LSD - Lycaeum Leda's FAQ
Newsgroups: alt.drugs - Authors : dozens of people on the Net - Previous editor: David Honig - Current editor: Jani "Gnosis" Poijarvi - This file is in the public domain. Distribute freely. - Created 9/15/2000 Modified 1/22/2001 Summarized by JB on 8/24/2001 (less than 24% of the original)

LSD - WHAT IS IT

.. The hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide-25. Discovered by Dr. Albert Hofmann in 1938, LSD is one of the most potent mind-altering chemicals known. A white, odorless powder usually taken orally, its effects are highly variable and begin within one hour and generally last 8-12 hours, gradually tapering off. .. It significantly alters perception, mood, and psychological processes, and can impair motor coordination and skills. During the 1950s and early 1960s, LSD experimentation was legally conducted by psychiatrists and others in the health and mental health professions. Sometimes dramatic, unpleasant psychological reactions occur, including panic, great confusion, and anxiety.

.. May also be injected s.c. or i.v. The effect is identical with that of oral administration but sets in more rapidly. .. Results in transitory disturbances of affect, hallucinations, depersonalization, reliving of repressed memories, and mild neuro-vegetative symptoms. The effect sets in after 30 to 90 minutes and generally lasts 5 to 12 hours. However, intermittent disturbances of affect may occasionally persist for several days.

.. Pathological mental conditions may be intensified by Delysid. Particular caution is necessary in subjects with a suicidal tendency and in those cases where a psychotic development appears imminent. .. The tendency to commit impulsive acts may occasionally last for some days. ..

ANTIDOTE: .. 50 mg. chlorpromazine.

.. LSD causes mydriasis in man and other species. It also causes hyperglycaemia and mydriasis, has a hyperthermic action and causes piloerection. .. Parasympathetic effects include salivation, lachyrmation, vomiting, hypotension, and brachycardia. Low doses stimulate respiration but larger doses depress it. (NB: mydriasis = pupillary dilation) .. LSD typically causes early adrenergic effects such as sweating, nervousness, jaw grinding and insomnia which are easily confused with the side effects of amphetamine. .. LSD itself has some "body-kinks" on some people some times. Nausea is one of them. Its usually mild and transient. It also has speedlike (ie, adrenergic stimulation) effects, etc.

ADDICTION POTENTIAL: Zero physical addiction potential. Not something that makes you want to do it again immediately.

TOLERANCE: Acquired rapidly, within 3 days. Tolerance dissipates equally rapidly, without withdrawal, craving, or symptoms of addiction. ..

BAD TRIPS

A person on LSD who becomes depressed, agitated, or confused may experience these feelings in an overwhelming manner that grows on itself. The best solution is to remove disturbing influences, get to a safe, comforting environment, and reassure the tripper that things are alright. It may comfort those who fear that they are losing their minds to be reminded that it will end in several hours. .. Sedatives or tranquilizers such as Valium may help reduce panic and anxiety, but the best solution is calm talking. .. Remember that odd bodily sensations are normal and not harmful.

.. A psycholitic dose, generally 75 or 100 - or at most 200 - micrograms, causes a rush of thoughts, a lot of free association, some visualization (hallucination) and abreaction (memories so vivid that one seems to relive the experience). A psychedelic dose, around 500 micrograms, produces total but temporary breakdown of usual ways of perceiving self and world and (usually) some form of "peak experience" or mystic transcendence of ego. "Bad trips" usually occur only on psychedelic doses.

.. The most common adverse reaction is a temporary (less than 24 hours) episode of panic --the "bad trip". Symptoms include frightening illusions/hallucinations (usually visual and/or auditory); overwhelming anxiety to the point of panic; aggression with possible violent acting-out behavior; depression with suicidcal ideations, gestures, or attempts; confusion; and fearfulness to the point of paranoid delusions.

.. Many of these so called LSD psychoses could be other illnesses that were triggered by the stress of a traumatic psychedelic drug experience.

.. The potential role of LSD in accelerating or precipitating the onset of an illness that was "programmed" to develop ultimately in a particular individual--in a manner comparable to the major physical or emotional stress that often precipitates a bona fide myocardial infarction in an individual with advanced coronary atheresclerosis. The stress did not "cause" the heart disease; it was only the stimulus that accelerated the inexorable process to manifest illness. .. The role of LSD, therefore, in causing or precipitating these symptomatic disorders, is open to dispute. ..

MYTHS

LSD does not form "crystals" that reside in the body to be "dislodged" later, causing flashbacks. LSD is a crystalline solid (though it is unlikely that one would ever have enough to be visible to the naked eye) but it is easily water soluble, thus cannot form bodily deposits. Furthermore, it is metabolized and excreted in hours. .. LSD does not cause chromosome damage. .. The following is from Jay Stevens' Storming Heaven: "Cohen surveyed a sample of five thousand individuals who had taken LSD twenty-five thousand times. He found and average of 1.8 psychotic episodes per thousand ingestions, 1.2 attempted suicides, and 0.4 completed suicides. 'Considering the enormous scope of the psychic responses it induces,' he concluded, 'LSD is an astonishingly safe drug.'" ..

