Psilocybin could be in my future, thanks to Oregon's legalization

Psychedelics were a big part of my college life for a few years, 1968-69. I took quite a few trips via the travel agents of LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin (magic mushrooms).

So naturally in 2020 I voted to make psilocybin legal here in Oregon, under the auspices of licensed growers and providers of supervised psilocybin experiences. As I wrote about on my HinesSight blog a few days ago, "The Psilocybin Center is open in Salem for psychedelic transformation."

It's taken several years to get psilocybin centers up and running because rules and regulations had to be developed after the 2020 ballot measure was passed by voters, then prospective centers had to apply to a state agency, get approved, and finally open for business. 

I noted in the above-linked blog post what my motivation was for trying psilocybin again.

My primary motivation now is what Michael Pollan in his book How to Change Your Mind refers to as shaking up the snow globe. My mind has fallen into some senior citizen habits that I'd like aid in revising, which psychedelics are great at. In college, everything was fresh and new, so my psychedelic experiences just added fuel to that already flexible fire.

Yesterday I had a Zoom call with the owner of The Psilocybin Center, the first step. It was supposed to last just fifteen minutes, but Sammy and I ended up talking for almost 45 minutes. He thought that it made sense for me to start with the moderate-high dose guided journey. In fact, I believe the Hero Dose Sessions are off limits for new users until they've done the moderate dose.

That dose is about 1 gram and the journey lasts 2-4 hours, depending on the dosage. I'm leaning toward 1 gram and two hours. Might as well start low and ramp up later if I enjoy the experience. Sammy said that senior citizens like me make me a large share of their clientele, since many of us baby boomers used psychedelics in our younger years.

Here's a chart that shows various doses and usual effects. 

           Low Dose: 0.5 to 2 Grams

0.5 to 2  grams of mushrooms is considered a low dose.

Unlike microdosing, this dosage should offer some mild effects, likely a euphoric state and sensory experiences. Depending on the strain, you can expect to feel the effects for anywhere from 2 - 8 hours, so plan accordingly.

You can expect to feel light, euphoric, and may see visuals. This is often beautiful when in nature, and comes through bright, vivid colors, and smiling trees. 

Your judgment may be impaired, so it’s not recommended to take a low dose of magic mushrooms if you’re planning on driving, going to work, taking care of children, or hosting a board meeting. 

Sammy said that the "official" psilocybin used by his center is high quality, better than what is found on the black market. 

Here's some passages from Michael Pollan's book, How to Change Your Mind, a modern take on psychedelics. The image refers to the first passage.

In its normal state, shown on the left, the brain's various networks (here depicted lining the circle, each represented by a different color) talk mostly to themselves, with a relatively few heavily trafficked pathways among them.

But when the brain operates under the influence of psilocybin, as shown on the right, thousands of new connections form, linking far-flung brain regions that during normal waking consciousness don't exchange much information. 

In effect, traffic is rerouted from a relatively small number of interstate highways onto myriad smaller roads linking a great many more destinations. The brain appears to become less specialized and more globally interconnected, with considerably more intercourse, or "cross talk," among its various neighborhoods. 

...One way to think about this blooming of mental states is that it temporarily boosts the sheer amount of diversity in our mental life. If problem solving is anything like evolutionary adaptation, the more possibilities the mind has at its disposal, the more creative its solutions will be.

...A high-dose psychedelic experience has the power to "shake the snow globe," he says, disrupting unhealthy patterns of thought and creating a space of flexibility -- entropy -- in which more salubrious patterns and narratives have an opportunity to coalesce as the snow slowly resettles. 

...Reading Robin's paper helped me better understand what I was looking for when I decided to explore psychedelics: to give my own snow globe a vigorous shaking, see if I could renovate my everyday mental life by introducing a greater measure of entropy, and uncertainty, into it.

Getting older might render the world more predictable (in every sense), yet it also lightens the burden of responsibility, creating a new space for experiment. Mind had been to see if it wasn't too late to skip out of some of the deeper grooves of habit, that the been-there and done-thats of long experience had inscribed on my mind. 

