
Every Entrepreneur Should Try Magic Mushrooms - emreas
http://evanreas.postagon.com/7b5qu6xuc
======
gnosis
This sounds like the author took a low to moderate dose of mushrooms. It's
possible to have much more profound experiences (both positive and negative)
than what was described in this article.

I can recommend a book called _" The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience"_ for
a more comprehensive look at some of the possibilities. Also, see the trip
reports on erowid.org.

Psychedelics may be best for people who are naturally inquisitive, like seeing
things from novel perspectives and walking in other people's shoes, are
comfortable with encountering material from their subconscious, and who enjoy
questioning themselves and the world around them.

People who are very set in their ways and who think they've got the world
figured out might be in for a rude awakening when their certainty is pulled
out from under their feet. Then again, maybe that's just what some of them
need.

It's great that the author thoroughly educated himself about the effects of
the drugs he was about to try, and planned his day. The world would be much
better off if more people did that.

I was also very pleased to see that he tried to use his time constructively
while tripping. Way too many people's sole aim in taking drugs to "party" or
"get fucked up". That's a complete and utter waste of the potential of these
enormously powerful substances, and borders on abuse, IMO.

The main thing I was disappointed with was that he didn't have an experienced
and trusted trip guide or a sitter with him. That's very important, especially
for inexperienced users. Fortunately, his decision to walk around the city by
himself turned out fine. But it might not have. When tripping, you don't
always make the wisest choices. An experienced sitter can help keep you safe.

There's a really great book called _" The Secret Chief Revealed"_ about a
therapist who guided hundreds of trips for his clients. One of the more
interesting techniques that he used during his sessions was to ask his clients
to bring a stack of personally significant photographs with them (in
particular, photos of family members and loved ones). Looking at these after
the peak of the trip could be incredibly helpful. That may be something to
think about for your next trip.

~~~
dobbsbob
Larry Hagman has a good story about how LSD changed his life when he was 35
and helped him get off booze/cigarettes. His therapist recommended it too

[http://www.maps.org/news-
letters/v13n1/13125hag.html](http://www.maps.org/news-
letters/v13n1/13125hag.html)

~~~
bch
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Ps...](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Psychotherapy)

------
Guillaumeish
Yes, I totally agree.

Every person should try magic mushrooms and/or LSD. Any psychedelic drug. The
problem is that not all people can afford to do so (and I don't mean
financially afford it, I mean psychologically), not everyone is ready to
experience certain feelings.

There is a right time to do it, and most of the people (especially the grown
up ones) totally need a guide to do it. Someone who knows the stuff you're
trying and know how to guide you out of any possible bad trip happening. I'm
convinced that these "altered state of perception" should be experienced by
the highest number of people.

Take a look at: "DMT: The spirit molecule".
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4FaDMak-
TQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4FaDMak-TQ)

------
NhanH
As a young 20-ish who've never partaken in any kind of drugs. Does anyone have
a NEGATIVE story to share? Not the type of "he got addicted and ruined his
life" but "hallucinations after all are just hallucinations, and the profound
effects are fake etc."

~~~
neilk
You can read a lot of different stories about it on Erowid. Anyway a lot of
people treat mushrooms as a party drug, so I assume those people don't
consider themselves to have had profound visions.

There does seem to be a subculture of people who take the visions way too
seriously. They believe it's giving knowledge of an external reality. I think
it's a little bit like a reset button - your beliefs and thinking patterns are
disrupted, particularly the ones which you don't normally question. This may
happen consciously (as it did with the OP) but I suspect a lot of it is
unconscious.

I've done it just a handful of times. The most profound experience was
negative-positive. I didn't take proper precautions, and I have a tendency to
negative thoughts which was highly accentuated by the experience. Think terror
worse than any horror movie for several hours (although with some nice parts
too). But confronting your demons, literally, has its advantages. Actually
more than anything else it's pushed me to try to take control of those
negative thoughts.

EDIT: FYI there is no such thing as getting physically addicted to magic
mushrooms. Quite the opposite, there are regular reports of people kicking
addictions as a result.