DANGERS

Purely psychological hazards, not harmful to body. May release latent psychosis or exacerbate depression, leading to irrational behavior. There is also a danger of foolish or incautious behavior, e.g, misjudging distances or thinking one can fly. Physical overdose is not a hazard, though one may easily ingest more than one may be able to handle psychologically. .. It would seem that the drug brought on the problems in vulnerable individuals. .. Lethal (toxic) doses of LSD are conservatively several tens of thousands of times as much as a normal dose, making it (in the toxic sense) one of the safest drugs known. .. Never take any drugs while pregnant. Best to be prudent.

FLASHBACKS

.. Almost everybody suffers flashbacks with or without LSD. Any intense emotional experience--the death of a loved one, the moment of discovery that one is in love, the moment of an automobile smashup or of a narrow escape from a smashup--may subsequently and unexpectedly return vividly to consciousness weeks or months later. Since the LSD trip is often an intense emotional experience, it is hardly surprising that it may similarly "flash back."

.. Flashbacks .. means the transitory recurrence of emotions and perceptions originally experienced while under the influence of a psychedelic drug. It can last seconds or hours; .. and it can be blissful, interesting, annoying, or frightening. Most flashbacks are episodes of visual distortion, time distortion, physical symptoms, loss of ego boundaries, or relived intense emotion lasting a few seconds to a few minutes. Ordinarily they are only slightly disturbing, especially since the drug user usually recognizes them for what they are; they may even be regarded lightheartedly as "free trips." Occasionally they last longer, and in a small minority of cases they turn into repeated frightening images or thoughts. They usually decrease quickly in number and intensity with time, and rarely occur more than a few months after the original trip.

.. Frequently afterward there is a momentary "opening" ("flash" would be too spastic a word) when for maybe a couple of seconds an area one is looking at casually, and indeed unthinkingly, suddenly takes on the intense vividness, composition, and significance of things seen while in the psychedelic condition. This "scene" is nearly always a small field of vision. .. (Cohen 1970[1965], pp. 114-115)

.. Flashbacks are most likely to occur under emotional stress or at a time of altered ego functioning; they are often induced by conditions like fatigue, drunkenness, marihuana intoxication, and even meditative states. Falling asleep is one of those times of consciousness change and diminished ego control; an increase in the hypnagogic imagery common at the edge of sleep often follows psychedelic drug use. .. Dreams too may take on the vividness, intensity, and perceptual peculiarities of drug trips; this spontaneous recurrence of psychedelic experience in sleep (often very pleasant) has been called the high dream (Tart 1972). Marihuana smoking is probably the most common single source of flashbacks. Many people become more sensitive to the psychedelic qualities of marihuana after using more powerful drugs, and some have flashbacks only when smoking marihuana (Weil 1970).

.. In a 1972 survey of 235 LSD users, .. 28% had flashbacks. Eleven percent of this group (seven men in all) called them very frightening, 32 percent called them somewhat frightening, 36 percent called them pleasant, and 21 percent called them very pleasant. Sixty-four percent said that their flashbacks did not disrupt their lives in any way; 16 percent (4 percent of the whole LSD-using group) had sought psychiatric help for them (Naditch and Fenwick 1977). .. The main causes of flashbacks were stress and anxiety. About 35 percent found them more or less pleasant, and the same proportion thought they could control them.

.. Several explanations for flashbacks have been proposed. One is that the drug has lowered the threshold for imagery and fantasy and made them less subject to voluntary control; .. repeated fearful relivings of sequences from past drug trips .. have been explained as similar to traumatic neuroses precipitated by fright: disturbing unconscious material has risen to consciousness during the drug trip and can be neither accepted nor repressed. .. Psychedelic experiences are likely to be recalled and relived when the ego's sorting and control of sensory information is disturbed by drugs, stress, or the state of half-sleep. ..

INSOMNIA: Insomnia occurs frequently after the trip. ..

BOTANY

Lysergic compounds appear in ergot, a fungal parasite of cereal grains; morning glory and hawaiian baby wood rose seeds; psychedelic tryptamines also occur in psilocybe mushrooms, in some south american trees and the poison glands of the cane toad. (Mescaline is not in this chemical family). LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) itself is not found in plants, however its close chemical cousin lysergic acid amide is.

