There is good reason to use pyschodelic drugs in controlled circumstances to help with various mental disorders, but as Bill Maher explains, that [or to find God] is not why the vast majority of people eat them, rather it is to have hilarious fun. In fact quite often the most fun you ever had in your life. And as I am sure you have found, fun is #1.
Hongo in the Jungo
As a onetime connoisseur of Hongos, the Hispanic name, I can vouch for that. Bill explains the experience as laughing at everything, even simple matters like how funny and gross having sex is.
I spent two winters knocking around Mexico as a gringo with a backback and a ponytail. Living on the cheap to extend the stay. Staying in working class hotels, eating in working class restaurants, and meeting up with travelers the world over in hostiles and camped on beaches. Looking back, the best two winters of my life.
BTW, of all the people from all over the world I befriended and traveled with, it was Aussies that I always seemed to end up with. ACDC and BIG BEER.
I also went back for 2 week vacations another half dozen times dragging friends along. Always with a long stay at Palenque, a small town butting against the mountainous rain forest where the most beautiful of the Mayan ruins sit. Camped at garden of Eden like places with endless waterfalls and lagoons. And always, ALWAYS, a cold beer nearby everywhere in Mexico. I always stayed a week or so until I had to eat more and more to get off.
Now take Maher’s spin on everyday things becoming hilarious and add to that wild monkeys, herds of turkeys following you [that when you stop and yell GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE they all reply with the same in unison], big colorful parrots sitting on your chair, giant toads begging at your table, dayglow buses with chickens and turkeys falling in your lap from the overhead bins when the bus takes a sharp turn to avoid going over a cliff, pigs being hoisted up top past your open window, french hippies playing flutes approaching on a lonely dirt road, a 120 foot waterfall to play in, and of course all the Mexicans who know you are hongoized and mess with your brain. The only downside is waking up each morning moaning from the pain in your cheeks and sides from 8 hours of laughing.
Hongos are great for many reasons once you get past that initial nausea and fear that lasts only a few minutes. Unlike LSD, you know what you are getting, you know how much to take, and you know what it will do.
There is no danger in which mushroom to eat. They are big, grow out of cowpies, have a yellow starburst in the center and when pinched turn purple. Three or four medium sized ones does the trick. They also last only about 8 hours rather than 14 like LSD. They also go very well with Corona and tequila.
Michael Pollan: Psychedelic Science | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) -video