~~~
hamsternipples
I do not consider mushrooms to be a party drug. neither do I consider weed to
be a party drug, but that's just me. historically, I have been addicted to
smoking for quite some time... but, you know, there's an interesting thing
that happened after I started to take mushrooms.

in comparison to smoking a joint, I would previously smoke before programming,
and what would sometimes happen is I would end up smoking another, and
another, and another; chasing that dragon until I felt inspired. however, if
you were to do a few g's of shrooms instead, the last thing you're gonna be
thinking is, "wow I'm gonna drop another few g's" like you'd be thinking after
smoking a joint ... I'm usually so overloaded by the mind expanding experience
I just had, that's the last thing I wanna do. I won't do them more often that
once a week, and I'm a highly addictive personality. actually, I've noticed
that I tend to not want to drink alcohol, or ... well really anything
addicting, and watched all addictive behavior reduce every time. I just want
to create. I now neither need mushrooms anymore. the changes seem to be
permanently enlightening.

I've not tried LSD (cause I can't get it here), but I know that Jobs was a
huge proponent of it. from what I can gather, the concept is similar.

I think, if you are somewhat grounded individual, I believe your experience
will be something of exaggerated connection with nature, other humans, and
your own creative ideas. perhaps it's a bit illusory, but I have never seen a
detrimental side-effect to redefining your connection with your immediate
world with that sort of illusory connection.

you cannot overdose on mushrooms. I also found I am less inclined to
simplistic forms of thoughtless hedonism, focusing a bit more on the bigger
picture. I find that creativity and novelty are forefront in my mind for at
least a few days afterwards, if not permanently.

compare that with alcohol, and I think you may rethink your next few mindless
sloshers.

@neilk, I believe that the negative-positive experiences are actually the
best. IMO, it's just soo easy to smoke a doobie or go get smashed -- yet
reality tends to come back with a vengeance afterward. however, if you're
forced to look at something like that, and you can get past it, my best
experiences have usually come about with that feeling of freedom after leaving
behind a retarded mindset.

------
whiddershins
OP is ~23 at the time and that seems like a very natural age for that
experiment.

One of the most interesting things about reading Robert Anton Wilson's more
autobiographical stuff (Cosmic Trigger? Prometheus Rising?) is that when he
talks about doing LSD for the first time with Leary and co, all these guys
were in their 30s!! I can't imagine how shocking it would be to have gotten
that far in your life, believing and committing to the perceptions you've had,
only to have them ripped apart by those megadoses (by today's standards) of
LSD.

I think that is also why they made such good use of the experiences. Having
more life experience, they might have been even more appreciative of the new
insight.

[http://www.amazon.com/Prometheus-Rising-Robert-Anton-
Wilson/...](http://www.amazon.com/Prometheus-Rising-Robert-Anton-
Wilson/dp/1561840564)

------
eip
PLAYBOY: Ever take LSD? GATES: My errant youth ended a long time ago. PLAYBOY:
What does that mean? GATES: That means there were things I did under the age
of 25 that I ended up not doing subsequently. PLAYBOY: One LSD story involved
you staring at a table and thinking the corner was going to plunge into your
eye. GATES: [Smiles] PLAYBOY: Ah, a glimmer of recognition. GATES: That was on
the other side of that boundary. The young mind can deal with certain kinds of
gooping around that I don't think at this age I could. I don't think you're as
capable of handling lack of sleep or whatever challenges you throw at your
body as you get older. However, I never missed a day of work.

\--------------------------------------------------

LSD was a big deal for Steve Jobs. How big? Evidently, Jobs believed that
experimenting with LSD in the 1960s was "one of the two or three most
important things he had done in his life." What's more, he felt that there
were parts of him that the people he knew and worked with could not
understand, simply because they hadn't had a go at psychedelics.

