Paul Stamets Update (Patreon)

First I want to send a special shout out to all Patrons - you guys are the best!  Thank you!  I am actively working on 3 separate video projects right now, including a highly simplified mushroom grow vid using a kit (I'm kind of excited about this since its my first semi-"sponsored" vid, the grow kit was sent to me by possibly the biggest mushroom kit retailer in the US, they have great feedback, and they wanted me to do some voiceovers for them and review their kit).  

Onward...      I'm not a super big fan of Joe Rogan, but every now and then he has some pretty interesting guests.  I'll be honest, the last time Paul Stamets was on the show, I was genuinely concerned about his mental health, but this new interview was so much different - he is sharp and articulate and full of passion, he must have just been having a bad day the last time or under the influence of something.  This latest interview is great!  I am very interested in many topics they discuss here, including saving the bees (I raise solitary pollinator bees myself). They talk about microdosing and Paul mentions a new microdosing research app that is available for iPhones (does not install on an iPad, and is not yet ready for Android).  They also discuss lion's mane mycelium for cognitive health, which reminded me that I need to start growing that species again, and I didn't know the mycelium was more powerful than the mushroom itself for cognitive benefits!  This is particularly good news because the mushroom is quite slow to develop and requires odd low temps, but the mycelium is very easy and fast to grow.  

Paul also mentioned a website he started called mushroomreferences.com which looks like an excellent resource that I will be following (A Curated List of References Relevant to Physicians, Scientists and the Intellectually Curious).

Besides all of these topics, they hit on something more profound, starting at 1:05:02 Joe launches into one of his better monologues: "People need to understand that there’s a lot of this squirreling away resources and money and things and trying to climb that corporate ladder... This is a finite life. It doesn’t last that long. It’s a trick, you get sucked into this trick and this trick is what every CEO and every head of every corporation every chief financial officer all these people that are just trying to like improve the bottom line, rake in more money, keep this company growing and keep kicking ass... it’s a trick!  You’re sucked up in a trick.  There is a natural human tendency to accumulate numbers.  For whatever reason, go back to our early days when resources were scarce, and if you get sucked into that trick one day you’re going to wake up.  And that’s gonna be usually too late, usually it’s on your death bed, usually it’s close to it and you’re like "What did I do? This is IT? My health is failing, my life is falling apart, and what has my life been?  It’s been 10, 12, 14 hours a day in these stuffed offices under fluorescent lights crunching numbers and trying to acquire things.  And for what? What impact have I made on humans? What is the negative impact of my ambition on the people around me?" The one thing that psilocybin in particular and just psychedelics in general can provide is a break from patterns -- a stopping, a cease-fire, of all the momentum of our culture, civilization, finances, taxes, credit card debt all that shit just, whoooosh, STOPS. And you get a chance to step back and look at the machine, watch it all whirl and spin in front of you, and you get to say "Ohhhh, I got sucked into the trick!  I’m sucked into a trick." Then Paul chimes in to say he has met many people who used psychedelics then had to ask themselves "Why did I prioritize certain things in my life when I really wanted to be spending time with my kids or out enjoying nature more?"

In certain ways, this is very much a part of my own message, as well as being in harmony with my experiences with psychedelics.  They are a strange gift, that can force you to evaluate your life and your priorities, self-examination at its finest.  In this way psychedelics hold the potential to not only change lives for the better, but maybe even change the world for the better, if used with care and with proper respect and a well designed protocol.