Glucogenic or psilocybin mushroom is both a gift from nature and its evil mockery of man, his weaknesses and naive thirst for superpower. Has many types. Psilocybes are common on almost all continents except Antarctica. In order to assess their danger, you should find out what hallucinogenic mushrooms are, what types are found in nature, and the effect of each of them on the human body when consumed. It is necessary to pay attention to the effect on vital organs and learn how psilocybes are used in medicine, as well as their beneficial properties and dangers.
Legal aspect
Due to their hallucinogenic properties, psilocybin-containing mushrooms are prohibited in Russia and most countries of the world. Article 231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “On the illegal cultivation of prohibited plants containing narcotic substances” provides for 2 to 8 years in prison for their artificial cultivation. Under Articles 228 and 229 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, you can get up to three years for their purchase and storage. Articles 10.5 (and 10.5.1) of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 27, 2010 No. 934 are devoted to the same issues.
Please be aware of this and use the information here wisely and carefully.
What tools are needed
Getting a generous harvest requires a lot of effort. In addition, a mushroom picker must have a whole arsenal of items. To put it simply, the entire cultivation period can be divided into 2 parts, each of which requires different materials.
First stage
What you will need:
- 10 sterilized inoculation jars with liner. It is recommended to use one jar for each cube of spores in the syringe. You can use ordinary jars with a wide neck and lids. Brown rice flour or another substrate is ideal as a substrate. However, in this case, be sure to pay special attention to sterilizing the equipment;
- Rubber gloves;
- Paper towels;
- Face mask (thanks to certain events, this is now a popular accessory):
- Medical alcohol;
- Syringe with fungal spores;
- Hypodermic needles of the required size for the syringe being used (if they were not included in the kit with the syringe, you will have to buy them separately);
- Lighter;
- Disinfectant spray.
Second phase
At this stage, arm yourself with the following tools:
- Sprayer made of plastic;
- Chamber for cultivation (a food container is suitable, in which you need to make several holes a couple of centimeters in diameter on each side for air circulation);
- A clean place without direct sunlight that is rarely visited (basements and cellars are good options);
- Temperature and humidity meter;
- Vermiculite (can be replaced with perlite, but there are differences between them, so study each and choose the most suitable material).
To get a rich harvest, keep an eye on 4 important aspects:
- Hygiene;
- Humidity level;
- Temperature conditions;
- Illumination.
More specific guidance on each aspect is described below.
The effect of psilocybin mushroom on the human body
The psilocybin they contain is gradually metabolized into psilocin in the human body. The effects of both of them are similar to those of LSD, but have a lesser effect. Psilocybin and psilocin primarily interact with serotonin receptors in the brain. They have a particularly high affinity for 5-HT (serotonin) subtype 2A receptors.
Psilocybes are usually dried and chewed. Their taste, as a rule, is quite disgusting, but this does not stop the “travelers”. You can make a tincture, a tea decoction from psilocybes, or mix them with peanut butter - then the taste will not be so terrible. A moderate dose in the range of 1 to 2.5 grams will usually produce a trip that lasts 3 to 6 hours. The threshold dose for perceiving the effects of psilocin is in the range of 0.2 to 0.5 grams. A dose of fifteen grams will most likely end in painful death for the traveler. The first symptoms appear approximately twenty minutes after consuming psilocybes. If you chew them after a hearty lunch, the effect will be delayed and will appear after two hours.
The effect of taking it depends entirely on the individual characteristics of the “traveler” and the circumstances in which he is at the time of the “trip”. A huge role is played by the degree of mental balance of the experimenter, the general level of his culture and the presence of company. Experience suggests that with the possibility of emotional support, the likelihood of a negative outcome of the “journey” is noticeably reduced.
After taking it, the effect of stupefaction, euphoria occurs, hands begin to tremble, hearing and vision become sharper, a feeling of distortion of space and time arises, the perception of illumination, color and speed is disrupted. Paranoia and delirium may begin, then the “traveler” is visited by unusual visions, hallucinations, and the sense of space and time disappears completely. It may seem to a person that he has flown out of his body and is watching it from the side. The effects of psilocybin are accompanied by increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which leads to dilated pupils, increased heart rate and increased body temperature. The sense of the position of your body in space changes, motor and speech coordination is disrupted. In this case, a person usually realizes the unreality of what is happening.
How to get rid of addiction?
