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A Taste of Soma... |
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Written by (edot)
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Sunday, 21 December 2003 |
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Page 2 of 3
The reading said, “Go straight.” I got up and proceeded to march straight up the street, towards the bay. So hard did I strike the staff I carried against the sidewalk with each step I took, in order to keep from collapsing, that it snapped in contact with the street.
I took it as a bad omen, as I had carried my staff since I'd gone into my robe of rags. Finally, after about a mile of forced marching, I collapsed on the sidewalk. Coming to, I saw a well-dressed woman standing over me. She asked if I was epileptic. I said no, and she asked “What can I do?” and I said, “Call an ambulance.” I blacked out again. The next thing I knew, I was being loaded into an ambulance. I always felt as if this kind lady saved my life.
When I regained consciousness, my eyes still shut; I sensed a bright light above me. I honestly didn't know if I was in Heaven or in a hospital. Taking a breath and opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was a nurse writing on a note board. As I sat up, she exclaimed, “He's alive!”
A doctor rushed over and said, “Of course he is! I knew he'd make it. He fought it all the way.” The doctor asked how I was doing. I exclaimed, “I'm alive!”
The doctor then said to the nurse to get Dr. Such-and-Such, as this would cheer him up. Upon his arrival, they asked me again how I felt. Once again I exclaimed, “I'm alive!” They sent for another doctor, who asked me the same question, and in my weakened state, all this attention was going to my head. I overdramatically exclaimed, “I'm alive!”
“Now, just calm down,” the doctor said as he comforted me. I asked what time I had been admitted. It was nineteen and a half hours ago, and I was still convulsing. This worried me, as I saw the extreme danger of the situation. The doctor asked what I had taken and how much.
He then gave me an unforgettable piece of advice. After the other doctors and nurses had gone, he leaned over me and said confidentially, “Look, me and another doctor here sometimes take Psilocybin Cubensis before coming on duty, but we measure the dosage.” To measure the dosage was the first piece of mushroom advice I was ever given, and still the best.
Six days later I went to the field and picked the twin brother of the other one. It was neither decomposed in shape, color or body. I knew if there was a repetition of the first episode, this time I would die. I didn't have the spiritual energy or physical strength to survive two sessions this close together, but in order to learn measurement I would have to risk my life.
Only eating one half this time, the temperate measurement put me on a great trip without any complications. I then knew I had the spiritual strength and nerve to take not one, but two deadly mushrooms. One was a killer and in moderation the other was heavenly. This had been a shamanic initiation, for I had boarded the Ark.
- from Chapter 1: The Day I Nearly Died.
As brightness mingles with the moon in Heaven, the offered Soma yearns to mix with Indra.
— Rig Veda (Book 6, Hymn XXVI, Verse 4)
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