\------------------------------------------------------

When Kevin Herbert has a particularly intractable programming problem, or
finds himself pondering a big career decision, he deploys a powerful mind
expanding tool -- LSD-25.

"It must be changing something about the internal communication in my brain.
Whatever my inner process is that lets me solve problems, it works
differently, or maybe different parts of my brain are used, " said Herbert,
42, an early employee of Cisco Systems who says he solved his toughest
technical problems while tripping to drum solos by the Grateful Dead -- who
were among the many artists inspired by LSD.

"When I'm on LSD and hearing something that's pure rhythm, it takes me to
another world and into anther brain state where I've stopped thinking and
started knowing," said Herbert who intervened to ban drug testing of
technologists at Cisco Systems.

------
anigbrowl
_Every Entrepreneur Should Try Magic Mushrooms

The title is slightly misleading as I actually believe that every person
should... and here's my story why._

Liked your essay, but I think you should go ahead and change your title.
Psychedelics can make you a better entrepreneur, or a better artist, or
(insert role here), but in the sense that becoming a more rounded, experienced
and thoughtful _person_ will enhance your professional activities. Your
specific profession is orthogonal to your scope for personal development.

 _Nobody_ should take mushrooms with the goal of enjoying more business
success - a compartmentalized approach as implicitly (albeit unintentionally)
suggested by your title is likely to be counter-productive when the walls of
one's mental compartments start leaking. I knew a fellow who stared at a glass
of orange juice during a trip with such intensity that he felt he had become
one with it.* He got very upset when someone else picked it up and drank the
juice.

* in the sense that Van Gogh once painted a vase of sunflowers with such intensity that he became one with it. _What_ your mind chooses to focus its attention on is not a question of value.

------
mindcrime
While I have smoked weed 3 or 4 times in my life, and drink like a fish on
occasion, put me down on the list of people who have never tried psychedelics,
but have considered it many times.

This post really makes me want to go out and get some 'shrooms (or LSD) and
give it a try. I think I'm going to put that on my "do real soon now" list...
I mean, I'm getting older, so it's time to stop procrastinating and DO stuff
instead of just dreaming about it. :-(

------
idointernet
I agree 100% with this post. I did shrooms 1x in Mexico with the most amazing
weather, right on the ocean. It changed how I viewed things. It pointed out my
social anxieties in that they weren't present. I consider it one of the
turning points in my life.

~~~
cnp
My wife had something similar happen to her, a sort of before and after in
terms of social anxiety and expectations. One trip cleared that up and the
concerns have never returned.

------
salimmadjd
I went to a school with many friends who experienced with hallucinogens
regularly. But they always followed these rules:

1 - don't look at a the mirror

2 - cars are for real

3 - you can't fly

~~~
wsr
Can you please elaborate on the point "don't look at the mirror"?

What would the person see?

~~~
to3m
A gurning, jaw-grinding space cadet. Mad, staring eyes, the waxy, ashen skin
of somebody who's been awake for 18 hours, teeth and lips stained tarry black
from smoking dirty spliffs filled with cheap pipe tobacco and filthy tarry
hashish.

Not a pretty sight.

------
dbbolton
I really take issue with this title and the general attitude it stems from.

Advising everyone in a certain group of people to take any kind of drug should
be frowned upon in my opinion. The fact that we are talking about a Schedule I
substance, and the fact that author then admits he thinks _everyone_ should
try them, make this situation even worse.

I guess if you happen to get caught with them you'll have plenty of free time
(five or more years) to fine-tune your startup idea in a federal prison.

A much better title would have been "one entrepreneur's positive experience
with magic mushrooms". I'm not saying that nobody should do drugs or that
psychedelics can't benefit people, but telling everyone to use a drug because
_you_ had a good outcome with it is downright juvenile.

------
jules
So were the notes worth anything? What I always wonder about these types of
experiences is whether the drug really does give you great insights, or it
just tricks you into the feeling that you're having great insights.

