Pig: A Thriller (32 page)

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“That you need to concentrate on the living now, instead of the life you think was finished in that forest back in Alberta.”

“Thank you, Professor. I’ll take that into consideration.”

“No, you won’t,” contradicted Magda. “You’re too content – content yes, I won’t say happy – wallowing in the Waiting Place.”

Snow could hear the capital letters in her voice. “The Waiting Place?”

“’You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes,” quoted Magda. “You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a place to go, the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring. Everyone is just waiting.’”

“Mandelstam?” asked Snow.

“Geisel,” corrected Magda.

“German,” nodded Snow. “A philosopher.”

“American,” corrected Magda. “A children’s writer. Good God! I knew you Westerners didn’t appreciate your own literature, but can’t you at least know your own pop culture?

“I’ve never heard of him,” confessed Snow. “Geisel.”

“Dr. Suess,” prompted Magda. “The Cat in the Hat. Green Eggs and Ham.”

“Ah,” nodded Snow.

"’Will you succeed?’” quoted Magda again. “’Yes, you will indeed. (98 3/4% guaranteed.)’"

“What’s it supposed to mean?”

“Read it yourself,” commanded Magda. “Then, you tell me what it means.”

“What? And miss
Pump Friction
on the porn channel tonight? Read? Who has the time.”

“The story talks about an unnamed traveler who decides to leave town,” sighed Magda. “Sound familiar so far?”

“Me?” asked Snow.

“You decide. He travels through a variety of strange and enchanting worlds until he ominously ends up somewhere called "The Waiting Place", which is addressed as being a place where everyone is always waiting for something to happen, a place where Time does not pass.”

“Noyabrsk?” Snow asked. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re crazy?”

“All the time,” confirmed Magda.

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“On the contrary. I take it as a point of pride. Because what they mean isn’t ‘insane.’ What they really mean is ‘unsane.’ Why do we see mental health as a measure of our relation to others? Being ‘normal’ means you fit in. You think the same as others. You act the same way. What’s so healthy about that? About being a sheep and refusing to stretch your mind? How about solitude? If you like to be alone, does that mean your insane? Or just unsane?”

“Insane, unsane, what does it matter? Either way, we’re nuts,” confirmed Snow. “You and I both, sister. We make quite a pair.”

“Shut up and eat your casserole, brother. And have another Coffee Crisp.”

Time is not a solid, like wood, but a fluid, like water or the wind. It doesn’t come neatly cut into even-sized lengths, into decades and centuries. Nevertheless, for our purposes we have to pretend it does. The end of any history is a lie in which we all agree to conspire.

             
             
             
             
             
             
             
--
The Robber Bride,
Margaret Atwood

Psilocybin (
O
-phosphoryl-4-hydroxy-
N, N
-dimethyltryptamine) is a
prodrug
that is converted into the pharmacologically active compound psilocin in the body by a
dephosphorylation
reaction, containing a ring configuration called an
indole
linked to an ethylamine substituent. It occurs naturally in varying concentrations in over 200 species of
Basidiomycota
mushrooms and bears a close structural resemblance to the brain neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine), differing by just one single hydroxy molecule.  In effect, the psilocybin and mushrooms are nearly mirror images of the primary neurotransmitters found in the human brain.

The effects of psilocybin are highly variable and dependent on the current mood and overall well-being by the individual. Initially the subject may begin to feel somewhat disoriented. At low doses hallucinatory effects may occur, including enhancement of colors and the animation of geometric shapes. Closed-eye hallucination may occur, where the affected individual may see multi-colored geometric shapes and vivid imaginative sequences. At higher doses, hallucinatory effects increase and experiences tend to be less social and more introspective, or
entheogenic
. Distortions in the experience of time in psilocybin-induced states have been subjectively reported,
[
and objectively measured. Users having a pleasant experience can feel ecstatic, a sense of connection to others, nature, the universe, and other feelings and emotions are often intensified. The term "bad trip" describes a reaction accompanied by fear. A variety of reasons may contribute to a psilocybin user experiencing a bad trip, including "tripping" during an emotional or physical low, or in a non-supportive
e
nvironment
.

Psilocybin-containing mushrooms are used both
recreationally
, and traditionally, for spiritual purposes, as
entheogens
, with a history of use spanning millennia. Proponents of its usage consider it to be an
entheogen
and a
tool
to supplement various types of practices for transcendence, including in meditation,
psychonautics
, and psychedelic psychotherapy.  It is as if the mushroom is saying, “I require the nervous system of a mammal to communicate. Do you happen to have one handy?” This isn’t parasitism. Mushrooms and the human psyche have a symbiotic relationship. Humanity acquires insight from another spiritual level normally unavailable to itself. In return, the mushroom receives care, feeding and propagation as well as contact with the human mind, which was formed out of the nexus between plants and primates. Use of them was the religion of humans in Africa for the first million years. It stopped only 10,000 years ago with desertification and the creation of the Sahara, a transition from grassland and mushrooms growing in in cow dung to sand. The human nervous system is an antenna for the Gaian mind, which exists and is stored in pyschedelic mushrooms. The spores have to germinate somewhere. Then, when conscious organisms eat the mushrooms, the gain telepathic access to a completely separate realm. If the planet exploded, we could download ourselves into mushrooms.”

T
hree hours and thirteen minutes after the psilocybin molecule entered Snow’s brain, he was deposited back to the room where he had been before it entered his brain

“What do you think?” Magda asked.

Snow just shook his head, unable to describe the experience, unable to assimilate the experience.

“Exactly,” agreed Magda. “You just went into those multi-verses we were saying that Physics proves do actually exist. The ones you said were crazy. Insane.”

“Unsane,” corrected Snow. “Unsane.”

“Insanity simply means you’re the only person to live in your reality.”

-- Peggy La Cerra
             

“Reality is just a refuge for people who can't handle drugs.” --
Robin Williams