As the one who said it’s not a party drug, I will chime back in here. Yes, psilocybin isn’t the best choice as a drug for parties. In Western culture, we have a history of thousands of years of alcohol use, and it is our main model of using a substance to get altered, and this is usually done in social situations as a way to get loose, talkative and goofy. So we use that model for other mind-altering drugs because that is the model we have for mind-altering drugs,i,e, that they are for the purpose of getting socially loose at parties. . But psilocybin is a very different kind of drug. It has a history of use as a spiritual and shamanic medicine (It was originally used by the Mazatecs and related tribes in healing ceremonies). It’s best used as a spiritual medicine, not as a party drug. It’s a medicine for turning inward into the depths of the soul, for healing, and for communing with the spirits of nature. At higher doses it can even lead to temporary ego death and glimpses of enlightenment. It looks like it may also get approved within the next couple years or so by the FDA for healing depression. Taking it for the purposes of partying is a waste of good medicine and can sometimes lead to bad trips, since many people take it for the purpose of “fun” and then get more than they bargained for.
Although I do not have much experience with psilocybin I really like this point of view for psilocybin and am happy that it is making its way through the proper channels to be used as medicine for healing.
Primary reason for replying is I’d like to agree with you on that aspect and add that I think ayahuasca can serve a similar purpose. Healing and reconnecting to Gaia. I’ve had a lot of experience with this medicine in the past and it has helped me immensely. My wife and I even spent our honey moon in Peru for two weeks, we explored the amazing places there then finished by doing a retreat with shamans in the jungle of Iquitos.
Side note but one of the most amazing things we found was Machu Picchu still had active working plumbing that was fed from the mountains above, pretty incredible.
I agree with you about ayahuasca. I’ve had some experiences in ceremony with that medicine as well, although not in South America. The DMT (active psychedelic ingredient) in ayahuasca has a very close molecular structure to psilocybin. And not too many people trying to use ayahuasca as a party drug LOL (although I bet a few idiots have tried).
God this is soooo cool! I am very jealous 
. Those pics are amazing, when you see the grounds of the site with people there for scale comparrison, it is mindvlowing how huge the city was!
This is an understatement. With drugs that significantly increase or decrease body temperature, literal frying or melting of the brain is possible, and prolonged exposure to internal temps over 105 degrees will lead to death or critical loss of brain mass.
I think taking psilocybin at a packed concert, or crowded room with lots of bodies is a really really bad idea, and poses huge health dangers.
Amen.
Had not heard from you in a while my freind, was actually thinking about you a few weeks ago, hoping you were well and hitting up some good music festivals and enjoying the beautiful weather.
I know you shared the details before, but would be very interested in hearing again about the ceremony you did for the mushrooms, and what were the instructions for going internally? how close were you to the others in the group? Was socializing encouraged? Were you alowed to get up and wander around in nature away from the group? @AlyssaModerator and I want to know if it impacts your dreams? Were they more vivid or lucid?
Many Native American tribes had a concept of a birdMAN, and it is depicted on much of their artwork, and I wonder if this was a designation for the highest spiritual leader of the tribe?
https://story.illinoisstatemuseum.org/content/cahokia-mounds-bird-man-tablet
If it did represent the Shaman, or tribe Leader, perhaps the wings were not only tied to Thunderbirds, but the ability to fly at will in dreams, which would mean they had the gift of lucid dreaming, and ptoentially dream yoga, and conscious dreams like precognitive or teaching dreams.
The ceremony was conducted in an outdoor meadow with forest all around (Oregon Coast Range). We sat in a circle and said prayers, smudged and spoke our intentions for the ceremony, then the medicine was consumed. We were encouraged to go inwards and stay close to the circle (not go wandering off). So it was a very inward focused ceremony. Later, a second round of medicine was offered but I was the only one who chose to take it (as I was having such a profound experience), So I ended up tripping solo through the night while others went to bed (we were tent camping). I remember a vision of a Sufi master coming to me. I also remember looking into what I thought was a deep pool of water but later determined was actually the dry gravel in a stream bed. The sun rose and I ended walking up a trail and the whole world of nature was incredibly magic. This was the first ceremony of many throughout my life. Some were outdoors, others were at folks houses. Also lots of solo medicine journeys (or with a friend or two) but always with spiritual intention. I’ve never noticed that it intensified my night dreams. The medicine itself is a kind of dreaming while awake.
Appreciate you sharing this. Really like the part about you going for a walk before /during ghe sunrise. Definitely a magical time of day.
I had two significant take aways from my very limited experiences with this medicine:
It seemed to amplify the ability to feel others looking at you when your back is turned. I dont know the word for it, that kind of off feeling you get when you are being stared at, and you look behind you or in the direction and catch the person in the act. Alcohol had a similar effect, i first started noticing this phenomena in my drinking days (bartending and feeling when there was someone behind me waiting for a drink).