Sounds good. Reminds me of a story about one of my college psychedelic experiences that I shared in 2007 in a post called "Loosening the bounds of 'I am...'"

I'm no Buddha, that's for sure. But with the aid of mescaline, or some other psychedelic, I have a distinct memory of a '60s experience that at least was in the ballpark of what Thurman is talking about.

I was with a group of fellow "stoners" who'd headed off to a San Jose-area park to be high with nature. The path we were on led around a hill.

I felt energetic and forged on ahead by myself. My feet were flying through the northern California landscape. Until I rounded a corner and saw a different sort of group on the left side of the trail a short ways ahead of me.

Bikers. Drinking beer. Next to their choppers. With their equally tough-looking old ladies. At the time San Jose was a headquarters for the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle gang, which had a reputation rivaling the Hells Angels.

I didn't know anything about the bikers I was walking toward. But my first reaction was that I was an isolated peaceful hippie dude stoned on mescaline with long hair, glasses, and a corduroy coat, and they were cultural near-opposites in almost every way. Not good.

However, something snapped in me the very next moment. As I walked nearer to them I didn't feel like there was any difference between us. I could see them looking at me. I looked at them. More, I became them.

"What's happening, man?" someone called out. "Hell if I know," I said with a smile. They laughed. I laughed. I felt like I could sit down with them, have a beer, and fit right in.

My fear vanished as soon as I stopped thinking "I am…" and "They are…" Sure, it was partly (or mostly) the mescaline talking, but I suddenly felt that I was them and they were me, and we were all in this park getting high together.

Not exactly akin to the Buddha's enlightened experience of selflessness under the Bodhi Tree. But, hey, I'll take a speck of understanding any way I can get it.

Passing the biker group I realized that "I am…" can be flexible and boundless, not rigid and restricted.

Some things we always are; some things we always aren't; but there's a huge store of being-possibilities available to us moment to moment.

Comments

[Appreciative Reader]

Haha, complete respect for your endless appetite for experimentation and testing limits, Brian!

Cool, let us know how it goes.

(Careful about increasing the dosage, though. Those low doses probably are safe enough, and in any case you're not completely unfamiliar with this thing. But those higher doses can ...carry risks, I suppose. Your local shop/clinic brochure says this of the "heroic dose": One, ego death; and two, complete disconnect from reality. That sounds ...I don't know, ominous, particularly the second one.)

Heh, our friend manjit would disagree! He's said more than once that it's got to be the heroic thing, for it to really matter. Haven't seen him around in a while, I'm sure he'd be thrilled to hear of you all geared up to try this thing now.

...Don't mean to throw in a downer, and no doubt you've already thought of this, but maybe consult with your doctor first, before you actually do this thing?

Anyhoo: Do keep us posted. And good luck!

[No Kool-Aid]

Interesting how karma plays out. Brian dives down one rabbit hole after another - all mind games. Brian received Nam - the gift to raise your consciousness above the limitations of mind and maya. To post anything on this blog is to poke a hornet's nest. No doubt there will be responses. My answer to all of you is to receive Nam and prove it for yourselves.

[Tim Rimmer]

Brian Hines = a ‘progressive senior citizen’
I agree with AR - you certainly seem open to lots of modalities Brian.
I particularly like the openness and sharing of your life experience as we go along.
Good on you, look forward to hearing about this next one.
Before you know it you’ll be comparing notes with that endearing rascal Manjit!
It seems to me that the wording re the Hero dose experience is challenging.
Again as per AR, ‘Ego-death’ seems pretty final - I’d like to see it more as a massive ‘I expansion’ where self morphs into Self, however I have not done mushrooms, so will await your clarification if you go that far.

[Appreciative Reader]

To post anything on this blog is to poke a hornet's nest. No doubt there will be responses. My answer to all of you is to receive Nam and prove it for yourselves.

----------

Happy to oblige, hornet. Worry not, I'll leave your nest alone, and do no more than gently point out to you that Brian's done that already. He's already "recieved Nam", and already proved it to himself.

