Oli Genn-Bash explores the growing popularity of functional mushrooms, blending personal experience, research, and traditional perspectives to argue for a more holistic, respectful understanding of fungi.
in this article
- Introduction
- Early Humans and Connection to Nature
- Alienation From Nature
- Psychedelics and Perception of Nature
- Long Term Effects
- Benefits of a Deeper Connection to Nature
- Conclusion
5 minute read
5
Last updated October 16th, 2024
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I definitely prefer being outdoors, I feel trapped inside when tripping. No matter what time it is or how cold it is outdoors feel so much better to me.
Hello everyone! I really enjoyed this article and share this view. I’m 48 now, the first time I took LSD I was around 14 or 15 (which is really a thing I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, as the brain is still developing and all sorts of things can happen…and even if nothing dramatic happens, it can’t be good for your health when you’re still a developing human being), which I would call WAY TOO YOUNG to experiment like this.
But I had my reasons, and I felt that if nobody was going to help me anyway, I might as well try to help myself and at the same time going on my quest to the answers to my questions. I suffered from depression, panic attacks, nightmares, social anxiety at times, and had a very hard time concentrating at school. To cut a long story short: I had mood swings, ups and downs, the marks in school were the very same way. Some people in school even thought I had a twin sister because they thought I was 2 or 3 different people, depending on the day, stress level or social situation. (Well, they weren’t completely wrong, I’ve got a few mental problems that weren’t yet diagnosed at the time).
When I asked my GP for help for the first time, I was just 12. I 2as hoping he could give me advice, medication, or at least tell me where I could apply for a therapy, or what I could do if I wanted to see a psychiatrist.
But the doctor was already a fairly old gentleman at the time, and his advice was what a lot of people hear in this situation,
“Drink lots of water, go for long walks and see that you’ll get enough sleep.” That’s all good and healthy but it won’t help you if you dread going to sleep because of horrible nightmares.
After trying Valeria, St.Johns’s worth and many other herbal tablets, teas, etc, I decided to try out LSD because I knew that my father used to take it a lot when he was young. My cousin was a Shaman, and he agreed with the hints I found in literature about Native American Shamans and other medicine people from all over the world, throughout the ages up until scientists of our time who wanted to do more research because there seemed to be signs of evidence that psychedelics might help improve people’s mood when they suffered from depression.
I was a little bit nervous the first time, but I saw it as an adventure. A friend of mine was my “sitter”, and we went outside in the big park along the river. We started early in the morning, just before the summer school holidays, in the Japanese garden area. It was a wonderful, relaxing and liberating experience. And the strangest thing was that I ended up being my friend’s trip sitter.
During the trip we walked, talked and also did a lot of artwork like painting and writing while listening to music.
That experience stayed with me a long time, and I still remember it vividly. My depression slowly improved, and for the first time in ages I had a nice dream again. I never looked back ever since. Even though I was once prescribed medication for my condition(s), I never like them because they made me like a zombie, from Anafranil,Atosil, over Lithium and Prosac, Lyrica, down to Xanax, nothing helped me as much (if 5hose pills helped at all because some medication made me worse, I would have real “fits”, dissociative phases where I didn’t know what I was doing or who I was, often waking up 5 point fixated in the children’s psych ward) as psychedelics. I could reconnect with nature, I discovered in what direction I had to develop my talent and understood more and more fascinating things of the world.
Setting is important, a good, trustworthy trip sitter is good to have, but also being relaxed and maybe some of you can agree with me: your mind does not only have to be in the right “set”, it is also part of your setting, the setting inside of you. Part of my “disability” (I’ve got a disability pass for real because of my mental diagnosis) is that I’ve got “worlds” existing in my mind, lives, personalities outside, inside and an infinite amount of stories, adventures, quests and places in different time periods. I badly needed these worlds and friends inside of me when I was small, when things were bad, when I was in hospital and couldn’t move. All I could do is stare at the ceiling or out the window and go inside of me.
Today I’m glad that I am the way I am because it made me survive real bad times. I don’t hate myself anymore, even though I don’t love myself either….but I like myself, I’m ok the way I am because what appeared as a disability first turned out later to be part of an inherited talent to be able to help people. My cousin the Shaman taught me a lot for 13 years before he died. And psychedelics helped me, they were one of the things that improved my live tremendously. I wish everyone peace, love, healing and patience…not only with others but also with ourselves. Let’s hope that the evil in this world won’t destroy us all with all the fighting and wars that are going on, I have one request to ask everyone of you: if you’re religious: pray for peace and love , no matter what religion you are…please just a few minutes over the course of a day…and if you’re spiritual, please try to meditate, focusing on love and peace for everyone in this world. Even if you’re an Atheist: maybe you can once or twice a day mediate between people who are arguing, or help out someone with a little gesture, like carrying an old persons shopping bags.
I believe and I know for sure, I’m 100% certain that every positive emotion, like compassion, love, or even just a smile, or making someone smile: it can go a long way, spread, multiply, cross borders of languages and countries. Because we all have to start with ourselves. That means not pointing the finger at someone. Like Jesus taught people how to convince people to do the right thing:
Do stuff yourself that is good for your neighbour, and it will return full circle to you when you need it.
We live in weird times, I will meditate, pray and even go as far as lighting incense for Fairies and extraterrestials/ interdimensional beings, asking for assistance to help us save this planet from war and total destruction. It costs nothing, and because I know what the human brain can do (you would be amazed at the experiments I did), I know we all can make a difference. Much love to you all, from Ireland & Germany
Lily the Pict 👍🇮🇪💖🍀🌹😍🤗🌠🌌✨
since i started taking psychdelics i feel extremly connected to everything around me.
Thats an interesting perspective. I‘d never think of that.
I can fully identify with this article, good work.