Thousands of years ago, Egyptian Pharaohs declared mushrooms sacred and reserved them for their own godly use. They were also called "the food of the gods" by Romans--and even today psilocybe species of mushroom are sacred to some Indians in Mexico, South America, and the North America southwest, where they are used to induce religious trances and hallucinations.

In 1962, a research project was conducted with students from the Harvard Divinity School. Known as the Marsh Chapel Good Friday Experiment and under the supervision of Professor Timothy Leary, 20 students were administered either psilocybin or the B-Vitamin niacin in a double-blind experiment to test whether the active ingredient in "Magic Mushrooms" could induce religious and mystical experiences in students predisposed to believing in these states. According to this article, "almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences."

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The second opportunity I had this past year of trying a psychedelic substance occurred when an acquaintance offered me some dried "magic mushrooms" he had grown himself. He was excited to have me try them since we'd discussed my interest in experiencing this "food of the gods".

So one warm summer evening he got a small bag of mushrooms out of the freezer and told me that they were all mine.

"What?" I exclaimed "You're not going to take them with me?"

He told me that there wasn't enough for both of us since it had been a small crop, but he said that there should be enough to give me a very interesting trip.

"Cool!" was all I could respond with, although I did feel a tiny bit of anxiety that he wouldn't be traveling with me on this trip. On the other hand, I thought, if I did have any kind of problems, he wouldn't be so into his own trip that he couldn't respond to me. So that made me feel better about soloing on my first flight.

I'd been mentally preparing for this adventure for quite awhile and have done a lot of research on psilocybin mushrooms. As for how much I should take, I learned that the amount suggested was that one should take about 30 grams of fresh or 3 grams of dried mushrooms. We had dried mushrooms, but my friend told me that he always just eats a certain number of shrooms. 9 was the number he used.

But I needed to be more scientific, so I insisted on weighing what I would be taking. At that point, he got out a mortar and pestle set and began crushing the dried mushrooms into a relatively fine powder.

When he was done, we weighed out a little more than 3 grams and saw that there was still a couple more grams left.

Terence McKenna, along with his brother, Dennis (and using aliases), literally wrote the book on growing and using psilocybin mushrooms, Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide, made this statement about how to use magic mushrooms and psychedelics in general.

The way to do these things [psychedelics] is to do them rarely so that your whole system can reassert itself and come to equilibrium...and then just slam it! I want to get to the people who've taken 3 grams of mushrooms and who've taken 150 mics of LSD and tell them that they never got close to what I'm talking about even though they had a life-transforming experience and saw things totally differently, they never got close to what I'm talking about. So you have to convince these people to take high doses and then take them frequently enough so that they don't forget what the deal is.

Of course, Terence McKenna was the greatest proselytizer of our psychedelic era; even going beyond Tim Leary, whom I consider more of an arrogant iconoclast who did more damage to the Consciousness Rights Movement than anything else. Sure, he popularized psychedelics, but in doing so, he antagonized so many in the Establishment that he popularized them right out of any legal use or medical research by anyone in the world.

McKenna on the other hand, had a great deal of influence on the underground psychedelic cogniscenti: those whose exploration of their minds and consciousness with these substances would not become headline news and who for the most part were themselves part of the dominant culture. Most of these people were and are still users for whom these substances are seen as great tools for exploring their own Inner Space.

Back to my dosage, McKenna used to talk about what he called an "heroic dose" of magic mushrooms to be 5 grams and above. So I had available to me about 5 grams, but since this was to be my first use of this powerful substance, I didn't want to go for broke just yet.

So I took my 3 grams and as directed by my friend mixed it in a cup of water. He warned me that I would not like the taste, but I figured that no matter how bad this "tea" was, it would taste like ambrosia compared to Wachuma.

And in fact, it wasn't bad. My friend asked if it tasted bitter at all.

"Not a bit" I replied.

"Hmmm...", he said. "I hope it's still good. It usually tastes kinda bad."

Nevertheless, I downed the entire cup and dug the remnants of the shrooms out with the tip of my finger so that I could finish every morsel of the delicacy. Waste not, want not, I figured.

Once this was done, I went out to the patio. My friend lives somewhat isolated out in the country and has a beautiful view overlooking a pastoral landscape. He had already decided to be my conductor for this journey and had set up his stereo system outside. So with me sitting directly in front of the speakers, he began playing music he'd selected for my trip.

The first CD was an astonishing discovery for me. It was Anoushka Shankar, another talented daughter (along with singer Norah Jones) of the great Indian sitar player, Ravi Shankar. Anoushka followed in her father's footsteps in that she, too, plays the sitar. But instead of playing traditional Indian music, she has brought Indian music into a richer, fuller dimension.