Proving something to oneself isn't the same as necessarily arriving at some preconceived conclusion. On the contrary, proving something means experimenting honestly and accepting the valid results of valid experimentation. Brian's proved it to himself, through long decades of faithfully executed experimentation, that that particular rabbit hole is a dead end.

*AR tiptoes out of nest, leaving that note by the bed, and letting sleeping hornets lie*

[Ron E.]

I’m no killjoy and I’m all for people doing their own thing as long as it doesn’t harm or impinge on others, but I’m rather at a loss (or naive) to understand the need or desire to take mind altering drugs. Of course, there are good medical reasons for drugs like cannabis etc. and I realise that drugs like psilocybin can help with pain and depression, and other mental and psychological disorders.

I’ve also read accounts of lives being changed after mind altering experiences – whether naturally occurring or as a result of taking certain substances – and I suppose also, that experimenting with such drugs can be a fun enquiry. But I find it strange that for the averagely healthy person with the ability to immerse themselves in the wonders of the world that we inhabit, why the need or desire to alter or escape the reality of just this.

Perhaps some may say that what is experienced under the influence of such mind drugs reveals an underlying reality that normally we don’t encounter, but it could also simply be the result of the brain reacting to these chemicals. I’ve experienced ‘runner’s high’, which is caused by dopamine, the brains neurotransmitter for motivation. It is an elevating experience making you momentarily feel like superman, as though you could run faster and forever, though if you did, the body would soon run out of energy and become fatigued.

Probably not an appropriate example, I don’t know, but I still tend to believe (think) that other than taking chemicals for medical reasons they form just another avenue of escape from the perceived mundaneness of everyday living – or, perhaps they have the ability to ‘refresh’ the brain of its conditioned contents to re-experience life afresh?

[sant64]

Shrooms are totally safe. Just ask that Alaskan Airlines pilot.

I've recently been reading Beatle's bios. George said psychedelics changed his mind, we are all one, etc., , but he was still the most uptight Beatle. Lennon did many trips and was never the better for it.

Baba Rum Das was still talking about trips he took 50 years ago, everything melted and I saw the universe was all one, etc., but he stayed a neurotic despite the trips and all the yoga.

Did we learn nothing from the 60s? What do you expect to be different this time around?

Where are these people who do drugs and are the better for it? The people who peddle drugs are all the same, be they in dark alleys or working in chic clinics. They simply want your money. There's as much chance of drugs actually altering your view of the world as there is of you getting enlightened. Any perceived difference in consciousness will be a short-lived illusion, and likely a bill separate from the clinic's charges that will have to be paid.

[Jim Sutherland]

Brain, I suggest you pass on the Shroom ingestions, in favor of Mega doses of Iron Butterfly. Same feelings with less risks.

https://youtu.be/ZCkHanF4v1w?si=dGGGfOasLetToruU

Jim Sutherland

[manjit]

Congratulations on making one of the best decisions in your life! My upmost respect to you for having the courage to try new and potentially "scary" (it won't be, it will be amongst the most beautiful, loving & healing experiences you will ever have in your life, if not THE most!) things in the spirit of open-mindedness, curiosity and exploring the depths of mind, existence and reality itself. Bravo Sir, Bravo.

If I may take a few moments to round up a few of the usual suspects from the comments section and re-capitulate previous comments of mine on this blog before I return to your upcoming sojourn with the sublime.....

"Brian dives down one rabbit hole after another - all mind games. Brian received Nam........ My answer to all of you is to receive Nam and prove it for yourselves."
No Kool-Aid

The Gratuitous Grace of Nam?

Yes sir. Follow these lifelong vows, wherever your life may take you. Meditate on my form for 3 hours a day, every day, for the rest of your life. However dull and joyless that 12.5% of your day that may be. Do this for 30 years and you may, just perhaps, if you're very, very lucky, get a snippet of a lucid dream that lasts 1 minute which you can obsess and fetishize over for the few remaining years of your life! But only if you're one of the lucky ones (I mean, check out the endless stream of initiates in RSSB Q&As, many of whom are in the later stages of life, who have achieved precisely nothing with their "gift" of "nam", truth be told)!

