Sputnik Psilocybe Mushroom FAQ v1.2S

By:
nipo@brahman.nullnet.fi	(most of the writing)
gnosis@brahman.nullnet.fi	(layout, additions)
Thanks to
baabo@brahman.nullnet.fi	(for shroom descriptions)
Tatu	(for shroom descriptions)
ppennane@cc.helsinki.fi	(for the Tryptamine FAQ)
dr303@cleveland.freenet.edu	(for alkaloid content figures)
lamont@hyperreal.com	(for neuropharmacology)
dgross@moorlock.punk.net	(for HTMLizing)
& all the other net-people who added or corrected info & especially our fellow innerspace astronauts

Notes

Schizophrenic alternation between "I" and "we" is due to the file being written by two people, not permanent brain damage from mushrooms. =)

This file is purposely not in the usual question-answer, clearly-divided subsections, everything-referenced, no-cute-ASCII-pics format usually used for FAQs. Instead, it's more relaxed and loose, which in our opinion makes for a much better read. Enjoy!

Index

1. Disclaimer
2. Viewpoint
3. History
4. Etymology
5. Chemistry
6. Psychology
7. Legality
8. Botany
9. Mushroom Guide
10. Growing Mushrooms
11. Picking Mushrooms
12. Drying Mushrooms
13. On the Dosage
14. Consumption
15. Preparation for the Voyage
16. Music and the Voyage
17. During the Voyage
18. Warning
19. Miscellaneous Questions
20. Further Reading
21. References
22. Endnotes

Disclaimer

For info only. I hope someday humanity reaches the point where there are no restrictions, laws or censorship.

History

Hallucinogenic mushrooms have probably been in existence exactly as long as humanity. Ancient pictures of mushroom-headed humanoids have been found in caves in the Sahara. Siberian shamans use[d] fly agarics to enlighten the path to the spiritworld. In Central and Southern America use of psilocybian mushrooms (and other hallucinogens) was common until the arrival of Spaniards who spread the Catholic faith with sword and fire and forbade the use.

Spanish priest Bernardino de Sahagun (ca. 1500 AD) on the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms by the Aztecs:

"The first thing to be eaten at the feast were small black mushrooms that they called nanacatl and bring on drunkenness, hallucinations and even lechery; they ate these before the dawn...with honey; and when they began to feel the effects, they began to dance, some sang and others wept... ... When the drunkenness of the mushrooms had passed, they spoke with one another of the visions they had seen."

On use of alcohol:

"If a youth appeared intoxicated in public... he was punished by being beaten to death with stick or garrotte before all other youths assembled there...to serve as an example."

Only old people were allowed to drink the alcoholic beverage pulque. Sahagun has an error in his writings, the mushrooms were not ingested with food:

"It is an ancient custom for people to eat mushrooms and these they ate in a trice, as is said. They had had no food exept some cacao drunk the night before. They ate these mushrooms with honey."

The Aztecs (1400-1521) took other hallucinogenic drugs such as tlapatl, mixitl grain and peyotl or peyote, use of which originated from the north of Mexico, where it had been in use since 300 B.C. "Mushroom stones" in which figures under the cap of a mushroom are depicted have been found even from an earlier era (1000-500 B.C.) The purpose of these sculptures is not certain, but these stones may have been religious objects.

The Codex Vienna Mixtec manuscript (ca 13th-15th century) depicts the ritual use of the teonanácatl by the Mixtec gods. The god known as 7 Flower (his name presented in the pictoral language as seven circles and a flower) was the Mixtec god for hallucinatory plants, especially the divine mushroom, and is depicted with a pair of mushrooms in his hand.

The Aztec also had their god for the entheogens, Xochipilli, Prince of Flowers. He was the divine patron of "the flowery dream" as the Aztecs called the ritual hallucinatory trance.

Mushrooms ingested by the indians were supposedly Psilocybe mexicana or caerulescens and Panaolus sphinctrinus. Stropharia cubensis, which is currently quite popular as it is easy to locate and cultivate, was not introduced to America until the arrival of the Europeans and their cattle. Today indians regard Stropharia cubensis inferior to Ps. mexicana for it grows in dung.

In the beginning of twentieth century interest in psychoactive mushrooms stirred. The teonanácatl was first identified as Lophophora williamsii or peyote, and it was thought that Sahagun had mistaken the cactus for mushrooms. Finally ethnobotanist Richard Evan Schultes and physician Plasius Paul Reko traveled for the mushrooms to Oaxaca, and collected specimens of Panaeolus sphinctrinus. They found out that mushroom ceremonies - veladas - were still being held in the area.

A decade after World War II, after long search the mycophile-family of R. Gordon Wasson came to little Village of Huatla de Jimenez, and Wasson and his friend Allan Richardson attended a velada held by curandera Maria Sabina.

Information about the mushrooms soon spread. Psilocybin and psilocin were found and their analogues were synthesized. Experimentation with the mushrooms and the synthesized substances began and magic mushrooms were soon part of the 60's 'psychedelic' movement, ie. every second middle class kid was opening the doors of perception and [ab]using hallucinogenic drugs.

Etymology

   / et'e-mol'e-je / 1. the origin and history of words

The name of the genus "Psilocybe" comes from the Greek words "psilos" (bare) and "kube" (head), warped into New Latin to form "psilocybe". Literally translated, this means "bald head", which I suppose comes from their appearance. A rather inaccurate comparison if you ask me, most bald people don't have big pointy nipples on top of cone-shaped heads, even if they're from Remulok, but I digress...

The best known hallucinogens in Psilocybe mushrooms are the chemicals psilocybin and psilocin, which are discussed at length in the next part. There remains a minor controversy about the spelling of their names. Psilocybin and psilocin are both alkaloids (nitrogen-containing substances found in nature), and an effort in the 70's aimed to convert all alkaloid names so that they end in -ine, like cocaine, caffeine, morphine, etc. The names should thus be "psilocybine" and "psilocine"; yet "psilocybine" is used very rarely even in modern authoritative works, and I have seen "psilocine" in print exactly once. If anybody has some idea about the current situation and the Korrekt(tm) spelling, please inform me.

Chemistry

The primary active ingredients of Psilocybe mushrooms are (surprise!) psilocybin and psilocin, and to a lesser extent baeocystin and norbaeocystin. The ratio of psilocybin to psilocin varies from species to species. The primary difference is that psilocin is unstable and it breaks down when the mushroom is dried, while psilocybin lasts much longer (a 115-year old mushroom sample was found to contain some). The two are equally psychoactive, since one molecule of psilocybin breaks down into one molecule of psilocin. But in terms of weight, we find that:

              molecular weight of psilocybin   284.3
              ------------------------------ = ----- = 1.391
              molecular weight of psilocin     204.3

So by weight psilocin is around 1.4 times more potent. The formula for calculating total potency, ignoring [nor]baeocystin, is thus:

(psilocybin) + (1.4 * psilocin) = total potency in 'psilocybin units'

Now, here's the structural diagram for psilocybin:

               N
              / \                      PSILOCYBIN
             /   \
      ______/     \                    C  H  N O P
     / /  \ \     ||                    12 17 2 4
    / /    \ \    ||
   / /      \ \   ||                   4-OPO -DMT
   \/        \/___||       C       C        4
    \________/      \     / \     /
     \______/        \   /   \   /     4-Phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine
            \         \ /     \ /
             \         C       N       1H-Indol-4-ol, 3-[2-(dimethylamino)-
              \      (+)       |       ethyl] dihydrogen phosphate ester
               O               |
               |               C       CAS #: 520-52-5
           ____|    (-)
          O____P____O                  DEA #: 7437
               |
               |
               O

In the body, the phosphorus part is chopped off ("dephosphorylated") by the enzyme alkaline phosphatase, turning it into our other friend:

               N                       PSILOCIN
              / \
             /   \                     C  H  N O
      ______/     \                     12 16 2
     / /  \ \     ||
    / /    \ \    ||                   4-OH-DMT
   / /      \ \   ||
   \/        \/___||       C       C   4-Hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine
    \________/      \     / \     /
     \______/        \   /   \   /     1H-Indol-4-ol, 3-[2-(dimethylamino)
            \         \ /     \ /      ethyl]
             \         C       N
              \                |       CAS #: 520-53-6
               O               |
                               C       DEA #: 7438

Psilocybin and psilocin are part of the tryptamine family (indole C8H7N & ethylamine side chain). They bear close resemblance to the neurotransmitter serotonin. How these substances work is, I have come to believe, still quite obscure. Primary effect seems to be the inhibition of neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine aka 5-HT), i.e. a 5-HT2A post-synaptic agonist that mimics the effects to 5-HT to put it in jargon. This is the working hypothesis for LSD-25 at the moment and it's probably true for psilocybin as well. These substances also present some cross-tolerance.

