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Written by MS Smith!
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Sunday, 21 December 1997 |
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Page 3 of 5
If you have dried your mushrooms then one can simply eat them or else do the hot water method of preparation by bringing some water to the near simmer point, but not quite rolling point, at about 190 degrees, and add the ground mushrooms. Let this cook in the water for about a half hour to an hour and then consume, water, ground mushrooms and all. For those of you who can't stand the taste of dried mushrooms or the tea (like myself who for some strange reason has the gag reflex the minute I try to swallow, and sometimes when I just smell) the gel-cap method may work best. Simply take the dried mushrooms, grind them up, and stuff into gel-caps. One might also take the tea, dehydrate it, and then gel-cap. I have never tried the tea method, but it may be possible that this method increases the muscimol levels even above drying, so this type of gel-cap method might be worth a try. Since the majority of the alkaloids reside within the caps skin it might also be worth a try either to peal off the skin from fresh mushrooms and dry, or else remove the gills from dried specimens, to reduce the amount needing to be consumed.
A few other less common methods may be worth mentioning, the first is the possibility that the juice of the mushroom could be absorbed through the skin. This method is described by Adrian Morgan in the wonderful and beautiful book “Toads and Toadstools,” and is the only place I've ever heard of such an avenue of ingestion. This method might work best with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), an aprotic solvent. Another interesting method would be by enema or direct insertion of the mushroom into the vagina, the second method certainly not being condoned as it might easily produce infection, or worse. Clark Heinrich, in his excellent book “Strange Fruit,” makes suggestions that in Tantric texts and art from India there is evidence pointing towards these routes of administration in highly symbolic rituals. Smoking the mushroom has also proven to produce mild effects. Since the skin contains the highest concentrations of muscimol it can be peeled off fresh mushrooms and dried or else the gills and stem can be discarded from dried specimens. I personally would be interested in seeing the effects of smoked concentrated extract or pure muscimol. The last method I would like to mention is the most interesting and may produce the strongest effects. This is to combine any of the above methods with the monoamine oxidase inhibition causing seeds of Peganum harmala or it extract. I have never tried this method myself but am aware of one such experimentation which produced very strong effects. I had been awaiting a more detailed report from this acquaintance, but had never received it. I first heard of this technique from an employee of an occult bookstore and herbal center which sells many uncontrolled “entheogens.” This employee, a practitioner of Wiccan magic, stated that if Peganum harmala is used with A. muscaria the A. muscaria dosage could be cut in half. I first thought she was confusing her mushrooms, as a dosage of Psilocybin mushrooms can be halved when taken with P. harmala. I mentioned this to her, and to my surprise she stated that she has tried the A. muscaria/P. harmala combination. I later talked with the owner of the store who stated that there is a history of this combination. I personally am unaware of this type of usage in the entheogen community, but it's possible that it exists in Wiccan practices. Upon my mentioning of this combination on the old Visionary Plant List I received a response from JRH who had mentioned this to J. Ott as a way to clear up the linguistic controversy of Wasson's and Flattery's opposing theories surrounding the plant/god Soma of the Rig veda. JRH stated that Ott didn't have anything to say about this possibility.
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