The author of this comment has not considered how absurd and disconnected from reality this comment must be, to call "Nam" a "gift" to somebody who has not only been initiated and meditating using the prescribed method for DECADES, but was also considered "knowing" enough to be both a satsang speaker and official book author, and for whom this so called "gift", for which he and every initiate has had to pay a very large and oppressive price, has done absolutely fuck all for in that time. Maybe DO consider that, before flinging around claims of non-existent "gifts".

The Sacred Mushrooms on the other hand? Come, come one and all.....this way, entrance is free, just partake of this REAL Gratuitous Grace, no sacrifice or vows to make, just eat! Success is assured, regardless of one's worthiness or preparation.

That is what a gift is, or at least should be. You just need to have the balls to accept it, like Brian courageously has.

Ingesting the sacred mushrooms is like a GENUINE initiation into the mysteries, the real deal which the initiations of the son of men is a mere shadow of a reflection of. The "connection" will be immediate and known with 100% certainty, unlike the drab soul-less "initiations" of the son of men, beturbaned cultural patriarchs, conmen and fraudsters, which even 40 years and thousands upon thousands of hours of meditation later has "connected" you with absolutely nothing of any note beyond feeling slightly relaxed and a partially recalled lucid dream.

Where Mushrooms are like a wild, raging ocean, the initiations of man are like a singular drop of water in a vast desert....pointless. I know of someone who was shabd this and shabd that, but their entire "naam" bhakti was torn away with a few swigfuls of Ayahuasca, it was nowhere to be found. Imagine that, the drop gets swallowed by the ocean! This is not allegorical or even exaggerated, it is literally a true story. Y'all can't even get through a psychedelic experience without losing "nam", and think you will be able to cope with death by clinging to it? Hehe. Ahhh, jokes.

Sant64 wrote:

"Shrooms are totally safe."

Yes, they absolutely are (with a reasonable degree of certainty, with the right precautions taken)! Here is a chart from a scientific study showing the social and personal dangers of a variety of drugs, including tobacco and alcohol. As you rightly state, mushrooms are extremely safe, the safest of all the substances listed, which is incredible:

https://images.app.goo.gl/KSPpPXMrRUGsT2nJ6

"Did we learn nothing from the 60s?"

Yes; Civil rights, women's rights, anti imperialist war sentiments, awareness of the corruption of our own governments, the explosion of colour in our culture, be it through music, movies, tv, writings or other art forms, all of which by extension has revolutionised and evolved the human consciousness across the globe.

You see, like most of us, the author of these comments does not appreciate how the cosmos (our physical reality) and psyche (mind, being) are intimately related, and co-evolve. It is no coincidence that LSD was discovered just 2 years before the atom bomb, or that colour TV was invented, or that there were vast cultural and existential upheavals in all areas of life from the scientific, social, political and individual level which totally radicalised and revolutionised the western mind and society. It was literally a black and white world, and LSD was clearly one of the chief sacraments which helped catalyze this change.

Some people may be sad to see black people and women get equal rights, for colour to implode into our culture, but I suspect history will see this as evolution in a participatory epistemology.

In regards the alleged lack of benefits on the individual level, in Lennon, Ram Dass et al....really? Who is anyone to judge the subjective lived experience of these people? The evidence, scientific and anecdotal, is in and it is clear, and it is everywhere; psychedelics can be and very often are extremely beneficial for the user on multiple levels, increasing their sense of connection with life, joy, happiness and love for months if not years from just one dose! The benefits in my life have been persistent and I suspect permanent. The world, from the outside, like Sant64, may question the value of these things, but the experiencer themself will have a knowing, inner smile, born of contentment which far transcends such petty, close-minded, impoverished views. The fraudulent "Satgurus" get less criticism than those who don't pretend to be holy but have, nonetheless, truly kissed the Divine. We are all human. But to be human has oh so much untapped potential!

