http://www.straightdope.com/columns/061229.html
And why not? The beautiful Amanita muscaria has a long and illustrious history as the Magic Mushroom of choice for shamans, mystics, and hippies in the know. But in this case you do puke a little less if you let them dry thoroughly, as I learned back in the day, when I wrote a paper for class credit (those were the days!) on the use of mushrooms in religious ceremonies. Especially (based on anecdotal evidence–none of my references were willing to try it) when they had first been filtered through a reindeer or a shaman who outranked you.
As proof that those, indeed, were the days for those of us in the “Just say YES!” generation, I present the Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants. If you ever thought the illustrations in Herbert Zim’s “Golden Guides” were just a little too brightly colored and the lizards and rocks looked a bit more cheerful than you expected I believe I now have an explanation.
Oh, and before anybody gets the idea that I am promoting the use of poisonous plants to get you where you are going, note the statement “puke a little less.” The longer you keep it down the better the high, they say, but really, who wants to puke until they see Mescalito?
One reason why not is that it turns out that A. muscaria has a highly variable amount of psychoactive compounds depending on genetic strain/locale. Supposedly my local versions out here in California aren’t likely to do a thing for you ( other than make you mildly ill ).
For another if what you’re looking for is a high, they’re a pretty piss-poor candidate relative to the far more potent, reliable and less barf-inducing psychoactive mushrooms in other genera. You can also get high by snorting enough nutmeg, but why in the world would anyone want to? The Fly Agaric gets so much attention because of its appearance, rather than its efficacy.
Silly boy, you EAT nutmeg. In larger amounts that in a pumpkin pie, of course. And it will make you puke.
Are magic mushrooms, or rather psilocybin, ever distributed in non-mushroom form? Are there psilocybin pills or something similar?
I’ve never encountered it, though Hofmann managed to synthecize it, but since the “mescaline” in pill form one came across back then was of a suspicious nature I would assume any “psilocybin” one bought was likely LSD or even a sugar pill.
A lady named Hofmann was laid out in the room next to the one in which we held my grandmother’s wake. I met Mrs Hofmann’s son in the lobby and he mentioned that his uncle had invented LSD. All I could think was, “That’s lovely, but you really shouldn’t take it before your mother’s funeral.” shudder