Secret mushroom theory

 

Forget about septum ring theory, here comes secret (and sacred) mushroom theory. Not sure how much this video really proves, but it´s an interesting ethnographic journey across India. 

The content-creator, Dakota of Earth, believes that soma - the mysterious substance mentioned in the ancient Vedas and worshipped as divine - is really a psychedelic mushroom. Yes, it´s the same Dakota who also recorded a mini-documentary about the Aghori at Varanasi! 

Make of this expedition to various strange Hindu temples and ancient Buddhist sites whatever you wish.   

God is a toad

 

A crazy video from YouTube featuring our favorite stoner Dakota of Earth. This time around, he is high on "bufo". Can you really meet God by inbibing a secretion from a toad?! ChatGPT has some opinions... 

What is "bufo"? I´m refering to some kind of psychedelic drug. Is it a form of DMT?

Yes, "Bufo" typically refers to the psychedelic secretion of the Bufo alvarius toad, also known as the Sonoran Desert toad or Colorado River toad. The psychoactive compound in this secretion is primarily 5-MeO-DMT, which is a powerful, fast-acting psychedelic.

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🐸 What Is 5-MeO-DMT?

• 5-MeO-DMT stands for 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine.

• It is a tryptamine, like regular DMT (N,N-DMT) found in ayahuasca and certain plants.

• However, 5-MeO-DMT is chemically distinct and has very different subjective effects.

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🌬️ Effects of Bufo / 5-MeO-DMT

• Extremely rapid onset (within seconds of inhalation)

• Very short duration (usually 15–30 minutes)

• Intense dissolution of ego/self, sometimes described as “merging with the void,” “unified field,” or “pure consciousness”

• Less visionary than N,N-DMT — people often report light, energy, or white-out experiences rather than geometric patterns or entities

• Commonly described as more powerful and “ineffable” than other psychedelics

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🔬 Differences: Bufo vs. DMT (Ayahuasca or Synthetic)

Feature	Bufo (5-MeO-DMT)	DMT (N,N-DMT)
Source	Bufo alvarius toad secretion	Plants (e.g. chacruna), synthetic
Common form	Smoked or vaporized secretion	Smoked, snuffed, or orally as ayahuasca
Duration	15–30 minutes	30–60 minutes (smoked); 4–6 hrs (ayahuasca)
Visuals	Minimal to none	Often vivid, complex visuals and "entities"
Common themes	Ego death, nonduality, merging with Source	Spirit journeys, alien contact, otherworlds
Legality	5-MeO-DMT is illegal in some countries (e.g. U.S.)	N,N-DMT is also scheduled in most places

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🌍 Ethical and Environmental Concerns

• Toad harvesting is controversial. Wild Bufo alvarius populations are under pressure due to demand.

• Synthetic 5-MeO-DMT is available and chemically identical, often seen as the more sustainable choice.

• Some Indigenous groups and psychedelic communities discourage using wild toads.

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⚠️ Safety and Cautions

• Extremely potent; not recommended for beginners or unsupervised use

• Can cause overwhelming ego death, which some users find traumatic

• Should only be used with proper integration, preparation, and ideally a trained facilitator or guide

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Would you like sources, maps of where the toads live, or details on how 5-MeO-DMT affects the brain?

How does it affect the brain?

5-MeO-DMT, the active compound in “Bufo,” profoundly affects the brain by binding to specific serotonin receptors, particularly 5-HT2A and 5-HT1A — which are involved in mood, perception, and consciousness.

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🧠 How 5-MeO-DMT Affects the Brain

🔹 1. Serotonin Receptor Binding

• Primary action: strong agonism (activation) of the 5-HT2A receptor
  This is the same receptor activated by LSD, psilocybin, and N,N-DMT — it's the “psychedelic receptor.”

