Why I Love Magic Mushrooms

Author’s note: This essay was not written with the intention of encouraging anyone to use psilocybin mushrooms. Rather, I wrote this piece with the intention of merely sharing my experience. It really must be stressed that this is my experience, and that each and every individual experience will be just that: individual. While I consider psilocybin to have a positive impact on my life, you may find that the same compound has the effect opposite. Furthermore, if you are struggling with mental illness, please refrain from self-medicating and talk with a doctor.

My Journey With Magic Mushrooms

For a long while, I have wanted to talk about this. But I have been too afraid—afraid of the judgment of those who will disapprove—and afraid I might lead a reader down what could be the wrong path for them.

However, I truly believe that psychedelics are an undervalued tool for introspection and expansion. I envision a future in which psychedelic therapy is normalized and utilized. And I pray that one day it will be more commonplace to trip shrooms than it will be to risk alcohol poisoning.

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Reaching Beyond The Trivial: A Quest For Meaning In A Bullshit-Filled World

A year ago today, I released an essay titled ‘The Good Life’ Is NOT The Four-Hour Work Week. The essay preaches about how happiness—true happiness—is derived, not from fame, money or luxury, but from spending one’s time doing meaningful work. True happiness comes from cultivating a sense of Life Purpose.

The main criticism I received on the essay was that it failed to address the systemic causes of the, as Jon Vervaeke calls it, ‘meaning crisis’. My readers seemed to agree on the notion that the problem is not that us young folk cannot find our purpose because we are too busy pursuing fame, money and luxury. From their perspective, the problem lies in the forty-hour work week; for, if we are to spend at least a third of our lives working, and another third sleeping (ideally), then how are we supposed to find and realize our purpose in the limited time that is leftover?

Upon reading these criticisms, my heart sank. As a writer who currently makes bread by working in the beauty industry, this really is the fight I am up against: Because ‘time is money’, I have a limited amount of time to tell all the stories I want to tell, and a limited amount of time to communicate all the ideas I dub meaningful.

Through all my writing—from my fictional works such as The Sun and Moon Saga to essays like this one—my intention is to help the reader find meaning in an otherwise meaningless world, in a world filled with more and more bullshit each and every day. But is capitalism solely to blame for our meaning crisis?

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I Attempted To Write A Short Story Everyday For Thirty Days—And This Is What The Experience Taught Me

Saturn Versus Jupiter

In 2020, my Saturn Return began, as did my journey cultivating discipline.

For those unfamiliar with Astrology, a Saturn Return occurs when Saturn cycles back into—or ‘returns’ to—the sign it was in on the day you were born. It takes Saturn roughly twenty-nine and a half years to transition through all twelve signs of the zodiac, so most Earthlings will experience two, maybe three, Saturn Returns in their lifetime.

Now, because Saturn rules discipline, a Saturn Return is typically a time of cultivating discipline. Specifically, a first Saturn Return is a time during which one is invited to make the journey from youth to adulthood, into true adulthood.

Speaking for myself, there are many ways in which my first Saturn Return—which only ended this past Spring—shaped me. But the one particular way Saturn influenced me that applies to this essay is how Saturn taught me to take a disciplined approach to my writing…

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