So the other day I decided to try some mushrooms for the first time.

I have tried mushrooms previously a few years ago but to be honest it was at the end of a horrible stimulant/alcohol/god knows what else binge and I don't really remember anything about it.

I've changed my ways since then.


So I ate the 7g of shrooms alone at home at 12:30pm. I ate them raw, dry, bit by bit chewing and swallowing them.

I'm quite used to eating things like crispy kale and dried out vegetables as I have a habit of sticking veggies in the oven for too long, so they had quite a familiar taste.

About 90 minutes passed before I began to feel anything significant and I spent the next hour watching youtube videos and laughing uncontrollably, by myself, at some of the ridiculous comments people find the need to post.

I went to the bathroom and realised I was getting further into the experience and decided to pay the mushrooms some better attention so I turned my laptop off.

From here on in the trip was dark; going into every bad aspect of my life, duelling on it and bringing it out into the open, showing my bad habits, not really telling me what to do about them, but rather giving me a stern telling off.

Everything was very blunt and negative making me feel very small and I even cried a little haha.

However, there was one part where I felt heavenly, as if I was about to cross over into a better place, a real floaty feeling that was accompanied by partly euphoric bodily sensations. I thought this was the start of a smooth ego death but unfortunately it wasn't

I wanted this feeling to last and develop but I've found it best to give everything equal attention and just let things be. I didn't try to hold onto this positive part of the trip, I just let it be then it faded.

My plan to not have a bad trip was to not resist anything, and it worked.

There was one point where I seemed to be in a constant loop of trying to focus on one thing which kept failing over and over. I stopped this loop by getting up and doing some angry pressups.

Concentration and distractions are definitely something I need to work on in my life and I think the trip was trying to show me this as well. I've had very similar experiences on dmt.

Overall the trip showed me how I haven't been true to myself these past few years, an eye-opening experience that showed my true reality with no excuses for bad behaviour or actions. Everything is as it is.

As said, concentration seems to be key to progressing in my life. I'll probably try to meditate more and apply mindfulness to my daily life.

I'm thinking of trying a higher dose next time, or even something more potent. The idea of getting stuck in a hell of ego-death loop for hours doesn't sound very appealing but I think with the right mindset you can enjoy any experience.

Or perhaps that is an extremely ignorant thing to say considering Terrence McKenna's bad experience that put him off mushrooms for the remainder of his life.

I really want to go further with mushrooms, do you think it's wise to increase dose or try something stronger or am I just asking for trouble?

Sounds to me like you are on the right track as to how to mentally navigate things while dosing. You could increase dosage or you could play around with the same dose size. Mushrooms can vary to a degree as to potency so theres no guarantee that taking the same weight will be the same size dose anyways.

I tend to push away the bad feelings. Not resist but just not pay attention. Often I will change the scenery or what my focus is on to get out of the bad mind set. I dont have experience with solo trips on mushrooms but I would suggest if you did increase dose size to have a trip sitter off in the background in case you needed reassurances.

I think it sounds like you're in good shape to try again with a higher dose. Prepare like you did for this one.

In my personal opinion, after studying Terence McKenna's lectures for a few years in an obsessive manner, (all while going through my own life metamorphosis), I think Terence's weak point was that for his given level of knowledge and bravery he was spiritually very underdeveloped, and very weak. He dazzled his audiences with his brilliant philosophies of aliens, and space fungi, and machine elves, and who knows what, and who doesn't know anything at all. It was a great pitch, but the one thing he really seemed to lack at some point was respect for his own personal development. And rather than face a bad trip and change life direction back towards the eternal, he resisted in fear, stopped listening to the mushroom altogether, and came up with Timewave Zero, and what was ultimately a doomsday prediction. In other words, he closed off the world and lived in his intellectual mind instead. I think the biggest lesson to take away from the guy that says we should all be taking heroic doses in the dark, alone, is that if you don't work in harmony on your own life at the same time, your fate is no better than that guy.

I am all for meditation and mindfulness. I've been meditating as daily practice for about 8 months now, and I will say that the first few months of learning from it came during the practice it, and the practice of being mindful with intentions and reflecting on the process. Then as time went on I noticed I could easily apply this skill to all areas of my life. And that is when things start to get interesting... Doors open where there were no doors before. Most people look like zombies to me now. It's incredible.

Terence in my opinion was the man, and in some of you guys opinions who have been meditating for a whole 8 months, that has the arrogrance to say he wasnt evolved this is rich, sad and funny. Terrence was probably meditating in India long before many of you were born. Anyone who takes a whole dose of mushrooms in the dark alone has my respect. Terrence had vision, courage, knowledge and until you have walked in another man' shoes dont be so quick to try and judge one of greatness. Kinda like the guy who sit's on the couch and says the boxer who lost is a bumb the man who strives who is in the fight is the one who can talk. Terrence brought most people who have experienced the mushroom to them so respect the pioneers and Terence is definetly a pioneer.