.. The seeds of Rivea corymbosa [and] the seeds of Ipomoea violacea (also known as Ipomea rubro-caerulea, or Ipomea tricolor - which is the trade name for Ipomea Purpurea of the "Heavenly bue" variety) have a similar composition, but instead of lysergol, they have ergometrine (ergonovine). .. The total alkaloid content of the seeds of Ipomoea violacea is approximately five times as great as that of the seeds of Rivea corymbosa: 0.06% in the former; 0.012% in the latter. ..

ANTHROPOLOGY

The Road to Eleusius by Hoffman, and the Greek scholars Wasson (an ethnomycological scholar and former banker, and the first white to trip on shrooms with the mexican indians) and Ruck. Summary: A secret religion existed for 2,000 years in Greece (until the Christians displaced it around 400 AD). The initiation was open to anyone who spoke Greek and hadn't committed murder, once in their life. After 6 month long preparatory secret rituals, .. the personal visions [were] induced by drinking the grain decoction administered to the initiates. .. (Various greek prominant figures attended the rituals, including Plato). .. Hoffman dosed himself with large (ergot-derived) doses of obstetric compounds to assay their hallucinogenic potential, and found them to possess such activity. ..

IPOMOEA PURPUREA: A NATURALLY OCCURRING PSYCHEDELIC

.. The earliest known description of [the use of Ololiuqui] is by Hernandez, the King of Spain's personal physician, .. in his work which was not published until 1651. [It was about] the religious and divinatory use of .. Rivea corymbosa and Ipomoea violacea, among the Mazatec and Zapotec indians. The first of these is assumed to be the ololiuqui of the ancient Aztecs. In 1955 Osmond described personal experiments with Rivea corymbosa seeds and reported that the effects were similar to those of d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25). He suggested (1957) that the word psychedelic (meaning mind-manifesting) be used as a generic term for this class of substances to refer to their consciousness-expanding and psychotherapeutic function as contrasted with the hallucinogenic aspect. In 1960 Hoffman reported that he had isolated d-lysergic acid amide (LA) and d-isolysergic acid amide from the seed of both Rivea corymbosa and Ipomoea violacea. LA is very similar to LSD .. but [has] about one twentieth the psychological effectiveness of LSD. .. The onset of effects is about half an hour after the seeds have been chewed and swallowed and they last from five to eight hours.

• Low Dose, 20-50 Seeds
  This dosage rarely produces any visual distortions, although with eyes closed there may be beginning imagery. .. There tends to be a heightened awareness of objects and of nature, and enhanced rapport with other persons. A feeling of emotional clarity and of relaxation is likely to persist for several hours after other effects are no longer noticeable.

• Medium Dose, 100-150 Seeds
  .. Spatial distortions, visual and auditory hallucinations, intense imagery with eyes closed, synaesthesia and mood elevation. These effects, which occur mainly during the period of 1 to 4 hours after ingestion, are typically followed by a period of alert calmness which may last until the subject goes to sleep.

• High Dose, 200-500 Seeds
  Loss of ego boundaries coupled with feelings of euphoria and philosophical insight.

All the subjects who had previous experience with LSD claimed the effects of the seeds were similar to those of LSD. Transient nausea was the most commonly reported side effect, beginning about one half hour after ingestion and lasting a few minutes to several hours. Other reported side effects not commonly found with LSD were a drowsiness or torpor (possibly due to a glucoside also present in the seeds) and a coldness in the extremities suggesting that the ergine content of the seeds may be causing some vascular constriction. (If this is the case, there may be some danger of ergot poisoning resulting from excessive dosages of the seeds.)

.. Unpleasant LSD and morning glory trips can be smoothed out or even stopped by taking niacin (in the form of nicotinic acid, vitamin B-3 or "niacin"). Vitamin C has been shown to reduce the incidence of paranoia and prevent depletion of the vitamin from the adrenal glands during LSD trips.

.. Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea tricolor, Ipomoea violacea and Ipomoea rubro-caerulea are all the same plant. The other variety of morning glory, "Ololiuhqui" has at least two Latin names as well: Rivea corymbosa, and Turbina corymbosa, [and] ornamental wood roses, Ipomoea tuberosa and Argyreia nervosa, both common Hawaiian crops.

.. The seed of A. nervosa is the best plant source of ergoline alkaloids discovered; it contains approximately 3 mg of alkaloidal material per gram of seed. Approximately one-eighth of this is lysergamide. .. [Note: Argyreia nervosa has NO history of shamanic use as a hallucinogen.] ..

CHEMISTRY

.. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide is LSD rather than LAD because the German word for acid is saeure (sp). Ergot is a product of the fungus Claviceps purpurea. .. LSD is a semisynthetic derivative of lysergic acid. Thus LSD is an "ergot"-like substance. ..

