of Psilocybe - Mycophilia

C alendar2011 MushroamingTibetan ToursJuly 31–Aug 13, 2011Summer Fungal & Floral ForaySee ad in this issue orinfo@mushroaming.com.2011 Eagle Hill and HumboldtInstitute Seminars & WorkshopsSteuben, MaineFor information seewww.eaglehill.us/programs/nhs/nhs-calendar.shtml.79th Mycological Society ofAmerica Annual MeetingUniversity of Alaska,Fairbanks, AKAugust 1–6, 2011For information seehttp://msafungi.org/.51st Annual NAMA ForayClarion, PAAugust 4–7, 2011Hosted by the Western PennsylvaniaMushroom Club.For information seewww.namyco.org.35th Annual NEMF Foray:The Samuel Ristich ForayPaul Smith’s College,Paul Smith’s, NYAugust 11–14, 2011For information, seewww.nemf.org.31st Annual Telluride MushroomFestivalTelluride, COAugust 18–21, 2011For information, seewww.tellurideinstitute.orgor this issue of FUNGI.2011 Foray Newfoundlandand LabradorTerra Nova National Park,Newfoundland, CanadaSeptember 9–11, 2011For information, seewww.nlmushrooms.ca.7th International Congresson Systematics & Ecology ofMyxomycetes (ICSEM7)Federal University of Pernambuco,Recife, BrazilSeptember 10–17, 2011The congress will feature minicourses,posters, and PowerPointpresentations on topics relatedto the systematics and ecology ofMyxomycetes and Protostelids. Awebsite will be available in the nearfuture. Please direct inquiries to:icsem7@gmail.com.7th Annual Sicamous FungiFestivalSicamous, BC, CanadaSeptember 18–25, 2011For information, seewww.fungifestival.com.10th AnnualTexas Mushroom FestivalMadisonville, TXOctober 21–22, 2011Gala dinner Friday; Festival onSaturday. This is a big one, folks,more than 15,000 attended in2010! For information, see www.texasmushroomfestival.com orfuture issues of FUNGI.25th Annual BreitenbushMushroom GatheringDetroit, OROctober 20–23, 2011For information, contactpatrice@mushroominc.org or www.mushroominc.orgor see ad in this issue of FUNGI.On the cover: Original photoby R. White with creativeenhancement by T. Orin Moshier.C ontents2461820243141434548495161646668Editor’s Letter, Britt BunyardLetters to the EditorThe Genus Psilocybein North America,Michael W. BeugThe Legal Status ofPsilocybin or PsilocinContaining Fungi,Jack SilverPsilocybin – Its Use andMeaning, Gary LincoffNotes from Underground,David RosePsilocybin – History,Michael W. BeugMagic Mushrooms andAllowed Use Abroad,William HarrisonPsilocybe 101, Britt Bunyard,Photos by P. Stamets, M. Beug,A. Rockefeller & J.HutchinsFamily Trees: A Mycolegiumof Fungal Literature,Else C. VellingaForay: 2010 Fungi Festival atSicamous, BC, Kora Page SauterWhat Mushrooms Have TaughtMe About the Meaning of Life,Nicholas P. MoneySwedish Mushrooms,Maria JönssonMysterious Asian Beauty,J. Ginns & Lawrence MillmanThe Wild Epicure,Albert J. CascieroBookshelf FungiAdvertiser ListingFUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 20111

etters to The EditorLBlue staining Psilocybes lookinggreat on a blue background. Photosent anonymously.Ienjoyed reading Denis Benjamin’ssatirical article on Amanita muscariain the Winter 2011 issue of FUNGI(vol. 4, no. 1). I especially appreciatedhis enumeration of five different waysthat one can die after eating Amanitamuscaria. Unfortunately, he missedone important potential cause of death.Consuming the mushroom outdoors incold weather can and has led to deathfrom hypothermia while in a deep comalikesleep. Since the deep coma-like sleepis a common occurrence after eatingAmanita muscaria, the dangers of eatingthis mushroom in cold weather shouldnot be underestimated.Thus there are six modes of lethalityinvolving Amanita muscaria, not justfive and precisely half of the modes oflethality do not involve the helping handof the police. Furthermore, all of themodes of lethality except for gluttonyapply to the mind-altering mushroomscontaining psilocybin and psilocin. Itappears that there is no lethal upper limitto the amount of psilocybin and psilocinyou can consume and thus gluttony isnot a problem with Psilocybes. However,while under the influence of psilocybinmushrooms, you may encounter policewho may shoot you, Taser® you orsuffocate you using a restraint hold.You may instead suffocate yourself bychoking on your vomit. Finally, youmay die of hypothermia if you consumepsilocybin mushrooms out of doors incold weather. The hypothermia threatcomes not from a deep coma-like sleep,but from a complete loss of controlof your limbs. Thus you can have theprivilege of being initially conscious asyou freeze to death, unable to get yourlimbs functioning to get you to safety.Finally, while it has not been reportedwith Amanita muscaria, there has beenmore than one death from anaphylacticshock after consuming Psilocybemushrooms. Thus both groups providesix ways to die.There is a serious problem withAmanita muscaria as a potentialinebriant. Based on my review ofhundreds of ingestion cases, I find that innearly half of the reports I have received,there is no mention of any extraordinaryvisions. The person who has ingestedthe mushroom often goes straight tothe vomiting and diarrhea and then intothe deep coma-like sleep. There is notemporary chemical vacation, at leastthat he or she can remember. They dovividly remember the size of the hospitalbill, assuming that they are unfortunateenough to have been hospitalized. Isay unfortunate because they wouldgenerally survive the experience just fineon their own, assuming that they do notgo berserk and run afoul of the police ordie of hypothermia or inhalation of theirvomitus.Finally, I have to take issue with DenisBenjamin’s proposal for serving peopleproperly cooked Amanita muscaria.While I have not tried the recentlyfamous method of detoxifying cookedAmanita muscaria myself, I have talkedto numerous people who have. Theyhave all reported that the properlycooked mushrooms were rather soggyand bland. One can hardly make any realrevenue running a restaurant cookingsoggy, bland food. The analogy to fugu(blowfish) restaurants simply doesn’twork for me. What we need to do is totrain chefs to properly prepare and serveraw Amanita muscaria, because thathas both good flavor and good texture.Also, like fugu, there is a way to removemost, but not all, of the toxin. After all,the excitement of eating fugu is thatthe chefs leave some of the toxin in theblowfish, not enough to paralyze you,but just enough to give the diner a goodtingling sensation. I know how to do asimilar thing with Amanita muscaria.But, as Denis so wisely advised in hisarticle, I plan to keep my method secretso that I can profit from giving trainingcourses to the many chefs who I amcertain will rush forward to learn mysecret technique.Michael W. BeugProfessor Emeritus,The Evergreen State CollegeP.O. Box 116Husum, WA 98623beugm@evergreen,ed“Should the harvesting and selling ofwild mushrooms be regulated?”The real reason I’m writing is toask if I can copy and distribute to a fewpeople, Denis Benjamin’s article, “Shouldthe harvesting and selling of wildmushrooms be regulated?” This takesan interesting point of view (not toofar from my own). I’d like to distributeit to a few of the members on a statesubcommittee investigating this veryquestion in Washington.Fred RhoadesPuget Sound Mycological SocietyWe got many requests for copiesof this article by Denis Benjamin. Ifanyone else is interested, please visitthe FUNGI website where you will finda downloadable / printable versionof Denis’s paper. Please feel free todistribute.-Ed.Spring FUNGI, minor error andcommentTo the Editor:It puts a smile on my face when iextract a new issue of fuNGi from mymailbox. it was great to see the picturethat Glen Schwartz took in “UnusualSightings” for the spring issue (vol. 4,no. 2). one minor correction: We arethe Prairie States Mushroom Club notMycological Society.There was a mention of taking photosthrough a stereo microscope in thepiece about the German publicationDer Tintling. i think the idea washatched by birders a decade ago takingpictures through a spotting scope—agreat way to capture and documentrare or unusual bird sightings. But whylimit it to a stereo microscope? i’vetaken shots through my compoundmicroscope with good success. Aninexpensive point and shoot is a greattool to document everything frommacro to micro. i took these images(pictured) with an “old” Canon 520Awith 4 megapixel. A slime moldthrough Dean Abel’s stereo scope andthe other of a section taken from anEyelash Cup through my compoundscope at 400X. i went the extra stepand turned a wooden sleeve on mylathe with some concentric bores; oneto match the eyepiece diameter and theother to match the camera lens barreldiameter. There is also a step to spacethe camera as i have “high eyepoint”eyepieces. Helps with the alignment ofthe optics. i first focus the microscopeand then let the camera auto focus. Sosimple!Roger HeidtPrairie States Mushroom ClubIhave been collectingand drying a localPsilocybe speciesfor several years. (Inow have plenty ofthem dried in mycupboard, although Ihave heard that theylose their potency withtime.) Well, I finally gotaround to trying thosePsilocybes; cooked upa few mushrooms afterdinner last night. Noeffect after 45 minutesso I cooked up anotherfew mushrooms. Thatworked! It was a very,very nice evening.Haven’t laughed somuch in a very, verylong time. The viewfrom my terrace wasrather amazing! Allkinds of colors and myroom first got largethen it got small…But what was reallyamazing was that I feltno knee pain and lowerback pain for the firsttime in several years!To go on a mushroomwalk or just aboutany walking I need major pain killers(opiates). Lots of them and then I stillfeel pain when I walk. It was such aliberating experience last night. I wasactually dancing around. I haven’t readvery much of the literature regardingpsilocybin and pain. Is this a commonexperience?Name withheld,New York CityGary Lincoff responds: The mushroomin question, above (pictured, right), isPsilocybe “subaeruginascens,” whichmay actually be a recently describedspecies, Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata.It’s not uncommon around here. Thewriter has been gathering and drying itfor a few years. This letter is importantbecause the writer is not a drug user.He drinks alcohol. Period. The painrelief he experienced is importanthere, of course. I think we’re on theedge of discovering a decidedly useful,socially approved, function of Psilocybemushrooms. It’s still at an anecdotalstage, but the evidence, such as it is, ismounting.Since this was an unsolicitedtestimonial from a naïve user – onewho knew nothing of the on-goingliterature on the use of Psilocybeto control or reduce, even if onlytemporarily, pain that is otherwiseuntouched by standard medications– I think it deserves a place whereit can be seen. I’ve heard conflictingreports about the value of psilocybinuse for controlling the onset of clusterheadaches or reducing their pain,but this is another example of usingpsilocybin – and deserves moreattention. It might result in nothingnew down the line, but we have tofollow it down that line to know forsure. If I were in the kind of paindescribed in the letter, I’d be usingpsilocybin every time I go mushroomhunting. (I know some people probablythink I’m ON psilocybin when I’m outmushroom hunting. I don’t go out of myway to disabuse them of that idea.)Cheers, GaryPhotos courtesy G. Lincoff4 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 5

The Genus Psilocybe in North Americaby Michael W. BeugProfessor Emeritus, The Evergreen State College. P. O. Box 116, Husum, WA 98623, beugm@evergreen.eduThe genus Psilocybe is rathersmall, composed of mostlylittle brown non-descriptsaprobic mushrooms that no one wouldnormally give a second thought toexcept for the presence in some of apair of very special indoles. Psilocybewas until fairly recently thought tobe closely related to Stropharia andseveral members, including Psilocybecubensis, have been moved back andforth between the two genera. However,current interpretation of DNA resultsshows that the Psilocybe genus iscaused considerable consternationwith taxonomists because it meansthat whatever species are related to thetype species for the genus will retainthe name Psilocybe and the unrelatedspecies will have to go into a newgenus. The accepted type for Psilocybe,at least as i understood the situation,was a small non-descript mossinhabitingspecies, Psilocybe montana(Pers.) P. Kumm 1871, that does notproduce psilocybin or psilocin (Fig. 1).That appeared to mean that all of thehallucinogenic mushrooms commonlyFigure 2. Psilocybe semilanceataIn the 1970s and 1980s when PaulStamets, Jeremy Bigwood and Iwere doing our research on thechemistry of these mushrooms andnaming a new species and new variety,the large Psilocybe species (similar insize to Agaricus campestris or to thestore-bought button mushrooms) wereconsidered by some authors to belongin the genus Stropharia. Of these larger,meaty species there is one species ofparticular interest due to the presenceof psilocybin and psilocin. That speciesis Psilocybe cubensis Earle (Singer) (Fig.3). It is a beautiful mushroom reachingFigure 3. Psilocybe cubensisup to 8 cm across. The cap can startout with an umbo and becomes firstbell-shaped and then convex as it ages.The cap is biscuit brown fading to paletan as it dries out and has tiny whitishscales. There is a partial veil leaving adistinct ring on the off-white stipe. Allparts bruise blue. In the United Statesit is found in the wild throughout theSoutheast and in Texas and Hawaii. Itis common in Mexico. Its habitat is onwell-manured ground and on dung –and that can be the dung of cattle, oxen,yaks, water buffalo, horses or elephants.This is a truly widespread tropicalspecies fruiting spring, summer and fall.Psilocybe subcubensis is a highly similartropical species and though reportedFigure 1. Psilocybe montanacomprised of two groups that are onlydistantly related to each other andboth groups are only distantly relatedto Stropharia. one group of Psilocybespecies produces the hallucinogenpsilocybin (and usually also the closelyrelated hallucinogen psilocin) and theother group does not. Both groupscurrently in the genus Psilocybe areactually much more closely related toHypholoma and Pholiota than they areto Stropharia.The news that Psilocybe was composedof two only distantly related groupsknown as psilocybes (sometimes simply“‘shrooms”) were going to need a newgenus.Fortunately a well-respected groupof mycologists (Redhead et al., 2007)came to the rescue with a proposal toconserve the name Psilocybe with aconserved type. As of february 2010(Norvel, 2010), it was official – thegenus Psilocybe was conserved withPsilocybe semilanceata (Fr.) P. Kumm1871 as the conserved type (Fig. 2).Psilocybe semilanceata is one of thehallucinogenic Psilocybe species, anda very potent one at that, averagingaround 1% by dry weight psilocybin,but more about that later. Whatwill happen to the nomenclature ofPsilocybe montana and its relatives isa story yet to be told, and one aboutwhich few will care.Most species of Psilocybe,hallucinogenic or not, are small andthin fleshed. All are saprobic – someon dung, some on woody debris, someon other plant remains, some on soiland others among mosses. The capis smooth, often a bit viscid (slimy),sometimes with a few small appressedsquamules (small scales) or veilremnants, colored whitish, ochraceous,grayish, buff, brown or red-brown,often hygrophanous (the color lightensto pale tan as the cap loses moisture,often starting in the center). Most ofthe hallucinogenic species bruise fromslightly blue to intensely blue-black.The spore prints are usually dark violetbrown but in some non-hallucinogenicspecies can be reddish brown orochraceous. Microscopically the sporesare smooth, rather thick-walled, witha germ pore. Cheilocystidia occur ina range of shapes but pleurocystidiaare usually lacking and chrysocystidiaare absent. There are about 30 speciesin the united States and Canada andan additional 50+ species in Mexico– with some of the Mexican speciesappearing in florida and other tropicalto subtropical parts of the united States(Guzmán, 2008).Breitenbush MushroomGatheringOctober 20-23, 2011Eastern European Mushroom TraditionsAlexander Viazmensky, mushroom artist fromSt. Petersburg will teach watercolor paintingChef Michasia Pawluskiewicz will lead themushroom culinary workshopFeatured Speakers: Dr. Denis Benjamin, Daniel Winkler,Debbie ViessCost: $175 plus lodgingRegistration: Breitenbush 503.854.3320Info: patrice@mushroominc.org 206.819.4842www.mushroominc.org6 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 7

