Eleusinia Mushroom Cultivation Course

Introduction to the Eleusinia Mushroom Cultivation Course

The cultivation course at our retreat is held on a Saturday, the day after our guests participate in the ceremony. Sometimes people will feel a bit tired the day after consuming psilocybin, so this class is also available online to ensure that everyone gets the most out of the experience.

Pain patients constantly feel like they are being limited, like they are on a short leash. Triptan injections or tablets are only made available in limited quantities per month, for both safety and insurance related reasons. Infusions are expensive and access is limited, so often the effects don’t last until the next appointment. Some of us are walking a thin line between being able to work and dropping out of the work force. Some just want to be able to participate in daily life and interact with our families in a meaningful way. The transient nature of the “good” days and constantly having to worry about whether your meds will last can make us feel like a second class of citizens.

Psilocybin is being decriminalized in new places each year. All the supplies required to grow these mushrooms are already legal to order by mail in all but three states. For many of us, having this kind of flexibility is the difference between having a full meaningful life and a short list of grim alternatives. Many of these conditions are referred to as “suicide” diseases because self-harm is so prevalent among people who suffer from them.

During the cultivation course, we focus on the details that make a grow successful. There are plenty of resources available online, but it is my experience that most of them are overly complicated and don’t really do a great job of explaining the logic behind certain steps. We discuss the natural habitat of most psilocybin producing mushrooms. Understanding their natural life cycle and how they normally grow will make it easier to cultivate them and help you avoid common missteps.

Mushrooms are not plants, and some of the steps we take while cultivating them can seem counterintuitive. It can be tough for a newcomer to know what is important and what is not. Chronic pain wears us thin, makes us less tolerant of stress and often less adept at learning a new task, so the class is designed to be as error proof as possible.

This class is truly the most rewarding part about my job here at Eleusinia. Sure, being a guide is rewarding too and it is an honor to help someone navigate their first psychedelic experience, but teaching this class is something more than that. After this class, I know that each participant now has the power to take control of this approach to managing their pain and they will not live with the shadow of lack of access hanging over them any longer.