How Mushroom Foraging Made Me Stop Getting All Creeped Out About The Idea that Earth Might Have a Brain

By Jasmine Wilborne

I wanna introduce you to my favorite Canadian: John Barry.

This here is Sir Barry-ha.

So there you can see me with the mushroom enthusiast who challenged me to think of the Earth as a living, vibing, conscious being. See prior to flying out to Vancouver in early November, I had never touched a mushroom, never paid attention to the mushrooms growing in my neighborhood and had no names for the ones I did see. Barry showed me through mushroom ID-ing that nature is something comprised of distinct individual organisms, who have names, have relationships and are worth paying attention to-even if you aren’t a botanist. Go figure!

I touched a mushroom for the first time with Barry. It played out like this.