Posted 26 May 2006 - 07:49 PM
Okay, pardon me, but it's time for a good old fashioned (and LONG) "Buckaroo rant."
Firstly, “scientists” can be just as guilty of spreading unfounded propaganda as anybody else. Who do you think the "drug warriors" get their manipulated/falsified statistics from?
IMHO, the only time you can really trust a “scientist” is when his reputation is on the line, i.e. when he is publishing in the peer reviewed journals. When they are just jawboning and/or giving sound bites…scientists are just as bad about self aggrandizement and statistical manipulation as any politician. Perhaps worse, as scientists are better at manipulating the numbers in a believable way.
Science lesson: the dangerous Amatoxins (specifically the amanitin and phallotoxin families) are not found in A. muscaria. These Amatoxins are the substances that will cause death if you consume the Death Cap (A. phalloides) or the Destroying Angel (A. virosa). The only Amatoxin in A. muscaria is ibotenic acid (which becomes muscimol/muscarine when the fruit is dried). Ibotenic acid is an isoxazole and a very large volume of it must be consumed to kill a healthy adult. Eating fresh A. muscaria (with unconverted ibotenic acid) will make you quite sick. There are at least two instances, confirmed by post mortem forensic toxicology workups, of death from eating fresh A. muscaria. One was a very young child and the other was an adult who ate over a hundred of them.
PLEASE be aware that A. muscaria, A. formosa and A. pantherina are all classified as poisonous because they cause hallucinations, not because they cause death. Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms are also classified as poisonous (or at least inedible) by most field guides, though there has never been a reported death attributed to psilocybin “poisoning.”
Please not that A. muscaria is NOT legal everywhere. As A. muscaria is a universally agreed upon “poison,” consuming them can be defined by an American court as attempted suicide. Attempted suicide is a felony in most parts of America.
Finally, PLEASE be aware that A. muscaria is absolutely NOTHING like Ps. cubensis. These two mushrooms are light years apart in there effects. Amis take 4-5 hours to “peak” and an Ami trip can easily last 8-10 hours. Amis make you sluggish and totally screw your balance. Amis make you drool and sweat and they make you nauseous (in larger quantities). Amis make your eyes blurry (yes, blurry – they totally trash your ability to focus where you want too). Amis make you slur. Amis, in low doses, are a lot more like alcohol than they are like cubies. In large doses, Amis are more like Salvia or DMT, not in the patterns they show, but in the way they totally take over your visual plane and give you true visions (not stuff crawling but rather the perception of things that simply are not there).
Also, my personal favorite about a big handful of Amis is something totally different from cubies: they make you drowsy. Large doses are guaranteed to knock your ass out and the dreams…well, you’ve got to experience them to understand, but they are WILD. If you’ve ever experienced a Datrua dream, you’ve been in the vicinity I’m talking about. I’ve experienced travel back (and forward) through time. I’ve experienced travel to alternate dimensions with purple skies and red grass.
I’ve met the guide who dwells within the Amanita. He (and this guide is most assuredly male) has VERY little patience for humans and NO PATIENCE WHATSOEVER for dabblers and people just looking to “trip out.” He does, however, like to implant things in your mind that will drive you mad. Some things cannot be “unseen.”
Another thing about Amanitas – the “good stuff” passes through your body almost completely unchanged. You can drink your urine and get right back off (without the negative physical effects – the drooling/sweating/blurry eyes). You can trip out HARD on Amis for many days at a stretch and never develop any kind of tolerance.
Amis have a strong SSRI component. Small doses are absolutely fantastic for combating depression and the “cabin fever” that you can get during the winter months. Amis are, IMHO, far more effective at breaking cluster/migraine cycles, and they do it at a much lower threshold. Small doses of Amis are a phenomenal tonic for perking up the mind and spirit. A mix of Amis and Reishis is a warm, almost narcotic, body high. You find your place and are comfortable in it.
Now, on the other hand, big doses of Amanitas are fucking scary, harsh and deeply unpleasant for everyone (myself included). I like them, but I’m a hell of a glutton for punishment and I get OFF on body load/pain/discomfort. Amis will screw your head HARD and totally trash your body. Big doses (8-10 grams or more) are absolutely not recommended for beginners in Ami-land for one reason: YOU WON’T LIKE IT. I personally guarantee you of that. If you start your journeys with Ami with a big dose you will never use them again. I’ve seen (and read about it) time and time again.
That said, I’ve dosed a number of experienced psychonauts with Amis over the years. I have not found a person yet who didn’t dig them in low doses. I have found only one other person who did a big dose more than once (and he’s totally skull fucked – like me). I know, in person, of only one person who voluntarily went “over the top” with them more than once, and he doesn’t do them any more because of the body load.
Amis ARE an entheogen, but they demand a VERY high price for the wisdom they have to bestow. And that wisdom is simply not something that most people (including the folks who really dig a 12 dry gram psilly trip or IV DMT) are interested in receiving. It is the wisdom of the void, the awareness that comes from experiencing true pain. It is the wisdom you get in a sweat lodge after you’ve been hanging from steel hooks through your flesh for about 20 minutes (thanks, Hippie3, for that analogy). It is the wisdom of darkness and death.
IT IS NOT WISDOM THAT WILL DO ANYTHING POSITIVE FOR YOU AS A HUMAN.
LSD and Psilocybin will show you the greatest things that humanity could dream of achieving, they will give you a glimpse of God, of the Bodishatva that each of us (with work) could become. LSD and Psilocybin will give you a glimpse of what mankind might one day achieve, if we truly work together in love and dedication to one another.
Amanita muscaria and Datura, on the other hand, will show you the flip side of that transcendent possibility. As LSD and Psilocybin will give you a glimpse of “heaven,” A. muscaria and Datura will give you a glimpse of “hell.” It might surprise you to know that more than a few cultural anthropologists give credit to the concept of Christian hell (a place of eternal torment and pain) to the Amanita experience.
To ME, these competing glimpses are the essence of the human experience. To ME, one can only begin to transcend the duality of this existence by realizing that pain and pleasure are really the same thing, simply flip sides of the same coin. From this understanding comes the realization (to ME) that good and evil, right and wrong, all the polar opposites that call for us to embrace one and deny the other, are just another way of deeper enmeshing yourself in this world of duality.
From this understanding comes the realization (to ME) that Adolph Hitler and Mother Theresa are both equally valuable to the human experience. That the murder and the saint are just different cloaks worn by the same entity and that embracing one and denying the other is just another way of denying the truth.
What that truth might be…well, that’s up to each of us to perceive and deal with.
CAVEAT EMPTOR! YOUR MIELAGE WILL VARY!
