Happy 9/20: A Commemoration of Magic Mushrooms

Today, 9/20, has been demarcated as a day to celebrate psilocybin mushrooms.

In the spirit of 9/20 being commemorated as a day to celebrate and honor psilocybin-containing mushrooms, I would be remiss not to write about how impactful this substance has been for me. I would likely not be alive were it not for this magical healing substance. Or my quality of life would likely be greatly diminished.

The creation of 9/20 as Magic Mushroom Day was created as an educational call to action, and I am here to answer that call, or at least to chime in on that call. Psilocybin mushrooms have been tremendously healing and transformative for me, helping me to reconnect to my power. They have helped me overcome my self-consciousness, to understand the world outside of myself, and to gain a sense of connection back to myself, to others, and to this precious earth we all inhabit.

Psilocybin mushrooms help us to reconnect to our inner-child, to recover the sense of awe and wonderment of childhood, to access our consciousness and to inhabit ourselves fully. I’ve personally found that cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms have been tremendously useful and even vital for my transition from seeing myself as unworthy and inferior.

These medicines are tools to help catalyze the deeper work that I needed to do myself. I can personally attest to my own experience in finding these medicines to be healing and transformative in a way that talk therapy alone could only approach. They’ve helped me to undo old ways of thinking and seeing, to release past mindsets, behaviors, and versions of myself, and to release past traumas, many of which I had not consciously held onto.

Mushrooms can bring us back to our divinity. They are called “los niños santos” because they help to re-awaken our inner-child, to remind us of our innocence and infinite love. Developing a relationship and practice with mushrooms has helped me make space for gratitude, for living in the present, and for believing in my capability to work toward my goals.

In this time of global undoing, the green wave and psychedelic renaissance have emerged because these substances — and the alternative they offer from the conventional pharmaceutical model — are urgently needed by humanity. I believe that the growing public health crises, the multiple viral pandemics and mental health pandemics, the global warming crises, and the cost-of-living crises are all inter-related. We are collectively facing a crisis of consciousness caused by the disconnected way of living promoted by a materialist, industrialized society. We individually and collectively need the embodied wisdom of these earth medicines to help humanity heal and rebuild more equitable, conscious systems.

And while many people remain skeptical of these substances due to their incessant, decades-long stigmatization and demonization, the seeds and spores have already started spreading, fast and furiously. The growing, re-emerging medical and societal interest in psychedelics and cannabis offers blooms of promise that there is a better way forward — a way to live that encourages a more conscious, egalitarian, harmonious, grounded, and embodied way of living. These medicines offer a promise of the ability to live in tune with oneself, with each other, and with the environment, for our individual and collective well-being and healing.

The pharmaceutical industry, the government, and the nature of this capitalist, materialist, rationalist, industrialized culture we live in all have culpability in suppressing knowledge about and stigmatizing cannabis and psychoactive mushrooms (and I would argue suppressing knowledge about the medicinal value of all edible mushrooms and the importance of holistic wellness). Yet the momentum has already begun and the healing powers of psilocybin mushrooms can no longer be denied; the laws and society must work to catch up to help us individually and collectively harness the powers of this potent medicine.

So, in the spirit of #920, I share my own journey in learning to appreciate and embrace the body’s ability to heal. Plants and fungi can help you to heal beyond what you ever could have imagined, on both the spiritual and physiological levels. They can help promote neurogenesis and help you understand your connectedness to yourself, others, and the greater cosmos. In helping to quiet the “ego,” which we now know is the default mode network, we quiet the sense of self being separated from the universe and reconnect to our larger interconnectedness.

Psilocybin mushrooms offer hope to help us to overcome self-conscious, destructive, and unhealthy ways of thinking and being in the world. And in its place, to help us combat the rationalist, individualist, mechanized way of living, we are offered the possibility of tapping into our divine birthright: a conscious awakening of our divine connections.

While cannabis and psychedelics will likely continue to endure controversy and political and legal negotiations well into the future regarding their decriminalization, mainstreaming, and use in a medical model, the medicinal aspects of these substances has emerged so strongly that the information about them can no longer be suppressed. Intentional and measured use of psilocybin mushrooms, cannabis, all edible fungi, and all of earth medicines, together with a general holistic approach to health and wellness, can help the body and the mind to find and maintain health.

Western medicine has indeed produced powerful tools to treat a variety of ailments and conditions, but it has fallen short in its approach of treating symptoms rather than taking a holistic, integrative, or preventative route. Natural plants and fungi provide immunosupportive, anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-depressive, neurological, and spiritual benefits that can no longer be minimized or dismissed so easily.

References:

Carhart-Harris, R.L, Roseman, L., Bolstridge, M., Demetriou, L., et al. (2017). “Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression: fMRI-measured brain mechanisms.” Scientific Reports. 1307. doi:10.1038/s41598–017–13282–7

Flores, Inti García, (Nov 12, 2020). Niños Santos, Psilocybin Mushrooms and the Psychedelic Renaissance. Retrieved from https://chacruna.net/mazatec_mushroom_ceremony_psychedelic_tourism/

Griffiths, R.R., Richards, W.A., Johnson, M..W., et al. (2008). “Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later.” Journal of Psychopharmacology.22: 6, 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1177/026988110809430

Hasler, F., Grimberg, U., Benz, M.A. et al. (2004). “Acute psychological and physiological effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled dose-effect study. Psychopharmacology. 172: 145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-003-1640-6

Hendricks, P.S., Johnson, M.W., Griffiths, R.R. (2015). “Psilocybin, psychological distress, and suicidality.” Journal of Psychopharmacology. 29: 9, 1041–1043. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881115598338

Isokauppila, Tero. (March 14, 2019). The healing power of mushrooms [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZnGwFblXpA&ab_channel=TalksatGoogle

Lattin, Don. (2017). Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy. Synergetic Press: Santa Fe and London.

Merry Jane. (2020). The CBD Solution: How Cannabis, CBD, and Other Plant Allies Can Change Your Everyday Life. Lauren Wilson, Ed. Chronicle Books.

Pollan, M. (2018). How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529343/how-to-change-your-mind-by-michael-pollan/

Powell, Martin. (June 6, 2018). Why all mushrooms are magic [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fITifKJwZZc&ab_channel=BrightonNaturalHealthCentre

Studerus, E., Krometer, M., Hasler, E. et al. (2010). “Acute, subacute and long-term subjective effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a pooled analysis of experimental studies.” Journal of Psychopharmacology. 25: 11, 1434–1452. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881110382466