psilocybin

Specifically for those who came to this page looking for information on getting high:

You may usually assume that your psilocybin mushroom will be less intense than a hit of acid, but you will get fooled one day.

If you happen to eat a mushroom just prior to the time it throws its spores, you may be in for a shock. You can tell when a mushroom has thrown its spores by the dark circle on the ground underneath.

However, you cannot tell when they are 30 seconds away from doing so.

I'm speaking of the kind of mushrooms that grow in cow pies in the South; I believe the scientific name is Psilocybe semilanceata .

On a commercial note, psilocybin mushrooms are generally grown in specially designed buildings that can be best likened to clean rooms.

Unlike indoor hydrophonic cannabis farms, it is quite easy to disguise a mushroom farm, but the setup fee involved with such a structure is quite large.

Many of them are rumored to be in Northern California, and their exact locations are rarely known, except to a chosen few who deal specifically with exporters.

The chief active ingredient in psilocybe mushrooms, psilocybin is a tryptamine psychedelic with effects which on average last around six hours or so - about half as long as an LSD trip, although the duration of both drugs varies widely. A mushroom trip has many features in common with an LSD trip, but a lot of people find it less harsh and more 'organic,' with stronger awareness of bodily sensations and the awesome beauty of nature. It is also rather like being stoned, but without the muzziness.

Mushrooms containing psilocybin are listed as poisonous in some sources chiefly because they consider psychedelic effects to be a kind of poisoning. The toxicity of psilocybin is really very low¹, with a factor of about six hundred separating the sort of doses which will get you tripping from the sort of dose which hypothetically might kill someone. However magic mushrooms have been known to cause stomach cramps and occasionally nausea, and have in fact been blamed for a small number of deaths². Such toxicity as exists in psilocybe mushrooms probably has more to do with baeocystin and norbaeocystin³ than it has to do with psilocybin per se.

The chief dangers of psilocybin mushrooms are psychological, not physiological. People have been known to go crazy largely from eating too many mushrooms, and many people who haven't gone crazy have had a terrible time. Psilocybin sometimes leaves people panicky and uncomfortable, especially if they are indoors and especially with people they don't trust. If at all possible, it is highly recommended that if you take magic mushrooms you take them outdoors, preferably somewhere with plenty of trees and grass. It is also extremely important to make sure that you are in a good way, both physically and mentally, before taking them. The intense awareness of bodily sensations can make something like low blood sugar levels or an itchy scalp profoundly unpleasant, and there is a real danger that someone who is not altogether comfortable with themselves or the people they are with will find their trains of thought taking hellish excursions. Take care! The sheer intensity of any psychedelic experience can be inspiring and elational, but there is always a risk that it will go the other way.

The other main danger involved in experiments with psilocybe mushrooms is the risk of eating the wrong thing. For Europeans this is not as much of a peril as it is sometimes made out to be, since there are no seriously poisonous mushrooms that look anything like Liberty Caps - the worst you are likely to get is a bit ill, although if you really went for it and ate about a hundred of the wrong ones you probably could do yourself some real damage. American shrooms (and some of the less-well-known European varieties) may more closely resemble really poisonous species. I hardly need to say that you should never eat any mushroom without being really sure what it is. Once again: Take care!

Psilocybin and psilocin (another tryptamine present in psilocybe mushrooms, into which psilocybin is broken down in the gut) quite closely resemble the neurotransmitter serotonin. It is thought that their psychedelic action is likely to be the result of serotonin inhibition. All psilocin is generally flushed out of the body within about 24 hours.

See also Psychedelic Guide: Mushrooms, and psilocin.

¹ A table listing the toxicity of many drugs as determined by the misleading and unnecessary, but still sort of informative LD50 test can be found at http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/health/psychoactives_ld50s.shtml
² Psilocybe semilanceata, the Liberty Cap - the most common variety of magic mushrooms in the UK and most of Europe - seems to have killed one person: See http://leda.lycaeum.org/Documents/Fatal_Poisoning_After_a_Group_of_People_Voluntarily_Consumed_Hallucinogenic_Mushrooms.10488.shtml
³ Two of the other indoles found in the mushrooms, also thought to be significantly psychoactive. For an extensive list of these and more general information on psilocybin mushrooms see http://leda.lycaeum.org/Documents/Psilocybe_Mushroom_FAQ.9182.shtml

You're watching the goddamn noisy box. Commercial Break! Rampant consumerism assaults you. The following video missive speaks to you.



A barren field, like the surface of Mars fills the screen. A faint, hollow sound of creepy wind is audible in the background.

A disembodied voice speaks, fatherly reassuring:

Reassuring, Fatherly Voice: Feeling depressed? Bored? Feel like life really isn't worth living anymore?

cut to a woman staring out the window on a rainy day. Drops fall against the panes and her face, with an expression of acute sadness, is tinged with blue light.

cut to the desert again. A tumbleweed rolls by.

Reassuring, Fatherly Voice:It happens to everybody sometimes. You need something to put the livelihood back in life. Psilocybin can help.

Jimi Hendrix guitar licks obliterate the lonesome wind sound. The earth shakes, and giant, vibrant, multi-colored mushrooms sprout from the ground. A smurf, dressed in the orange robes, like a Buddhist priest's, rides by on an elephant, waving at the audience. The desert sand shines. The sun disappears and is replaced by a moon and stars dancing in rhythm with Jimi's music. The sand is white. The mushrooms glow with the sand. A group of people walks through the mushroom forest. Their faces a picture of wonder and delight.

Reassuring, Fatherly Voice: Psilocybin will put the enjoyment back into your sorry, pitiful life. Remember. It doesn't get any better than this. At home, at the office- cut to man behind his desk, with wildly dilated eyes, holding up a paperweight and staring at it, fascinated. He turns to the camera and drops it.

Office Man:(crazed)What the hell!? Whose side are you on!?

Reassuring, Fatherly Voice:Yes. Your job may suck, but with psilocybin, you can live the life of an international super spy.

Another man comes into the office, looks at Office Man

Another Man:(concerned) You okay, Bob?

Office Man:(crazed) Who sent you!?

Another Man:Yeah. Okay Bob. Just be sure to have those reports by tomorrow.

Office Man: Don't tempt me! I'll destroy you. Evil fucks! I'll kill you all! FDHSK!

Reassuring, Fatherly Voice:That's right. Psilocybin, by Provasic. You can do it!

shot of the word "Psilocybin" with a big, wild party in the background and the word "Provasic" in smaller letters beneath it.

Side effects may include funky visuals, intense colors, paranoia, manic dancing, long trances, walks through the woods at night, dilated pupils, increased response to music composed in the 1960's, fascination with everyday objects and concepts, stomach ache, nausea, and, in very few cases, death.

Talk to your doctor about taking Psilocybin today!