I was wondering as to the dangers of large psychedelic mushroom consumption. Also, any general information, personal experiences, or recommendations/condemnations would be gladly accepted.

Hello!

I've taken psychedelic mushrooms quite a few times. There are many different kinds, but I can only speak for the psilocybe variety.

The 'standard' dose, as far as I'm aware, is two grams. This is about as much as you can fit if you pack the shrooms lightly into a 25ml shot glass. People have been known to take more - up to and over 5g - but I certainly wouldn't recommend it, especially if it's your first time.

My personal experiences have, for the most part, been lovely. I recommend taking them in the morning and without eating too much food first. Perhaps an apple for breakfast, then the shrooms. Make sure you don't have any commitments during the day and that you won't be disturbed by unexpecte visitors during the trip (which will be about 4 - 5 hours).

It's generally agreed that it's best to trip out in nature. Try to do it on a sunny day, with water and trees nearby. That's ideal. Try not to be in an urban environment. It's great to have a place to swim. And it's generally great to take a friend along; it probably doesn't matter whether they are also taking shrooms or not.

I'm sure you'll have a lovely time.

Seems us capetonians are infiltrating :-)

If you _really_ want to try them you should sit and think about it. There are no life-threatening dangers, but if you are prone to feeling paranoid or there is a medical history of psychosis then steer far away.

I've once before, but not enough to hallucinate. That was very interesting, and surprisingly social. I had a wonderful time, and I have thought long and hard about it. I actually had 2 dreams in which I acquired mushrooms. But yes, I would love to hear more elaborate descriptions of one's personal experiences while tripping.

I have just started taking shrooms myself (p.cubanis B+ strand I believe,very generic). I personally have only taken them to expand on my cognitive limits--not for the sake of hilucinating. For your first few times I recomend that you practice intense meditation and yoga. Take maybe 2g for your first time, and I would never really excede a 3g trip (for the sake of cost and there is no need). You should find stretching very easy and if you focus on breathing and visualize your breathing you should achieve a very inhanced cognitive state. Closing your eyes will allow you to literaly go into another reality--for me it is a very spiritual thing.

I would limit your use of psilocyben and practice on "tripping" naturally. For a week or so I wore ear plugs all day and worked on psychoactive hearing (no idea if that is a real term, this was just a personal experiment) and it really works. The easiest thing to stat off with is your own voice. You can hear your voice without talking rather easily. By the end of a week I could vividly hear entire symphonies just through pure meditation and mind manipulation. The greatest part is you can create compositions of your own and hear every dynamic aspect of the sound. I was able to alter eq and harmonic variances in any given instrument. If you take time to study recording it will make your efforts much more effective (I recomend Modern Recording Techniques).

That is an exceedingly intriguing thought! Do you find that you are sore at all the next day from the stretching?

Musical manipulation! I play the cello, and I've recently been dabbling in creations of my own. If you don't mind, I am going to run an experiment parallel to your's. I'll have to skip many days of the week, though, because I attend highschool. Very intriguing; very, very intriguing.

I took 1g for my first time... Once I took about 2.5-3g and it was one crazy experience. Total loss of time, reality, loss in thoughts

It is dificult to accomplish, but you can really apply it to all of your sences--hearing just happens to be the easiest. I actually did that experiment before ever trying shrooms and I took it to the next level the day before I first took shrooms. My brother is a musician and I do his tour managing, so I am on the road for 3 or 4 months at a time. This is when I did the psycoactive hearing experiment. The day I got home from tour I ran 10 miles (after driving 8 or so hours a day and not exercising whatsoever in months). That is when I took the idea of mind manipulation to the next level. I simply focused my mind on running and in doing so I was able to relieve myself of any fatigue (I was going to keep running but it got dark). After that was my first shroom experience and I used it to hone my ability to manipulate my mind--thus the yoga and controlled breathing. It is really an amazing experience and for me it changed my entire outlook on life.

Now I am able to sustain a "natural high" basically the entire day, and I run 30miles several times a week no problem. I still like to trip on shrooms on occasion, but you should really try to limit your use and work on manipulating your mind naturally--it is alot cheaper

oh yeah and the amount of shrooms I took my first time is a pretty heavy dose for most people--I am inclined to not be effected so much by psychedelics so you should find the right dose for you, but I would imagine it would be about 1.5-2g

I took about 2 grams my first (and only) time. I did not even hallucinate, but the effect on my perspective was very interesting. I did them with others though, and it became a much more social experience than I might have wanted. I am planning on taking a slightly higher dose with one good friend of mine. I am rather excited for it.

I have yet to have any real hilucinations. I have had very minor hilucinations, but I take shrooms in a very spiritual sence (to tap into a new level of cognition). My personal opinion is that if you are taking drugs for solely recreational purposes, maybe with the exception of pot, you should probably stop. If you want hilucinations shrooms are probably not the way to go. I do not know anyone who has had any real hilucinations--mostly just enhanced recognition of patterns and textures and possible motion of such patterns.

I have yet to have any real hilucinations. I have had very minor hilucinations, but I take shrooms in a very spiritual sence (to tap into a new level of cognition). My personal opinion is that if you are taking drugs for solely recreational purposes, maybe with the exception of pot, you should probably stop. If you want hilucinations shrooms are probably not the way to go. I do not know anyone who has had any real hilucinations--mostly just enhanced recognition of patterns and textures and possible motion of such patterns.