The CD playing was called "Rise" and as I began my journey, I was entranced by the sounds I was hearing. For a sampling of her music, go to Anoushka Shankar's home page.

But while the music was moving and potentially transformative, the awaited effects of the mushrooms were slow in arriving. When the CD was finished, I went into the kitchen where my friend asked how I was doing.

"Not much happening yet." I told him. "In fact, I think I'll have the rest of the 5 grams."

I was determined not to have this experience turn into the "dud" that my Wachuma experience had been and so I finished all the crushed shrooms.

Back to the patio and my friend asked what I wanted to hear now.

"Do you want The Dead or Hendrix?"

This was a tough decision since both were known for being influenced by psychedelics. I'd seen Jimi a couple months before he died in 1970 when he was touring with Band of Gypsies. I saw The Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia in 1975 at a free concert in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Also on that bill was the original Jefferson Airplane. How cool was that? We'd just stumbled on that concert while visiting the park one Sunday. Since The Summer of Love and the heyday of Haight/Asbury had come and gone, when Jerry sang "Truckin'", the line "What a long, strange trip it's been." had a lot of meaning to all those old hippies in '75.

"Let's hear The Dead." I finally said. He smiled knowingly and put on one of their many CD's. I never did find out which one it was, but when Jerry began one of his amazing flights of guitar virtuosity, I finally got it. I GOT IT! Now I understood why "Deadheads" crisscrossed the country to attend Dead concerts. The only way to hear the Grateful Dead was high. To which most anyone who knows The Grateful Dead would shout a hearty and mocking, "DUH!"

By now, I was pretty high, but still had not achieved orbit in a psychedelic sense. I did feel very good and had some interesting images present themselves as I gazed into the darkness.

Later, I did hear a Hendrix CD, but it probably wasn't the best one of his to hear under those conditions. Instead of one of his free-flying psychedelic CD's like "Axis: Bold as Love", my friend put on one of his favorites, "Blues". And like the title says, it actually brought me down quite a bit listening to it.

Still, it was an enjoyable experience overall, but alas, still not a psychedelic one. So now I was 0 for 2 in the trippin' column, and I had to seriously wonder if it was something about me - something in me - that isn't allowing me to experience these things.

Certainly, in both cases, it could have had something to do with the plants themselves. As my friend had feared, maybe the mushrooms had gone bad. But I'm not so sure.

So...what about the future?

I have thought seriously about doing one of the increasingly popular Ayahuasca Tours one can find advertised all over the internet. Ayahuasca Tourism has been getting some bad press because of the "faddishness" aspect of it. Well-to-do North Americans and Europeans -or at least those with the scratch to fly to the Amazon and spend a few thousand bucks and a week or so becoming indigenous and drinking the Sacred Brew up to five times.

The argument centers on motivation. Are people risking malaria and other tropical pests and diseases to participate in an ancient shamanic ritual or simply to have another experience they can add to their spiritual scalp belt? This article from Daniel Pinchbeck's Reality Sandwich website called "Will the Real Ayahuasca Tourists Please Stand Up?" looks at this debate.

To be quite honest, I probably lean toward the latter reason, although my own scalp belt is sadly barren of any trophies of my psychedelic experiences.

The thing holding me back isn't the psychological torments and inner demons I might face, but rather the fear of wasting a few thousand dollars for an experience that might fail as badly as my two other psychedelic experiences. Although I have always wanted to visit the Amazon. So I guess any trip to that exotic region wouldn't be a waste.

The other reason I hesitate is for the reasons Adam Elenbaas felt he should drink the healing medicine; i.e., because as he states, "I remember the first night I ever tried a psychedelic. At the time I was addicted to morphine and methadone, was a habitual drinker and was living a sexually promiscuous lifestyle. "

Well none of these things apply to me. Neither do I suffer from any deeply hidden psychological traumas, unless they are so deeply hidden that I can't even recognize their artifacts in my personality. I'm far from perfect, but throughout this spiritual journey I've felt that perhaps I am too normal - too undisturbed. And until and if I am ever confronted with something I simply can't envision, this is my thinking right now.

But should that disqualify me from trying to access those other dimensions of reality that are the special domain of psychedelics? I think not. In fact, I believe that as a seeker of knowledge, it is imperative to try to find it in whatever direction or by whatever means it might lie.

These are brave words as I sit in a comfortable chair in my living room with 14 degree weather outside. But when I am sitting and sweating in an Amazonian jungle hut with a wildly painted shaman singing icaros and dancing around me right after I've drunk the magical brew of the Banisteriopsis spp. vine and the leaves of the Psychotria bush, will I still be the brave soul I pretend to be right now?

I know one thing. I owe it to my consciousness to explore these dimensions. I feel guided to do it and if and when I do, I'll report on that experience here as well.