∂an

What does the underside of the cap look like? Got a photo?

My first thought was: If look implies seeing with human eyes, then reality really looks like you and I see it. But to what extent is the picture of reality in our minds eye the result of a convolution of the data streams from all our senses? Does a deaf person see the world the same way a hearing person does? The phenomena of synthesia suggest probably not. And how much artistic license does our mind have over our picture of reality? The evolution of art from 2d pictographs to 3d "photo" realism suggests our brain does significant post-processing of the data stream. The appearance of reality seems to be dependent of both the sensing organ and the brain that processes it.

As others have aluded to above, our consciousness and perception of the world is evidence enough that there is not nothing. That there is something rather than nothing really is some sort of miracle: why should there be anything when nothingness is so seemingly easy to maintain? Maybe then there is both nothing (non-existence, the mother or empty plenum from which the universe emerged) and something (the dimensions of existence that grew from the primordial event). These emerging dimensions must be coupled in such a way that means their sum also results in nothing, otherwise there is the conundrum of where the seed for the somethingness came from in the first place. I think organic life is just one manifestation of a more versatile and much stranger force in the universe that abhors emptiness and seeks to fill it with a teeming multiplicity of creativity and beauty. This force is what drove the smooth nothingness to split into a set of richly textured dimensions.

Quote: Maybe life goes back forth through dimensions by way of banging Indeed my brother

I think it's pretty clear that the 4 dimensions of space and time that we experience orignated from a very small and dense "point". This can be discerned by measuring the temperature of the cosmic microwave background, the relative Doppler shift of bodies in the universe and working out how long the universe must have been expanding for for these observations to make sense. But as far as where the material for the Big Bang came from, whether or not there are other universes and why life should be a product of an expanding ball of space-time, these are wide open questions that we should all ponder!

An interesting article titled "Entheogens of Africa" in Issue 2 Volume 3 of the Dragibus magazine lists a number of plant species that are used as "cannabis substitutes" (i.e. mixed with tobacco and smoked). These species and the parts used are: Cineraria aspera (?) Cullen obtusifolia (leaves and stems) Sutherlandia frutescens (seeds and leaves) Nenax microphylla (seed) Apart from the medicinal use of Sutherlandia frutescens (Wikipedia: An infusion made from the leaves is a traditional remedy for fever, chicken pox, flu, rheumatism, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, and stomach and liver problems), there doesn't appear to be much ethnobotanical information online about these plants. Does anyone have any experience with growing or using them? Cheers, ∂an

probably for the best, smoking might negate any cancer fighting qualities. any tips on where to get seeds or a plants?

cool, that looks like the source referenced in the Dragibus article. I will have a read.

Let me go out on a tenuous limb... This amanita contains bufotonine, and the toads are using their connection to the acacia / psilocybe / amanita tryptamine over mind to find a hole with good feng shui. http://in-a-perfect-world.podomatic.com/entry/index/2011-01-03T05_48_35-08_00

Nice amanitas! Looks like that one is growing mold due to the upturned cap collecting water. Throw it back in the habitat you found it and dry the others thoroughly? Agree with the above comment about discarding the stems too; the red skin is the good part. I think fly agarics were traditionally dried over a fire, and I have heard that heat helps the conversion of ibotenic acid to muscimol. A bit of heat probably isn't a bad idea, but the sun might be good enough too.

Wow the flowering pics are epic! Pretty sure I have some cuts from these plants from many years ago.

Cane toad caves?! This just keeps getting weirder!

For me, plants communicate primarily through their visual appearance. Whether it be the contrasting green and gold of wattles, the blue glow of gum trees or the moss and lichen encrusted bark of Antarctic beech, the primary message of plants seems to be the beauty of existence and the virtue of patience.

But sun flowers will grow in climates and seasons where mushrooms will not.

Doors of perception = cleaned

Love these beautiful fungi; the purple and red colouring is so striking, and their habitat of old (melaleuca?) trees is very different from that of other actives. I hope I am lucky enough to one day see them in person! Thanks for sharing these photos.

"The difference, I would argue, lies not so much in the phenomenology of the internal psychedelic experience, but in the external container; the experience of the shaman and their icaros, and the ritual provided in the ceremonies themselves." I think a botanical community such as ours demonstrates that it is not just the ceremony that makes plant based psychedelics more rich, but the interaction and study of plants and the natural world that inevitably occurs if one does not rely on someone else to hand you the sacrament on a silver platter. Growing and preparing plant, fungi and animal based psychedelics is perhaps the best preparation for the ensuing experience. The alchemy of making synthetic compounds is perhaps also a good teacher, but ultimately reduces to cold hard science rather than the mystery of life. Really great article by James Oroc!

Just in case anyone is thinking of raiding the local citrus farm... this equates to approximately 1 microgram of bufotenine per kilogram of leaf, and less that 0.1 microgram of DMT per kilogram of leaf. This is one hundred thousand times less concentrated than in mimosa hostilis. I don't have access to read the full journal article, but I would be interested to know why they selected citrus trees and whether or not they are claiming that citrus trees have more tryptamine alkaloids than other plants. Also the hypothesis regarding biodefense against predation seems strange given the very low concentrations.

A non-fiction book that has changed my life is "The Gnostic Religion: The message of the Alien god & the beginnings of Christianity" by Hans Jonas. In early psychedelic experiences I encountered Christian imagery and teachings that led me to explore the mystical strain of Christianity in Gnosticism. This book is superbly written with many translations of passages from gnostic texts. It helped me see beyond the shallow facade of modern Christianity as projected by the roman catholic church, and into the complex,vsophisticated and transcendent spiritualities that were being developed in the early Christian world. Perhaps most importantly, it introduced to me the concept of the demiurge and the idea that the purpose of life is the sculpting of the soul.

Kudos, try as I might I can't get through more than a few pages of James Joyce without getting utterly confused

Cool find! especially in june. Yeah it looks like a blue staining panaeolus (copelandia), but the usual habitat for those in NNSW is cow dung. Blue staining is a universal feature of active (magic) psilocybes, but does also occur in other mushrooms so its not a fool proof way to Id.

the white, thick stipe with blue bruising would give me confidence it's a sub or near relative. Some other wood dwellers caps look similar but the stipe has touches of off white to brown in it, and no Bruising.

Yeah I have a (bad?) habit of when picking a mature mushroom trying to retrieve the whole specimen, which unfortunately in this case brough that little guy up to. Stamets advocates this in his psilocybin mushrooms of the world book, and since reading that many years ago the idea has stuck with me - especially when trying get a proper Id. Now that I know what to look for ill pinch instead of pulling...

Found my first ever cluster of subs today. I was about to call it a day when I was drawn towards the wood chips near this brug...

There are probably gold tops still growing somewhere but you would be lucky to find them. Subs have been found in se qld so might be worth heading into the hinterland and seeing what you find in the forests.