The Psychedelic History Of A Boat & The Magic Of Shrooms (Part-I)
I took Magic Mushrooms for the first time in the Autumn of 1997. These were the little (and very potent) Scottish 'Liberty Caps' (Psilocybe semilanceata), found on fields with plenty of horse and sheep poo.
I had been taken mushroom picking twice by some friends who knew what to look out for. This was my initiation and by the end of it I had my goggles on and was seeing magic mushrooms everywhere. We collected loads and I ended up with a tub of dried psilocybin fun-guys which I later consumed as tea over a period of a few weeks. I had no idea of dosage and I rode the trips as they came, in my room and by myself. I spaced; I traveled; I entered the land of dreams and dread; I got lost for hours looking at the cracks on the toilet wall when I went for a piss; I was taken out of my mind. Although I have little recollection of the content of those trips, there is one artifact of psychedelic output from that period which is still in my possession.
📷 ↘ ...on the very field where I recently found over 1000 shrooms
But back to that first time I took shrooms in 1997, which was right after we returned from the second mushroom gathering expedition. I downed a mug of mushroom tea in the town of St. Andrews (where I was studying at the time) and went down to the beach with a friend. It was there, on East Sands - in the spot indicated by the arrow in the image below, that I experienced the Magic for the first time. I was utterly blown away! The light, the sea, the stars, the sky.......everything was new and fascinating. I had never seen anything like it even though I had been seeing these same things all my life! I remarked over and over again how much more Real everything felt than anything I had ever experienced before and I wondered how I would ever again be able to adjust to mundane, banal reality.
📷 ↘ St. Andrews, 1997
I didn't come upon mushrooms again until the day I munched some on a boat in Amsterdam around 2001/2. It was an impulsive and foolhardy choice! I ended up having a pretty horrific trip, trying not to show that I was paranoid and eventually blacking out for a few seconds after a visit to the toilet down and up some very steep stairs, collapsing to the floor when I hit level ground again. This was shortly before we left for the airport and I proceeded to board the aircraft with dried blood on my face and eyes glazed over to high hell.
📷 ↘ mid-late 20s barge in an Amsterdam coffeeshop
I didn't touch psychedelics again for over a dozen years after that. I got married and was living the same mundane, banal reality that I had glimpsed from the outside that first time on shrooms. I may have 'adjusted' to it but I was not happy. I continued to smoke weed, but I was not in a receptive state for the magic of mushrooms and although I did go looking for them a few times, I never found any. In retrospect it feels as if I was a Zombie in the lower dimensions of consciousness, aware of the existence of Magic, yet unable to reach for it.
The marriage ended in 2012 and what followed were the two most intense romantic relationships of my life - back to back - incredible! The turn of 2014 into 2015 was another significant and intense period of my life, everything was turning upside-down and inside-out. The old was collapsing, nothing was what it seemed or what I had thought it to be. I felt alone and utterly fragmented, pieces scattered everywhere.
This was when I started taking mushrooms again! This time however - unlike any other previous trip I had had - I experienced riding the wave without falling off. I rode many other waves besides, I weathered many storms. I picked the scattered fragments of self up and found a unity I had never known. My mind was blow once again - wondrously wide open!
📷 ↘ my Big Bang Blown mind
In 2016, once the dust had settled somewhat and life had less outward drama, I managed to find over a thousand Liberty Caps from a field not to far from where I live. This amounted to one year's worth of monthly trips. In 2017 and 2018 I went looking but didn't find any. It has now been 18 months since my last trip (which incidentally brought me to the blockchain :).
📷 ↘ drying out after the pick
📷 ↘ taken in 2016
The colourful and psychedelic word-artist Terence McKenna (in one of the videos linked below) comes out with the fantastic notion that when you take Shrooms, you have access to all the distilled Experience - the 'Learning' - of all human consciousness that has interacted with the consciousness of Shroom, ever, in ALL of human history! What a fantastic notion, I love it; I can see it; I can feel it. And this is but a small measure of the the vast and limitless potential for healing and guidance that humanity has access to, brought and facilitated by the amazing Being that is the Psilocybin Magic Mushroom.
In Part-II I would like to share my experiences as they pertain to this healing and guidance aspect of Magic Mushrooms. I kept brief 'morning after' notes of a number of my trips over the past 5 years and I will find a way of presenting them.