from California, it was probably theresult of an outdoor growing operation(Stamets, 1996). I have even foundPsilocybe cubensis outdoors in thesummer near Olympia, Washington,but again it was undoubtedly the briefresult of someone having planted aspawn bed there. For illicit cultivators,Psilocybe cubensis is generally themushroom of choice since it is easy togrow and produces a significant amountof biomass with each flush (Stamets andChilton, 1983).Jeremy Bigwood and I devotedconsiderable effort to trying tounderstand when the indoles psilocybinand psilocin were produced, if thechemicals of interest were concentratedin any one part of the mushroom, andwhether or not there was much variationfrom one stain of this species to another(Bigwood and Beug, 1982). Jeremy had aphenomenal knack for obtaining streetsamples of Psilocybe cubensis and ascoauthor (under a pseudonym) of anearly cultivation guide (Oss and Oeric,1976) had considerable cultivationexperience as well. His connections withleading DEA authorities smoothed theway for approval of my drug researchapplication.Our finding with Psilocybe cubensiswas that the chemicals psilocybinand psilocin were reasonably evenlydistributed throughout the mushrooms.With the exceptionally potent Peruvianstrain we were working with, the levelsvaried by a factor of four from onegrowing session to another growingsession and even from one flush to thenext. of even more concern was theobservation that in collections fromthe street, levels varied by a factor of10 from one collection to the next.We found levels of psilocybin pluspsilocin combined varying from 0.1%by dry weight up to 0.6-0.8%, even astaggering 1.4% in one case from ourespecially potent cultivated strain.Individuals who choose to ignore thesteep penalties for use of psilocybinor psilocin (it is a Class i Drug, withpossession treated similar to possessionof heroin or cocaine), and choose touse this mushroom do not have anypractical way of knowing how strong theeffects of Psilocybe cubensis are likelyto be. While it is a good presumptionthat cultivated material will have about0.5% active material by dry weight andmaterial collected in the wild will haveabout 0.2 to 0.3% active material, manycollections will be much less potent anda few collections will be twice as potentas one might have assumed.Figures 4 (above) & 5a (below). Twowatercolors of Psilocybe caerulescensby Roger HeimPsilocybe weilii Guzmán, Tapia &Stamets is a medium (2-6 cm broad)semitropical species so far reported onlyfrom Georgia where it is found on redclay soil near both loblolly pine (Pinustaeda) and sweetgum (Liquidambarstyraciflua). Psilocybe weilii has capswith an inrolled corrugated marginreminiscent of Psilocybe baeocystis.The bluing reaction is very strong andthe psilocybin plus psilocin contentis nearly 0.9 % with 0.05% baeocystinand some tryptophan present as well.Psilocybe caerulescens Murrill is anotherspecies that seems to prefer disturbedor cultivated ground often withoutherbaceous plants present. Psilocybecaerulescens Murrill can also be foundon sugar cane residues and tends togrow in clusters. While it was firstfound in Montgomery, Alabama, it iscurrently only known from MexicoFigure 6. Psilocybe hoogshageniiis the illustration labeledPsilocybe zapotecorum in anotherwatercolor by Roger Heimwhere it is most commonly found onmuddy orangish brown soils. Psilocybecaerulescens is quite potent and is themushroom that R. Gordon Wassonconsumed in Mexico, as reported in afamous Life magazine article (Wasson,1957). Watercolor illustrations of twovarieties of Psilocybe caerulescens(Figures 4 and 5a) appeared in thatfamous Life magazine article. Thewatercolors were all done by RogerHeim, a French mycologist whoaccompanied Wasson on some of hisexploration trips to Mexico.Psilocybe hoogshagenii Heim sensulato (= Psilocybe zapotecorum Heimsensu Singer) also grows in muddyclay soils of Mexico, but very far southin subtropical coffee plantations.Specimens from Brazil were found tocontain 0.6% combined psilocybin pluspsilocin (Stijve and de Meijer, 1993).It can fruit in massive abundance inthe coffee plantations of Central andSouth America. Psilocybe hoogshageniiis the illustration labeled Psilocybezapotecorum (Figure 6) in the Lifemagazine article (Wasson, 1957).Confusingly, Psilocybe zapotecorumHeim emend Guzmán is also ahallucinogenic species found in coffeeplantations as well as in marshydeciduous forests. However, Psilocybezapotecorum Heim emend Guzmán doesnot look much like the mushroom withthat name illustrated in the Life magazinearticle but instead looks much likePsilocybe caerulescens var. mazatecorum(Figure 5a), and indeed is frequentlyconfused with Psilocybe caerulescens(Stamets, 1996). Psilocybe zapotecorumis one of the most prized of thehallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexicoas it can be up to 1.3% psilocybin pluspsilocin (Stijve and de Meijer, 1993). It isFigure 5b. Psilocybe caerulescensvar. mazatecorum. Photo courtesyof A. Rockefeller.typically cespitose to gregarious, rarelyscattered and like many of the MexicanPsilocybe species, it is frequently foundin steep ravines on exposed soils. Itsappearance is reminiscent of a largePsilocybe caerulescens var. mazatecorumthat is particularly convoluted and withan asymmetrical cap (see Figure 5band additional photos elsewhere in thisissue). Psilocybe muliericula Singer andSmith is another bluing Mexican speciesfound on muddy or swampy soils.Psilocybe muliericula is found in the stateof Mexico under Abies and Pinus. TheFrench mycologist Heim had planned toname this species Psilocybe wassonii butRolf Singer and Alex Smith, using Heimand Wasson’s contacts, published theirname 24 days ahead of Heim’s plannedpublication (Stamets, 1996). I came to bevery aware of the resultant rift betweenWasson and Smith because Alex Smithcollaborated with Paul Stamets. Alexwas enamored of the spectacularScanning Electron Microscope imagesthat Paul was taking at The EvergreenState College. Another of my students,Jonathan Ott, became a close associate ofR. Gordon Wasson.Two of the Mexican Psilocybe speciesare characterized by having a longpseudorhiza – a root-like extension ofthe stipe going into the ground. oneof these species is the rare Psilocybewassoniorum Guzmán and Pollock,named in honor of R. Gordon Wassonand his wife Valentina. Psilocybewassoniorum is found solitary or insmall groupsin subtropicaldeciduous forests.It is known to beactive but is ofunknown potency.Psilocybe herreraeGuzmán has anextremely longstipe and a verylong pseudorhiza.Psilocybe herreraeis moderatelyactive. it isfound in Chiapasand Veracruz,Mexico solitary togregarious in openforests of pines,sweetgums, andoaks.In Florida andpossibly otherparts of theSoutheast, someof the MexicanPsilocybe speciesare sometimesencountered butexactly which species can be foundthere is still somewhat unclear as mostseekers of hallucinogenic species in thatregion seek out Psilocybe cubensis. Oneknown tropical species that is also foundin florida is Psilocybe mammillata(Murrill) Smith – the classical bluingreaction is a clue to the presence ofpsilocybin and psilocin, but the specieshas not been quantitatively analyzedand i know of no experimental use ofthis species. it is found in soils rich inwoody debris and sometimes on claysoils. Psilocybe tampanensis is foundin florida and Mississippi but is quiterare in the wild so its preferred habitatis unknown. it has become popular withcultivators (Stamets and Chilton, 1983).Psilocybe tampanensis has a cap that isonly 1 to 2.4 cm broad (less than 1”) anda slim stipe with the classical blue-blackspore print and bluing reaction. it cancontain up to 1% psilocybin and psilocinby dry weight.Some individuals have also beentempted to try some of the largetemperate Psilocybe species becauseof their more or less pronouncedblue-green coloration. One exampleis Psilocybe aeruginascens (Fig. 7). Inthe samples of Psilocybe aeruginascens8 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 9

altered habitats. Thesame appears to be truefor Psilocybe baeocystis,Psilocybe stuntzii andPsilocybe weilii.The combinedpsilocybin plus psilocincontent of Psilocybeazurescens was foundby J. Gartz (in Stamets,1996) to be over 2%with a staggering 0.35%baeocystin. The fleshcan become indigo blackfrom bruising. It is easilyone of the most potentmagic mushrooms inthe world. Frankly, thestaggering baeocystincontent is of concern to me. Years ago,Repke, who identified baeocystin inmany of these species, told me that hefelt that baeocystin produced strongerhallucinations than psilocin/psilocybin.But it, or something also produced bymushrooms producing baeocystin,also seems to produce stronger adversereactions and more cases of bad trips.The newest named Psilocybe in thePsilocybe cyanescens-complex is Psilocybehopii Guzmán et J. Greene (Guzmán etFigure 23. “No mushroom picking” signal., 2010) found in a temperate forestin Arizona, a place not previouslyassociated with hallucinogenic Psilocybespecies. It was found on black soils inan aspen (Populus tremuloides) forestwith douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)and limber pine (Pinus flexilis) plusbracken ferns (Pteridium aquilinum)– and this makes it the only memberof the Psilocybe cyanescens complex inNorth America so far found in its nativewoodland habitat, though since it canbe readily cultivated, it may soon beturning up in wood mulch in manynew areas. Microscopically Psilocybehopii differs from other members ofthe P. cyanescens complex by havingspecial cheilocystidia (sterile cell on thegills) with long and sinuous necks. Allparts are strongly bluing and the odoris farinaceous. It was found in the SanFrancisco Peaks region, an area sacredto the Hopi people, though the Hopi arenot known to have used hallucinogenicmushrooms.In another paper I will discussthe historical use, recreational useand potential medical use of thesespecies. However, be aware of the legalsituation. Possession of psilocybin orpsilocin in any form is illegal. The lawdoes not name specific mushroomsbut worldwide, according to JohnAllen, a long time pursuer of thesespecies, there are over 150 psilocybincontaining mushrooms in many generaand families of gilled mushrooms(see http://www.mushroomjohn.org)and possession of any one of thesespecies can get you arrested. uniquely,their spores are often traded on theinternet. Since the spores have neverbeen shown to contain psilocybin orpsilocin, trading the spores is not illegal.However, growing the mushroomsfrom the spores produces psilocybinand psilocin and thus makes you a drugmanufacturer. i have been an expertwitness in a case where a mushroomcultivator was arrested (after beingturned in by a neighbor for suspiciousactivity) – fortunately for him the onlymushrooms he had fruiting were severalvarieties of the choice edible Pleurotusostreatus! i am on retainer now fora person arrested for possessing justspores – and spores of what i don’t yetknow. Whether the case ever will goto court or not is as yet unclear, but itis clear that the defense expenses arealready substantial for this individual. inanother case, years ago, i was an expertwitness where a dealer had been sellingto school children – except that themushrooms he was trying to sell werenot magic mushrooms! i never foundout whether or not the dealer thoughthe knew what he was doing or wassimply committing fraud on unwittingyoung people.In one notable event near tillamook,Oregon, i took a large group ofprominent West Coast mycologists outinto a field to see if we could find anymagic mushrooms. They had never seenthem. i had obtained permission fromthe wife at the farmhouse, was licensedto possess and study these mushrooms,and still the farmer threatened toshoot us all and it was a VERY scaryencounter – and yet the farmer ignoredmany carloads of fisherman who haddriven across his field to fish for salmonin the river. We did not find anythingbut harmless cow-pie fungi in hisfield – that was before i knew to stickto boggy pastures if i wanted to findPsilocybe semilanceata. in anotherOregon incident, my oldest son wasonce stopped hours after photographingPsilocybe azurescens. He was miles awayfrom the spot, but his license was notedby a local and turned over to the police.Fortunately for him, he had not made avoucher collection and he had a copy ofPaul Stamets’s Psilocybin Mushroomsof the World. He used that book to pointout that he was my son and was takingthe picture for me and thus escapedjailing (though i never did receive a copyof the picture). By the way, if you wantto collect Psilocybe mushrooms, youtoo should get a copy of Paul’s book.The descriptions and photos that i haveprovided here are certainly not enoughto go on if you want to collect thesespecies. if you are new to mushrooms,make certain to get your finds confirmedby a genuine expert. And unless youpotentially want to pay me $200/houras an expert witness in your trial, becareful to just look and not gather thesespecies at the wrong time or place. The“no mushroom picking” sign (Fig. 23)was not placed in the farmer’s field tokeep people from picking the MeadowMushrooms!REFERENCESBeug, M., and J. Bigwood. 1982.Psilocybin and psilocin levels in twentyspecies from seven genera of wildmushrooms in the Pacific Northwest,USA. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 5:271-285.Bigwood, J., and M. W. Beug. 1982.Variation of psilocybin and psilocinlevels with repeated flushes (harvests)of mature sporocarps of Psilocybecubensis (Earle) Singer. Journal ofEthnopharmacology 5: 287-291.Christiansen, A. L., K. E. Rasmussen,and K. Høiland. 1981. The contentof psilocybin in Norwegian Psilocybesemilanceata. Planta Medica 42(7): 229-235.Gartz, J. 1994. Extraction and analysisof indole derivatives from fungalbiomass. Journal of Microbiology 34:17-22.Guzmán, G. 2008. Hallucinogenicmushrooms in Mexico: an overview.Economic Botany 62(3): 404-412.Guzmán, G., J. Greene, and F. Ramirez-Guillén. 2010. A new for scienceneurotropic species of Psilocybe (Fr.) P.Kumm. (Agaricomycetideae) from thewestern United States. InternationalJournal of Medicinal Mushrooms 12(2):201-204.Guzmán, G., F. Tapia, and P. Stamets.1997. A new bluing Psilocybe from USA.Mycotaxon 65: 191.Jokiranta, J., S. Mustola, E. Ohenoja,and M. M. Airaksinen. 1984. Psilocybinin Finnish Psilocybe semilanceata. PlantaMedica 50(3): 277-278.McCawley, E. L., R. E. Brummet,and G. W. Dana. 1962. Convulsionsfrom Psilocybe mushroom poisoning.Mushroaming inTibet&BeyondDetails at: www.MushRoaming.comOur “mushroaming” trips to Tibet are a once in a lifetime fungal, botanical andcultural experience in some of the most stunning landscapes on the planet. Tibetis not only endowed with an incomparably rich, ancient spiritual culture but alsoa long tradition in collecting, eating and trading mushrooms. Today, with unprecedenteddemand for caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis), matsutake and morels, Tibet hasthe highest fungal income per capita in the world. Of great importance are also boletes,Caesar’s, chanterelles, ganoderma, gypsies, wood ears and many other exotic species.We explore Tibetan forests, meadows, mountains and monasteries.Guided by Daniel Winkler and Tibetan local guides.Inquiries: info@mushroaming.comSummer Fungal & Floral Foray: July 31-Aug 13, 2011Mushroaming Ecuador & Bolivia: Jan / Feb 2012Cordyceps Expedition: June 2012Proceedings of the Western PharmacologySociety 5: 27-33.Norvell, L. L. 2010. ConservedPsilocybe with Psilocybe semilanceata asthe conserved type. Taxon 59(1): 291-293.Oss, O. T., and O. N. Oeric. 1976.Psilocybin: Magic Mushrooms Grower’sGuide. Seattle: Homestead BookCompany.Redhead, Scott A., J-M. Moncalvo,R. Vilgalys, P. B. Matheny, L. Guzmán-Davalos, and G. Guzmán. 2007.Proposal to conserve the name Psilocybe(Basidiomycota) with a conserved type.Taxon 56(1): 255-257.Repke, D., D. Leslie, and G. Guzmán.1977. Baeocystin in Psilocybe, Conocybe,and Panaeolus. Lloydia 40: 566-578.Stamets, P. 1996. Psilocybin Mushroomsof the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.Stamets, P., M. W. Beug, J. E. Bigwood,and G. Guzmán. 1980. A new species anda new variety of Psilocybe from NorthAmerica. Mycotaxon 11: 476-484.Stamets, P., and J. S. Chilton. 1983.The Mushroom Cultivator. Olympia:Agarikon Press.Stijve, T. C., and A. A. R. de Meijer.1993. Macromycetes from the stateof Parana, Brazil. 4. The psychoactivespecies. Brazilian Archives of Biology andTechnology 36(2): 313-329.Stijve, T. C., and T. W. Kuyper. 1985.Occurrence of psilocybin in varioushigher fungi from several Europeancountries. Planta Medica 51(5): 385-387.Wasson, R. G. 1957. Seeking the MagicMushroom. Life May 13, 1957: 100-120.16 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 17

ABSTRACTThis article reviews the most recentlegal status of psilocybin and psilocinin the USA and select foreign countries.This article is not intended to constitutelegal advice. Persons on U.S. soil aregenerally subject to federal laws as wellas the laws of the state in which theyreside and/or do business concerningan activity within that state. Underfederal law psilocybin or psilocin areSchedule I drugs. Possession, sales,manufacturing and transportation areall prohibited. Spores do not containpsilocybin or psilocin and are thereforenot illegal under federal law, but canbe used as evidence of the intent tomanufacture. Fungi, at any stage and inany form, are not specifically prohibitedunless they contain psilocybin orpsilocin. The laws of each state vary.Generally, the states follow federal law.Three states, California, Georgia, andIdaho prohibit spores. In California,mere possession of spores is not illegal.It’s odd to think that walking in the woodsand stopping to pick a mushroom couldbe considered a criminal act. if themushroom you pick contains psilocybin itcould be.1 in Georgia you could be guilty ofpossessing a “dangerous drug” by unwittinglypicking up spores on a stroll.Georgia Code - Crimes andOffenses - Title 16 § 16-13-71(b) in addition to subsection (a) ofthis Code section, a “dangerous drug”means any other drug or substance declaredby the General Assembly to be a dangerousdrug; to include any of the followingdrugs, chemicals, or substances . . .(627)Mushroom spores which, when mature,contain either psilocybin or psilocin;Also considered “dangerous drug(s)”in Georgia are penicillin (694), sodiumthiosulfate (880.5); vitamin K (1035) andestrogenic substances (354)2. in a strictreading of Georgia law the possession ofany soy product could be considered thepossession of a dangerous drug. Although,as Dickens observed, sometimes “the lawis a ass-a idiot.”3 ignorance of the law is nodefense to felony or misdemeanor charges.by Jack SilverA person on u.S. soil is generally subjectto federal laws as well as the laws of the statein which they reside and/or do businessconcerning an activity within that state.Under federal law psilocybin and psilocinare Schedule i drugs.4 Possession, sales,manufacturing and transportation are allprohibited. Spores do not contain psilocybinand are therefore not illegal under federal lawbut can be used as evidence of the intent tomanufacture. fungi, at any stage and in anyform, are not specifically prohibited unlessthey contain psilocybin. The laws of eachstate vary. Generally, the states follow federallaw. in other words, it is illegal to possess,sell, transport or manufacture a controlledsubstance. California, Georgia, idaho alsoprohibit spores even though the sporesthemselves do not contain any controlledsubstance.In California possession of spores in andof itself is not illegal. it is illegal to cultivate“any spores or mycelium capable of producingmushrooms or other material which containssuch a controlled substance” (CA Health& Safety Code § 11390). it is also illegal totransport, import, sell, furnish, give away, oroffer to transport, import, sell, furnish, orgive away “any spores or mycelium capableof producing mushrooms or other materialwhich contain a controlled substance” (CAHealth & Safety Code § 11391). So, if you arejust acquiring spore prints for a collectionwith no intention they be cultivated or usedto produce psilocybin containing mycelium orfungi you are not violating the law.CA Health & Safety Code§§ 11390-1139111390. Except as otherwise authorizedby law, every person who, with intent toproduce a controlled substance specifiedin paragraph (18) or (19) of subdivision(d) of Section 11054, cultivates anyspores or mycelium capable of producingmushrooms or other material whichcontains such a controlled substanceshall be punished by imprisonment in thecounty jail for a period of not more thanone year or in the state prison.11391. Except as otherwise authorizedby law, every person who transports,imports into this state, sells, furnishes,gives away, or offers to transport, importinto this state, sell, furnish, or give awayany spores or mycelium capable ofproducing mushrooms or other materialwhich contain a controlled substancespecified in paragraph (18) or (19) ofsubdivision (d) of Section 11054 forthe purpose of facilitating a violationof Section 11390 shall be punished byimprisonment in the county jail for aperiod of not more than one year or inthe state prison.Generally the federal government is onlyinterested in crimes committed in areasunder federal jurisdiction such as post offices,airports, federal land, federal buildings orlarge scale multi-state operations. using theU.S. Postal Service to transport controlledsubstances across state lines violates severalfederal laws as would transporting controlledsubstances into the u.S., including lying to afederal agent by going through customs andfailing to claim your substance.States vary not only state to state butregionally within a state. The reach of any lawis limited by the language which was enacted.If you are in the woods in California selectingPsilocybe spp. specimens for your spore printcollection you would not be violating the law.But in Georgia you might be.Most criminal laws require that prosecutorsprove scienter, that is, the defendants knewthey were violating the law.5 Thus in fiskev. State of florida, No. 50796, SupremeCourt of florida (1978), the court found thatpsilocybin mushrooms could not reasonablybe considered “containers” of the ScheduleI substance psilocybin. The court essentiallyheld that if the florida legislature wished tomake wild psilocybin mushrooms illegal, itwould have to name them in the law. Thecourt ruled: “the statute does not advise aperson of ordinary and common intelligencethat this substance is contained in a particularvariety of mushroom. The statute, therefore,may not be applied constitutionally to [thedefendant fiske who was caught with freshlypicked psilocybes].” The court did not addresswhether fiske would have been breakingthe law if the prosecution had proven fiskeknew the mushrooms contained psilocybin.Subsequent cases in other states have foundthe knowledge component to be the decidingfactor.In 2005 a New Mexico appeals courtruled that growing psilocybin mushroomsfor personal consumption could not beconsidered “manufacturing a controlledsubstance” under state law, State v. PrattNo. 24,387 (NM Court of Appeals 2005).Although Pratt was able to reverse the chargeof manufacturing a controlled substance, hewas still convicted of possession.Therefore whether it is a crime to pickmushrooms containing psilocybin dependsupon where you are and the laws of thatjurisdiction.6,7Resources within state and local lawenforcement are allocated toward seriousoffenses such as sales, transportation andmanufacturing before they are used to builda case for possession. Mushrooms containingpsilocybin are generally low priority for thefederal government and most state and locallaw enforcement prefer pursuing hard drugslike meth and heroin or popular targets suchas marijuana. Although the entheogenic orpsychedelic effect from psilocybin can be aspowerful as that from DMt or its cousin LSD,psilocybin is considered a mild intoxicant.8Worldwide, the legal status of psilocybinmushrooms varies.9 Psilocybin and psilocinare listed as Schedule i drugs under theUnited Nations 1971 Convention onPsychotropic Substances.10 However,psilocybin mushrooms themselves are notregulated by uN treaties. As a matter ofinternational law, no plants (natural material)containing psilocin and psilocybin are atpresent controlled under the Conventionon Psychotropic Substances of 1971.Consequently, preparations made of theseplants are not under international controland, therefore, not subject of the articles ofthe 1971 Convention. uN recommendationsnotwithstanding, many countries have somelevel of regulation or prohibition of psilocybinmushrooms. Criminal cases regardingpsilocybin-containing fungi are decidedwith reference to the laws of the country orjurisdiction in which a person find themselves.Within national, state, and provincialjurisdictions there is a great deal ofambiguity as to the legal status of psilocybinmushrooms, as well as a strong element ofselective enforcement. The legal status ofspores is even more ambiguous, as sporescontain neither psilocybin nor psilocin, andhence are not illegal to sell or possess in manyjurisdictions, though these jurisdictions mayprosecute under broader laws prohibitingitems that are used in drug manufacturing.In some countries such as indonesia,trafficking in psilocybin can technicallycarry the death penalty. Though like mostjurisdictions, indonesia considers mushroomsa “soft drug” and until recently allowedrestaurants in Bali to serve magic mushroomsmoothies and omelets. However, do notexpect other jurisdictions such as China,Singapore or the Middle Eastern countries tobe so forgiving.As mentioned above, psilocin andpsilocybin are controlled substances underSchedule 1 of the 1971 uN Convention onPsychotropic Substances, so all MemberStates control them accordingly. However,control of the mushrooms themselves isinterpreted in many different ways acrossEurope – this may reflect the extent to whichthey grow freely in certain conditions, andthe fact that they appear to be a somewhatregional phenomenon. A number of countriesremain with unclear legislation, simply asthere have been so few cases to reach thecourts.No matter where you are, the threshold forcharging someone with a crime is very lowcompared to the threshold for a conviction.As a general rule the knowing possession ofpsilocybin containing fungi in any stage orform is illegal in all jurisdictions within theU.S. and most outside the u.S. if a prosecutorwants to make an example of you the laws arethere to support the prosecution, requiring anexpensive defense.ABOUT THE AUTHORJack Silver is a mycophile and public interestattorney living in Sebastopol California.In addition to environmental law Jack hasdefended the First Amendment rights ofindividuals from groups like Critical Massand Food Not Bombs as well the right of theSanto Daime Church to use ayahuasca as asacrament.FOOTOTES1For simplicity, i refer to psilocybin andpsilocin as psilocybin.2Estrogenic substances also occur naturallyin cultivated plants, e.g. subterranean clover,and in fungi growing on plants and plantproducts, e.g. fusarium graminearum, f.roseum.3“That is no excuse,” replied Mr. Brownlow.“You were present on the occasion of thedestruction of these trinkets, and indeed arethe more guilty of the two, in the eye of thelaw; for the law supposes that your wife actsunder your direction.”“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands,“the law is a ass- a idiot. if that’s the eye ofthe law, the law is a bachelor; and the worstI wish the law is, that his eye may be openedby experience - by experience.” oliver twist,Charles Dickens.4The Controlled Substances Act (CSA)Pub. L. 91-513, 84 Stat. 1236, enacted october27, 1970, codified at 21 u.S.C. § 801 et. seq.The CSA is the federal u.S. drug policyunder which the manufacture, importation,possession, use and distribution of certainsubstances is regulated. The legislationcreated five Schedules (classifications),with varying qualifications for a substanceto be included in each. Schedule i drugsare classified as having a high potential forabuse; no currently accepted medical use intreatment in the united States and, a lackof accepted safety for use of the drug orother substance under medical supervision.Other Schedule i drugs include heroin andmarijuana. Cocaine and methamphetamine(“meth”) are Schedule ii drugs.5Generally in order to convict a person fora criminal felony, due process requires thata prosecutor prove the defendant knew hewas committing a crime. However, certaincrimes are strict liability requiring no scienter.In certain states statutory rape is a strictliability crime as is selling alcohol to a minor.Under federal law environmental crimes aregenerally strict liability.6An excellent text for identification isPsilocybin Mushrooms of the World by PaulStamets; ten Speed Press; 1996.7For a state by state list see North floridaShroom Guide’s mushroom law page www.jug-or-not.com/shroom/statelaw.html.8Based upon arrests compared toother substances including heroin,methamphetamine and cocaine.9For a comprehensive list of the laws invarious countries see European MonitoringCentre for Drugs and Drug Addiction(EMCDDA) http://www.emcdda.europa.eu//html.cfm//index17341EN.html?. AlsoEROWID has numerous references asto the legality of psilocybin containingmushrooms. See http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_law.shtmland related links.10See “List of psychotropic substancesunder international control” internationalNarcotics Control Board. August 2003. http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf.18 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 19

