This beautiful mushroom is red with white spot, like houses in a fairy land. Do You know, this mushroom is very toxic.
The Amanita Muscaria mushroom or fly agaric has been used in Siberian shamanic practices for centuries, or perhaps for thousands of years.
Some authors have suspected that the mushroom could be associated with other historical and cultural phenomena such as the mysterious magical plant “Soma” described in the early Hindu scriptures.
The most common psychoactive Amanita mushrooms are fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria) and panther mushrooms (Amanita Pantherina).
Both contain ibotenic acid and muscimol, which produce a hangover effect.
Amanita intoxication is very different from that caused by psychedelic psilocybin mushroom, especially in the genus Psilocybe.
The effects of safeness are sometimes considered unpleasant, and are often accompanied by nausea, chills, and other negative side effects.
Note: Some of the deadliest mushroom known to be in the genus Amanita – do not eat wild mushrooms unless you know what you are doing.
Forest Mushrooms
This mushroom scientific name is Amanita muscaria is widely grown in the northern part of the Earth, especially in Europe and the Americas.
Amanita mushrooms grow a lot in the forest, under trees. This mushroom can grow as high as 15 cm. Its diameter is about 1 to 2 cm.
The mushroom is also known as fly agaric because of its ability to attract flies.
The lured fly, then dies of poison. This mushroom is indeed poisonous.
And the man who eats it will become nauseous, and it will be as if he had seen or heard something unreal.
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Fly Agaric History
Historical records such as cave paintings, wood carvings and sculptures show that the psychoactive effects of Amanita muscaria have been known since ancient times on all continents, and similar practices have been observed regarding the use of A. Muscaria in geographically and culturally distant groups.
A. Muscaria has been used for religious, divination, therapeutic and social purposes.
The first evidence of the use of A. Muscaria as an intoxicant is based on linguistic analysis of North Asian languages from 4000 BC, where the roots of the words “drunk” and “amanita muscaria” appears to be the same.
Polychromatic paintings have been found in Saharan rocks dating back to the Paleolithic period; depiction of what appears to be a mushroom of the genus Amanita, possibility of a species of Muscaria.
Mushrooms grow naturally in the Mesoamerican highlands and some mushroom myths and statues indicate the use of A. Muscaria in Guatemala and southern Mexico at the time of the creation of Mayan civilization, c. 1500 – 1000 BC.
Some symbolic similarities have been found in Guatemalan and Asian populations linked to the belief that mushroom were born in places where lightning strikes.
This parallel can be explained by the possible migration from the Asian continent to the Americas through the Bering Strait, so that knowledge of the use of the A. Muscaria can be conveyed.
There is further evidence of its use in North America by the Dogrib Athabasca tribe in the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada as well as in the ceremonial practice of the Ojibwa and Ahnishinuabeg Indians in Lake Michigan, USA, referring to the A. Muscaria by the name of miskwedo and whose practice lasted until at least the end of the 20th century.
The first Western report on the use of A. Muscaria was made by Filip Johan von Strahlenberg, a Swedish soldier who, in 1730, was imprisoned for twelve years in Siberia.
He observed how Amanita Muscaria was used as liquor in the context of the shaman.
Today the Ostyak and Vogul tribes, western Siberia, and the Kamchadal, Koryak, and Chukchi tribes in the east, continue to use A. Muscaria in their rituals.
These Siberian tribes relied exclusively on A. Muscaria as an intoxicating substance until the introduction of alco**hol by Russia.
They collect Amanita, dry it in the sun and consume it entirely, in water or deer milk extraction, or mix it with plant juice to sweeten the taste.
These tribes also demonstrate the practice of consuming the urine of people who have eaten fly agaric, because they know that Amanita alkaloids do not disappear and change through urine, so they remain active and can be reused for up to four or five cycles.
As for Amanita pantherina, some native North American groups use it for magical-religious purposes in the western part of Washington state.
