Nearly three years ago I was gifted magic mushrooms at a festival called Lightning in a Bottle . I didn't know what to expect, but I felt that this was the opportune time for something like this in my life. I had been scared of anything stronger than cannabis for most of my life, but something that grows naturally out of the ground and has been used ceremoniously for hundreds or thousands of years couldn't be that bad, could it? What's so damn magical about a mushroom? I had actually gone to the festival not knowing anyone (found an opportunity to work at one of the stages assisting with sound). One of the guys on the team gifted me about 3.5 grams of mushrooms. I consumed them all just before sunset. And within an hour I was seeing the most radiant display of ethereal energy smoke rising out of the ground, trees and into the sky. I was awestruck. It felt so cosmic and holy. I continued to feel intense levels of pure ecstasy. While walking around I stopped dead ...