So, can psilocybin save you from decades of therapy(at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars)? If it can,what “profound psychological realignments” can youexpect to realize?Freud would probably say that thebest you could hope for would beto accept the “human condition,”that is, the general unhappiness of life.Other therapists would say some verydifferent things. Sandor Ferenczi mightsay that the human quest is to returnto the peaceful condition of the fetusbefore birth, before being thrust outinto the world. Other therapists, likeOtto Rank, might focus on the traumaof birth itself, well before the onset ofearly childhood issues, as the ultimatesource of our most disabling neuroses.One therapist, Stanislav Grof, thinks thatunder the influence of a mind-alteringsubstance or a trance-induced state, onecan experience profound encounterswith life before conception, prior lives,similar in a way, perhaps, to experiencingJung’s archetypes. The general consensusof those therapists not in the “Freudianschool” seems to be that the oceanicfeelings often associated with mindalteringsubstances, like psilocybin, is notso much a return to “life” in the amnioticfluid as it is the sense of connectednesswith all life, with all creatures, great andsmall, as well as all plants and all fungi.Is this sense of “oneness,” this strongfeeling of bonding with all sentient life,real or illusory, and in what sense? Canthe experience give us a window onto aworld otherwise denied us, or is it justby Gary LincoffPrefaceIn a matter of hours, mind-altering substances may induce profound psychological realignmentsthat can take decades to achieve on a therapist’s couchFrom “Hallucinogens as Medicine,” Roland Griffiths and Charles Grob,December 2010 issue of Scientific AmericanSit back, relax, take 5 mg and call me whenthe moon is in the seventh house and Jupiteraligns with Mars.a journey through the looking glass?Are metaphors inescapable here? “Ifthe doors of perception were cleansed,”would everything “appear to man as it is,infinite”?First, a few caveatsPsilocybin is a value-free, nonintegratedmolecular strategy fordeveloping cooperative individuals in thepursuit of social equality in a democraticsociety. This might sound like anoxymoron, if not outright moronic, and itis something that seems easier to disprovethan prove, but that doesn’t deter exerciseof its use or prevent belief in its efficacy.Warning: If you are having an experience lasting morethan 4 hours, consult a shaman as soon as possible, iftime has any meaning for you.Psilocybin is not to be taken aloneor with your doppelganger (if you canrecognize him or her), or with totalstrangers (assuming you know a strangerwhen you see one). Taken with friendsit can lead to intense emotional bondingbetween individuals that others mayinterpret as totally inappropriate, andthat the affected couple finds nearlyimpossible to dissolve amicably.Psilocybin is not to be taken by thoseadherents of Freudian psychologywho believe that a feeling of “oceanicwholeness” is a symptom of infantileregression, and that this is something tobe eschewed.Psilocybin is not for those unpreparedto experience phylogenetic regression;the event, not manifested in physicalterms, as shown in the film Altered States,but capable of being described as clear,concrete, and accurate memories of a lifein the body of a different species.Psilocybin is not for people who displaya rigid personality or for those who fearloss of control; or, as Lily Tomlin hassaid, “reality is a crutch for those whocan’t handle drugs.” It might be truethat there are no atheists in a foxhole,as the saying goes, but an atheist highdosingpsilocybin will be unpreparedto experience God face to face, as itwere, and consequently will most likelymisinterpret the experience.Psilocybin is not for males who planto become pregnant; nor is it for malesattempting to breast-feed a baby.Psilocybin is not for femalesexperiencing acute penis envy or SDS(Sports Distraction Syndrome).The successful use of psilocybindepends in part on one’s set and setting.If you are in the wrong place at the wrongtime, or your expectations or thosearound you are creating stress, its use insuch situations cannot be recommended.Psilocybin is not the drug of choice toget you through rush-hour traffic or acolonoscopy.People taking psilocybin while on anMAO inhibitor medication can find theexperience more intense, perhaps toointense, and longer lasting, perhaps neverending. Who knew?So, who in their right mind, you mightask, would take psilocybin? Someone outof their (left) mind? Or, if you are findingyourself on planet Earth in the HumanChristian Earth-year of 2011, and arewondering who took the wrong turn, it’stoo late to check your genome. In thiscase, it might just be better to sit back,relax, take 5 mg and call me when themoon is in the seventh house and Jupiteraligns with Mars. Or, if you are wonderinghow the best minds of our generationgot wasted by the evening news, or howpeople who have reached the biblical ageof three score years and ten, seem to bedisappearing before your very eyes, orare finding themselves with lots of bodyparts that aren’t the ones they were bornwith, or are entering the dark world ofdementia, now may not be too soon todouble the dose.SOME CASE REPORTS:1 The YouTube clip from the movieKnow Your Mushrooms is essentiallytrue, at least as it was experienced. ifI learned anything from the event, itwas that there’s more to a psilocybinexperience than set and setting, since ididn’t know or trust the people i had metwho wanted me to share this mushroomwith them, and i wasn’t in the “mood”for having a non-dreaming out of bodyexperience; in fact, i was anxious to getto the airport on time and not miss myflight home. How naïve i was (and stillam) is beyond belief. Still and all, theexperience, as described on YouTubeand in the film was quite exhilarating.Whether it was an actual out-of-bodyexperience, or only an imagined one, itwas one that was intensely experienced.It was not spiritual in any normal senseof that term, although space travel doesseem to have a spiritual component.The only sense i could make of it wassome kind of attempt on my part toescape from wherever i was, which i didthanks to the light beam that i followedout to somewhere in the vicinity of theAndromeda galaxy. Was it the acting outof a birth trauma event, an escape from aliving “womb” that was no longer a placeI felt comfortable being in? Was my outof-bodyexperience a snake-like slitheringout of my “mortal coil,” an escape fromlife rather than an escape into life? Didit in some way change my life? Since iremember it so vividly, something thathappened so long ago, it must havechanged me in some way or other.2 I was in the Amazon with agroup on a ship exploring a few of itstributaries. We passed by a pastureand pulled in to see what mushroomsmight be coming up in the cow pies.We were ecstatic to find a blue-staining,black-spored mushroom, a species ofPanaeolus, now called Copelandia. Weput a handful or two in a bowl with somefruit juice and mashed bananas. We hadno idea what its potency was. We calledthe mixture a blue banana smoothie.It wasn’t blue at all, but it tasted great.We became unusually quiet, quite oddfor a group of American eco-tourists(something we didn’t know we wereat the time). I lay in a hammock andbecame somewhat dreamy. A stormblew up out of nowhere. It suddenly gotquite dark and there was lightning andloud crashes of thunder. The ship’s crewlowered large, blue plastic sheets alongthe sides of the deck, to keep the rainfrom blowing in. I was immobilized inthe hammock, imagining myself in alifeboat. I remembered reaching underthe hammock and feeling all the holesbetween the interconnected strands ofrope. Everything around me had becomedeep blue. Lightning would light up thescene and the blue plastic sheets floodedthe deck with its color. I was panicky. Itried to talk but couldn’t; words wouldn’tcome out of my mouth. I was overboardin a lifeboat full of holes. I was drowning.I was scared beyond belief. I must havepassed out because the next thing Iknew it was morning, the sun was out,the blue sheets had been raised, and Ihad not drowned in a leaky lifeboat. Theexperience, as horrific as it seemed atthe time, has become a mere cocktailcircuit anecdote. Many questions remainunanswered. For example, was thisexperience a pre-natal one, a sense ofbeing mute and helpless in the womb atthe very moment of being pushed outinto the world? What, if anything, is tobe made of such an experience? Why isit such an indelible memory for me whenso little else from that trip down theAmazon can be recalled?3 We were in Hobart, Tasmania. Wehad gathered in a motel room one night.We ate a number of mushrooms we hadfound earlier that day. We spent hourssitting around mostly responding towhat anyone else was saying. It seemedto get progressively colder. One personwrapped herself in blankets that wereon the bed. Another clutched a warmradiator, and hugged it like it was asentient being. Not much happened. Itwas very late and we realized we werevery hungry. We went out in search of anopen restaurant. Everything was closedexcept for a Chinese restaurant, whichwas practically empty. We sat arounda large table. After too long an intervalsomeone came out of the kitchen andasked us what we wanted. We ordered.The food took forever to arrive. We askedfor chopsticks. The dishes of food wereplaced on a large Lazy Susan. We had tomove it around to bring whatever dish ofChinese food we wanted to sit in front ofus so we could take some for ourselves.That’s when we knew the experiencewasn’t over. The Lazy Susan startedmoving. The problem was it wouldn’tstop. Someone was always moving it. Ifyou tried to grab some food with yourchopsticks while the dish passed byyou, you would inevitably fail. The LazySusan seemed to move faster and faster.Nobody was able to take any food off it.The few people in the restaurant noticedour dilemma and watched us. Theypulled up chairs around our table andsat there silently observing us. Peoplewalking by the restaurant saw somethinghappening inside and came in and joinedthe group watching us. Every now andthen the Lazy Susan slowed sufficientlyso that we could get something outof one of the dishes of food, even if itwasn’t something that we really wantedto eat. We were convulsed in laughterthe whole time, incapable of controllingour movements or communicatingwith one another. We were not gettingdinner, as it were, but we were having agreat time. Eventually, chairs were putup on tables, and the restaurant gaveevery sign of closing for the night. Welurched out into the street, still laughing,still hungry, still wondering whetherthis was the way things worked in thesouthern hemisphere. Across the streettwo kids were walking along as a groupapproached them. One of the kids in thegroup took off and ran full out at thetwo kids and tackled one of them. Weassumed we were watching a mugging.But all we heard was laughter, and thekids involved got up and hugged andtalked like this was the appropriate wayof greeting someone in Tasmania. Wethought they must have been high onsomething or other, or they were living intoo close proximity to a large variety ofmarsupials, whatever that means. Whatsense, if any, could be made out of thisgroup experience? Why, after a couple ofdecades, do I still feel connected to thepeople who just happened to be in thatplace at that time?4 We were in Telluride, in a condoone night, about a dozen or so of us,taking mushrooms the way some peoplemight have a drink or a smoke, a formof relaxation after a long, busy day.Someone said it was the night of thefull moon. She went outside to watchit. After some time another person saidshe wanted to see it, too. She got up andwent to the door. Unfortunately, therefrigerator was so placed that she hadto pass it on her way to the door. Shemistook the door of the refrigerator forthe condo door, opened it, noticed the20 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 21

