Here you go, last time I'm posting this... Just incase anyones interested, here's a collection of my Amanita Observations from various newsgroups...
> How does the experience compare to psilocybin?
Barely compares at all. On high doses there are visuals, but not vivid-colorful like Psil's. I've had CEV's of falling leaves, tattered tapastries, fizzly cobalt-blue energies that crunch/crumple themself up into dissappearing balls. CEV's tend to be DXM like, (closest thing I can compare them to) Most vivid visual I've had was an open eyed one where the visual field would seem to get ripped off like a sticker, then reapplied several times a second, kind of maddening, so I just laid down and closed my eyes.
But the visuals aren't the main event, neither is the euphoria, which is slight, if at all. Main attraction is the sleepy thought-life that nods down into dream-language. That seems very MEANING-FULL, resolving of deeply-set questions/conflicts, untill one wakes up a little and examines them at arms length, at which point they seem like a bunch of egnigmatic CRAZY-NONSENSE! But that's all a part of the fun! The stuff is inclined towards sleep, and one will tend to fall asleep on a good dose, and that's OK cause the dreams on this stuff are often the BEST-PART, and have blown me away as compleatly as any-thing else I've tried (which is a lot). They often seem so SIGNIFICANT as if one is finaly being allowed to witness the unraveling of the MYSTERIES. And one just gobbles up THE MEANING of it all. Upon awakening I'll laugh out loud at the sheer NUT-BALL INSANITY of it all, and not have a clue about what it's about, but again that's the fun of the stuff, contained MADDNESS!!!
and...
Gob, I'm obsessing, you know, in the piscean age ( the one the occult folks say were moving out of),in the Old World, there is all this deep-dark-arcane stuff. The blood-letting, the sacrificial offering, shaggy phophets talking to "god", meetings in the woods with drunken "fools" spouting deep "truths" mixed with enigmatic nonsense. Who knows what there talking about? Louts of God with some other points besides the commenly given. These lousey shrooms with there specific-content-containing delirium seem to capture the ambience of these by-gone days. They are like a trip back through time. There seems to be a light shining in the midst of these dark, foggy forests, and a path out of town. They're dirty and quite loony and likely the source of a lot of your gnostic, early christian, other Old World religious/mystical stuff, as has often been suggested.
but wait, there's more...
Well the other morning when I was about to retire (Night-person) i decided to take a small (about a gram) mushroom cap of some recently received (JLF) Rocky Mountain Amanita Pantherina's. No big deal, I've done this before as a sleep and dream inducer.
So I gobble down and lay back and funny, I feel a little nauseaus, never happened before on such a small dose. But I fall asleep anyway and start having the most bizzarly involving dreams, it seems at one point within the dream I win some sort of "Weirdess Dream of the Year" award that entitles me to a free trip to our sister planet (you know the one we share caretakers with, mixed DNA, interstellar experimentations in planet-seeding and culture) So the sweep of interstellar space and the shifting of influences from our home planet to this mystery planet as I arrive is awe-inspiring!
Then I wake up, my socks blown off by the intensity of the dreams, and go to the bathroom to pee. As I'm sitting on the toilet (safer that way) I look around and realize that I'm tripping balls, harder then 8 to 10 grams of other batches of Pantherina's I've had, even expensive Japanese ones! All on just a gram, a gram and a half tops- Granted this was the darkest cap of the batch, but still quite a surprise! Everything I Look at gets pulled off from one corner like plastic sticker, then reapplied (made visible) again, serveral times a second. Kind of nerve-racking. So I flush and get back into bed and sleep to 5 in the afternoon, having tons of strange, wonderfull dreams, that seem to be so packed with Meaning/Significance within the context of the dream, but when I wake up it's like "what the fuck was that all about!" Weird!
Since then I've sampled other caps from this bag, and found them no where near as powerfull, just typical powerfull (from my experience) So watch out for those flukes!!!
and...
I'm a fan of these. I guess I'm an anomaly, I don't sweat, salivate, or get nauseas. They are not at all like P. mushrooms, Althou I do get vivid CEV's on higher doses- earthy stuff like floating leaves, rock textures/surfaces, textile patterns, dark-hued but vivid. On high-dose trips I notice a separation of identity from the habits of mind that normally contain it. Disassociation from the (being) within time to the (being) without time. One can watch the "psyche" mechanically "doing it's thing" from the perspective of the exteriorized "essence". In this way it's easy to see how this stuff might have inspired the Early Christians and Gnostics. - "I am in this world not of it"
Not too much euphoria, no colorfully dazzeled third eye, but a deeply medatative state, if one can appreciate the flatness of it. Not much "OH WOW", more "Yes of course, now I remember."
