Psilocybe cubensis

No matter how many times I experience the all-powerful magic of mushrooms, they never cease to blow me completely out of my mind. Yesterday, after about a seven month break from shrooming, the time finally came to enter once more through the veil.

W, L, and I began our journey by hiking out to a secluded beach. It was a fairly clear day, but you can never be too sure what weather the Hawaiian skies might bring you. The waves were crashing beautifully on the volcanic rock, and we settled down on a pile of sand about 50 yards from the water. We mixed the magical powder into little cups of cinnamon apple sauce, (which almost completely masked the taste). I ingested seven grams, W five, and L--since it was her first time--took three.

We sat on the beach, chatting a little, waiting for it to begin. Amazingly, after only five minutes or so I began to feel the effects of what would be a four hour trip. The ocean and the sky were sort of merging together, jerking toward each other, then falling back into place. The sound of the waves became more stereo-like, then even sounded like sharp cracks of thunder. When their sound started skipping like a scratched CD, I knew the trip had begun.

I lied back and looked at the sky. The clouds were incredibly majestic! Huge, layered, and white. They began to separate from themselves, move around in little counter-clockwise circles, then go back where they were before. Tiny rainbows fluttered all over the sky. Every wisp of every cloud took on a geometric shape. Then, to my amazement, the clouds and the sea came together in haunting, mystical, musical chords, which continued throughout the trip.

I felt as though I was dying. Like I was standing in front of the veil of death, scared to go through, but knowing it was imminent. I could either go through myself, or just wait for it to overtake me. Another minute or so later, I was through.

If the clouds had amazed me before, they were blowing my mind now. They were flying through the sky at what looked like about 100 miles an hour. Then they began to swirl together like a vortex. It was getting windy, but I realized that the wind was pure energy blowing right into us. I looked at the ocean. It was glimmering and full of life. I could feel the life underneath its surface.

My heel was buried in the sand, and I could feel the sand gripping and sucking at it. I hoped it was okay. I knew I was about to leave my body, and was worried about it being taken care of. Would my heart keep pumping my blood? Would my lungs continue to breathe? I asked W and L if they would take care of my body while I was gone. W said he would do it. I was satisfied with that, and let the mushrooms take me even farther.

I began to see faces in the clouds. Not just outlines or shadows, but real, humanoid faces. They were all men with flowing hair and beards, but they each had a different face. Their lips were moving, and I knew they were talking to me, but I couldn't hear their voices. Suddenly I realized that they were our ancestors. Still alive, looking after us. I desperately wanted to know what they were saying, and said out loud, "teach me! I want to know!" Telepathically, they told me that I would know soon enough, when the time was right. And with that, they vanished back into the clouds.

W and L were talking, their voices echoing through what sounded like a tunnel. Although I couldn't tell what they were saying, I felt like they were different parts of my own consciousness having their own conversation. A couple of times I thought that L was an old girlfriend of mine, then another girl we'd shroomed with before, then a goddess. But in each case, I still thought she was part of my consciousness.

Suddenly I became the universe. I was every planet, every star, and all of the energy-filled space in between. I knew that there were other universes, floating through infinite space, occasionally brushing shoulders with one another. I knew that all that mattered was that these universes simply acknowledged one another, and gave each other their due respect. The idea of prejudice was completely foreign to me. Each universe, I realized, was infinite and therefore purely equal.

I was thrust back to earth, back to viewing the clouds. They were even more active, blowing and swirling, full of color and pure energy. At first there was simply too much going on with them to focus on any one thing, but then a massive pentagram appeared in the middle of the swirling vortex. Other, smaller pentagrams were around too. But out of the main one, in all of her surreal glory and majesty, stepped forth the Goddess. She was more exquisite and brilliant than anything I'd ever seen. Her skin and eyes were like white-hot fire, and hair flowed in every direction from her head, really more like waving sunbeams than hair. She didn't speak, but sent wave after wave of pure love to me. In an almost panicked thrill I yelled "the Goddess!" to W and L (who, by the way, I still thought were parts of me.) But the exclamation caused me to lose my focus on her, and after one last smile, she was violently sucked back into the vortex.

About that time the sky opened up and dropped tiny, brightly colored droplets of energy. (Kind of like that trippy Skittles commercial.) I could feel them on my own body, but could also feel them falling on the ground around me. They were both freezing cold and scalding hot at the same time. After a few minutes of this, I somehow realized it was actually raining.