light in the back of the refrigerator, andstuck her head inside. She stayed likethat for several minutes, perhaps ten.Then she emerged from the refrigerator,closed the door, turned towards us, andsaid “the moon’s nice tonight, but it’stoo cold out there,” and sat back down.Nothing we could say would convinceher that she had not gone outside to seethe moon. She was only convinced thatwe had conspired to fool her. To thisday, we still wonder what she did, whatshe thought she was seeing, and whatwe saw her doing. After all, we had allhad mushrooms, and nobody presentwas a designated driver. Was this ahallucinogenic experience on her part, oron ours? Was she acting as our surrogatefor something we couldn’t begin toverbalize? What does it mean if it meansanything at all? After all, does everythinghave to mean something?5 We were in southern India, inKodaikanal, a hill station resort townhigh above the lowland tropics. Ireneand I and another couple had taken acottage for the night. It offered a woodburningfireplace and the promise of athermos of hot tea in the morning. Wewandered about town. The center oftown had one large dusty intersection.There were no paved roads in thistown at the time. At one corner of theintersection a group of women gathered.All were wearing beautiful saris. Onesat down on the ground holding a largebasket. It contained mushrooms. Themushrooms were an edible kind, Russulavirescens or something close. She wasselling them even though it didn’t appearthat anyone was buying. We didn’t knowthat Indians liked to eat mushrooms, orthat any would be interested in eatingwild mushrooms. We made a fuss overher, and engaged her and her family inchatter. It turned out that she also hadmushrooms hidden in the folds of hersari. These were magic mushrooms,some bluing species of Psilocybe. Shewas selling these to Europeans whopassed through Kodaikanal on theirway to Goa. Goa was party central for acertain generation of European youth.We didn’t see anyone looking for her,but we took advantage of her supply andbought some for ourselves. That night inour cottage the four of us consumed thelot. The cottage was unheated and it wasgetting progressively cooler as the nightwore on. We sat by the fireplace, made ahuge fire, put on all our clothing, and stillfelt cold. The other male sat closest tothe fire and, though wrapped in his scarf,was clearly still cold. We talked a lot,laughed a lot, shivered a lot, and soonran out of firewood. We went out intothe night looking for more but foundnothing. We considered burning thefurniture in the cottage. We discussed itmatter-of-factly, as if it was a reasonablesolution to keep the fire going. I’m notsure why we didn’t. There was a lot ofwood to burn in that place, the chairs,the tables, the dressers, the doors, thewalls themselves. We could have burnedthe cottage down to the ground. Instead,we said good-night and the two coupleswandered off to bed – cold, dressed ineverything we had to wear, covered withthin blankets, and clutching each otherfor all the animal warmth it was worth.Morning came, the cottage was intact,the hot tea was left for us at our frontdoor, and we walked out into the crispmorning air. What had we experiencedbesides a numbing sense of cold, aninability to get warm, a drawing togetherthen a pulling apart, and relief that wehad not burned the house down aroundus? Perhaps we should have doubled thedose. But, then, if we had, perhaps wewouldn’t be here now.6 We were in Oaxaca, Mexico, agroup of about six of us, in a hotelroom in the middle of town. On the busride crossing the mountains from VeraCruz to Oaxaca, the bus overheatedagain and again. Each time we got outand walked about the surroundingforest waiting for our bus to cool down.We found mushrooms every timewe stopped, all kinds of mushrooms,including magic mushrooms. We foundnice collections of at least six differentspecies of Psilocybe. In Oaxaca the nextday we decided to try the different kindsof Psilocybe to see if there were anydifferences to be noted. The way we didthis was to put all the mushrooms outon the bed in the hotel room. We madelittle piles for each species. Each personinterested in taking them had to agreeon the ground-rules. There was only onerule, actually, no mix and match. Whatyou took you could only keep taking.You couldn’t move on to a second kind.You had to get whatever you could out ofthe one you selected, and nobody couldselect the same one anyone else did.Everyone was agreeable, and I kept noteson a legal pad: How’s it going? How areyou feeling? Are you seeing anything?Anything happening? It went along likethat for a while. Then, one of our groupdecided to try another kind. I explainedthat this wasn’t a Whitman Sampler. Youhad to stay with what you chose. Shedidn’t see why that was necessary, andproceeded to try a different mushroom.This led a second person to do likewise.It wasn’t long before the study dissolvedinto a feeding frenzy, maybe because wehadn’t eaten much all day to prepare forthis event, and we were very hungry. Wewere also very noisy. Someone from ourgroup entered the room to tell us to quietdown. We were on the second floor butwe could be heard down in the lobby.We tried to quiet down, and did to someextent, and sat or lay about in a kind ofdreamy stupor for the rest of the day.Discussing it afterwards, some of us saidthey saw Mexican motifs everywhere,Mesoamerican hieroglyphics, things wehad seen on our trip through Mexicocome to life. Others didn’t see much ofanything, just enjoyed the dreaminessof the experience. After three or fourhours we were back to “normal,” except,of course, that we were in Oaxaca, andthis was the epicenter for the shamanicceremonies that Maria Sabina held, andGordon Wasson described for the worldto know. What had we accomplished,if anything? What had we experienced?What did it mean? Was Maria Sabina,hours away and high in the mountains,aware of our antics, perhaps mystifiedby our feckless attempt at studyingsomething that, maybe, is beyond study,or from her perspective is somethingthat shouldn’t be studied at all?7 I was at Breitenbush, a New Age hotsprings resort two hours from Portland,Oregon, for a Halloween weekendmushroom foray many years ago. Atthis time Breitenbush attracted a largediverse group of mushroom hunters.Some were actually just interested inidentifying what was found. Many wereattending because it was a place whereone could take magic mushrooms ina setting deep in the forest, in a placefestooned with hot tubs and saunas—some designed near the edge of theforest, quite isolated from everythingand everyone else. It was a perfect placeto get stoned, or so it was thought bymany of those attending. I was given anumber of mushrooms before a talk byTerence McKenna. I remember beingso locked into the talk that I jabberedalong and made various enthusiasticallyencouraging noises. Others tried to hushme. I was undeterred. Someone said,“Give him more. He’s in too low an orbit.”I thought I was just fine. Obviously, I wasinterfering with others trying to listento the talk. I didn’t think the words wereimportant, just his presence, standing upbefore everyone, and saying something,anything. Meanwhile, my roommate,who had never taken magic mushroomsbefore, and who had taken the sameamount that I had, had not felt anythingat all. He was frustrated, walked aboutafter the talk, and found someone withmore, and took them. He did this againabout a half hour later; that is, he took atotal of 21 Psilocybe semilanceata, andnothing appeared to be happening. Wewent back to our cabin for the night.He disappeared for a while and came insomewhat disturbed. He found someonein the dark, who gave him a handfulof some mushroom or other. He didn’tknow what it was, but he swallowedthem all. Soon after he returned, he gotinto his sleeping bag. He was silent fora while until suddenly he blurted out“Can you see my feet?” I thought he wasjoking. Of course not, I assured him,he was zipped up in a sleeping bag. Hisfeet were covered. He didn’t believe me.He scrunched down in the sleeping bagso that I couldn’t see him at all, exceptas an outline in the sleeping bag. “Canyou see me now?” he challenged me.He was sounding angry and somewhatfrightened. I got help. Four or five of ussat up with him that night, mostly totalk to him, to calm him down, to assurehim that everyone would be all right.One of these people—one of his closefriends—started crying. She had takenmushrooms, also, and for the first time.She was cry-talking a stream of negativefeelings, feelings of being inadequate,incapable of responding normally tobeing “high.” She seemed to be goingthrough a painfully remembered (orimagined) childhood experience, and webecame uncomfortably aware that wehad two “patients” on our hands. It was along night. The next morning we all gotup, got to breakfast, and seemed nonethe worse for wear. We didn’t discuss theevents of the night with either “patient.”But we wondered how much of whatthey were experiencing was a reliving oftraumatic early experiences.8 It was late November, Irene and Iwere walking through San Francisco’sGolden Gate Park. We entered theStrybing Arboretum because it lookedlike it had lots of trees and seemedpromising for mushrooms, which wewere not seeing elsewhere in GoldenGate Park. Almost immediately weencountered a young guy with a handfulof mushrooms. “What are you going todo with those?” I asked. “Eat ’em,” washis only reply. I looked at what he had,and he was more than willing to showme his collection. He had a bunch ofPsathyrella, a couple of Tubaria, and anumber of Psilocybes. I told him thatthe Psilocybes looked like they werebluing, which meant that they werepsychoactive. He replied that they allwere. I tried to correct him, but it washopeless. “I eat ’em all, and it alwaysworks,” he said. He went on his way, andwe on ours. We passed an area mulchedin wood chips, and there was a squirrelin the middle of it holding a mushroom!It was a Psathyrella. I took a photo ortwo before it moved away. We went tothe spot and found it must have been theplace the young man had just collectedhis mushrooms. There were Psathyrellas,Tubarias, and Psilocybes. The Psilocybewas P. cyanescens, a pretty distinctivespecies with a wavy cap. We collectedsome. We ate a couple of caps each. Ireneate the stems as well, but I thought theywere too chewy and somewhat bitter. Wecontinued to walk about the arboretum,and it wasn’t long before our legs werestarting to feel rubbery. We sat downon a park bench. I looked into her eyes.They were glowing a kind of emeraldgreen, a color that seemed to come froman ancient forest on the shores of a deepgreen sea. I felt I had been anesthetized,unable to move, barely able to speak. Itstarted raining. We seemed to be gluedto the park bench. The sidewalk in frontof us broke up into geometric figures, nolonger rectangles, but now all manner offree floating objects, assembling and reassemblingthemselves. We tucked ourlegs up under us. The grass beyond thepath had tips that were glowing yellow,and in the distance there was a line oftall trees that became giant prehistoricbirds, somewhat ostrich-like perhaps,standing on one leg, the other tucked upunderneath, with heavy bodies movingback and forth in the wind. They weren’tmenacing, just there. The whole scenecontinued this way, in the rain, for anhour or so. We thought we could trustour legs to walk, and got up and walkedout of the park. The rain had let up butit had gotten dark, and I was attractedto the bright red taillights of the cars onthe road. I tried to reach them, to touchthe lights, but was moved out of harm’sway. We made it back to where we werestaying, somewhat giddy about the wholeexperience. What had we experienced?Perhaps it was something Jung described,archetypes in geometric patterns, in fairytale form of giant, looming prehistoricbirds, a world beyond the quotidian,Blake’s infinity in a grain of sand; orperhaps not.9 We were a group of seven or so. Twoof us were emergency room physicians.We were out on Long Island at a friend’shouse. We had a quantity of driedGymnopilus spectabilis, the Big LaughingGym mushroom. It does not seem tocontain psilocybin, but it does containsomething very similar. It does notproduce hallucinations but it does seemto be able to separate people temporarilyfrom their inhibitions and anxieties. Itis also intensely bitter and cannot beeaten raw or cooked without some kindof flavoring that can overpower thebitterness. We had dried a collectionand we were eating them as crackersheavily covered with fruit preserves.Each of us had one or two three-inchdried caps. One person soon developedcramps, which she alleviated by standingon her head in the corner of a room foran hour or so. One of the doctors wentoutside and sat by a swimming pool.Although nothing tragic happened, itwas a mistake to have taken mushroomsthat can compromise our ability to seedanger, and our reflexes to respond toan emergency. Another person found atree in the yard that he latched onto andproceeded to slowly walk around andaround, never letting go of the tree, forwhat seemed over an hour. When weasked him later what he did, he answeredthat he went for a walk. When we askedthe emergency room physician sittingby the pool what he saw he said “pinkdolphins.” I saw people in the distancegetting on horses. What I thought I sawwas the unfolding of a moment in ourevolutionary past. A pair of primateshad suddenly become erect and bipedal.Continued on page 50.22 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 23

Trout Fishing in America, vomiting at“Mushroom Springs” was a sly referenceto the ingestion of Psilocybe, which turnedup yet again as an herb to be smokedin Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings ofDon Juan. Michael McClure’s essay on“The Mushroom” in Meat Science Essaysappears alongside his triptych on peyote,heroin, and cocaine. McClure believedPsilocybe “opens you up so that you feelinternally deep inside, and all around you,the utterly human and humane.” Just asWolfe penetrated the intersubjectivityof shared psychedelic experience in TheElectric Kool-Aid Acid Test, McClureemphasized that with the mushroom,people are primary: “The strangest, mostgrotesque, and most glorious people onearth are selected and paraded in front ofyou. it’s one of the most elevated cosmicdramas ever seen.” 18After the Sixties, interest in Psilocybescuttled underground and spread intostreams of psychedelia worlds apartfrom amateur mycology, even thoughsome cross-over of interests occurred.There were strong pockets of interestin the northwest coast and in the SanFrancisco Mycological Association,aided with reliable information frommycologists such as D. H. Mitchell,co-author of Toxic and HallucinogenicMushroom Poisoning. terrence McKennalit out for the territory and plungedfearlessly into an extended experimentwith Psilocybe and psychoactive plantsthat lasted a lifetime. McKenna assumedthe pseudonym “O. t. oss” in one ofthe first cultivation guides, Psilocybin:Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide by“O. t. oss and o. N. oeric.” 19 The lawsbanning Psilocybe, however, usuallydivided the interests of psychonautsfrom the clubland of amateur mycology.In 1974, Harry Knighton, founder of theNorth American Mycological Association(NAMA), wrote to the Charleston,SC police department in defense of astudent member of NAMA for collectingPsilocybe. Knighton’s complaint came tonaught, and the student was charged withpossession of Schedule i contraband. in anote entitled “Contrasts in the Carolinas”in The Mycophile, Knighton discussedthe legal predicament of the student.The young man, who had been collectingmushrooms near a stable, was “accostedby a detective who confiscated hiscollection and his NAMA membershipcard.” After analysis of the mushrooms,the student was arrested and charged with“possession of psilocybin for distribution.”Knighton stated that “this is our firstexperience with students or collectorsbeing equated with the modern drugcult.”in an appeal to members to notifyNAMA of similar incidents, Knightonmade it plainly clear that NAMA wasmore concerned about the bureaucratic“red tape” of obtaining collection permitsfor foray sites than with the injusticeof seeing an innocent collector thrustbehind bars for the suspicious contentsof his collecting basket. That Psilocybemycophileswere dismissed as membersof a “drug cult” and were therefore not“serious” collectors was one root ofNAMA’s reluctance to take an activiststance on the politics of Psilocybe. NAMAthereafter remained aloof from the issueentirely. Knighton had contemptuouslydismissed the book entitled A Key to theAmerican Psilocybin Mushroom (1972)as “drivel,” and while the book containsboth serious inaccuracies and trippedouthosannas in praise of hallucinationsunlikely to appeal to traditionalists,he complained, “the whole thing iswrapped in a plastic cover, no doubtto protect the user from the dung-hillhabitat favored by the author.” Psilocybethus came tainted with the (political)shit that it grows on, Knighton had noinclination to understand the motivationbehind getting high, and NAMA’s journalMcIlvainea never published an articleon the subject save for minor asides intoxicology columns and Andrew Weil’s“The Psilocybin Mushroom Rituals ofMaine,” an interesting but inconsequentialhistorical piece. NAMA’s perspective onthe agarics banished the genus Psilocybeto a Neverland a propos its positionin political taxonomy as The outlawMushroom. 20Psilocybe-mycophiles were hungry forknowledge, but knowledge is dangerous,and the case of a little Golden Guidebook on psychoactive plants providesan instructive example of how a whiffof knowledge is quashed. Golden Guidebooks were familiar to most everyonewho grew up in the last fifty yearsinterested in nature and science. Thebooks were ubiquitous, simplistic, butfairly reliable guides to a host of subjects,directed to a younger audience. in1976, the publisher, Western PublishingCompany, released Hallucinogenic Plants,a Golden Guide written by Richard EvansSchultes, the pre-eminent ethno-botanistof the Americas. in it, Schultes coveredeverything from Amanita muscaria toyage, identifying over a dozen speciesof Psilocybe and allies, and discussingthe chemistry of psilocybin andethnomycology. Morning glories, Datura,Cannabis, peyote cactus, and Amanitamuscaria are depicted conspicuouslyon the cover. The price was $1.95 for acompact guide by a foremost expert onpsychoactive plants and fungi, whichslipped handily into one’s back pocket.Knowledge of Psilocybe isdangerous: this Golden Guide wassuppressed; 1976.Both the hardcover and paperbackeditions of Hallucinogenic Plantssold with such rapidity that WesternPublishing refused to re-publish it, eventhough its market was assured. Here wasa book, not with recipes for psilocybinsynthesis, but rather simple, accurateinformation about the mushrooms. 21 Yetit was deemed entirely too dangerousfor re-release and remains out-of-print.Soon after, Psilocybe Mushrooms andtheir Allies by Paul Stamets was publishedin 1978, providing the first authoritativeguide to the genus apart from professionalmonographs. Stamets revisited thesubject with Psilocybin Mushrooms of theWorld in 1996, which is a masterpiece ofthe fully realized potential of a field guidegrounded in practical science and a deepappreciation of ethnohistory.The hard-shell empiricism of theHopkins study seems impeccable, butwho needs empiricism when, as Goetheclaimed, the highest wisdom is to realizethat every fact is already a theory. Thepolitical subjectivity infiltrating Dr.Griffiths’s use of language distances hisexperiment from the history of previousstudy. two of his terms, “anecdotal”and “drug abuse,” deserve comment.“Anecdotal” is a catch-all dismissal ofthe truth or validity of any subjectiveexperience or cultural phenomenon.Thus, the experiences of those who passedthe acid tests, Mazatec shamanism,the ceremony of the Native AmericanChurch, and the personal testimony ofthe Harvard Mushroom Professor are allbaseless in the Johns Hopkins schema.Such dismissive spin on “the anecdotal”reconfigures the epistemology ofmystical experience, blessing the clinicalregime as superior in the hierarchy oflegitimacy. Reference to the “epidemicof hallucinogen abuse that occurred inthe 1960s” thus aligns the study with thestate and legal sources of legitimation.Who defines drug abuse? “Drug abuse”is a concept shared by psychiatry withthe police. Dr. Griffiths also appropriatedthe terms “set” and “setting” in implicitdenial of Leary’s earlier use of these veryterms. An examination of the selectionbias in the study based on social class,education, and ethnicity of its participantsmight topple Dr. Griffiths’s stack ofquestionnaires, but the musical programused to guide his Psilocybe trippersreveals subjective bias quite vividly.Reclining on sofas and protected fromvisual distractions, the subjects listenedto the Brahms Second Symphony, Bach’sMass in B Minor, and Samuel Barber’sAdagio. 22 Was there a control grouplistening to old Pat Boone records? orplaying football in the street with a loaf ofrye bread? The Brahms offers stimulatingdynamics, but why not the GratefulDead’s Dark Star of february 18, 1971at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester,New York? if anything, subjecting one’ssubjects to Bach’s Mass contaminates thestudy with the Christian imagery of theKyrie: Christ have mercy! Why not KyrieEleison by the Electric Prunes? Betterstill, John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth. ifthe protocol calls for Samuel Barber, tryMusic for a Scene from Shelley.The Johns Hopkins psilocybinstudy seems to represent a sort ofbreakthrough, an indication of attitudesin transformation, a tiny flake fromthe fortress of intransigence. Butsomehow its claim to relevance shrinksto insignificance before the evidencethat the whole thing has been so strictlypoliced. until Psilocybe mushroomsare freely available, and marketedfreely, without restraint of law andfear from intimidation, violence, andterror intrinsic to America’s druginquisition, the study holds promisesolely for psychiatric career-making andpharmaceutical profits. it will continueto be cited as exemplary for all thewrong reasons as “further studies” pilehigher and deeper to create a psilocybinbureaucracy to match the NIDA’smarijuana bureaucracy. in actuality, theexperiment smothered the revelatorymystique of psilocybin in a bloatedexcess of methodology. That its batteryof prepared questionnaires legitimatedTimothy Leary’s quest remains itscrowning irony, but its overseers willveer away from this implication as thediscourse of “neurochemical systems” and“counterbalanced methods” continuesto shroud outlaw mushrooms in thefogbank of science for a single purpose:to perpetuate control. Dr. HerbertKleber bemoans the fate of scientificresearch forestalled by the “street use ofthese agents,” knowing full well that it iscriminalization and not street use, thathas foreclosed scientific inquiry for nearlyfive decades. 23 Satisfied that psychedelicshave not reached “the same penetration”of popularity as in the Sixties, Dr. Kleberseems blissfully unaware of the breadthof recent 420 observances in celebrationof another Schedule i substance. Thecontradiction inherent in Kleber’spolitical justification thrusts the legacyof the Johns Hopkins study into theabyss of paranoia attended so efficientlyby the watchdogs of the NIDA. insteadof illumination, we are given a pifflingreminder that the “legal” use of psilocybinis securely in the hands of bureaucrats.Meanwhile, in mason jars and Petridishes, from Berkeley to tallahassee,thousands of fruiting bodies of Psilocybecubensis are nosing their way upward intothe light of day.March 13, 2011 saw the death ofOwsley Stanley, whose role as archchemistof the psychedelic revolutionwas legendary in the counterculturalexuberance to cleanse the doors ofperception. in his private labs owsleymanufactured millions of doses of pureLSD that energized the acid tests of 1965.Deservedly lionized as the sound engineerfor the Grateful Dead in their glory days,he proved for all time that chemistrytrumps politics. to paraphrase Swift,Owsley did more essential service for hiscountry than the whole race of politiciansput together. The fugs, in their albumTenderness Junction, rendered timothyLeary’s famous slogan into an electrifiedexhortation for “middle-age, middle-brow,middle-class whiskey drinkers” to TURNON / TUNE IN / DROP OUT! The fugs’Tuli Kupferberg, who died July 2010, wasmemorialized in Allen Ginsberg’s Howl asthe person who jumped off the BrooklynBridge. tuli was a mordant wit, poeticradical, and unrepentant street anarchist,and late in life he had this to say about theyouth culture that embraced psychedelicsin the flower of Sixties dissidence:We haven’t retreated from 1968. Almosteverything we believed in is correct. We’rebiding our time, and still keeping in shape.The world is going to hell in a computer;we need radical changes. The problem isno one knows quite what to do, since theold theories of Marxism and anarchism arerather inadequate. So we need a lot of newideas and ways of putting them into reality.And everybody who is reading this betterget to work. That’s my message. 24The incredible String Band posed acidpolitics as a pair of half-remarkable,never-realized questions: What is itthat we are part of? What is it thatwe are? Science and Dr. Griffiths willhave a tough time trying to weigh inon existential imponderables. “With allyour science can you tell how it is, andwhence it is, that light comes into thesoul?” So asked Henry David Thoreauin his magnificent journal. The divineHenry David had no experience withshrooms (presumably), but he hadquite the knack for provoking neverrealizedquestions. Neuroscience andpsychiatry, on the other hand, considerthe soul either an epiphenomenonof mind or a mere will-o’-the-wisp, aquaint and outmoded figment to beexplained away. The flash in the soulbrought on by shrooms doesn’t needto be privileged by neuroscientists andpsychiatrists. Psilocybin is chemical28 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 29