That said falling asleep and dreaming (on it) can have a great deal of "OH WOW" factor- dreams (for me) tend to oscillate between dire themes of martrydom (early christian stuff again?) and just plain crazy spirit of Pan stuff- madcap/perverse humor shaping the symbolism. These dream sequences can be EXTREAMLY INTENSE at times, other times not much goes on there, I guess the astral is like the weather or good/bad day's for fishing (in this aspect).
So that's it, I'm weird, I actually quite like Amanita's!
My god! when will it end... not yet.
Lately amanita's have become one of my favorite ethnobotanical pals. Here's why. Let me preface this by saying that amanita's vary widely in their chemical make-up and effect. Good ones have more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff. I feel that Japanese pantherina's are the best. these can be mail ordered and eaten as is with out any additional fuss. However even the effect of the good one's will vary widely from person to person. This is what makes them trickey. As far as dosage goes, start low (3-4 grams) and work your way up slowly. Good amanita's seem to like me (or my metabolism likes them) in that I experience few negative side effects (no excessive salavation, sweating, little or no nausea) YMMV. Amanita's aren't very involving in low doses and in high doses they are too gooned out. Medium to medium high doses are the most rewarding but again START LOW! The experience is not very euphoric no glimps of heaven here. What it is dark, not external world, not social. They're a look back, within, and below. I like to take them alone at night, in the dark on the couch, headphones on and off, music ambient, relaxing, trance inducing. Biosphere, Robert Roach, Hypnos label stuff works great. First effect is a funny body feeling. At first a little disturbing, than comfortable. Then at some point I notice that my verbal thoughts have shifted down into chunks of dream symblolism. This wakes me up and the process of shifting down then repeats it's self. Sometimes insight results form this tumbling over of the conscience into the unconscience mind. Sometimes it's just interesting quirky nonsence. I get a sort of bifocal view into the spirit and the beast. The beast living confused with fear under time. The spirit clear, without fear, outside of time. The gnostic principles governing which side I'm identified with seem to be featured here. If I an feeling fear, confusion I find it easy to correct that by identifing with the fundemental tone of my essential whole well-being. And then I'm hummming right along. AUM. On higher doses CEV'S become vivid. Very earthy- organic- death,decay,regeneration stuff. A mushroom eyed point of view. Floating Autumn leaves, birch bark, beetle shell, insect wing, ancient wizard's bag tattered faded fabric beutifull embroidered silver forest green. Frayed edges. Bursting seed/spore/pollen pods. Poof poof poof.. the body-mind feels very well-grounded. Composting into forest floor. From there I tend to slip off into dreams. These dreams are wild vivid entertainingly nightmarish and seem to repeat the mechanical theme of martyrdom. I've been both the victem and the victemizer in these dreams and it is evident that neither of these sides are wanted. That they are just the pieces that one get's stuck with in this ancient game, played by who?!? Once I experienced myself as the central vacumn tube of creation, crusified into the circuit socket of reality. Stuck there so that the whole world can manifest around me and should I be pulled out of that socket, Poof the whole univerce blinks off like a light. A electronic dark night of the soul. So that's it Amanita's deep, fascinating, occult, weird. Take em or leave em.
Just one more, if you can stand it...
Jaguar have you ever heard the old addage "one man's mead is another man's poisen"? There's a lot of truth to that. I for one can't bear ayahuasca, even carefully obeying all the dietary regulations it just makes all my nerves scream and feel like I'm on the verge of a stoke if I get more than a entry level dose in me. <--EDIT I GREW PAST THIS- UPPING THE VINE AND ELIMINATING THE ROOT-BARK (LEAF ONLY) HELPED. THAT PLUS PRACTICE.-->END EDIT For you ayahuasca may be THE KEY. I've used Amanita's both muscaria and pantherina and have found that used properly (for me that means light out, alone on the couch, maybe headphones on) they are a relaxing and fascinating experience with very few toxic effects involved. Beautiful CEV's and a quite dialog with the sub-conscience mind are common. And then there are those wild dreams! What a cast of characters! Sure when I'm walking back and forth from the john I feel retarded a bit, but that's not where the experience is at (for me), sort of like ketamine and dxm that way. At any rate for me and alot of other people they are psychedelic, just not for everyone aparently.
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