~~~
gnosis
_" So were the notes worth anything?"_

You mean were the worth anything when considered from the perspective of the
ordinary state of consciousness?

Clearly in one particular altered state of consciousness they were considered
worth something.

So the question becomes which state of consciousness trumps which other state
of consciousness? Or which one gets to decide what's worthy and what's not?

Often, people who see themselves as "hard headed realists" think it's obvious
that the sober, oridinary state of consciousness is the one and only
legitimate state of consciousness, and the rest are mere delusions, and not
worthy of being trusted or relied upon for important decisions and the
business of life.

On the other hand, there are people who think that while in an altered state
of consciousness, they can see through the bullshit of consensus reality and
the ordinary state of consciousness. To them, it is the ordinary state of
consciousness that is deluded, or even pathological or psychotic.

Which one is right? And how are the products of and insights from these
various states of consciousness to be judged? Can an insight gained in state
of consciousness X be legitimately evaluated in state of consciousness Y? Do
such evaluations even make sense?

I'm not sure there are any easy answers to these questions.

~~~
jules
This kind of philosophy just muddies the waters. This article is recommending
using drugs for entrepreneurs. Most human beings spend >99% of the time in
their normal state of consciousness rather than a mushroom state of
consciousness. So from a practical perspective, the question whether the
insights actually produced something tangible in the real world is perfectly
legitimate. At least to me, the (obvious) question of whether perhaps in some
altered state of consciousness we would evaluate the results of the high
differently is quite theoretical and uninteresting, since I do not want to
spend my life on a high.

A couple of years ago I went a few days without sleeping, and I had
hallucinations and I felt like my mind was ultra-sharp. Just like the author
of this article with his 9 mile walk, certain things had happened that I had
no memory of. Later when I'd gotten some sleep, it turned out that the sleep
deprived state of mind wasn't so sharp after all, it was just an illusion.
This is why I'm always a bit skeptical of these kind of claims.

~~~
anigbrowl
If you put on a pair of polarizing sunglasses, things look different, and
you'll notice things that you might not notice otherwise. Some thinngs are
just artifacts of teh polarization, other things are actual characteristics of
what you're looking at that were always there but weren't as easy to see.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_filter_(photography)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_filter_\(photography\))

It's not so much a question of being sharp or not - whether from lack of sleep
or drugs, if you're tripping you may feel great but your actual performance on
any objective measurement is probably going to be well below optimal. I mean,
take a look at this art: [http://flyeschool.com/content/repetition-rhythm-and-
pattern](http://flyeschool.com/content/repetition-rhythm-and-pattern) Very
little of this addresses reality, but that doesn't mean it's not interesting.

------
jotm
Heh, I also say everyone should be allowed to take amphetamines (i.e. make
them completely legal). But that ain't gonna happen when the idiots at the FDA
label even Piracetam as a schedule drug.

------
stickhandle
I'm prone to absolute fits of laughter as opposed to anything resembling
focus. Might have something to do with quantity. Or what happened before (pot)
or after (lots of beer -- mushrooms made me very thirsty). Anyway ... not the
same experience, but fun nonetheless. The key is a happy environ. One tip --
instead of tea, eat them with chocolate ice cream.

------
dobbsbob
You can get really sick from shrooms if you're allergic/take too much or the
person you bought them off doesn't know what they're doing and is selling you
bunk/poison shrooms. Small amount of LSD will acheive the same thing, plus no
sickness :P

~~~
cnp
LSD and Mushrooms are completely different things. Mushrooms are more magical,
mysterious, forbidden and strange where LSD is more focused and terrestrial,
and less insightful comparatively speaking. It also tends to really wear your
mind out where with Mushrooms you feel absolutely fantastic immediately after,
and for days following that.