To Ron, I would just say consider open-mindedness, curiosity and courage are positive and healthy human traits. Living in a small box, don't conflate it for the cosmos at large. In regards your constant referral to the "brain" and "chemicals" generating or altering human consciousness, I referred earlier to the remarkable, psychedelically soaked 50s & 60s. I would suggest those who abide within a materialist reductionist worldview, and think that saying things like "the brain creates consciousness" is a smart, full and complete "explanation" for reality, move beyond 17th century Newtonian physics, catch up on 18th century Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant, then make your way to the glorious 1960s, 1962 to be precise (again, it is no coincidence), and familiarise yourselves on Popper's Conjectures and Refutations & Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

The "brain creates consciousness" is just a word-prison. And a banal one at that, dress it up how you might.

Reality is Mystery. With a capital M. Mystery on all sides, infinite and vast, and if you think your simple human conceptions of "brain creates consciousness" explains a single thing, you are suffocating in your little human conceptual word-prison.

Perhaps a healthy dose of psilocybe mushrooms can help you break out of that tiny word-prison and face the real, vast, incomprehensible Mystery that is being, consciousness and cosmos? :)

If you are not experiencing perpetual awe, astonishment, joy and love....truly and absolutely.....then you have not understood reality.

As for psychedelics not being "natural", this is one of those dualistic, conceptual canards, a belief system grounded in conceptual confusion and ignorance. Our everyday "normal" waking state of consciousness is itself connected to, modulated, mediated or filtered by, a whole cascade of "chemicals". Plants and fungi have co-evolved with humanity, and it is no accident that some of them have the ability to so profoundly alter our consciousness that it can generate huge & rapid leaps in human evolution (Indian religions are grounded in the Vedas, which praise "soma" as the vehicle to God realisation, and Soma is clearly described as a psycho-active fungi or plant. Greek philosophers, mystics and all other culturally significant persons participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, or other Mystery schools, which consisted of ingesting a psychedelic sacrament. They considered this the most important aspect of their culture, and the ground of their knowledge and understanding of higher things. The ideas that emerged from these experiences has profoundly influenced and guided the entire course of human history, thought and reality to this very day with the whole of western philosophy being essentially a cyclical recapitulation & evolution of the Plato-Aristotle dialectic.).

Our "natural" body contains within it DMT, it has been found in both the brain and lungs of human subjects. The chemical structure of psilocybin is 4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-DMT. Yes, both the human being and the fungi have co-evolved with DMT running through their very breath and brains....a remarkable and "natural" connection! So, whilst the yogi sits in a dark cave, squatting with his thumbs in his ears, following a strict diet and lifestyle restrictions, for hours upon hours, years on end, in the hope of releasing some endogenous (already existing within the body) DMT, the other fella falls upon some Gratuitous Grace and accidentally eats some psilocybe mushrooms, and finds themselves, even more reliably, in the same space of light and sound phantasmagoria. Nature provides.

For, isn't that, scientifically speaking, what is happening here? Isn't it clear with what we now know, that Soami Ji's Sach Khand and beyond were just intense internal cascades of endogenous DMT release enabled by the intense, "unnatural" practice or technologies of meditation? Is it a coincidence that DMT is found most heavily concentrated in the lungs, and that the original and most efficacious practices of shabd and most other yoga technologies involves breathwork or pranayama? God has given us a brain, so just as somebody evolved the shabd yoga practice, we have now evolved to understand what that technology is actually doing to our brain and bodies, so we can, nay, are obliged to evolve "shortcuts"......just when our society and culture requires them. Gratuitous Grace.

Having experienced an intense, completely "natural" kundalini and non-dual awakening some 25 odd years ago, I can from personal experience attest that the most intense aspects of that "kundalini awakening" were incredibly similar, if not entirely identical to, a very high dose of psilocybe mushrooms. Same same.

As for the cost, or people making money off it.....c'mon, what kind of BS idealist planet are people on! Are you expecting commercial enterprises to provide this service for free? In America? Isn't that a bit disingenuous? I've checked out the site Brian linked, and whilst I don't know anything about them or the price they charge, they seem perfectly respectable and I'm sure will provide a very decent and safe environment for Brian to have his first experience in. Brilliant! It is SO about time decent human beings are able to explore their own consciousness and not be criminalised for it, and with such ease and security, especially for those who are a bit older. If he can afford it, why not? And besides, if money is a factor, mushrooms can of course be grown very easily and cheaply at home, especially for anyone with green fingers.....

