[neilk]

You can read a lot of different stories about it on Erowid. Anyway a lot of people treat mushrooms as a party drug, so I assume those people don't consider themselves to have had profound visions.

There does seem to be a subculture of people who take the visions way too seriously. They believe it's giving knowledge of an external reality. I think it's a little bit like a reset button - your beliefs and thinking patterns are disrupted, particularly the ones which you don't normally question. This may happen consciously (as it did with the OP) but I suspect a lot of it is unconscious.

I've done it just a handful of times. The most profound experience was negative-positive. I didn't take proper precautions, and I have a tendency to negative thoughts which was highly accentuated by the experience. Think terror worse than any horror movie for several hours (although with some nice parts too). But confronting your demons, literally, has its advantages. Actually more than anything else it's pushed me to try to take control of those negative thoughts.

EDIT: FYI there is no such thing as getting physically addicted to magic mushrooms. Quite the opposite, there are regular reports of people kicking addictions as a result.

[hamsternipples]

I do not consider mushrooms to be a party drug. neither do I consider weed to be a party drug, but that's just me. historically, I have been addicted to smoking for quite some time... but, you know, there's an interesting thing that happened after I started to take mushrooms.

in comparison to smoking a joint, I would previously smoke before programming, and what would sometimes happen is I would end up smoking another, and another, and another; chasing that dragon until I felt inspired. however, if you were to do a few g's of shrooms instead, the last thing you're gonna be thinking is, "wow I'm gonna drop another few g's" like you'd be thinking after smoking a joint ... I'm usually so overloaded by the mind expanding experience I just had, that's the last thing I wanna do. I won't do them more often that once a week, and I'm a highly addictive personality. actually, I've noticed that I tend to not want to drink alcohol, or ... well really anything addicting, and watched all addictive behavior reduce every time. I just want to create. I now neither need mushrooms anymore. the changes seem to be permanently enlightening.

I've not tried LSD (cause I can't get it here), but I know that Jobs was a huge proponent of it. from what I can gather, the concept is similar.

I think, if you are somewhat grounded individual, I believe your experience will be something of exaggerated connection with nature, other humans, and your own creative ideas. perhaps it's a bit illusory, but I have never seen a detrimental side-effect to redefining your connection with your immediate world with that sort of illusory connection.

you cannot overdose on mushrooms. I also found I am less inclined to simplistic forms of thoughtless hedonism, focusing a bit more on the bigger picture. I find that creativity and novelty are forefront in my mind for at least a few days afterwards, if not permanently.

compare that with alcohol, and I think you may rethink your next few mindless sloshers.

@neilk, I believe that the negative-positive experiences are actually the best. IMO, it's just soo easy to smoke a doobie or go get smashed -- yet reality tends to come back with a vengeance afterward. however, if you're forced to look at something like that, and you can get past it, my best experiences have usually come about with that feeling of freedom after leaving behind a retarded mindset.