24 Jul2020

Suspend your Ego: the Mushroom’s message

Have you seen the mushrooms popping up in the woods, especially these last two weeks? They seem to come so quickly and out of nowhere, with amazing vitality and color. Such is true as we awaken on our spiritual journey. All of a sudden we can know (or remember) something we didn’t know the previous day, and it doesn’t have to come from a book or person. It can come, perhaps especially, in the quiet of our own mind.

red mushrooms The mushrooms remind us that each new day brings new understanding, if we listen and trust the guidance. I’ve come to see the wisdom as nudges or direction on the path, with an almost cryptic quality. Just enough to get me interested, my mind stumped and curious, to take the next step, and study the information that presents itself. It becomes rather exciting--crazy even--and the serendipity and amazement increase as the clues drop in.

It gets close to what I imagine are some of the qualities of a psychedelic experience with mushrooms. Mushrooms have a property called psilocybin which, when studied in psychologically healthy people, results in a decreased sense of separate self, and an increase in interconnectedness and universality. One can also experience these ego-softening effects in meditation, when falling in love, being in nature, or having an unexpected and enlightening conversation.

I suspect that in this current evolution in consciousness, we have a lot more willpower than we think to choose a softening of the Ego. This election year, and continued COVID anxiety, is the perfect challenge. Let us be inspired by the mushroom to willingly suspend our ego, our beliefs and opinions, in favor of embracing an alternate reality of our own making. As Buddha said, “Sometimes it’s better to be kind than to be right”.