What I Expected From Magic Mushrooms vs. What Actually Happened

I had heard about magic mushrooms before, but what really made me curious was hearing about my friend’s experience. He told me it had changed his outlook on life and helped him find answers to questions he didn’t even realise he had. Naturally, I wondered what I would experience myself. I think part of me hoped I would have the same kind of profound experience. Maybe I would discover something about myself. Maybe I would get some answers. I went into it with a lot of expectations.

Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin, a psychoactive compound that can alter perception, mood, and consciousness. The particular mushroom I had was called Penis Envy 6, which I had been told was potent.

I prepared my space, played calming music, and made sure I had time to myself without distractions. Then I waited.

As I started feeling the effects, I kept waiting for the profound insights my friend had talked about. Instead, what I mostly experienced were visuals. The walls of my room seemed to come alive with patterns that reminded me of Aztec designs. They were intricate, geometric, and constantly moving. At some point, I also started seeing what looked like moving dragons, similar to the long, serpent-like dragons you see in Chinese art. But beyond the visuals, nothing much happened.

There were no big revelations. I didn’t suddenly understand myself better. No answers appeared. Nothing particularly spiritual happened either. Eventually, the effects wore off, but I stayed awake for hours afterwards. And if I’m being completely truthful about how I felt at the time, I was disappointed. I think I had built up the experience in my head because of what my friend had told me. I expected something profound to happen simply because it had happened to someone else.

Looking back, I think that was the biggest thing I took from it. I went in looking for answers instead of simply experiencing whatever happened.

My first experience with magic mushrooms wasn’t life-changing. I didn’t come out of it with a spiritual revelation or a completely different outlook on life. I mostly remember the strange patterns on my walls and wondering why my experience had been nothing like my friend’s. But maybe that’s okay too.

Not every experience has to turn into a breakthrough, and just because something was profound for someone else doesn’t mean it will be the same for me. Sometimes you go looking for something profound and nothing profound happens. And that’s really all there was to it.