software, requiring but an open mind, fine-tuned education,and guided preparation to begin the personal search for halfremarkableanswers. The inevitable cautions about safety andrisks may be balanced against gonzo prescriptions like “whenin doubt, double the dose.” Surely we won’t want airline pilotsand pregnant women to trip out, but the Pittsburgh Piratespitcher Dock Ellis once demonstrated that it’s possible topitch a no-hitter “high as a Georgia pine” on acid. Psilocybinwon’t necessarily alter your inauthentic existence, banishfeelings of loneliness and alienation, or penetrate the thickrind of your false consciousness … but then again, it might.So, Godspeed, good neuroscientists! take a giant step outsideyour mind! As Allen Ginsberg sang in his holy epigram toHowl: – Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doorsthemselves from their jambs! 25Endnotes1 Allen Ginsberg, “Poetry, Violence, and the tremblingLambs, or independence Day Manifesto” (4 July 1959) inDeliberate Prose: Selected Essays, 1952-1995 (2000)Perennial, pp. 3-5.2 R. R. Griffiths et al., “Psilocybin can occasion mysticaltypeexperiences having substantial and sustained personalmeaning and spiritual significance” (2006)Psychopharmacology, 187: 268-83; R. R. Griffiths et al.,“Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybinmediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritualsignificance 14 months later” (2008) Journal ofPsychopharmacology, 22(6):621-32.3 Griffiths, op cit, 2006.4 Michael M. Hughes, “Sacred intentions: inside the JohnsHopkins Psilocybin Studies” Baltimore City Paper,October 8, 2008.5 Timothy Leary, “The Religious Experience: its Productionand interpretation,” (1963) The Psychedelic Review, 1(3):324-46.6 Robert Greenfield, Timothy Leary: A Biography (2006)Harcourt.7 Allen and Louis Ginsberg, Family Business: Selected Lettersbetween a Father and Son (2001) Bloomsbury, p. 1578 Bill Morgan, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Lifeof Allen Ginsberg (2006) Viking Penguin, p. 324.9 Allen Ginsberg, “A National Hallucination” (1966) inDeliberate Prose, p. 84.10 Allen Ginsberg, “U.S. Senate Statement,” June 14, 1976, inDeliberate Prose, pp. 67-82, first published in theCongressional Record.11 David Lensen, On Drugs (1995), university of Minnesota,pp. 4-6.12 See Dan Baum, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs andthe Politics of Failure (1996) Little, Brown; and Martin A.Lee and Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and theSixties Rebellion (1985) Grove Press.13 Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the CampaignTrail ’72 (1976) Grand Central Publishing, p. 200.14 Allen Ginsberg, “Poetry, Violence, and the tremblingLambs,” p. 5.15 Allen and Louis Ginsberg, op. cit., pp. 314-14; 341; 343;384-85.16 Allen Ginsberg, “Crossing Nation” in The Fall of America:Poems of These States, 1965-1971 (1972) City LightsBooks, pp. 90-91.17 Allen Ginsberg, “Graffiti 12TH Cubicle Men’s RoomSyracuse Airport:” in The Fall of America (1972) CityLights Books, pp. 137-38.18 Michael McClure, “The Mushroom,” in Meat ScienceEssays (1966) City Lights, pp. 32-39.19 O. t. oss & o. N. oeric, Psilocybin: Magic MushroomGrower’s Guide (1976) And/Or Press.20 “Contrasts in the Carolinas” The Mycophile, July/August1974, 15(4):2; “Strange interlude” The Mycophile, May/June 1972, 13(3):4; Andrew Weil “The PsilocybinMushrooms Rituals of Maine” McIlvainea, 1981,5(1):20-22.21 Richard Evans Schultes Hallucinogenic Plants (1976) TheGolden Press: Racine, WI.22 Michael M. Hughes, op. cit.23 Herbert D. Kleber, “Commentary on: Psilocybin canoccasion mystical-type experiences...” Psychopharmacolog(2006).24 Tuli Kupferberg, liner notes for ElectromagneticSteamboat: The Reprise Recordings, by The fugs (2001)Warner Bros Records, RHM2 7759.25 Incredible String Band, “The Half-Remarkable Question,”in Wee Tam & the Big Huge (2000, orig. 1968) fledglingRecords, fLED 3079; Henry David Thoreau, The Journal,1837-1861 (2009) New York Review Books, p. 60; on DockEllis, see James Blagden “Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No”(2009) at www youtube.com; see taj Mahal “Take a GiantStep;” Allen Ginsberg’s epigram is from Walt Whitman’sLeaves of Grass.By Michael W. BeugProfessor Emeritus,The Evergreen State College,P. O. Box 116, Husum, WA 98623,beugm@evergreen.eduOn May 13, 1957, a Lifemagazine article by R. GordonWasson brought the ritualuse of hallucinogenic mushrooms inMexico to the attention of readers inNorth America and a new age, thepsychedelic 60s, was about to begin.The title of Wasson’s now famous Lifemagazine article was “Seeking the MagicMushroom” and the opening spread(Figure 1, pp 100-101) shows Curandera“Eva Mendez” preparing for theceremony by smoking the mushrooms inburning aromatic leaves. Wasson and hisRussian-born wife, Valentina, had spentfour summers in the remote mountainsof Mexico seeking the mushroomswith vision-giving powers and in thisarticle Wasson changed the names ofthe Mixeteco Indians to protect theirprivacy. “Eva Mendez” was actually theMazatec healer, Maria Sabina, who wasto become quite famous.It was the night of June 29-30, 1955“in a Mexican Indian village so remotethat most of the people still speak noSpanish, my friend Allan Richardsonand I shared with afamily of Indian friendsa celebration of ‘Holycommunion’ where‘divine’ mushroomswere first adored andthen consumed.” It wasa ceremony of mixedChristian and pre-Christian elements.“The mushroomswere of a specieswith hallucinogenicpowers; that is, theycause the eater to seevisions. We chewedand swallowed these acrid mushrooms,saw visions, and emerged from theexperience awestruck… Richardson andI were the first white men in recordedhistory to eat these divine mushrooms,which for centuries have been a secretFigure 1.of certain Indian peoples living far fromthe great world in southern Mexico. Noanthropologist had ever described thescene that we witnessed.” Figure 2 showspages 102-103 of the famous articlewith an image of the house where themushrooms were consumed and imagesof Wasson first taking his ration of sixpairs of mushrooms from Curandera“Eva Mendez” and then, followingcustom, chewing them slowly, takingabout one half hour to eat. This was thesecond night, when Allan Richardson30 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 31

Figure 2.Figure 3.photographed the ceremony ratherthan partaking again, and so we havethe images on pages 104-105 (Figure3) of the ceremony that was held inan underground room in completeblackness photographed by pointingthe flash towardsaudible sounds.For the hordesof mostly youngpeople who wouldsoon descend onthis region, thenext pages, 106-107, became likea biblical guide,for they contain“Rare vision-givingfungi shown forthe first time”(Figure 4). On his last trip to southernMexico before writing the Life article,Wasson was accompanied by ProfessorRoger Heim, a mycologist and head ofFrance’s Muséum National d’HistoryNaturells. Heim would collect and namemany of these magic mushrooms. Therewas the prized Psilocybe mexicanaHeim, found in pastures (see Figure 13in the accompanying article “The genusPsilocybe in North America” by M. Beugin this issue of FUNGI); the “Crownof Thorns,” Psilocybe zapotecorumHeim, found on marshy ground (seeFigure 13, Psilocybe hoogshagenii Heimsensu lato, in the accompanying articleBeug); the “Mushroom of SuperiorReason,” Psilocybe caerulescens Murrillvar. nigripes Heim also found onmarshy ground (see Figure 4 in theaccompanying article by Beug); and“Children of the Waters,” Psilocybeaztecorum Heim, found on woody debris(see Figure 18 in the accompanyingarticle by Beug). There was also theabundant Psilocybe cubensis (Earle)Singer, found on dung (Figure 5).Psilocybe cubensis was to become thelow-potency less desirable Psilocybeserved to uninformed gringos who wouldsoon be flooding to Mexico in pursuit ofthe Magic Mushrooms.About his experiences Wasson said“For the first time the word ecstasytook on real meaning. For the first timeit did not mean someone else’s stateof mind.” But Wasson also issued acaution that was soon to be lost on themasses: “hallucinogenic mushroomsmust be treated with extreme caution.Among the Indians, their use is hedgedwith restrictions of many kinds. Unlikeordinary mushrooms, these are neversold in the marketplace, and no Indiandares to eat them frivolously, forexcitement. The Indians themselvesspeak of their use as muy delicado, thatis, perilous” (p. 106).Fast forward to the present and anarticle hot off the presses as I write this.The title is “Hallucinogens as Medicine”and it appeared in the December 2010Scientific American (Griffiths and Grob,2010). Roland Griffiths is the leadinvestigator of the psilocybin researchinitiative at Johns Hopkins. CharlesGrob’s research at UCLA includeslooking at psilocybin for treating anxietyin cancer patients. “Early results from thenew trials point to the promise of theseFigure 4.Figure 5.therapies, with some patients reportingprofound spiritual experiences and,hence, the ability to make important lifechanges… understanding how mysticalexperiences can engender benevolentattitudes towards oneself and otherswill, in turn, aid in explaining thewell-documented role of spirituality inpsychological well-being and health.”But they also caution that “In theJohns Hopkins study, even after carefulscreening and at least eight hours ofpreparation with a clinical psychologist,about a third of the participantsexperienced some period of significantfear and about a fifth felt paranoiasometime during the session… otherpotential risks of hallucinogens includeprolonged psychosis, psychologicaldistress, or disturbances in vision orother senses lasting days or even longer.”In unsupervised situations, they reportthat paranoia following mushroomusage has led to accidental injuries andeven suicide.When the Life magazine article waswritten, no one yet knew what drugFigure 6.was present in themushrooms. It wasAlbert Hoffman,a Swiss researcherworking for SandozPharmaceuticals whosuccessfully isolatedand synthesized thetwo principal activeingredients of themagic mushrooms,announcing hissuccess in the late1950s. He namedone compoundpsilocybin (Figure6) and the other psilocin. Psilocin issimply a psilocybin molecule that hasbeen dephosphorylated (loss of thephosphate group, P, and its surroundingoxygens in the Figure 6, leaving an –OHgroup in its place). Psilocin is the morepotent of the two chemicals, but sincethe GI tract quickly dephosphorylatespsilocybin, it matters little which drugyou ingest – they both wind up aspsilocin as they enter circulation andmimic serotonin (Figure 7) in the brain.A few years before, Albert Hoffmanhad synthesized LSD-25, one of manyderivatives of lysergic acid he wasmaking in a search for a drug to helpstop excessive bleeding in childbirth.The lysergic acid is isolated from ergot,the resting stage of the fungus Clavicepspurpurea. Ergot, a contaminant in grainthat looks much like a blackened kernelof wheat, was known to produce feelingsof intense heat followed by severe loss ofblood flow, resulting in a gangrene-likecondition, leading, in severe cases, tothe loss of arms and legs. The condition,produced by ergotamine, is known as32 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 33Figure 7.

Figure 2. Gastón Guzmán, pictured in 1976 withMichael Beug. Photo by Kit Skates.Psilocybe cyanescens (Fig. 3) and P.azurescens (Fig. 4) are considered closelyrelated; both are fairly common, activespecies and are native to the West Coast.Both grow in cespitose clusters (“onionlike”)in rotting wood and wood chipsand have an overall similar appearancebut note the margins of P. cyanescens takeon a wavy appearance as the mushroommatures. Psilocybe azurascens has amuch smaller range, restricted to theOregon coast. However the species ishighly sought as it has double or more thepotency of P. cubensis.What’s so Magic About Psilocybe?The “active” species of Psilocybe anda few closely related genera (Panaeolus,Panaeolina, Copelandia, Inocybe,Conocybe and others) contain thepsychotropic tryptamine compoundpsilocybin, an alkaloid, or analoguespsilocin or baeocystin (or a combination)(Fig. 5). All parts of the mushroomsseem to have the compounds, exceptfor the spores. Most active species ofPsilocybe turn a striking blue color wherehandled; the blue pigment can leachfrom the mushrooms and even discolorthe handler’s fingers or other materials(Fig. 6). Environmental stresses can causebluing; Paul Stamets recently found abeautiful blue reaction in P. cyanofibrillosafollowing a frost episode (Figs. 7a-c).It should be noted that bluing is not afoolproof characteristic for identificationand some active species do not turn blue.Psilocybin is rapidly turned intopsilocin inside the body. Both resemblethe neurotransmitter serotonin,structurally, and as a result bind withserotonin receptors in the brain. Justhow psilocin works in the brain is poorlyunderstood but it isknown that the serotoninreceptors where in bindsin the cerebral cortexare involved with theperception of pain andanxiety. Although theeffects on the brain arereportedly similar to thoseof LSD, there is no affinityfor dopamine receptorsin the brain (as there arewith LSD). Psilocybin andpsilocin have a very lowtoxicity (about 1.5 timesthat of caffeine) and donot seem to be addictive(all this despite the contentious claims ofantidrug propaganda of several decadesago). Psilocybin and psilocin showmuch promise as therapeutic drugs (seeelsewhere in this issue).Morphology and Taxonomyof PsilocybeTelling one species of Psilocybe fromanother (even from species of other,closely related genera) can be very toughfor anyone—including mycologists.Most species are usually pretty smalland nondescript: classic LBMs. Besidesthe brown to tan orbuff color, notablecharacteristics ofthe cap are brownto purple-blackgills underneath;hygrophanous cap ontop. “Hygrophanous”refers to a colorchange that occursin the tissues of thepileus (cap) as themushroom matures;as it loses or absorbswater, the pileipellis(the skin-like outerlayer of the cap,sometimes called a cuticle) becomessomewhat transparent when wet andopaque when dry and can lend a blotchy,water-soaked look to the cap. Panaeolus,Agrocybe, Galerina, and Psalthyrellaalso have hygrophanous species. Manyof these species (Fig. 8) grow on thesame substrates, are similar colors andsizes, and occur at the same times of theyear as Psilocybe spp. Many of them aretoxic. Psilocybe species have very darkspore prints ranging from lilac-brown topurple-black (Fig 9).Like just about everything else withthe genus Psilocybe, the taxonomy of thisgroup is somewhat of an enigma. Eversince mycologists first noticed them,these little mushrooms have been shuffledbetween Stropharia and Panaeolus, andat times other groups, depending on whowas the authority and what characteristicswere felt to be most important atillustrating phylogeny. Recent DNAsequence analysis has shown why there’slong been indecision: firstly, species ofPsilocybe really are closely related to someof these other groups (Fig. 10); secondly,the genus Psilocybe is polyphyletic. Huh?That is, what we called one genus, isactually composed of different cladesthat are not forming one “monphyletic”clade - in other words, one branch here,one branch there, etc. in the fungal tree.What to do? It recently was determinedthat all the bluing species (including P.cubensis) are to be moved into the familyHymenogasteraceae, along with Galerina,Hebeloma, Alnicola and Flammula(Fig.10). The former Psilocybe species willbe placed in the genus Deconica within thegenus Strophariaceae (where Hypholoma,Stropharia, Nivatogastrium, Agrocybeand Pholiota, reside). Once again, thoseFigure 3. Psilocybe cyanescens. Photo courtesy M. Beug.Figure 4. Psilocybe azurescens. Photocourtesy J. Hutchins.Continued on page 56.The family tree takes center stage in thisinstallment of my overview of recent fungalliterature. I focus on articles which dealwith evolutionary relationships betweenspecies and groups, or with evolutionarytiming, to find who is most closelyrelated to whom, and why. The answershave consequences for how we humansclassify the fungal world, and what nameswe give to groups and species. Many ofthe articles I consider also try to put theresults in a broader context – a context oftime, of diversification, or the ways fungiget their food. However, only a handful ofauthors translate their insights into a newclassification.Many articles could be chosen and whatis presented is my personal choice, and asmall fraction of the cornucopia of articlesthat appears annually. You can find morearticles for yourself by going on line andusing search engines, visiting journals’ websites or accessing university library sites.Here the topics are presented in alphabeticalorder and the complete referencesare given at the end.Boletus edulis and relativesKing boletes are my favorite ediblemushrooms. What more can amushroomer want than a young maggotfreefirm-stiped porcino? But, besidesits recognition as edible and a “kingbolete,” I want to know which particularspecies is sizzling in my pan; what isits ecology and distribution, how rareis it, how often does it fruit? For thiskind of information we have to go a bitdeeper than the recognition of a brownbig fleshy not-discoloring brown blondbolete. Besides these characters, whatunites these boletes is that in youngfruitbodies the pore mouths are filledFamily Trees:A Mycolegium of Fungal Literatureby Else C. Vellingaecvellinga@comcast.netwith white hyphae, acting like a veil toprotect the growing spores from theoutside world; insects cannot enter, andthe temperature and moisture inside thetubes are kept constant and favorable forthe maturing spores.What also unites these boletes is ashared history: all these different porcinibelong to a monophyletic group, witha common ancestor. This ur-porcinolived some 42 to 54 million years ago,at a time when the angiosperms (thetrees with which they would maintain amutualistically beneficial relationship)were only up and coming.Boletus edulis is an exceptionalspecies, in that it has a very widedistribution – we know that it grows notonly in Europe, but throughout NorthAmerica. For a long time we thought thatsuch wide distributions were normal,but now they seem to be the exception.The fly agaric Amanita muscaria is anexample of a species that once appearedto be widespread. It has now been shownthat specimens from Europe and fromAmerica are not identical and that wehave to use different names for them.Similarly, most species in the Boletusedulis complex, other than Boletus edulisitself, can only be found locally. Forinstance, some species only occur west ofthe Rocky Mountains (e.g. B. regineus, B.rex-veris, and B. fibrillosus), while othershave only been found in the eastern partsof the USA (B. nobilissimus, B. variipes,and B. subcaerulescens). There are alsopurely European species, such as B.aereus and B. pinophilus – names whichhave been misapplied in North America.Twenty five representatives of Boletusedulis in the strict sense were analyzedin this study but that still leaves outhuge parts of its distribution and failsto sample many of its tree associates.We are still left with such questionsas whether the species under Sitkaspruce in Oregon is the same speciesas the one that associates with Valleyoak further south, and as the speciesthat forms humongous fruitbodies andis so common with pines along thePacific coast (recently distinguishedas a separate variety, var. grandedulis),and whether these three are identical tothe summer-fruiting species that makehiking in the Sierra Nevada and theRocky Mountains such a pleasure. Otherissues that are left aside are what exactlythe genus Boletus comprises, and whatthe wider relationships within the boletesas a whole are.Ectomycorrhizal fungiBoletus edulis is thought to havebeen around for more than 40 millionyears, based on analyses of the changesin their DNA. But what about all theother mushroom species that dependon tree species for their carbon?Ectomycorrhizal species (those that livewith trees providing nutrients to thetree roots and receiving carbons, sugars,in return) are found in many differentfungal groups – chanterelles, Ramarias,Russulas, all kinds of different gilledmushrooms (Tricholoma, Amanita,Cortinarius to name a few), boletes,and also many crust formers such asTomentella (a relative of Thelephora).How did these mushrooms start out?Did they associate with trees rightfrom the beginning, enabling the treesto diversify as land plants, or did earlybasidiomycete fungi live off dead plantmaterial, exhibiting a saprotrophic lifestyle?This kind of question motivates theresearch of David Hibbett and BrandonMatheny who compared the ages ofdifferent fungal groups with those ofdifferent plant groups. There are very fewfungal fossils that give us information onage so on the fungal side there are manyunknowns. Plants, on the other hand,fossilize well and can be dated muchmore easily. The authors circumventedthe problem by using plants to make onephylogenetic tree with reliable ages withboth plants and fungi in it. This enabledthem to compare the branching of the44 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 45