As a good psychedelic should, psilocybin, psilocin and psilocybian mushrooms have low toxicity - in tests with mice, doses up to 200 mg of psilocybin/kg of body (in average human terms (65 kg) 13 grams) have been injected intravenously without lethal effects. The ED50:LD50 ratio is 641 according to the NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects; compare this with 9637 for vitamin A, 4816 for LSD, 199 for aspirin and 21 for nicotine. Poisoning, at least physically, is thus not a problem.

Then we have the two other significant indole alkaloids:

 
               N
              / \                      BAEOCYSTIN
             /   \
      ______/     \                    C  H  N O P
     / /  \ \     ||                    11 15 2 4
    / /    \ \    ||
   / /      \ \   ||                   4-OPO -MT
   \/        \/___||       C                4
    \________/      \     / \
     \______/        \   /   \         4-Phosphoryloxy-N-methyltryptamine
            \         \ /     \
             \         C       N       1H-Indol-4-ol, 3-[2-(methylamino)-
              \      (+)       |       ethyl] dihydrogen phosphate ester
               O               |
               |               C       CAS #: 21420-58-6
           ____|    (-)
          O____P____O                  DEA #: None
               |
               |                       The monomethyl analogue of psilocybin
               O

Unlike psilocybin, baeocystin is somewhat unstable, and decays noticeably with age. And then we have baeocystin's close chemical cousin:

 
  
               N
              / \                      NORBAEOCYSTIN
             /   \
      ______/     \                    C  H  N O P
     / /  \ \     ||                    10 13 2 4
    / /    \ \    ||
   / /      \ \   ||                   4-OPO -T
   \/        \/___||       C             4
    \________/      \     / \
     \______/        \   /   \         4-Phosphoryloxytryptamine
            \         \ /     \
             \         C       N       1H-Indol-4-ol, 3-[2-aminoethyl]
              \      (+)               dihydrogen phosphate ester
               O
               |                       CAS #: 21420-59-7
           ____|    (-)
          O____P____O                  DEA #: None
               |
               |                       The demethyl analogue of psilocybin
               O

In other words, baeocystin and norbaeocystin are just psilocybin with one methyl and two methyls respectively lopped off. And unfortunately for all you synthesis experts, while baeocystin and norbaeocystin do not have DEA control numbers they do both come under the Controlled Substance Analogue Act.

When dephosphorylated, they turn into 4-hydroxy-N-methyltryptamine and 4-hydroxytryptamine. All 4 substances are presumed hallucinogenic, but less so than psilocin or psilocybin. Very little work seems to have been done on them (Chemical Abstracts averages a cite a year, with most of them of the variety "baeocystin found in Psilocybe totallyobscuralis"). There has been some speculation on the 'net about them, and a possible correlation between nausea and the amount of baeocystin has been found. We hope to be able to investigate the question further for the next version.

These are just the four "biggies". A whole truckload of other indoles are known to exist in Psilocybe mushrooms. Here's a sample of what was found in a batch of Psilocybe baeocystis, excluding the ones mentioned above:

Indole derivative	Amount (ug)
5-Benzyloxy-3-indole acetic acid	2
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine hydrogen-oxalate [aka DMT]	4
Gramine	40
3-Hydroxyethyl indole	2
5-Hydroxy-3-indole acetic acid	2
5-Hydroxyindole	4
3-Hydroxymethylindole	2
5-Hydroxytryptamine creatine sulfate [aka Serotonin]	4
5-Hydroxytryptophane	2
Indole	4
3-Indoleacetamide	2
3-Indole acetic acid	2
3-Indoleacetic acid ethyl ester	2
3-Indoleacetonitrile	2
3-Indolealdehyde	40
3-Indoleacetaldehyde	2
3-Indolecarboxylic acid	4
3-Indolelactic acid	2
gamma-(Indole)-N-butyric acid	4
beta-Indole-3-acrylic acid	2
beta-(Indole-3)-propionic acid	4
Indoxylacetate	2
Indoxylbutyrate	2
Isatin	2
5-Methoxy-2-carboxyindole	2
5-Methoxydimethyltryptamine monooxalate [aka Bufotenine]	4
5-Methoxyindole	4
2-Methylindole	2
3-Methylindole	4
5-Methylindole	4
5-Methyltryptophane	2
N-Methyltryptophane	2
Tryptamine hydrochloride	4
L-Tryptophane	0.8
From: A.Y. Leung, A.H. Smith & A.G. Paul, "Production of Psilocybin in Psilocybe baeocystis Saprophytic Culture" J Pharm Sci 54: 1576 (1965)

Yes, Psilocybe mushrooms contain DMT, but in microscopic amounts. DMT is not orally active anyway, so it doesn't do anything.

The effects of psilocybin can be potentiated (made stronger) by taking them with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). The potency is roughly doubled, according to most reports. The best known MAOIs are harmine and harmaline from the plant Peganum harmala (Syrian rue). Combining MAOIs and tryptamines is an unsafe activity; not only are there are number of substances you must avoid during use to prevent a serious hypertensive crisis (see: Foods to Avoid When Using MAO-Inhibitors), but the long-term health effects are unknown. If you wish to know more, consult the Tryptamine FAQ. Personally, I doubt it's worth the risk, if you pick or grow shrooms it's easy to get enough shrooms for a double dose.

Psychology

Psilocybin is juuust fine. I've tried several psychoactive drugs, including hash, LSD-25 and psilocybin. Hash usually doesn't do much - sends me into a half sleep with silly thoughts and spacey soundscape added to music... LSD doesn't do it to me either. It's probably OK if you are after low dose recreation - partying and such... High doses - too blunt, like a mental power tool. It cracks up open your head; Starring You and Your Brain for 12 hours. Every perception magnified thousandfold - it's.. it's a bit too intense. INTENSE! is the keyword. It doesn't accept any apologies or mistakes.. too harsh. I often felt like I had been immersed in some chemical, into a substance so pure and efficient it has no place in nature. Too pure. 12 hours of LSD-25 acid-bath makes you really tired... physically and mentally. But psilocybin, mm-mm, it's juuuuust fiiiine.

Voyage to the spiritworld... visions and travels, awesome mental hallucinations. It's a direct ISDN-link to the mother earth, forgiving, gentle substance. You hear the chanting of the planet and the spirit of the mushroom. It's a product of the nature, untied to the actions of men and women roaming this planet. Your body disconnected from the circuit, you may often forget it exists. Six hours - not too short, not too long. Perfect.

It should be noted that like all 'major' hallucinogens, psilocybin can precipitate psychotic episodes and uncover or aggravate previous mental illness. If you're stressed out or depressed, don't take mushrooms; if you have schizophrenia or something, DO NOT take mushrooms.

ACID IS NOT FOR EVERY BRAIN .... ONLY THE HEALTHY, HAPPY, WHOLESOME, HANDSOME, HOPEFUL, HUMOROUS, HIGH-VELOCITY SHOULD SEEK THESE EXPERIENCES. THIS ELITISM IS TOTALLY SELF-DETERMINED. UNLESS YOU ARE SELF-CONFIDENT, SELF-DIRECTED, SELF-SELECTED, PLEASE ABSTAIN.
-Timothy Leary, Ph.D.

