• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    That is really interesting! Thank you for all the information! This is a lot more advice than they’ve ever given. I wonder if it’s sort of instinctive on their part since they’ve been doing it since they were kids?

    • treefrog
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      5 months ago

      Likely.

      We have ‘muscle memory’ in our visual cortex as well. So, we can train ourselves to spot stuff that is normally pretty difficult to spot with practice.

      The morels being brown, and fruiting in leaves from last fall, it makes them pretty difficult to see.

      Aside from that, they probably have a good idea of what spots to hit because they’ve been hitting those spots for years. As well as a understanding of good conditions to look for them, without having the knowledge of those conditions that I just gave.

      And… Mushroom foragers are usually pretty sketchy about giving up their good spots.

    • treefrog
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      5 months ago

      I was thinking about this more just now. I know you use weed for medical reasons. Do you ever get hypnagogic images off it when you close your eyes?

      I believe this is the cerebral cortex teaching itself how to see things. I get it a lot when I fall into a porn hole or spend a lot of time staring at mushrooms. I think it’s dopamine reinforcement and neuroplasticity, essentially.

      Anyway, you can teach yourself to spot them, is what I’m saying. Smoke a bowl, watch some videos online of people hunting them. Preferably a lot of in nature shots so your brain is learning to see them in the right context. When you start to lose interest, pause a good shot and allow yourself to relax and fall into your breathing. If you do this enough, I bet you’ll start to see morels when you close your eyes before bed.

      And when you get out to look for them, they’ll be much easier to spot if you allow yourself to again relax and fall into your breathing and sort of trust your muscle memory.

      The weed is optional for anyone else reading. But it does have action on dopamine and can give some people mild closed eye visuals, which helps to verify the experiment.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        That does make sense, although I use cannabis medicinally and at this point, it mostly just works as a pain modifier. I basically don’t feel high anymore unless I use a ton of the stuff.

        What I really need to do is convince someone to take me with them next year.

        • treefrog
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          5 months ago

          You can skip the cannabis.

          But yeah, having someone take you is the best way.