A grow cycle begins with a cleaned out grow bed. We’ll first cover the theory and later on, we’ll do it for real. I always leave some grow beds empty, in case I find a new mineral I want to grow mushrooms from.

  I let in water by opening the first valve until the basin is full. I drop in crushed up minerals two fingers deep. On that I sprinkle spores of a ripe mushroom. Nothing will happen until the spores begin growing.

  I always have a stock of a few dried mushrooms, in case I have to reset my farm, stored safely. Let’s get those.

  Just so you know, there are more mushrooms and plants, than the ones I grow here, in the cave.

  I specifically choose these, for their nourishing capacity and the light they give off. Besides almost every being in here lives off of these mushrooms.

  They are the most important asset down here. I want to ensure that they keep making our existence here possible for years to come. They are luckily not very predatory and can live harmoniously with other species.

  There are a huge variety of shapes, surface textures, reproduction ways, smells, tastes and spore dropping mechanisms. Since light conditions are so bad in this cave, we can’t study them closer than what the eye can see.

  For our needs that is more than enough. There aren’t rivalling species around my small farm, thus recognising the mushrooms is quite easy. For the moment we only have four mushrooms to analyse.

  At peak maturity, the mushrooms begin dropping spores which fall in the water around it. They stay there or are carried off towards other places.

  All the while as they float through the water, they settle on the minerals that have enough crevices to securely lodge many of these spores. They begin growing tiny mycelia, the white hairs you might have noticed underneath the mushrooms.

  There need to be a lot of them for us to see them. This web of mycelia, grows through all the cracks of the minerals. Once the mycelial growth becomes thick enough, it can begin supporting the growth of a small button and stem, underneath the surface of the water.

  This grows to the height of my hand into a thin stem with a two fingers wide cap, reaching above water. The depth of water is generally three to four fingers.

  This mushroom needs shallow water conditions for growth. The cap grows from the button into a rounded parasol, with a nipple-shaped top.

  The caps’ underside is first closed. As it reaches maturity, the cap opens up with a rounded edge to the underside of the mushroom, beginning a new cycle of mushrooms, by dropping spores again.

  Under the cap are evenly spaced gills, which contain the spores, of a light-blue colour. The gills contain only some spores, due to their increased size. They are about the size of a sand grain. That makes of this mushroom a gilled mushroom.

  Near the end after dropping its spores, the mushrooms’ cap breaks open. That is when I arrive too late for harvesting.

  If I forget to harvest them, the cap withers and shrivels away and the stalk dies down. The remnants fall back into the water and decompose in there, turning the water into a brown slush.

  Just like when I return from a long trip. Whenever this happens I clean out the growth-bed and begin a new one. If you harvest the mushrooms at their peak maturity, they can regrow as long as there are enough nutrients released out of the stones they grow on.

  Typically after three or four harvests, I clean out the growing bed and let in fresh water, as the quantity and quality of the mushrooms declines each regrowth.”

  “Can’t they grow without end?”

  “Not to my experience but the waste heap is a colourful mess, so something seems to keep on working, although I have no clue what happens in there.”

  “Okay then, why is it that these mushrooms emit light?”

  “That of course I can’t answer you, that goes beyond the scope of what I can see with my naked eye. What it’s for though?

  It may have no practical value at all and be a result of mere chance, the universe is crazy like that. The easy answer may be that, since it’s a dark cave, light is an obvious way of being seen.

  Then again, why aren’t the other inhabitants living with another kind of bioluminescence?”

  Pensively Henry speaks: “Perhaps not all of them are truly natives.”

  Bhosun nods: “Your guess is as good as mine. So then, how do they spread? We as their consumers help in spreading the mushrooms to new locations, by dropping spores, wherever we go, either through our stool, moving around and spores attaching to us or by intentionally shaking mushrooms under water. We both depend on each other for our survival.

  It is commonly believed that mushrooms are land based yet they are actually very able to live under water. Life arose in water after all.

  To support life above water, most animals like mammals, birds and reptiles have developed an embryonic fluid in which the being grows up before it is birthed. The underwater mushrooms are generally non-fruit forming fungi and much smaller.

  Just to be clear, in regards to my research, if we can have an influence on a process happening in this space called life, so can any other being in return, wherever they happen to be. This makes it harder to separate cause and effect sometimes.”

  “What’s all this about cause and effect?”

  “It’s quite simple really, your presence here, had nothing to do with luminescent mushrooms and yet here we are.”

  “Ah yeah, that’s indeed not directly related, I see what you mean there.”

  “My research is mostly done alone and research is always based upon the shoulders of someone else. Every small progress counts. We don’t have a one brain fits all solutions.

  We are many living beings, all together, with our strengths and weaknesses. We need many different kinds of thinkers to slowly work on the worlds problems.

  To find solutions that matter and improve our society, our standards of living. To have a lasting effect that doesn’t create further imbalance in humans.

  Humans not only create imbalanced ways of life for themselves but also their surroundings, their offspring, so something truly isn’t all right. To see that is relatively simple but to act on and change the causes isn’t.

