holymountain

this is fantastic! great job myco you've created a clear and easy to follow start to finish guide. no more excuses, everyone should have one of these in their garden now!

ha me too. haven't been on the forums much at all for the past 12 months. EGA got me all inspired again though. good to be back and have everyone back too!

agreed. it was a fantastic weekend. beautiful and very inspiring. so much knowledge being shared, amongst other things. big hello and thank you to everyone i met, or ran into again. very grateful that there is such an awesome community to work with here in Australia!

hey nabraxas... that is truly devastating news. my thoughts are with you, i'm touched that you would share such personal information with us all. may you find the light in all of this.

damn. i've been after the first edition of 'invisible landscape' for some time. if only i could justify spending that much...

G'day Russian There is a group called Evolver Spore that meet up in Sydney frequently to discuss topics related to sprituality, entheogens, the environment etc. I'm sure if you attended you could meet a lot of like minded people. http://www.facebook.com/groups/403679825189/ There is a bookshop called Adyar in the city which often has talks and speakers or screens films as well. If you attended I'm sure you could meet some more people. Their website is: http://www.adyar.com.au There is a lot going on but it's always easier to find out if you can attend meetings or gatherings and meet people for yourself who will keep you in the loop. All the best!

here are a few drawings i've done over the last year or so that i thought i might share....might add new ones every couple of weeks if people are digging it... also i'd love to know....anyone else seen similar things?

keep an eye out guys. things ain't over yet in the sydney region.

anyone know if the wood loving mycellium will grow on Coco-coir? i know it works with cubes and the like but would be interested to know if the wood loving species liked it too.

should be really simple. just do the boiling water on the seeds, 24 hours later sew them into a light soil mix. things like coco-coir and vermiculite are great for this. leave under some shade outside, don't let them get blasted by the sun and check daily to ensure that the soil mixture is nice and damp, not soaking, but still has lots of moisture. that should do the trick. now that it's warming up and we are moving into spring, you should be fine. seriously, the more complicated you make it the harder it will be for them to handle it when you plant them outside in the soil. start them off tough and they'll stay tough. best of luck, they are beautiful trees to grow!

those of you in NSW/coastal areas might be interested to know that we are getting what could be the last flushes of the season at the moment. keep your eyes peeled.

saw dust is awesome for starting off or boosting a patch. but as you said, the myc rips through it quickly so you'd have to top it up with woodchips at some point. a mix of sawdust and bigger woodchips would be the way to go....oh yeah....

Tipz, your last post sounds like you are one the right track. New mulch should be added each season in any case, to give the mycellium something new to feed on for the rest of the year. I can't talk enough about the importance of creating new patches from old ones. A handful of mycellium is enough to create a whole new patch somewhere nearby (obviously, if you take a chunk of mycellium from a patch it's wise to cover it over with mulch to protect it from drying out). Obviously the more spores you have out there, the more likely you'll be to get new fruit and growth. Heres a helpful hint: I've got a great jacket that I wear a lot in winter....great big pockets in the sides perfect for discretely filling up with any finds I have. The best thing is though, after a couple of weeks of picking I've got a couple of inches of spore/mushroom dust sitting in the pockets. Now, whenever I walk past an area that looks like it has potential I just dip my hand in and sprinkle a few pinches of magic dust over the area. Makes me feel like I'm a wizard.

the words of the law are literally spells cast by the powers that be to work their magic on us. lawyers are like magicians who try to undo spells by casting their own ones, or picking through the words of a spell in order to break it. think about....when you sign a contract, you are entering into a spell of words. there is no 'reality' to it other than a carefully constructed sentences which in turn control or influence you. you sign the contract for direct debit and presto, you are obligated to pay money to a company for a set amount of time. what trickery! it does my head in. lawmakers are very crafty with their spells, thats why most of us don't even realise when we've been cursed by them and when we do try and get out of them it does our head in trying to understand the language.

there's no reason that serious spiritual exploration can't be fun too. i don't think anyone that uses psychedelics for these reasons would deny that they are fun. i don't really care what other people do with their bodies or time but if they post a negative or tough experience i'll throw my 2 cents in based on my own experiences in the hopes that it might be of some use. also mutant, sorry if you've writen this elsewhere but do you use cannabis at all with amanitas? just interested in the synergies of the two.

i'd hazard to guess that a lot of your experience has to do with the fact that you were eating pasta. i would never take mushrooms on a full stomach. eating this amount of material with pasta or anything is asking for nausea. you should be preparing your body as best you can for a journey. how can you expect to easily shift to another level of consciousness if you have a belly full of food. a full belly and astral travles do not go hand in hand. thats not to say it's not impossibe, just that it's most likely going to be uncomfortable if you are going into a trip while your guts are still trying to digest food. it's a lot to ask of your body. it is not uncommon to hear of people fasting for 24 hours or more before ingesting amanitas. these plants aren't something you can just chow down on and have with your dinner. they should be ingested as a sacrament and the experience should be taken seriously. that said, thanks for sharing, your experiences are valuable in that everyone can learn from them.

to create new patches with the mycellium gathered! i have never noticed this in my experience. if you are working indoors rot might be a problem. but all sub workings should be done outdoors, where things like rot and contamination take care of themselves. i'm all for the preservation of patches. taking big chunks of mycellium out is going to do damage to the patch. if this happens it is best to cover the hole/disturbed area with mulch/pine needles to prevent the mycellium being exposed and drying out.