In regards the above comments, there are an awful lot of experts around here who clearly disagree. Are they, however, "experts" who have absolutely no knowledge of the history & science, or personal experience of, psychedelics themselves, choosing instead to stick with their ignorant, small minded conceptual prejudice and biases? To each their own limiting reality.

To Brian - congratulations!

I had posted here in the past about taking large doses, 7g+, of good quality mushrooms to dive deeply into the nature of consciousness and reality...however, recent experiences in group Ayahuasca ceremonies with 20+ other people has shown me I may have been a bit reckless with my advice as I appear to have an abnormally high tolerance to these things. So it is not about the "correct" objective dosage amount per se, but rather the correct subjective dosage to get you where you want to go. You are absolutely right to start low with 1.5-2g. There is a lot of machoism around dosages, and this is not the way to go, it's not about size of dose but the experience you have. That said, I don't want to lie or misrepresent truth. I have personally never taken less than 3.5g of good quality, regular cubensis mushrooms. At 3.5 to 5-6g, you can have exceptionally beautiful, moving, ecstatic experiences, experiences that far exceed anything most people ever experience in their entire lifetimes (I hesitate to say it, but it is true for me nonetheless, I feel a life lived without at least one genuinely powerful psychedelic experience in it is a tragic one, in today's world....:(....). However, as I noted on the RSS forum years ago, I did not feel they were "spiritually significant", or comparable to the power of full on kundalini phenomena. However, when I got to 6-8,9 grams........that's when you enter the Holy of Holies.....Caveat Emptor: this is my personal experience, for someone else it may be 1.5g gives you the beautiful light and sound phantasmagoria, and 3.5g gets you fully immersed into the ocean of the divine, or even less!

Point is, Brian, be clear what it is you want. 1.5-2g will probably give you very joyous, beautiful experiences, experiences which will heal and soothe many of your mental and physical ailments, This is great, beautiful! Gratuitous Grace! However, if you feel comfortable with those experiences, don't be afraid to, perhaps 3 or 4 or even 24 months later, try again, but at a higher dose.....if you want, and feel up to, penetrating deeper into the heart of reality and consciousness. But also, nothing wrong with going again at the same dose, or even being happy with just that one experience! It's all good.

I'm sure they will provide a good set and setting for you, but you should know the effects peak between 1-4 hours after ingestion, this is best spent eyes closed, perhaps listening to music. Electronic music is perfect for me, but you may prefer something along the John Hopkins psychedelic playlist, which I believe is mostly classical music (I have listened to this on psychedelics, but I can't remember it at all :), which I'm sure your centre will have on their playlist as it's very well known. When the effects start to transition from otherworldly to this-worldly, which can last from 5-12 hours after ingestion, you will be basking in a beautiful, warm afterglow. This is the time to enjoy yourself more "recreationally", ie. watch movies, listen to your favourite music in a more normal manner (during peak, music turns into multi-dimensional shape-shifting structures and is not music as you conventionally know it! :), hug a human or a pet, eat some fruit etc. This is also an optimal time to smoke some cannabis, if you have been able to cope with the intensity of the main part or peak of the journey, smoking cannabis can re-intensify and vivify the experience in a most pleasant way (again, caution, ONLY if you have been entirely comfortable with your experience, some people find smoking with psychedelics too intense). Nature or science documentaries are great, but if you can get your hand on them, the films Samsara or Baraka are the perfect visual accompaniments to the mushroom afterglow.

I think mushrooms, when used in a responsible manner as you are preparing to do, are an incredibly safe tool to explore your consciousness, reality and the "Divine".

With all due respect to your conceptual and ideological beliefs, I suggest you go armed with open-mindedness, a humble attitude, an acknowledgment and respect for your/our puny human mind's limited ability to understand reality and consciousness, surrender, and most importantly, love....rather than scepticism and conceptually reductionist beliefs about reality. For, at least at higher dosages, mushrooms WILL confront you with the Divine. The only question is, does one take the difficult or the easy route. Do not struggle, surrender.