In the meantime, I leave you in the fascinating company of TM if you are up for it.
Until the next one, thanks for reading 🙏
I've been always curious on he mushroom experience, my only reference is weed because is the only thing I do sometimes but Shurms are always like a beacon on the distance, what is the difference between the two, trip-wise I mean lol
Hey Elfranz, what a question you pose lol. I've been thinking about how to answer you......I'll have a go:
Beyond that my friend, I do not feel qualified to say anything. This link will give you more info: https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml
Discovered this site back in 05 I think it was. Good one bro ;)
Yeah huh, a great place to go to know about 'candy' beforehand ;)
Interesting....not had an experience with the shrooms yet, something I'd like to explore someday. Maybe if I could identify it, that might help. Nice post man...Though are all psychedelics same?
Thanks Mistakili, knowing what to look for defo helps :).
I would not say that all psychedelics are the same. I wouldn't even say that the 'same' psychedelic is the same lol. I think they 'work' with the psyche of each individual Being that engages with them - and each individual psyche is unique. I do however believe that they 'work' in a way that is 'healing' (beneficial) and thus each 'psychedelic' experience is customised or tailored to the individual going through it. In other words, we get what is required from the experience and this cannot be quantified or known beforehand.
I hope that makes sense. Thanks for reading!
That makes total sense, Thanks for the elaboration. Just like kush too, different cruise for different people.
Fantastic share man!
Thanks again CC 🤗
Hi krunkypuram,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thank you Curie, this is an unexpected and delightful surprise 🤗
hi @krunkypuram
I find this very interesting, but I consider myself quite impressionable and therefore I have a certain fear in trying. that is, to try and have a negative experience. that you know, we can compare these mushrooms to ayahuasca (psychedelic infusion based on different Amazonian plants capable of inducing a visionary effect) of South America, used above all in shamanic rituals considered magical and therapeutic?
congratulation for your vote curie and thsnk you to share
Thank you for your very nice comment Road2horizon :).
I think that magical/therapeutic/medicinal plants (weed, shrooms, haven't tried Ayahuasca but that too) take one deep into the mind, into the psyche, into the areas of the 'self' that rarely receive attention. Sometimes the 'unknown' is considered 'dark' and therefore 'scary'. I think many people have a 'fear' of going inside their own minds, afraid of what they might find or what might be lurking there. Other people (I was one such) don't go there because they consider their own minds to be such uninteresting places...... I think plants such as these are tools that allow us to explore parts of ourselves (and the Universe at large) which are 'hidden' in normal states of consciousness.
When I returned to shrooms again in 2014 I acknowledged and faced this fear, including that of having a 'bad' trip. I have not had a 'bad' trip since. I have found that 'intention' is crucial - why am I taking shrooms? Is it recreational and casual, or do I wish to take myself seriously and 'discover' what the 'heaviness' is all about (including this very fear that keeps me from looking)?
I hope this helps. Here's a site that has lots of (practical) info: https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml. For more 'esoteric' info re. shrooms, I suggest watching the videos embedded in the post (they are long, but they will go some way to giving you a picture about Psilocybin that may answer your question).
thank you very much for your information.
indeed my fear is that it works like a drug, and that everything you see is out of reality and not a real search for itself. you say it's not like that?
My friend, I consider the 'normal' state of life to be largely 'out of reality' - for example the way people see 'struggle' and 'hardship' and 'enslavement to the 9-5' as the only conceivable reality/life with no option but to 'fight, flight or freeze'.
Additionally, I think the 'real' search is inside or at least starts there. Our inner space is the only space we can understand FULLY and each of us already has the tools to do this. We can get lost trying to understand the 'outside' and the 'motivations' of others. Yet if we understand ourselves, this understanding can very efficiently be applied to the world at large. We are sovereign in our heads, there is no force in the Universe powerful enough to take us over unless we request it (and even then we always have the possibility of 'taking back our power').
What is reality except as a function of our experience? Everything else is what someone else has said it is - the authorities (govt., parents, teachers etc) say it is this or that but those are narratives which are equally unrepresentative of 'reality' and more suited to personal agendas of power and manipulation, or else strategies to deal with their own pain and others are used for this.
And this 'experience' is subjective is it not? And thus, to me, so is 'reality' - ie it is not a 'label', nor anything 'concrete' and certainly isn't anyone's version of it. I can deny my experience based on the world saying 'it is bullshit', but then I am denying myself, my own reality right?
