictures of the dinner and I am also glad that we decided to do our own thing.
The Experience
I managed to take one picture while I was feeling the effects of the truffles
As the effects begin, I start to become aware of driving forces in my life that I have not been paying attention to. As I notice these things I begin to laugh and to sob almost uncontrollably, depending on what I am looking at. I am sure from the outside view it would appear quite crazy. After that I began to study life and the world unabated by my usual subconscious preoccupation with my archetypes.
While some of does not make nearly as much sense to me now, what I felt and experienced is as real as anything I have ever experienced. Actually in a way, those experiences seem more real than the rest of my life experience. I completely dismantled the Archetypes as I looked at the roles that we play and the ideas and concepts that literally shape our reality. I will do my best give a description of my experience. I may be able to do a better job after some more time to reflect but I also want to record my current thoughts on it.
Once again I noticed something that I still cannot fully explain. Almost every time I have ingested a big enough dose of psilocybin, I have noticed that there is a strange phenomenon that is always occurring where levels of activity build up and then fall away. It seems to me that everything is breathing and everything is more alive than I ever realized.
Another recurring experience is that of being observed by immense beings that seem to be pleased that I have become aware of their awareness of me! This can be a bit scary as I can almost feel how immensely powerful they are but I also feel that they are benevolent.
Another common theme that arises in my trips is the Tree of Life. The Tree is one of the most powerful archetypes. I am still in the process of understanding all this, but while in the middle of my trip, I had a deep respect for the trees and it seemed that I had a deep realization of the power and wisdom that exists in trees and the idea of the tree of life.
I also had a feeling that if we continue to decimate this planet the way we have been, Mother Earth will do what she needs to do to create homeostasis again and the human race could become partially or fully annihilated. This is actually a very comforting thought to me as I have no doubts about the infinite nature of my being and have been concerned about our planet recently.
I experienced much more than that, but some of it is deeply personal and a lot of it is hard for me to put into words as I am still going over it in my mind. Overall the experience was similar but not as strong as past experiences. If nothing else, the deep personal realizations I had about some pain I had been carrying around and some other subconscious things that I did not even realize I was dealing with, made the experience worth it.
My Conclusions
I truly believe that these entheogens and others like them may have an important role to play in waking us up to the reality of some of the errors of our ways. I am not nearly as experienced or educated on the matter as Terrence McKenna and many other great psychonauts of our time, but I wanted to try to tell my little piece as it is part of my mission to spread peace and love in this world through a deeper understanding of our true nature.
In studying nature and reality and trying penetrate beneath the upper layers of our understanding of reality, I have been transformed into a profoundly more caring and respectful individual than I was in the past. I have dealt with immense sadness and depression in my life along with some serious anger about the current problems with society. I now have a sense of peace that I had not experienced before.
These powerful plant medicines have helped me get to a point that I don't feel I need them anymore. I feel that I will now focus more on my work of learning and teaching about truth and love. My physical work is also much more clear to me now. I still don't know exactly what the next upcoming phase of my life is but I have a feeling it is going to be absolutely incredible and I hope and think that it will have something to do with plants and traveling the world and telling you about it on Steemit.
I am not proclaiming to have any answers but I am honestly trying to figure this life out. Please feel free to express your view and opinion in the comments below. Thanks for reading.