Why are psilocybin mushrooms referred to as magic? Explaining this properly is impossible if you haven’t had firsthand experience with the magic one experiences during an interior voyage. Am I instigating you to try it? Not exactly, as mushrooms have an array of different contraindications one must know first – read THIS to know more – and are pretty challenging regardless. Choosing whether to take them or not can be difficult, contrary to what happens with truly dangerous drugs like cocaine or heroin. Mushrooms are psychedelic and also entheogenic – in other words, they manifest your psyche and, from time to time, can put you in contact with the Divine. If the second is always a sublime kind of experience, the first can be a struggle which proves to be one of the greatest challenges you’ll face in life. In short, it’s not for everyone.
Heroin and cocaine (the so-called “systemic drugs”) make you feel really good rather than illuminating you. They engage you, inducing a devious physical dependence, whereas with mushrooms, it’s the exact opposite. They’re always sincere because they show you the bad as well as the good: your problems and incongruences are all brought to light. And mushrooms also don’t cause dependence of any kind. That is to say that those who fall into systemic drugs don’t see when it’s time for another dose, while it’s easy to let weeks and months pass between adventures of inner discovery.
The publication of my book, as well as the articles on this blog, has prompted many people to reach out to me privately, with various requests but most of the time with the simple desire to share their own experiences and reflect on their life in general. I’m often touched by people who write to me. Sharing common experiences as deep as those provided by mushrooms, which permit contact with the sincerest of human qualities, is something truly special. And I’m very grateful for these generous gifts.
I recently received an email from someone we’ll call Marco. I’ve asked his permission to publish this because I feel it’s an excellent illustration of why psilocybin mushrooms got their magical name. But that’s not all. Marco touches upon other precious elements which I very much want to share with you, the reader.
Here is the email:
Dearest Tripson
I felt a real need to write to you, so here I am… my goal of 2 dry grams has been reached! On the sunniest and most beautiful Saturday I’ve ever seen, in my apartment with everything I needed at my disposal. I had been planning my first real trip since the week prior, when my flatmate informed me that after lockdown they would be going down to see their family for a few days.
You’ll be asking me how it went. And well… to be quite honest I can’t possibly begin to describe how much the experience exceeded my every rose-tinted expectation. I can only tell you that I was completely ecstatic and that I felt GOD inside me through everything I observed, saw, touched and savoured. An immense joy for everything and nothing rushed through me. I could see and experience reality from such a divine perspective that my mind could never have conceived of before, but which vaguely, at the same time, seemed almost like a distant memory.
During the most intense phase, I experienced rapturous peaks, feeling an energy radiate from the centre of my chest and shine out in all directions. I was immersed in a fire-like landscape full of white energy – it’s hard to explain – in which every so often I would revive and start emitting sorts of vocalisations or verses of peace. At other moments, I found myself exploding with crazy uncontrollable laughter. Once the most intense part was done I managed with not too much difficulty to peel a banana to eat it. I still find it hard to believe that I felt such an immense joy and pleasure – not just because of how sublime the flavour was, but even from simply touching the skin of the fruit I was eating.
I was sitting on my chair in front of the terrace window in the lounge looking over the garden (on the first floor) with a pleasant view before me. But how can I explain? I was completely melted; everything was sublime to the nth degree.
I remember thinking that I never wanted that feeling to finish and repeating to myself countless times phrases like: ‘It’s beautiful, it’s marvellous’. And endlessly feeling waves of thankfulness for that which I was feeling and experiencing. I’m happy I overcame my fears in the leadup and controlled my anxiety. When I started to reach that point I cried liberated tears for having had the chance to try the mushrooms. I was saying to myself: ‘how could one ever be afraid of something so wonderful’?
I believe the mushrooms truly wanted the best for me and listened to me. I had made some kind of deal with them while I was preparing them in the jar with the lemon, saying: ‘show me what you want, as long as I’m not traumatised to the point of being unable to continue on to other experiences.’ They must have taken me very seriously because they decided to show me the best: all the beauty that surrounds us and exists in the world that we cannot see, or no longer manage to. Who knows? Maybe the reality we perceive before the ages of 2 or 3 is something like it. I now know that it exists, and I don’t believe I can go back to seeing the world in any other way.
Obviously, I don’t delude myself into thinking that every experience I’ll have in the future will be as wonderful. Some darkness will need to come forward sooner or later. But honestly, with the trust I now have in the fungus I’ll no longer be afraid. In fact, I can’t wait to work with my personal shadow.
Three days have passed and I still feel a strange but undoubtedly pleasant lightness permeating my thorax around my lungs which from time to time seems particularly vivid. It’s almost like something’s been unburdened in that area, even though I’m still not sure what. It’s like I feel lighter even down to my thought patterns. I feel very well, apart from a terrible headache which lasted 2 days (though I have the feeling that even that had its reason for being there). All in all, I feel like a very lucky man and am so grateful for what happened that no one can understand, or, in fact, I’m certain you do!
