Peace! My name is J. bb and I’m your friendly psychonaut enthusiast. After experiencing depression beginning in my adolescent years, I began to self-medicate on marijuana in high school to address the feelings and frustrations I had at the time. During undergrad I began to experiment with other recreational drugs to varying degrees of mostly non-success. Eventually my relationship with psychedelics in the form of acid and shrooms would develop into a mutual respect as substances that could offer strong reflection on past traumas and as well as my current mindsets.
Last year with the critical additional help of almost three years of therapy, on top of careful usage of acid, mushrooms, and DMT, my nagging mania became “manageable” and the negative emotions that I carried with me for the past decade finally began to slip away. I believe it is through these eye opening and mind altering drugs that I have been able to feel free of the social norms and expectations in an unforgiving and wholly capitalist-driven world.
For Grandma Sophia’s Cookies I wanted to interview other psychedelic fans, from the fanatic admirer to the first time casual tripper. My hope is that these discussions will destigmatize the use of these drugs while showing the positive health benefits around one of my favorite topics: psychedelics. With nearly 1 in 5 Americans experiencing a mental illness issue, I believe psychedelics hold the potential to address many of the developing issues of the modern American identity. This is but one form of advocacy I will work on to address the need for the legalization of psychedelics, as well as ending the failed War on Drugs.
Below you will find the first entry in my interview column ‘Gone Trippin’’.
J. bb: Without saying your name, who are you and how do you identify?
Anon: I’m a straight white male. I’m J. bb’s friend.
J. bb: What inspired you to begin taking psychedelics? Which form?
Anon: Well actually this a true story, I’ve always liked mushrooms. I’m a big funghi guy and I had been listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast with a couple of his guests talking about psychedelics. Just reading up on the topic and why they had been banned and all that stuff. It piqued my interest because it’s different from other drugs. Cocaine makes you feel like a rock star and it’s bad for you. Same with meth[ampteines]. With marijuana I’m just not super into smoking things so I never really was attracted to that or what it does to you, but I think it should be legal.
So I think you start with the idea that the mushrooms were something natural that could alter your state of mind, you see things a little differently so that seemed a little more up my alley. I wasn’t particularly scared of what it would do. Reading that it didn’t have many addictive qualities, I was attracted to it, because with other drugs, I can see why people would get addicted to cocaine. Like that’s one crazy drug. I think people get addicted to even the lifestyle of smoking marijuana or cannabis, but from what I can tell with mushrooms it seems like there were not a lot of addictive properties to it so it seemed relatively low risk to give it a shot.
And then when you hear people talk about it they say it was a very powerful experience. I figured I’d be missing out on some deep part of life by not trying it.
J.bb: Have you only done shrooms?
Anon: In terms of psychedelic drugs? Yeah.
J.bb: What has your experience with shrooms been like thus far? What usually happens when you take them?
Anon: The experience has been positive. It’s always different. I think that there’s something to it when you do it the first time. It’s such a novel experience and you’ve never done something like that before. It makes your experience particularly powerful. I remember as a kid, particularly when I would sleep at night or just going to sleep or playing in my room at night, going really deep into something, as an adult I don’t know if this is the technology [inaudible]. My room at night and really deep thoughts when I was trying to go to sleep or whatever, as an adult I would have spent those times [inaudible]. The mushroom made me go back to that type of thinking where you actually really go deep into a thought and it’s just hard to do that when you’re an adult unless you take those drugs just cause life gets in the way. Normally you think about all this bullshit, “I gotta do all this work, I gotta pay this bill” and then the mushrooms are like, “well let’s just think about other stuff right now.”
J. bb: They definitely give you that Alice and Wonderland childlike wonder.
Anon: Yeah, I would say that is historically true. The first time I took them I thought a lot about life and death and all that stuff. That was particularly powerful and relaxing and comforting. I was not nearly as concerned about mortality as I was before. But each time has different insights that have caused me to change my view or my perspective. I know one that was really powerful for me was the thought about the word urgency. It came up and it helped to sort out my priorities about what is actually urgent. It’s very easy for someone who is relatively Type A to think, “oh I gotta do all this stuff right now” and having a little bit better sense of what is urgent I think has made me a better person, reader, whatever you want to call it.
J. bb: When do you think American society became so obsessed with urgency?
Anon: I don’t know if it’s American society. I need to think about that. It’s really an attitude especially within people our age where working is like a test of will and I think it’s so fucking stupid. I can’t stand it. You have to work. You have to do stuff. You have to provide value, but we see it on social media. “I’m working, I’m working”, but no one has any money or other ways to value themselves against others so they’re like, “I’m working a hundred hours a week,” therefore they’re implying they’re better than you and that’s shit. I work a lot because I have to, but I look forward to the day where I don’t have to. This whole, “I’m so much better than you cause I’m spending all this time at the office or doing this bullshit,” it’s stupid.