I think this applies to mushrooms as well. Mushrooms and acid will open your doors of perception, and once open you can never truly close them again. They are more than a purely recreational drug.

Legality

Here's a list of the places we know about. Much of this is 'off the net' and may thus be more or less flawed. "Y" means it is legal, "N" means it is illegal, "?" means their status is unclear.

	A: Possession of fresh mushrooms B: Possession of dried mushrooms C: Possession of mushroom spores D: Cultures at mycelium stage E: Cultures at mushroom stage
Location	A B C D E	Noted
Austria	Y ? Y Y Y	Mushrooms are considered decorative plants and unless attempts to extract psilocybin are made, they should remain legal.
Canada	Y N Y Y Y	If Bill C-7 passes, possession of fresh mushrooms and cultures will become illegal.
Great Britain	Y Y Y Y N	A legislative quirk allows the possession of "naturally dried" (sun-dried) shrooms.
The Netherlands	Y N Y Y Y	Even the sale of fresh mushrooms is legal. See "Growing Mushrooms" for addresses.
United States (California)	N N N N N	Spores and cultures are explicitly forbidden by CA Health & Safety Code Section 11391.
United States (Florida)	Y N Y Y N	Possession of fresh mushroom if picked "accidentally" (low quantities) is allowed.
United States (Oregon)	Y N Y Y N	Even allowing mushrooms to grow on your property is (theoretically) illegal.
United States (Federal)	N N Y Y N	State laws take precedence over Federal law in the U.S., so this may not apply.
International	Y N Y Y N	This is the United Nations standard and most nations follow it.

These laws are based on a balance between the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which makes psilocybin and psilocin illegal, and recognition of the fact that the substances occur in nature. For each category:

• Fresh shrooms: The basic idea is that since shrooms grow in nature, it'd be silly to arrest grannies who happen to have a few growing in their backyard, or who pick them by accident. This hasn't stopped most of the US (except Florida) from banning them entirely. Of course, if you are caught with 3000 Str. cubensis, you'll have a hard time claiming you picked them by "accident".
• Dry shrooms: Usually taken as proof of intent to consume, and thus illegal. In Britain, "naturally dried" shrooms are legal, ie. if you leave them on a windowsill by 'accident' it's OK.
• Shroom spores: Spores contain no psilocybin or psilocin and thus are not covered by regulations - except in California.
• Cultures before shrooms appear: Same as above, usually. Advanced mycelia do contain psilocybin and psilocin. With the rice cake method you can grow until the mycelia are complete and then eat the cakes; this way you can trip without ever being in possession of shrooms.
• Cultures after shrooms appear: Clear intent to consume, and you'll probably get charged with possession with intent to sell as well. However! In some more liberal countries, such as Finland, you might be able to argue that the mushrooms were grown for decorative (ha!) or research purposes. Do not count on it.

Mushroom hunting is another issue. On public property, hunting itself is not illegal, but you're not likely to run into cows in national parks either. =) Some countries like Finland have the legal concept of "everyman's right" which allows, among other things, picking mushrooms on private property, except on fields which once again makes things tricky. But unless you live in a notorious shroom zone - some areas of Florida and South Wales come to mind - the odds of getting hassled by farmers, much less getting caught by the police, are practically zero.

If you are caught by the cops, expect to be charged with trespassing and possession of controlled substances. Unless large quantities are involved, you will probably get by with probation and/or a fine. If caught in Florida, you can cite the state laws and have the possession charge reduced or dropped entirely.

Botany

     .-'~~~-.
   .'o oOOOo`.        "I am ... a mushroom
  :~~~-.oOo   o`.      On whom the dew of heaven drops now and then."
   `. \ ~-.  oOOo.           - John Ford
     `.; / ~.  OO:
     .'  ;-- `.o.'
    ,' ; ~~--'~
    ;  ;               [ASCII stolen from Mescalito Ted]
_\\;_\\//_

Psilocybe mushrooms are:

• kingdom Protista, division Fungi, class Basidiomycetes, order Stropharia, families Bolbitiaceae, Coprinaceae, Cortinariaceae, Pluteaceae, and Strophariaceae
• basidiomycotina or -mycetes - Fungi that produce spores on stalks outside the terminal cells.
• agaricales - mushrooms with cap & gills;

Commonly used species:

• Panaeolus sphinctrinus, subbalteatus (benanosis)
• Psilocybe baeocystis, caerulescens, cyanescens, mexicana, pelliculosa, semilanceata, stuntzii
• Stropharia (Psilocybe) cubensis

• Agrocybe farinacea
• Boletus erythropus, manicus, migroviolaceus, niggerimus, kumaeus, reayi [all (@)]
• Conocybe cyanopus, kuehneriana (*), siligineoides (?), smithii
• Copelandia anomala, bispora, cambodginiensis, cyanescens, tropicalis
• Coprinus niveus, patouillardii, narcoticus
• Galerina steglichii
• Gymnopilus aeruginosus, liquiritiae, luteus, purpuratus, spectabilis, validipes, viridans
• Inocybe aeruginascens, coelestium, corydalna, haemacta, tricolor
• Lepiota peele
• Panaeolina foenisecii (%)
• Panaeolus acuminatus, antillarum, ater, cambodginiensis, campanulatus, chlorocystis, foenisecii, firmicola, olivaceus, papilionaceus, retirugis, separatus, tropicalis
• Pholiotina cyanapoda
• Pluteus atricapillus (%), nigroviridis, salicinus
• Psathyrella candolleana, gracilis, sepulchralis
• (Almost) all Psilocybe species

(*) Contains only psilocin.
(%) Contains only psilocybin.
(?) Contains unidentified tryptamines (probably psilocin/psilocybin).
(@) Contains unidentified hallucinogens (possibly psilocin/psilocybin). The Boletus genus is very large and very few of them are hallucinogenic; some are known to be poisonous.

Inclusion on this list does not mean the psilocin/psilocybin content is sufficient for psychotropic activity in practical amounts, for example one would need to eat around a thousand Pluteus atricapillus to get off.

The following hallucinogenic species contain not psilocin/psilocybin but atropine, bufotenine, muscimol and similar nasties:

• Amanita citrine, formosa, mappa, muscaria (*), pantherina, porphyria, regalis, tomentella
• Pholiota squarrosa

(*) The famed "Fly Agaric" red toadstool with white warts.

Amanita species cause 95% of all deaths from mushroom poisoning. The ones above are (reasonably) safe, the danger lies in correct identification. Death by Amanita poisoning is reportedly an excruciating way to die, since they nuke your liver and the body's own wastes then kill you. Worse yet, the effects only start 3 days after ingestion, and by then it's too late. I would seriously recommend against toying with these; most reports say they're not even fun. If you insist, consult other sources for more information.

Mushroom Guide

Warning

    "Expert shroomers really know their shit."
                                              -cowboy@jax.jaxnet.com

A printout of this part of the text should provide an adequate check-list for mushrooms in the field, but a good mushroom book with color pictures of the mushrooms, preferably at all 4 stages of growth, is INVALUABLE. The set of GIFs at hemp.uwec.edu may be used as a crude substitute, but a book is easier to carry around... =)

For exhaustingly exhaustive and thoroughly technical descriptions of most Psilocybes, the reader is referred to Singer & Smith: Mycologia 58, 263-303 and H0iland: Norw J Botany 25(2), 111-122. These two, along with a dozen lesser references (all of them listed at the end), were primary sources in compiling this.

To check the spore color, take two caps, place one on a sheet of white and one on a black paper, or on a glass plate if you plan to use microscope. Place in a draftless place and wait for 6 to 24 hours. The dust-like stuff on the sheet is the spores. Compare the two papers. For size, you'll need a good microscope... =)

The standard identifying mark of most Psilocybes is that they stain blue when touched or cut; unless specifically noted otherwise, assume all mushrooms listed here do. Mind you, this blueing alone is not sufficient for identification as a non-poisonous and hallucinogenic mushroom!

