Salutations my fellow confrere's.
Today I thought I would share my story of mushies, how I got into them, how they saved my life & why they are so important to me.
Let me start off by saying, I did not have the best upbringing; Been homeless 3 times as a kid, living in churches, I had a rough family life. I am not going to get into too much detail on that as anything more than that is nugatory.
I suffered from a number of mental illnesses.
At age 3 I was hospitalized because I never slept, and since then was put on seroquel (Quetiapine fumarate)
I had severe clinical depression from age 11-16 being hospitalized about 9 times for attempted suicide during that period
I had severe anxiety, rendering me catatonic on my most intense freakouts,
ADD/ADHD
and minor forms of psychosis.
I have been on almost every pharmaceutical throughout my life involving mood stabilizers, anti depressants, anti anxiety meds, and they always clouded my mental acuity..
Well lets go back to age 17, my friend has mushrooms, and little did I know this would change my life forever...
He gave me an eighth, and I ate them.
After eating them my mentality changed,
That experience changed me, it was subtle but noticeable.
at my peak all the way to the comedown I sat outside this was around 6AM, as I ate them around 5AM.
I just sat there in the most introspective moment in my life, thinking about my entire life, everything that had happened, the mushrooms assured me everything is going to be okay.
After that experience I became happier in life, I saw true joy in things, the beauty in everything.
After about 4 deep journeys I noticed I did not need ANY of my meds, that otherwise without would render me unfunctional, I am substantially better now then when I took the meds. Ever since then, I have not taken a single pill! I eat mushrooms about once a week, sometimes a couple week break.
I sleep perfectly every night, I have 0 anxiety, (they taught me worrying and stressing about something solves absolutely nothing) I stay calm.. and I have not taken ANY seroquel that otherwise I could not physically sleep without.
I havent had a single derogatory thought on life since, not a single gram of depressed thoughts have crossed my mind, my mood is steady as can be. fast forward a few years I spend my days as a healthy and growing individual, I have an amazing fiancee who supports everything I am passionate about, who enjoys travelling with me. I have a deep passion for philosophy, and ontology. I love writing and talking about consciousness. This is my experience with them, thank you for taking the time to read this, little background of me

Thank you so much for sharing this with us!! Truly remarkable to be so candid about such a personal topic such as this. I can relate to much of what you have said here and found myself feeling very proud of you as I read. I wish I could give you a hug, high five or handshake!

Thank you for being you Astonish! I am very happy that you persevered and overcame the obstacles in your life! Impressive change of perspective... the shrooms helped.. but you did the work. I hope others who read this can be inspired by hearing this story, and know that this story is not an isolated incident. I too, have had my life changed positively through a perspective change brought about by the use of psychedelics. They truly are teachers if you're paying attention.

You made a friend in me today Astonish! I am glad to know you are out there in the world!

You truly are an awesome person.
It took a lot to share this, however if I can help people then it must go out there.
You have made me very happy with the amiability I deeply appreciate it.

Thank you for sharing this. Beautiful!
I have worked with these my whole life since I was 15 years old. A viking needs his true medicine! I am now 35. I even some months ago gave my 67 years old mother a full 3-4gram tea experience

I have taking them in full dosages and in various settings, I also had the chance to micro dose them for some months to boost my brain while studying an MBA haha IT WORKED!

But what you are writing I think is absolutely amazing.. Your little story should be on every major news-channel globally!
I have friends and friends family suffering from various mental illnesses but especially depression. And even that I am now working with these medicines in various shapes(Aya, mushrooms, changa etc..) it is nearly impossible to get anyone that are settled in the pharmaceutical system to consider to try something else, especially when there brain is just screaming no it is drugs, drugs!

Again beautiful and blessings to you!

Thank you very much! The amount of love from you & Dmnstr8 made me smile harder than you could imagine.
Bye bye pharmacopeia

Thank you for sharing this amazing story.

Mushrooms also helped me a lot. They awoke me from materialistic apathy, delivering me into spirituallty and helping me appreciate the amazing beauty all around us. They made me feel, truly feel, the present moment and be more alive than ever before.

Mushrooms rescued me from an apathetic life in suburbia where mind numming alcohol, pointless TV, and imaginary numbers (money) rule over a zombie-like soul crushing artificial prozac-fueled wasteland.

For that, I am deeply thankful.

"a zombie-like soul crushing artificial prozac-fueled wasteland" - this an amazing line hahahaha

Those are cute!

They love you bro!

Amazing story, thank-you for sharing : ) You mention you love to study philosophy/ontology! If you haven't checked it out already, you might want to look at the Neoplatonic tradition. Much love : )

Thank you very much!
I have heard of it, but never really looked into it that much, but I will now.

The Platonic tradition is absolutely massive. Buying the Complete Works of Plato volume edited by John M. Cooper would be the best bang-for-your-buck purchase to begin your studies (about $75 on Amazon.com).

Purhcasing the Presocratics Reader, Second Edition edited by Patricia Curd would not be a bad idea either (it is a small work compiling the fragments of philosophy that existed prior to Plato - Plato is the first philosopher in Western history whose works survive in completion). I suspect the Presocratics Reader would be around $20 on Amazon.com.

