Mycelium Meditation

I first developed the mycelium meditation in collaboration with Becoming Species and the Fungi and it is inspired by Sisters Hope Poetic Self Exercise, Feral Practice’s Mycorrhizal Meditation.

The mycelium can help us decompose our human egos, to open space for something else.

The meditation is constantly changing, adapting to what it meets, moving and eating in its own way.

Oftentimes with Becoming Species, the mycelium meditation helps us transform into another species.

But recently I have also experienced how it can simply help people dissolve. And not become anything. Or become mycelium. Become connected. If you scroll down on this page, you can find different versions of the meditation.

Anyone can take the meditation, be changed by it, change it, and guide others in it.

Mycelium Meditation - transforming into another species

Here comes one version of the meditation, one of the older versions also present in our Becoming Species zine. In this version you end up becoming another species, and are guided into moving as that species.

Take good time to do the meditation. Have many breaks in between words. The best way to do it is if one person reads the meditation for a group. If you are alone you can also do it by reading it, then just skip the part with closing your eyes. There is also a part for going into moving, which can be skipped in case you just want the experience of laying down and meditating.

Enjoy!

preferably read out loud from here

please take a moment to truly arrive at this Now. take a deep breath. notice where you are. notice the life around you. are there any plants around? if yes, take a good look at them.

close your eyes.

this is a meditation for becoming another species and in this way connecting with more-than-human ways of being through meditation and imagination. let go and enjoy. you don’t need to become anything specifically, just let go of expectations and let what emerges, emerge. perhaps you will become something you don’t know what is. just experience it. let rationalizations and distracting thoughts pass by you like clouds in the sky. they are allowed to be there, but always come back to listening to the voice and focus on your body. always feel free to move during the meditation or say sounds, just with consideration for the people around you.

now, count to 4 while you breathe in deeply. count to 4 while holding your breath in. count to 4 while exhaling. count to 4 while holding your breath. [repeat this cycle a few times.]

now let go of the counting and breathe at your own pace.

our voice is the mycelium.

underneath us in the soil, a decentralized network of many thin, white threads is spreading. this is the mycelium, the fungal body. this is us. what you see popping up in the forest or field, the mushrooms, are the fruiting bodies of the fungi, our reproduction organs. they come and go. our more permanent body is the mycelium. the white threads enter the roots of plants, and the plants can exchange nutrients, water and information through and with the network. the threads also excrete enzymes breaking down and digesting their surroundings such as rocks and dead plant matter, making new life possible by taking apart the old.

the white threads explore, moving in the earth underneath us, curiously looking for food and friends. they expand up towards us lying here.

now feel how the white threads are entering your feet. pay attention to the sensation in your feet. it is a friendly network.

feel how it keeps on spreading up through your legs, taking you over, decomposing you.

feel how the threads take over your knees, pay attention to your knees. feel how the threads keep moving through your thighs, you are becoming part of the network.

the threads are taking over your buttocks, your genitals. don’t fear, we say.

the mycelium keeps on moving up through your stomach, taking you over. pay attention to how your lungs and your heart are being taken over by the network.

you are being taken over.

the threads spread on into your shoulders, arms, elbows and all the way to your palms and fingers. feel your fingertips disappearing into the network.

pay attention to how your throat and voice are being taken over, being decomposed.

you are disappearing.

the network spreads into your head, taking over your lips, your tongue, nose, eyes.

feel how the network spreads into your brain. eating you up. including you. disassembling you to tiny parts then nothing at all.

stay in this blank state.

be nothing.

stay here.

our voice is the mycelium.

we are the network.

we are the collective consciousness.

stay here.

now.

now, start to feel how you are appearing in a new place.

how does it feel?

is it cold?

wet?

dry?

What is your environment? The water? The soil? Do you fly through the air? Are you hosted by plants? Do you live in snow and ice? Do you thrive in moist walls of human houses? Are you in the forest? Are you the forest? How does your environment change through your life? Do you move between environments? Are you nomad, flying or swimming across the oceans? Are you one of those who live in between soil and air, with roots stretching deep down below and branches high up above? Or are you a parasite living off someone else? Take time to feel your new environment.

What does your body feel like? Do you have wings? Or branches? Claws, eyes? Are you flowering? Do you photosynthesize? How do you move? Do you grow your way forward? Do you swim or run? Are you slimy? Are you rooted? Do you have a centralized brain or do you think with your whole body? Are you a network, forming mushrooms above from time to time? Or a microorganism swimming in someone's gut? How do you sense? Are you attentive to heat, sounds, humidity? Do you navigate by sonic radar, as the bats do?

Feel your body in your environment. Feel your limbs or bodyparts. Maybe you are swimming in the water or letting the sun warm your cold reptile blood. Perhaps you are stretching your stems out to reach a new place to grow. What is your art? What are you good at? Are you a spider weaving beautiful webs? Or perhaps a dolphin jumping above the sea surface, dancing, performing? A swallow building your nest with saliva and soil? Do you make red sweet apples? How do you get your energy? Do you make your own energy by photosynthesizing the sunlight? Or are you a plant-eater? A hunter? A decomposer?

How do you reproduce? Do you have sex? How do you do it? Do you clone yourself? Do you lay eggs? Do you give birth? Do you make seeds? Spores?

How is your relationships to others in the ecosystem? Who are you friends with? What happens when you meet a friend? Who is afraid of you, if anyone? Who are you afraid of? Who do you share with? Who do you negotiate with?

For going into moving (optional): How do you move?

when you are ready, slowly open your eyes. feel your new body and start moving at your own pace. feel your new body. flap your wings, stretch your branches. do what feels right. you can be still if you want. you can mirror others if you want. you can be silly if you want. you can be loud or quiet. just let what emerges, emerge.

how do you move when you feel threatened? when you feel safe? how do you mark your territory? stand your ground? how does your species speak up?

what sounds do you make?

look around you at all the other species present. how do they make you feel? is there anyone you want to fight? to eat? to share with? to mate with? try meeting them. move with the others.

For becoming human again: when you are ready, start to come back to your human body. breathe deeply. feel your lungs. feel your two legs, your arms, your head. open your eyes if you haven’t already. get up if you haven’t already.

open your eyes.

Spend some time talking or taking notes about the experience.

Mycelium Meditation - collectively guided

Below you can hear a collectively guided mycelium meditation by Becoming Species. Most of this particular recording was improvised on a visit to wild nature area Amager Fælled in Copenhagen. We produced the recording for the occasion of having a live event at Sjón Film Festival, a short film on Becoming Species being screened before.