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Mushroom Wisdom explores the universal aspects of the psilocybin mushroom experience as it relates to spirituality. Author Martin Ball explains how mushroom use can lead the spiritual seeker to profound states of self-awareness and radical understanding of the nature of the self, reality, and the sacred. Topics include looking into the spiritual mirror to uncover an authentic sense of self, developing “witness” consciousness to overcome self-limiting concepts and judgments, and removing obstacles of ego and self-induced suffering to trigger the rich experience of “spirit flow.” The book also addresses the creation and use of ritual, sacred objects, and the importance of sound and silence. Ball distinguishes between using mushrooms in spiritual work as opposed to simply having a pleasant psychedelic experience. Not a guide to how to have “fun” with psilocybin mushrooms, Mushroom Wisdom is a serious investigation into deep spiritual nature, drawing on both a wide array of scientific disciplines and ancient shamanic practices.
Excellent guidebook for beginners, good reminder for experts
| Customer Rating:  | Mushroom Wisdom: How Shamans Cultivate Spiritual Consciousness, by Martin Ball, Ph.D., 2006
This is a simple and much needed guidebook on the how-tos of entheogenic (Psilocybe) mushroom use, and entheogen use in general, and how to navigate through the experiences. It's a great guide for beginners, as well as a strong tool for remembering some of the basics for even the most hardened psychonauts. I will certainly be referencing this book in the future for my own explorations.
Ball explains in simple language what you can expect on many levels of the mushroom experience, including how to deal with "bad trips," which are not really bad by the way, they're self reflective, and should be looked at and studied as such to help us learn and grow, something I myself have long argued. He also argues against always going after only good trips as well as the perfect set and setting, because the user will not learn near as much about him or herself if they avoid looking into the mirror of themselves or experience these substances in various environments. As Ball states in Ch. 5:
"The advice is that "trippers" should be aware of their mindset when entering into the experience. Is the person depressed, happy, overly concerned about something, having pressing issues on his or her mind? Secondly, is the setting conducive to a good experience? Is the person comfortable with the other trippers? Is the person in a safe and secure environment so as to not feel endangered or exposed?
These are certainly important considerations and one would be foolish to ignore them. However, this is really just advice for having a "good" trip and avoiding a "bad" one. It is not advice for using mushrooms as a spiritual tool." pg. 60
"On the other side is the "bad" trip. Bad trips are where seekers are fearful and fight against the flow of the mushrooms. The environment is uncomfortable; the people are wrong. Seekers feel judged and judge themselves, so they try to stop the experience, but can't. In fact, the more they fight, the worse it becomes as they are beset by demons and hellish nightmare images that they wish desperately to escape.
Ultimately, both experiences are two sides of the same coin. The "good" trip reaffirms the seeker's sense of self. The seeker is with people who don't challenge one and is in an environment that is comfortable and relaxing. All the seeker is doing is reaffirming positive illusions. Similarly, on the "bad" trip, the seeker is being confronted by negative illusions and judgments, but gives them power by fighting against them. The primary instinct is to escape, to return to safe illusions, but if the trip is bad enough, seekers don't know how to get back to the realm of safety, and they suffer." Pg. 61-62
If you know someone who's done mushrooms and had a "bad trip" and says "I'm never doing that again," this is the book to give them in order to help them understand the process(es) of what the neophyte experienced (or what the mushroom delivered). Indeed, mushrooms are a reflection of the self (mushrooms don't produce the thoughts, they're your own subconscious thoughts brought forth), and to polish the self we must look into the mirror, accept it with love and beauty, rather than loathing and disgust. And here Ball also explains much of what can be expected (as far as what can be delivered with the English language) on the heavier "full blown" experiences in which one seems to connect with everything, the divine.
Ball also covers directing the experience so as to gain the most out of it; the pros and cons, the facts of ritual, recognizing patterns, maintaining the "witness" position during your experience, or as I personally call it "the observer".
I also agree with much of the way Ball presents his case of the experience and what to expect, as well as his suggestions in dealing with issues/circumstances that may arise during the experience. As someone who has personally experienced these mushrooms countless hundreds of times, I can attest to his presentation and approach, as I had attempted a similar writing with much less success six years ago. Ball clearly understands much of the deeper meaning behind these experiences, and he's not afraid to discuss it openly.
This is not a book heavy on citations, if it has any at all, other than a suggested reading list. It is a quick read. However, although written by a doctor/Ph.D., it is clearly not written to be heavily academic. It's meant to be, in my opinion, a practical guide, and for this purpose, it delivers. And since I began reading it 3 days ago, I've already recommended it to several others, both neophytes and experienced users.
For those who want a more detailed and heavier academic work, I also recommend Antipodes of the Mind, Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience, by Professor Benny Shanon, Oxford Press, 2002. Though Shanon's book is not a guide, it is the most amazing presentation of the Ayahuasca experience ever written - and its pages have implications on mushrooms and other entheogens.
Mushroom Wisdom might also be a great book for would-be initiates into the Santo Daime, or Native American Church, etc, since it breaks things down into a practical and applicable, not overly new agey approach.