But why is America different from Europe that way? Well, Americans are real productive. We have a real culture of industry and creativity that other countries don’t have as much. Also our laws don’t allow us to take off. Europe shuts down in the summer and culturally that’s huge. That’s become ingrained in that society. We don’t have that here.
J.bb: At what age did you first trip? How often do you trip?
Anon: My first mushroom trip was two days after I turned twenty nine and I’ve done it five or six times since. About six months.
J. bb: So fairly often. Once a month since then.
Anon: Yeah, it’s been like twice in the past week or ten days, but yeah, like once a month. It’s only because I have nothing else to do [because COVID-19] so you might as well, if you got it, give it a shot.
J. bb: So when did you get this new Amazonian batch? Is this the new stuff you’ve been doing?
Anon: Yeah, we got it maybe a week ago.
J. bb: What’s that like compared to the other stuff?
Anon: Yesterday, two days ago, it was fine. I don’t know if I didn’t take enough or what, but it was less profound than other stuff that I’ve had. Now my girlfriend who took them, she saw all kinds of stuff. For me it was a lot less visual. I was looking at myself in the mirror and I was viewing myself from all these different kinds of angles which was weird and then suddenly I had the sense I was on the other side of the mirror looking back at myself. That kinda freaked me out.
J. bb: We love a good freak out.
Anon: Yeah, I was like, “oh shit”. I went back and explored it, but it freaked me out. I thought, “oh my God, I’m on the other side of the mirror” and I’m sure there was some sort of ego and self questioning happening there that was kinda crazy.
J. bb: Have you had any major breakthroughs ever since you started taking shrooms? Any life breakthroughs?
Anon: Yeah, I’d say the urgency one was a big one for me because it made me more purposeful and less scared of death. Wondering about and having a better view of other people’s perspectives came up so like understanding that other people come from different angles. If you don’t realize that you’re going to hurt yourself. You’re not going to be successful. I also had the thought that I want everybody to try them. It is a drag that they are illegal because I think it would be best for everybody to try them at least once. It was an interesting very powerful experience and I think that for older people who are more whatever you want to call it, conversative or set in their ways or whatever you want to say, on the left and the right, they would benefit from it.
I remember having the thought that I wish all the people in Congress would eat dumplings made with shrooms. I think we’d be in a lot better of a spot if they did that.
J. bb: How old do you think someone should be when they start to take something like mushrooms?
Anon: I don’t know. For me, I felt ready when I took them at my age. I know there are some arguments that it helps with neurogenesis so it’s good for your brain to take them. It is a pretty potent thing that you’re taking so I just want to make sure that you don’t hurt yourself. I have friends who took it in high school and college. One of them went to Duke. One of them went to Dartmouth so it didn’t seem to hold them back at all.
J. bb: I think it’s a manner of environment or support systems. Understanding what you’re doing. Respecting the molecule.
Anon: Yeah, a lot of people are like mushrooms are so fun. For me it’s way more powerful than, “oh my God I could see these great colors or I can see the tree breathing.” Like it’s way more powerful. I don’t view it as a club drug.
J. bb: It’s definitely not a club drug to me, but you can take it at a club.
Anon: You for sure can. I think it’s too powerful to say, “oh we’re going to go out and trip and have fun.” No, this is an opportunity here.
J. bb: To me mushrooms are a very grounded thing, being grounded with oneself and one’s space. I don’t know if going to clubs with douchebag promoters and bottle services are the most grounded places to be.
Anon: Right. I completely agree with you. I also found that I really, aside from being with my girlfriend and my dog, it’s not something I want to sit and talk to people. I want to be all by myself thinking. I like sitting in nature and just feeling it.
J. bb: So your ideal psychedelic passtime is sitting, thinking, and relaxing in nature?
Anon: Yeah, I haven’t done it where I could look at a fire yet, but I want to try that. Being somewhere that is a lot of trees, lot of green, lot of nature around. That seems to be the best environment for it.
J. bb: Why do you think psychedelics are currently mostly illegal in the United States?
Anon: Because bullshit 1960s laws were passed cause we were scared of drugs. It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous and there was some very great psychological research happening in the 1940s and 1950s into these drugs which basically got totally altered cause they made it illegally and that’s bullshit. It should not be a controversial idea to make these things legal. If alcohol is legal, if cigarettes are legal, mushrooms should definitely be legal.
J. bb: After taking shrooms have you noticed a sense of strong euphoria and happiness even days after taking the drug?
Anon: I wouldn’t say like euphoria maybe cause I don’t have super high peaks of anything, but I do feel much more present, mindful, and comfortable with the world. I don’t feel an uncertainty about stuff. I feel a lot more comfortable that I understand things a little better.
Check out the video below for a scientific breakdown of your mind on magic mushrooms, follow me on Twitter to keep up with my home grown mushrooms experience, and stay tuned for more in the ‘Gone Trippin’’ series.
