Magical Mushrooms and Music

Where do we find moments of magic and ecstasy?  These fleeting moments can be found virtually everywhere . . . be it within the throes of passion, creating something, herbal medicine, a good book, a long awaited goal finally reached.     For some, it is induced through natural herbs and medicines like Ayahuasca, Peyote, and African Dream Root. For others, it is found on the mental planes, while thinking of elegant solutions to mathematical equations.  Still, others find magic in resting and doing nothing, because it is so rare that they get a moment to slow down. 

For me, I’ve always found ecstasy in music.  I thought everyone felt this, but this is not necessarily so.  There is a small percentage of people who don’t like music at all, or they are indifferent to it.  Neuroscientists suggest that people who don’t enjoy music have a different kind of wiring in the frontal cortex.  They find their deepest joy in something else.  There is even a name for people who don’t like music . . . “specific musical anhedonia”, or the inability to derive pleasure from music.  There is also “amusia” (or tone-deafness) which is the inability to synthesize music because one cannot recognize differences in tone or pitch. It is very specific and has nothing to do with the intelligence level of the person– the person may be a genius in other areas. 

I also understand it from this perspective:  there are a lot of things that others like that I don’t.  I get no real pleasure when my “home team” scores a touch down because I’ve lived  in so many different places.  But there are people who LIVE AND DIE  for their home team– it’s their whole life and I suppose they must derive great ecstasy from the game.  I’m rather one to appreciate hard earned, olympian skill, and I’m not so excited by what region they’re from. 

This is just an example.  I’ve also taken hallucinogens and had nothing happen.  My brain just didn’t respond the way everyone else’s did.  But then again, I derive tremendous ecstasy from meditation, without any enhancements.  There are some who meditate but nothing happens for them at all.  They can’t seem to reach that deep, peaceful state of surrender that I enjoy– a state of consciousness where the heart opens and a clear, universal energy is experienced.  Is that because they haven’t practiced meditation long enough or they haven’t found the right technique?  At one time I may have thought this but now I just see and appreciate that people are different.  They may reach ecstasy by being active or by being in the middle of a chaotic situation that’s intense and makes them feel alive.   People come to this earth to play different roles more varied than the colors in our rainbow.

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