Review: 'Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion' by Michelle Janikian

All images inspired by illustrations from Oss & Oeric, Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide (1976).

Michelle Janikian’s Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion begins and ends with the wise counsel to take magic mushrooms seriously, to approach them with caution and respect. They have “incredible power,” and shouldn’t be taken lightly. She dispels psilocybin’s false reputation as the fun, floaty cousin of LSD—a less intense trip, nothing but giggles. Companion is written as a retroactive intervention for Janikian’s 17-year-old self, who impulsively ate shrooms in a New Jersey parking lot and got more than she bargained for. I wish I could send a copy back in time to the dumb, younger me who ate a “heroic dose” of dried mushrooms with no plans or preparation, and then spent the next several hours hiding in a friend’s closet, curled up in the fetal position under a pile of dirty laundry. (Heroic, indeed.) The timing is just right for such a primer, which has been crafted with concern and kindness to meet the needs of today’s rising wave of psilo-curious seekers, both young and old.

Harm reduction is only one consideration of Companion, which is much more than just a precautionary PSA for the “psychedelic-naïve.” In fact, the real emphasis of Companion is the use of psilocybin mushrooms for recreational, therapeutic, and spiritual purposes. It’s just that Janikian appreciates, and needs the reader to appreciate, that having fun, healing, inspirational or even revelatory psychedelic experiences requires the necessary homework and groundwork: “preparation and intentional use are key to having a meaningful experience that isn’t needlessly brought down by stress and anxiety.” Harm reduction is simply the foundation for a skillfully structured introduction which covers all the bases and includes all the most up-to-date research. As for more experienced “psilonauts” who already get the basics of “set and setting,” they still might learn a thing or two from the later chapters which discuss the essentials of trip-sitting, best practices for microdosing mushrooms, and the potential health risks of psilocybin (including specific drug interactions). Also, Companion’s footnotes and appendices will provide eager readers with ample seeds for further research.

Thankfully, Janikian discusses how mushroom trips can be meaningful and even life-changing without attempting to tell readers what it all means, man... Like a good trip sitter, she simply “holds the space,” allowing the reader to make their own meaning without interference or judgment. It’s refreshing, although I have to admit that it makes me a bit nostalgic for the days when metaphysical speculation and goofy illustrations were a staple of psychedelic manuals. The closest Companion gets to such speculation is a chapter about confronting the Jungian shadow, inspired by the work of Ann Shulgin, Scott Hill, and James Jesso.

When describing the benefits of psilocybin, Janikian usually sticks to general traits like “openness” and “flexibility” (often discussed in terms of neuroplasticity). Her account of psychedelic experience as a mental or emotional “reset” is appealing to me, and resonates with an overly-simple analogy that I once made between meditation and psychedelics: if meditation is a practice of daily stretching which helps keep the mind limber, then psychedelics are a deep-tissue massage which aggressively kneads and dissolves accumulated psychic knots. Companion provides another analogy for this perspectival flexibility, courtesy of clinical psychologist and psychedelic researcher Rosalind Watts:

“Our brain is like a skier that ordinarily follows the well-trodden tracks. The psilocybin experience can temporarily disrupt and flatten the old grooves in the snow, setting up the possibility that new tracks may be laid down. Essentially psychedelic administration can foster new, short-term flexibility and the ability to start new habits of thinking, acting, and feeling.”

To this, Janikian adds the caveat: “Simply taking mushrooms alone likely won’t change who you are, but if you practice new ways of being, maybe you won’t get stuck in the same rut.”

For members of Psychedelic Sangha, some of the most interesting reading might be the “How to Navigate the Space” chapter (which discusses practices of “letting-go” while tripping), and those sections of the “Integration” chapter which deal with mindfulness-meditation and “bodywork techniques” (yoga, dance, Tai Chi, Qigong, acupuncture, massage and Reiki). Janikian covers the role of meditation and yoga as practices of psychedelic integration in a broad, suggestive manner which demands further elaboration. Hopefully, someone else will pick up where she leaves off, and compose a detailed manual for using meditative or yogic techniques to translate psychedelic experiences of openness and connectedness into sustainable personal growth and prosocial behavior.

Another, earlier chapter on “Indigenous Ceremonial Mushroom Use” also contains intriguing ideas about psychedelic integration, but at the cultural rather than individual level. Janikian claims that the Mazatec people of Oaxaca, Mexico (well-known and studied for their mushroom ceremonies) don’t need practices of psychedelic integration, in a Western, talk-therapy sense, because:

“Their culture has already integrated mushroom use, to them it is a holy tradition that is treated with the utmost respect and used sparingly for special purposes. They have a framework for understanding these potentially life-changing ceremonies that doesn’t exist in mainstream Western society.”

The creative repurposing (or, per Mike Crowley, recovery) of Eastern symbols, doctrines, and practices as components of a cultural framework for integrated psychedelic use seems, in my opinion, to be a matter of great interest for groups like Psychedelic Sangha. We should pick up this implication and take it further.

So, to return to the image of veteran psilonaut Michelle Janikian reaching back through time to comfort and guide her naïve teenage self like a compassionate trip sitter from the future, the central thread of Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion is using magic mushrooms with purpose and maturity: “doing mushrooms mindfully like an adult ... adults using mushrooms with the intention to learn more about themselves and, maybe, become better or happier people.” It seems natural for this book to arrive at this moment, as psychedelics cross a threshold into the mainstream. Buoyed by accumulating scientific evidence and wielding an impressive arsenal of spiritual and therapeutic techniques, psychedelic consciousness—inextricably individual and collective—is growing up. With the groundswell of decriminalization and even legalization momentum currently sweeping cities and states across the country, surely there will be a new and receptive audience waiting to discover Janikian’s timely advice.

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