MECHANISM OF ACTION

.. The mechanism of action of LSD and other psychedelics is uncertain. .. The current thesis [is that] LSD acts to preferentially inhibit serotonergic cell firing and seems to spare postsynaptic serotnergic receptors. .. In general, 5-ht is an inhibitory transmitter; thus, when its activity is decreased, the next neuron in the chain is freed from inhibition and becomes more active. Since serotnergic systems appear to be intimately involved int eh control of sensation, sleep, attention, and mood, it may be possible to explain the actions of LSD .. by their disinhibition of these critical systems. There is also evidence for interaction with dopaminergic systems. .. LSD acts as a 5HT autoreceptor agonist in the raphe nucleus. .. It also acts as a 5HT2 agonist, which is thought to be the main site of hallucinogenic activity. It's probably best called a a mixed 5HT2/5HT1 receptor partial agonist.

.. Aghajanian embarked in 1980 upon a series of studies to evaluate how psychedelic drugs affect the locus coeruleus (.. a funneling mechanism that integrates all sensory input). He showed that any kind of sensory stimulation--sight, sound, smell, taste, or tactile sensation--speeds up the firing of locus coeruleus neurons in rats, and that the accelerated firing is greatly enhanced by treating the animals with LSD or mescaline. In contrast, nonpsychedelic drugs, such as amphetamines and antidepressants, fail to exert this effect. .. Although psychedelic drugs increase the response of locus coeruleus cells to sensory stimulation, they do not cause the neurons to fire spontaneously in the absence of such stimulation. Moreover, directly applying LSD or mescaline to locus coeruleus neurons does not enhance the neurons' reponse to sensory stimulation. .. Therefore .. the effect of psychedelic drugs on sensory stimulation is indirect. .. The greatly accelerated firing of the locus coeruleus presumably provokes a powerful, patterned release of norepinephrine from nerve terminals throughout the brain. .. This extremely enhanced level of alertness might possibly account for the "transendent" mental state produced by psychedelic drugs. In other words, in a state of such heightened awareness, the drug user may become conscious of an "inner self" to which he or she is normally oblivious.

.. LSD shuts down the firing of the seratonin neurons in the raphe. .. The increased firing of the locus coereleus by its disinhibition due to the neurons in the raphe slowing down (since you are inhibiting an inhibitory neuron the result is excitation...). The l.c. has been associated with being a "sensory highway" in the brain. ..

RELATED COMPOUNDS

.. DMT (dimethyl-tryptamine) .. is very fast acting, lasting less than an hour. [But it's not orally active.] Psilocybin, found in hallucinogenic (aka magic or mexican) mushrooms, has effects similar to LSD but they work for approximately half the duration. .. "Indole" is the name of the 6-carbon ring attached to the 5-ring containing a nitrogen. .. While LSD is semi-synthetic, DMT and psilocybin are found in nature. ..

MANUFACTURE

Forget it. Precursors (ergot alkaloids, used medicinally for migraines and ob/gyn due to their vasoconstrictive effects) are closely watched. .. One could theoretically extract lsyergic amides from morning glory or Hawaiian wood rose seeds. Though there are routes to synthesize lysergic acid from "scratch", these are complicated also.) Other typically needed chemicals are very dangerous. Serious experience in organic chemistry lab would be necessary. .. And you'll probably trip during manufacture if you actually succeed. Its easier and safer to buy it on the black market.

.. Lysergic acid amides are commonly made by a simple and efficient procedure using POCl3 and the desired amine in CHCl3 solution. .. It's simple and uses relatively safe reagents. .. Rebek has described an extremely elegant synthesis of methyl lysergate from L-tryptophan which gives only the natural isomer of lysergic acid. It's still a several step procedure, but most of the reagents are fairly common and the yields are greatly improved over past syntheses. .. Using Rebek's synthesis, one could simply alter the procedure slightly and intorduce the groups that make the compounds more potent. When the 6N-methyl group is replaced by ethyl or allyl, it becomes 2 and 3 times as potent respectively. ..

DRUG TESTING

No risk. Its not looked for, hard to find, and transient. .. LSD and its metabolites are detectable in the urine for much longer than one hour ..: for as long as 4 days after the ingestion of 0.2 mg of the drug. .. Note that standard, cheap initial drug screening does not use chromatography or mass-spectrometry, and does not look for LSD. .. Spinal taps are not particularly useful (cerebro-spinal fluid doesn't concentrate LSD or metabolites) and are never done under any circumstances: they are painful and dangerous. .. The detection limit [is] approximately 2 days.

.. Abuscreen, a product of Roche Diagnostic Systems, is a series of RadioImmunoAssay (RIA) tests, .. can in theory be used to detect quantities as small as 0.020 nanograms (ng) per milliliter (ml) of sample. Laboratory tests have shown that RIA results are accurate down to at least 0.1 ng/ml. .. EMIT (.. Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique), a product of Syva Corporation, is another series of tests, one of which can be used to detect LSD and its metabolites in serum and urine. .. Both Roche and Syva recommend confirmation of positive results by using a different test. The usual method of confirming positive results is some form of chromatography. These include High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC), and different forms of Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry. ..

