Mythical, Magic Carpet Ride - Ingesting Magic Mushrooms

Magic mushrooms, also known as Sacred Mushrooms, Psychotropic Mushrooms, Philosopher’s Stones, Liberty caps, Little Smoke, Shrooms, Blue Meanies, Mushie Magic, Zoomers, Purple Passion, Golden Tops, Gold Caps, Cubes, Agaric, or Amania are cultivated or wild-harvested mushrooms that contain psilocybin or its derivative psilocin, a naturally-occurring powerful psychoactive compound ingested for its hallucinogenic effect on mood, thought, and perception.

Although the potency of magic mushrooms is but a tenth of the potency of LSD, ingestion of the magic mushrooms is capable of causing lurid visual distortions, europhia, profound changes in both consciousness and cognition, as well as manifesting intense mystical or spiritual experiences.

Magic Mushroom Overview

Since the beginning of recorded time, magic mushrooms have commanded a key role in spiritual and religious rituals to facilitate communication with the spirit world, to relieve pain, and to obtain knowledge. The ancient Aztec considered these mushrooms to be sacred, the flesh of the gods. Today, psilocybin mushrooms are a popular recreational psychedelic in Europe and across North America. In low doses, magic mushrooms enhance lucid awareness, relieve chronic pain, and dilute anxiety while having a minimal effect on orientation and memory.

Hallucinogenic magic mushrooms are available in fresh, treated/preserved, dried, cooked, frozen, tinctures, in capsules, or as dry powders.

Worldwide, at least 200 species of mushroom in the genus Psilocybe, contain the psychoactive ingredient psilocybin (PY, 4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), a naturally-occurring tryptamine compound. North America is home to 22 different species. In the Caribbean and throughout Latin America, more than 50 species of magic mushrooms have been identified, while Australia and the Pacific Island region are home to 19 different magic mushroom species. In Asia, 15 different species containing psilocybin are found, while only four types of magic mushrooms flourish in Africa. A few varieties of magic mushrooms also contain additional weaker psychoactive compounds, such as baeocystin and norbaeocystin.

During the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, “Hippie Generation”, broad experimentation with LSD, mescaline, and magic mushrooms led to several individuals having unpleasant experiences or “bad trips,” which prompted the illegalization of drugs with hallucinogenic properties. The use of psychedelic magic mushrooms, highest in the age group of people aged 30 to 35. skyrocketed in the 1960s and 1970s with more than 32 million lifetime uses in the United States alone. Today psilocybin mushrooms are used in therapeutic settings to treat a variety of mental health issues and disorders, including panic attacks, depression, cluster headaches, obsessive-compulsive disorders, early-stage Alzheimer’s, anorexia-nervosa, anxiety, migraines, alcohol use disorder, and tobacco use disorder.

While psilocybin or magic mushrooms have been decriminalized in some North American cities, the fungi are currently illegal and remain categorized as a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States. However, over the past decade, the United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have allowed a number of limited human studies on magic mushroom’s potential use in psychiatric and medical settings. A growing body of intensive medical research indicates psilocybin may prove useful in the treatment of depression and anxiety as the hallucinogenic properties found in magic mushrooms have a low potential for abuse and no potential for physical dependence.

One of the most interesting research studies reported that more than 80 percent of smokers successfully gave up tobacco after only one dose of psilocybin. Another study indicated that out of 51 cancer patients in a test study group that was treated with magic mushrooms, more than 80 percent of the participants in the group reported decreased depression and anxiety.

Dried magic mushrooms are brewed as a tea sweetened with honey, or pulverized and mixed with food or dipped in chocolate to mask their bitter taste. Within 30 minutes or less, the drug begins to take effect: perceptions of colors and shapes change, light or sound disappears or is intensified, moving objects shift and leave visible trails that linger like smoke in the air, the earth trembles, and the ground rolls in ripples.

Behavioral effects depend on the dosage, the individual’s mental health, their sensitivity to psilocybin, previous usage, and the setting.

Hang on to your hat - the trip lasts from 4 to 8 hours, and once you start the journey, there is no turning back. No matter if you have a good trip or fall down the rabbit hole, it is an experience you will never forget and one that will permanently change your perception of your reality forever. Think about that! Are you sure you want to take that glimpse behind the mirror?

Physical Effects

Upon ingesting magic mushrooms, the user’s pupils dilate, the heart rate increases slightly, the mouth is dry, and palms sweat. Depending on the dosage, dizziness, muscle weakness, shallow breathing, an increase in blood pressure, lack of coordination, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting may occur.

Psychological Effects

Magic or sacred mushrooms turn the world topsy turvy as sensory perceptions become distorted. Everyone who tries magic mushrooms relates to a different experience. For some, it is a joyful transcendence of time and space, a blissful, lustful, and loving immersion in a diverse array of sensual pleasures and a sense of connection and unity with all things. For others, a magic mushroom trip is a horrific, terrifying nightmare as they open the door to all their demons, darkness, and despair. Some individuals taking magic mushrooms have difficulty differentiating their hallucinations from reality. Such distortions can present danger of injury in that the person may harm themselves or others.

Long-Term Effects

Although not physically addictive, magic mushrooms can become psychologically addicting. Psilocybin creates tolerance, the more you use mushrooms, the more of them you must ingest to achieve the same effect. Expect flashbacks. They will occur, often for months or years.

Cautions And Concerns

Psilocybe cubensis, the “magic mushroom most widely harvested or cultivated indoors, provide a psilocybin mushroom consisting of approximately .65 percent psilocybin and .60 percent psilocin from dried wild-harvested mushrooms. Indoor cultivated mushrooms of this species tend to have significantly higher concentrations. It is important to be aware that the potency of magic mushrooms varies greatly from one mushroom to another and from one batch to the next. It is interesting to note that from a single mushroom, the potency of the hallucinogenic properties can vary greatly. Because of these natural variations, chopping, mincing or grinding up multiple mushrooms and homogenizing or blending the material helps reduce the risk of an unexpectedly weak or dangerously strong dose of psilocybin. Psilocybe azurescens, is the strongest magic mushroom species.

Be aware, individuals with stress or mental health issues may see these symptoms exacerbated when using magic mushrooms. The setting in which a person ingests magic mushrooms directly impacts their experience. It is important that the trip is taken in a safe, controlled neutral setting without bright lights, brilliant colors, loud noises, or outside distractions. If you are sad, angry, fearful, or in a bad mood, mushrooms won’t magically fix your problem. They will only make it worse. Some research studies suggest that the use of magic mushrooms may cause suicidal behavior.

Mushrooms containing psilocybin are available fresh or dried and have slender, long stems with small caps with dark gills on the underside. Freshly harvested magic mushrooms have white or whitish-or light gray stems. The dome-shaped caps are dark brown around the edges and white or light brown near the center. Dried mushrooms are generally dusty dark brown with isolated areas of patchy white. Don’t pick mushrooms in the wild unless you have the knowledge and experience to differentiate what you are harvesting from other poisonous fungi. Every mushroom has an evil, poisonous twin. Although there has never been a death reported from ingesting magic mushrooms, death can result from ingesting misidentified fungi.

References:

United States National Library Of Medicine - Clinical potential of psilocybin as a treatment for mental health conditions

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6007659/

Alcohol and Drug Foundation - Magic Mushrooms

https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/psilocybin/

United States National Library of Medicine - Over 30 million psychedelic users in the United States

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3917651/

Medical News Today - Magic Mushrooms

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/308850

Drugs.com - Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms)

https://www.drugs.com/illicit/psilocybin.html