I honestly don't know how to categorize this post, but seeing as how it involved some psychedelic activity, I guess I'll start here. Please, if there's another forum that would be interested in this, let me know.
I'll start with this. [url=https://files.shroomery.org/files/16-42/690490958-puffball.jpg][image]http://www.shroomery.org/forums/thumbs/16-42/690490958-thumb_puffball.jpg[/image][/url] I found this guy in my backyard on Monday night. Hooray! A giant puffball in perfect edible state!
Tuesday I decided to start cooking it up late afternoon. There was a lot, so I was breading and deep frying slices for about two hours. That was half the puffball. I still have half left.
Now, I'm on the phone asking around if anyone wants any, as my husband is allergic to mushrooms (when he eats them he gets nauseated and faints.) He was on the couch taking a nap, and I joked that I hoped the cooking hadn't knocked him out... not a minute later he stumbles out of the living room, not looking so hot, makes it out to the garage, and collapses on the stairs. He was unable to breathe. I got him his inhaler, and for a while this just seemed like a really bad asthma attack. Straightforward, ok, no more cooking mushrooms in the house, I guess his allergy is [i]that[/i] bad; maybe deep frying puts whatever bit he's allergic to in the air.
After getting him settled outside with some water and making sure he wasn't going to up and die just then, I go back in and open all the windows and turn on all the fans to make the house safe; I take all the cooked and uncooked puffball, put it in tupperware and ziploc bags, and put it out on the front porch.
Husband is feeling better, and tries coming back in the house- asthma attack doesn't get worse, he complains that the house smells like fish (probably meaning fish-fry.)
[b]This is where things get strange.[/b] We're sitting on the couch, watching tv trying to distract from his allergic reaction. Husband pauses the show, and asks me if the mushroom is outside on the porch. I confirm that that is where I put it, just in case it would cause more trouble being inside or in the fridge. He says "You should bring it back in, it's lonely." After further discussion, it's clear that he's become incredibly emotional, exhibiting thoughts that I would normally associate with a psilocybin experience. My husband, due to his allergy, has never experienced that.
The bit with the mushroom communicating with him... not verbally, he specified, more intuitive communication; When I was growing, this was something I sort of experienced. I felt a sort of connection with the life there in the tubs, but wrote it off as perhaps just feeling attached to the life that I was growing and supporting. (I could go into a more spiritual interpretation of all that, but I'm trying to stay as scientific as possible here. The only other person to ever mention feeling like the mushrooms were communicating with them was my partner who was growing with me, and we shared that spirituality aspect.)
There are no psychoactive puffball mushrooms in Western New York. This guy was a pure, fluffy, white on the inside and according to everything I've read, completely safe to eat.
I will add that I had already eaten quite a bit of the puffball, both raw and cooked, and felt completely normal.
Any input on this would be most helpful, I honestly have never seen someone hallucinate from allergies before, and for the experience to be so much like something else entirely...
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Considering you ate most of it and felt nothing, your husband most likely is experiencing some allergic reaction, and maybe some placebo. A change in psyche functioning due to lack of oxygen, guy above me mentioned fugue state good of a guess as mine.
-------------------- "In The Material World One seeks retirement and grows Old In The Magical World One seeks Enlightenment and grows Wiser In The Miraculous World One seeks nothing and grows Lighter As we all tread the Homeward Path we will explore many Realms And one day... we will all Realize that all experiences are Simply Different ways in which The All-That Is Perceives Itself"
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