LEGAL SCHEDULING

Class I, "no medical use" --- mostly for political reasons, as it was and is used in psychotherapy. (Current use is in Switzerland.) ..

SET and SETTING

.. For best results, one should take LSD only with people one trusts in safe, comfortable surroundings, free of everyday intrusions. Tripping alone is a very risky thing to do, that inexperienced people should avoid.

STORAGE

.. LSD is a fairly stable organic molecule. .. The main factors to be concerned with are moisture (due to leaching and facilitated chemical reactions in the presense of moisture), oxygen, light, and temperature. Reaction rates typically depend upon temperature exponentially. .. Sealing in AL foil in a cool dark place is fine. Some recommend refrigeration, but be careful about nosy guests, condensation, and frost. Multiple, redundant seals are suggested, eg., paper in metal foil in plastic in a metal candy tin which has been taped shut. .. Wallets are contraindicated as storage locations due to sweat.

SYNERGIES, BAD COMBINATIONS

Smoking cannabis products considerably increases the effects, increasing the visuals and also possibly increasing the cognitive and linguistic disorders. As the effects of LSD wear off, marijuana may bring them back, and also ease the jitteriness some dislike. Nitrous oxide goes well with LSD, though one should be extra careful (not to suffocate or fall down). .. Alcohol's effects are largely overwhelmed by LSD, and they act in opposite ways: alcohol being a depressant and LSD being a (hyper)stimulant. Generally mixing stimulants and sedatives is counterproductive. ..

AFTEREFFECTS

The psychedelic experience is not something that should be undertaken lightly. While you will be physically OK after the trip, and odds are you'll still have all the bolts in your head screwed in right afterward, the trip is very likely to cause lasting mental changes. All the following effects are strongest in the days or weeks after the trip, but they may well continue in some form for the rest of your life. You may see mild hallucinations in dark rooms or with your eyes closed. Objects may seem to vibrate. After prolonged use tracers and open-eye hallucinations may appear. Especially immediately after the trip, you may experience odd mood swings and irrational impulses (harmless ones, but people may still think you're nuts if you fulfill the impulse of "Gee, I really want to jump up on that rock and bounce on it because life is so wonderful"). Your perception of objects is very likely indeed to change. You may become captivated by sights such as snow falling on a dark winter night or the shadows caused by a candle flame. Insights acquired during the trip may also have lasting effects. There are many cases of people discovering a hidden aspect of themselves, ie. that they are homosexual or that the philosophy/religion they have adhered to their life is wrong. While the insight itself may be beneficial, the process of adjusting to it is often painful. Very few LSD users regret taking the drug, but before taking it one should still be aware of what may happen.

.. Among the many positive benefits .. is an enhanced appreciation of beauty. That is finding aesthetically pleasing images that other people tend to ignore or not appreciate. Things like enjoying the pattern of frost that forms on a glass, or the lights of a city, or just the paterns formed on the inside of our eyelids. This is not just limited to the periods when one is actually under the effects of the substance.

For example while driving into a city at night with a mixed group of people, one of the persons in the car who occaisionally uses acid was very taken with the image and described it in very poetic picturesque words, without exception those who also used drugs were able to sympathize and understand what the person was talking about. The rest of the car just looked at them strangely.

.. It is not that the non-users couldn't see the beauty, it is just that they were not excited or empassioned about it, it did not touch them as deeply.

PSILOCYBE MUSHROOM - Lycaeum Leda's FAQ v1.2
Most of the writing by Bynipo and Jani "Gnosis" Poijîrvi - Created 9/16/2000 Modified 9/28/2000 Summarized by JB on 8/26/2001 (less than 20% of the original)

TYPICAL EFFECTS

• colors magnified
• feelings of strange feelings
• wavy motion of objects
• strange thoughts
• visions/insights
• 2-D visuals: objects differ
• absence of normal thought
• color/switches
• 3-D objects mutate
• perceptions not connected to the "real" world, absence of reality

ANTHROPOLOGY

.. Siberian shamans use[d] fly agarics to enlighten the path to the spiritworld. In Central and Southern America use of psilocybin mushrooms (and other hallucinogens) was common until the arrival of Spaniards who spread the Catholic faith with sword and fire and forbade the use.

Spanish priest Bernardino de Sahagun (ca. 1500 AD) on the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms by the Aztecs: "The first thing to be eaten at the feast were small black mushrooms that they called nanacatl and bring on drunkenness, hallucinations and even lechery; they ate these before the dawn...with honey; and when they began to feel the effects, they began to dance, some sang and others wept.... When the drunkenness of the mushrooms had passed, they spoke with one another of the visions they had seen. .. Only old people were allowed to drink the alcoholic beverage pulque. .. If a youth appeared intoxicated in public .. he was punished by being beaten to death with stick or garrotte before all other youths assembled there .. to serve as an example."

