That's so weird. I experienced the same thing the first time I took mushrooms as a teenager. I had no idea what a trip was. There were a few notable things in the trip but one thing that stood out was the eye of providence. I can't for the life of me think why that appeared since it's not something I can really associate with anything in my life up to that point. I'm not a religious person and not very spiritual but this is one of the things that has always stuck with me. It is pretty weird and spooky what it symbolises. To be honest, that was a profound turning point in my life.

Can you describe more what you meant by seeing eye of providence? What was the context around it? What exactly did you see, where, and what was happening? I’m just curious... did you search for the meaning after the fact? I take it you didn’t know it was called the eye of providence prior to that?

I had my eyes closed and was just watching stuff like silvery reflections and fractal like patterns and waves. At some point it just appeared as a triangle with an eye in it. It was a bit mysterious and may have had a slight glow to it. It wasn't a negative thing for me. I can't remember exactly but I think it probably was at the top of a pyramid.

I didn't search for it until maybe 10 or so years later and started getting a bit buzzed out about it all. I didn't know what it was until then, at which point I realised it was on the dollar bill. Even if I had (likely) seen it before the trip it wasn't something that was part of my everyday life or consciousness, which makes it very weird.

> silvery reflections

holy shit. was it shiny and pulsating? I saw the eye but no pyramid. But I recognize the eye from the dollar bill.

All I remember is looking at the shining, pulsating, eye and thinking, so this is what Truth looks like. No idea what the fuck that meant but I figured it out, and it was like being punched in the face-basically I looked at every aspect of my life, and that's what the "Eye" was implying to "Look", basically examine my life to figure out what needs to be done.

It was not negative at all but more of a WTF I WANT THIS TRIP TO STOP BUT IM ALSO FASCINATED. I use caps to illustrate the full state of panic and calm I was in.

After the trip and I googled 'third eye symbol' and I was shocked to see the similarities to the "Eye" I had witnessed but with a shape that looks like a thunder icon, which curiously enough is very similar to the Sanskrit for third eye....I have never ever seen it before either

Needless to say, my interest in hinduism and chakra exploded. i believe that I truly experienced a third eye opening moment. Like I was on a different plane of existence, where I am part of the whole, and that everything is everything and the most shocking conclusion of all:

There are dimensions beyond our world. In 3rd dimension, things don't make sense but in higher dimensions, the math works out according to Michio Kaku. His book goes into full detail but basically I absolutely believe that we are not seeing the true reality and that we might have been led on this path by very evil and greedy people who abuses the scientific process to invalidate the existence of common spiritual human experiences that arose indepedently by different civilizations but declared "null and void" by a highly materialistic driven empire where it's citizens are so spiritually starved that they will never be happy. No matter how rich and powerful their country becomes.

It's the eye of God, in a triangle. The one on $1 bills. That is, God is provident aka watching us, watching out for us, and providing guidance and stuff.

I don't recall ever seeing that. I did experience Hell, for a while during one LSD peak. But it wasn't painful, just freaky. I was into Hieronymus Bosch at the time, and had just watched "Spawn" ;)

My favorite hallucinations were tangled chains of 3D characters, in constant writhing motion, and rotating on their axes. And not just rotating, but apparently rotating through higher dimensions.[0]

As I recall, the characters looked like letters or numbers. Or like Hofstadter's GEB block. But as long as I was high enough to see them, I was too high to understand them. Or to remember, anyway.

I also had the sense that their activity correlated with what was happening in meatspace, what I was seeing and hearing, and also what I was thinking. And it's my guess that LSD, among other things, breaks down barriers between hierarchical levels in brain activity.

0) https://goo.gl/images/TbuUcj

that's whats fucked up about it. I am not religious at all. Yet, what I experienced was on a spiritual level with real changes.

it's crazy how common the themes are. did you hear extra-terrestrials? Like I literally heard a thought broadcasted from somewhere not on earth with the message "we aren't from earth but we are gonna help you out. clean your fucking room. move your computer to living room. get your shit together"

.... needless to say that was a big turning point

I haven't done mushrooms since and I'm kinda scared to experience the whole thing again.

People joke about fatuous "meaning of life" insights. But in my experience, you often do see "the big picture" of your life, and of everything. However, it's hard to remember stuff like that. And it fades pretty quickly, back into the slog of day-to-day life. I also got that from doing work with est/Landmark, NLP, Tony Robbins, etc. Not that they encourage the use of psychedelics ;)

I'm reminded of Tool's "Rosetta Stoned".[0,1]

    ...
    10 to 2 AM, X, Yogi DMT, and a box of Krispy Kremes
    ...
    When a flaming stealth banana split the sky
    ...
    Then the X-Files being
    ...
    Did a slow-mo Matrix descent
    Outta the butt end of the banana vessel
    And hovered above my bug-eyes, my gaping jaw
    ...
    He said, "You are the chosen one
    The one who will deliver the message
    A message of hope for those who choose to hear it
    And a warning for those who do not."
    ...
    See, they took me by the hand
    And invited me right in
    Then they showed me something
    I don't even know where to begin
    ...
    Can't remember what they said
    ...
    Overwhelmed as one would be, placed in my position
    Such a heavy burden now to be the one
    Born to bear and bring to all the details of our ending
    To write it down for all the world to see
    But I forgot my pen
    ...

0) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZXJLQntCP0

1) https://genius.com/Tool-rosetta-stoned-lyrics

Nope, I didn't hear voices. I had some auditory hallucinations though. It was mostly overwhelmingly positive and very spiritual to the point of making me cry.

yeah they were auditory hallucinations.

well, thanks to them, i have got some of my life back in order.

it could be that the mushroom trip creates a dissociation from internal thoughts and perceptions of the ego vs ego-less self, so you 'hear' your own thoughts.

I'm really interested in trying it out, but I live in mainland China right now. Have no idea who I could even contact about getting some, even in places like Taiwan or Thailand.

Houby hunting, then PF Tek.

Obviously, do lots of research. There aren't many deadly varieties by some of them look very similar to edible ones.

I wonder how many trial and error and generations of humans it took to realize which mushrooms were safe to eat. It's fascinating stuff.

Look for ones that turn blue when bruised.

Also, the fundamental methodology is to start with an extremely small amount. If there are no observable effects after some hours, eat double the amount. And repeat until there are clear effects, and decide if it's something useful. For food, for fun, or to use for poisoning enemies.

There are many species that contain psilocybin. I don't know China at all, but I'd be surprised if some weren't endemic. So you'd need to do some research. I my experience, they tend to grow on cow shit. And they're somewhat unusual, in that they turn blue when bruised.

In Indonesia they're legal, you can buy mushroom shakes at the beach. In general there are endemic psilocybin mushrooms most everywhere, though it might be illegal just to pick them, like in my home country Norway.