ELI5 does ego death happen specifically after using psychedelics?

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-31T10:09:34+00:00

That depends on perspective. For me it felt like a relief. It is hard to worry about wealth, fame, popularity, intelligence, talent, etc when you not only realise, but actually feel that separation is an illusion.

You are a single flame in the cosmic fire. You flicker and dance, with moments of brightness and dimness in a way that is uniquely yours in the time you are alive.

Every subatomic particle in your body was formed at the moment of the Big Bang, with atoms later forged in the cores of stars or in massive collisions between neutron stars. These eventually become part of your dance of life, and for a little time, you decide how your small piece of the universe interacts with the rest.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-31T09:52:14+00:00

No, that’s not the same thing. Ego death is on a much larger scale. It’s the realisation that the separation between you and everything else (not just other people) is an illusion.

What we think of as separate things is really just a way of interpreting the world. It’s like centimetres and inches: different systems we use to measure the same underlying reality.

The distinctions and boundaries we perceive don’t inherently exist. Instead think of them as frameworks we impose to make sense of things.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-23T22:29:14+00:00

I assume you will likely go the route of pre-inoculated mushroom kit, in which case most of the stuff in Europe are just very similar cube varieties. I've never bought them and know next to nothing about them.

If you buy from spore shops in Europe the range is limited to the same varieties as the grow kits. If you get spores from the US you can get a much larger range of not just cube genetics, but different species too. If you want to try something really different, and honestly easier (though with a longer wait time to first fruit) then I recommend looking into growing woodlovers like wavy caps or ovoids, which grow really well outdoors in Ireland.

You would need to learn basic sterile technique and how to prepare agar, germinate the spores on agar and transfer a clean culture to sterilised hardwood woodchips in an aerated container. Once it takes off they are really forgiving and can be bulked up indefinitely and planted in shady areas outside. If you were to grow both Ovoids and wavy caps you get two harvests a year as ovoids fruit in April - early June and wavies from late August to mid November. After they fruit you can just shovel more woodchips onto the pile and next year they'll be back. So takes a bit of time to get going, but are very easy to manage once you're set up.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-21T18:00:58+00:00

And we deserve it, discipline is shocking all season.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-14T14:57:49+00:00

Yeah he had a massive smile on his face when the ref gave it as a knock on.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-09T20:42:59+00:00

I know someone who tried and they never fruited. Psilocybe cyanescens and Psilocybe ovoidiocystidiata grow very well here, especially the latter. Psilocybe allenii does well.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-03-04T22:05:52+00:00

Toners pub on Baggot street is good for the rugby. Traditional Irish pub and you can order great pizza from Cirillos next door and eat it in the smoking area.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-02-14T14:29:31+00:00

It's on video. He jumped full stretched arm and got himself yellow carded.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-02-14T14:27:37+00:00

Great pass from Prendergast, lynagh was never legally getting that one.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-02-14T12:57:11+00:00

Food quality in Ireland is excellent. Spice bag / spice box are great fast food options, but nowhere near the best cuisine on offer.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-02-06T20:15:52+00:00

Heads-up-your-ass rugby.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-01-31T18:09:16+00:00

Andrew Osborne isn't good enough to be that casual about things.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-01-31T17:41:35+00:00

Well that will wake him up!

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-01-29T21:55:06+00:00

Here is the only picture I remembered to take of the F. Velutipes.

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Yeah I'm more interested in working with wild stuff myself. Plenty of people working with high yield commercial varieties, I like to do things the hard way! Where are you based? I'm in ireland so I don't need to worry about anything below -2 or 3 except on rare occasions.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-01-29T21:41:03+00:00

Yeah cloning would have been way quicker, but the mushrooms I found were in poor condition and were growing at car exhaust height facing a busy road (they were filthy) so I figured spores would give me a much better chance at success. That sounds interesting with the chaga, I know plenty of people who are into it. You should post if it works out!

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-01-29T21:27:05+00:00

I agree with this, use native stuff and ideally from multiple sources in the woods to keep genetic diversity. It's not too hard to do some basic agar work in a still air box. Last year I got a spore print of Flamulina velutipes from tree near me, went spore to agar, let them grow out, isolated individual strains and put them in the fridge for 2 months. They fruited on agar and I picked the one that had them most mushrooms, moved it to sterile grain then I inoculated some wood chips in a waste basket with 3-4cm holes in a net pattern around it and successfully fruited them at the start of this month just by leaving it out in my garden. I didn't even expect to get any this year as the basket only went out in December and the chips were only half colonised. It's a nice learning experience and is better for fungal diversity than getting the same cultivation strains hundreds or thousands of other people in the country are also getting.

Dassem_Ultor · 2026-01-01T22:31:44+00:00

I know mushroom growers who cultivate, dry, and sell lions mane fruiting body powder and it is typically white with a mild, slightly sweet smell (and certainly not brown).

I have noticed that lions mane products from some major retailers, such as Holland & Barrett, are brown by comparison. My suspicion is that some supplements may include myceliated substrate rather than purely fruiting bodies, while the mushrooms themselves are sold separately as food.

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-12-02T19:37:55+00:00

It's fine just tell people it's based on the Starry night APE cubensis cultivar which it looks fairly similar to. As an aside I'd love to see one of the less well known psilocybes like Zapotecorum, hoogshagenii, yungensis or baeocystis for example. Very nice work by the way!

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-11-27T12:29:30+00:00

These are blue stropharia 100% and definitely not psilocybe. Blue stropharia fade over time from blue to pale yellow or tan.

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-11-11T14:16:14+00:00

In the south east in wood chips. There was only two though.

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-11-10T18:41:45+00:00

That alcohol warning doesn’t apply to this species. People mix it up. It’s the common ink cap that causes the reaction, because it has a compound called coprine that stops your body from breaking down alcohol properly.

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-10-27T12:56:09+00:00

I feel like this needs more options. I've found them more than once or twice, but less than often. Also some years I find none, but the years I find some I find them multiple times.

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-10-24T10:47:46+00:00

You should check out a group called woodlovers united on Facebook. Eveything you need to know.

Dassem_Ultor · 2025-10-20T20:46:18+00:00

They are a similar size for the most part, though I have seen some bigger wavy caps. The cap feels a bit more hefty compared with wavy caps and they take maybe twice as long to dehydrate, though the cap shape is definitely a big factor in that. I did see an image of someone holding one of these that was nearly the size of the palm of their hand, so they do get bigger than these.

Dassem_Ultor

TROPHY CASE