Psilocybin and the Awakening Earth
I’m not entirely sure if Boris Johnson reads the Oracle but it may just be possible that he’s taken note of a light-hearted article that I wrote a while ago about magic mushrooms. Boris is currently reviewing the latest advice on the legalisation of psilocybin, the active ingredient found in hallucinogenic mushrooms. It has been recommended that it should be rescheduled from a Class A drug into a Class B similar to that of medical cannabis, so that it can be researched properly and prescribed for medicinal use.
Fortunately this advice comes from a much more credible source than some rambling acupuncturist from Glastonbury. Professor David Nutt, who was once the government’s very own chief drugs advisor, (until he was fired for advice the government didn’t appreciate) and Dr Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial college London have created a Centre for Psychedelic Research. For the first time in about 50 years, serious scientific investigations have been conducted on the effect psilocybin has on the brain and initial results have been extremely positive. Using brain scanning imagery Carhart-Harris has shown that psilocybin has the ability to rewire the brain. People who suffer from depression can often get caught up in a kind of neural loop, where circular negative thoughts are very difficult to break out of. When administered with a dose of psilocybin it has been shown that these neural circuits can be broken down and new neural networks formed. Early results have shown that psilocybin is at least as effective as traditional antidepressants, if not more so.
It is the very nature of mushrooms and fungi to seek connection and then to break things down. The mushroom itself is only the visible fruiting body of a potentially vast underground mycelium network. Mycologists are only just beginning to understand the interconnectedness and intricacies of these incredible organisms. In general it is the nature of science to look at things on an ever decreasing scale, separating and segregating this from that, so that things can be categorised. However the study of mycelium has turned this notion on its head. Obviously mycelium can be studied on its own, but when it is looked at as part of a whole ecosystem then its true nature becomes apparent. Recent investigations have begun to discover something that has been described as the ‘Wood Wide Web’. If you look at a forest as an entire living organism, then it is the underground mycelium that acts as the information super-highway. Scientists have discovered that trees have the ability to communicate with each other and they do so via the mycelium network. If you chop a tree down in one part of the forest then the other trees will be notified by the mycelium’s chemical and electrical messages.
If you take this idea to the next logical step and imagine that the Earth itself is one giant living organism, then the mycelium can be seen as a vast neural network, connecting, infiltrating and breaking down organisms across the planet. These mycelium are so all encompassing that 1 cubic inch of soil can contain enough to stretch over 8 miles. If we take this ‘Gaia’ theory to the next level and see the Earth as a conscious living organism, then it is not unreasonable to see this massive network as a kind of brain that permeates throughout the globe and is possibly a seat of consciousness itself.
This idea may not be so far-fetched, particularly to those who have taken psychedelic mushrooms and have experienced the transformative effect they can have on their consciousness. Indeed there is an entire school of thought known as the ‘stoned ape theory’ that suggests it was the ingesting of psychedelic mushrooms that allowed our consciousness to evolve in the first place. This hypothesis was first proposed by Terence Makenna in the 1960s, and in essence suggests that we owe the emergence of language, culture and self-reflection to an ancient and sustained consumption of psilocybin mushrooms.
We know that about 2 million years ago the brain tripled in size and it was about this time that hominids first began to follow cattle around and would have encountered the mushrooms that happily in the cattle dung. Some of these mushrooms would have been delicious, some would have been deadly and some would have allowed you to speak to God for a week! Ancient cave paintings suggest that mushrooms were held in high esteem by early humans and it is entirely possible that they had a profound effect on the evolution of human consciousness.
As psilocybin is currently having a massive resurgence across the planet, and there are at least 200 different known species worldwide, maybe Mother Earth is trying to usher in another evolutionary leap. Whatever your views on climate change it is clear that mankind is rapidly destroying the planet on which it lives. And if we take a leap of faith and assume that the Earth itself is conscious, maybe it’s possible that she is trying to communicate to us through the neural network of the mushroom. I can guarantee that if you were heavily under the influence of a psychedelic mushroom, the sense of connectedness you experience would render you completely incapable of cutting down a tree.
This may seem a bit far-out to many but the results researchers are getting with psilocybin as a medicine are also consistent with Daoist theory. Daoists believe that in essence we have two minds. The mind that we are born with, known as the ‘congenital mind’ and the mind that is formed by our interaction with the world or the ‘acquired mind’. Every experience we ever have adds layers to the acquired mind, which takes us further and further away from the congenital mind. The congenital mind is closest to the Dao, or as Jung would have called it, the collective consciousness. Therefore it is these layers of the acquired mind that causes us to experience the illusion of separation. It is this idea of separation that causes many of the problems of the World. If we were to see ourselves as truly part of Mother Earth surely we would treat her and all her life forms in a better manner. If we could see ourselves as indistinct from our fellow man, surely we would be less inclined to wage war… on ourselves.
Psilocybin has the ability to shed these layers of the acquired mind, and in some high doses has the potential to break it down entirely and to reveal our true nature of interconnectedness. This is why it is so effective in treating depression and trauma, as it breaks the ties to those experiences that were the underlying cause of these problems.
Of course, the use of psilocybin doesn’t come without any problems. People in general are very attached to their acquired minds and it can be quite unnerving to suddenly be confronted with a shattering of your identity. This may well lead to difficulties as someone seeks to try and re-establish themselves, especially into a society where such experiences are given very little value.
This is why throughout history humans have always taken psychedelics within ceremony. A ceremony held with reverence, humility and security will give the mind the necessary warning of a potential profound shift that may be coming. Time and space should also be given for the mind to readjust itself into its new configuration, for the acquired mind will always have to re-establish itself once the effects have worn off. Hopefully though when it does it will be in a better order and maybe the experience of the interconnectedness of being will stay within you.
Even though the current research is overwhelmingly positive regarding psilocybin and mental health, this is still only the tip of the hyphae. If the scientists at Imperial College are getting good results in a bland, sterile clinical setting, imagine what might be achieved around a roaring fire with Pink Floyd on in the background. Imagine what might be achieved when we understand that like the mushrooms, who seek connection in order to break things down, we are ultimately seeking to break down in order to experience connection. Not just on a physical level but at the very level of consciousness itself.