Like cannabis, psychedelic mushrooms are a well-known recreational ‘drug’ in our Western civilization. Unfortunately, over the last decades the shroom and other psychedelics has been a forbidden commodity and sometimes a taboo subject, as most medicinal or scientific circles denied its healing properties.
Get known with the unknown: psychedelic introduction
Magic mushrooms grow all over the world and ancient civilizations have used it as a medicine for decades to boost and restrengthen their immune system and enlighten their minds in ceremonial and ritualistic settings.
Though, in recent times our western culture is beginning to revert the skepticism and there is renewed interest in the medicinal and therapeutic potential of magic mushrooms (and psychedelics in general) in current research.
Modern scientific research is slowly starting to support psilocybin’s healing properties and are actively investigating the psychological benefits, among other things, through clinical and technological trials.
Personally I used it as a guided journey for therapeutic and medical purposes, to find healing for an accident where I suffered a traumatic brain injury (more on that later). Whatever your past experience has been on psychedelics, if you are looking for healing insights from mushrooms, a guideline you must read.
So here is a short deep dive on how to prepare for a sacred journey, a guided trip, a hero’s dosis, as to gain insight, crank up inner growth or glance past the shadows that kept you small.
1. Facts about shrooms
Why do people benefit from mushrooms? Mushrooms are fungi, an indispensable organism on our planet; also called ‘the cleaners of the earth’. A fungus breaks down organic matter to feed itself and turns it into nutrition for new life to bloom again. Without fungi and therefore mushrooms, we’d have no decomposition system of plants and animals. To live in such a hostile environment full of disease and decay, fungi have to have a solid immune system.
“…and what makes their immune system so hardy makes them valuable to the human immune system.”
Let’s take a closer look at these mysterious fungi we know as magic mushrooms. Amongst the fungi, we have over 200+ species that activate a psychedelic experience, something we can explain as a temporary profound change in our consciousness. So, What are psychedelics?
Psychedelics are a psychoactive substance that can alter a person’s thinking, perception, sense of time and mood, causing someone to hallucinate (link). You start to see or hear things that are otherwise not or less sensible in a sober or neutral state of mind.
Let’s zoom in a little more…
What in the magic mushroom gives you the psychedelic experience?
About the chemical psilocybin
A natural occurring chemical called psilocybin present in the psychoactive fungi is able to alter nervous system functions when being ingested by you and can therefore enlarge your experience of the world or give you a heightened state of awareness.
The psilocybin molecules have similarity with our hormone called serotonin, the hormone that makes us happy. These molecules are able to act on serotonin receptors in the brain and can therefore ignite the trip! Read more on the Synthesis website.
“They have a mind-manifesting capability revealing useful or beneficial properties of the mind.” – Psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond (creator of the name psychedelics in 1957)
2. Research: the therapeutic and medicinal side of the shroom
Researchers and doctors are having an ongoing debate on whether it can be practiced for psychiatric purposes for people suffering from depression, PTSS, addiction, burn out and anxiety. Before we elaborate on this matter, I first have to share… If you are under any form of consultation, always check in with your doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist and don’t quit with any ongoing treatment or therapy without guidance.
This article is not written to convince you of anything, it merely speaks to the open-minded individuals, curious to understand and view the world in different ways.
Now, having said that, let’s get back to the shrooms. Why is there such interest in using it for mental health purposes?
What is technology revealing about psilocybin?
Recent research and fMRI (Functional MRI) scans has shown that psilocybin can cause brain networks to interconnect, create new brain cells and alter thoughts patterns and belief system.
Based on fMRI scan research, two psychopharmacologists called Robin Carhart-Harris and David Nutt claim that the region of the brain that produces our sense of self and thinking patterns becomes less active during the trip and is therefore more open for other perspectives.
Okay, one more example…Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. has used psilocybin for his cognitive behavioural therapy and has done successful clinical trial runs to reduce anxiety in some cancer patients and to help smoker candidates quit smoking.
And thus we can suppose that a person is able to go beyond its own belief system, conditioning or trauma and find new perspectives and insights for the madness and sadness we sometimes face in life.
3. What prepping to do before the journey?
I have to admit, even after my preparation I didn’t know what to expect, because part of the preparation is embracing something new and inviting it all in.
My personal aim for using magic mushrooms was to learn how to cope with brain trauma, after an accident where I fell on my head. I wanted to go deeper into my emotional state and try to reset my brain and get rid of limiting beliefs attached to brain trauma. (If you want to know more about how to cope with mental health issues after brain trauma, read my previous blog.
Okay, how do you approach a somewhat generic and intangible goal?
Well, the only thing I could think of was preparing the often advised set & setting; a comfortable mindset (set) in advance and a trustworthy physical and social surrounding (setting). It all starts with trust in the shroom, trust in yourself and the people you are taking them with.
How do you prep the ‘set’?
So I first thought about my inner state (set). For me, it meant not thinking about the possible outcomes of the journey, as the experience is the exact opposite of ‘thinking things through’ and rather letting it happen. I had to be okay with not knowing, to create a comfortable and safe ‘inner’ environment.
