amanita

As far as tripping goes, experience is important. I am a cannabis user well familiar with it's effects, and have tripped on LSD and psilocybin cubensis 5 times. I am also a firm believer in god, and would say I have a rock-solid personality as well as a decent intellect. I was a student at Southern Maine Technical College, and one day leaving my metals class I stumbled acrossed some Amanita Muscaria var. Formosa (the formosa is a variation of the Amanita Muscaria unique to the eastern U.S. and has a more yellow-orange cap than red-orange) growing under a beech tree. I immediately recognized them and picked them, saving them for work. When I got to work, I ate two full sized mushrooms (about 25-30 grams dried.) with an apple, and I enjoyed the taste as I am a shroom afficianado. within 45 minutes, my field of vision became very blurred, and I began to sweat profusely. This is undoubtably the mild reaction to the muscarine and/or ibotenic acid which has caused the shroom to have the misnomer of being "poison", and is also responsible for the mild alcohol feeling. ( by the way, smoke just .5 grams of cannabis and you WILL NOT get sick.) after another hour the poison feeling was gone, leaving me with a strange relaxed opiate like effect, in which auditory hallucinations such as music and warped voices were noticable. leaving work some 4 hours later, I noticed intense "in the mind hallucinations" which are sort of like dreams. Instead of changing the signals sent from the eyes to the brain, the visual reception part of my brain was being directly affected. I think this accounts for the "difference" between amanitas and psilocybes. I thought such things up like a gigantic military hanger complete with a tank and army men running and yelling to each other, and on the drive home, every stop sign seemed to be an untangible floating amanita cap. Out of the corner of my eyes, (or maybe my brain) I kept seeing a black panther type shape running through the woods alongside my car. When I reached home, I got the most relaxing sleep and awoke as though taking painkillers. All in all, I definitely reccomend the experience for those who want to trip without the strain on the psyche and spirit, but a word of caution: MAKE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE you have A. muscaria var. muscaria or var.formosa, or A. pantherine. some of the varieties in the amanita family, such as the death angel, contain strong poisons called amatoxins which slowly liquefy your kidneys and liver after 3 days from consumption, and cause death after 5 days, so be damn careful.