The Misunderstood Magical Mushroom

Jonas and the StoneAgeMan, Nov. 8, 2021; Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Misunderstood Magical Mushroom - Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric)

(StoneAgeMan) In almost every guidebook, Amanita muscaria is listed as a deadly mushroom. The more I read about it, this seems to be the wrong focus. This is a discussion with @AmanitaDreamer and summarizes a few of the main things she's been studying for the past few years.

Talking with AmanitaDreamer on Patreon NOV 29 - TUNE IN HERE https://www.patreon.com/posts/59007088

NOTE: Do not attempt to consume Amanita muscaria. Even if it is legal, and death is rare, if taken the wrong way, one could get very sick. While we wait on more research to highlight how to use it, I recommend going out and finding it yourself. Learn. Explore. And get your hands dirty. 

@AmanitaDreamer has more on her YouTube channel and via AmanitaDreamer.net. A big thanks to all current and future patrons who are helping fund this science and filmmaking outreach via patreon: 2Sfmkph

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Psychedelic Sangha: Enter the Paisley Gate

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Wisdom Quarterly

Are you a "Psychonaut" looking for a complementary meditation practice?

• Are you looking for a way to integrate and expand your psychedelic experience through the contemplative and philosophical tools of Buddhism?

Psychedelic Explorer's Guide (Fadiman)

Or maybe you’re a Buddhist who found the Dharma through the “Paisley Gate” [like Zen Buddhism's “Gateless Gate”] and value the spiritual efficacy of entheogens?

The mission of Psychedelic Sangha is to facilitate community -- a "space of difference" for Buddhists and psychonauts alike.

This is a spiritual collective of Buddhist-Psychonauts who share a commitment to Buddhism and believe that entheogenic substances like psilocybin (or “magic mushrooms”) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD, a.k.a. “acid”) can help facilitate religious, spiritual, mystical experiences.

Plant-based substances have played a well-known role in many indigenous cultures -- including the Indo-Aryans [like the Shakyans] of ancient India during the Vedic period (1500-500 BCE).

Prostrate-In by FluxBuddha, 2018 (psychedelicsangha.org)

Human Prayer Wheel by FluxBuddha, 2018 (psychedelicsangha.org)

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Whether such substances ever permeated Indian Buddhist circles is a provocative and intriguing question that could have important legal implications on Buddhists groups who use psychedelics for religious purposes.

What is not in question is the integral role that psychedelics have played in the indigenous cultural history of American Buddhism.

Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics

"Entheogens have entered Buddhism to stay," writes Dr. Huston Smith in his preface to Zig Zag Zen. "There can be no turning back from the point that has been reached."

 

We regard psychedelics (better referred to as "entheogens" that bring out the divine from within) as a sacrament in the American Buddhist experience.

It is one that requires historical recognition, tolerance, and practical reconciliation and integration through the greater development of “Psychedelic Buddhism.”

How to Change Your Mind (Michael Pollan)

What Psychedelic Sangha offers is a safe and supportive spiritual community -- a "refuge" for misfit Buddhists and psychonauts who are searching for like-minded people who equally value both Buddhism and psychedelic science.

Psychedelic Sangha organizes and hosts guided meditations, immersive interdisciplinary experiences, online and in-person study courses on Psychedelic Buddhism, group retreats, psychedelic education, and harm-reduction workshops, public talks, photography and art exhibitions, music performances, film screenings, and more.

All are invited to join public Meetup groups (like Los Angeles) that feature uncommon opportunities to enact Psychedelic Buddhism.

Psychedelic Sangha is very grateful to have the following individuals on its team of Meetup organizers and advisory board members... More

• Psychedelic Sangha: Sacred Psilocybin, Jan. 4, 2019
  
• Sacred Engagement, Ethics, & Corporate Psilocybin
• Psychedelic Women (katherinemaclean.org)
• Reality Sandwich serves psychonautic snacks
• Returning to "normal" life after a trip

Psychedelic Realities

Reality is stranger than fiction. Perhaps it has only been explored, in rational rather than mystical terms, through the use of consciousnss-enhancing substances. This list of suggested readings is made available to save one the trouble of taking the risky journey of substance-abuse but nevertheless open one to the wonder and awe of reality.

Top 10 non-fiction Psychedelic Books
John Higgs (guardian.co.uk)

1. The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
Huxley's account of his experiments with mescaline in the 1950s make psychedelic use sound like a perfectly reasonable and admirable pursuit which would bring credit to any middle class gentleman. Huxley never wrote a dull sentence in his life and this is certainly one of his best works. If its influence of the likes of Timothy Leary or Jim Morrison is considered, then it could easily be his most culturally important book.

2. The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S Thompson
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is usually considered Thompson's best work, but I much prefer The Great Shark Hunt. It's a huge book, a collection of the best of his journalism from the 60s and 70s, and it shows that Thompson had a far greater range than his later reputation suggests. His essay about Hemingway's death, in which he tried to understand why such a once-vibrant man ended up blowing his brains out in small town America, is particularly poignant following Thompson's suicide.

3. The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
This is Wolfe's account of life with Ken Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and the birth of the American west coast psychedelic movement. Wolfe knew that a detached, even-handed journalistic approach could never really explain what was happening, so he gave his book the same psychedelic viewpoint as his characters. The result is a wonderful piece of writing. For those of us who weren't born in the 60s, this is probably the closest we can get to experiencing it.

4. High Priest by Timothy Leary
Leary was a prolific writer, producing over 30 books and hundreds of essays and papers. I've chosen his autobiographical High Priest (1968) for this list as I think it is one of his most accomplished pieces of writing. It captures both the drug experience and the sense of discovery so well; the moment a scientist realises that the implications of their work are so huge that their life will never be the same again.

5. Sisters of the Extreme: Women writing on the drug experience by Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz (eds)
Psychedelic use is split fairly evenly between the men and women, but the desire to write about and try to explain the experience is a predominantly male trait. Certainly every other book in this top ten is from a male author, which is why this book so important. It sheds light on the otherwise hidden half of the psychedelic experience.

6. The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia by Paul Devereux
Devereux's impressive and thorough trawl through prehistory will be an eye-opener for anyone who thought drug use was a modern phenomenon. Devereux demonstrates that this point in history is a strange quirk in the human story, a rare time where we don't have a structure for incorporating psychedelic use into our society. If nothing else, it will make you view your ancestors in a different light!

7. DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman, MD
The medical profession has written little about psychedelics since Timothy Leary, which makes this book all the more valuable. DMT, a natural chemical produced by the human brain, is a hallucinogen so powerful that it makes LSD look like lager shandy. DMT throws up some very big questions about the workings of the brain, consciousness and about the world at large, and Strassman does not shy from these. For those who think that one day science will have all the answers, this book shows just how clueless we still are.

8. Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati Volume 1 by Robert Anton Wilson

9. Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution by Kevin Booth and Michael Bertin

10. What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry by John Markoff