And the ghost of mckenna spake peace now!

There is a conversation between Mckenna and Ram Dass where Mckenna tells Alpert that he writes that he is still half baked, and hopes that the rest of his life will finish the process, and alpert has to assure him otherwise. McKenna was a great man and weaknesses of any kind is not what id be keen to judge him on. He was very humble.

http://m.youtube.com/ind...%2F#/watch?v=9Ih4Fg6P730 - I'd highly recommend this rare coming together of two psychedelic giants if you havnt yet had the pleasure (:

Respect on the dose man. If you are given a message by these things it's best not to need to be told twice, or especially thrice in my experience .

Just take some rec doses and chill out with them, I believe adamantly that it's never the dose your taking that will fail to deliver a peak experience, its more likely something on the oweness of the "psychonaut."

Namaste friends and may the weird fall favourably upon you!

Hey there

Sounds like you handled it like a pro. My advice to ˝˝newcomers˝ is never start swimming in deep part of the ocean, start at shore where small waves meet the sand.
Just so you don't drown/get destroyed on your first date and perhaps refrain from going on second date... and falling in love and marrying the beauty.
Mushrooms have potential to peel deep layers of the infinite onion and show you the REAL YOU.
If this is something that you wish to uncover and on some human level except than by all means give it a go, just remember to take your time to integrate each experience (as best possible) and respect the power of the medicine.

THE VOID awaits willing.

You've misunderstood. I still look up to him as a pioneer. I never stopped. He was very brave, but I speculate on his life turning point for the benefit of everyone here, not to speak low of him. We can all learn from him. I feel like I understand his intentions on an emotional level. To discredit him is like discrediting myself, and discredit all that I stand for. To ignore the life that he made public, including all that made him suffer, is to deny something very real, and very important.

Generally, I tend to agree..I say generally because I find there can be a hint of spiritual snobbery present in discussions like this where assumptions are made about how far along another is etc with mentions of meditation, yoga..I tend to not really put much attention towards claims people make when they talk about how much they meditated and how spiritually evolved they are etc..the whole thing becomes a turn off for me.

I have been into meditation and yoga on and off for the last 12 years and tbh I have simply given up practicing these things for long periods of time becasue while yes, they take you to some interesting spaces they dont match that of the power plants and fungi. I believe the path with these teachers is a path that stands on it's own. Meditation can accompany it, but it will never replace it.

There is something about a visionary dose of a tryptamine psychedelic taken alone at home, that touches home on a level deeper than I can imagine anything else reaching.

I have to agree with Jamie, I really don't see meditation and fasting by themselves, reaching the levels of shrooms or dmt. For these spirit guides to be so common in nature, it makes me think that entheogens are the intended key to nirvana, that was the way nature designed it to be. its practical , and it is deep within human nature to go after the fastest and easiest.

its also a clear example of how enlightenment is a transient state. the human ways will always return.

Damn 7g for the first time?

Im still trying to get courage to dose 5g lol
Although i do get hideous back spasms from shrooms sometimes so its mostly that making me hesitant to up my dosage atm.

Respect man that is hardcore!

Btw try adding some caapi or rue with your mushies next time, takes it to another level totally.

Sounds right, like the shrooms have told me where I need to improve and I better do it before I go back to them unless I wanna be told again.

Although, as said I could venture into a possible hell and just observe everything. I've had some pretty bad experiences on dmt which were hard to just observe, there was one when I was literally saying over and over 'that's it now, I wanna get off' until I stopped panicking and let the effects gradually wear off.

But then again, this could've just been my mindset and I guess I had expectations that didn't go as planned. It was actually from changa, as previously I had an amazing experience and wanted to recreate it, chase that high so to speak. So I guess my expectations lead me into resistance.

Perhaps same dosage with an maoi, as said, is a good way to go. I actually had some at hand but didn't even think to mix them. Probably not a good idea for first time.

I'm in no rush to enter the void until I've changed a few of my habits and taken responsibility of my life.

Basically if you've created a array of habits which you seem unhealthy or self destructive then you're mostly always gonna be in for a bumpy ride with any psychedelic because they always give you the blunt truth.

I think key points are to respect and always be true to yourself, have no expectations and never resist.