• Also binds to:

  • 5-HT1A — linked to mood and anxiety regulation

  • Possibly sigma-1 receptors, involved in consciousness, but this is less well understood

🔹 2. Ego Dissolution and Default Mode Network (DMN) Suppression

• The Default Mode Network is a brain network associated with:

  • Self-referential thinking

  • The sense of identity (“ego”)

  • Rumination and mental time travel (thinking about past and future)

• 5-MeO-DMT heavily disrupts or quiets the DMN, which correlates with:

  • Ego dissolution

  • Loss of self–other boundaries

  • Feelings of merging with a greater whole or consciousness

Many users report this as a total loss of subject-object duality — often described as “nondual awareness” or “the void.”

🔹 3. Rapid Onset & Short Duration

• After inhalation, the compound crosses the blood–brain barrier very rapidly

• Peak effects occur within 1–2 minutes, and the experience resolves in ~20 minutes

• Because it's so fast, the brain doesn’t have much time to “process” or contextualize the experience, which may contribute to the ineffability of the state

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🧬 Functional Brain Imaging (Early Findings)

There’s limited fMRI or EEG data on 5-MeO-DMT (compared to psilocybin or LSD), but preliminary studies and analogies suggest:

Brain Effect	Likely Result in Experience
↓ DMN coherence	Ego loss, unity consciousness
↑ Connectivity across regions	“Hyper-consciousness,” sense of oneness
↓ Activity in visual cortex	Lack of typical geometric hallucinations (unlike DMT)
↑ Activity in limbic system	Deep emotional release, catharsis

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🧠 Comparison to Psilocybin and LSD

Feature	5-MeO-DMT	Psilocybin / LSD
Ego dissolution	Very common, extreme	Common, but often gradual
Visual hallucinations	Minimal	Prominent (esp. in LSD and DMT)
Emotional release	Often intense	Varies
Duration	15–30 minutes	4–8 hours
Subjective clarity	Ineffable, white-out	Often involves visions, stories, metaphors

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⚠️ Psychological & Spiritual Considerations

• Users often describe the experience as a "death and rebirth" or “merging with the absolute”

• Can lead to profound healing, spiritual awakening, or trauma, depending on set, setting, and integration

• Not recommended for people with certain mental health conditions (e.g. psychosis risk)

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Would you like to see a brain activity diagram or studies comparing it directly to psilocybin or N,N-DMT?

Why are the effects of N,N-DMT different?

The effects of N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT differ dramatically because of chemical structure differences, receptor selectivity, and how they affect brain networks and perception. Here's a breakdown of why they produce such distinct experiences:

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🔬 1. Chemical Structure Differences

• Both are tryptamines (related to serotonin), but:

  • N,N-DMT: has a “linear” structure allowing for more interaction with sensory and visual pathways

  • 5-MeO-DMT: has a methoxy group at position 5, making it more potent at certain serotonin receptors and less visual in its effects

⚖️ Result:

• N,N-DMT: more “structured,” visual, and entity-rich

• 5-MeO-DMT: more “amorphous,” ego-dissolving, white-light/unity state

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🧠 2. Different Receptor Affinities

Receptor Type	N,N-DMT	5-MeO-DMT
5-HT2A (psychedelic)	Strong agonist	Even stronger agonist
5-HT1A (mood/calm)	Mild	Very strong
Sigma-1	Active	Possibly less active
Visual cortex targets	Stimulates	Less stimulation

⚖️ Result:

• N,N-DMT produces:

  • Vivid closed-eye visuals

  • “Entity encounters” or “machine elf” phenomena

  • Geometric, colorful, story-like journeys

• 5-MeO-DMT produces:

  • No or minimal visuals

  • Overwhelming ego dissolution

  • White light, merging with void or God

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🧠 3. Different Effects on Brain Networks

• N,N-DMT:

  • Activates visual processing centers intensely

  • Enhances cross-talk between brain regions, allowing for complex, symbolic, and narrative experiences

• 5-MeO-DMT:

  • Strongly suppresses Default Mode Network (DMN)

  • Creates complete ego disintegration

  • Less sensory input processing — more about nonduality, stillness, unity

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🎨 4. Subjective Effects: A Comparison

Feature	N,N-DMT	5-MeO-DMT (Bufo)
Visuals	Complex, colorful, fractal	Minimal or none
Entities	Common (elves, aliens, teachers)	Rare
Ego dissolution	Possible, but user often retains “observer”	Total, often overwhelming
Emotional tone	Varies (awe, terror, joy)	Often blissful, sometimes terrifying
Integration difficulty	High	Very high
Duration	~15–45 minutes (smoked)	15–30 minutes (vaporized)
Language use afterward	Users describe stories, visions	Users say it was “ineffable,” beyond language

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🌌 Summary Metaphor

Imagine N,N-DMT as being catapulted into an alien theme park full of vivid imagery and beings, where something seems to be “happening.”

