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Kyle Young's avatar

It's 1979 and I'm camped near the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza with a friend. This was years before the place became recognized as a national treasure, so the place is empty. Archeologists were still digging there, but not on this day. We have the place to ourselves.

At sunrise we meet a local boy who sells us a bag of freshly picked Psilocybin cubensis mushrooms. We eat them on empty stomachs and spend the day climbing the pyramids and exploring the ruins. The place is imbued with the spirit of the Maya. The things we saw and experienced were life changing.

Decades later I learned that early Spanish records of the area talk about how it was common for the Maya to live to 140+ years. Now I know why.

Agent 1-4-9's avatar

Not to be a downer, but McKenna died at the age of 53. I guess it doesn't help everybody.

Max Zeff's avatar

My thoughts exactly... though he had a massive telecommunications system above his head where he lived...wise in some areas in others not so....on another path apparently his use of ayhuasca cured his marijuana addiction...

Geneva Mock's avatar

Telcom gives nnELF which dissipates VERY VERY rapidly. IT IS DOUBTFUL that he received any significant nnELF from said equipment. In the biz 40 yrs, know what works and what doesn't. That's not it and nnEMF probably wasn't an issue at the time. It was likely sick mitochondria from being inside (no Schumann resonance indoors), being "vitamin infrared light deficiency" was likely the cause of his early demise being indoors. The mitochondria have cytochromes on the electron transport chain, they become chaotic for numerous reasons. Being indoors would give reason enough, especially if he was under fluorescent bulbs. See the work of Dr Jack Kruse, Dr. Roger Sehuelt, Dr Martin-Moore Ede, Dr Alexis Cowan. We are not adapted to this high tech lifestyle!

Christina Lemomi Chaya 茶谷's avatar

This thought also crossed my mind, but he was beyond brilliant. And it not only helped him, but his brilliance has helped so many more, and his inspiration continues to grow like mycelium around the earth 🙏🏽

Heimdall66's avatar

Eating human flesh with a cup of adrenolized blood helps too. Maybe the mushrooms helped them deal with that gross diet? Sounds very Levant like, the human sacrifices and blood fixations while seeking longevity.

It also sounds quite Silicon Valley too.

Tina Marsan's avatar

I was given a small dose of psilocybin, by my very eclectic, forward thinking step-father, when I was about 8. It is was what it was, a very formative part of my development. 10 or so years passed before I chose to take mushrooms again on a handful of occasions. Each experience was unique and health enhancing. I waited until I was 56 to take them again, this time to heal from the trauma that occurred as a result of losing our retreat center to a fire 4 years ago. Words cannot tell how incredibly beneficial the most recent experience was! Thank you for shedding light on natural healing, living and co-creating. I appreciate your service.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

I look forward to validation in humans but am guessing that’s a long way off? I took psilocybin in synthetic form at least once and mushrooms a few times…in addition to lsd and mescaline in my youth. My last lsd trip was 1984. I’m curious how it contributed to my evolution and I seem to be aging fairly well at 70 - still it’s not easy.

Patty McPhillips's avatar

At 73 now, my last trip was about mid 70’s. I had several trips spaced out by at least 3-4 months; but one thing I remember experiencing was the minute I arrived into that space or dimension there was such a connectivity to where I was in the prior trip.. kinda like “ok, well here I am in this realm, let’s go.” Always seemingly an attitude of expectancy, broadened perspectives, and excited to experience and learn…A little hesitant at this stage of age but bring on the dose info!!

Andrew Devlin's avatar

Being 54 years clean and nearly 54 sober, I am always quite concerned about taking anything that is mind altering. Do you think that there’s a possibility that the benefits of psilocybin will be available in any form other than what we used to take to get high back in the 1960s?

Daniel Murphy's avatar

From what I’ve read psilocybin is not addictive.

Christina Lemomi Chaya 茶谷's avatar

This is why I appreciate the focus on set and setting now. And most importantly, integration.

Olde Edo's avatar

Of course I have no way of knowing anything specific about your past experiences, but I do know for a fact that frequently acid was being sold as psilocybin or mescaaline, and sometimes spiked with other stuff to give variety to the experience. But of course that refers to pills--if you had access to actual mushrooms, then it is of course much more likely you got the real thing. (I suppose it would have been possible to take a non-psychedelic garden variety mushroom and spike it with LSD, although I have never heard such anecdotes--of course, the experience would be somewhat different, but without having experienced mushrooms to compare experiences, one could be fooled, I suppose).