~~~
dobbsbob
I found LSD more of a mind blowing experience, same with DMT. I did shrooms
about 10x in highschool then once in University but felt like puking
everytime. Maybe it's just me

~~~
cnp
I think they become more profound with age. I remember some highschool trips
that were basically just very goofy exercises and not much more. Now, later,
every trip seems to be utterly mindblowing.

------
ChrisNorstrom
DO NOT WALK AROUND OUTSIDE while on LSD! That's dangerous and disrespectful to
everyone else.

I don't know if there's a Acid uprising in St. Louis but there have been an
increase in incidences of young men tripping while out in public. One of them
scared the hell out of my mom, then stripped naked and ran around yelling "I
love LSD" while the police ran after him. The other almost got hit as he
walked in and out of traffic. I get they want to experiment but the
combination of being a male (doing risky stupid shit) and being young
(thinking you're invincible) can have deadly consequences.

Please trip at home. Edit: OR at your friend's house who lives on a nice open
flat farm.

~~~
kephra
I guess you never took mushrooms yourself.

Nearly everybody has the urge to go outside, to walk miles, and to fresh air
on a trip. So my advise, take a trip where its save to go outside. Do not take
a trip in a big city, but somewhere in nature.

------
dully
Now if I could just find some..

~~~
mbrameld
If you're in the US the spores are legal to buy and possess. There are
websites that sell them. Google will lead you to lots of information on how to
grow them. It doesn't look too hard.

------
prakster
Do your two friends agree with you 100%?

~~~
emreas
Yes, I do it every four months or so now and usually try to bring new people
with me. Every single one has said it has been life-changing. I make sure the
surroundings are perfect and somebody is in the right mindset before doing it
with them which is critical.

------
Aloisius
Before people run out and do this, anyone know of any negative side effects?

I'm a bit prone to anxiety and my only experience with a drug everyone said
was harmless (prescription pot) was terrifying.

~~~
dmgbrn
In a subset of people pot induces paranoia, negative feelings, and anxiety
rather than the usual good stuff.

As a member of this subset, and I don't touch the stuff.

My experiences with mushrooms (and a host of other drugs) have, however, been
largely positive.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

~~~
cnp
Same here. Even the tiniest of hits puts me in panic attack mode, but other
things sit wonderfully with me. The last time I smoked, years ago, I was _that
guy_ and totally had to be knocked out with tranquilizers. Very bad
experience, but so it goes.

------
hamsternipples
if you have done mushrooms (or are considering it), and are a programmer, I
really highly recommend this video by terence mckenna. it's called "Shamans
among the machines." :D

he explores the next big step of evolution for humanity will probably be
coming from, "programmers on shrooms" :D

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6P6Nq8JoY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6P6Nq8JoY)

------
danbmil99
TL; DR: I took 'shrooms and listened to Enya

------
kephra
I've collected Spitzkeglige Kahlköpfe (Psilocybe semilanceata) for several
years, and send more then 100 people on a trip. So some advise from an old
hippy, in random order:

Its easy to confuse Psilocybe semilanceata with Düngerling (Panaeolus
papilionaceus), that is growing on same meadows, but at different times. Its
less dangerous to collect magic mushrooms, then to collect mushrooms for food,
because most mushrooms mimic a poisonous one. If you collect magic mushrooms
and pick the wrong one, then you don't have a trip, but if you collect
mushrooms for food, and pick the wrong one you become ill, and might even die.
But still, always collect them with someone who knows them well, because else
you might pick non magic light poison mushrooms first, think you need high
dose to feel something, and next time you take a much to high dose, if you got
the right ones.

Do not eat them when tired in the evening, but better at the morning before
eating anything else. Do not drink or take other drugs same time. I prefer to
put them into a yogurt or quark. Drink a tea afterwards, wait 10 minutes after
eating them, and then eat as much as you can, because you need the power, and
likely are not able to eat anything while on trip.