Love is key. It is the secret mantra that opens all locks, removes all barriers.....banishes all "bad" or difficult experiences. Seriously, remember this if nothing at all from this long winded post, LOVE! If you feel overwhelmed, or encounter negativity of any sort, just remember, and say it in your mind or even out loud, just like a mantra; ALL IS LOVE, ALL IS LOVE.

Watch, read and listen to positive, uplifting materials on the lead up to your journey. Go lightly on the atheist stuff, and lean more heavily on the "spiritual", even if neutral or non-religious like Daoism, or Goethe, Whitman or whatever. Basically lean into mystery, connection, love, nature to whatever degree you are comfortable. Perhaps read or reread Huxley's Doors of Perception, that kind of ennobling stuff.

Watch documentaries like

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81183477

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80229847

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81409016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIVIfQaqVG4

Etc. There are several more great documentaries available on Amazon Prime.

Anyway, best of luck with your journey, I am sure it will be absolutely amazing. When are you planning on doing it? I will keep an eye out for your report.....and will ask the Mushroom Gods to go easy on you ;)

Blessings.

[manjit]

PS - re taking Xanax as a "trip killer" - not recommended. Now there's some dangerous "drugs".

If you're having a challenging experience (very unlikely to be significantly challenging on 2g), then it is better to sit it through....it is a MEDICINE, let it work it's way through your system. There is no such thing as a "bad trip" imo, it is all healing in the long run. I've recently sat in multiple Ayahuasca ceremonies with people who went through extremely "bad" or difficult experiences, real projectile shit, piss and vomiting, demons being purged and the like, people crying out for their moms with such sincerity that it broke ones heart to listen to........only to be healed, in front of my eyes, after going through 2, 3 or 4 of such ceremonies. MEDICINA.

Better, much much better, armed with the mantra "All is Love" than with a Xanax, imo.......

[Brian Hines]

manjit, thanks for your informative comments. Much appreciated. Glad you shared your extensive experience with psychedelics. Those who have never tried them, yet believe they understand their benefits and risks, are missing the value of personal experience. Some things can be known from the outside. Others only from the inside.

[Appreciative Reader]

manjit, great to have you back! And, as usual, to read your comments: very informative about this specific, and also the sheer passion that, as usual, you put into what you say.

Your links look promising. Haven't read/watched them yet, but have bookmarked them for later when I'm free.

Some quick observations:

1. That graph about the harmful drugs was interesting! I like how they incorporate "harm to others" also, in the overall harm metric. ...And a sobering thought, and unexpected, that alcohol scores highest, higher even than heroin for instance. I'm curious how that might have been determined, how alcohol out-harms heroin.

(I don't expect you to have an answer to that, just because you've posted that link. Later when I'm free, and checking out your links, I might see if I can make sense of that question as well, by following up on any explanations or links they may have provided there, the people who presented that graph.)

(I suspect it is a cumulative metric. In the sense it doesn't measure what harm might accrue on average if I did the one vis-a-vis the other, but how that harm pans out cumulatively. Which is a very useful metric at a societal level, but less so at a user level. ...But that's just basis surmise, I haven't actually checked up on that yet.)

2. It's less than alcohol, sure, the harm metric for psilocybin, but it's nevertheless not insignificant, not by a long shot; and all of it is the harm-to-user component. No need to look stuff up, I can do that myself if I want to; but as a user yourself, and off the cuff and basis your first-hand experience: any idea what that's about?

3. This was a detail, but it might make for interesting reading if the two of you were to follow up on that here. The part where James says Xanax can act as a brake when things go out of hand, and you suggest it's best left alone. If the two of you were to discuss your reasons for holding those different opinions clearly, it might help you arrive at a better informed consensus, and it may offer a very useful and not irrelevant sidebar for prospective users like Brian, and maybe-one-day potential-users like yours truly.

