Amanita muscaria thoughts, experiences?

They look lovely.

I had a few good experiences with amanitas muscaria. I usually make a tea with 20-30 g of dried mushrooms, to which I add lemon juice and honey to improve the taste and prevent nausea. Once, I passed out and realized that the psychedelic experience was still going on during the sleep (it's not actual sleep though, more like a comatose transe), it was way stronger and deeper. Since then I took the habit to go to bed as soon as I feel the effects kicking in, I enjoy the trip a lot more that way.

I have to be honest and say that even if it's a pleasant trip, psilocybine-containing mushrooms are a lot more potent and enjoyable. Amanitas is a smooth hallucinogenic plant, good for lucid dreams and shamanic journeys, but maybe not intense enough for someone seeking a full psychedelic experience.

 

Dammit you people are lucky.... I live in the high desert,I don't think there's any shrooms here.

There are lots of cows in pastures that I could probably get permission to use for "recreational purposes". Any mycologists wanna talk about ranges, seasons, species, etc? There IS a monsoon season here, if that would do it.

Bassline, that is interesting, about intentionally sleeping or resting while on them. Anyone know the effects of mixing low doses of them with low doses of tryptamine containing mushrooms, for a more psychedelic, perhaps more introspective trip? (combined, presumably, with your method of bedrest (or reclining lawn chair rest on a nice day))

 

Mushrooms love warmth and humidity, so keep your eyes open during a period of hot and humid weather, or the next couple of days following a rainshower in summer. They can sprout quite fast, in only a few days sometimes, so go on the mushroom hunt regularly (they prefer shady spaces also). I'm not sure about the seasons and species in Australia though, I studied north american mushrooms for the most.

 

Oh, i'm in the southernmost part of north america, just about central america.

 

Cool. There's dozens of mushrooms part of the psilocibe family (the ones that contain psilocybine) around the world, so there sure is one near you. If the area where you live isn't too desertic (near the coasts, in the Andes or near a forest), you should be able to find them naturally growing near you. I know tribes in the Sonoran Valley have a long tradition of mushroom use, but not sure which species exactly, I gotta verify and come back to you on that one.

 

Do you know of any resources for this, maybe overlays showing ranges of different species?

I don't really want to go google "what shrooms can i find at *my address*"

 

http://www.amanitaceae.org/?About+Amanitaceae

 

Honestly man, mycology is a very difficult and precise field, the difference between a psychoactive mushroom, a lethal mushroom, and a harmless inactive mushroom can be impossible to tell with the naked eye. You can buy amanitas extremely cheap online if you really wanna try. Amanitas are fairly distinct though but my warnings were more towards trying to pick psilocybin mushrooms, they have some imitators that are lethal.

In general leave the mushroom picking to the experts.

 

Indeed, it can be tricky. When in doubt, I only pick up a couple of specimens to study them in order to be able to make a precise identification. Of course, as long as I'm not sure which species I have in front of me, I avoid eating some.

 

there are several rules to safe psilocybe hunting they MUST BE OBEYED indefintely and if a mushroom does not meet all criteria it must be discarded. but they are fairly simple. no-one can show me a mushroom that fits all my criteria and is poisonous.

PURPLE-BROWN TO BLACK SPORE PRINT

BLUE BRUISING WHERE DAMAGED- varies with species usually on stem mainly. some will not blue.

GILLS NOT PORES

CAPS DRYING FROM THE INSIDE-OUT NOT THE OTHER WAY

CAPS HAVE A MEMBRANE COVERING THE CAP VISIBLE ON BREAKING FRESH CAP

CAPS HYGROPHANOUS> LIGHTENING IN COLOUR ON DRYING TO STRAW COLOURED TO WHITE

if all of these rules are obeyed intirely one can be sure they will only be getting psilocybes or harmless inactive strophs.

spore-print every specimen to be sure.
the main (dangerous) imposters are the galerinas which will have RUSTY-BROWN coloured spores and generally not bruise blue, although i think one species of galerina does. so don't get your colour-blind mate to check the prints for you.

and these fuckers will kill you.

if you were to eat galerinas by mistake-
you'll be nauseaus, vomit and have diarrhea for a few days then signs will vanish for a day making you think all is good. then you will get vomiting and diarrhea again, this time with blood in it, followed by jaundice, yellowing of the features-indicating liver failure- then you will die a slow poisoned death.

now the importance of spore-printing every specimen shouldve hit home to those considering doing this.. do your fucking research.
what i've said is not enough, but it would keep you alive.:sunny:

 

I was at a Yule party where they were serving cake baked with plenty of MJ and the the skins of some Amanitas. It was definitely a very low dose, but I think it definitely put me into a slightly more spiritual and psychedelic headspace. It was good fun, but I wasn't tripping.

Definitely bake them first to decarboxylate the Ibotenic acid like you said, then start with a low dose. It seems to me that these mushrooms are better for spiritual and shamanic use, especially since they seem to be a more difficult substance to work with. I remember talking to one guy who ate two good sized caps at the Telluride Mushroom Festival and ended up going temporarily blind in his left eye from the blurred vision and was horribly dehydrated and disoriented. Eventually he got back to his camp and was able to sleep after stumbling around in a delerium, and the next morning he said it felt like his internal organs were aching. BIG lessons were learned that night. On the other hand someone I know very well has used them for shamanic "vision quest" type work and ended up having a conversation with what appeared to be the spirit of the mushroom during one experience. Soooo your mileage may vary! Respect your 'shrooms though.

 

Well in general, I think there's a few rules that will keep you safe, with few exceptions.

Though I would have a mycologist(or botanist, with what's available to me, but I would expect the ones in question to know) identify the mushrooms before consuming them. It's pretty easy to say you found mushrooms and want to know what species they are, so you can make a stir-fry, but it's pretty hard to innocently go and ask where they suggest you pick psychedelic fungi

(intent determines illegality, just like with peyote and stuff. Unfortionatly, weed is rather different)

 

exactly.. just following the rules i outlined earlier will keep you from dying.
however they are not in depth enough to determine even sub-species within a genus. for that you need micro-scopic features to be certain. the rules i outlined will simply only allow for psilocybes (if followed strictly) none of which are poisonus, although some members are non-active.

 

http://www.eticomm.net/~ret/amanita/mainaman.html
heres another amanita identification site. little more navigable than the other, had this link on my other computer buta must of got lost.

 

I definitely have had nothing but good experiences, so far, with fly agarics. I have eaten them raw and dried. I currently have about 5 lbs dried in a box in the attic right now. I have put them in soups and fried them up with butter and garlic. Raw, they taste kind of nutty. Dried they taste like shit. I have done a lot of research on them. They cause no brain damage, as far as I've read and experienced. The only known death is a man that ate over a hundred caps. I'd say he had it coming. Most of my experience with them has been in low doses, but recently I ground up 5 dried caps and made a tea. I posted that story accidentally in the cacti forum, if anyone is interested.

I concur with the post about the sleeping trance. That was probably my favorite part. Pulsing flashes of light in the region of my frontal lobe. I woke up without my ego, felt very light--meaning I wasn't packing around all the bullshit I normally pack around egoically. It lasted several hours. I suffered no hangover. A half hour after I drank the tea, I threw up something resembling soda water. The purge was quick and painless. I was in the bathroom all of 30 seconds and came out feeling fine, just sleepy. I laid down for about an hour, got up and had a very pleasant experience.

All in all. It was a good trip. Looking forward to doing it again, and adding a couple of caps next time.

Recommend an empty stomach, a good head space to begin with, a good physical space. and Don't drink anything carbonated with them as the carboxolate will react with it.