The Platonic tradition is generally split between those who follow Plato, and those who follow Plato's student, Aristotle. Aristotle actually refers to himself as a "Platonist", but he sharply differed from his master on many points. What Aristotle meant by calling himself a "Platonist", is that he saw himself as fulfilling Plato's philosophical ambitions more fully than his teacher did - though he was indebted to his teacher for having formulated those philosophical ambitions for him to even work on to begin with. Whether you prize Plato or Aristotle, almost nobody in history has been a "pure Platonist" or a "pure Aristotelian". Both philosophers have usually been synthesized by others to varying degrees. Some have even speculated they are 100% in accord with one another and only pretended not to get along. This is an extremely dubious hypothesis.

The Basic Works of Aristotle edited by Richard McKeon can be purchased for under $20 on Amazon.com.

Neoplatonism began with a Greek-Egyptian philosopher named Plotinus, who lived 600 years after Plato. Following Plotinus, the greatest Neoplatonic philosophers were: Iamblichus, Proclus, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. All these thinkers, up until Dionysius, were Greek Pagans, but Dionysius was a Christian. We do not know who Dionysius really was, because he actually (successfully) tricked people for more than a thousand years into thinking he was an Athenian character in the bible who had been converted by St. Paul (lol!). He presumably picked that character to symbolize his Greek philosophical loyalties being converted over to the Christian religion. Dionysius was most likely a direct student of Proclus, the last great Pagan philosopher. Proclus lived in a time when Christians were persecuting Pagan philosophers, so this is quite remarkable.

All three of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have almost always studied philosophical theology through Platonic/Aristotelian categories. The Western science of God came from Plato and Aristotle. Platonism/Aristotelianism is as close to a universal language of Western spirituality as you are likely to find.

If you do purchase the complete works of Plato, it is worth noting that the dialogues should be read in a certain order. I'm going to copy/paste part of an email a professor sent me once elucidating this order. If you buy the book, it would be a good idea to number the order of the dialogues in the table of contents accordingly with a pencil (they are not listed in this order in the book). Here it goes:

"I think the best way to break up the dialogues is into three groups - early, Socratic dialogues, middle, eidetic dialogues, and late, stoicheological dialogues. This division comes from J.N. FIndlay.

The early dialogues tend to end with negative conclusions, and usually focus on some virtue, profession, or way of life.

1) Euthyphro
2) Apology
3) Crito
4) Charmides
5) Laches
6) Lysis
7) Euthydemus
8 ) Ion

Right after these I see a transitional group of dialogues which treat virtue as a whole.

9) Protagoras
10) Gorgias
11) Meno

The middle dialogues introduces explicitly Platonic metaphysics, especially the multiple forms existing separately from the sensible and the Good as the form of the forms) as the true objects of philosophical inquiry

12) Phaedrus
13) Symposium
14) Phaedo
15) Republic
16) Cratylus

The place of the Parmenides is hotly contested, but I see this as initiating a reflection on first elements (stoicheia) or principles beyond the division of the sensible and intelligible, in order to understand in a non-dogmatic and intelligible way the proper relations of ideas and sensible particulars. These dialogues which introduce a reflection on dual principles (Same/Other, Absolute/Relative, Limit/Unlimited, Rest/Motion, One/Unlimited Dyad) can all be seen in different ways in the following dialogues

17) Theaetetus
18 ) Sophist
19) Statesman
20) Parmenides
21) Philebus
22) Timaeus
23) Laws "

There are a few dialogues that won't fit into this scheme (Plato's "weird" dialogues, lol), but this is a fairly complete list. Also, Plato's "7th Letter" is generally regarded as authentic (other letters ascribed to his pen are more dubious).

I'm glad you found the mushies
They saved my life too.
I had a very different upbringing. I had a good family and a stable life but I entered this life with some dark baggage probably from a past life. That's the only explanation I can find. I was crazy as a teenager. I was violent and out of control. I abused drugs and I was destroying myself and my family.

Shrooms helped me see through the denial and all the illusions I had about my life and myself.

Shrooms have showed me heaven and hell. They are my friends. I am grateful and have outmost respect for them. They opened me up for love. I have a lot of love and compassion today for all living beings.

Thank you for sharing. Great to hear you're doing good

Peace <3

Thank you very much for the read.
They helped me in so many ways over the years its incredible, and have definitely made me an intrepid.
Happy travels my friend.

What an amazing testimony to the power of the mushroom. Very happy for you dude, power to you! Mushrooms really are something special. I love reading/hearing things like this! Wishing you all the best for your onwards journey!!

Thank you for sharing that. I am really happy for you that your life has been turned around in a positive way. It is not just you that is benefiting from this turn around. Reports like this lift spirits up and spread positive vibes around . It reminds us that here are good things happening in the world rather than just doom and gloom everywhere like the media portrays.

I concur, thank you for reading.
I hope more people can have this profound effect like I did and change their lives for the better.
Happy travels my friend.