Sound like you know what you need to do (;

Terrence himself describe 8gs as strapping yourself into the net rollercoaster only to have the ride attendant lean over and inform you it's the 4 hour version. Certainly not the kind of time to find out you have a lot of deep personal work to carry out. Ive always found aslong as I work with my messages or am doing so my psychedelic experiences are always A positive (:

Happy travels

In a sense though I think a longer trip allows for better deep personal work. Sure a 5 minute intense dmt trip can be life changing, but there's a hell of a lot of information to take in all at once.

To go deeper for longer, whilst remaining in the correct head space, will be more beneficial surely? This way you can analyse everything accordingly and view it for a longer duration in the moment, rather than trying to figure out what just happened.

I'm not trying to state a fact or argue though. A 5 minute blast may be enough for some people. I've never truly broken through with dmt so I'm still missing what I believe to be a key experience.

I might be going off track here slightly so I'm gonna stop ha.

My experiences show me that there is no formula how to go about big dose trips on mushrooms (big dose = 5g or higher for me). Perhaps only formula is to let go.
There are way to many variables that come in to play and can spiral your experience ether way. I stopped taking ˝smaller˝ doses when i figured out that for me higher doses just have this magnificent and terrifying ability to wake you up for a period of time and you can have intimate conversation/monologue with ˝IT˝, with the ineffable Source that which we all are.
The longer the experience the more potential for deeper connection and understanding...but not always
You do your thing...listen to your heart it knows more than your mind and great unimaginable things will happen. I still have to say you have some courage or stupidity in you to go for 7g for your first trip. I always appreciate, integrate and learn more from insanely ˝bad˝ trips that put me on hold for couple of months

I am guilty as charged for what could be argued to be spiritual snobbery in this thread. It takes good people to point it out in a constructive way. Thank you all for that. I am merely human.

Terence in my opinion was the man, and in some of you guys opinions who have been meditating for a whole 8 months, that has the arrogrance to say he wasnt evolved this is rich, sad and funny. Terrence was probably meditating in India long before many of you were born. Anyone who takes a whole dose of mushrooms in the dark alone has my respect. Terrence had vision, courage, knowledge and until you have walked in another man' shoes dont be so quick to try and judge one of greatness. Kinda like the guy who sit's on the couch and says the boxer who lost is a bumb the man who strives who is in the fight is the one who can talk. Terrence brought most people who have experienced the mushroom to them so respect the pioneers and Terence is definetly a pioneer.

In the eye of the ˝I˝ everything is kosher

While I have been getting deeply involved into meditation and yoga myself lately, much deeper than ever before, I still have to agree with you jamie.

It's a whole other level, when you choose to consume these plants. A lot can be said about the combination of these plants and other paths like meditation and yoga. My last psychedelic experience I spent several hours doing yoga, tai chi chuan, and qi gong. It took me to a place I've never been. It was incredible. But I know that without the tryptamine, I wouldn't have been to that place. So while I respect both, and all, paths, I bow with the most reverence to the power plants.

As for the OP: I have found that anything much above 7 grams is pretty much overkill. I once took a stupidly high dose (about 13 grams) and although it ended up being life changing in a positive way, it was filled with manic craziness and general insanity. Like has been suggested, I think introducing a MAOI might be what you're after. Just make sure you adjust your dose of mushrooms accordingly. 5 grams of mushroom while fully inhibited is a very harrowing trip, even for a hard head like me.

Glad you took the plunge and did all 7gs

Im not sure I have gone over 5g of cubensis. I do remember very well the first time I brewed a tea with 5g of dried cubensis and lets just say I spent hours on the floor in my friends kitchen with a blanket in the dark. I was out in hyperspace for a good long time. I remember being completely horrified as it came on, trying to convince myself I would wake up the next morning and everthing would be fine..I would be normal..finally I gave in and just sunk right into this deep hyperspace journey through the cosmos. I remember all kinds of beings and space ships, planets..just so much..so much in there.

I dont know how many times sinse then I have taken those 5 gram doses of cubes, becasue for years I did not own a scale. I would eyeball a good ammount that for me looked like a visionary dose and I would eat that..and eat more if I needed it..often I would feel like I had too much.

But then..one night..one of the first times I had psilocybe cyanescens I dosed them as if they were dry cubensis..dont do that! oh my god if you think DMT goes beyond mushrooms, well I would suggest you just have not eaten enough mushrooms. I dont know how much cubensis you would have to take to get that far out(becasue I have never taken that much cubes) but I can imagine it would be like 10g..

At 7 grams of cubes I am surprised you did not describe deep hyperspacial visions and beings etc..everyone responds differently I guess.

Psilocybin is no joke. It gets kind of forgotten at times in the wake of ayahuasca, but it stands right up there with DMT IMO.