Now imagine 5-MeO-DMT as being dissolved into pure white light, where there’s no self, no scene, no entities — just infinite presence or nothingness.

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Would you like a chart summarizing this visually or sources from recent neuroscience research comparing both substances?

What is datura? Is there a datura-related cult of Shiva in India?

Datura is a highly toxic and powerful psychoactive plant used historically in ritual, shamanic, and religious contexts — including some related to Shaivism (the worship of Shiva) in India.

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🌿 What is Datura?

Datura is a genus of plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), including species like:

• Datura stramonium (Jimsonweed)

• Datura inoxia

• Datura metel

🔬 Active compounds:

• Scopolamine

• Hyoscyamine

• Atropine

These are tropane alkaloids, which:

• Are anticholinergic (block acetylcholine in the nervous system)

• Can cause delirium, hallucinations, disorientation, amnesia, and strong physical effects (e.g. dry mouth, dilated pupils, elevated heart rate)

⚠️ Datura is extremely dangerous. Even small doses can lead to fatal poisoning or long-term psychosis.

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🕉️ Datura in Hinduism and the Shiva Cult

Yes, Datura has a connection to Shiva worship, particularly in Tantric and folk Shaivite traditions. Here's how:

🔹 1. Offerings to Shiva

• Datura flowers and seeds are traditionally offered to Shiva, especially during festivals like Mahashivaratri.

• The plant is associated with Shiva’s ascetic, destructive, and wild aspects.

• It’s one of the few toxic plants considered sacred in this context.

According to legend, Shiva consumed poison during the churning of the ocean (Samudra Manthan), which is symbolically linked to the offering of toxic plants like Datura.

🔹 2. Tantric and Aghori Use

• In Tantric Shaivism, particularly in Aghori and Nath sects, Datura may be used in ritual intoxication to:

  • Break conventional mental boundaries

  • Enter altered states

  • Confront death and ego

• Aghoris, who worship Shiva in his form as Bhairava, may use Datura in extreme rituals, though this is rare and highly esoteric.

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🧠 Effects in Ritual Context

Unlike classic psychedelics like psilocybin or ayahuasca, Datura produces delirium, not insight or ego dissolution. Effects include:

• Hallucinations indistinguishable from reality

• Talking to people who aren't there

• Complete amnesia afterward

• A sense of death, decay, or spiritual trial

This made it useful in initiation rites or “death-and-rebirth” experiences in some traditions — but it is extremely unpredictable and dangerous.

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📜 Summary

Aspect	Detail
Plant type	Psychoactive nightshade (toxic, deliriant)
Main compounds	Scopolamine, atropine, hyoscyamine
Hindu connection	Sacred to Shiva; used as offering
Ritual use	Rare use in Tantric and Aghori sects
Experience	Delirium, hallucinations, amnesia, spiritual crisis
Risk	High – can be fatal or cause psychosis

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Would you like more detail on Aghori rituals or the symbolism of Shiva in relation to poisonous plants?

Dog days

 

Credit: Sage Ross

“Dogs in the Wild: Meet the Family” is a 2022 BBC nature documentary. Everyone knows about the domestic dog, but here we are indeed invited to meet its “family”. I admit that the diversity of the Canidae is pretty staggering. Some live in unexpected places: the Tibetan fox in the Himalayas, the Arctic wolf at the Queen Elizabeth Islands and the diminutive fennec fox in the Sahara desert. And yes, many red foxes live in London!

