Psilocyben

-- Aldus Huxley

The Magic Mushies

Mushrooms were my first drug experience, with Mark and Robin, who would became my old school drug buddies. "Ugh! Tastes Awful!" I said. Then I got over it and watched my friends go mad as my vision and mind wobbled and wavered to an apparently smaller degree. Turns out I have a natural tolerance for this particular neuro-scrambler. But it was a fun time. "Like a freight train" Robin and I chanted at eachother.

I generally enjoy myself while wandering around in a mushroom cloud. You can become highly entertained by things, and at the same time come to realize some interesting truths. I think they're a Brechtian drug: they make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.

My most intense mushroom moment was driving my car for 7 seconds because Mark (who was straight) couldn't get us out of our parking place. We kept nudging the car in front of us and I thought we were really messing it up. Of course, it was just the headlights refracting off the trunk, but I was getting very tense and adrenalized. It didn't help that Luke was in the back seat smelling of booze and singing punk rock at the top of his lungs. As I took the wheel and jammed it into reverse, Mark was worried. "I'm all over it," was all I could manage as I whipped us out of the awkward parking spot with much gunning of the engine and lurching. Ah, high school.

Taking mushrooms is very much a kind, natural, minor-league brother experience to taking LSD. It's a great deal safer, though it might make you sick to your stomach. I highly recommend you try it (as I seem to repeat in these pages) with good friends in a place you feel safe. I've had good times wandering the woods or listening to music or running come madcap vaudeville show with my companions. It's not as sharp and fast as acid, but it's not as soft and easy as ecstasy either. It's kind of confusing the way that dope is, but it's long lasting and can really take you through to the other side. For me, mushrooms are very theatrical: you can have a lot of fun acting and putting on shows for people. If all else fails, you can just lie down on the ground and hum, synch up your heart and your breath and the slow/fast turning of this great green earth.

Mushrooms are also really easy to grow. This is a good way to go about procuring them (and learning a few things) if you're inclined to try.