Mushrooms have a mind of their own. Their ability to quite literally infiltrate brains has spawned many a sci-fi plot, and some even hold shrooms responsible for the evolution of humankind. They span a wide variety, from classic psychedelic mushrooms like Psilocybe cubensis to medicinal mushrooms like Reishi and Cordyceps. They’ve been used in healing ceremonies for centuries to help unearth trauma and connect people with the higher realms. Here are a few quotes that encapsulate the magic of mushrooms.
“We got dizzy and started to cry. Later we felt better, and felt that the mushrooms were talking to us. We heard a voice that came from another world, a sweet voice but at the same time authoritative, like a father who loves his children. I felt that I spoke a lot and that my words were beautiful. I felt that everything around me was God. Later on I found out that the mushrooms gave wisdom, that they cure diseases… and that they had power, that they are the blood of Christ.”— María Sabina
“Mushrooms have taught me the interconnectedness of all life forms and the molecular matrix that we share. I no longer feel that I am in this envelope of a human life called Paul Stamets. I am part of the stream of molecules that are flowing through nature. I am given a voice, given consciousness for a time, but I feel that I am part of this continuum of stardust into which I am born and to which I will return at the end of this life.”— Paul Stamets
“Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand. ‘And now which is which?’ she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot!”— Lewis Carroll
READ: 10 Ways to Calm Down If You Get Too High
“On the island of Hawaii in the Central Pacific, there has long been the rumor of a bright orange mushroom with peculiar properties. Found growing only on recent lava flows approximately 600-10,000 years old, this variety of mushroom has the reputation of being a potent female aphrodisiac when smelled. … Nearly half of the female test subjects experienced spontaneous orgasms while smelling this mushroom.”— John C. Holliday and Noah Soule
“Fungi are more closely related to animals than they are actually to plants. We just have historically always taught them alongside botany. That’s why it’s actually difficult to fight fungal disease in humans.”— Andrew Miller
“You are just simply nailed to the ground and you experience the bewildering phenomenon that we call the hallucinogenic experience, which even post-Husserl, post-Merleau-Ponty, post-everything, we don’t know what to make of. It laid the basis, I think, for religion and for language.”— Terence McKenna
“In the space of psychedelic medicine, you’re still dealing with your conscious mind the majority of the time. But with the amanita, what I have noticed is that the true healing that needs to be revealed will happen within your subconscious. It takes you to a place where you are hiding even from yourself.”— Uri, Moon Priestess
“What’s really important is that you listen to the guidance that you’re getting and try to understand how to apply it to your everyday life. Your soul exists outside of space and time; it came into this space and time for a reason. It knows why you came here and what you’re supposed to do with your life. When you are doing what your soul came here to do, everything just feels easy; everything in your life lines up. It’s what people describe as synchronicity or manifesting. When you’re walking down this path, everything feels easy because it’s paved — but if you make a sharp turn to the right and start climbing up the hill through the dense jungle, things are going to feel much more difficult, and the world just isn’t going to feel right. You’re going to get poked and smacked, and it’s not going to feel pleasant.”— Dave Hodges