I was thrown again into a different mindset, and thought that I was the earth. I simply did not know the difference between "me" and "earth." Then, the weirdest tripping experience I've ever had came to me. A portal of some kind opened up in the sky, and created a tunnel to another dimension. The opening of the tunnel was right above me, and I saw what appeared to be the inside a sci-fi looking space ship. It was full of geometric patterns and red, black, gold and purple colors. It was also full of strange beings, with large eyes, two holes for a nose, and small mouths--almost like the typical "aliens." Their skin was gray, but was also coursing with color. Some of them were sitting in black chairs, and some were standing. One of them stepped towards me with a golden cauldron full of sparkling reddish-gold ooze. They spoke to me telepathically, telling me to just be calm, that everything was all right. They then poured the ooze into my soul through my legs. It was energy in its purest form--pure love. It coursed up my legs with orgasmic pleasure right into my being, but was actually coursing straight into the planet. (I was the earth, remember.) They then communicated to me that they had seeded the earth with DNA millions of years ago, and that they were watching over us. Periodically, they would return to the earth and feed it surges of love to keep the humans from killing one another into extinction. And mushrooms were the tool they used to feed us that love. They bid me a friendly farewell, and the tunnel retracted back into the clouds. (I have always had a great deal of respect for Terence McKenna, but always thought he was getting a little wacko when he'd talk about UFOs ... either he really did have something there, or I am becoming just as wacko as he was!)

The peak started to weaken, and I realized once again that W and L were there. I still wasn't sure who they were, or if they were other parts of me. W said, "do you know what just happened?" I asked him what, and he said "we just stole a sunset by the ocean." I didn't know what he was talking about, but realized that I had no idea how many times the sun had set and risen again since we'd been there. He said, "don't look now you guys, but whales are breaching in the water!" I looked and saw hundreds of small whales dancing and playing on the water's surface. It was a beautiful sight, and I was filled with humility at the wonder of nature.

After that, the Hawaiian sky played its favorite trick, and sent rain down right through the sunshine. A huge, vibrant rainbow appeared. Somehow, the rain gently brought me back down from the trip, something that is usually extremely emotionally hard on me. I still felt a little high, but the trip was over and everything I looked at I saw with great clarity. I felt completely fine. No headache, no draining. I was invigorated and felt victorious. I was filled with joy and love. What an incredible experience! I looked up at the rainbow and thanked the Universe. I knew that the rainbow was a sign that what we had experienced was real and was a gift of love and goodness.

While on mushrooms, your soul is opened up to a godlike level of enlightenment. All senses combine into one and you know perfectly that all things are energy, that energy is love, and that energy is everywhere. I now know that everyone I see, every person on the street, is an infinite, glorious universe of a being. Nothing is more important than to love one another, and to respect every person for who he or she is, no matter what race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion they are. I love the pagan tradition of addressing others: THOU ART GOD, THOU ART GODDESS.

Blessed be!

This trip report is not my own but was culled from the shroomery.org public domain database as a wonderful example of the numinous potential for psychedelic mushrooms.

see also:
mushroom trip #1
mushroom trip #2
E2 Trip Report metanode

Psilocybe cubensis a.k.a. Stropharia Cubensis

P. cubensis is the most frequently bought, sold, and cultivated psychoactive mushroom in the world, containing the drugs psilocybin and psilocin. It can be found growing wild in pastures in virtually any temperate or tropical part of the earth.

One of the largest psilocybin mushrooms, P. cubensis can often be 15 cm tall and 7 cm in cap diameter. It has a white stalk and a golden cap. The spores of P. cubensis are dark purple-brown. The cap starts off dark, but becomes lighter with age. Like most psychoactive mushrooms, P. cubensis will bruise blue, due to the breakdown of psilocin.

NOTE: This writeup is simply to provide a definition for the purpose of collecting knowledge on E2. I have NOT provided sufficient information here to help you hunt for P. cubensis in the wild. For that, you will need an identification guide such as Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (by Paul Stamets, Ten Speed Press, 1996), as well as the help of an experienced mushroom-hunter. There are poisonous species that could be mistaken for P. cubensis.

From Trip Magazine (formerly TRP: The Resonance Project Magazine), Fall 2001:

You can go for a hike,
you can ponder creation...