if you rip myc out with the mushrooms you should snip the bottom of the stem off and place and it between sheets of damp cardboard or in a pile of woodchips. that way, the mycellium can continue to grow and new patches can be created. if everyone thats 'rips' a mushroom out of the ground made use of the mycellium and created a new patch, there would be thousands and thousands of new patches every year. imagine that... i see it as YOUR PART OF THE DEAL. the mushroom appears and allows you to pick it, to remove it from the earth and partake of it's flesh for your benefit. in return you to are to ensure that the mushroom spreads as far and wide as possible. creating a new patch is your way of saying thank you to nature. be polite, give thanks, grow mushrooms.

great story, thanks for sharing! just recently a friend decided to eat one fresh sub at home. it had been picked in the wild. he had previously gone on big adventures with them in the past but no longer feels the need to go 'deep' these days. anyway, he ate one tiny mushroom and sat down to work on his university assignment. within about twenty minutes he felt the urge to start a new page and type whatever came into his head. soon he had filled three pages of automatic writing. chanelled directly from the shroom. it introduced itself and then proceeded to lovingly critique his life and give very specifc advice as to what he should be doing in the next few weeks. the words kept flowing and flowing for about half an hour. at the end of it my friend had 4 pages of excellent advice and information. there were no visuals, he did not close his eyes to see if there was any action, but he did get a tremendous sense of calm and well being. my friend had done his once before about three years agp, when he first started growing cubes. he took a small dose and began typing. the cubes introduced themselves and layed out their terms of agreement for working with them. they would continue to grow for him provided he lived a good life. again the advice was very specific e.g never drink more than two alcoholic drinks, get up half an hour earlier, be good to your spouse etc, even advice on songwriting and employment was given. when my friend had problems growing future amounts he soon realise he had not been following 'the terms' e.g he was not looking after himself or staying 'on the path'. so there you go....these guys are just busting to help you out, all you have to do is take a dose that won't blow your head off, tune in and listen.

i would start now! i've heard that the mycellium does most of it's growing in the warmer months and fruits in the colder months.

absolutely! great job. small scale might even be better for most people. i have had to move so many times in the last few years that I've never gotten to see my outdoor patches fruit. small wooden boxes or even cardboard boxes can be used just make sure they are not too deep or the chips at the bottom of the box will go soggy.

good thread going on here. can i recommend a couple of things? Read as many books as you can! Some good ones that may help you to understand what you are experiencing are: Stanislav Grof- The Cosmic Game Terrence McKenna- The Archaic Revival Robert Anton Wilson- Cosmic Trigger, Prometheus Rising Daniel Pinchbeck- Breaking Open The Head Rick Strassman- DMT: The Spirit Molecule Rick Strassman- Inner Paths to Outer Space (in particular) Also, take the time to integrate your experiences before you have another one. Keep a diary and write down everything you can remember. Read over it again every few weeks and you will likely see meanings of symbolism being revealed. Also keeping a dream diary is an excellent method for understanding the nature of your mind. Drawing pictures can also help integrate your visions. Don't overdo your doses. Sometimes you can get into places where the going gets tough and without proper shamanic training it may be hard to navigate out. That said, don't be afraid! There is nothing that cannot be diffused by love. Even hardcore reptillian pirates! Remember to look after your body as well, maybe take up some form of Yoga. A healthy, strong body means a solid base for all of your astral travel. The path you have started never ceases to amaze. Don't constrict yourself with beliefs or ideas about how things are or should be. Your realisations will never stop unfolding if you choose to continue your explorations. Keep an open mind. If the spirits are calling, listen to them. If you get advice in a trip, follow it up in real life. Bring your experiences back into your every day life and use them to make a difference otherwise there is not much point. best of luck!

the patch is in a location that i visit only a couple of times a year. went back a few weeks ago and the mycellium was thick and healthy though was too early in the year to see fruits. i have someone looking after it for me so i'll find out soon if there is any luck. though i'd imagine it won't get to the needed temps until june or so.

there's a ripping good thread that some legend posted on creating an outdoor patch. it's here somewhere....just search outdoor woodlovers patch or something. though your main problem will be getting temperatures cold enough in QLD for them to fruit. for starters, you should keep the stem butts from the shrooms you pick and put them between layers of damp cardboard. the mycellium should grow onto the cardboard and you will be off to a good start.

friends can relate to the steam roller story. many people describe conveyer belts, the sense of travelling along something, going backwards and forwards. being zipped and unzipped. there seems to be a common experience of these sensations. also seemings frequent: mexican characters, the sensation that you have died and there are people standing over you laughing or saying 'you shouldna done that', blades and scissors snipping you up, lawn mowers running you over, streets of perfect houses and white picket fences. cartoon characters chasing you. it all seemed a bit trivial and just plain strange. at first friends could not see how the surreal, bizzare and seemingly 'strange for the sake of strange' experience could be of any use spiritually until he met the shepardess. she is real. you are a just plant in her garden and she nurses you. no doubt about it. smoking at the tail end of a psychedelic journey apparently brings out the best. colours instead of static. it brings out the beings. i've heard some people say they would never do it on it's own again as it's too disconnecting, they say using it at the end of a mushroom trip makes it a much more useful plant to work with.