  I am okay with having ethics for myself, no need to burden someone else with them. It’s not always easy to have ethics but it is worthwhile for me, in its own sake.”

  “Hold on Bhosun, you can’t make all the worlds problems your own, we can only do so much. We don’t have strong enough shoulders to carry the worries of the world.

  We should preferably work on what fuels each of us personally. Which is why I prefer trying what I can and can’t carry on my shoulders instead of letting others define that for me. Learning by doing.”

  “So you want to have a go at being self-reliant? We’ll see about that.”, interjects Bhosun with a smirk. “If that’s a new way of functioning for you, it will be a bit like jumping in the river and doing it all over again and again.

  Don’t forget, your brain is also a muscle and just like working your body takes physical effort, working your brain takes logical effort. Forging new paths in thinking takes a fluid approach to be able to do that.

  Sometimes big deceptions, long periods of despair are needed to undo a certain way of thinking/ behaving. Nothing is free in life and certainly not that which you’ll end up valuing for what it may foster in you. Creative approaches need irregular thinking, chaotic ways.

  Too much of a regular or irregular process will become their undoing. Balance in everything.”

  Henry laughs: “So that is what is happening to me, why now, why not earlier? Where does this urge come from?”

  “This happens constantly on so many levels, we just aren’t always aware of it. To really jump into such experiences takes preparation. How do you know when this preparation has begun? When you take your first breath or even before that?”

  Henry takes on a dreamlike look: “The origin of life, did it spring up on this planet or did it arise within the creational burst of a galaxy, milky way or even further back? Is it what we are made of at the deepest of our being? This divine breath we are made of.”

  “Take your time exploring that thought when you ingest the mushrooms. It’s just that not everybody has the same kind of need to have this expressed in life.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Our real needs will always seek expression, even if they have to burst out creating havoc. We can of course choose to ignore them but for how long? Is that really desirable?

  Another hard question is, why do we feel the need to chose for someone else their path of life so badly? That’s such a juvenile way of behaving.

  Why do we need to control others, when quite often we can’t even control ourselves, what we need? It’s like asking water not to be so watery… Us delusional fools.

  Control is the opposite of this process and always in one way or another born out of some kind of fear. What holds us back is also what propels us. The fire and fuel of this process is creating space within you.

  Being empty, if only for a minute, a second. It may seem as if nothing is happening but as long as this emptiness is maintained, the rest will follow.

  Emptiness equals creation.

  All and Everything.

  Death is going back to emptiness.

  Immaculate Conception.

  Emptiness is what we run from but it is the most powerful medicine (un)known.”

  “Well I can’t yet fathom what you mean by that, not that it matters. These things will come when I am ready. So to something completely different: Why don’t we kill the mushrooms by eating them?”

  “We only consume the fruit of the mycelium network, it’s only a very small part of a whole. It’s what serves as a method of reproduction, logically we are thus its target consumers.

  The sexual organs are there to be able to reproduce, once it’s done that, it dies off. The mushroom does everything to make it interesting to the consumers.

  Ripping off a mushroom will inadvertently hurt the mushroom network but it’s a calculated choice of the mushroom. At the point of rupture, the mycelium network is still living and can continue growing.

  We would truly attack these mushrooms if we overharvest them or evade dropping spores and when we take away the mycelium network or damage their living conditions, what and where they thrive on.

  They specifically need fresh but slow-moving water. If you take that away, there’s no habitat for them to grow. That should suffice for your first lesson. Let’s get working with our hands. Would you like to help me plant new beds?”

  “Sure thing, that allows my brain some time to digest and I can begin observing what you’ve just described me.”

  “We’re at the farm and look at all those beautiful clean beds, good job we did. At least you already know how to clean up, a harvest gone bad.

  In summary: For the clean out process, first most of the mush is taken to the compost heap, then two valve stones are lifted up, to allow the water to rush through and get rid of all debris.

  When everything looks clean you close both valve stones again. Sometimes you slosh around in there, to better lift of tenacious leftovers. That’s one bed ready for a new growth cycle.

  The waste heap is steadily growing, but luckily there is still some digestive activity going on as the heap doesn’t grow beyond measure. I haven’t found a use for it yet. It looks like a glowing pile of mushrooms, don’t you think?”

  “It surely doesn’t look tidy, but it gives off a lot of light, in multiple colours even. Looks very festive. How comes you’ve got no use for that? It’s still edible mushrooms, someone might like that, no?”

  “Yes it surely might interest someone but for me it’s also a choice of time, where do I put my time? I already spread them wherever I go. I do my part.

  I don’t have to overdo it. Whenever you get into producing more than the usual, you’ll get a waste stream. I am fine with the way it goes for now. Perhaps in having this idea run on a slow burner in my mind, I’ll cook up all by itself a way of dealing with it. Without a conscious effort.

  You can either see only waste and it not being utilised or where I put my value. Besides the waste pile digests itself, even if there is little water. I don’t seek a life style where everything becomes an endless stream of actions, without breathing in between.”

  “Work and rest, breath in breath out. It’s probably a natural cycle to life.”

  “I am not sure if any other way of living will ever be worth it. Yes you may create more, achieve more. At the end, that sums up to very little.