The use and craving for hallucinogens and euphoretics is a real drug addiction. Drug addiction treatment is carried out in drug treatment clinics and rehabilitation centers. It is very difficult for a person to get rid of drug addiction on his own, since it always has its own psychological reasons. If a person showed attention to one type of drug today, then most likely he will continue his experiments and try something new tomorrow. The absence of withdrawal symptoms does not mean that the drug is safe. Its danger lies not only in intoxication of the body, but also in the occurrence of severe mental complications.
If you or a loved one are addicted to a particular drug, know that you will not be able to get rid of the disease on your own. Drug addiction is a progressive disease, which is characterized by the presence of breakdowns even after treatment. If you want to get rid of your addiction once and for all, seek qualified drug treatment help at. In the Krasnodar region, the use of mushrooms is quite common, despite the illegality of their distribution. If you see that a loved one often behaves strangely, surrounds himself with new acquaintances, uses strange substances, urgently call the narcology department.
Attention! Drug use causes great harm to your health and poses a danger to life!
Consequences of using psilocybes
Mental effects
Psilocybin mushrooms are a hallucinogenic drug, and no one can predict what will happen to a person after taking them. The “traveler” has an equal chance of both ending up in nirvana and experiencing the most terrible moments of his life.
Emotional experiences during the “journey” depend on many factors. If the traveler is tired or physically ill, this may increase sensitivity to psilocybin and increase the chance of negative emotions.
When the “trip” goes in a negative direction, a feeling of anxiety, wild fits of rage, aggressive behavior and a tendency to violence, including directed at oneself, may arise. A person’s consciousness can slide into absolute delirium. Complete loss of consciousness, repeated panic attacks, and even suicide attempts are possible.
If the psilocin “trip” is successful, then it is possible to immerse a person in a feeling of absolute happiness, liberation from any oppressive and negative feelings, erotic experiences, color hallucinations that cause sensations of movement in space and time. Often there is a feeling of openness to thoughts and feelings that the person usually avoids in everyday life. There is a feeling of surprise and admiration for the world around us, people and one’s own thoughts, an awareness of a close connection with the outside world.
Physical consequences
There is no physical dependence or withdrawal symptoms when consuming psilocybin mushrooms. But if they are overused, it can lead to demyelination (destruction of the myelin sheaths of nerve fibers) and destruction of hippocampal neurons. Consumption of some psilocybes can lead to kidney failure and heart problems.
It is officially recognized that psilocybin mushrooms are the least dangerous of the hallucinogenic drugs. Psilocybes have very little toxicity, and you have to try really hard to get poisoned by them. The greatest physical danger from taking them is that the “traveler” can injure himself or go out the window from the ninth floor, thinking that it is a door.
Legal restrictions
Despite the fact that psilocybes were not officially recognized as drugs, their alternative status became the reason for prohibiting the unauthorized collection, use, and even more so the distribution of such raw materials.
The Russian Federation in this regard is no exception to the rule, although the absence of a criminal article for the collection, storage and consumption of mushrooms, of course, makes its negative contribution. Every year, thousands of people continue to poison themselves with this potion in search of thrills, subsequently justifying their own actions as incompetence during a “silent hunt.”
And if a single use of such fruits can still occur without consequences for health, then regular experiments of this kind can easily provoke schizophrenia. This is what you should remember first of all if the ridiculous thought of trying a forbidden mushroom comes to mind.
Psilocybin mushrooms in world history
Hallucinogenic mushrooms have been known to mankind since ancient times. Cave paintings with their images, more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids, were discovered in caves in Central Africa. In India and the countries of Southeast Asia, psilocybes were actively used in mystical religious rituals. Educated and serious Greeks at the festival of the Great Eleusinia drank the “magic drink” kikii, made from ergot, and “immersed themselves in the mysteries of Demeter.”
Among the peoples of pre-Columbian America, the use of psilocybes had great religious significance. The Aztecs called Psilocybe Mexicana "the body of god." When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs and destroyed their culture in the 16th century, they imposed a strict ban on the use of psilocybins, but the local population continued to secretly communicate with the gods using psilocybin mushrooms and shared this secret with newcomers only in the mid-twentieth century.
It was then, thanks to enthusiastic photographer Howard Wasson, that the modern Western world first became acquainted with the mystery of psilocybin mushrooms.
In the 50-60s of the twentieth century, extensive research was carried out in the United States on the hallucinogenic properties of psilocybins; psychoactive alkaloids were found and studied in them. A powerful psilocybin movement emerged, led by Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, and Richard Alpert.