functioning of the neocortex, and canconjure deities from thin air. Amateuranthropologist Gordon Wasson wasright that mushrooms held the secret tounderstanding the origins of religion,but he was right for the wrong reason.His thesis, extended by followers, thatmodern faiths evolved from ancientpractices involving ritual inebriation withmagic mushrooms is found wanting.But psilocybin is affording investigatorsaccess to a fresh and unambiguousneurological and cognitive explanationof the supernatural. Belief in God has nomore substance than a mushroom dream.continued from page 23.They somehow had acquired clothes.They had somehow managed todomesticate another animal, a horse,which they then got up on and rodeaway. And this all happened in the blinkof an eye, as it were. i didn’t imagine it– i saw it. i thought it was the funniestthing i had ever seen. i couldn’t imagineanything sillier. i told the others. Theywere interested until i repeated it overand over. i couldn’t get the scene i sawout of my mind. it’s still there, as sharpas ever. i have no idea what it meansexcept that it seems to be a way to turnLong island into a “Coney island of themind.”10 on another occasion, i tookthis mushroom with a friend, andexperienced, quite by surprise, a rebirth,a passing through the birth canal andemerging laughing out loud, having hada wonderful time, quite unlike what ihave read the first time must have beenlike. Birth trauma redux with no “fearand trembling” this time around. Apotential therapy for the traumatized?So, if you were a C-section baby, andwere plucked fully formed from thehead of Zeus, metaphorically speaking,does this mean you can’t benefit fromthis experience? only if your name isAthena, but then you’d be wise beyondyour years.11 A young woman collected someof the Big Laughing Gym for dinner onenight. She thought she had collectedHoney Mushrooms. She had had a drinkor two before dinner, but she still foundthe mushrooms to be too bitter to eat.To sum up: life on earth dependson mushrooms, humans wouldn’thave evolved without mushrooms,and mushrooms afford formidablesupport for the nonexistence of God.This is all good news. A clear pictureof our place in the universe is the onlypath to enlightenment. That we aremanufactured from stardust, rescuedfrom disorder by the big reactor in thesky, and destined to diffusion, is thetruth, the whole truth, and nothing butthe truth. This simplifies things; it’s arelief to know the parameters. And whilemushrooms are everywhere and willShe doused them with soy sauce. Sheate the meal and went off to a meeting.During the meeting she found herselfcommenting out loud about variouspeople in the room. She commentedon what people looked like to her, whatthey were wearing, what they weresaying, and she said all this in a ratherloud voice, laughing at each insult shewas flinging. She was heard by everyonethere. Some people present thoughtshe was drunk. others thought she wasbeing unforgivably rude, whatever thecause. She had no idea about any ofthis. She was having a great time, totallydis-inhibited from refraining to speakout about whatever casual observationscame into her head. What does this allmean? Perhaps that this mushroom hasan unappreciated therapeutic value assomething that can allow us to separateourselves from what we say so that atherapist can be able to get quicklyto the core of a person’s otherwiseundiagnosed neurosis.SUMMARYIn summary, i think we can saythat psilocybin, in addition to beinga college age (and middle age) “partydrug,” has an untapped potential forunderstanding (or misunderstanding)human behavior, for re-experiencingchildhood traumas (as Sigmund freudunderstood them), as well as birthtrauma itself (as otto Rank delineatedit), and for connecting the isolated,anomic individual with the archetypes,the permanent forms, the underlyingspirit or soul, as Carl Jung wrote. itmight even be a way to “experience”phylogenetic regression, as Stanislavoutlive us by an eternity, what marvelousand unlikely fortune to be alive at thismoment!The quotes from patients in the JohnsHopkins University study come fromR. R. Griffiths, W. A. Richards, M. W.Johnson, U. D. McCann, and R. Jesse.2008. Journal of Psychopharmacology 22:621-632.Nik’s fourth book on fungal biology,titled MUSHRooM, will be publishedby Oxford University Press in November.His website, www.nikmoney.com, offers aselection of unpublished writings.Grof has described it. At its best, inways too complex to explore in thisarticle, psilocybin might just be thattool or, as Carlos Castaneda might havesaid, one of the “allies” we can use toexplore our inner space, our life beforebirth, our lives as other creatures, andour journey out of this life into theunknown. At the very least, it shouldkeep us so busy that we have no time tospend on a therapist’s couch.THE ENDREFERENCESA few references for all those whoare not familiar with non-mycologicalliterature.Ferenczi, Sandor. “Thalassa: A theoryof genitality”Freud, Sigmund. “Civilization and itsDiscontents”Grof, Stanislav. “The Adventure ofSelf-Discovery”Jung, C. G. “Psyche & Symbol: aselection from the writings”Rank, otto. “The trauma of Birth”Swedish Roots Run DeepGrowing up in a Swedish familyand celebrating seasonal customshas influenced my interestand appreciation of the forest and itsmushrooms. My mother Ingrid wasalways an inspiration to me. Her love ofthe natural world, its fungi, flowers andcreatures instilled in me an appreciationfor this strange and wonderful world. Iwas fueled as a child by countless storiesof trolls, gnomes, and the various faunaand flora of the Swedish forest. Ingridwas a kindergarten teacher in Swedenbefore immigrating to the US in thelate 1950s. She shared her enthusiasmof Swedish culture and customs withchildren and adults of all ages in theMidwest where she lived and worked inthe local school system from the 1960sto the early 1980s before she retired.Both my mother and father were animportant part of the Swedish-Americancommunity. My father Lennart owns aSwedish import store and travel agencyin Geneva, Illinois. He introduced me towonderful Swedish objects.During my childhood and adult lifeI have spent many months in Swedenenjoying the various seasons, visitingrelatives and friends. Spring is awelcome season after the long and darkwinters. The flowers are in full bloomcontinuing into the summer monthsin an infinite variety. Midsummerfestivals are celebrated all over Swedenin late June. Many varieties of fungigrow in the forests of Sweden as well.Chanterelles are picked in both summerand fall in Sweden. Late summer andfall is when you find a cornucopia ofmushroom varieties in the Swedishforests. There is always plenty of rainfallin Sweden, similar in climate to ourPacific Northwest. That is why so manyScandinavians came to settle that part ofNorth America.In the mid 1980s, I spent two termsattending a Swedish Folk-College inSigtuna, learning Swedish, of course,and taking classes in various subjects.My emphasis was in art and weaving.Sigtuna is an old city established by theVikings in the 1100s, and is about a halfhour drive north of Stockholm. FolkColleges in Europe are different fromuniversities. They are referred to as“Peoples Colleges” and the curriculum isless formal. Folk Colleges are institutesof higher learning attended by peopleof all ages. The personal developmentof the individual student is equally asimportant as the curriculum. Gradesare not given for individual classes, butstudents are graded as a whole for theentire term. The Folk-College I attendedwas also the one my father attendedduring World War II. An important partof the learning process was the countless“field-trips” attended by teachers andstudents. One of the more memorableweekend field trips took place in Octoberat a nature preserve for the sole purposeof picking and learning about the variousmushroom species. We picked so manymushrooms and feasted on them in theevening in delicious casseroles, whichfor years I have attempted to recreate.The art students picked mushroomsused for dying wool. There are manybooks on the subject of extracting dyesfrom mushrooms, both in English andSwedish. I recommend the Folk-Collegeexperience to anyone. It’s a great way toimmerse oneself into a new culture and agreat way to learn a new language too.Mushrooms in Swedish LiteratureMushroom imagery appears inSwedish folklore, music, art andliterature and is almost iconic as it isin many other European countries andother places all over the world. Theinfinite shapes and colors of mushroomshave inspired many Swedish artists andwriters.Elsa Beskow: Author of SwedishChildren’s BooksElsa Beskow (1874-1953) was oneof Sweden’s most beloved authors andillustrators of children’s books. Beskowfrequently combined the reality ofmankind with elements from the fairytale world. Her readers, mostly children,meet elves, goblins, and farm animalswho often talk to people. Central themes50 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 51

are relationships between children andadults, and the development of the child’sindependent initiative. She wrote andillustrated around thirty books whichhave been translated into 14 differentlanguages around the world. Overall, shewould publish some forty books usingher own text and images.A book called Tomtebo Barnen(Children of the Forest) depicts a littlegnome family that lives in the woods.The children wear hats made fromAmanita muscaria which helps keepthem safe in the forest while on theirown. When danger approaches thechildren drop to the ground, revealingonly their mushroom cap heads whichblend into the forest floor. The familypartakes in many activities including,hunting poisonous snakes to feed to theHar Du Sett Herr Kantarell - Music: Herman Palm, Text: Jeanna Oterdahl(Swedish)Har du sett herr Kantarell, bor i enebacken,Han kom dit i förrgårkväll ,med sim hatt på nacken.Den är gul & den är grann, passar just en sådan man,Passar åt herr Kantarell bort i enebacken.Har du sett fru Kantarell i den gula kjolen?Hon är rund & glad & snäll, skiner rätt som solen.Jämt hon har ett rysligt fläng, tidigt uppe, sent i säng.Alltid glad, fru Kantarell i den gula kjolen.Alla barnen Kantarell, hundra visst och mera,Krupit upp ur gräsets fäll och bli ständigt flera.Alla knubbiga och små med små gula koltar påKomma barnen Kantarell, hundra visst och mera.Lilla Kalle Kantarell slog sin lilla syster.”Kalle, kom skall du få smäll”, talar mamma dyster.Kalle, nyss så käck och stolt, gråter på sin fina kolt.Stackars Kalle Kantarell slog sin lilla syster.Lilla Lotta Kantarell i sin gula kappa,fick en regndroppskaramell av sin stränga pappa.“Är du alltid flink som nu, blir du nog en duktig fru”,sad’ till Lotta Kantarell hennes stränga pappa.Ack, familjen Kantarell lever där I gamman,tills de så en vacker kväll plocka allesamman,rensas vid ett trädgårdsbord,bort med skägg och skråp och jord!Ack, familjen Kantarell plockats allesamman!Stackars pappa Kantarell puttrar I en gryta.Stackars mamma Kantarell ville gärna byta.Men som läcker sommarmat hamna alla på ett fat,och du äter kantarell och vill inte byta.(English)Have you seen Mr. Chanterelle, he lives at the forests edge,He was over just yesterday with his glorious hat on his head.His hat is gold and beautiful, suits a man like this perfectly,Suits Mr. Chanterelle who lives at the forests edge.Have you seen Mrs. Chanterelle in her golden skirt,She is round & happy & nice, shines just like the sun.Always rushing around, up early in the morning, late to bed.Always happy, Mrs. Chanterelle in her golden skirt.All the children Chanterelle 100 and more,Popping up from the grassy carpet and multiplying.They are stubby and small wearing their golden kiltsCome along now children Chanterelle, 100 and more.Little Kalle Chanterelle hit his little sister.”Kalle, come here you are getting a spanking, says mother.Kalle, now so plucky and proud, cries on his golden kilt.Poor little Kalle Chanterelle hit his little sister.Little Lotta Chanterelle in her golden coat,got a raindrop caramel from her strict father.”If you are nimble and quick, then you’ll be a clever wife”said the strict father to Lotta Chanterelle.Alas, family Chanterelle lives there in blissful splendor,until one beautiful evening the entire family is picked altogether,rinsed and prepared upon a outdoor garden table,Away with the beard and scraps and dirt!Alas, family Chanterelle picked up altogether!Poor father Chanterelle simmering in a pot.Poor mother Chanterelle would rather be somewhere else.But as delicious summer food, everyone ends up on a plate,and we all eat chanterelles, there is no substitute.forest hedgehogs, harvesting mushroomsand picking berries. The children attendschool with all the other forest creatures.Their teacher is an owl, and theirplaymates are squirrels and frogs!One of my favorite Elsa Beskowillustrations is the Kantarell familjen(Chanterelle family). It depicts motherand father chanterelle in their gloriousgolden attire and their children. Theirbabies resemble tiny, golden chanterellesjust as they are popping their little headsout of the ground. I was reminded ofthis family as I picked my first bumpercrop of chanterelles in my favoritespot in southern Colorado, near the NewMexico border. It’s almost as if the forestfloor is alive with groups of Chanterellefamilies as one goes from group to grouppicking the golden treasure from theforest floor. I am reminded of familyand the importance of rain at the righttime of the summer to provide plentifulfruitings of the delectable golden treat,enough to fill our freezers and larders foryears to come.A song was even written about thisfamous Swedish mushroom family. itis part of a group of familiar Swedishchildren’s songs called Nu Ska Vi Sjunga(Now We Shall Sing), which came out in1943 with the help of Alice tegnér. Aliceasked schoolchildren and teachers fromall over Sweden to help her chose theirfavorite songs to be included in the songbook. The songs are well known and sungin the classroom. Eventually the book wasmade into a music CD in 1972 and 1973,and is still available today.The purpose of these songs is not onlyto entertain but to teach children aboutthe natural world and to nurture theircreativity. As they grow and becomeadults, hopefully they will continueto appreciate nature and help protectand preserve it for future generations.Before television, video games, and theinternet, children spent many more hoursoutside playing and developing theirimaginations by images that surroundedthem instead of images generated bythe media and commercialism. Modernsociety and its inhabitants are becomingmore disconnected to the natural world.We are being taught that material wealthleads to happiness. We all need to spendmore time in the forest. it’s time wellspent!Many of Elsa Beskow’s books becameclassics and are continually reprinted.She also illustrated elementary schoolABC books. Book pages are oftenframed by decorative motifs of the ArtNouveau style. Another influentialbook from my childhood days is anelementary school book entitled Villdu Läsa? (Would You Like to Read?)written by Herman Siegvald. This bookis used in the 1st grade in Sweden andis illustrated by Beskow. two separatepages are devoted to depicting themost common mushrooms known tothe average Swede. A poem is includedalong with the illustrated mushrooms toeducate children about what mushroomsare edible and which should be avoided.I have translated the Swedish text intoEnglish.Vill Du Läsa? Herman SiegvaldSvamparna (Mushrooms)(English translation)When the flowers of the woodshave gone to sleep and rain beginsto fall amongst the moss, we growhastily up from the earth towards thesurface.We hurry up and grow so we havea little time to ourselves, beforeeveryone comes stomping into thewoods in search of us.Cows love to eat us, and people thinkthat mushrooms are heavenly, andlarvae eat us from the ground up.But you should know the dangers ifyou don’t pick the right ones of us,because many mushrooms I tell youhave poison in them.If you want to try and look formushrooms you had better learnwhat we are called, the choicest onescan be served on a silver plate.And another thing you must learn,you need to cut our stalks close tothe ground, so we can grow up againfrom head to toe.This song teaches children the joysand the dangers of selecting the rightmushrooms. By the time they are adultsthey know what mushrooms are thebest tasting and the ones that can befatal. Imagine growing up with thiskind of knowledge of mycology in theelementary curriculum in the US. Maybeit is good that children in the US don’tlearn about mushrooms in grade school;that leaves more mushrooms for therest of us! So many people don’t knowthe fun of hunting mushrooms, theyare frightened of what they don’t knowor understand. We are lucky to haveso many resources such as mushroomclubs, mycological associations, andseasonal forays available in the US. Eventhose of us who don’t become skilledmycologists can learn to enjoy being inthe woods, identifying and/or tasting theinfinite variety of mushrooms out therewaiting to be discovered.The poem above inspired anotherSwedish mushroom song (see page 50)which many children know and love.Sometimes there are even dances thataccompany the music.Rolf Lindberg: Troll ArtistOne of the most famous troll artists ofSweden was the late Rolf Lidberg, whospent a great deal of his life illustratingthese wonderful creatures who live inthe Swedish forests. If you go to Sweden,you can see trolls in the woods easilyin every rock or tree.The bearded trollsin his illustrationsare actually selfportraitsof himself.What a jolly manhe must have been.He painted trollsat various stagesof development,partaking invarious activitiesin the beautifulsurroundings wherethey lived, worked and played. Manyof his paintings depict trolls pickingmushrooms. He painted scenes such asfather troll educating his children about52 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 53