It is STRONGLY recommended that for the first few hunts you go out with a friend who has hunted before and knows what they look like. While there are no poisonous mushrooms that look like the common Psilocybes, there are a whole bunch that certainly will not get you off, and while not lethal they might well be quite unpleasant. So be careful!

Dosage Note

The medium adult oral dose, according to Hofmann, is 4-8 mg of psilocybin. Thus, you can estimate doses from the mg/g psilocybin figures found in technical literature. Data for "% dry weight" is the same as centigrams per gram, so just multiply by 10 to get the mg/g figure.

Whenever possible, dosages in both shrooms and grams of fresh material have been given. As a rule of thumb, for dried shrooms multiply the dosage in shrooms by two. There is no reliable way of converting weight in grams from fresh to dry, mushrooms contain approximately 90% water (ie. 10 grams wet = 1 gram dry) but the figure varies from species to species.

The amount of psilocybin varies very considerably from mushroom to mushroom, depending on factors like age, growing conditions, etc. The variation is up to 4x for mushrooms grown in controlled laboratory conditions, and as much as 10x for ones that are not! With a new batch, always start out low.

When reading the data, remember that psilocybin is almost equal in strength to psilocin. On the other hand, baeocystin does not appear to very hallucinogenic, but it is rumored to account for some of the side effects.

Shroom descriptions in alphabetical order:

It should be kept in mind that mushrooms change appearance as they age and often have different coloration in different regions.

These descriptions, formatted nicely so that you can print them out as a booklet and take it with you when cow-hunting, are now available separately as the "Psilocybe FAQ Mushroom Field Guide". Available at all well-stocked FTP sites! Or make your own: cut out this section, search-and-replace "*" with "+", and print. Substitute your computer's form feed character or sequence for CTRL-L in need.

Quick Vocabulary
adnate	Gills that are fully attached to the stem
adnexed	Gills that are partially attached to the stem
apex	Top part of stem (i.e. where it's attached to the cap)
concave	Cap that curves "inward" (like the inside of a sphere)
convex	Cap that curves "outward" (like the outside of a sphere)
evanescent	Describes a quickly-disappearing veil
fibrillose	Stem that seems to be made of fibers packed together
fissure	Crack or cleft in cap or gills
HD	"High dose"
hygrophilous	Absorbs water easily
hygrophanous	Becomes translucent when wet
LD	"Low dose"
MD	"Medium dose"
mg/g	Milligrams of substance per gram of dried mushroom
N/A	Not applicable or not available
seceding	Gills that are detaching/detached from the stem
umbonate	Cap that is shaped like a knob
viscid	Cap covered with a sticky coating
And remember, if you think learning these is too hard, try reading Singer & Smith. "Stipe tubular, more rarely subequal, discolors to reddish cinerous, strongly sulcate at apex, glabrous to fibrillose..."

Conocybe cyanopoda

see: Conocybe cyanopus

Conocybe cyanopus

a.k.a. Conocybe cyanopoda, Galerula cyanopus

Conocybe smithii

a.k.a. Galera cyanopes

Galera cyanopes

see: Conocybe smithii

Galera cyanopus

see: Conocybe cyanopus

Naematoloma caerulescens

see: Stropharia cubensis

Panaeolina foenisecii

a.k.a. Panaeolus foenisecii, Psilocybe foenisecii, "Mower's mushroom"

Panaeolus acuminatus

a.k.a. Panaeolus rickenii

Panaeolus ater

Panaeolus benanosis

see: Panaeolus subbalteatus

Panaeolus campanulatus

Panaeolus foenisecii

see: Panaeolina foenisecii

Panaeolus rickenii

see: Panaeolus acuminatus

Panaeolus sphinctrinus

Panaeolus subbalteatus

a.k.a. Panaeolus benanosis

Psathyra pelliculosa

see: Psilocybe semilanceata

Psilocybe aerugineomaculans

see: Psilocybe subaeruginascens

Psilocybe atrorufa

see: Psilocybe montana

Psilocybe aztecorum

a.k.a. Psilocybe mexicana var. longispora

Psilocybe baeocystis

Psilocybe caerulescens

a.k.a. Psilocybe mazatecorum, "Durrumbe," "Landslide"

Psilocybe cubensis

see: Stropharia cubensis

Psilocybe cyanescens

a.k.a. "Wavy Caps," "Blue Halos"

Psilocybe foenisecii

see: Panaeolina foenisecii

Psilocybe mazatecorum

see: Psilocybe caerulescens

Psilocybe mexicana

a.k.a. "Teonanácatl"

Psilocybe mexicana var longispora

see: Psilocybe aztecorum

Psilocybe montana

a.k.a. Psilocybe atrorufa

Psilocybe pelliculosa

see: Psilocybe semilanceata

Psilocybe pugetensis

see: Psilocybe stuntzii

Psilocybe semilanceata

a.k.a. Psathyra pelliculosa, Psilocybe pelliculosa, "Liberty Cap"

Psilocybe stuntzii

a.k.a. Psilocybe pugetensis

Psilocybe subaeruginosa

Psilocybe subaeruginascens

a.k.a. Psilocybe aerugineomaculans, Stropharia caerulescens, Stropharia venenata.

Psilocybe zapotecorum

a.k.a. "Mbey San," "Piule de Barda"

Stropharia caerulescens

see: Psilocybe subaeruginascens

Stropharia cyanescens

see: Stropharia cubensis

Stropharia cubensis

a.k.a. Naematoloma caerulescens, Psilocybe cubensis, Stropharia cyanescens, "San Isidro"

Stropharia venenata

see: Psilocybe subaeruginascens

Other psychoactive species

Here is a brief list of dosage information on some other mushrooms. Some Psilocybes that are known to contain no psilocybin/psilocin are included. Descriptions have been purposely omitted, since I don't have enough info for a full-scale description like the ones above; if you are interested, look them up in a guide.

Genus species	Shrooms fresh	Grams fresh	Psilocybin mg/g dry	Psilocin mg/g dry	Baeocystis mg/g dry	Notes
BOLETUS erythropus	---	100+	---	---	---	1
COPRINUS narcoticus niveus patouillardii	--- --- ---	50+ 50+ 50+	--- --- ---	--- --- ---	--- --- ---	--- --- ---
GYMNOPILUS purpuratus	---	---	1.0-3.4	1.0-3.1	0.1-0.5	---
INOCYBE aeruginascens	---	---	4.0	0.0	2.1	---
PANAEOLUS olivaceus	---	---	0.05	0.0	---	---
PLUTEUS atricapillus salicinus	--- ---	--- ---	0.05 2.1-3.0	0.0 0.0-0.5	--- ---	--- ---
PSATHYRELLA candolleana	---	---	0.04	0.05	---	---
PSILOCYBE bohemica bullacea cookei coprophila inquilina merdaria muscorum percivalii rhombispora squamosa subcoprophila	--- 40-200 10-25 50-200 --- --- 40-200 --- --- --- ---	--- 5-30 2-10 15-100 --- --- 5-30 --- --- --- ---	8.5-9.3 --- --- 0.0 0.0 0.0 --- 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0	--- --- --- 0.0 0.0 0.0 --- 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0	--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---	--- --- 2 3 --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Notes:

1. Has poisonous lookalikes.
2. Very similar to Ps. semilanceata.
3. No psilocybin or psilocin detected chemically despite reports of successful use as a hallucinogen.

Mushroom Resources

Archives on the Internet

• The Sputnik Drug Information Zone's magic mushroom pages.
  • That's where you found this document.

• hemp.uwec.edu (FTP, Gopher)
  • Contains a nice set of mushroom GIFs. Directory of interest: ???

• www.hyperreal.com (FTP, WWW, Gopher)
  • Directory of interest: /drugs/psychedelics/mushrooms

• teleport.com (FTP)
  • The FTP site for the FUNGUS mailing list (see below). Directory of interest: /pub/users/rarnold/mushroom/FUNGUS

Mailing lists on the Internet

FUNGUS

A list devoted to mushroom growers, the guidelines specifically ban discussion of illegal topics, so use a little common sense. The interesting types are however mentioned occasionally, usually under the name "stropharia", and quite a bit of the info is of interest to all growers.