Seeing that I’m way too paranoid to want to go disrespecting the fungus, I have one question I’d like to ask: how long would you suggest waiting between one experience and another?
Dose-wise, I was thinking of having at least one more experience with 2g and then evaluating where to go from there. Although, I wouldn’t be adverse to testing myself with 3 to 3.5g. Naturally, I see your opinion as gospel, you know that.
A fond farewell! Be well.
Dear Marco, how can I thank you enough for your story? Reading your account made me very emotional. I felt it completely and can’t say how grateful I am that you took the time to share it with me. You’ve had direct experience of mushroom magic at last, the pure magic of being in contact with reality without mediating the discursive mind, which continually applies etichette to what we perceive, impeeding us from seeing things for what they really are. Life is everywhere in its indescribable splendour, and the perfection of it surrounds us all the time. The mushrooms show it all to us. The (temporary) gift we receive in those moments is the Presence and the Opening of the Heart – indispensable ingredients if one wants to reach a point of awakening, according to many major spiritual teachers such as Salvatore Brizzi.
As the Fox said to the Little Prince: ‘Here is my secret. It’s very simple: “You can’t see well, except for with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.” I reckon that this statement is only understandable once you’ve had an experience like yours, don’t you?
I’d like to know: did you use the playlist with the songs I recommended? If so, can you tell me something about the experience of the music combined with the mushrooms? And also, will you let me use your story for an article on my blog? I’d like this experience to be shared with more people as I think many could find it useful.
Now, let me respond to your concerns about time and quantity.
The minimum I’d advise would be two weeks between trips, partly for the issue of physiological tolerance, but also to let the previous experience adequately settle. In reality, the right time is whenever you feel the calling. At the start, this could happen very frequently, then the intervals will probably become longer. For me in this last year, I’ve often let months pass between one voyage and the next.
And how much? This is also something you’ll understand with time, but for now you must gain experience, so the quantities will always be contained. For a regular level of physiological sensitivity there is a threshold around the 3 to 3.5 gram mark. It’s hardly a modest amount, but above this level is where things start to get tricky. Make sure to read my last article if you want to know more on that.
I suggest increases of around 0.5g at a time. And for a while, keep it under 3. I mean, really, what’s the rush? The idea is to experiment with different psychophysical conditions before eventually augmenting the aforementioned threshold. At the risk of sounding excessively prudent, I’m the first to suggest this despite having delved into quite challenging quantities. Before arriving at the heroic dose, for example, one must experiment. And in the meantime, make use of music to stay in the realms of safety. Then you can take the interior plunge, having confronted the mushrooms enough. Never underestimate them. Be trusting, yes, but always respect them.
Until next time, thank you.
There you are dear Tripson!
I’m moved to know that you’re excited as I am :)) I mean, even if I’m not familiar with Salvatore Brizzi and the story of the Fox and the Little Prince… the meaning is just as you say! And I swear I thought the same thing right after sending the mail: if you want, I’d be honoured if you used it as an example. I believe that every human being should be able to access this miracle, and I thought how much better the world would be if everyone could arrive at that knowledge. […]
With regards to the music, I have to say it was fundamental. It was my companion, or rather, maybe it’s more accurate to say that it accompanied the experience, giving guidance and direction. If I had to give an analogy, the music keeps the experience on track like a train on its course. I found it incredibly useful right from the off, even when waiting anxiously for the effects to begin. It’s natural to feel a little worried, but you can end up pissing yourself a bit so thank God the music was there to help keep me calm.
Another important thing was to trust in the fungus, but the novice does not have this yet. I think that it’s useful to instead have a general trust in nature. Let me explain a little better: very recently I discovered syntropic agriculture – forest food – along with Masanobu Fukuoka’s beautiful book The One‑Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, but essentially it explains how all of classical agriculture is tomfoolery man invented to feel superior to nature at all costs. There are men who do wonderful things with this “Natural Farming”, to call it as Fukuoka does in his book. There is some reading to do before planning an experience, and one of the most powerful things to read up on is building trust in nature. Among other things in Fukuoka’s method, mushrooms play an incredibly important role. I could go on about it for days. […]
A warm hug
In my book on these marvellous creatures, I summarise their most important qualities in one word, the biggest gift one can receive from them: reconnection.
An experience undertaken with knowledge can “stop the world”, as Don Juan Matus says through the words of Carlos Castaneda. This means that the mind closes and stops trying to incessantly describe everything it sees, ceasing to come between us and a direct perception of reality. This interior silence makes us see ourselves in a way which we have perhaps only been able to do as small children, and as adults can only do with self knowledge. In these moments of reawakening we relate to the outside world – and the inner – in the absence of filters, finally able to seize life in every way. We realise at long last that the separation in us and outside of us is illusory, that we are literally part of everything there is as everything is part of us too.
Trusting that life does love us is the best intent to guide an inner voyage with magic mushrooms. Marco states that we need to trust in nature, and – if I can add to that here – we need to do so because nature is the very thing responsible for our existence.
Always read the WARNINGS.
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