This page is about spiritual use of magic mushrooms in several cultures.

Why may magic mushrooms cause a spiritual experience?

This is a difficult question! For now, let's look at a question I received by email and my response explaining the 'sensing of god'.

Q Hi my name is gwenth and my boyfriend is atheist. He didn't believe in God, but since im a very religious person, when we started going out he has been questioning a lot about his faith. After many late night talks and long debates about the Catholic Religion, he has finally came to a conclusion to have a "quest for God" When I asked him what he meant he told me that he wanted to take magic mushrooms along with his friend to see if it will help him find something to believe in. Is it unhealthy to take this drug when a person is under that influence? please help me. I don't want to see him get hurt in anyway. I feel that if you want to find something to believe in, find it in prayer.. not in a "magic mushroom"....

A Hi Gwenth, Psilocybin magic mushrooms are not dangerous for one's physical health. Like with other psychedelics strong spiritual experiences have been reported. My own experience confirms this. Probably 'the sensing of God' experience is caused by the following effects: (1) a strong awareness of living now and here (no past, no future, no there, just here and now) (2) a strong feeling of 'uncensored perception' (seeing the real world) (3) the shift from a state of 'survival-conciousness' (geared to fullfilling ones needs, getting things done, avoiding dangers) to a 'let-go-conciousness' (there's nothing to do besides being part of the universe). However, if a person isn't able to let go and 'float on the flow' MMs may cause severe fear and paranoia and heaven can turn into hell. Problems can be avoided by (a) taking real (illegal) psilocybin mushrooms, and no (legal) amanita muscaria (really dangerous); (b) starting with low dose (1 gram dry); (c) taking the advice from the site: http://www.magic-mushrooms.net/taking.html. Hope this helps, Dikkie