I haven’t even tried psilocybin mushrooms yet. I’m in the process of trying to grow some at my home in Denver right now. It seems to take forever.
But in the meantime, I’m doing research, reading books and watching videos of some of the luminaries in the psychedelic movement. One such person was Kilindi Iyi. He was a magnetic public speaker; a teacher of martial arts as his main profession; and a consumer of high-dose magic mushrooms as his passion.
Iyi had no interest in micro-dosing magic mushrooms or even taking regular doses. He was only interested in high-doses as a way to expand consciousness.
“We need more people not to take psilocybin for early childhood trauma, for sexual trauma, for some type of psychological problem but as a tool of exploration to explore the multi-verse,” said Iyi. “This is not just a feel good, friendly bubbles and fairies type of thing. It’s also hard work. It’s deep work. We push forward because it’s something we have to do to become something more.”
Iyi considers a high dose from 20-40 grams of dried mushrooms, which apparently is a huge amount. (As I said, I have no personal experience, yet). But it seems like most beginners take from 3-4 grams of dried mushrooms. A micro-dose, which is barely perceptible, is about 1/4 gram.
So as you can see, leaping from 4 or 5 grams to 20 grams is huge. And it sounds kind of scary.
“I don’t look at mushrooms as a medicine, but as a tool of exploration, the exploration of consciousness,” said Iyi. “It’s not easy. It’s not something that you cherish wanting to do, but you cherish what you get from it. I’m interested in putting the pedal to the metal. Pushing the envelope.”
He said it’s a solitary vocation, and there’s no grasping at the edge of the cliff.
“So when people talk about, you know, well, I was just so amazed with three grams, you know, uh, yes, three grams is amazing on psilocybin, but it is several thousand orders of magnitude away from 20 grams. It’s different. The veil has been pushed aside,” said Iyi.
He said it’s not just like putting our foot in the water. It’s like swimming out into the ocean where there is no horizon.
But he does caution that people need to move incrementally toward heroic doses. He recommends they take small does to start, then gradually take larger doses. “We need to be responsible,” he said
“And there’s nothing wrong with never doing that [heroic dose] if that’s not what you’re here to do. But for those people who have the wherewithal and the tenacity to be able to go into the higher doses, I think that is the way to go. This is what it’s about. It’s about becoming more.”
Magic mushrooms in mythology
Iyi, who unfortunately died in April 2020 from Covid, recognized mushrooms everywhere in the world’s classic mythology.
A slide deck at one of his presentations at a Breaking Convention conference showed a Tibetan mandala, and he said if the mandala was three-dimensionalized it would depict numerous mushroom shapes.
He suggested that ancient Hindus ingested magic mushrooms that grew on cow dung. And that the psychedelic experiences contributed to Hinduism’s vast and colorful pantheon of deities as well as its reverence for the cow.
He said the Egyptian god of the underworld Osiris is often depicted in the shape of a mushroom.
There’s actually a mushroom-shaped fountain in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
Image by Julia from Pixabay
But perhaps the most striking ancient mushroom depiction are the statues at Easter Island. Most people see the statues as human heads, but they can also be seen as mushrooms.
Image by Marlene Hanssen from Pixabay