I personally take it that 'tools' like shrooms can assist in accessing an 'augmented' or 'heightened' sense of 'reality'. Often this 'augmented' view shows how 'false' the daily/mundane/worldly Consensus Reality is - but this is to assist us in stripping away the illusions IMO. One moves away from the easy comfort zone of living a conditioned life in a trance. One begins to see all the 'false' belief systems that one had accepted as true. The old strips away and there is the possibility of 'breathing space'.
Also, pharmaceutical drugs & alcohol are in my opinion, far more dangerous and mislead into states that are 'out of reality' ie distort perception. Shrooms I would say have the opposite potential - ie to assist in aligning perception.
I am a being who accepts the existence of beings in other dimensions and accepts that there is interaction between dimensions and that this is 'normal'.
We are sovereign, no more and no less worthy than any other being or creature in existence, we can give our power away if we choose (that's what conditioning seems to be about), we can take it back again too :)
then ... very difficult. I agree with you on the vision of a reality that is not the one imposed by society. I do not live for the approval of the community or doing what others expect from me. and this is already a great personal success for me.
I don't understand how these experiences can, as you say, move us away from the comfortable comfort zone and show us all the "false" belief systems that one has accepted as true.
and do you really think that through the use of mushrooms we can understand our inner space (it would be magnificent)? and why can't we do it even without them?
I can't say that I understand 'how' this happens either :) ...... I guess I experience it as a kind of contrast in that when I am immersed in belief systems, I do not know that I am, and even if I have cleared various belief systems in the past, there will still be some....right? So the 'contrast' is a kind of 'stepping outside' so that there is that possibility of a view on what was previously hidden. I find that there is a 'larger perspective' made available and this highlights various aspects of 'comfort zone' or 'belief systems' that are out of alignment.
Perhaps it's a bit like walking down a dark alleyway with lots of dog shit (the belief systems we step in coz we don't know they are there) - but with perspective, one discovers where to put one's foot down and where not so as to avoid discomfort and a mess :D.
......and on to the second part:
Mushrooms are tools in my opinion - they don't do the work for me, but they facilitate vision. This vision (understanding of personal space) is entirely possible without shrooms - I'd say that 'evolution' takes place when in 'normal' states the 'higher' visions are integrated into everyday life (which is then in turn 'uplifted').
A meditation practice combined with a resolute intention to 'enquire' (explore) the workings of the inner self *without any external 'tools' is, in my opinion, a very solid way of proceeding. It's just that, for me, tripping has provided a lot of insight into this process.
For me 'healing' (understanding myself at a very deep level) is not dramatic as such but matter-of-fact, ongoing and evolutionary - as well as revolutionary :)
Yes, Terence Mckenna baby! I did pretty much same damn thing. I did not find wild shrooms but I ordered kits from Amsterdam, Netherlands actually. And I grew them for maybe 2yrs time and just learned from Terence and all his workshops. True Hallucinations has got to be one of the best stories on the actual event of Terence and his brother Dennis. I love that you made this post man!
One thing you said, In retrospect, it feels as if I was a Zombie in the lower dimensions of consciousness, aware of the existence of Magic, yet unable to reach for it. My friend, you could not have said it better.
Thank you for sharing!!!
Excellent Chey, very nice one!
I believe TM wrote a guide to growing Shroomz which he said was pretty much dictated to him by Shroom itself!
Thanks man, love your comment 🤗
I believe that!
May be one of the very rare personal experience in this platform and probably first time I came across such one. Though it is simple but it looks like straight away came from heart.
Anyway, I would like to know one thing, is it legal to consume this? Also heard that it have some medicinal power, is it true? Just asking
But it was a good sunday read though
In my opinion it is certainly not wrong to consume them - but they are currently 'illegal' where I live, yes.
Regarding 'medicinal power', I believe they do have such powers, yes. The videos in the post may give you some idea of where this medicine works - ie what it 'targets'.
Many thanks for your kind words. Yes, Shrooms are close to my heart and I am very grateful indeed to have had the experience of interacting with them. This post flowed and it was easy to write, I do believe it came from the heart, thank you for this acknowledgement 🤗
It was a good read of course, somethig like a face to face discussion...
Thanks for the clarification!.
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