The Mushroom Trip

  

dp : Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream? Even Edgar 

Allan Poe was kind of confused about that one. He started with a statement

and ended with a question. What is real, what is made up, what is a 

manifestation of our wants and needs and does that make it any less real?

Questioning reality could be considered the same as testing our limitations 

or the onset of a mental illness. It’s an either or situation to most and many 

times misunderstood or misinterpreted by “innocent” bystanders. There are 

set rules and regulations about these things, definitions, research and 

studies, but can they keep up with the wonder that is the mind, its infinite 

capabilities, the intricate workings of our thought and consciousness? 

Situations that don’t seem real often contradict our own set of values and 

individual morality. In such cases what is the protocol? How do we respond 

to something so foreign to us that challenges what is believed to be real? 

Do we disregard everything, labeling it as untrue or do we find the strength 

to consider a different although absurd point of view? 

 

 

People are not as accepting of what deviates from their own ideas, their 

own worldview and how things are to be. That is one of the reasons why we, 

collectively, are resistant to innovative thought and often reject new ideas 

as crazy. The actual crazy thing is though, that it is usually those ideas 

which are admitted as general truths, decades or even generations later, 

so forming the reality of the time.

It is also the stigma of going against the tide, being labeled as eccentric 

or crazy if you are to take something different at face value. You actually 

believe that? Are you crazy? The fear of rejection or exclusion from 

your peers based on something you dared to believe in or change. Most 

alternate realities are squashed at birth for the lack of followers or 

believers - How we have tainted the words follower and believer!

There are also the ones who prey on open minded people as well. People who 

are so tired of their own reality that they seek refuge in the musings of 

others and are willing to believe in every possible scenario or ones who are 

just innately receptive to anything and everything within reason 

(their reason). But how much open mindedness is too much open mindedness? 

Is there such a thing as too much or setting limitations is practically doing 

the very thing we are discussing? In other words kettle - pot. 

So what do we do when presented with such a dilemma? Do we take the 

plunge and believe? Do we tread water until we are certain of the validity 

of this new reality? Can realities be validated? Do we each have our own 

and if so do these realities intertwine or interact with each other? 

But I digress. 

max : We apply - common sense, say some. But isn't its very commonality 

that heavily gravitates towards a certain reality carved in a specific space 

of time which proves any problem solving application pretty

counterproductive? 

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary senses which in turn require 

being in a state of “cool”. This much celebrated across the board of life’s 

exhibitions condition of “coolness”; when tripping while chewing mushrooms 

in a dose just enough to numb your sensitive ego, bend your ideological 

resistance, sooth your scared scattered mind and help you dream within 

what  feels as a serious case of “that can't be happening”. -no way- that's 

an insane kind of deal! 

A dream within the dream. Too much or the wrong type of mushroom while 

living a nightmare already, perhaps hoping you'll gain some supernatural or 

even magical powers and very soon you are feeling dead; Having a 

nightmare within a nightmare! Who, really that has been in a class, hasn't 

found oneself mushroom tripping this way hoping to be saved by the 

bell? Teachers included!

So we drift. One word here, one there. Sometimes laughing, 

sometimes fighting, sometimes keeping quiet and feeling lost

dp: - logic, say some. But isn’t logic an agreed upon reality itself? Logic 

evolves, changes constantly. So there is no clear cut answer, there 

is no decision to be made without applying what the new reality calls as 

to dispute. 

Managing somehow, multiple realities simultaneously slipping from 

one to the other as needed with such ease ideally, with pain all too often 

though that one would say we were born with the ability to trip back and 

forth in and out of joy or sadness, in other words the very definition of 

being human. The acknowledgment, awareness and the cultivation of 

skills which can make the impossible often seem a balancing act between 

right-wrong, while remaining cool in the face of challenges both mental and 

emotional are the backbone of every class act during a learning process.

Like a permanent mushroom trip sometimes clouding your mind and others 

giving you divine clarity. All that we see or seem, is but a dream within 

a dream.

 

max : HACKS FOR THE DEDICATED WHILST ACCIDENTAL 

TEACHERS AS VIEWED BY THE EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT

1. learn how to pick your mushrooms

2. learn how to trip without them

3. fight mushroom trip nostalgia with the occasional mushroom soup