Plocka Svamp (Swedish)mushrooms, fishing scenes and groups oftrolls cooking their meals out in the open.These illustrations are so much fun anddepict the Swedish landscape as it actuallyis. one of ingrid’s favorite pastimes waswriting letters to everyone she knew, andeven people she didn’t know and wantedto get to know. This included Rolf Lidberg.I have a postcard she received from him.He sketched a portrait of himself as wellas signed his name. He spent many of hiswinters in the Canary islands to get awayfrom the cold, dark winters of Sweden.It was a better climate for his ailmentsduring his senior years. Rolf was also anavid botanical artist, illustrating the floraPicking Mushrooms - Music: Herman Palm, Text: Jeanna OterdahlKom med nu ska vi gå ut på tramp,gå ut på tramp, gå ut på tramp.Tag korg & kniv, vi ska plocka svamp,plocka svamp, plocka svamp.Det är så roligt i skogen gå,i skogen gå, i skogen gå.och leta rätt på de svampar små, svampar små.Karl Johan står där så kort och tjock,så kort och tjock, så kort och tjock.Med morkbrun hätta och snövit rock,och snövit rock, och snövit rock.Grönkremla, smörsopp, och champinjon,och champinjon, och champinjon.och fjällskivling stolt som en högbaron, hög baron.Där har vi taggsvamp och kantarell,och kantarell, och kantarelloch flugsvamp, nej, han är inte snäll,är inte snäll, är inte snäll.Nu har vi korgarna fulla fått, vi fulla fått,vi fulla fått.nu lagar mamma oss något gott, riktigt gott.Picking Mushrooms (English)Come along now we shall go out and tromp,go out and tromp, go out and tromp.Take your basket and your knife, we will pick mushrooms,will pick mushrooms, will pick mushrooms.It is so much fun to go out into the forest,go out into the forest, go out into the forest.And find the right little mushrooms, little mushrooms.King Bolete stands there so short and thick,so short and thick, so short and thick.With a dark brown hat and a snow-white coat,and a snow-white coat, and a snow-white coat.Green russula, butter-bolete, and champignon,and champignon, and champignon.and parasol mushroom, proud as a high baron, high baron.Look there is hedgehog mushrooms and chanterelle,and chanterelle, and chanterelle.and fly agaric (amanita muscaria), No! He is not nice, Heis not nice, he is not nice!Now our baskets we have filled, we have filled, we have filled.Now mother will cook us up something good, really good.and fauna of the CanaryIslands in addition topainting trolls and theSwedish landscape.One of my favoriteimages is the sceneof a large group oftrolls rushing outinto the forest topick mushrooms.Hiding behind rocksand trees are variousmushrooms with faces.The mushrooms eldersare educating theirchildren about how toavoid the “mushroompicking trolls.” They are to run away whenthey see their mushroom baskets. Whata riot. The imagination of Rolf to paintfaces on mushrooms, very similar to whatElsa Beskow did in some of her books.Mushrooms really are living entities inthe minds and imaginations of many,especially artists. Maybe mushroomstoo have souls like humans. That’s whywhen we are out picking, we must leavesome behind for the forest spirits and theanimals, and not be too greedy.Mushroom FavoritesThe forests in Sweden are usuallycovered in various types of mushroomsfrom spring to late fall, usually peakingin mid to late summer and intoSeptember and October. These aremonths of intensive foraging in Sweden.A common summer mushroom thatfruits in the early to late summer isof course the Kantarell, Cantharelluscibarius. This is a mushroom that you cansee in Sweden in the summer months.It is similar to the species that grows inthe uS. The Swedish Chanterelle is a bitsmaller than the ones i have picked in thesouthern Rockies, but they are equally asdelicious. Sweden is a very rainy country,especially in the summer and fall months.The basket holding the Chanterelles in thepicture is an example of the many types ofhandicrafts produced and sold in Sweden.Some of Sweden’s glass artists living inthe province of Småland are inspired bymushroom forms and reproduce them inbeautiful artglass.In the fall, another type of Chanterellegrows in the forests of Sweden. They arecalled the trattkantarell (Cantharellustubaeformis).They are also found inNorth America. i saw them myself ona foray in oregon last october. on arecent trip to Sweden to help celebratemy Aunt Birgitta’s 90th birthday wasmy first exposure to this species ofmushroom. one of her nephews proudlyproduced a basket of Trattkantarell toher in honor of this grand occasion.Birthdays are celebrated magnificentlyin Sweden. Every year that passes isCantharellus tubaeformisa reason tocelebrate withfamily andfriends of all ages.Another beloved mushroom thatgrows plentifully in the forests ofSweden is the King Bolete, Boletusedulis. The Swedes call it Karl Johan,named after Karl XIV Johan, who camefrom france to rule over Sweden andNorway in 1818. The mushroom wasaptly named after this King becausewhen he first ruled, there was a shortageof food in the country. Karl XIV Johantook notice of how many Boletes weregrowing in the Swedish forests andsuggested that the people eat the KingBolete to supplement their diet whenother food was not available. Theyhonored him by naming this mushroomafter him.Swedes are very proud of the fungithat grow in their forests. So proud thata series of stamps were issued in 1978,by Eva Jern representing six speciesincluding the orange Russula (Russuladecolorans), the Common Puffball(Lycoperdon perlatum), the Parasolmushroom (Macrolepiota procera), theChanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius), theKing Bolete (Boletus edulis) or “cep,” andthe Coral (Ramaria botrytis). i think it’stime that the united States of Americaproduced a mushroom stamp don’tyou? We should hold our heads up highwhen we walk through our vast forestsand take pride in the delights growingon the forest floor of all shapes andsizes. Pray for rain!References/Permissions/Photo CreditsVill du Läsa? Första och andraskolåret. By Elsa Beskow and HermanSiegvald. Bonniers Junior förlag AB 1stprinting 1935.Blommornas bok. Visor av JeannaOterdahl, illustrated by Elsa Beskow.Bonniers Junior förlag AB 1st printing1905.Photos of Trattkantarell and KarlJohan mushrooms from the book: NyaSvampboken. By Pelle Holmberg andHans Marklund. Norstedts förlagsgruppAB 2009, Stockholm, Sweden.Nu Ska Vi Sjunga av Alice tegnér1943, Almqvist & Wiksells förlag.Generous thanks to Dag Beskow forpermission to use Elsa Beskow images.Generous thanks to Hans Anderssonand Trollrike for permission to use RolfLidberg images.Maria Jönsson is Swedish/Americanfungophile, artist and archaeologist,and lives in Los Alamos, New Mexico.Maria grew up in the fox Valley, westof Chicago illinois in a predominantlySwedish community. She travels toSweden as often as possible.54 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 55

Psilocybe 101 continued from page 44.7a.7b.8a.8b.8d.Figure 9. Spore print of Psilocybecyanofibrillosa. Photo courtesy of P.Stamets.this group, particularly as a source ofmedicine. That mushrooms containingpsilocybin are outlawed seems, to meand many other mycologists, crazy andmaybe even hurtful to those who couldbenefit from potential benefits (thathave been demonstrated clinically) oftheir use under the care of a physician.Furthermore, such laws are all butimpossible to enforce (as pointed outabove, there are many mushrooms thatpossess the banned substances, they canbe all but impossible to distinguish fromother nonactive species, and psychedelicmushroom species pretty commonlyoccur just about anywhere humans live).The genus Psilocybe continues toFigure 5. Psilocybin (top) andpsilocin (bottom).at-times confusing macromorphologicalcharacteristics are resolved by lookingdeep down into the recesses of theDNA code within the organism. Whichis not to say that macromorphologicalcharacters are useless. Based on sporecolor and morphology of pileipellis,nonbluing species are kept in theStrophariaceae, including P. montana,the tiny little type species (Fig. 11). insome cases it’s all but impossible to tellthe difference between Psilocybe andStropharia (Fig. 12, and see also figs. 8eand f ).7c.Figure 7. Psilocybe cyanofibrillosataken (a) October 2010 before frostand (b, c) November 2010 after frostepisode. Photos courtesy P. Stamets.8c.8e.8f.Figure 10. Family tree for Psilocybe including their closest relatives.Figure 6. Psilocybe azurescens bluingand “bleeding” onto a paper towel.Photo courtesy J. Hutchins.Personal Experience withPsilocybin-Containing Mushroomsand Concluding RemarksFull disclosure: i have eaten magicmushrooms. Most field mycologistsI know, who may or may not admitto it in public, also have eaten magicmushrooms. i think, as a mycologist—one who is curious about and studiesfungi—it would be anathema tolecture and write about this group ofmushrooms without experiencing themfirsthand. i also have tasted species ofAmanita including the deadly ones—justa very small taste and it was completelyspat out. (Taste is diagnostic for manyspecies of mushrooms.) At no point didI think i was endangering myself withthe Amanitas or with the Psilocybes.But this is because i have many yearsof expertise in studying mushrooms.Do i consider magic mushrooms to bea holy sacrament?... or gift from thegods?... or do i anthropomorphize magicmushrooms in any way (i have heardsome people refer to magic mushroomsas a “her,” rather than an “it”)? No.They are fungi. They do happen toFigure 8. (a) Conocybe filaris,considered toxic; (b) Galerinamarginalis, considered deadly;(c) Panaeolus papilionaceusvar. campanulatus, not edible;(d) Panaeolus semiovatus var.retirugis, not edible; (e) Strophariaambigua, edibility questionable; (f)Stropharia alcis, growing on moosedung in Newfoundland, edibilityquestionable. Photos a-d courtesyM. Beug. Photos e-f by B. Bunyard.possess compounds that act as powerfulpsychotropic drugs in the human body.Figure 11. Deconica (formerlyPsilocybe) montana. Photo courtesyM. Beug.(Amazingly powerful in my experience.)But those compounds are the resultof evolution, just like compounds inAmanitas that can kill us, or the odorcompounds in Matsutake mushroomsthat drive me wild. it is pretty clear thatmore research needs to be done withFigure 12. Leratiomyces (formerlyPsilocybe) squamosus. Photocourtesy M. Beug.surprise us mycophiles. No doubt there aremany species still awaiting discovery. Somespecies like the conspicuous and showy56 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 57

Kadek collecting Copelandiacyanescens.and are known for their sense of fun andjoy. it is a place in which you can learn alot about their culture, and your own. onthe street, beach, or most anywhere, localsbombard tourists with questions. Wheregoing? Where come from? Where stay?Such is quickly picked up by us who infectothers. Thus, it’s a most friendly place –one that you might care to return to often.Warnings: (1) Do not swim in the seaat night, or while on mushrooms dayor night. (2) in the daytime, swim onlybetween the red flags, where lifeguards areon duty. Strong undertows are common.(3) if you are doing one of those assisted,up-the-beach walks, it’s best not to bringyour camera, wallet, purse, passport, orvaluables – just a towel to sit on, a copyof your passport information page, and asmall amount of cash.Concluding Remarks• Anyone interested in magicmushrooms should know well the dangers– and especially how to avoid overdose.For a Bali slant on that, plus somecoverage on a few other places where legalor tolerated, see shroomswherelegal.com.• Mycological societies everywhereshould honestly inform as to the dangers,and responsible use, of magic mushrooms.People do travel, and many try magicsoverseas, so not educating is not good.If in a mycological society, push foreducation. At mushroom fairs, some sortof handouts should be available – at leastto the interested. And, in the book area, atleast some conservative viewpoint bookslike: Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World byPaul Stamets, The Wondrous Mushroomby R. Gordon Wasson, and Shroom: ACultural History Of The Magic Mushroomby Andy Letcher.• if lots more of us would simply chooseto vacation where magic mushrooms(or magic sclerotia) are legal, safetyconcerns could be better pushed, andthe experience made safer. With lotsmore visiting those special places, ourgovernment might even take note of whatattracts us there – and ease up a bit onpunitive punishment here.• if at a mushroom shop or bar abroadand warnings aren’t posted regardingresponsible use, push for that. Peoplebuying by the bag particularly need toknow how to avoid overdose. So it’s thebag shops that most need prompting.• Danger with magic mushrooms liesmostly with strong trips – where amount,portion size, waiting, self-evaluating,and place all become really important.Some guidance and protection for thoseintending strong-dose use, especially forfirst timers, would not be a bad idea. TheMazatecs of Huautla de Jemenez do theirmushroom Valadas in safe, supervisedlocations. Ayahuasca* users do likewise(Adelaars, 1998). one wonders whythat sort of option is not offered in Bali,Amsterdam, and everywhere else. Suchcould have prevented that french girl’sdeath in Amsterdam, and many deathsand accidents elsewhere. Do request andpush for such if visiting abroad.• Studies suggest that psilocybincan benefit many in a variety of ways(Griffiths, 2008; Jerome, 2007). Psilocybinmushrooms do act similarly. in certainsettings, they stimulate profound spiritualexperiences (for clues as to the cause ofthat and other effects see Ramachandran,2011). in others, they seem to provideinsights into nature and life. Theyintensify feelings, stimulate imagination,focus attention, alter perception, andtweak the erotic. Medicinally, they upliftterminal cancer patients and cure clusterheadaches. They can both inspire andenhance art and music. Mazatecs usethem for probing problems, illnesses, andworries. indonesian villagers, when sittingaround with friends, occasionally pass afew around to stimulate conversation andcamaraderie. others might throw a partywhere the mushrooms interact in differentways – uplifting, meditative, spiritual,or celebratory. Which is the proper use?Perhaps any use, where legal, is proper solong as the participants are well informedand use them respectfully and responsibly.ReferencesAdelaars, A. 1998. “Psychedelicrituals in the Netherlands,” Year-bookfor Ethnomedicine and the Study ofConsciousness 6-7, pp. 355-340, availableat: http://www.xs4all.nl/~nota/. fora comprehensive description of threeChristian Ayahuasca sects, see Labate B.and MacRae E. (eds.) 2010. Ayahuasca,Ritual and Religion in Brazil, Equinox,London SW3 5SR.Boire, R. 2002. Sacred Mushrooms andthe Law. Davis: Spectral Mindustries.Gartz, J. 1996. Magic MushroomsAround the World. Los Angeles: LISPublications.Griffiths, R.R., W.A. Richards,M.W. Johnson, u. D. McCann, and R.Jesse. 2008. Mystical-type experiencesoccasioned by psilocybin mediate theattribution of personal meaning andspiritual significance 14 months later.Journal of Psychopharmacology 22(6): 621-632. Posted at https://www.erowid.org/references/texts/show/7339docid6508Jerome, L. 2007. Psilocybin:Investigator’s Brochure. www.maps.org/research/psilo/psilo_ib.pdfRamachandran, V.S. 2011. The Tell-Tail Brain. New York: W.W. Norton &Company, pp. 275-283.Stamets, P. 1996. Psilocybin Mushroomsof the World. Berkeley: ten Speed Press,pp. 34-45.Wasson, R.G. 1980. The WondrousMushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica.New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.–––––––––––*Ayahuasca is a vine and leaves extract,used as sacrament by several Christiansects in Brazil, that’s similar in effect tomagic mushrooms, but vomit inducing.AbstractRadulomyces copelandii isreported for the first time fromthe Western Hemisphere. DNAsequence data places this fungusin a clade with the type speciesof Radulomyces. Its suddenappearance in Massachusetts isdiscussed.Key words: Basidiomycota, fungi,Radulomyces copelandii, woodrottingfungiIntroductionIn mid-November 2009, one ofus (LM) found a quite remarkablehydnaceous fungus on a large red maple(Acer rubrum) log at Bradley PalmerState Park in Ipswich, Massachusetts.by J. Ginns 1 and Lawrence Millman 211970 Sutherland Road, Penticton, BC V2A 8T8 Canada, e-mail : ginnsj@shaw.ca2P.O, Box 381582, Cambridge, MA 02238 USAThe fruiting body was resupinate (flaton the log’s surface and lacking a pileus),and its white to pale luteous spines wereboth densely crowded and unusuallylong (8 to 12mm). Individual fruit bodiesof several decimeters in length grewout of the cracks and interstices in thelog’s bark, presumably using this featureof the substrate for both moisture andinsulation.Having never encountered such afungus before, LM collected a samplespecimen and brought it home toidentify. Finding no match for it eithermacroscopically or microscopicallyhe sent the sample to JG, who, after alot of searching and head scratching,concluded the beautiful, spiny fungushad the scientific name Radulomycescopelandii (Pat.) Hjortstam & Spooner.A surprising conclusion because thisfungus previously had been found onlyin Asia.From January 2010 to March 2010,LM found fruitings of R. copelandiion northern red oak (Quercus rubra),white oak (Q. alba), and beech(Fagus grandifolia) in four easternMassachusetts localities: in Concord,near Walden Pond; in Lincoln, nearMt. Misery and near the commuter railtracks; and in Sharon, at Moose HillAudubon Sanctuary. He figured that thereason the Asian Beauty had not beencollected earlier was that it fruited in thewinter, a time when very few mycologistsventure into the field. He suspected thatthe species was quite cold tolerant, ashe’d found it in freezing or subfreezingtemperatures with snow on the ground.Also, each time he’d brought home asample for microscopic study, he’d found60 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 61

