Have a Good Trip
Exploring the Magic Mushroom Experience
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
From a much-loved expert and popular science writer comes this straight-from-the-trenches report on how and why folks from all walks of life are using magic mushrooms to enhance their lives.
Interest in psychedelic mushrooms has never been greater – or the science less definitive. Popular science writer and amateur mycologist Eugenia Bone reports on the state of psychedelics today, from microdosing to heroic trips, illustrating how “citizen science” and anecdotal accounts of the mushrooms’ benefits are leading the new wave of scientific inquiry into psilocybin.
With her signature blend of first-person narrative and scientific rigor, Bone breaks down just how the complicated cocktail of psychoactive compounds is thought to interact with our brain chemistry. She explains how mindset and setting can impact a trip – whether therapeutic, spiritual/mystical, or simply pleasure seeking – and vividly evokes the personalities and protocols that populate the tripping scene, from the renegade “’Noccers” of Washington who merrily disperse magic mushroom spores around Seattle, to the indigenous curanderas who conduct traditional ceremonies in remote Mexican villages.
Throughout she shares her journey through the world of mushrooms, cultivating her own stash, grappling with personal challenges, and offering the insights she gleaned from her experiences. For both seasoned trippers and the merely mushroom curious, Have a Good Trip offers a balanced, entertaining, and provocative look at this rapidly evolving cultural phenomenon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Bone (Microbia) serves up an eye-opening examination of the science and benefits of psilocybin mushrooms. She explains that after the mushrooms are ingested, stomach acid metabolizes the chemical compound psilocybin into psilocin, which travels through the bloodstream to the brain where it activates neural circuits "associated with adaptability, learning, cognition, and perception," producing the sensation of tripping. While Bone discusses formal studies when available (she notes several that found microdosing doesn't affect users' mood much more than a placebo), she often relies on anecdotal evidence, reasoning that the lived experiences of users can fill gaps in the scientific record. For instance, she describes how a young man's trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling) evaporated after he took psilocybin, and how a woman successfully used magic mushrooms to work through her grief after her daughter died by suicide. Elsewhere, Bone recounts going on a "psychedelic retreat" in Costa Rica in hopes of discovering "a new and improved me" and participating in a Mazatec "mushroom ceremony" in Mexico aimed at healing spiritual wounds. The elegant blend of scientific research, stories of individual mushroom users, and Bone's own experiences with the drug make for a study that's as eclectic as it is stimulating. This will expand readers' minds.
