Tyler—History
Page 78Extracts from the History of Tyler Swinyard, Founder & Discoverer
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GREAT PEARLS / CHAPTER 1
The Discovery
1 Because many explanations may someday be offered concerning the rise of the Society of Snake People, I make this account of my own experience as I remember it.
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2 I was an adult and I went unto the shed of my friend with the intention of taking a large dose of psilocybin mushrooms and exploring what might happen.
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3 I took approximately six grams.
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4 The first hours brought an intense psychedelic experience.
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5 Later I became sufficiently impaired that I forgot I had taken mushrooms.
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6 And I shit you not, my friend Nate said words concerning his dislike of the cold and a snake.
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7 In my experience I understood him literally to mean: I am a snake.
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8 I looked upon him and thought: He looks like a regular person.
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9 Then fear entered the interpretation.
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10 I wondered what Snake People ate.
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11 I wondered what they could do.
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12 I wondered whether a ceremony was coming.
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13 I wondered whether I would be changed into a Snake Person against my will.
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14 None of these fears had been established by evidence.
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15 Yet inside the experience they felt urgent and real.
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16 I attempted secretly to call my wife Whitney.
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17 Nate noticed the call and spoke toward the phone.
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18 And I shit you not, my frightened interpretation expanded to include Whitney within the imagined Society.
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19 I fled the shed.
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20 I drove while cognitively impaired.