Andrew Devlin's avatar

I honestly don’t know for sure what drugs I took most of the time as I feared drugs but after a few beers I took anything and everything that was offered. Unfortunately, after a few beers, my memory disappeared!

Mike Sweeney's avatar

Thanks Sayer. I have been tracking this casually for the Autism population. It seems pretty obvious that many Military PTSD cases have benefitted. Thanks for your work, again.

Deb Nance's avatar

Magic mushrooms always made me laugh a lot. 😂

Christina Lemomi Chaya 茶谷's avatar

That’ll make you live longer! Laughter💗

Christina Lemomi Chaya 茶谷's avatar

I learned a lot from Terence’s brother, Dennis McKenna, while working very closely with him for several years. One of his perspectives, was that if you’re meant to meet one of these ancestral medicines, they will find the form or way to meet you.

But when I check into how I feel about medicinal mushrooms being promoted for extending lifespan, as this seems to be what many seek, I can’t help but to think of what I’ve learned from those that practice from Indigenous lineages.

Not to extend lifespan necessarily, but to enrich the life experience.

I learned that this is why these ancient plant and fungi medicines are referred to as “maestros,” “teachers,” as Sayer mentions. They teach us through our traumas, generational traumas, so we can live our more authentic selves, in love and freedom, with joy and health.

All interrelated, as we are internally, and externally. Existing in a harmony as Nature knows.

Hopefully not as a chemical extraction, but with their full depth of Life, which is what I pray for you 🙏🏽

Thank you for the inspiration, Sayer.

Yvonne Renee's avatar

I don't agree with testing on animals EVER! But I always say mushrooms will save the realm. I love my liquid drops some old hippies I know make and we know they clean up the forest, dissolve plastic, etc.

Harriet McCoy's avatar

So how can someone purchase some safe psilocybin these days?

Christina Lemomi Chaya 茶谷's avatar

I appreciate how Dennis McKenna reminds us that it’s not these medicines that are unsafe. We are made of drugs.

It’s about the conscious, “safe” relationship you come into with these medicines🙏🏽

AllenB's avatar

Where can you find a local reputable treatment place?

ADT's avatar

sacred sacraments

being actual catalysts

insights must be down

loaded into daily mundane

unpacking journey earned

gifts liberating break through light shining

action required in

order to growth

cycle learning to

enjoy absolutely

face embrace

challenges priority

navigated passage

rites further traveling

into spiritual economics

plugging into communion

directed from the umbilical

region achieving critical

mass quorum united

as one singularity

blossoming further

awareness unfolding

mysterious origami

shedding the illicit

ill fitting costume of

the ego manufactured

by unfortunate coercion

mask ripped from the face

of innocence delivered daily into experienced

hands blood sweat

tear supplied due

diligence offers the

possibility of becoming

evolving consciousness

enchantedly amused by

potent truths protecting

core love providence

mingling curiosity

fiercely determining

global moral inquiry

fostering adaptive

intelligence myriads

of side effect benefits

aerobic anaerobic along

with elasticity of course

full range of motion to

boot in order to fully

activate totality being

qualitatively fathomed

sustained intense effort

planting daily pinnacle

seeds needing further

nurture herding stem

cells into neurons

then networked

concentrating

determined focus

synchronizing temple

body energies cohesive

alignment practiced daily

original breath work yoga

experimental martial art

many artful practices

continue to evolve

The Hidden Life Is Best's avatar

Both you and drug enthusiast with a big

Vocabulary Terrence McKenna don’t mention how the Aztecs found psychedelic mushrooms very useful for their human sacrifice rituals.

Aztec culture was heavily involved with taking ‘magic’ mushrooms. They are very dangerous. They create delusional thinking without very careful use. They are definitely not for general use.

Hopefully you’ll go over that aspect of their use historically when you revise your essay to acknowledge delusional thinking as a side effect

in the mushroom enthusiast. I include McKenna in that list.

The Aztecs ate a lot of mushrooms and sacrificed a lot of humans.

Do the math.

will nadolny's avatar

Mescaline, peyote and psilocybin all have magic powers that convey your consciousness to a higher dimension and give you a glimpse of infinite love and connectivity to the universe. Been there done that, and the benefits are priceless.

Neesha Tee's avatar

Understood 100% agree however, I achieve that with mediation

will nadolny's avatar

True, you can get a glimpse through meditation. The entheogen experience can last for hours. Someone who has done both could likely say which journey is more transcendent.