  If though, at least your path to the end was full of quality, then that sums up to a lot. Even that you can’t keep, but every step was worth making.”

  “That sure is worth a ponder and wonder. It’s the experience, not the product you live for then.”

  “Yes, I feel that sums it up. Let’s get back to the farm again. That looks good, all clean and ready for new minerals to be dropped. I have an already prepared heap of crushed up minerals.

  They crush up easily and I can make large batches in one go. I put in a layer of around two fingers deep covering the whole grow bed. Henry, here, take a mushroom head and sprinkle it over all the filled beds.

  You’ll have included yourself and acted in their growth cycle, becoming an active part of their life. With that comes a responsibility. Now all you need to do is let the water fill up the basin.

  Whatever you do to these mushrooms can be passed on in their offspring. How you treat them, take care of them. What you put in their water and which mushrooms you select for their spores.

  You’d choose vigorous mushrooms that keep healthy and strong.

  When growing mushrooms, vigour and strength aren’t the only important qualities. Some qualities are less apparent but just as valuable.

  A mushroom can begin weak but finish stronger than a non attacked mushroom would have, because during growth it needed to defend itself. When you are already strong you don’t have to make the same kind of effort.

  Other qualities may be increased size but fewer specimen, more spores, vivid colours, stronger bioluminescence, quicker growth, slower decay after spore dropping, bigger clusters or a quicker uptake of the necessary nourishment.

  Healthier specimen, mean a healthier nourishment for us.

  A bit like in your uprising and growth.

  How you treat yourself, dictates how you treat others which inadvertently affects how they treat others. Even if you think to be hiding away in some place where nobody sees you, how we Are has an influence on everybody. What you think nobody sees, is still seen by you.”

  “How can that be? When I am all alone by myself, how can my actions only done unto me affect others? If I don’t see any human, how can my actions affect anyone?”

  “How do you know already, that you won’t meet another person until your death? Whenever you do meet someone and you haven’t learned to behave yourself when alone, you won’t be able either to behave yourself when with others. What is a behaviour worth living with?

  Self-destruction is always an interesting path and life does go on, albeit with a muddy mind or hurting body, they are an experience worth having to some.

  Even if you don’t see anyone, how alone are you really? Everything is so alive, influenced by so many variables, energies, actions, beings and spirits.

  They are all from one and the same source, an expression thereof in all their beauty. It is that which connects all of us, even in our darkest and most lonesome moments.”

  “How do you know that there is no other consciousness than that which you speak of? May there not be something beyond that? How do you know everything you meet here in your life, that it springs from the same source?

  Isn’t that preposterous to claim to know what is beyond your sensing? Does it really adhere to my lifestyle? Or only yours? Even in your most truthful moments? That’s just bullshit.

  To tell me how I should view this world, what is truth and what isn’t? Maybe this consciousness is earthbound and other planets have an other consciousness and living there, the beings also have another source of consciousness.

  How can we claim to know all sources of life or their so called true origins. So much is a mystery and to me that is quite fine. I can live with that.

  I don’t need a definitive answer to everything. To claim there’s only one source seems quite close minded to me. I think we are able to play with consciousness and have an influence back which again changes everything.

  Just as the idea that in the past we had so much wisdom that is lost. Who’s to say that only in the past we could find wisdom and nowadays we’re only running behind to claim it again?

  Just because you can sit with inner silence doesn’t mean you are one, or undivided unto yourself. Even when you are undivided unto yourself, that proves nothing but being undivided unto yourself, and only in that moment. Long live meditation.

  How would we be helped by a proof of the unity of everything or the duality/ multiplicity of everything? We may be one with the whole world, but the knowledge doesn’t make me not hurt myself or act so much wiser because I can repeat like a parrot what others said before me. There’s simply no criticism in it.”

  Bhosun looks at Henry befuddled, “Ah well, finding you got some teeth. I like it. I can’t actually answer your questions for once, it is truthful to say that we simply don’t know very much.

  Life is a mystery and perhaps life just works fine that way. What is the use of philosophy then? My truths/ answers became my way of navigating this world, how I make my choices, and maybe also a way of ridding myself of a responsibility that I prefer giving over to the universe/ consciousness, instead of being responsible for every act, no matter how I am treated or what happens.”

  A realisation dawns on Bhosun that Henry is just as much teaching, even though seemingly being completely lost.

  “Taking back your responsibility and co-creationary approach to life, where everybody shapes up what life is. Thus actually I do believe that even when I am alone I have an influence. What a curveball.

  Sometimes wits need to develop and scratch each other, to find new ideas have emerged. I am not so sure anymore to know what is and what isn’t true of my ideas about life.

  I feel that I actually prefer this approach to life, where everything just is there and nobody needs to explain to another what is and what isn’t true. We all may live with whatever is.”

  “Sounds good to me. Well I don’t know about you, but for today I feel we’ve done what we could. You are free to do whatever pleases you. You can explore or rest.”

  “Exploration sounds like a good idea. I don’t know much yet about my new home. See you around.”

  “All right, have fun exploring.”