Request address: fungus-request@teleport.com
First line of message: "SUBSCRIBE FUNGUS <address>"

Visionary Plants

A list devoted to all issues regarding visionary plants, primarily mushrooms and species that contain DMT. Highly informative and highly recommended.

Request address: EDMOND@uwyo.edu

This list is selective and maintained by a human, so be polite and tell a bit about yourself and why you want to subscribe, etc.

Companies in the Real World

Warning: Some of these are probably fly-by-night companies that may already have disappeared, so be careful. All addresses are in the USA unless otherwise noted.

   BJ                           Str. cubensis or Lepiota peele sporeprints
   #118 10548 SW 8th St.        for $2; Amanita pantherina coming up in
   Miami, FL 33174              the future.

   Conscious Dreams             Sells fresh mushrooms (F25/oz), growing
   Kerkstraat 117               kits, spore prints (Str. cub, Ps. cyan.),
   1017 GE Amstergam            and live cultures.
   The Netherlands              (Phone: +31-20-626-6907)

   The DoorWay                  Sells lots of books and a shroom kit.
   P.O. Box 12553               Send $1 for catalog.
   Ogden, UT 84412-2553         (E-Mail: MELBARBARI@cc.weber.edu)

   Fane of the Psilocybe        Also known as "The Fane", send $1 for
      Mushroom Association      a membership form.  Issues of their
   Station "E"                  publication "The Sporeprint" cost $5.
   Victoria, B.C. V8W 2W3
   Canada

** FMRC                         Florida Mycology Research Center
1* P.O. Box 8104                ** NO LONGER SELLS PSILOCYBE SPORES **
** Pensacola, FL 32505

   FS Book Company              Does not sell spores, but sells a "Mushroom
   P.O. Box 417457              Resource Catalog" for $15.
   Sacramento, CA 95841-7457    (Phone: +1-916-771-4203)

   Fungi Perfecti               Does not sell Psilocybe spores, but
   P.O. Box 7634                everything else is available.
   Olympia, WA 98507            (Phone : +1-800-780-9126 orders only
                                         +1-206-426-9292 other/int'l
                                 Fax   : +1-206-426-9377
                                 E-Mail: MYCOMEDIA@aol.com)

   J.L.F.                       Supposedly sells some rare species ready
   P.O. Box 184-SC              to eat and lotsa weird stuff.  Free catalog.
   Elizabethtown, IN 47232      (Phone: +1-812-379-2508)

   HEMP BC                      Str. cubensis syringe w/ instructions $33.95,
   324 West Hastings            complete kit $95.65.  S&H included, add $5
   Vancouver, B.C.              for delivery overseas.
   Canada V6B 1K6               (Phone: +1-604-681-4620
                                 Fax  : +1-604-681-4604
                                 WWW  : http://www.hempbc.com)

** Homestead Books              Str. cubensis spores ($25), kits ($70), and
2* P.O. Box 31608               books/videos about growing.
** Seattle, WA 98103            (Phone: +1-206-782-4532)

   Lux Natura                   No spores, but McKenna stuff and a new,
   P.O. Box 2196                extended version of "Psilocybin: Magic
   Berkeley, CA  94704          Mushroom Grower's Guide."  Free catalog.

** Mushroompeople               Sells books related to mushrooms (including
3* P.O. Box 220                 but not limited to psychoactive ones).
** Summertown, TN 38483-0220    (E-Mail    : NATLAW@igc.apc.org
                                 Voice/Fax : +1-615-964-2200
                                 US Fax    : +1-800-MYCO-FAX)

   Mycophile Books              Just what the name says, and nothing more.
   P.O. Box 93                  Also sell used and rare books.  Catalog $3.
   Naples, FL 33939             (Phone: 1-813-262-3363)

   Pacific Exotic Spora         Panaeolus cyanescens and Coplandia cyanescens
   P.O. box 11611               spores.  Very expensive, $40-$75.
   Honolulu, HI 96828

   PRL Biosciences              Str. cubensis culture for $40, other equipment
                                and supplies available.  Free catalog.
                                (Fax: +1-215-483-4917)

** Psylocybe Fanaticus          Send $2 & SASE for ad (electronic version
4* 1202 E. Pike St.  #783       on hyperreal.com).  Spores come in syringes
** Seattle, WA 98122            making them considerably easier to use.

   Teonanácatl                  $5 for small Ps. cyanescens Astoria Ossip
   (postlagernd)                or small Ps. cyanascens USA sporeprint,
   Postamt 1092                 $10-20 for large Ps. cy. AO sporeprint.
   A-1092 Vienna                Add $2 for shipping and handling.
   Austria                      (E-Mail: an148626@anon.penet.fi)

   The Shroom King              Str. cubensis print and a book for $25,
   P.O. Box 17444               above plus compost and agar for $35.
   Seattle, WA 98107            (Phone: +1-206-784-9328)

   SYZYGY                       $15 + $1 (S&H) for a Str. cubensis print
   P.O. Box 619                 on a slide.
   Honaunau, HI 96726

Additional notes:

1. *1* FMRC: While they do not sell Psilocybe spores anymore, they are still active supporters of the issue and they also put an excellent publication named "The Mushroom Culture".
2. Homestead Books: Around for a long time, cheap, and knowledgeable.
3. Mushroompeople: The best, although not necessarily the cheapest, source for all types of mushroom literature.
4. Psylocybe Fanaticus: The best known of the 'underground' sellers, with cheap prices, very fast turnaround times, and high reliability. Outside the US, add an extra $10 to your order for shipping & handling.

Updates to the list are welcome, of course.

Growing Mushrooms

This is about the only aspect of mushrooms that has been thoroughly covered in text files, so we advise you to consult them. Here are few of the better known and more complete files:

• The Psilocybin Producer's Guide
• The Magic Mushroom Growers Guide
• Psilly Simon's Mushroom Growin' Guide II
• How To Grow Psychedelic Mushrooms
• Psylocybe Fanaticus Tek

There are also numerous files described more specialized methods such as different agar mixes, reports of successful growing, etc. For the serious or interested, there is Paul Stamets' excellent book, The Mushroom Cultivator, and McKenna brothers' Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide written under pseudonyms O. T. Oss and O. N. Oeric, both available through many mail-order companies, such as FS books.

All available at a local friendly FTP site such as hyperreal.com, except for the P.F. Tek which is copyrighted and thus contraband (unless you pay $10 to PF, that is). And of course a bit of research at your local library won't hurt one bit. There are also two mailing lists which regularly discuss growing mushrooms.

Picking Mushrooms

Before you leave for the site, remember a few things; clothing, container and energy. So respectively:

• Take clothing that keeps you warm and dry. Fever is not a funny thing during your experience. If your clothing is inadequate, a day out picking mushrooms can be a real pain.
• Take a container that breathes, preferably two to four different containers. And one set for each picker. Take lots of containers with you, especially if you are unsure or have not found the species - it is easy to put each sort into each container. A basket with a few paper cups or tins is just fine. Paper and cloth bags will do fine, but be wary of crushing the mushrooms during transport.
• Energy. Mushroom hunting can be really tiresome at times. Take your happiness and food rations with you - you'll probably need both.

Once you have located the site keep it clean. If it is a cowfield, don't leave any gates open or either the owner of the field or the bull of the herd will get you. Try to just do your thing and then get out of there. Don't scream and shout. I wouldn't recommend telling about a site to anyone - it instantaneously creates an "anonymous mmp-site" - and suddenly everyone is there, sooner or later including the cops too.

OK, run around the field... do you find any mushrooms? If none found, you are not looking hard enough. No matter where you go in the fall, there's some sort of mushroom there. You'd be surprised at how well the things can hide themselves. Found - what is it? Whether you identify it or not, put each species into different container - if in doubt - different container or throw it away. There are always two phases in identifying - when picking and when cleaning (or should be). Always check carefully - saves you lot of trouble.

