Earth Speaks

In 1989, I had 3.5 grams of dried Ps. semilanceata. I pulverized them with a parsley cutter, put them into a glass fresh lemon juice and let it stand for a moment & drank. This was something I've learned from this list ( I've always eaten them whole before). The result was a very steep & impressive trip, so I think I prefer this sort of method. The physical discomfort was minimal; I felt actually light & had no nausea at all.

It came on really fast. After draining the glass I went out to buy cigarettes & walked a little. A starry night, Milky Way spreading out in the heavens. I was feeling unmistakable effects when I returned home, 20 minutes had passed. Only at this early stage I felt some slight heaviness & giddiness; I loosened my belt & sat down & soon these symptoms passed. I remained sitting for about 40 minutes, during that time the intoxication built up with tremendous speed. At last I saw swirling colours everywhere, the center of my vision was occupied by a closely-knit aggregate of sparkling dots that seemed to be rotating slowly around. I now felt psilly enough, so I reclined on my bed in darkness & relaxed totally, allowing the experience to come thru with full force.

Another hour or so, I was peaking gloriously. As usual, it is impossible to describe or even remember the experience in a coherent way - several programs were running simultaneously. So here is a revised & edited version, a literary product: The most striking thing - the main theme of the trip - was the conviction that this planet *speaks*, that this planet is a conscious entity that speaks in space - is in communication with other constituents of the galaxy. This was so crystal clear at the time, that I thought it would change me forever. Now I only have a muddled memory of it, but nevertheless it will provide much food for my thought for a long time. I had a vision of our planet as a tiny dot in space, surrounded by a multicoloured, huge aura & gigantic peals of colour that represented its speech. Also, the Sun was speaking; for aeons it had labored fanatically, with desperate passion it had entreated this planet to wake up, to produce life, and speak aloud in space. And now that its work was completed, the Sun was mad with joy & was calling out everywhere "Come and admire with me this wonder" like a proud parent. These calls were not ignored, the phenomenon was recorded in galactic headquarters & many sympathetic intelligences were observing our solar system.

So it was the experience of universe as alive & conscious. Of course I have for a long time felt that it must be so; the matter that composes all bodies comes originally from the stars, one of the stars provides life on this planet, so how could it be otherwise - my body does not produce consciousness, but it participates in it & so do those celestial structures that are involved in the circulation of matter on cosmic scale. Although the flow of the experience crystallized along the lines defined by this myth of the Universe as Living Organism, it enriched the myth by adding a new visionary component in it, the speech of the planet.

It was like having a multiple linguistic orgasm. Words & whole sentences came to me and produced instantly a successor that promised even more & more profound insight, and as they came, the hallucinations intensified, until they formed huge towering sculptures of light and I could only moan with the bliss of having a body & being here in this universe. This happened three or four times, the trip had this periodic, oscillating nature that I have never experienced before or then I haven't just registered it.

After this climax I began to come down gently, I went back sit- ting on the sofa & enjoyed the feeling of inner glow that one gets from psilocine regardless of the dose. Now that the visions of galactic scope had passed, the mushroom displayed me its earthy side. I saw things that looked like bladders & organs and they were bursting open with all kinds of bodily liquids. I remembered that I had seen this one before on a trip years ago, and that it had disturbed me & made me uneasy. Now it inspired me to think that the actions of shitting, urinating, throwing up were very special, holy, as they put one in touch with one's own body. It occurred to me that the toilet was a personal sanctuary, a meditation-room in the secular society & with this came the image of a king on the "throne" with his trousers down, looking like enlightened buddha. With these & other humorous, profound-like thoughts I was able to make my digestive track the central expression of the whole Universe & sat there for a long time, contemplating the wisdom of such maxims as "You are what you eat" &c.

So that's about it. For the rest of the night, I listened to some music, experimented with directing the hallucinatory imagery by my volition & made up some new religions before going to sleep in the early Sunday morning. All in all, it was a really wonderful trip, not in the least because of the complete absence of any anxiety & fear that has usually accompanied my large-dose-trips. I guess the way I took the shrooms had a good share in making that happen, as it came so fast that there was no time to get nervous. On the other hand I cannot help feeling that with this totally positive experience, my relations with the mushroom genius has entered to a new phase & a better, easier-going one. At least I hope so - I am looking forward to the sequel...