Some canids are embroiled in intricate near-symbiotic relationships with other organisms. The dingoes at Fraser Island survive in part by eating eggs of sea turtles, but they inadvertently also protect hatched turtles from further predation, since no other predators dares to approach the beaches if the dingoes roam there. The Fraser Island dingo population is also considered important since these specimens are supposedly very “pure”, genetically speaking, while dingoes in other parts of Australia have interbred with domestic dogs. To stop further racial mixing, domestics have been banned from the island (sure wonder why humanity meddles into the love lives of feral canids, but there you go).

Meanwhile in South America, the wolf apple is the preferred diet of the maned wolf, a bizarre canid that looks like a fox on stilts. The maned wolf´s bad eating habits help spread the wolf apple, with some assistance from leaf-cutter ants! The canid literally shits out the seeds of the wolf apples it consumes, and the seeds are then saved from the scorching sun by ants, which takes them to shaded and moist places around their nests (the ants are interested in remaining fruit fragments attached to the seeds). There, the seeds sprout and a new wolf apple plant can wet the appetite of the maned wolf…

I don´t think “Dogs in the Wild” has any deeper purpose or meaning. The point is to show the viewer some interesting animals, and perhaps to show off the technological prowess of the BBC. But sure, I admit that “the family” was pretty wild!

Plants are people

 

"What Plants Talk About" is a National Geographic documentary, following a number of scientists in Canada and the United States as they try to prove that plants are more advanced than hitherto believed. Plants, it turns out, don´t live sedentary and solitary lives. Rather, they espouse a wide range of animal-like behaviors including foraging, making choices, communication, territoriality and kin-recognition. Or at least that´s what Dr James Cahill, a featured plant ecologist, believes. He concedes, though, that most people would consider him crazy! Or crazy and wrong...

Regardless of how you chose to interpret the activities of plants, they are fascinating. One segment of the documentary deals with the wild tobacco plant and its constant chemical warfare against the predators that would like to feast on its stem and leaves. The nicotine is actually a toxin meant to poison each and every bug that dares to attack this particular plant. However, hawkmoth caterpillars or hornworms are practically immune to nicotine, prompting the plant to take further action. By emitting a different chemical, the tobacco plant can attract big-eyed bugs, which feed on hawkmoth eggs and caterpillars. The plant can also offer "sweats" to the caterpillars through its trichomes (fine outgrowths on the stem), but the gift is deadly: the chemical marks the caterpillar for predation, as other animals can now sense its smell! Bizarrely, the hawkmoth is also the main pollinator of wild tobacco plants - that´s why the plant blooms during the night. However, the plant can somehow chose to change the shape of its flowers and the taste of their nectar, and instead bloom during daytime, attracting a very different pollinator - the hummingbird - which doesn´t threaten it later on. 

One group of scientists have tried to find out whether or not plants can recognize their kin, in this case their "siblings" (plants that have the same "mother"). It turns out that some species indeed can, something that almost shocked the research team. One such species is the searocket, which grows on sandy beaches in Canada. The plants grow more roots if they grow close to "strangers", and politely restrain root growth if they grow near "siblings". A clear example of genetic altruism among plants. (The roots identify each other chemically.)

The last segment of the docu deals with "the wood-wibe web", more formally known as mycorrhizal networks. Mycorrhiza is a form of symbiosis between trees and fungi, which mutually exchange nutrients. However, it seems that entire forests can form "networks" of "communication" and resource-sharing through this symbiosis. "Mother" trees can send nutrients to their "daughters" (saplings) through the fungal-based network.

One problem with "What Plants Talk About" is that it seems to be geared towards a popular audience steeped in New Age thinking. It´s not *that* obvious, but it shines through here and there. Thus, the Hollywood fantasy flick "Avatar" is mentioned, and the question of altruism is nature is treated as some kind of mystery, which (of course) it isn´t. The kin recognition of the searockets is standard genetic altruism, and other behaviors mentioned could be interpreted as reciprocal altruism. All described long ago in books by Richard Dawkins! 

Or am I just imagining all this? 