Also, in the months leading up to the ceremony, I worked towards it through breathing exercises and journaling about topics I felt would play a big role in my journey, such as; learning to let go of control and feeling deeper emotions and old pain.
Another personal preparation was not to tell people I was planning to do a psychedelic ceremony. I felt other people’s possible suggestions and opinions could temper with my wish for a clean and sacred experience.
But I must say that after my journey I felt that certain previous concerns changed, such as; feeling more grounded in my own choices and not feeling my past stress on possible external influences.
What do i need to know?
One thing I’ve learned from having done a psychedelic ceremony is: do I really need to know everything? Or is it okay to just feel that something is fine, whatever the outcome may be. Why-questions often come from a place of control, or the need to feel safe.
Indigenous cultures wouldn’t explain a bad experience as a bad trip, but rather a trip with evolving powers, an emotional release, a revealed shadow side, a confronted demon, a hint towards the transformation that you sought.
Let’s get back to your preparation. What about the setting? So, while finding clarity on the set of your trip, you can think about the exterior (setting) of where and with who you want to be doing your journey.
4. A trip Sitter: Guided psychedelic ceremony
I chose for a guided journey, a psychedelic ceremony, so that there’d be a professional that created the space and watched and guided where needed.
I have hardly touched any form of drugs in my life, not even in a city known for its excess in festivals; Amsterdam. Growing up with an alcoholic father made me over analyse my own use and possible abuse of stimulants.
But the trust the ceremony gave me and the fact that I was guided, made me go deeper than I’d ever could have anticipated and I touched parts of deeper layers of pain or different levels of consciousness I knew existed but was unable to grasp in a sober state.
I ended up having a lot of answers on questions I didn’t ask or didn’t know I had and realized I suffered from limiting beliefs formed way before my actual trauma.There were a lot of comfortable items that made my bodily experience very comfortable and therefore my inner state.
What setting and what items will create a safe trip?
To specify what a safe and familiar environment might mean for a trip to go well: Find a place you feel at home, with as little background noise as possible. It might be in nature, or inside with a good music setlist, or both. Your body can also suddenly crave food, so make sure there are snacks that work well with a psychedelic trip.
Make sure the temperature is nice. Whatever it is, indoors or outdoors, make sure you are warm and that there is plenty of fresh air when you need it.
Make sure you are as comfortable as possible and create a lot of comfortable sitting areas. Prepare comfortable items, like blankets, pillows, your favorite teddy bear, anything comfortable to sit or lie on or hold is key.
Whatever it is, make it a very important task to find that comfort for your trip to remain a comfortable experience. During the trip, you are not able to think about practicalities, so make sure you don’t have to.
5. Creating a container around your trip
Personal intention: There is a powerful tool to strengthen a solid interaction between you and the magic mushroom, which is setting a personal intention beforehand. There are a number of exercises that can help you to come up with your personal intention, like; Meditation, breath work and journaling.
My personal intention was the desire to move past the ‘know-it-all’ fact library and make room for my intuitive feelings. I wanted to tap into subconscious information and enter a space where you ‘know’ and didn’t learn it to be true.
It’s entirely up to you what your intention is. Whether it is for a medical or recreational purpose, setting an intention will form a container around your experience and prevent it from turning into a chaotic event.
What are soothing activities?
There are things that can help you relax even more when the psilocybin is active in you. So even if you are having difficulties during the trip, there are means and ways to regulate what it is that you are experiencing.
- Breathwork
- Meditation
Breathing techniques are essential in your psychedelic practice.
It is therefore important to have a good trip sitter that can help you with breathing exercises and meditation in the moments you feel the need to use them during your (first) psychedelic experience. So, once ingested, what happens when you fly?
And this is where the magic comes in. The mushrooms carried me through that pain and the parts where I unknowingly felt stuck. The great thing was to feel how I intuitively knew how to deal with it and get through it, because my body connected and guided me to the parts where it was most needed.
There are things we don’t know we don’t know
I breathed through it, while the tears uncontrollably ran down my cheeks, sometimes because of love, other times because of pain. After going through a complete re-examination of my belief system, personal history and experiencing the miracle of being alive in a fresh and different way, I felt a new kind of appreciation for everything I saw, smelled or touched. It is like I was a new-born baby again, exploring the world through my untethered senses and with an expanded mind.
CONCLUSION
Why I opened up to psychedelics.
- Going deeper into my emotions/feelings than I might have ever done before
- Trying to reset my brain and get rid of limiting beliefs attached to brain trauma
Basically it all revolves around intention. Of course you can still use it as a recreational trip, though I highly recommend a mindful approach. Your mental state will create the mood of the psychedelic trip and therefore it is important to know what your inner state, thoughts and expectations are before the story unfolds.
Preparation is key
Think carefully on the Set & Setting off your psychedelic journey. A comfortable mindset (set) and a trustworthy physical and social surrounding (setting) is key to a safe trip down the rabbit hole.
When using psychedelic mushrooms with the purpose of it being a transformative guide across the mazes of your mind, a teacher for the soul, it will show you what is really meaningful to you and makes you experience deep healing and perception.
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