DOSE:	400 mg	oral	Tryptophan
	100 mg	oral	Tryptophan - 5-HTP
	3 g	oral	Mushrooms - P. cubensis
	400 mg	oral	Tryptophan
	20 mg	oral	St. John's Wort
	500 ml	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine
	50 mg	smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

197 lb

SciFi Mushrooms

Date: 2014/04/03
Locale: Magaliesburg mountains in South Africa
Substance: Psilocybe Cubensis (known amongst growers and ethno-botanists as the Albino Penis Envy strain)
Dosage: 3g dried
Time considerations: 15mins for visual effects, 4h30m for the whole experience
Other substances consumed:
Immediately before: 400mg of pure tryptophan + 100mg 5HTP
Immediately after: 400mg of pure tryptophan + 20mg St John's Wort + 0.05g sativa-indica blend of marijuana + 500ml of lager

Synopsis:

At first I was concerned that a 3g serving would not be sufficient to elicit full blown close-eye hallucinations. I'd previously consumed 2.25g and though that experience had been profoundly spiritual I had not experienced any close-eyed anything.

The setting was out in the country, on the side of a hill that overlooks a lush and green valley. There was much wood and terracotta in the buildings and I knew that some amazing visuals would follow within minutes of consuming the Cubensis. Where I usually take the time to meditate prior to a psychedelic experience I hadn't felt the need to. The beautiful locale made for a quiet frame of mind - quiet outside of the anticipation.

I prepared 10g of the mushrooms by cutting them with scissors into thin strips and the 4 of us, friends and family, ate the portions on their own and drank it down with water.

At about 10mins the first glimpses of visual effects started showing and at about 15mins into it the visuals assumed a kind of theme - something like an Aztec or Olmec city with vivid artwork embedded into the walls and tiles. That alone was beautiful enough to have made it worthwhile and I knew that a fast come-on would deliver something awesome.

From the start I knew this was the real thing and about 40mins into the experience I felt the urge to have a lie-down. The P. Cubensis had insisted upon itself, didn't care much for my concerns or objections (not that I had any) and my body was telling me that something profound was underway. Something on the scale of a planet-wide dust storm on Mars, and that if I resisted it would be a long and unpleasant ride. I purged most of the shrooms without fighting the waves of intensity that were rubbing the serotonin out of their little neural hidey-holes and replacing them in their receptor sites with psilocybin.

Having retired to a completely dark, sufficiently warm and comfortable bed I lay down on my stomach and completely let go. I'll try and verbalise it as best I can but bear with me, it took a long time to find the appropriate words and images to explain in human terms.

Picture a 3D cone. Now take a 2D plane (a knife or a piece of paper) and cut through the cone. The line or tangent formed by the intersected objects is now either a circle, an ellipse or a hyperbole. From the vantage point of the cone it can be said to contain all circles, ellipses and hyperboles. A kind of 'library' of 2D shapes.

If I were to plot my P. Cubensis experience on a graph and then combine all other P. Cubensis experiences by all other consciences we are left with a kind or 'meta-object' (like the cone above). And from the vantage point of this object it contains an almost countless number of experiences. At the time I could only explain this object as 'the mushroom' and the term seemed clumsy and ineffective. My experience of it was that of something incredibly ancient, something like a database of experiences and I had found a way to look down its corridors and open its doors.

I had long since (perhaps a year and a half ago) realised and come to terms with my own existence as a collection of memories and unique sets of novel points of view. Each one of them undoubtedly 'me' but each one just a thin slice at a lower level of organisation. My own existence can be plausibly explained by my memories and experiences.

In a similar way this 'alien' set of experiences seemed to constitute a kind of 'mind'. Giving it a personality seems human and therefore limited, a futile attempt to capture the sublime. Something like taking a handful of water from the incredible vastness of the ocean and calling it 'ocean'. My own experience made complete sense as a kind of '2D slice' into this '3D meta-object'. I was gazing into this library as much as it was gazing into me.

By this time I was experiencing the most vivid hallucinations whether my eyes were open or shut and the faint moonlight outside the window was a part of the immersive place that I was now visiting. Looking around I found myself on the surface of the most incredible and beautiful planets. Some of them 'garden planets' - planets where civilisations had either terra-formed the whole thing or had left the planet and its ecology completely untouched. There only to be experienced and revered as sacred and ancient.