.. The Aztecs (1400-1521) took other hallucinogenic drugs such as tlapatl, mixitl grain and peyotl or peyote, use of which originated from the north of Mexico, where it had been in use since 300 B.C. .. The Codex Vienna Mixtec manuscript (ca. 13th-15th century) depicts the ritual use of the teonanácatl by the Mixtec gods. The god known as 7 Flower (his name presented in the pictoral language as seven circles and a flower) was the Mixtec god for hallucinatory plants, especially the divine mushroom, and is depicted with a pair of mushrooms in his hand. The Aztec also had their god for the entheogens, Xochipilli, Prince of Flowers. He was the divine patron of "the flowery dream" as the Aztecs called the ritual hallucinatory trance. Mushrooms ingested by the indians were supposedly Psilocybe mexicana or caerulescens and Panaolus sphinctrinus. Stropharia cubensis, which is currently quite popular as it is easy to locate and cultivate, was not introduced to America until the arrival of the Europeans and their cattle. Today indians regard Stropharia cubensis inferior to Ps. mexicana for it grows in dung. .. The teonanácatl was first identified as Lophophora williamsii or peyote, and it was thought that Sahagun had mistaken the cactus for mushrooms. .. Mushroom ceremonies [are called] veladas. .. [Today's] notorious shroom zone [are] some areas of Florida and South Wales.

PSILOCYBE

.. "Psilocybe" comes from the Greek words psilos (bare) and kube (head). .. A rather inaccurate comparison if you ask me, most bald people don't have big pointy nipples on top of cone-shaped heads. .. Psilocybin and psilocin are both alkaloids (nitrogen-containing substances found in nature). .. Psilocin is unstable and it breaks down when the mushroom is dried, while psilocybin lasts much longer (a 115-year old mushroom sample was found to contain some). The two are equally psychoactive, since one molecule of psilocybin breaks down into one molecule of psilocin. .. Spores contain no psilocybin or psilocin. .. Psilocybin and psilocin .. bear close resemblance to the neurotransmitter serotonin. How these substances work is .. still quite obscure. Primary effect seems to be the inhibition of neurotransmitter serotonin. .. As a good psychedelic should, psilocybin, psilocin and psilocybian mushrooms have low toxicity. .. The ED50 : LD50 ratio is 641 according to the NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects; compare this with 9637 for vitamin A, 4816 for LSD, 199 for aspirin and 21 for nicotine.

PSYCHOLOGY

.. Hash usually doesn't do much - sends me into a half sleep with silly thoughts and spacey soundscape added to music. LSD [is] probably OK if you are after low dose recreation -- partying and such... High doses .. crack up open your head; Starring You and Your Brain for 12 hours. Every perception magnified thousandfold, .. it's a bit too intense. .. Makes you really tired, physically and mentally. But psilocybin, mm-mm, it's juuuuust fiiiine. Voyage to the spiritworld ... visions and travels, awesome mental hallucinations. It's a direct ISDN-link to the mother earth, forgiving, gentle substance. You hear the chanting of the planet and the spirit of the mushroom. It's a product of the nature, untied to the actions of men and women roaming this planet. Your body disconnected from the circuit, you may often forget it exists. Six hours -- not too short, not too long. Perfect.

.. Like all 'major' hallucinogens, psilocybin can precipitate psychotic episodes and uncover or aggravate previous mental illness. If you're stressed out or depressed, don't take mushrooms; if you have schizophrenia or something, DO NOT take mushrooms. .. THIS ELITISM IS TOTALLY SELF-DETERMINED. UNLESS YOU ARE SELF-CONFIDENT, SELF-DIRECTED, SELF-SELECTED, PLEASE ABSTAIN. -- Timothy Leary, Ph.D.

I think this applies to mushrooms as well. Mushrooms and acid will open your doors of perception, and once open you can never truly close them again. They are more than a purely recreational drug. ..

BOTANY

Kingdom	Protista
Division	Fungi
Class	Basidiomycetes
Order	Stropharia
Families	Bolbitiaceae, Coprinaceae, Cortinariaceae, Pluteaceae, and Strophariaceae Mycetes (or basidiomycotina): fungi that produce spores on stalks outside the terminal cells Agaricales: mushrooms with cap & gills
Commonly used species	Panaeolus sphinctrinus, subbalteatus (benanosis) Psilocybe baeocystis, caerulescens, cyanescens, mexicana, pelliculosa, semilanceata, stuntzii Stropharia (Psilocybe) cubensis
Uncommonly used species	Agrocybe farinacea Boletus erythropus, manicus, migroviolaceus, niggerimus, kumaeus, reayi [all4] Conocybe cyanopus, kuehneriana1, siligineoides3, smithii Copelandia anomala, bispora, cambodginiensis, cyanescens, tropicalis Coprinus niveus, patouillardii, narcoticus Galerina steglichii Gymnopilus aeruginosus, liquiritiae, luteus, purpuratus, spectabilis, validipes, viridans Inocybe aeruginascens, coelestium, corydalna, haemacta, tricolor Lepiota peele Panaeolina foenisecii2 Panaeolus acuminatus, antillarum, ater, cambodginiensis, campanulatus, chlorocystis, foenisecii, firmicola, olivaceus, papilionaceus, retirugis, separatus, tropicalis Pholiotina cyanapoda Pluteus atricapillus2, nigroviridis, salicinus Psathyrella candolleana, gracilis, sepulchralis (Almost) all Psilocybe species