Why stay cooped up when there's a whole big bright world just waiting to be explored? With Psilocybe cubensis you can go anywhere! Whether you want a pleasant stroll through the park or a full-on mind-meld with the Earth Mother, nothing helps you get up close and personal with the Great Outdoors like nature's happiest mushroom, Psilocybe cubensis. They're all-natural and 100% organic, so why not try some today? It's time to enjoy life, stop and smell the roses, or maybe even sit down and chat with them for a while..

Mushrooms -- It's like a whole new world!
Experience the wonder again.

http://www.tripzine.com

This text appears below a picture of photographic altered reality-- landscapes mixed together, but still distinguishable: psilocybe mushrooms poking out of the soil, a field of poppies, glorious trees, snowy mountains, and a man in the background, a woman opposite to him and in between them is an amanita mushroom (red with white spots). Foregrounded above this, standing triumphant is an older man, looking to the sky. The Primal Moment.

How to grow psilocybin mushrooms

This is a procedure that I have used successfully. I cannot say that it is the only way, the best way, or even that every aspect of this technique is individually necessary or effective. I just know that it works very well.

Caveat:

By contributing this, I do not mean to condone or encourage the use of these shrooms for recreation, 'enlightenment' or other foggy goal of mind expansion, the thrill of a dare, or any other such purpose. My strong recommendation is this: Absolutely never consume this or any other strongly psychoactive substance before the age of 20. Your brain is still forming until the late teens and beyond, and it's a real bad idea to do things that might fuck with that process. Resist the temptation to experiment until you're are about 25 or so. By then your psyche should be stable enough. On the other hand, by that time you will hopefully have developed a life that is sufficiently full and meaningful to make playing potentially disruptive games with your brain, mind and personality seem rather silly.

What you need:

• Either an active growing culture or a spore print. An active culture can be taken from a medium in which mushrooms are already growing. Take care not to let it dry out or die. A spore print is made by placing a freshly picked, fully-opened mushroom canopy bottom-side down on a piece of porous paper (like laboratory filter paper or coffee filter paper) and letting it set overnight. The spores will drop out onto the paper, leaving a neat purplish print on the paper. The purple color is the best indication that you actually have a psilocybin mushroom. (Fresh shrooms will also turn purple where bruised.)
• A container; try a Mason jar to start with
• A growth medium: some freshly cooked rice works very well (real rice, not Minute Rice)
• A suitable growing location

What you do:

1. Sterilize the growing container by boiling it along with its lid in water for at least 15 minutes in a covered pot. Let it cool, still covered, and then drain the water out and put the lid on the jar to keep it clean.
2. Cook the rice. (If you don't have a rice cooker, put equal parts rice and water in a pot, cover it and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and cook until nearly all of the water is gone. Remove from heat and let cool with the cover in place.)
3. Fill the mason jar about half to two-thirds full with the cooked rice. Use clean utensils to handle the rice and minimize exposure to the open air.
4. Place a chunk of active mushroom culture on the rice in the middle. (If you're using a spore print, make sure you place the side that has the spores on it downward and push it gently into the rice. You can just leave it there for a day or two, but it should work even if you remove the spore paper after pressing it into the rice.) Then cover the jar loosely with the lid. You don't want to seal it tight, just enough to keep contaminating dust and bugs out.
5. Put your growing container in a warm place that gets a lot of light. I used a garage closet that had a fluorescent light fixture that was kept on. Daylight is fine, the more the better, but direct sunshine is not good. A shaded window sill is a good location.

Note that the emphasis on cleanliness in this procedure is essential to success. The rice medium makes a wonderful growing place for all kinds of mean and nasty fungi, yeasts, and bacteria.

That's it. Now you just wait to see if the culture takes and mushrooms form. Depending on the growing conditions (temperature, light, contamination by other organisms, etc.), you will notice signs of fibrous growth in the rice after a week or so. It's hard to see, because the mushroom fibers and the rice are both white, but once the culture is well-established, it will be quite evident along the sides of the jar.

When the fibrous growth has reached a certain saturation in the rice medium, the mushrooms will start to form at the top surface, or even along the sides between the rice and the jar. Once this begins, the growth is rapid and the shrooms may be four inches or so long after another week. You can remove the lid, but take care that the culture doesn't dry out.