Thank you for providing this space, CotM.
I am more and more inclined to think, act, and feel that every moment is the fullest journey I get to experience, even sitting here writing this. It’s all sacred. And the mushroom, both entheogenic and otherwise, have been an ally and guide while stumbling my own eclectic spiritual path of living. Though there are many allies and guides, I’m here in this space to proclaim a sincere belief that the entheogenic fungi play a critical role in my growth.
I too experienced DARE education in the 90s and attended a United Methodist Church, but around 14 I opened to the idea of substances that grow from the ground with no or minimal processing it is a gift from God cited in Genesis. Marijuana and mushrooms were my line, though I’d not even experienced the latter. I’d read a few accounts and knew I wanted that experience, tool, assistant. I remained spiritual through my crash with Christianity and did try cubensis mushrooms at 21. Combined with access to a sauna, four close friends (who also were older and experienced), and my newly acquired college science background, the set and setting were prime for a religious experience: universe.
I’ve never experienced my mind this way, and I’ve carried this core experience through daily life. Degree. Marriage. Kids. Career. I was assisted to gain access to a distinctive state during a critical stage in life, then apply it over and over. I’ve drifted through Faiths, mostly identifying as a Gaian animist dirt witch disciple of yoga Christ, but the mushroom and the fungal kingdom in general has been an interest always teaching me more. Though the entheogenic experience has been very rare (cubensis under a dozen or other times), it is the initial sacrament that I take seriously important for my current state.
between 21and25, I experimented with seasonal microdosing of natural fruits of the fall, such as cyan and azure. Those micro experiences certainly had benefits, but were admittedly abused just for fun. Which quickly became old. Though I was a runner in HS, I took to fast track running again. A form of “getting into the flow” with the cognitive effects of cyans was a state of productivity, less spiritual. I did a lot of physics homework in my head, and churned on thoughts of rocks.
In my mid 20s I began my spiritual pursuits of including mushrooms into our family traditions. More of a worship of the sacrament’s existence than any need or desire to use. Always with me.
in more recent years, my late 30s and 40s, it is again the existence of the sacrament inside me that sustains a peculiar edge in my meditation and prayer. I’m led deeper and deeper, through Kriya and the yogic path, to a Christ Krishna consciousness, always tapping the psilocybin experience. As a Disiple of Christ, I take communion every week with my fellow disciples. As a maturing adult, I know the sacrament of psilocybin and a second baptism and perhaps a renewing vows ceremony are all markers in my path toward the end of life.
Thos first journal entry is a time stamp of experience and a marking of intention to integrate with thus Church and to take psilocybin as sacrament. I intend to journal about the plans and experience, if it ever may come. Today I live. And this journey is always with me. 🙏