¹ Contains only psilocin. ² Contains only psilocybin. ³ Contains unidentified tryptamines (probably psilocin/psilocybin). ⁴ Contains unidentified hallucinogens (possibly psilocin/psilocybin).

The Boletus genus is very large and very few of them are hallucinogenic; some are known to be poisonous. Inclusion on this list does not mean the psilocin/psilocybin content is sufficient for psychotropic activity in practical amounts, for example one would need to eat around a thousand Pluteus atricapillus to get off. ..

DOSAGE

The medium adult oral dose, according to Hofmann, is 4-8 mg of psilocybin. .. As a rule of thumb, for dried shrooms multiply the dosage in SHROOMS by two. There is no reliable way of converting weight in grams from fresh to dry, mushrooms contain approximately 90% water (i.e. 10 grams wet = 1 gram dry) but the figure varies from species to species. ..

• Fresh? Mushrooms are best when fresh, both tasting better and working better. The freshness affects experiences a lot. The "divinity factor" is enhanced.

• Dry? Drying mushrooms is easy. .. Put the mushrooms into an oven (with the fan on if there is one) with the heat set to 30 to 35 C (~90 F). Wait 2 to 6 hours. Higher temperatures, even 40 C, destroy psilocybin and psilocin. .. Note that mushrooms containing only psilocybin keep their psychoactivity much longer than those containing psilocybin and psilocin or only the latter. .. Psilocin .. needs refrigeration to be preserved, .. but if stored properly the mushrooms stay psychoactive for at least a year. .. Calcium and/or fermented milk products interfere with psilocybin. .. The Aztec tradition of not eating before tripping is probably grounded in knowledge of possible adverse consequences, so don't eat too much, just enough to get the shrooms down.

PREPARATION FOR THE VOYAGE

There is a lot one can do to ensure a enjoyable voyage:

• Packing
  Get into packing a couple of days before the voyage. Load your gear (brain) with everything you think will be useful. .. Walking in nature, quiet and peaceful, and meditating ensures I get enough mental energy and happiness along. Try to break the normal circles of work, and if you are stressed, take few more days away from everything before leaving on the expedition. Go easy on your diet. Some fast for the previous week. .. I eat normally until the day before, after which I eat mostly vegetables and fruits.

• Place
  Clean it up. Get some fresh air into it. Tell all your friends/relatives not to visit, and disconnect the doorbell and take the phone off. .. Make everything as comfortable as possible. Fresh flowers will blow your mind with their beautiful looks and odors. A stroboscope is also worth a try, especially at 20 to 30 Hz. Lights are probably best low or off (and of white color).

• Flight
  Loose clothing and something to put on/take off; you'll be lying down most of the time, so pick something you could sleep in. Something to drink -- see if your drinks include caffeine or other chemicals. Water is always the best. Some light snacks to eat during the trip, and possibly something to fill your stomach after the trip. Drawing during take-off can be fun, also psychedelic videos. Anyway, for a real "trip" .., after the takeoff turn the lights off, turn the volume to the edge of subliminal, and relax & tune into the vibe of the Earth.

• Music and the Voyage
  .. Especially in urban environment music may be necessery to camouflage and change the every-day-soundscape. Music can tingle your imagination in a myriad different ways. Music can take you away, comfort or make you feel unbelievalably good. It can also make you sad, jumpy or angry. Therefore it is very important to make the right choice of music, .. depending on the results one wishes to achieve. .. Music you like during your normal states of conciousness is probably not ideal -- for instance lots of the ambient done today is not very nice for tripping, but probably ideal listening both before and after the trip. For a voyage try to find music that is calm, not too hectic or fast, not too structured and stays in the background if desired. .. Especially music by shamen or music aiming to a religious or spiritual experience -- shamanistic drumming, australian dijeridoo sounds or chantings by gregorian or buddhist monks. .. "Meditative music" compilations can be excellent. .. Silence, either complete or 'The music of the Mother Nature' -- best tripping music for as long there has been humans around to trip. The patter of raindrops falling surpasses just about any music humans can come up with. A must try. Perfect.