By the second half of the sixties, the use of psilocybin mushrooms had become an integral part of youth psychedelic culture.
In 1971, psilocybin was officially banned in most countries of the world as a psychotropic substance, in accordance with the UN convention. Since then, psychogenic mushrooms containing it have been banned, but it is no secret that their use is not at all uncommon.
According to US analysts in 2013, psilocybe is the most commonly used psychedelic drug among people under the age of 34, with more than 30 million people regularly using it in the US.
Of university students in the Northeast of America surveyed in 2012, nearly 30% admitted to experimenting with psilocybin mushrooms at least once.
Research in the European Union shows that the number of people aged 15 to 24 years using psilocybin mushrooms ranges from 1% to 8%. In the UK, as of 2005, almost 340,000 people aged 16 to 59 admitted to experimenting with them.
Application in medicine and psychiatry
In recent decades, studies of the beneficial properties of psilocybes have been resumed in the West, interrupted in the seventies. The peculiar effect of psilocybin mushrooms on the human psyche can be used for medical purposes. Psilocybes are being considered as a possible treatment for cluster headaches, more effective than conventional medications. The use of psilocybin mushrooms has been shown to greatly reduce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in patients unresponsive to conventional therapy and reduce depression in terminal cancer patients.
History of psilocybes in Russia
Did the ancient Slavs use psilocybin mushrooms? Considering that the use of hallucinogens was widespread throughout the world among most ancient peoples, most likely yes.
It is known for certain that eating fly agarics was common among the Scandinavian Vikings - this added fearlessness to them in battle. It is logical to assume that the Vikings’ closest neighbors, the Northern Slavs, also experimented with hallucinogenic mushrooms. Until the Christian church came and forced them to abandon psilocybes as “unclean pagan” customs. Perhaps distant echoes of this culture remained in Russian fairy tales, where the spirits of the forest “old men - foresters” often appear in the form of magical talking mushrooms and impart important secret knowledge to the heroes.
And today, in Russia, the ancient culture of eating hallucinogens is preserved by the shamans of the northern peoples of Chukotka, Taimyr and Kamchatka, where fly agaric grows abundantly. For them, this is a natural way of entering the spirit world. Shamans know many ways to prepare them, including eating the meat of reindeer, previously fed with fly agarics. To increase endurance during the hunt, shamans give hunters young unopened fly agaric caps, peeled, since they contain the largest amount of active substances.
In the USSR, you could end up in prison or a mental hospital for using hallucinogens, but information about them was not hidden. In 1951, the “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Medicinal, Essential Oil and Poisonous Plants” was published, which contains detailed information about psychoactive ergot and the method of its preparation.
First growing phase
First you need to create a so-called “cake” for germination. “Cake” is the name given to the base on which the mushrooms grow. It will be ready at the moment when the mycelium completely colonizes the jar and attaches to the substrate. When you pull the base out of the glass container, it will look like a mushroom cake. Now it’s clear what “cake” has to do with it.
Sterilization is the first step
The main enemy of hallucinogenic mushrooms during the growing period is harmful bacteria that enter the jar during the inoculation process. They thrive in a climate that is optimal for the cultivation of fruiting bodies. For this reason, their reproduction and destruction of spores is an inevitable outcome. To reduce their numbers, carefully read the following recommendations.
You need a “secret laboratory” that functions as a preparation room. A small room or bathroom is a good choice. Gather all the necessary tools from the list above, put the mask on your face, enter the room and lock the door behind you. Now you need to spray the disinfectant. After this, put on rubber gloves and wipe the jars with medical alcohol using prepared towels. Pay special attention to the top of the container, as most of the bacteria collect there.
Vaccination - the second step
Use a lighter to heat the metal part of the hypodermic needle until it turns red. As a rule, this instrument is sterilized before it is released for sale, but it is better to protect yourself.
Do not place the needle on any surface until it has cooled down. After this, shake the syringe to evenly distribute the spores, insert the needle into the port and insert one cube into the container. The same procedure will need to be repeated with all banks. Remember to sterilize the needle before each use.
Waiting is the third action
After injection, the jars should be placed in a previously prepared box, closed and left in a warm place without light. Monitor the temperature: it is recommended to keep it between 26 and 30 degrees Celsius. You will have to hold out for 5 days and not check the spores of psilocybin mushrooms. It's difficult, but it will bear fruit.
