Tracing Around The Frame
In the book ‘Flatland’, the reader is presented with a story set in a one and two dimensional world made up of Lindelanders and Flatlanders. These are anthropomorphic shapes of lines, squares, and triangles that live regular lives. In this story, there is a protagonist, a square, who lives in a comfortable two dimensional reality. But one day he finds himself experiencing a sphere, and discovers that there is a third dimensional space. Obviously startled and excited, he tries to convince his fellow Flatlanders that there is more than this reality, but there are no words to describe the indescribable, and spheres were something that Flatlanders just couldn’t fathom. But still he tries. The square was dismissed by Flatlanders, as his wild stories had no real relevance to their reality.
“Those brief moments during which inexplicably subject and object merge into what may be called their primordial unity. The problem is their description. The so called mystics either fall silent or they are forced to use the language of the great symbols governing their era; religion, mythology, philosophy and the like. But in doing this they are merely ‘tracing around the frame' through which they looked at the world and they again became captives of the particular reality constructed through the use of these symbols.”
What of our own reality? Could there be more to it than the consensus reality we normally experience? If we step back for a second and ponder the nature of reality, it already presents itself as strange. For is it not odd that anything exists and is happening at all? The ingredients, environments, movements, where does it all come from, and why would it come at all? These are areas beyond our dimension and for most have no relevance to our reality. But there are always those strange few who have touched something unexplainable. Once a regular square, but now something different. Something that can’t help but trace with words around the frame of something beyond words.
"The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer, they think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer."
For whatever reason, life has gifted everyone with the opportunity to experience a sphere, something so far outside of consensus reality that it literally defies explanation. This gift is the mushroom. Impossible to explain, difficult to experience, but somehow shows up on our radar exactly when we need it the most.
“Of truth as of beauty, it may be said that it is most adorned when unadorned.”
It has been said that all all things speak, but that some things, just tend to speak a bit more loudly.
On being asked to define New Orleans jazz. “Man, when you got to ask what it is, you'll never get to know.”
Legality
In 1229 the Catholic Church decreed that Christians were not permitted to possess or translate the Bible. Many Christians possessed and translated the Bible. In April 1933, German law prevented many Jewish students from attending German schools and universities. Many Jewish students still studied. South Carolina passed a law in 1800 authorizing the torture of slaves who assembled for mental instruction. Many slaves still pursued mental instruction. In 1970 the Controlled Substance Act made Psilocybin Mushrooms a Schedule I drug. Yet many seekers still partake.
This is only a small subset of examples that could be drawn from many examples throughout the world. The point is that sometimes a desire to grow will inevitably place you outside of safe and comfortable zones of existence. Authorities will continue to proclaim that there are no justifications for the exploration of Psilocybin Mushrooms. Yet this is no different than when the authorities proclaimed that the earth was the center of the universe, and that there was no reason to look through Galileo’s mysterious contraption called a telescope. As it turns out, both the telescope and the Psilocybin Mushroom do something very similar, they expand your perspective.
It is an absurd concept to make illegal what is most natural, and such an act should make us question who the story tellers in our society are. Governments will demonize Psilocybin mushrooms, not because they are concerned for your health and safety, but rather because they are worried that their grip of control may dissolve. Religions will tell you it is a sin, not because they have divine justification for this, but because they fear losing their authority to mediate divine truths. Corporations will pretend it doesn’t exist, not because of its medicinal properties, but because they would start to lose their consumer slaves. And the machine culture will ridicule it, not out of fear of the unknown, but out of fear of the known coming to an end.
The more we begin to touch higher things, the harder it is to take seriously the values of our ongoing story. Inevitably the soul comes to a point where it no longer wants to receive truth, but instead longs to experience it.
What Is It?
Everything has a voice and speaks. And as stated above, some things just tend to speak louder. It is our duty to learn to listen to all things, whether they speak softly or loudly, and to listen not just with the mind, but also with the heart. The rational and linear mind will tell you that certain natural plants and fungi are illegal, evil, hallucinogens… but it is the heart that will ask, “Do they work, and are they beautiful? This is simply another way of saying, “What kind of work do they do, and is this work beautiful?” A very subjective question. Nevertheless, it is a question that all seekers are responsible for answering. So be wise.
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound found in many species of mushrooms that are spread throughout the world. When ingested the body metabolizes psilocybin into psilocin, which is not just boring chemistry, but miraculous. It’s miraculous because the human body is very selective about what can cross the blood-brain barrier. And yet, here the body goes out of its way to metabolize psilocybin and draw it into its living tissue. While many may dismiss Psilocybin Mushrooms as insignificant and of no medicinal value, your body says otherwise, welcoming it with eagerness.
Why would the body do this? Well it seems there is growing interest in this fungi’s ability to improve people’s psychological, spiritual, and existential well-being. It has been found to treat depression, anxiety, and addiction. It seems to be one of the few things that can heal cluster headaches. It has been found to grow new brain cells. And finally, it appears that it possesses the capability to create a hyper-connected brain. But again, this is simply the mind trying to understand it. The heart will tell you to have faith and jump, for there are hands there to catch you. Hands that will unravel your soul, painfully exposing the darkness that you have hid for so long. Hands that will hold you without condemnation, but with love. Hands that will induce humility and tears. Hands that will lift you high above the storms of this life, so that perspective can be gained. Hands that will usher you into a great mystery, from which your linear mind will reel. And hands that will deliver you back to a new normal with a choice: Do I try to explain or even explain away what just happened, or do I listen, learn, and remember - becoming light by becoming light.
Psilocybin Mushrooms are not a drug, but rather a much needed medicine for a calloused soul. But there is a catch; Psilocybin Mushrooms are only a catalyst for transformation if you have a willingness to transform, to grow. If realization is not accompanied by application, then what remains is simply hallucination.