DURING THE VOYAGE

Once you are in the air it is relatively easy to forget that you can alter the course of trip. Visuals and thoughts come and go, and everything follows some strangely familiar yet divine and unknown path. So one is left gawking at all this jaw open, as if watching TV. But changing pathways is easy -- provided you don't forget it is possible =) Always decide and ponder what you want to see and where you want to go before the experience. A shamanic voyage to the underworld is a snack, as is seeing the future. ..

A general topological examination of the scenery

Minutes after ingestion:

• 0 Ignition
  Usually the first effects of psiloc[ybin/in] are perceivable after ten or twenty minutes. Funny or strange things may pop into your mind. One may feel very relaxed or like jumping all over the place. Next you may feel like you were blasting off, up towards the stars, rising high. Chewing the mushrooms for about ten minutes in your mouth enables the psilocybin and its analogues to enter the brain faster -- if the mushrooms are immediately swallowed, it may take as long as 1 hour for the first effects to set in.

• 20 Acceleration
  If you get any physical symptoms, this is when they will hit. You can avoid or at least reduce nausea by not eating very much before the trip and not moving around too much during this phase. Throwing up is uncommon but not unheard of; having a barf bag around, especially on the first few trips, is a good idea. If you find that your body really doesn't like shrooms, a motion sickness pill (Dramamine and similar anti-histamines) beforehand may help. But don't worry about it too much, even if you feel queasy the nausea will end quite quickly.

• 40 Leaving the atmosphere
  One will begin entering the realms of the experience; often the first real signs are simple hallucinations with the eyes closed or in darkness, little colored pixels floating around, etc. If one is going to go to the toilet, it should be done now.

• 70 Flight
  1 hour is usually sufficient for the more powerful effects to set in. The body will feel heavy and drowsy.

• 130 Peak
  After two hours the peak of the experience. Often quite awesome.

• 300 Deceleration
  By now one will again start to remember the concepts of normal reality and may feel like getting something to drink and eat, or talk and do some moving about.

• 360 Touchdown
  After about six hours most of the effects have disappeared and sleeping becomes possible. ..

• 7 days Jet lag
  Afterglow of the experience will persist anywhere from few days to several weeks; what you've learned may change your life. Occasionally this learning will be negative and you'll be depressed for a while as you assimilate the fact that you've been wrong about something for all your life, but the depression is never extreme and - cheezy as it may sound - you will be a much better person afterwards.

Surgeon General's Warning: One of the aftereffects of psilocybin (and most all psychedelics for that matter) is "emotional fluctuation", i.e. things that would make you a bit happy cause euphoria and conversely things you don't like cause depression. At its worst this is a real manic-depressive rollercoaster, but usually the fluctuations are more positive than negative. .. This rarely lasts longer than a day or two, so don't worry about it.

NOTES

• Physical interference
  .. You will feel odd, weird and maybe scary physical sensations like liquid skin or distorted body-proportions. .. Don't panic! First of all, 'serious' effects of this type are quite unusual, but even if they do occur getting rid of them is usually easy. Just remember, nothing has really happened or is really happening, it's just your mind exaggerating and creating things. Learn to relax and distract your thoughts on other tangents at moments like this. ..

• The Eraserhead Syndrome
  .. A mental/physical tolerance builds up quite fast: usually three or four times with 7 day intervals cause diminished effect and notably less divine trip. I'd recommend visiting the spiritworld 4 to 10 times a year, for the freshness and divinity of it. .. It's easy to get bad vibes off the psilos -- just do the mushrooms like you'd do alcohol -- without respect or any care. .. If you only want to get your brain fucked up there are better substances for that in the world. .. Everyone gets anxious or bad feelings during their dives to the seas of collective unconciousness. It's normal, but the magnitude of baddies can be decreased by paying attention to "set and setting." A friend or guide can distract the attention of an tripper to a wholly different direction. A change of room, place, music or lights often helps. ..

• .. Some Amanita species are poisonous, but the entheogenic ones are not. .. Accidental ingestions of entheogenic species thought to be edible (in the usual sense) [make] people panic, ['cause] having never tripped before [they] assume they have been poisoned, [but then they] go to the hospital and "recover" (i.e. come down)

• .. If you're drunk before you eat the shrooms, the mental effects of your drunkenness will disappear as the trip starts. Large amounts will increase the nausea in the beginning.

• Cannabis: Nearly always the experience is intensified/lengthened, but a few people claim it actually ends the trip. Smoking is handy during the last few hours to extend the experience. ..

FURTHER READING

.. Carlos Castaneda, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary .. and Aldous Huxley all make fine reading. [Also:] "Plants of the Gods" by Richard Schultes and Albert Hofmann. Umberto Eco has always been very good when talking about the mind, almost as good as Herman Hesse.