The Mushroom or The Object had started to reveal itself and I grew bolder. I asked It head on 'what are you?' It let me experience something like a faint memory. I was looking through the eyes of a lower mammal, something like a monkey or an ape and I was looking at my hands. For the first time I saw myself as this incredible, sentient being but still something primitive. I felt a strange sense of wonder and then shame. I remembered where it started for my own lineage - I am consciousness and this monkey and the mushroom had given me a space within which I can exist in a small and limited form.

If I were to assign some mystical 'personality' to the object it would be that of something ancient and mischievous. I had brazenly asked it to show me what it was and it responded by showing me who I was.

The experience was beautiful and melancholic at the same time, like hearing a hauntingly beautiful sonata and feeling it deep within me. I took a breather and stepped outside the room for water and more familiar company. I felt my eyes moist but not teary like as if I had been crying. What a profound and very emotional state of mind. I felt honoured and privileged to experience everything so far.

Back in the room now, perhaps 20 minutes later I was ready to learn more and I asked it to 'show me what you are without presenting yourself in human terms'. This was something that I could bear for only a couple of minutes. The most prominent memory is finding myself on a vast an desolate planet where no visible light (within the human spectrum of vision) could be found. The entire planet was covered with life forms, something like fungi. Each one living, sedentary and slowly moving but each one primitively and fundamentally 'conscious' the way that we consider animals and other forms of life to be conscious.
Together they 'communicated' the way that for instance the cells in my own body communicate. Together they formed this incredible, this massive and ancient Mind. Again I was consciousness looking back at myself in another disguise. The planets and creatures frightened me and I recoiled.

I asked it once more to change the presentation to something that I could experience without my mind being ripped to shreds. This was not something that truly worried me as I had been in deeper abysses and I knew that the object was benign in nature. The only obstacle that could cause any kind of anguish was me trying to grab onto something and not flowing with the experience.

When I refer to myself 'being' something more vast and complex I can only liken this to the way that a drop of water could describe itself as 'being' a river. I knew that fundamentally I was and always had been a part of the incredible stream of conscience that permeates all of the cosmos.

This imagery seemed to repeat itself and was a kind of mantra that I could go back to when the intensity of the experience became too vast and alien.

Again I was a kid in a candy store, gawking at jewels of the cosmos, these incredible planets that seemed to posses a life of their own. In previous meditation during the previous years and - slowly but surely in regular day to day occasions - I could sense myself as being part of this precious blue planet. The concept of Gaia is not lost on me and I could feel my connection to nature at times that I consider sacred and profane. But now...

Now I was given this glimpse into IT. This incredible community of species, organisms, experiences and existences.

Without using words I was shown the incredible and vast artefacts of ancient civilisations, used to create this incredible object which is as much Mind as it is a database and a system for broadcasting the existence of a dimensional 'highway'. A call to space exploration if there had never been any before it. The scale of the endeavour seemed so daunting that I remember repeating to myself over and over and over: bring back something. Bring back something that I can tell or show or communicate in some strange way.

After that I had a solid hit of the herb, my only one during the day, and I returned to admiring the dancing and gyrating arabesques and tessellations left behind by an ancient South American culture. I now remembered that my close-eye adventures started out in a desert and from this point on I had to have water in close proximity. This was followed by a second capsule of tryptophan and probably 6 or 7 trips to the bathroom to pee, drink more water and then finally a very wakeful kind of sleep. A lucid dream perhaps but I can't remember.

I awoke feeling rested, alert and as if some great emotional catharsis had taken place. I mean I thought I was calm as a Hindu-cow going into the thing but apparently there was more for me to let go of and I did this without being aware of it.

Throughout I had felt strongly attracted to nature: the blue-purplish sky, every luminescent blade of grass and every form of life hidden from view. Lying in bed and getting ready to take my first step into the more familiar surroundings of the room I found 2 memories in the mental palm of my hand. They lay there like glistening jewels: tell the story of how consciousness reaches back into itself and how any sentient being could never ever be alone. And BUILD IT. We have to make the leap off this planet. The details are there to be discovered when consciousness reaches out, and beyond a certain point of exploration the beacons and fuel-stations have already been built.

The best SciFi trip I've ever had. Peace and love fellow travellers.

Exp Year: 2014	ExpID: 103070
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 32
Published: May 17, 2019	Views: 4,100
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Mushrooms - P. cubensis (66) : Nature / Outdoors (23), Entities / Beings (37), General (1), Alone (16)