I'd definitely have to disagree with you on that in particular. Mushrooms seem the perfect balance between the extremnity of LSD and the alterations of Salvia Divinorum. My curiousity is pushing me to hallucinate with shrooms, because what is our perception other than the limits of our senses?

I guess I have never had any real hilucinations because of my brain type--I meditate several hours a day, and have developed alot of control over my mind and body. When I take any shrooms I have too firm of a grasp on reality to truely hilucinate. I believe that psychedelics bring out ones underlying mental state. "Mental illness" runs in my family and I know for a fact that I technically have inherited such genes. I find that most famous people in history have been "mentaly ill" because there is a drive that one gets from insanity and there is definitely a correlation between use of psychedelics and bringing out the underlying mental "issues". I think the reason phychedelics do not effect me as profoundly as other is the fact that in my normal cognitive state I posess many of the qualities that "normal" people can only attain through drugs so I do not find the effects that unusual.

What "mental illness" possibly compares to the perception of a "normal" person on shrooms? My father has a "mental illness" and I am not vastly effected, as you claim to be. My thoughts on why you never hallucinate is because you've told me previously that you've only used 2 grams (which you thought was quite a lot), which in reality is a subnormal dosage. 3-5 grams constitutes a "normal" dose in most "normal" people. If what you say is true, and you are cognitively much different, then you might even need a higher than "normal" dosage.

oh no I was recomending 2g for you--I have taken 7g of p.cubanis B+ strand with essentialy the same effects as when I take 2g. For me it really makes no difference how much I consume as long as I meet the minimum threshold. Taking an 8th (3.5g) for a typical person is a large quantity.

Oh, I'm sorry. That would be my fault. I also apologize for my previously connoted annoyance, as it was completely unfounded and erroneous. It would seem that you are indeed unique in that case.

lol yeah it is really annoying... No drugs really effect me.

Mushrooms have a more intense/hallucinogenic effect on me than LSD. LSD is more kind of another perception as if I see trought the eyes of an alien/animal. Salvia is like a 30sec LSD trip.

Now you are talking about smoking Salvia right? If you use ethanol as a solvent and take the salvia orally would the high last longer?

I recommend treating Salvia with respect and moderation.

actual hallucinations do not typically occur with psilocybin. more like closed eye visuals and open eye visual distortions.

I have never experience anything more than I can attain through meditation--well a bit more intense, but same stuff.

I seem to remember the amount of Liberty caps, a very common mushroom found in the UK in Autumn, one would need to take to overdose would be 88lbs. I'll just write that again 88lbs !!!

www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_faq.shtml#4

Psilocybin and psilocin are part of the tryptamine family (indole C8H7N & ethylamine side chain). Psilocybin is soluable in 20 parts water, while psilocin is only slightly soluable in water.9 They 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 (5-hydroxytryptamine aka 5-HT), i.e. a 5-HT2A post-synaptic agonist that mimics the effects to 5-HT to put it in jargon. This is the working hypothesis for LSD-25 at the moment and it's probably true for psilocybin as well. These substances also present some cross-tolerance.

Psilocybin, psilocin and psilocybian mushrooms have very low toxicity - in tests with mice, doses up to 200 mg of pure psilocybin/kg of body weight have been injected intravenously without lethal effects (that would be 13 grams of pure psilocybin per average human (65 kg / 140 lbs). 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. According to Leo Hollister, Jonathon Ott, and John W. Allen, one would have to consume their body weight in fresh mushrooms or eat approximately 19 grams of the pure chemical substance to bring on death. As long as Psilocybin mushrooms are properly identified, poisoning is not a problem.

Salvia needs respect absolutely.

4-HO-DMT is pretty non-toxic. You know, this all Psilocybin mushrooms are, simply imagine DMT and an HO added to 4. Thats what they have and what their other active immediately breaks down to.

I have taken mushrooms once before, 3g.

It is difficult to explain until you feel it for yourself. It is another form of consciousness and it opened up a new world for me. I was around a few other people, who were on the same dose, and then one person's flatmates came in. Let's just say they weren't having nearly as good a time as we were.

It gave me an understanding of what I was seeing and a deeper realization of normal sights that I wouldn't have in everyday consciousness. I was in London looking out a large window, and there was a passenger train in the distance. My friends and I sat looking at this train going by for hours. It sounds ridiculous, but I can only speak for myself and what I thought. I could imagine the people inside the train, each with a life of her or his own, all the things they were doing and they had no idea I was watching them. It was fascinating. All the lights led to a house or flat and I could FEEL the people inside.

I went into a grocery store and realized how ridiculous modern life is. The bright lights, the signs coming out and screaming what's on sale, the bright colors... it was all just so ridiculous and everyone was lining up for the cashier like it was normal. I noticed things I would never pay attention to on a normal basis.

I couldn't tie my shoes, but I was having these amazing, spiritual thoughts, bringing me closer to my friends, to God and to the world. Our consciousness without these types of drugs allows us to do mundane things like tie our shoes properly, but we can't see things on a higher plane like we can through the eyes of mushrooms.

I took a walk down the street and realized that all the passersby had no idea of the amazing thoughts I was thinking inside, and likewise there are so many people in the world and you can never know what they're thinking.

This is just a summary, but it was a never to be forgotten experience that I hope to have again. I highly recommend it and I would take it with chocolate to mask the taste.