Here's what the Audubon Society's "Field Guide to North American Mushrooms" has to say on the issue:

"Collect mushrooms in a flat-bottomed basket. Take along a roll of wax paper and wrap each species you find; do not use plastic wrap since it hastens decay. This will keep species separate and fresh until you return home. A pocket knife or trowel is useful in extracting mushrooms from the ground; be very careful not to disturb the underground root system more than necessary. Bring note cards with you and jot down pertinent field data. In particular, note the habitat of the mushroom, including what type of tree it is growing on or near; whether it is growing singly, scattered, in groups, or in clusters; any distinctive odor or taste; the color of the cap, stalk, gills, pores, or teeth, and latex, which may change after the mushroom has been picked. Note any color changes when it is bruised. You can also use the note cards to set up spore prints in the field; they will often be ready by the time you return home. If you are absolutely certain of the identification of an edible species, you can clean it in the field. Until you are experienced, however, it is best to take the mushroom home intact; the stalk base is often a crucial identification feature, and cleaning can remove diagnostic characteristics. The more characteristics you can observe, the better chance you have of identifying the mushroom. It helps to have fresh mushrooms rather than old ones, and to collect many specimens of one kind at various stages of growth."

Drying Mushrooms

Fresh

Mushrooms are best when fresh, both tasting better and working better. The freshness affects experiences a lot. The "divinity factor" is enhanced.

Drying

Drying mushrooms is easy. There are many ways to do it:

• The drawer. Put the mushrooms into a drawer on few sheets of paper. Wait 24 hours. Works well on smaller mushrooms such as Ps. semilanceata. If you have silica gel or something similar (captures humidity) I'd recommend using it.
• The oven. Put the mushrooms into an oven (with the fan on if there is one) with the heat set to 30 to 35 C (~90 F). Wait 2 to 6 hours. Higher temperatures, even 40 C, destroy psilocybin and psilocin.
• The mushroom dryer. Just follow the instructions. Also easy to build.
• The freeze dryer. A psilophile's dream come true, the gadget that stops the time on your mushrooms. Read the instructions.

Once the mushrooms are dry, place them into airtight containers and protect from light. Some psilophiles grind the mushrooms, if you do so, weight the outcome. It is very hard to tell how much of a dose there is if the mushrooms are dried and ground. Some mix the dried and chopped or ground mushrooms with honey. Be sure to use a brand that hardens once cooled. Place in refrigerator. Note that mushrooms containing only psilocybin keep their psychoactivity much longer than those containing psilocybin and psilocin or only the latter. Evidently the psilocin breaks up easily and needs refrigeration to be preserved. I have never had to preserve mushrooms over a year so I wouldn't know exactly, but if stored properly the mushrooms stay psychoactive for at least a year.

Especially with strong, large mushrooms like Str. cubensis, grinding is the only way of calibrating doses. With for example Ps. semilanceata, statistics ensure that the sum of 40 mushrooms from a batch will be more or less the same no matter which 40 you pick, but if you're eating only two Str. cubensis caps things are different. Thus, dry, grind, mix and weigh the resulting powder. After a carefully weighed initial dose (which you'll have to guess, aim low), it's easy to measure out smaller or larger doses in the future.

On the Dosage

The amounts of psilocin and -cybin vary: an extreme case >>>

"Me and a friend of mine were in a rave, and both had taken some mushrooms along. Semilanceatas... so at one point we decided to drink some mushroom tea, and both put 20 tiny mushrooms into our teas... I got nearly nowhere.. some funny effects, almost no dilation of pupils, very very light trip. My friend kept saying 'Wow' and 'What a trip', and some friends of ours tried to talk with him. Afterwards he said he didn't understand a word =). He said the trip was so intense it was as if he had consumed 60 semilanceatas."

Consumption

Once ready for a trip after a yearlong meditation in the wilderness, one is confronted with a problem - how to get that dry and unpleasant tasting stuff down?

Honey & spices & water & mushrooms

This one is a bit sweet but does a good job of covering the taste. Take a half glass of warm or cold water, three or more spoonfuls of honey, and according to taste, spices such as nutmeg, ginger and others. Grind the mushrooms with spices into fine powder, mix everything carefully and gulp down.

Mushroom cacao

Get some cacao beans/powder for this one. Warm some water to 40-60 C. Let the mushrooms steep in this water for about five minutes, fish 'em out and add cacao powder and mix well. Or you can grind mushrooms into fine powder. Sweeten with honey, and drink. Another variation is hot chocolate - melt some chocolate in water instead of cacao.

Mushroom tea

Drown some dried mushrooms in warm/hot water, wait five minutes, and drink. If you seriously dislike the taste of shrooms, just drink the water (although you'll lose part of the effect). I find that this is a good way of getting the shrooms down as well though, just dump in a baggy of strong tea and you won't taste a thing. Word of warning: if you leave the shrooms in for too long, they'll expand and mutate into disgusting blobs of slime. Also a nice way of getting some clue of their original appearance, provided the mushrooms are intact.

Mushrooms & orange juice

Blend an appropriate amount of fresh mushrooms and orange juice in a blender. The orange juice masks the taste quite well, the blender chops up the shrooms into tiny chunks so all the psilocybin is digested, and the vitamin C in the juice won't hurt either.

Pizzas

Just add fresh or dried mushrooms on top. Note that eating a lot adds to physical interference.

Shroom powder and liquids of choice

The finer you grind the shrooms, the better this works. Take a piece of paper and fold twice so you have a V-shape, and make a little pile of shroom powder on one end of it. Open your mouth and let the stuff flow in, then drink water/juice/tea/whatever to wash it down. Figure out an optimal pile size, and you can down the shrooms in record time with no taste and maximum psilocybin ingestion efficiency. Just be careful not to laugh or sneeze when holding the paper, otherwise you'll have to lick the carpet to get the powder... =)

Chew & grind

For this one, toss mushrooms into your mouth, chew well and swallow. The most efficient and simple method of mushroom ingestion. Dried mushrooms taste quite a bit more unpleasant than fresh ones.

Other recipes

I have heard about people making mushroom wine or mushroom chili. There are lots of foods you can put mushrooms into, but I'd recommend indulging in culinary pleasures after the trip. Also note that excessive heat breaks down psilocybin and psilocin, so always add the shrooms in after the food is cooked.

As you may have noted, except for the cheese on the pizza, none the recipes contain any milk or milk products. This is because several files and/or books have stated that calcium and/or fermented milk products interfere with psilocybin. Mind you, this is far from sure, if anybody can dig up a reference for (or against) this we'd appreciate it. But scientific proofs aside, the Aztec tradition of not eating before tripping is probably grounded in knowledge of possible adverse consequences, so don't eat too much, just enough to get the shrooms down.

Preparation For The Voyage

There is a lot one can do to ensure a enjoyable voyage. People often talk about the "set and setting", squaking the three words like bunch of parrots and hardly giving much thought into their meaning. It's probably all the same whether you've ingested super-pure & fresh LSD-25 or nail-polishing fluid if the set and the setting aren't in condition.

• Packing: Get into packing a couple of days before the voyage. Load your gear (brain) with everything you think will be useful. Personally I like documents about nature as they are easy to pack (video or TV). Books are fine but bit slower to load. Walking in nature, quiet and peaceful, and meditating ensures I get enough mental energy and happiness along. Try to break the normal circles of work, and if you are stressed, take few more days away from everything before leaving on the expedition. Go easy on your diet. Some fast for the previous week, others don't pay any attention to what and how much they eat. I eat normally until the day before, after which I eat mostly vegetables and fruits.

• Place: Clean it up. Get some fresh air into it. Tell all your friends/relatives not to visit, and disconnect the doorbell and take the phone off the wall. Make everything as comfortable as possible. Fresh flowers will blow your mind with their beautiful looks and odors. A stroboscope is also worth a try, especially at 20 to 30 Hz. Lights are probably best low or off (and of white color). Music is so important we've given it its own section, coming up next.