At higher a dosage, I remember at one point having a thought or mental dialogue, but that thought being outside and away from the body, like my consciousness in that momement was not anchored to my head. Difficult to describe, but very profound take away. Wondering if you have had an experience like this @fenwizard ? Or anyone else?
Would be very interested to know if there are instructions for going inward while on it? Is there a map for going inward, or is the instruction just to be mindful and meditate on breath and body sensations?
Yes I’ve had the experience of feeling others looking at me, with or without medicine or that thoughts are just happening and I am not the thinker. More significantly I get what I call “downloads” - sudden revelations about my life, my life’s purpose or mission, things that I need to do or accomplish, etc, and at higher dosages complete ego death where I surrender into the void.
Instructions for doing this? There is an inward way and an outward way, and I often do both, sometimes during the same journey. The inward way is to turn inwards and observe what is arising within. Meditation training helps. The outward way is to open the eyes, ears and senses and observe the world around (best to do this in nature). Let the ego self dissolve in nature, looking at a river, or the sky. This can be practiced with or without medicine. It helped that I already had years of meditation practice under my belt at the time of my first mushroom experience at age 38. A lot of folks seem to start with psychedelics and then are guided to meditation. I started with meditation and was later guided to psychedelics as a supplemental practice alongside meditation. Also I was guided to psychedelics by dreams! I was initially a meditation purist and dreamworker who was against using psychedelics, but then I kept dreaming about psychedelics until I decided to try them. And soon after I decided to try them I was guided to this first mushroom ceremony.
The Beatles gave these great instructions for doing psychedelics. The words were lifted from Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (which they published in the early 60’s). Probably not the best translation of the Bardo Thodol but it did serve as a descent psychedelic guide for it’s times.
That sounds awesome, dream work is some of the stuff I constantly depend on. Haply to hear the work that presented itself to you worked out so well 
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Never knew this! Pretty cool fact. It is too bad this isn’t more widely known. My father in-law was a pretty big Beatles fan I’ll have to ask him if he knew this.
I believe known amongst those tripping during the psychedelic 60s along with Castaneda influences.
Very Cool. Were the downloads flashes or long visions about your life? What was ego death like on them? Was it similar to what you experienced when you have Lucid Sleep earlier a few months ago?
Some more
Birds have the ability to touch the sky…
“Pictured are three examples of Mississippian culture avian-themed repoussé copper plates. The figure on the right is from Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma, and the middle plate is from the Etowah Mounds in Georgia. The figure on the left is Wulfing plate A, one of Wulfing cache from Malden, Missouri. Many examples of this type of artwork have been found in many states throughout the Midwest and Southeast”
Pretty amazing how wide spread that religious depiction is, examples from 3 different states, but im sure you could find examples in most of the US states.
The Ceremonial Mace depicted in the center is pretty cool, often made entirely from stone, its definitely a status symbol, and may have been used less in warefare, or even exclusively for ceremoneys:
Shamans are often connected with birds because they can fly in the Spirit World (i.e. the dreaming world). There is an upper world and a lower world that shamans travel to. See Michael Harner’s book “the Way of the Shaman.”
You also asked about my psychedelic experiences: “Were the downloads flashes or long visions about your life? What was ego death like on them? Was it similar to what you experienced when you have Lucid Sleep earlier a few months ago?”
I’ve had so many psychedelic experiences with a lot of different medicines at different dosage levels over the years, so hard to summarize. But my psychedelic experiences tend to be less visionary than some other folks. For instance Terence McKenna writes about extremely vivid visionary journeys into other worlds and dimensions on high dose psilocybin and DMT. My experiences were never as visionary as what he describes. A lot of colorful geometric fractals but not so much visionary content. Early on I went through a phase where I kept upping the dose to see if I could get to that level of visionary experience and I never experienced the same kind of stuff that Terence describes. But I did get to ego death. I don’t mean permanent ego death or any kind of stable enlightenment, but perhaps a taste of enlightenment. The first time it happened it was scary and my ego was fighting it. I felt like I was Jesus dying on the cross, and finally I let go and surrendered. Then beautiful voices began singing “Remember, remember who you are!” Then I remembered that I am an eternal being. Then I was Eternal Being! Then I became ecstatic and this felt like Resurrection. Just one of many journeys and insights. I’ve had many tastes of ego death over the years. Often there is a struggle leading up to the ego death before I let go, and then I dissolve into infinity or into the White Light. I can completely forget for a while who I am or where I am. I am just infinity. In the Lucid dream where I closed my eyes and dissolved into the Infinite Void, there was not a struggle for the ego to let go as there often is on psychedelic trips.