The never stated question underlying this entire production is whether or not plants actually have consciousness. One scientist suggests that the wild tobacco plant might have "self-awereness". Personally, I think the answers very much depends on how you define "consciousness". What does it take to be conscious? After all, nobody denies that plants or fungi are alive. But are they "conscious" in the animal sense (really human sense - nobody cares about caterpillars)? Perhaps a better question is: Do plants *need* to be conscious in an animal way in order to "forage", "communicate", and so on? We may simply be animalo-centric for assuming that "consciousness" in the standard sense is the only thing that can make shit happen on Planet Crazy...  

  

This week´s safe space

 

This week´s safe space

 

Daemonic laughter

"Since everything is but an apparition, perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one might as well burst out laughing!"

"Tibetan Yoga. Principles and Practices" is a book by Ian A Baker published in 2019. The contents surprised me, and might shock the unwary. For a long time, Tibetan Buddhism has been depicted in the West as a highly spiritual, enlightened and pacifist creed associated with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. But as notorious book-worms like yours truly tried to tell you long ago, actual Vajrayana Buddhism also includes a secret "Tantric" tradition which is essentially the exact opposite of the public messaging of high-ranking lamas. 

Reading "Tibetan Yoga", I realized that I didn't know half of it! 

Ritual sex, ingestion of bodily fluids (no, I won't specify which ones), highly potent psychedelic drugs, awakening of the kundalini through weird "yogic drops", attempts to consciously control your dreams, and Tantric dance are all part of the picture. So are exercises in which the yogi identifies with a wrathful Tantric deity, daemonically laughing at samsara and nirvana. The author even describes a cannibalistic practice in which small quantities of flesh from the corpse of a Brahmin are eaten by the aspirant! There is also a ritual in which the yogi offers his body to flesh-eating spirits, although it seems said spirits have to wait until the naturally-occuring death of the practitioner before claiming the prize... 

And all this time, I assumed Dzogchen was pretty extreme! 

The paradoxical point of Tantric practice is to use the physical body and "embodied experience" as a tool for extra-cosmical transcendence. Thus, orgasm is a "skillful mean" to experience the unity of emptiness and bliss which is the foundation of the world. Dream Yoga teaches that not just dreams, but also the reality we experience when awake, are equally illusory - and equally possible to playfully control. Kundalini or the taking of drugs are other examples of "physical" practices which point to the spiritual inner essence of existence. 

Vajrayana's view of the Divine is - unsurprisingly - difficult to conceptualize, being entirely beyond concepts. Samsara and nirvana are said to be one. Existence is at all times both a divine luminosity beyond all phenomena *and* the constantly arising phenomena themselves. Reality is a grand illusion, but when approached with the right attitude, a blissful illusion. 

Despite this, I get the impression that some kind of "duality" has creeped in even in Tibetan yoga. The goal of some practices is to eject the consciousness at the time of death to a "pure land" of some buddha, really a phenomenal paradise of some sort. There is also the difficult to understand idea of the "rainbow body", when the physical body disappears into rainbow-colored light and presumably merges with the noumenal luminosity (and not with the illusory phenomena). 

The biggest surprise in the book was that Tibetan yogis use psychotropic drugs. I rather naively assumed that was considered incompatible with meditation practices. Datura, cannabis and other plants are freely used by the Tantrikas to induce altered states of consciousness. In passing, Baker reveals what he suspects is the real identity of Vedic soma. Yes, it's the mushroom Stropharia cubensis... 

While "Tibetan Yoga" is interesting and richly Illustrated, I'm not sure if a beginner will be any wiser after reading it. Baker has a strong "scientist" tendency, trying to interpret the yogic exercises and attendant phenomena as non-supernaturally as possible. He constantly claims that the Tantric practices will make the practitioner more compassionate, healthy and happy - which somehow seems to miss the point. Interestingly, the author fears that Vajrayana faces an uncertain future in the West, ironically because the Western world has become simultaneously more egalitarian and more restrictive. The former clashes with the traditionally hierarchic structure of Tibetan Buddhism, while "politically correct" puritanism makes the antinomian character of Tantrism (such as ritual sex between teacher and student) beyond the pale. 

But then, why should this really be a problem? After all, the Left Hand Path has always been a secret minority activity... 

Only a few are called to daemonically laugh at our predicament.