Art by Old Sweaty
So I took some shrooms last weekend with a good friend of mine, and the trip was amazing. I took 3.5g of Golden Teachers-one of the classics and then I went out to a mysterious hiking trail in LA and found this wooded area that had a bit of privacy. Brown and gold leaves covered the ground and huge trees surrounded me. It had an ancient air about it, immersed inside a pocket of nature.
On the car ride over I started to feel the early effects: clammy hands, sweating, false nausea, and tingling throughout my body. My friend felt similar effects so I knew I wasn’t tripping (pun halfway intended). My excitement and slight nervousness only grew. The car became stuffy and we had to get out ASAP. The walk from the car was lethargic and our bags grew heavy on our backs. Luckily, we found our spot in the heart of nature.
I sat down on a blanket and the colors slowly became more vivid, brighter, and ecstatic. I put on some 432hz spiritual music which set the mood and helped ease us deeper into the trip. I lay down staring upwards at the tree branches and intricate patterns began taking shape in the branches. Simply beautiful. The spiderwebs gleamed in the sunlight.
I began crying, hot tears streaming down my cheeks. Everything was so beautiful. The purge was in full swing.
“Is this normal?” My friend asked, face red and wet with tears.
“Yeah.”
The shrooms ate away my words and my friend couldn’t speak either. We laughed accepting the energetic shift. The trees imparted endless streams of wisdom to me through the branches, reminded me of my bloodline, and reminded me that I’m loved. Mother Nature picked me up in the palm of her hand and endowed me with love and security.
At one point I got my friend’s attention and asked her if she saw this giant bird’s nest entangled in the tree.
“Whatever you see there is there.” I was annoyed by her answer, but I went with the flow. Maybe two hours later, she pointed to the tree and finally noticed the giant nest.
I cried and laughed and cried and laughed and cried and laughed. Everything was so funny, blissful, and utterly beautiful. My friend would laugh and I would do the same. It was infectious. People walked by but couldn’t quite see what was going on. I felt somewhat paranoid about the possibility of people thinking we were having a mental breakdown out there, but the trees reassured me and told me I was safe and people wouldn’t be concerned with my psychedelic endeavors.
Other things occurred underneath the trees, which the trees don’t want me to talk about here. I do remember feeling forgiven by the trees and plethora of forest spirits. They took some burdens off my shoulders and gave me some much-needed insight. I prayed to the trees almost instinctively and thanked them endlessly for their gifts.
It took some willpower to get our shit together at the end of the trip. The sun would be going down soon and who knows what types of energy would come out of the darkness. The come-down was slowly happened, but it was a trek back up the hill and back on the road. We were covered in dirt, random scratches, and looked ashy as hell. We sat down on some tree logs and it took about 20 minutes for us to snag a Lyft home.
I returned home and felt sleepy but I knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. I took a hot shower and washed the earth off of me. I cried in the shower for a hot minute and had a hard time getting out, but it was pleasant. I tried scrolling through the apps and checking emails, but I wanted nothing to do with technology or social media. I tossed my phone aside. It felt meaningless.
So I lay on the couch, listening to jazz and crying at the sheer beauty of the music. Then I ordered a pizza. I needed some food in my system. I couldn’t eat too much though.
I went into the woods dewy-eyed and excited, but came out of the womb, feeling reborn, reinvigorated, and my faith in the universe deepened. Welcome back to Literary Loud. I’m your host/conductor who goes by the name Grant Wamack and I write dope books.
If you’re in Minneapolis today, slide through to the Twin Cities Book Fair where you can scoop up a copy of Black Gypsies & God’s Leftovers. Plus, there are some amazing books by my Broken River Books brothers and sisters at the table. Shoutout to Eddy for slinging these books by his lonesome.
If you’re in the writing community on Twitter, you probably heard about the Hobart controversy. There was a controversial interview that no one seemed to care about for weeks and a bunch of editors resigned weeks later after the twitter lynch mob got angry. It’s all dumb, but E. Rathke pretty much echoes my feelings on the matter eloquently. Great essay. Read it here…
If you’re in LA, come through to Stories Books and Cafe to see me read from Black Gypsies. Everyone else on the flyer is bringing major heat as well. I’ll be selling signed copies while I’m there too.
On the writing front, I’m still making steady progress on Project Bullet Baby. I wrote the opening scenes of Project Golden Dawn, which came to me out of the blue while reflecting on rage and violence. I also managed to pump out some words on Project Melancholy, which has some fun cyberpunk elements. Can I stick to writing one genre? No, but expect more horror, more crime, horror/crime hybrids, and a little experimental cyberpunk action for your headtop.
Currently Watching: Moon Knight & Ozark Season 1 & House of the Dragon Season 1 & Atlanta Season 4
Currently Reading: Ill Behavior by M. Steven S. & God Damn Chainsaw Murderer by Sean M. Thompson & Nudes by Elle Nash & Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto & Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I swear I’m going to finish some of these books you’ve been seeing up here for months.
Currently Smoking: 3C Farms
Currently Listening to: Black Tapes Podcast & The Danny Brown Podcast
Lil Baby drops into Hot 97 with Funk Flex to drop a quick lil freestyle. He slides effortlessly over the beat, finding strange pockets and dripping with charisma. It’s cool hearing his voice unedited and I hope he does more of this in the future.
”I just put a restraining order on my left wrist…”
Riff Raff is one of those strange characters in rap lore with a shitload of talent, but not really much direction. I always felt like he’d have a bigger career if he had a manager who could keep him from snorting coke in Brazil with hookers or attempting a WWE career out of the blue. Either way, I still fuck with the Pink Panther and he shows that he’s still got the juice on “Prada Program.”
“My soul’s out the gutter, but my light shone like linoleum”
Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire is one of those guys who exudes NYC in his raps and has a larger-than-life persona. He just dropped a new album and seems to be having fun on “HUGHIE!”
Lil Boat has never been afraid to play around with vocal inflections and manages to transform his voice into a catchy ass single called “Poland.” It’s a fun cut that has been infecting social media despite only being one minute and 28 seconds long.
Until next time…unless next time is seeing me at the reading. Also, remember you can order signed copies of my books here. Go light up a blunt and a read a good book or take some shrooms to the head and commune with the trees.
This is beautiful. Thank you for writing about your trip.
So interesting! Your shroom trip sounds like it took twenty years of stress off of you! Great read, as usual!!