The Mushroom Diaries Vol. 3

According to Terence McKenna you should take a nice dose of mushrooms and sit in a dark room. Terence was of the opinion that too many people liked to eat the boomers and then go out and party, and of course we do, last summer was a boon for the psycho-naut with the Lips and Father John Misty passing through town and while it's a well documented fact that i like good night off my tits and riding the trains to and fro i figured i'd put my psychedelic research hat on and listen to Terence. So last Friday night i took a dose and laid on the couch in a dark room and stared at the ceiling. It was fucking brilliant. I can't really describe it other than it felt like floating in space if space was warm and cozy. I can't tell what i thought about because i thought about everything and nothing. I drifted in and out of sleep from time to time with the slightest of grins on my mug. How do you sleep on shrooms you ask? You just let go, you drift, you cease worrying about this or that and just ride where the magic little fungus takes you. It was like an exercise in wu-wei in a dare i say purer form then i can currently get to without the aid of my favorite fungi. Needless to say it won't be the last time i try this little experiment. My cats enjoy it too because i've found that no other animal relates to the tripping human like cats. Having experimented in this area for going on 30 years i always marvel at their sixth sense. Syd and Zuko were my constant companions for the night and would follow me if i got up and come right back to the room when i returned. Kono's best friends indeed.

As of late there's been a steady diet of mushroom eating taking place. If you're thinking how does one just casually eat mushrooms it's pretty easy really. I just grind them up and eat them, to think about it would be a mistake. It somehow dovetails into all those books by Allan Watts and Bob Wilson and copious amounts of ganja. If in that moment the proper thing to do is down the boomers then down they will go. I usually end up sitting on some one's couch and yapping away for a bit before returning home for the comedown, for the amazing way it feels when i stretch, as if i was one of those gigantic pieces of taffy you seeing being pulled at the local confectioner at the shore or the way a cat feels after a good nap when they perform a fine and pleasant stretch.  A feeling of knowing each and every nerve and muscle and being awe-struck by how they work and feel. There is a neat symmetry with the psilocybin, an equilibrium between body and mind, sometimes when i stand up as they kick through the system it's as if i'm walking for the first time and i'm amazed at the feeling, weightless yet grounded.

And so this little experiment will continue, sometimes to play, to ride the trains and hear the music and see the lights, sometimes to see if i can open those sixth, seventh, and eighth circuits, the circuits that Leary and Wilson talked about. I was watching a video of Robert Anton Wilson the other day, (a video where he interestingly stated how the advent of drug testing now means we don't even have autonomy over our own bladders), he talked about the way meditation, psychedelics, cannabis, can trip that fifth circuit (thus leading to 6-7-8) and how once tripped the person will look to get back there but will also become more at ease with the universe, how they will be more philosophical and conscious of things. It struck me because i've recognized those traits more in my existence in the last 18-20 months, about the time i really got on board, about the time my father told me about his health. I remember the Breadwinner telling me that my sons were surprised at how well i handled the passing of my dad. I know why, i can't tell them yet but i will someday. I'll be open and upfront about things, like how they should avoid cigarettes and alcohol, speed and smack but that there are certain organic compounds out there that grow on their own that are interesting ways to both relax and learn about your mind and the world you're a part of, yeah i sound like a fucking hippy but so be it. It's the truth.

An interesting study has shown that the use of psychedelics tends to make people closer to the planet we live on. That fact is we are not the all-powerful masters we think we are but just one small part in a larger system and that if we continue to abuse that system the system will correct itself without much regard to whether we survive or not. I know my re-discovering and the way i use these substances has made me a more empathetic and compassionate person to all the things around me. I know i have more patience. Yes there are times when i "lose the Buddhist" as i like to say but as any sentient human knows we are a gamut of emotions and it would be fucking dull to walk around smiling all the time. Hell i'm not sure what's happening and i've probably forgotten and unlearned what the powers that be call "conventional wisdom" but that's cool, i wasn't much for convention anyway. Now on with the show.