After a few days, a white substance will appear inside the jar. If you see a picture like this, it means everything worked out! The light something in the glass container is mycelium - the vegetative part of the mushroom. It can be compared to the roots of plants, and the fruiting body to a flower or fruit. The mycelium should develop for about half a month. If the jars are completely colonized with white matter, you will have to wait another week and move on to the second phase.
Where to look for psilocybin mushrooms in Russia
There are more than 200 species of psilocybin mushrooms, and some of them can be found in our country. If there is a map indicating the places where psilocybes usually grow in Russia, then it is known only to deep professionals or employees of the relevant authorities, but magic lovers can easily find them anyway.
The most popular psilocybe in Russia is Psilocybe semilanceata. It is popularly known as Prushka or Veselushka.
Where does it grow
In our country, Psilocybe semilanceata lives everywhere in damp places, along rivers and streams, in pastures and meadows in regions with a temperate climate. In the Moscow region, Psilocybe semilanceata bears fruit from August to November.
What does Psilocybe semilanceolate look like?
The cap is from 0.5 to 2.5 cm in diameter, bell-shaped, with a nipple-cone at the top. The edges are straight, even, and may be slightly tucked inward. During the ripening process, the cap straightens and becomes umbrella-shaped or straight. Its surface is smooth, slightly velvety, and in damp weather it becomes covered with mucus. After drying, the skin becomes wrinkled at the edges. The color is uneven, from golden to brownish-brown, straw or dark chocolate. Sometimes there are specimens with an olive or bluish surface. Often there is a dark irregular stripe along the edges.
The plates are large, sparsely spaced, not adherent. Grayish, yellow-brown or brown in color, in older specimens they acquire violet-blue and black tones, the edge is white-gray. The pulp is thin, fragile, dirty yellowish or white in color, and has the smell of mold or rotted hay. When you press on the pulp, it changes color to blue-violet.
The leg is thin, straight or slightly curved, up to 12 cm long, with an internal cavity. The surface is smooth, dry, covered with sparse white scales, especially noticeable in the root part. Color varies from white-gray to brown-brown or almost black. The pulp is highly fibrous and elastic.
Psilocybe semilanceolata is a legendary mushroom. It was they who “poisoned” a family of London residents in 1799. It is this species of Psilocybe that Russian drug police look for in mushroom picker baskets with particular zeal.
Other psilocybin mushrooms grow in Russia
For example:
- Panaeolus sphinctrinus Panaeolus sphinctrinus grows all summer in small groups in mixed forests or directly in summer cottages, on manure, as it loves well-fertilized soil.
- Panaeolus foenisecii The hay dung beetle grows in groups and singly in low grass, in river valleys, fields, lawns and flower beds.
- Panaeolus cyanescens Panaeolus cyanescens in Russia is found in the Far East and Primorye. It grows directly on manure in meadows and pastures.
The Mycologist's Handbook classifies psilocybes as poisonous, inedible mushrooms, although they can physically be eaten. The main thing is to distinguish them from very similar, but truly poisonous mushrooms that do not contain psilocin, for example, Cortinarius rubellus “The Beautiful Cobweb”.
It is incredibly poisonous and contains a toxin that destroys the kidneys, musculoskeletal system and respiratory organs.
Conocybe tenera Conocybe Tender is not fatally poisonous, but there is no benefit from it either - it does not contain psilocybin, but it can cause harm to health. It is similar to Psilocybe semilanceolate, its main difference is that the hymenophore plates have a darker, chocolate color.
We talked about psilocybin mushrooms that grow naturally in Russia, but are often cultivated artificially. The most popular of these psilocybes is Psilocybe cubensis or stropharia cubensis; Stropharia cubensis. Originally, it lives in Central and South America, India and Eastern Australia, but can also be found in a basin in the kitchen of an ordinary Russian apartment.
Interesting Facts
Umbrella of freedom.
- The first recorded and described intoxication of Psilocybe semilanceata dates back to 1799, when a dish of these mushrooms was unknowingly consumed by an English family, as a result of which all members of this family experienced altered consciousness and hallucinatory experiences for several hours.
- The first official description of Psilocybe semilanceolata was contained in the book “Colored Illustrations of English Mushrooms” (J. Sowerby), published in 1803. A detailed analysis of the psychoactive components of the mushroom was carried out only after 1960 by the famous chemist A. Hoffman.
