The Mushroom, the Frog, and the Rainbow of Desire: A Participatory-Psychedelic Spiritual Emergence

Authors

Gregg Lahood, The Centre of Relational Inquiry, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia

DOI

https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2019.38.2.182

Abstract

This article will explore a spiritual emergency through a myth or fairy tale that emerged at the same time I had a frightening brush with death. Two days before the accident I had ingested psilocybin mushrooms. Michael Washburn, among other transpersonal theorists, will be used to interpret, amplify and re-frame this potential ‘psychotic episode’ with ‘borderline features’ into something more, perhaps, on the threshold of a shamanic initiation in a liminal state. The mythic sequence in my story anticipates the death-rebirth (perinatal pattern) and evolution of consciousness in the LSD research of Stanislav Grof; an evolution given epic participatory elucidation by Richard Tarnas; and an evolution consummated in the erotic desire for nature found in the panpsychism of Freya Mathews.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Lahood, G. (2019). The mushroom, the frog, and the rainbow of desire: A participatory-psychedelic spiritual emergence. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 38 (2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2019.38.2.182