The downloads that I get are often insights and truths about my life, my place in the Universe, how we are all One and interconnected, etc. Sometimes just mundane advice about my life and relationships, processing old traumas or memories, or things that I need to accomplish or work on. I try to journal during the trip (if I can even write) or right afterwards so I don’t forget the things that I was shown. When I journey indoors in a safe space I will often take higher doses and put on spiritual music but without English words that may influence the content of the journey. I also like outdoor nature trips but at lower doses and in safe places hopefully without too many people, I’m also an experienced outdoor person so I’m more comfortable outdoors than some folks are. Wherever you do it, it’s good to have a sober sitter, or at least a fellow tripper who is very experienced (if you are new to it). I did solo tripping as I became more experienced. And if the ego temporarily freaks out and thinks that it’s dying or going crazy, just breathe and remind yourself that this too shall pass. Surrender and it will most likely get better eventually.
p.s. My last high dose psilocybin trip was last summer. Basically the mushroom just kicked my butt and said “You don’t need to keep doing these trips! Been there and done that! Just get more serious about meditation practice!” I called that “My trip to end all trips.LOL” Bummer. But I have gotten more serious about meditation. The only trips I’ve done since then are very low dose mini-trips. That seems to be all I need anymore.
“I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold. And I’m gettin’ old.”- Neil Young.
Appreciate the reccomendation, have not read, but want to now.
I know some Native American tribes believed in these 3 worlds as well.
Birds for the upper, epecially raptors/thinderbirds
And the Underworld or lower, was accociated with snakes and the underwater Panther. (Which I wonder if this is creture is tied to the American Alagator, rather than a feline)
Love this, very cool you experienced ego death. How high was your dosage of the fungus when you experienced ego death? Do you know how many Caps and stems you took?
When you experienced ego death, had you taken multiple dosages or one large dosage?
Well,considering your Sleep Yoga dream a few months ago, I would say that your real Trips have just begun 
That dream may have been a result of doibling down or getting more serious in meditation.
Love it! Havent heard it before:
You may not believe this but I took 17 grams of cubensis. “Don’t try this at home kids” (LOL). In retrospect I don’t particularly recommend it. My ego was trying to chase the kinds of visionary experiences that Terence McKenna describes (I had taken a workshop with him in Portland around that time). What McKenna recommends is 5 gr. of cubensis and sit in a pitch dark space to allow the visions to take over. I tried that and didn’t quite get the same effects, so I kept upping the dose. Meaning, each time I tripped I took a slightly higher dose until I finally arrived at a 17 gram trip! Then the ego death happened. Leading up to the ego death it might have been what some would describe as a “bad trip” where my ego really struggled with letting go, got crucified like Jesus on the cross, etc. There was a point where I truly wondered if I had died and this was the afterlife, stuck in some kind of hell realm. But then the beautiful chorus and resurrection experience happened and after that it was all good. I never tried such a high dosage again. Terence’s 5 grams was always enough for a very strong trip after that. Even 2 or 3 gr. seemed pretty strong. Seemed like I got more sensitive to the medicine over time. Even 1 gram became a medium strong trip. I think that the more that you can practice letting go of ego in other ways, like through meditation or lucid dreaming, then it becomes easier to let go on psychedelic journeys without having to push the limits with such high dosages. So I don’t particularly recommend following my path.
Postscript. This was the first of many “ego death” experiences with many different medicines including LSD, ayahuasca, 5-MEO-DMT and Jurema (mimosa hostilis - a South American plant medicine containing DMT). The 5-MEO-DMT was particularly powerful and the trip was only about 15 or 20 minutes. This was done in a ceremony circle with one person going at a time while the rest of the group provided a container for that person’s journey. The medicine is vaporized in a pipe and inhaled. It was like my consciousness instantly expanded in a vast explosion into the White Light but I could also feel myself hitting various levels of ego resistance to letting go. Then I was completely gone into the Infinite Light. After a few minutes when I began to come back to my normal ego identity it was like “where am I and who are all these people sitting here looking at me?!” But even ego deaths can be an ego trip. In writing this I can feel my ego going “See how cool I am, I’ve gone through all these amazing ego death experiences!” LOL So even ego deaths can be turned into another ego trip! Tricky eh?
Quick trip vs sustainability?
Yes indeed. Psychedelics if used properly can be healing and give glimpses into higher spiritual states, such as ego death and enlightenment but they are not a replacement for regular spiritual practice. I’ve heard it said that psychedelics are like a helicopter trip to the top of the mountain, but you then have to helicopter back down. To be sustainable you have to do the work of climbing the mountain.