For the beginner or expert, buy it.
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Explicitly Elucidatory on the Subject!
| Customer Rating: | Praise for Martin W. Ball Ph.D. for his asserted efforts in professing his rendition of such a contentious issue! For far too long society (political and religious) has retained the capital and exclusive rights to abrogate an individual's right to such an innocuous endeavor. The irony is that a beverage that has an insurmountable and prolifically definitive negative data due to the accidental deaths, overdoses, habitual addictions, teenage consumption, criminal domestic violence, diseases, doltish behavior, etc. so forth and ever continuing, of which it is conducive finds itself ubiquitously accepted as a mere nuance of fermented passion. By my interpretation it seems that in society this substance is quite often over shadowed by the debauched science that is shoved down our throats in proliferation about other "drugs." The only thing I can do is deride at the ignorance of the masses, their only flagellation to the negative events spawned by alcohol is, "Drink responsibly." Also, not many criticize the Fed or corporations whom so boldly continue advocacy for the prescription medications that are actually killing us. Herein lies the reason, profit! For the rest of us, especially those of us who abhor alcohol, our natural entheogens-those you can walk into nature and consume without manipulation-are artificially labeled the scapegoat for society's moral declivity. Consequently, there are those of us that will not allow the spiritual substances to become merely a vestige of days gone by.
First and foremost, I respect the author's humble beginnings by his exhortation to the reader that by no means are his claims scientific or isolated to any one spiritual or religious path. For any of his book to be resonant with an individual you will have only had to experience an entheogen in the fashion that he so eloquently describes. I cannot, myself, advocate Dr. Ball's rendition of the revelations of mushrooms, simply because I have never consumed them. However, this has been the most spiritually resonant book I have ever read due to the commensurable effect marijuana has on me. For the past five years I have indeed vectored (metaphorically) individuals that for me marijuana is spiritual. Placing it into the context of the human language is a severe injustice. Our language is eons away from obtaining the evolutionary position of calibrating such profound divination and vibratory emotions. While Dr. Ball tries to ameliorate the comprehension of that convolution, he is severely limited in capability in actually describing the way it makes one feel to experience "The Witness", as he calls it. This is not due to his inadequate writing, it is due to the inadequate complexity of our language. Had I not experienced this effect with marijuana I would indeed have had to emphatically disagree with him.
There are going to be those critics of this book that will say he is trying to guild such an imprudent substance that is detrimental to our state of being. By no means is the author trying to proselytize anyone in the use of illicit substances, he merely is describing his experience with the use of mushrooms by his interpretation. I personally do not advocate the use of entheogens for any social settings or for recreational use due to those events and individuals being the ones that disenfranchises the more prudent behavior of the rest of us that actually use these for spiritual enlightenment. I have to say that from a political position the government, especially the Fed, should not be in the market of abolishing anything on a social level. If drugs (alcohol, crack, cocaine, heroin, prescriptions, etc.) are reviewed for abolition it should be exclusive to only the State in which it is an issue. Here is where we find ourselves getting trumped on the 10th Amendment once again. Not to mention, I have no problem with people drinking alcohol, or doing any other drug for that matter, as long as I can continue to experience marijuana, and, eventually, mushrooms IN MY OWN HOME without its abrogation or criminalization. Also, if an individual is prosperous, intelligent, docile, gratuitous, healthy, altruistic and over all prudent in behavior what is the predication for such a reason to obviate their right to isolate their use in their own home?
The synergy that is revealed with the affinity to the entheogens is solely by experience and may not be for everyone. For you to believe or identify with what the author speaks of you will have had to FEEL, SEE and KNOW of what he references. If you have no profound experience from your use of such items, then this is not the book for you. If there is a wonder about the elucidative and narrative information that your use of these substances has had about your morality, spirituality or life in general, then you should read this. If you have never consumed any of these substances, then do not read the book and subsequently post a review that will be disingenuous to and mitigate the profound reflection of which the author proffers.
I do recommend the book, but beware there are a several instances of grammatical errors both by human and machine; but, do not let that deter you if you are interested in the subject at hand. |
Not good writting, but fairly good info.
| Customer Rating:  | | I bought this book because I was looking for a guide on using mushrooms ceremonially. Although, he does touch on this towards the end of the book, he basically just talks about spiritual enlightenment (not that thats a bad thing). He is not the best writer, lots of errors with the grammar and confusing sentence structures. I will continue my search! |
Great book
| Customer Rating: | | Thuis was my first book over the subject. It is good, direct and clear for anyone. I will recommend it to everyone who wants to learn much more over the alternate state os conciousness with the mushrooms. |
A "how to" book on working with Plant Teachers
| Customer Rating: | | I remember a Terrance McKenna comment that went something like-- "If you want to work with psychedelics, the first place you should go is a library." Unfortunately, back in the 60's there was nothing to speak of in any library. So psychedelics exploded into the spiritual vacuum of social club Christianity, creating a backlash of fear and loathing. Bit by bit, this situation is being rectified with books like Mushroom Wisdom. This book is a must for anyone considering following the arduous spiritual path of working with Plant Allies. |
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