TIL taking magic mushrooms, just once ,can permanently change a person's personality, even as an adult.

I'm new to mushrooms, having taken them for only about 5 months now. I'm 49 years old, and have never done anything more potent than pot up to this point in my life. I have been gradually increasing my mushroom doses over the past few months, and have found the experiences to be magnificent - the incredible visuals, the amazing emotional experiences, and the vivid sense of the universe being so much more than what we simply see and experience in our daily lives. The setting is key- we always do it in out in our tree-lined backyard, surrounded by 2 acres of natural landscape.

As for the personality issue - I have had some people say that I seem different over the last few months - just more happy, chilled, and giving off a really powerful positive vibe all the time. I honestly don't feel that different, now having taken about 8 trips over the last 5 months. However, I find the most dramatic shift for me is that I don't fear things like I used to - fear of work deadlines, fear of not getting enough clients in my consulting business, fear of not living up to expectations of others ... I am very much free of any fear now.

Just to give some perspective - I started with about 1.5 grams initially, increasing gradually with each trip. A few days ago, I consumed 8 grams, mixed with lemon juice (a technique that utilizes the citric acid in lemon juice to convert the Psilocybin into Psilocin before it is ingested - making the does significantly stronger than if it was ingested with nothing else. Some say it increases the potency of the dose from 1.5 to 2 times, i'm not sure the exact measure). The 8 g dose lasted many hours and I felt indescribable bliss through a large part of it. I completely left my human form and felt like I traveled through the universe for centuries, experiencing incredible visions and having access to every human experience possible - it was as if the consciousness of all 7 billion people on this planet suddenly was available to me in a non-linear, time-independent manner. I really struggle to put into words the journey I went on, but suffice to say it was immensely profound and beautiful and in no way scary. It will take me some time to completely process all the incredible things I felt and saw.

/r/todayilearned Thread Link - livescience.com