How does it feel to journey with Golden Teachers?
“The first time I tried Golden Teacher mushrooms, I was young and wanted an adventure,” reflects Nate. “In hindsight, it was helpful that I had friends with me who knew what to expect and were not afraid. We all hung out in the woods until they started to kick in, then we went to a party.”
Nate recalls that he began to feel waves of awe as he perceived the beauty and color surrounding them.
“What captured my attention was the reflections of the glass on all the cars and windows,” he recalls. “I observed that I was not hallucinating in the sense that I was not seeing something that was not actually there. Instead, my sober mind had been filtering out the information that was generally ignored anyway.”
The sensory overload that the brain deals with on a daily basis results in the filtration of many stimuli that are perceived to be inessential, a process known as sensory gating.
“I felt like the Golden Teacher mushrooms had rebooted this system and I was wide open. The reflections on the glass may have had a more vibrant color, but they were always there,” said Nate.
As he arrived at the party, his psychedelic journey began to take on different dimensions.
“I remember talking with my friend and being fascinated by the idea of language. I was grappling with the fact that the noises that one person makes can impart ideas and concepts into another person’s mind,” said Nate. “I had never really contemplated that before, and all of a sudden it felt like a form of magic that humans had invented. It seemed clear to me at the time that the thing that makes humans so different is this ability to transform ideas and concepts into sounds that someone else can then transform back into ideas and concepts.”
For many people, psychedelics are associated with their hallucinogenic properties and ability to conjure up trippy visuals. For Nate, the shifts in perception that he experienced journeying with Golden Teachers were more meaningful and memorable.
“In the lead-up to trying Golden Teacher mushrooms, I had become fixated on the idea of having visual hallucinations,” said Nate. “This is pretty typical of people who are inexperienced with these substances. However, once people have a little experience, nearly everyone agrees that, while interesting and often beautiful, hallucinations are a small and somewhat insignificant aspect of the whole experience.” Instead, a journey with Golden Teachers can bring subtle (or potent) changes in how the world is viewed and understood.
“Much more common are distortions to the normal world and a shift in focus to the things that tend to be ignored,” said Nate. “The first thing I noticed as they started to take effect was that the trees looked like they were breathing. I was already a botany geek, and I remember the ‘ah-ha’ moment when I remembered that trees do breathe. These trees were exhaling the gasses that I needed to live. It was these relationship-type connections that jumped out at me.”
Ultimately, Nate recalled that experience with Golden Teachers as contemplative but also very fun. “My friends and I had an amazing time. I laughed so much my face started to hurt,” he reflected.
Nate’s journey lasted four to six hours, which is roughly standard. Most people begin to feel the effects kick in after 45 minutes, though some can feel Golden Teachers begin to work their magic in as quickly as 20 minutes.
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