• Flight: Loose clothing and something to put on/take off; you'll be lying down most of the time, so pick something you could sleep in. Something to drink - see if your drinks include caffeine or other chemicals. Water is always the best. Some light snacks to eat during the trip, and possibly something to fill your stomach after the trip. Drawing during take-off can be fun, also psychedelic videos. Anyway, for a real "trip" I say: after the takeoff, turn the lights off, turn the volume to the edge of subliminal, and relax & tune into the vibe of the Earth.

Music and the Voyage

One of the important factors of the setting is music - especially in urban environment music may be necessery to camouflage and change the every-day-soundscape. Music can tingle your imagination in a myriad different ways. Music can take you away, comfort or make you feel unbelievalably good. It can also make you sad, jumpy or angry. Therefore it is very important to make the right choice of music. There is tripping music and there is tripping music - depending on the results one wishes to achieve. I will concentrate on the deeper side; music for shamanic voyages, spacetravels and intense mushroom-magic-trips. I speak from my own experience, thru my own frame of reference, so all of the material recommended might not be on your wavelength - I was often skeptical myself but results often are awesome and surprising. Music you like during your normal states of conciousness is probably not ideal - for instance lots of the ambient done today is not very nice for tripping, but probably ideal listening both before and after the trip. For a voyage try to find music that is calm, not too hectic or fast, not too structured and stays in the background if desired.

Ambient - lots of music goes under this name today, and it may very hard to find something truly ambient among all those new ambient- techno/dub releases... All time favorites of mine and many others include Ashra Temple, John Cage, Cluster, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Steve Hillage, Daniel Lanois, Pink Floyd, David Toop & Max Eastley, Tangerine Dream and Tuu. Many music stores lump these under the heading "New Age" next to stuff like Yanni, bleah... All of these move on the more serious tangents - worth checking out. On the lighter, more techno side of the ambient - try Aphex Twin, James Bernard, FFWD, FSOL, Pete Namlook, The Orb (especially the newer releases), William Orbit, Seafeel, Sun Electric or Terre Thaemlitz for instance.

Ethno - music from the different cultures around the world and especially music by shamen or music aiming to a religious or spiritual experience - shamanistic drumming, australian dijeridoo sounds or chantings by gregorian or buddhist monks, for instance. "Meditative music" compilations can be excellent. There are huge volumes of this sort of music published around the world.

Minimalism - especially Terry Riley. Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Lamonte Young have all made "psychoacoustic music", to use a term developed by Brian Eno for his own music. Riley is especially- er.. "beyond words" - something unbelievalable. For connoisseurs.

Silence - either complete or 'The music of the Mother Nature' - best tripping music for as long there has been humans around to trip. The patter of raindrops falling surpasses just about any music humans can come up with. A must try. Perfect.

During the Voyage

Once you are in the air it is relatively easy to forget that you can alter the course of trip. Visuals and thoughts come and go, and everything follows some strangely familiar yet divine and unknown path. So one is left gawking at all this jaw open, as if watching TV. But changing pathways is easy - provided you don't forget it is possible =) Always decide and ponder what you want to see and where you want to go before the experience. A shamanic voyage to the underworld is a snack, as is seeing the future. Usually every tripper forms his own way, follows his own paths, be it for good or evil. Anything is possible!

And remember the immortal words of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

     _____     _    _  .  .   ___   __    . .  . .   _   ___    _____
    /     \   | \  / \ |\ | /  |   |  |  /| |\ | |  / \  \ /   /     \
   |  | |  |  |  )(   )| \|    |   |--' /-| | \| | (      V   |  | |  |
   | \___/ |  | /  \_/ |  |    |   |   /  | |  | |  \_/   o   | \___/ |
    \_____/   *******************  ********************  ***   \_____/

A general topological examination of the scenery

Minutes after ingestion:

0 Ignition

Usually the first effects of psiloc[ybin/in] are perceivable after ten or twenty minutes. Funny or strange things may pop into your mind. One may feel very relaxed or like jumping all over the place. Next you may feel like you were blasting off, up towards the stars, rising high. Chewing the mushrooms for about ten minutes in your mouth enables the psilocybin and its analogues to enter the brain faster - if the mushrooms are immediately swallowed, it may take as long as 1 hour for the first effects to set in.

20 Acceleration

If you get any physical symptoms, this is when they will hit. You can avoid or at least reduce nausea by not eating very much before the trip and not moving around too much during this phase. Throwing up is uncommon but not unheard of; having a barf bag around, especially on the first few trips, is a good idea. If you find that your body really doesn't like shrooms, a motion sickness pill (Dramamine and similar anti-histamines) beforehand may help. But don't worry about it too much, even if you feel queasy the nausea will end quite quickly.

40 Leaving the atmosphere

One will begin entering the realms of the experience; often the first real signs are simple hallucinations with the eyes closed or in darkness, little colored pixels floating around etc. If one is going to go to the toilet, it should be done now.

70 Flight

1 hour is usually sufficient for the more powerful effects to set in. The body will feel heavy and drowsy.

130 Peak

After two hours the peak of the experience. Often quite awesome.

300 Deceleration

By now one will again start to remember the concepts of normal reality and may feel like getting something to drink and eat, or talk and do some moving about.

360 Touchdown

After about six hours most of the effects have disappeared and sleeping becomes possible.

12h Reality

If you trip at night and fall asleep when the trip is ending, this is when you'll wake up... and the odds are you'll feel GRRRRRREAT!

7d Jet lag

Afterglow of the experience will persist anywhere from few days to several weeks; what you've learned may change your life. Occasionally this learning will be negative and you'll be depressed for a while as you assimilate the fact that you've been wrong about something for all your life, but the depression is never extreme and - cheezy as it may sound - you will be a much better person afterwards.

Surgeon General's Warning: One of the aftereffects of psilocybin (and most all psychedelics for that matter) is "emotional fluctuation", ie. things that would make you a bit happy cause euphoria and conversely things you don't like cause depression. At its worst this is a real manic-depressive rollercoaster, but usually the fluctuations are more positive than negative ("It's Monday morning and I feel GRRRRRRREAT!"). At any rate, this rarely lasts longer than a day or two, so don't worry about it.

Notes on physical interference

In addition to the possible nausea in the beginning, which invariably wears off by the time the hallucinations start, the mushrooms can cause physical or psychosomatic interference. You will feel odd, weird and maybe scary physical sensations like liquid skin or distorted body-proportions. You may feel that you have trouble breathing; you may feel that you've just pissed or shit in your pants; you may feel that you're sinking into the ground or into yourself. If you really start worrying about this, you may start to feel like there are worms crawling inside your stomach, that the roof is about to collapse on you, that the sheet you are lying under is trying to eat you...

Don't panic! First of all, 'serious' effects of this type are quite unusual, but even if they do occur getting rid of them is usually easy. Just remember, nothing has really happened or is really happening, it's just your mind exaggerating and creating things. Learn to relax and distract your thoughts on other tangents at moments like this. A simple exercise you can try to practice thought diversion, no drugs needed:

Lie on your bed in complete darkness, listening to suitable evil/freaky music with headphones. Skinny Puppy and ambient industrial are the classic choices. Meditate or just relax for a while. Then, think about something you have a phobia about: snakes, spiders, skeletons, rats, tornados, earthquakes, even mushrooms. Everybody has something they're irrationally afraid of. Staring at a picture of such a thing beforehand may help. At any rate, you will, in all likelihood, feel yourself to be tipping over and falling uncontrollably. Imagine that you're falling into a bottomless pit filled with the nasty thing. Visualize it. Now attempt to wrench your thoughts to something else. If you can take half an hour of this without ripping off the headphones, you're in good shape.