4. This is something James brought up, not you. But you could share your views on this maybe, manjit. And you yourself as well, obviously, James. The part where you say you prepare for a session by putting in some months of healthy eating and sleep and workouts even. Of course, those are great things to be doing, at any time; but I was wondering, why particularly in connection with your psilocybin intake? What's that about?

----------

I'm really looking forward to learning more about this from your first-hand experience, Brian. (Do take care, though! I reiterate what I said about consulting your doctor first. And I say this not as a downer, but only out of concern, as something I'd do myself. Can't hurt to ask.)

manjit, do stay around if you can! Always a pleasure to read your comments; and particularly now, when this thing's in the spotlight here, this thing you've so much experience with and knowledge of.

[Appreciative Reader]

Just glanced through the graph, the actual article I mean. No, they don't directly explain their numbers. But there's a linked article which compares ingesting ecstasy with horse-riding, which discusses "micromorts", or deaths per mill, which suggests this is NOT a cumulative metric. Apparently alcohol IS actually significantly riskier than "shrooms", at the individual level; and way more so if you add in harm to others. Individually, not cumulatively. ...Wow, that's food for thought! Think about *that* the next time you down a beer!

-------

I'd sure like to see the study that those numbers came from. Seems so counter-intuitive. I mean, sure, psilocybin's less toxic than alcohol, that I can very easily buy. But heroin as well? That's so entirely counter-intuitive. (Not that intuition's the best guide to these things, but still.)

-----

I'm starting to rethink completely my risk assessment of psilocybin. Not quite at where I'm ready to step off the fence and onto the headlong traffic yet; but I'm far closer to that point than a few years back.

...Yep, I'll follow with great interest Brian's notes on his experimentation, his experiences.

[Jim Sutherland]

From Meta AI:
Consuming mushrooms, specifically psilocybin mushrooms, also known as "magic mushrooms," can potentially lead to physical and psychological dependence. However, it's important to note that the addictive potential of psilocybin mushrooms is considered to be relatively low compared to other drugs.

Some possible risks associated with consuming psilocybin mushrooms include:

- Tolerance: Frequent use can lead to a decrease in effects, prompting increased consumption.
- Withdrawal: Stopping or reducing use can cause withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, and mood changes.
- Psychological dependence: Users may rely on the drug to cope with emotional issues or stress.
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure: Can be risky for people with pre-existing heart conditions.

It's crucial to approach the use of psilocybin mushrooms with caution and under the guidance of a medical professional, especially if you have a history of substance abuse or mental health concerns.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to ask!

[James]

I do agree with Manjit on the point, if you can get ahead of the experience and realize nothing bad is going to happen, you're not going to die, YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO GET ADDICTED, you'll be fine. If and only if, for the totally inexperienced, who took more than they bargained for, (3+gm and up), a 1/2 Xanax will slow the mind and let you catch your breath. It's the come up that can be unnerving, the plateau/ride is beautiful. (Like a plane taking off, rising in the sky and leveling off for the journey). I personally made a point of started my journey slow, now going for 2.5gm on my next trip. I have friends who swear by the Xanax, I haven't taken one when tripping, no need. As Manjit says, be present, stay aware, keep an open mind and remember, it's all love, you can't lose.

We've done a bunch of RSSB-Simran, experienced what we experienced, (not gonna discuss any of that), but this, this is something we will experience the hour we take it. I don't see myself doing this more than 2-3 times a year, working towards a 5gm+ experience at some point. It's a lot to reflect on afterwards. I appreciate the opportunity to have access to this wonderful medicine. I don't think I would have gotten as much out of it if I tried it in my teens, 20's, etc. I don't know, but I'm here now, I'm aware time is short and I enjoy adding this medicine to the arsenal. I enjoy talking to people who've taken this medicine, they don't try to exaggerate or inflate what they've experienced, the enjoyment of sharing and helping the next person is almost given.

Glad you'll have legal access to it in Oregon.

Brian - Looking forward to hear about your experience. I wouldn't be surprised, depending on the amount you take, you come back with a whole new outlook on Spirituality (your-self). I know I have and I'm happy to just move forward, lighter in thought, deeper in understanding.........