Always take them in a small group of friends you really trust, and one of the
group should stay sober, just for the case one goes crazy. Agree beforehand
that you care for each other, and that you do not send anybody into a
hospital, because insane asylums makes everything worse. They will put people
on hard drugs, so those people become asylum addicted. Be prepared that
someone might need help after a trip. Those who went crazy will become sane
within a week, if you care for them at a good place, e.g. a cottage in the
rural, but they might become asylum addicted for decades, if they can get no
other help then those who exploit them for health insurance money.

Be prepared to go outside. Walking miles is very common on a mushroom trip.
The one who is sober must ensure that the group stays together and nobody gets
lost. Being alone on a trip is a very bad setting. Do not walk through the
city, but through nature, and avoid places where big crowds of people are,
e.g. dance clubs or festivals. The sober guy is also the mule for water, and
should ensure that everybody is drinking enough.

Mushrooms do not cause addiction, but they are an anti-drug. Everybody I know
who collected mushrooms in my age stopped it at some time, including me. But
never try to blow up your trip forever. Never add more mushrooms to am
existing trip, neither because of impatience nor because you want to continue
the "fun". The only cases I know of people who got locked in (drug induced
psychosis) on a trip are those who eat several times within a few days, and
those who went to an insane asylum, where the trip is treated with other even
more dangerous drugs.

The main trip will be 4-6 hours, followed by an activity phase of an other 6-8
hours, followed by a vibrant phase of several days, where memories of the trip
come up very vivid, and feelings are very different. The complete trip takes a
week most often. So never take them more then once a month. And never more
then 3 times a year. Mushrooms are not a party drug, they are a sharp tool to
reshape your mind. Be prepared that memories of your trip will burn deep into
your mind. A trip is a lesson you will never forget. So do not take them, if
you have bad feelings, in a bad group, in a bad set or setting.

Magic mushrooms are called magic for a good reason. You might encounter things
that can not be explained by science. Those magic comes often together with a
horror trip. e.g. my worst horror trip was when I was walking through a part
of the city where lots of drug and drunk people party, and a few of them had
green faces. Each of them stuck me with a horror. And the horror became even
worse over the next half year, as each of them died on an overdose of heroin.

~~~
MWil
What is a quark?

~~~
kephra
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28cheese%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28cheese%29)

------
MWil
If you are the author: ctrl + F for "I put up a serious of large whiteboards"

~~~
dllthomas
Maybe "serious" should be the collective noun for large whiteboards. A
murmuraton of starlings, a richness of martins, a wunch of bankers, a serious
of large whiteboards...

------
parasight
Mushrooms can cause bad trips. Keep that in mind. It might not be as frequent
as with other substances, but it is possible. I know people who had bad trips
from mushrooms. So be careful. A really bad trip can be nightmare.

~~~
gnosis
"That which does not kill me makes me stronger."

It's possible to learn quite a lot from bad trips. Some would argue that
they're more valuable than good trips, where you may not learn much at all.
Bad trips can involve facing unpleasant but important aspects of yourself,
your life, that of your friends or family, or the world around you. Try to
learn from them and use the insight you get from them to grow and improve your
life.

That said, I personally think that strong psychedelics are best used under the
guidance of a good therapist, who can help you deal with the very powerful and
sometimes unpleasant experiences that many people have trouble assimilating on
their own.

Unfortunately, psychedelics are currently taboo and illegal in much of the
world, and most therapists either don't want anything to do with them or are
ignorant of their incredible therapeutic potential. However, there are still
some theraphists out there who are knowedgeable and willing to work with these
substances and with the right clients. It may take some work to find them, but
could be very worthwhile to do so, if you are serious about self-discovery and
constructive use of these substances.

------
sbarre
Someone just watched a Bill Hicks documentary..

------
northwest
I regret there's no call-to-action at the bottom of your post:

Buy here :-)

------
rogerthis
Stay away from my kids, guys.

------
kumarski
whoa.....this one had me reading a few times.

------
gazrogers
Stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork can change how you view the world
too. Maybe we should recommend that everyone does that?

~~~
kintamanimatt
What an asinine comment.

~~~
rogerthis
Another one.