The Eraserhead Syndrome

The mushrooms can be fun. One may feel like eating them every day. A - not cool, B - not good. A mental/physical tolerance builds up quite fast: usually three or four times with 7 day intervals cause diminished effect and notably less divine trip. I'd recommend visiting the spiritworld 4 to 10 times a year, for the freshness and divinity of it. Most of us know an acid- or pot-head - a drug abuser. I call acid/ mushroomheads Eraserheads (seen the movie?), as they are often bit paranoid and manic-depressive and dullheaded. It's easy to get bad vibes off the psilos - just do the mushrooms like you'd do alcohol - without respect or any care. So - use the consciousness of turbocharged-monkeybrain we all have. And if you only want to get your brain fucked up there are better substances for that in the world.

Bad trip? What... hey waitaminute, I know - it's that oriental food with rice and peaches and raw tuna innards - No???

Everyone gets anxious or bad feelings during their dives to the seas of collective unconciousness. It's normal, but the magnitude of baddies can be decreased by paying attention to "set and setting." A friend or guide can distract the attention of an tripper to a wholly different direction. A change of room, place, music or lights often helps. Possible bodily discomfort can be eliminated by learning relaxational techniques and breathing exercises. Keeping your body in good condition is not only good for your trip, but also for your life. Generally, it's good to try to trip for living, not to live for tripping.

Miscellaneous Questions

Q: Can black market 'shrooms be laced with LSD?

A: Yes, very possibly, if the local market price for mushrooms is higher than that of LSD (as it usually is). If the mushroom looks nothing like any of the common psychoactive species, or you are told that one or two small ones are enough to trip hard, odds are it's laced. Note that at least one dealer, fooled by the urban legend of LSD needing strychnine for binding to the paper, laced his LSD-shrooms with strychnine as well! (PharmChem 1972, vol 1, #7) Thus, either get your shrooms fresh from the fields (cheaper as well) or know what they look like and what the dosage is before buying.

Q: What about Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric)?

A: A. muscaria, the classic red toadstool with white warts on top, does not contain psilocybin, but a series of muscarinic deleriants. It's also poisonous (not very, but deaths are known) and in general rather nasty. Avoid.

Q: What happens if I combine 'shrooms and other drugs?

A: Alcohol: Variable, usually takes the edge off since it helps you relax. Note that if you're drunk before you eat the shrooms, the mental effects of your drunkenness will disappear as the trip starts. Large amounts will increase the nausea in the beginning.

Cannabis: Nearly always the experience is intensified/lengthened, but a few people claim it actually ends the trip. Smoking is handy during the last few hours to extend the experience.

MDMA/MDA: Known as an "MX-missile" (M as in mushrooms and X as in XTC), the experience is highly intensified and similar to LSD & MDMA ("candyflipping").

Nicotine: Smoking feels good.

Nitrous: Catapulted into outer space for a few minutes.

Psychedelics: Cross-tolerance usually present, not much point in taking other psychedelics at the same time.

Other: Unknown.

Q: Shrooms grow all by themselves in nature in zarking cow shit, why is sterility so important when growing them yourself?

A: In nature, there are 17 billion spores of all kinds of different shrooms flying around. As people who've been to a cow pasture will know, most patties will not have Psilocybes, they'll either have something completely different or nothing at all. But in a pasture, there's a lot of shit, and there's a lot of shrooms, so it's enough if 1/100 patties have the right kind.

Now, when you're growing them at home, if you sprinkle spores in each dish and don't give a shit about sterility, you'll have natural conditions and maybe every hundredth jar will get the right shrooms. Needless to say, this is not good, so you must push up the odds of the right shrooms growing by improving sterility.

Further Reading

I will not attempt a complete bibliography on the subject, but more of a 'further reading'-sort of list.

Carlos Castaneda, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Robert Anton Wilson and Aldous Huxley all make fine reading. Peter Stafford's "Psychedelic Encyclopedia" is a classic, as is "Plants of the Gods" by Richard Schultes and Albert Hofmann. Umberto Eco has always been very good when talking about the mind, almost as good as Herman Hesse. And for some attitude - read Byron.

References

Apologies for not footnoting everything exactly, you'll just have to bounce around checking the references (or ask us) if you want to know where a specific bit of info comes from.

Benedict-R-G, Tyler-V-E, Watling-R. (1967) "Blueing in Conocybe, Psilocybe, and a Stropharia Species and the Detection of Psilocybin." Lloydia 30(2), 150-157.

Benedict-R-G et al. (1962) "Occurrence of Psilocybin and Psilocin in Certain Conocybe and Psilocybe Species." Lloydia 25(3), 157-160.

Beug-M-W, Bigwood-J. (1982) "Psilocybin and Psilocin Levels in Twenty Species From Seven Genera of Wild Mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A." J Ethnopharmacology 5, 271-285.

Bigwood-J, Beug-M-W. (1982) "Variation of Psilocybin and Psilocin Levels With Repeated Flushed (Harvests) of Mature Sporocarps of Psilocybe cubensis (Earle) Singer." J Ethnopharmacology 5, 287-291.

Catalfomo-P, Tyler-V-E. (1964) "The Production of Psilocybin in Submerged Culture by Psilocybe cubensis." Lloydia 27(1), 53-63.

Gartz-J. (1994) "Extraction and Analysis of Indole Derivatives From Fungal Biomass". J Basic Microbiology 34(1), 17-22.

Gartz-J. (1991) "Influence of phosphate on fruiting and secondary metabolism of mycelia of Psilocybe cubensis, Psilocybe semilanceata and Gymnopilus purpuratus." Zeitschrift fuer Mykologie 57(1), 149-154.

Gartz-J. (1989) "Occurrence of Psilocybin, Psilocin and Baeocystin in Gymnopilus purpuratus." Persoonia 14(1), 19-22.

Guzmán-G, Ott-J. (1976) "Description and Chemical Analysis of a New Species of Hallucinogenic Psilocybe From the Pacific Northwest." Mycologia 68, 1261-1267.

Guzmán-G et al. (1976) "Psychotropic Mycoflora of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California and British Columbia." Mycologia 68, 1267-1271.

H0iland-K. (1978) "The genus Psilocybe in Norway." Norwegian J Botany 25(2), 111-122.

Jokiranta-J et al. (1984) "Psilocybin in Finnish Psilocybe semilanceata." Planta Medica 51, 277-278.

Leung-A-Y, Paul-A-G. (1968) "Baeocystin and Norbaeocystin: New Analogs of Psilocybin from Psilocybe baeocystis." J Pharm Sci 57(10), 1667-1671.

Leung-A-Y, Smith-A-H, Paul-A-G. (1965) "Production of Psilocybin in Psilocybe baeocystis Saprophytic Culture". J Pharm Sci 54(11), 1576-1579.

Neal-J-M, Benedict-R-G, Brady-L-R. (1968) "Interrelationship of Phosphate Nutrition, Nitrogen Metabolism and Accumulation of Key Secondary Metabolites in Saprophytic Cultures of Psilocybe cubensis, Psilocybe cyanescens and Panaeolus campanulatus." J Pharm Sci 57(10), 1661-1667.

Ohenoja-E et al. (1987) "The Occurrence of Psilocybin and Psilocin in Finnish Fungi". J Natural Products 50(4), 741-744.

Pegler-D-N. Mushrooms Demystified.

Repke-D-B et al. (1977) "Baeocystin in Psilocybe, Conocybe and Panaeolus". Lloydia 40(6), 566-578.

Singer-R, Smith-A-H. (1958) "Mycological Investigations on Teonanácatl, the Mexican Hallucinogenic Mushroom. Part II: A Taxonomic Monograph of Psilocybe, Section Caerulescentes." Mycologia 50, 263-303.

Endnotes

(K) Kopyleft Brahman Industries 1994-1995. All rites reversed.

Please note that 'Nature's Perfect Entheogen' is a trademark of Mother Nature Incorporated.

Jani "Gnosis" Poijärvi      On the neverending quest   /(o\    BRAHMAN
gnosis@brahman.nullnet.fi  for knowledge by identity.  \o)/ +358-0-498797

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