Excerpt from "Heartlines and the Web"

It had been a warm and moist October, ideal for fungus growth, and I had a new interest – finding edible fungi. Driving past a roadside public park grassy area, I spotted the bright red-with-white-spots Amanita muscaria, known also as Fly Agaric. This is the typical toadstool of children’s storybooks, renowned for its hallucinogenic effects. Near these were a few of another species, similar in size. I was interested, so picked a couple of these sturdy, thick-stemmed fungi. I identified them at home to my satisfaction as Amanita rubescens. This fungus is also known as ‘The Blusher’ because the white gills become spotted with pink-red when old or damaged, and the same is true of the stem base. That evening I cooked the two samples, for an hour as advised, and ate them as part of a pasta sauce. The following day I finished off the leftovers.

What began to happen the next day was entirely unexpected.

I experienced a marked sensation as if of a ‘board’ from my solar plexus upwards, in a V shape, at least as far as my shoulders. It was as if this part of my body was firmly fixed and contained. This limited my breathing, constricting the expansion of my chest when breathing in. I ‘read’ this as an indicator of the area of influence of this fungus, energetically and medicinally, i.e. from the solar plexus in an upward direction. From this, and what followed, I knew it had potential as a medicine.

During this second day I noticed myself becoming unusually hot, almost breaking into a sweat, any time I exerted myself or became anxious about something. It would come on with cycling, or walking up a hill; or once when I was parking for five minutes on a double yellow line with no traffic warden in sight. Even the slightest anxious thought would bring on this heat.

I was mildly alarmed by what was happening to me, having read that, if eaten raw, it had haemolytic properties, which could cause anaemia. I had cooked it thoroughly but I had no way of knowing what was going on.

The heat was how I imagine hot flushes are for women in menopause. It came on in similar circumstances for around a week; then stopped. It has not returned since, except that I am feeling generally warmer than before.

By now it was clear that this fungus had significant medicinal properties, and that it could serve well for the coming year’s proving at the South Downs School.

This book tells this story and indicates the scope and impact of the medicine. We see its relevance for people at the present time. It is needed.

· Purification. Cleansing. Clearing physical and mental toxic states. Speaking up about long held hurts, personal or national. Parallels with the Arab Spring and other recent demonstrations.

· Alignment, personal and planetary. The web that connects everything, impelling a radical healing of the heart.

Taken from Heartlines and the Web, Stuart Deeks, ISBN: 978-1-78099-328-7, $33.95 / £18.99, paperback, 418pp. EISBN: 978-1-78099-329-4, $9.99 / £6.99, eBook Published 29^th March 2013 by Ayni Books.