(ARTICLE – inspired by attending “The Science of Magic Mushrooms”, organised by Seed Talks)
Of course I rushed – straight from work to the tube station and down to the Genesis cinema in Mile End. I ended up being early and had a good fifteen minutes to wait before the theatre’s doors even opened, but I didn’t mind: I ordered one of their Waterside or Riverside or Whatever-side martini (amongst many other things, it had curaçao in it, and I wanted a fancy blue drink) at the bar and got served just before a massive queue formed behind me. Two geezers tried to cut in front of me but I was quick and stood my ground, and they had to wait and watch as the bartender meticulously made my complicated-ass drink. He even took the time to hand-squeeze and spoon out half a fresh passion fruit in it before straining it through a tiny sieve, drop by drop. Then I found a comfortable spot on a sofa and observed the other people around me.
The lobby was packed with people waiting for the doors to open. I was half-expecting a 100% hipster, cool-kid crowd, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. The crowd was very diverse. Of course, there were a few seemingly posers: we were in East London, in Mile End, at a talk on hallucinogenics after all – the epitome of ‘cool’ by most definitions. And the talk had been mainly advertised on Instagram. So yes, I was happy to report that there were only just a handful of fedora-wearing, douchebag-looking people in attendance; the rest was a mix of adults of all ages, races, genders and walks of life, judging by the snippets of conversation I eavesdropped on.
The doors open and shortly after that, Dr. Christopher Timmermann began his talk. He works at the Psychedelics Research Institute at Imperial College, and he was as good- and hip-looking as he was intelligent. His explanations were, in my opinion, accessible to all and not just experienced trippers: as I found out during the Q&A later on, some of the attendees had never even tried mushrooms. Although it may have looked like that Dr. Timmerman’s PowerPoint slides may have been made by GSCE’s students, their content was fascinating, like the ones with photos of the 1000BC sculptures of mushroom-headed men, as well as educational. Most of what he spoke about I already knew, from my own research and experiences, but I learned a whole lot about the medical research on psilocybin that is happening currently. The Psychedelic Research Institute is getting a lot of funding at the moment too, according to Dr. Timmerman, which is fantastic to hear. Also, did you know that one psychedelic trip, just one, can increase one’s connectedness with nature and lead to pro-ecological behaviours for up to two years? And don’t even get me started on the studies that show that psilocybin works as well, if not better, than SSRI’s.
The psychedelic revolution is knocking at our doors, and it’s about time we opened them as well as our minds. Never have I believed more that our politicians could seriously use a good mushroom trip and a bit of ego-death to be at one with nature and its people again.
BASIC HUMAN WRITES 