Magic Mushrooms #1 General information
Magic mushrooms, also known as psilocybin mushrooms or shrooms, are a special species of mushrooms containing hallucinogenic powers. Magic Mushrooms are being used for ages, mostly for spiritual purposes. Today, in the modern world, full of anti-drug laws, magic mushrooms still find their way to the consumers. What is it that makes magic mushrooms so special, and what are the dangers of taking them? You’ll find out, right now.
What are magic mushrooms?
“Magic mushrooms” are a a special kind of fungi containing the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin and psilocin. It are psilocin and psilocybin that work on the brain and give you the wanted high.
Magic mushrooms grow in a special way explained in the picture on the right.
There are about 25 different kinds of psilocybin mushrooms, all with their own amount of psilocybin and psilocin, and so all with different hallucinogenic powers. It’s becoming a hype to go to the woods and go “mushroom hunting”. People just pick them from the ground and eat them. This is a very dangerous activity since many mushrooms look alike, but some are very poisonous and can kill you. It’s an absolute must to have a good book on the subject so you’re capable of separating the toxic ones from the non toxic. Amazon sells a lot of books on magic mushroom hunting. It gives you the knowledge to separate over 2000 kinds of mushrooms and over 70 toxic ones that are mostly mistaken for psilocybin mushrooms.
If you don’t want to spend the money on a book you can read this brilliant magic mushrooms eBook: The pocket guide to mushrooms by Jean-Marie Polese. It’s a high quality book on determining mushrooms. It has beautiful color pictures. It’s worth the trouble!
History
Shrooms are being taken for centuries. Some even say for over a million years. But the first real evidence that was found, lay in Tassili n’Ajjer, a prehistoric mountain range in the Sahara Desert, Algeria, North Africa. There were several rock paintings picturing these magical organisms. Those days they were ingested for their hallucinogenic powers, to create a pathway to the Gods and the afterlife, but also as a supplement to their diets. They were easily found in the many grasslands. Remarkable is that the shrooms taken then, still are the same kinds we use in the present.
The Maya’s took them for the same reason. To get closer to the Gods. Maya’s were around from 10.000 BC until around 900 AD. They even built massive temples, like the one shown right here, in honor of the “mushroom god”. Mushroom sculptures and paintings were found inside of the temple, right beside pictures of the Mayan Gods.
But as Spanish arrived on the coasts of southern Mexico, hometown of the Maya’s, they quickly were forbidden. Spanish thought they were used to summon the devils. Since the Spanish wanted to covert local inhabitants of Mexico to their Christian believes, the psilocybin mushroom was strictly forbidden. Yet they never succeeded to destroy the culture of the Maya’s and so the consumption never really stopped.
Present
It was Albert Hofmann, a Swiss, born in Baden, who gave us the modern knowledge of shrooms. Albert Hofmann discovered LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide), a semi synthetic hallucinogenic first used in psychiatry’s, in 1938. He worked for pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories. Later he became director of his department at Sandoz, and started studying hallucinogenic substances. He did research on the Mexican mushroom, seeds of Morning Glory and Salvia Divinorum. Together with his discovery of LSD Hofmann gave us today’s mostly used hallucinogenic drugs. If it weren’t for Hofmann and his studies, we would never have discovered the powers of shrooms today. Hofmann died in 2008, he was 102 years old. To read a full article on Hofmann’s work with LSD: click here. Read a full scientific study of Hofmann on Magic mushrooms.
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Shrooms give you, in low dosage, a lightheaded feeling. You’ll have the intention to giggle constantly. Shrooms will effect your short term memory, you’ll find it very hard to remember things.
In 2007 there was a heavy battle in the Netherlands between minister Klink and smartshopowners. Minister Klink wanted to make magic mushrooms completely illegal. Up to then dried muschrooms were illegal, but fresh ones weren’t. The reason for this bill was the death of a tourist. She jumped of a bridge under the influence of shrooms. Most likely she thought she could fly. Smartshopowners said they always warned buyers of the risks of magic mushrooms. That they always gave costumers the clear information not to eat mushrooms alone. You should always have a sitter with you (someone who stays sober the entire time you trip). The smartshopowners were right, they did provide this information to their costumers. But the problem those days was not only smartshops were selling mushrooms, about every tourist shop was.
Any country part of the United Nations has magic mushrooms in their opium law. This makes the buying, consuming, growing or possession of magic mushrooms illegal. If you get arrested for any of the above named, chances are you’ll get to go to court and serve prison time for it.