In a yurt strewn with Persian carpets, eight people lie under a blanket on mattresses in a circle. Soothing music comes from the speaker. This yurt is located on the grounds of Carolien Heestermans in Sterksel. Today, together with her boyfriend Kevin, she guides participants during a truffle ceremony. Omroep Brabant gets a unique insight.
Because a truffle ceremony can be quite exciting, especially with a camera, Carolien has gathered a group of experienced ‘trufflers’ especially for today. During the ceremony they ‘go on a journey’, they take truffles with the active substance psilosybin, which makes you trip.
When Carolien attended a truffle ceremony for the first time a few years ago, a world opened up for her. “I learned so much from it, gained awareness and was able to break patterns. It has brought me so much and because I saw how it can help people, I wanted to delve deeper into it and do it myself.”
That is why Carolien decided to gain a lot of experience with truffles and train to become a truffle ceremony supervisor. “The course has a Quality and Testing Nature-oriented Courses (KTNO) quality mark,” says Carolien. This is an online quality assurance platform for training in supplementary healthcare. The KTNO is convinced that the professional field itself is about the quality of vocational education and no one else, as can be read on their website.
Truffle ceremonies
Just like magic mushrooms, truffles fall under psychedelics and after taking truffles you can experience reality differently, also known as tripping. This is due to the active substance psilosybin. Truffles are legal in the Netherlands and you can eat them or make tea from them. During a truffle ceremony, people, often in a group, ingest truffles with guidance.
Michiel van Elk is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leiden University and conducts research into truffles. According to him, many people think that truffle ceremonies are a replacement for psychedelic therapy. This is a therapy with truffles that may help against depression, among other things. This is currently still being investigated. “People think because truffles are legal that it works, but we are not there yet.”
The research results go both ways: “Truffle ceremonies can have positive effects, but we also see that some people suffer more from stress and become more depressed or emotionally unstable.”
Support during the trip
Even though all participants have experience with truffles and Carolien has spoken to them in advance, she explains what they can expect. “What psilosybin can do in your system is expand your mind, open you up and let you feel beyond all your layers, masks and patterns. Sometimes it gives you a direction and sometimes an answer.”
Kevin adds: “During the ceremony, Carolien and I will provide intuitive support during your journey. This can be energetically, by sitting next to you, but it can also be done with touch. If you don’t like that, feel free to push our hand away.”
Then it’s time for sharing and the camera turns off for a while. The participants share their personal story, why they are at this truffle ceremony and what they want to get out of it. Kevin does some breathing exercises with the participants. “To sink into the body a little more.” The camera can be turned on again.
Looking beyond judgment
In the meantime, Carolien is carefully preparing the truffles in a smaller yurt on the property. The dosage differs per participant. “With experienced trufflers, we look at how much they took in other ceremonies and whether they noticed anything. We adjust it based on that.”
Why is she actually participating in this report? “I hope not everyone will do it now, because it is not for everyone. But I do hope that the stigma will go away.”
According to Carolien, there is a lot of fear and resistance surrounding the truffle. “It is often dismissed as a bit crazy, but it is a beautiful and safe medicine when used in the right setting.” She hopes people can look past that judgment.
Dancing patterns
The time has come: the participants take the truffles. After about half an hour the truffles start to work for most people. There can be physical effects, such as feeling hot or cold, and also visual effects. “That you see the candles in different colors or that you see the patterns of the Persian carpets dancing.” Of course, we don’t see that in the participants, but every now and then we notice something about what they feel. For example, a woman starts to cry and later starts laughing.
During the ceremony, Kevin and Carolien walk around to see how the participants are doing. They do not talk to each other, but communicate via a notebook. “The gentleman on the left had clenched his fists and they are now relaxed again,” they write to each other.
Every now and then they pat someone’s head or grab someone for a moment. The participants do not eat during the ceremony, but they do drink a lot of tea. When they have to pee, Carolien and Kevin accompany them to the toilet.
A ‘journey’ takes about four to five hours. We have agreed with Carolien that we will leave the room after a few hours, so that the participants can continue ‘truffle’ in peace. After the ceremony there is always an extensive sharing where the participants share their experiences and insights and they all eat together. After a while, the participants return home or can stay the night in the yurt.
Curious what this looks like? In the new White Goat, editors find out whether anyone can lead truffle ceremonies and watch.