it eagerly sporulating. This caused him towonder whether R. copelandii possessedsome kind of unusual glyco-protein orsome other chemical that allows it toturn carbohydrates into sugars withextreme alacrity. None of the admittedlysparse literature on the species atHarvard University’s Farlow Herbariumprovided any mention of its chemicals,unusual or not.But this paper concerns a mysteriousAsian Beauty, not simply an AsianBeauty with a preference for coldweather, so here the story gets morecomplicated. During the fall of 2010,LM found R. copelandii on almostevery collecting trip he made in easternMassachusetts, including — mostrecently — at fresh Pond in Cambridge.As before, it was fruiting on a largehardwood log, in the cracks andinterstices of the bark. Thus it wouldappear that the species doesn’t fruitonly in the winter, and likewise that ithas found a very comfortable niche asa saprobe in eastern Massachusetts. todate, LM has not found R. copelandiibeyond a 35 mile radius of Boston, buthe suspects that will change in the nottoo distant future.Materials and methodsThe description is based upon LM’scollection on bark on the side and lowersurface of Acer rubrum log, Bradley-Palmer State Park, ipswich, MA, uSA,November 13, 2009, determined byJ. Ginns 11837 (CFMR, fH). Severalother collections have been depositedin the farlow Herbarium (FH). Theabbreviation for the herbaria where thespecimen is preserved follow Thiers(2010). The standard mounting mediafor examination of specimens of thePolyporaceae and allied groups wereused, i.e., Melzer’s iodine, 2% potassiumhydroxide (KOH), and cotton blue inlactic acid. The formulae for these canbe found in Kirk et al. (2001).Macroscopic features (Fig. 1)Fruiting bodies resupinate for upto ~30 cm, with spines white to palelutelous, densely crowded, 8 to 12 mmlong, odor lacking.When dry density of the spinesvaries from adjacent spines touchingto 2 mm between spines. Spines up to10 mm long, slender, straight, round incross section, gradually narrowing to afine, acute tip, i.e., not pilose, penicillateor fimbriate. The space between spinessnow white, smooth, glabrous. Smallspines extend to within 0.5 mm of themargin. Margin white, appressed, dense,typically 0.5 mm wide but in areas upto 2 mm wide, the extreme edge finelyfimbriate. Context white, < 1 mm thick,dense, fibrous to horny.Microscopic featuresContext hyphae 2-4 μm diameter witha large proportion being 4 μm, witha clamp connection at each septum,hyphae where loosely arranged distinctand separate easily, where denselypacked they are interwoven, morefrequently branched and interlocked.The context surface between spinessterile, composed of a loose palisade ofclavate cells up to 8 μm diameter.Tramal hyphae predominantely2-3 μm diameter, distinct (i.e., notagglutinated), septa infrequent witha clamp connection at each septum,typically 45-180 μm between clampconnections. tramal hyphae in KOH– phloxine reagent remaining hyaline(i.e., lacking cytoplasm), in cotton bluereagent after 24 h pale blue (i.e., weaklycyanophilous). Hyphae at base of spinesclosely packed and interwoven, walls ofsome 1 μm thick. Microbinding hyphaelacking.Subhymenium narrow near the spinetip, thickening to nearly 40 μm nearthe base of the spines, hyphae denselyarranged, interwoven, frequentlybranched, some segments contorted andresembling jigsaw puzzle pieces. Spinetips acute, sterile, hyphae agglutinated.Hyphidia scattered in the hymenium,2-3 μm diameter, some projecting to 10μm, simple, filiform, slightly wavy, theapex obtusely rounded, walls hyalineand thin.Basidia 29-35 x 6-7 μm, clavate,slenderly clavate or cylindrical witha constricted stem-like base, slender,contents in KOH of numerous, globose,1-2 μm diameter oil drops, sterigmatafour, 4-6 μm long.Basidiospores (6.0-) 6.4 - 7.0 (-7.2) x5.4 - 6.2 (-6.6) μm (n = 21), subglobose,adaxial surface slightly flattened, wallsmooth, ca. 0.4 μm thick, hyaline, neitheramyloid nor dextrinoid in Melzer’sreagent, in cotton blue after 24 h mostpale blue (i.e., weakly cyanophilous),whereas collapsed or fractured sporesbluing within a few minutes, apiculusdistinct, relatively large, broadly acute,contents in KOH slightly refractivedue to one large, globose oil drop ornumerous droplets.Habit and distributionThe Massachusetts fruiting bodies weregrowing in the cracks and interstices ofthe bark of hardwood logs of Acer, Fagusand Quercus species. This fungus waspreviously known from China, Japan,Korea, Phillipines, Sri Lanka (Maekawa1993: 93-95, Nakasone 2001:170-171),Malaysia (Hjortstam et al. 1990), andRussia: far East: Sakhalin and ussurianregions (Nikolaeva 1961: 98-100 asRadulum licentii) where it fruited on logsand decaying branches (presumably onthe ground) of Abies, Betula, Castanea,Castanopsis, Prunus, Quercus andunidentified broad-leaved species.Figure 1. Radulomyces copelandii fruiting body. From Ginns 11837.Photo by Tom Murray.ResultsIt surprised us that a fungus knownonly from Asia would be found not justonce but several times in eastern NorthAmerica. We sought confirmation thatour Asian Beauty was R. copelandii byasking Dr. Karen Nakasone, who hasstudied species in this and allied genera,for her opinion. She confirmed ouridentification, adding that this was thefirst collection of R. copelandii in theWestern Hemisphere.Most readers will not have heard ofRadulomyces but just over 20 specieshave been placed in the genus. Andstudies (Nakasone, 2001; Stalpers, 1998)have discussed the circumscription ofthis genus and whether R. copelandiimight be better placed in another genus.To determine which species wereclosely related to R. copelandii part of11837 was sent to Drs. Ellen and Karl-Henrik Larsson who sequenced the fullnuclear ribosomal ITS region and ca1500 basepairs of the adjacent end ofthe LSY region. Their results showed R.copelandii to be in a well defined cladewith R. confluens (Fr.:Fr.) M.P. Christ.(type species of the genus), R. molaris(Fr.) M.P. Christ., and R. rickii (Bres.)M.P. Christ.”This species is generally included ina group called Crusts. Identification ofmany Crusts requires the examinationof their microscopic features (such asbasidiospores, cystidia, and hyphae).And that was how we named thecollections R. copelandii. However, it isrelatively easy to identify R. copelandiiwithout reference to a microscopebecause of its long spines and large, paleluteous fruiting bodies.The most obvious question is: howdid the Asian Beauty reach easternMassachusetts? LM’s initial collection(not to mention five subsequentcollections and “sightings”) camefrom Bradley Palmer State Park, partof the former 10,000 acre estate of awealthy attorney named Bradley Palmer(1864-1948). An avid gardener andhorticulturist, Mr. Palmer importedmany plants from Scotland becausehe thought the Scottish climate wassimilar to New England’s. On at leastone occasion, he brought in plants fromAsia – a whole freight car of azaleas,rhododendrons, and laurel. Couldthe mycelium of R. copelandii havesomehow hitched a ride with these acidlovingmembers of the heath family?Perhaps, but almost a hundred yearsseparates this putative introductionfrom LM’s discovery of a fruiting body.Radulomyces copelandii would notappear to be a slow-working pathogenlike Grifola frondosa or Laetiporussulphureus, so it would not requirenearly such a lengthy time to completeits cycle.A related question: assuming the AsianBeauty didn’t arrive via the enterpriseof Mr. Palmer, when did it arrive? Athorough search of the literature onhydnaceous species at Harvard’s FarlowHerbarium turned up no reference toany earlier North American collectionor, indeed, any description of a speciesthat might have been R. copelandii in anearlier taxonomic guise. Nor did a searchof the inventories from amateur andregional forays turn up an even remotelysimilar species. Of course, such searchesdon’t prove that R. copelandii hadn’tfruited before 2009, especially if fruitingstypically occurred in the winter, a timewhen mycologists seldom go foraging.Yet 25+ collections and/or sightingsfrom the late summer through the fall of2010 indicates that the species also fruitsduring the so-called mushroom season,when it would be hard to overlook.It might be argued that the AsianBeauty has a stubborn or desultorymycelium, one that produces a fruitingbody only once in a great while.Certainly, this is true of some speciesmistakenly listed as rare. However, amycelium in a deteriorating woodysubstrate has a life expectancy of nomore than thirty or so years, or roughlyas long as that substrate can provideit with nutrients. The absence of anycollection in the last thirty years wouldseem to indicate that R. copelandii isa relatively recent arrival in easternMassachusetts. Exactly how recent isprobably impossible to ascertain at thispoint.Another question: might the factthat the Asian Beauty has establisheda seemingly comfortable niche ineastern Massachusetts have negativeconsequences? As a saprobe, it might bereplacing or at least nudging aside nativepolypores as well as corticioid species.Such species, in addition to being woodrecyclers, would have a complex networkof relationship with organisms like birds,insects, microbes, and other fungi. If theAsian Beauty was interfering with theserelationships, it might be described asan invasive. Or if not an invasive, at leasta takeover species, a fact evidenced bythe dramatically increased number offruitings of 2010.We consider this paper by its verynature to be inconclusive. In writing it,we hope: to alert both mycologists andthe public to a significant new speciesin eastern Massachusetts; to inspirefurther studies of this species’ range andpreferred habitats; and to encourage aninvestigation into whether the effect of R.copelandii on local ecosystems is good,bad, or indifferent.AcknowledgmentsKaren Nakasone, Madison, WIconfirmed our identification of 11837.Ellen Larsson, Göteborg and K-H.Larsson, Oslo sequenced 11837 andinterpreted the results. D. H. Pfister,Cambridge, MA discussed the possibleexplanations for the recent appearance ofR. copelandii in the Boston area. KathieHodge, Ithaca, NY and Leif Ryvarden,Oslo contributed insightful comments.Literature CitedHjortstam, K., B.M. Spooner, and S.G.Oldridge. 1990. Some Aphyllophoralesand Heterobasidiomycetes from Sabah,Malaysia. Kew Bulletin 45: 303–322.Kirk, P.M., P.F. Cannon, J.C. David,and J.A. Stalpers. 2001. Ainsworth &Bisby’s Dictionary of the Fungi. 9th ed.Wallingford: CAB international. 655 pp.Maekawa, N. 1993. taxonomicstudy of Japanese Corticiaceae(Aphyllophorales) i.. Reports of theTottori Mycological Institute 31: 1–149.Nakasone, K.K. 2001. taxonomy ofthe genus Radulodon. Harvard Papersin Botany 6 (1): 163–177.Nikolaeva, t.L. 1961. Ezhovikovyegriby. Cryptogamous Plants of theUSSR VI. fungi 2. Akademiya NaukSSSR. [1977 English translation titledHydnaceae fungi. 578 pp.]Stalpers, J. A. 1998. on thegenera Sarcodontia, Radulodonand Pseudolagarobasidium. FoliaCryptogamica Estonica 33: 133–138.Thiers, B. [continuously updated].Index Herbariorum: A global directoryof public herbaria and associated staff.New York Botanical Garden’s VirtualHerbarium. http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/62 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 63

The Wild EpicureAmanita Vineuse 1Terrine(Amanita rubescens Paté)by Albert J. CascieroAmanita rubescens, commonlyknown as the Blusher, has aspecial allure for me becauseit is the first wild mushroom I becameacquainted with and ate almost at thesame time. It is the one responsible forme becoming interested in mycology,(read “mycophagy”), and I am thrilledwhen I meet it again and again during myforays. Luckily, this happens often duringmy walks in the eastern United Statessince it is common under oaks, conifers,and broad leaved trees, either solitaryor in groups. I usually find 40 or 50 ofthem on my house grounds. Anotheradvantage for me is that not many of myfriends like to pick them for their ownuse and so my own collection growsrapidly by donations. Its moniker obeysto the reddish, reddish-pink coloringthat develops, mostly, at the bulbousbase of the stipe, and on areas wheresome creature has injured it, especiallyas it grows old. It grows enshrouded in auniversal veil that leaves grayish-brown“warts” attached to the surface of the cap.Those warts, as well as the often foundgrains of sand, soil, pine needles thatstick to the cap as it grows and pushesup through the ground, require carefulcleaning by wiping with slightly damptissue. Amanita rubescens normally has arather large skirt-like ring.It is very important to identify speciescarefully, particularly Amanitas. Amanita64 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011brunnescens, often mentionedas a poisonous look alike,has a bulbous base, but itis cleft in vertical wedges,befitting its common name,the Cleft-footed Amanita.It also has an odorredolent of potatoes,while my friend has norecognizable smell. The coloring ofthe cap is also different, tending to bebrown, grayish-brown, olive-brown.The coloring is hard to describe sinceindividual visual perception varies asdoes the mushroom depending onphysical conditions: dry versus humid,after a rain, in the shade or under strongsun, age, etc.Learn to recognize the species with theassistance of a good guide with faithfulcolor pictures and, better yet, an expertmycologist. After that, I think you willagree that, contrary to what many writersindicate, the Blusher has a distinct andsatisfying taste.For the terrine1 1/2 lbs A. rubescens caps, broken orsliced in pieces (stipes are too hard andfibrous)1 small shallot, mincedleaves from 3 sprigs of thyme,leaves from 1 sprig of Nepitella 2 or 2 Mintleaves chopped1/2 tsp grated lemon rind3 cups white bread without crust, torn insmall pieces2 or 3 Tbsp of milk3 eggs1/4 cup pine nuts1/4 cup dry vermouth1/4 tsp Piment d’Espelette (or groundpepper to taste)Salt to tasteUnsalted butter and plain bread crumbsfor dusting the terrineMelt 4 Tbsp of butter on a large fryingpan, and when hot, sauté the mincedshallots for about a minute until softand add the A. rubescens. Turn themushrooms gently to avoid mashingthem completely—they are very delicateand break easily. Having a few largerpieces will enhance the texture and lookof the terrine, although it won’t affect thetaste. Continue sautéing for about eightminutes, add the dry vermouth, mix welland remove from fire and let the mixturecool completely.Roast the pine nuts for about 4 minuteson a hot oven on a metal tray, or on a drypan on the stove top, until the nuts aredry, but stop before they brown.In a large bowl, place the bread pieces,and wet them with the milk a bit at thetime as necessary. Depending on thebread, you may need less or more milk.The bread should be lightly moist butnot wet—it should make a fluffy massbut Not dough! Mix with the cold A.rubescens. Whip the eggs and add to themushroom/bread mixture along withthe herbs, spice and salt and mixed well,gently. Refrigerate for a few hours orovernight.Heat the oven to about 325 degrees.Place in the middle shelf, a baking panwith high sides filled with water thatwould come half way up the sides of theterrine.Butter generously the inside of arectangular cast iron terrine mold andcoat well with the bread crumbs, shakingoff excess crumbs. Place the mushroommixture in the terrine, stump on a firmsurface to dislodge possible air pockets,cover with the terrine lid, and bake forabout 35-40 minutes until the top springsback when pressed with a finger or, ifpierced with a skewer, it comes out clean.Refrigerate for at least a day for theflavors to meld and the paté to settle.For the sauce1/2 cup Greek style yogurt1/4 cup crème fraiche1-2 tsp Dijon mustard1 tbsp cornichons, chopped fine1/2Tbsp capers, chopped fineMix the yogurt, crème fraîche,mustard, cornichons and capers andserve this sauce at room temperatureto accompany the slices of the A.rubescens paté, garnished with additionalcornichons and, perhaps, a side ofmixed greens salad. A crusty frenchbaguette and a good bottle of red winefrom Chinon, or if you prefer, a whiteBordeaux, will complement this dishwell.Bon Appetite!(Endnotes)1 i prefer the french colloquial namefor this dish, because it loosely means“vinous,” “of wine,” or “wine colored.”Roland Sabatier, in his beautiful andaccurate drawings of mushrooms withzoomorphic attributes, includes a cleverrepresentation of an endearing pair ofAmanita rubescens leaving a cabaret in a“happy estate.” Sabatier, Roland et Becker,Georges, Le Gratin des Champignons,Glénat, France, 1986.2 Nepitella (Calamintha nepeta) isthe “herba da funghi,” (herb for fungi),for Tuscans. It is a small, very aromatic,mint that grows wild and abundantlythroughout Italy.

Last year’s special issue featuringmorels featured a number ofmini-reviews of books about them.Because that seemed popular with readers,we decided to try it again for this Psilocybeissue. As you might expect, compared tomorels, fewer books have been writtenon Psilocybes, with most focusing on theblue-staining “magic mushrooms.” Forthese reviews, we selected works aimedprimarily at identification, rather thanthe use and cultural significance of thesemushrooms. Of the nine books includedhere, seven appear to be readily availablebased on internet searches in earlyJune 2011, although in some cases notparticularly cheaply.They fall into four categories: 1970’svintage slender guidebooks (the first sixtitles), a color field guide, a technicalmonograph, and a legal primer. Ifyou’re looking for a useful resourcefor identifying psilocybin mushrooms,Stamets’s 1996 guide is the clear choice.A Key to the American PsilocybinMushroomLeonard Enos, 1971 revised edition(Softcover, 81 pp.)Church of the one Sermon,A Youniverse ProductionOriginal price $5.00(?)Currently available, $10-$125(median $32)A rather poorly produced little guide,not well organized, with considerable misinformation.The mycological informationseems to have been taken from the literaturewith little hint that the author had muchpersonal expertise or experience withmushrooms other than “shrooms,” and asubstantial portion of the book is devoted toSubud (an international spiritual movementthat began in indonesia in the 1920s), whichhas little or nothing to do with mushrooms,psilocybin or otherwise. illustrated withnot-too-bad colored drawings that wereproduced from black-and-white photos.Despite the title, there is no key. of little usefor identification purposes.Field Guide to the Psilocybin Mushroom:Species Common to North AmericaF.C. Ghouled, 1972 (Softcover, 16 pp.)Guidance PublicationsChapel Hill, NCOriginal price $1.45Currently available, $16-$65 (median $36)Ostensibly a guide to Psilocybe cubensis,Panaeolus subbalteatus, and Psilocybecaerulescens that can be used with “nochance for error.” Contains descriptions anda smattering of other information, far toomuch of it lacking in detail, of questionablevalidity, or just plain wrong. for instance,Amanita muscaria is referred to as Mexico’s“magic mushroom” and is said to be“sometimes found in woodland areas of theU.S. South.” The illustrations consist of afew poor-quality color and black-and-whitephotos. of virtually no use for identificationpurposes.Magic Mushrooms: A Guide to 12Hallucinogenic Species of the PacificNorthwestEverett Kardell and Robyn Stitely1975 (Softcover, 33 pp.)Santiam PublishersEugene, oROriginal price $3.00(?)Currently available, $10 (only one copylisted in our internet search)Another cheaply produced little pamphletby mycologically less-than-knowledgeablemagic mushroomers. it appears to havebeen printed by a mimeograph-type processdirectly from a typed manuscript. typosabound and two pages are blank in my copy.Mostly consists of descriptions of the 12species, not all of which typically containpsilocybin and psilocin. The descriptions areaccompanied by poor-quality line-drawings,many of which were copied from thepaintings in the Enos book. of little use foridentification purposes.Hallucinogenic and PoisonousMushroom Field GuideGary P. Menser1977 / iSBN 0-915904-28-4(Softcover, 141 pp.)And/Or PressBerkeley, CAOriginal price $5.95Currently available, $1-$76(median $13.50)Menser’s book is the first that couldbe considered reasonably reliable. it iswell organized and includes a key to bothhallucinogenic and poisonous species, gooddescriptions, and generally accurate linedrawings of the species. Although someof the information is now dated, and thereare occasional mistakes, Menser clearlyhad a great deal more general mycologicalknowledge and experience than the authorsof most of the books of this generation.Still a useful volume, especially when usedin conjunction with more comprehensiverecent field guides.How to Identify and Grow PsilocybinMushrooms: Field Guide,Indoor-Outdoor CultivationJule Stevens and Rich Gee1977 (Softcover, 84 pp.)Sun Magic PublishingSeattle, WAOriginal price $5.95Currently available, $12-$60 (median $20)A wide-ranging little book, moreprofessionally produced than some of theothers of this period. it has more detailedinformation on cultivation than the otherbooks, supported with black-and-whitephotos. The identification section comprisesless than half of the book. it covers (briefly)about a dozen species of Psilocybe, a fewPanaeolus species, and a collection ofpoisonous mushrooms, only one of which(Galerina autumnalis = G. marginata)could be considered a look-alike for thepsilocybin mushrooms. A number of mostlypoor to mediocre black-and-white and colorphotos accompany the descriptions. Perhapsof some use for identification purposes, butbetter options are available.Psilocybe Mushrooms & their AlliesPaul Stamets1978 / iSBN 0-930180-03-8(Softcover, 160 pp.)Homestead Book Co.Seattle, WAOriginal price $9.95Currently available, $21-$430(median $35)This is clearly the best of the 1970s magicmushroom books. it provides sound advice(such as emphasizing the need to learnabout all mushrooms to provide a broadcontext), keys, good descriptions, and, forthe most part, decent color photos of abroader range of species than is includedin the other books from this period. forinstance, the Preface cautions that “None ofthe professed ‘field guides’ on psilocybianmushrooms acknowledged the importanceof studying Psilocybe in relation to all fleshyfungi. Rather they boldly suggested anamateur should go into the field and tryto find hallucinogenic mushrooms givenonly isolated descriptions of a few species.This narrow approach to mushroomidentification is dangerously inadequate.”Still useful for identification, but Stamets’smore recent book (below) is morecomprehensive and up-to-date, has betterphotos, and appears to be available for a bitless on the used-book market.Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World:An Identification GuidePaul Stamets1996 / iSBN 0-89815-839-7(Softcover, 229 pp.)Ten Speed PressBerkeley, CAOriginal price $24.95Currently available, $21-$124(median $30)This is the most recent of the books aboutPsilocybes and their ilk, and the one thatwill be of most use to most mushroomhuntersinterested in identifying them.It is essentially a field guide. up-frontchapters include sound information onPsilocybes from a historical perspective,their ecology and distribution, a closerlook at six common habitats, the dangersof mistaken identification, tips for greattrips, and how to collect and identifypsilocybin mushrooms. The main portionof the book covers the main psilocybingenera (Panaeolus and Psilocybe), the minorpsilocybin genera (Conocybe, Gymnopilus,Inocybe, and Pluteus), and deadly lookalikes(in Galerina and Pholiotina). A singlekey to the genera of dark-spored agarics isincluded. The descriptions are good andinclude information on the potency of eachspecies where it is known. The photos arein color and mostly of good to very goodquality.There is much good advice such as “becautious and not let your enthusiasmreplace good judgment” when identifyingmushrooms for possible consumption, andexperience-based guidance for consumingthem. However, there are a number ofother statements that might not resonatewith some readers. for instance, “The waythese mushrooms have evolved in closeassociation with humans suggests an innateintelligence on the part of the mushrooms.”If true, it seems we would have to ascribethe same innate intelligence to corn, wheat,rice, tomatoes, hamsters, starlings, bedbugs,athlete’s-foot fungus, and the myriad otherorganisms that prosper in association withhumans and our modified environments.Regarding the discovery of a singlemushroom thought to be of a previouslyundescribed species, Stamets suggests that“Perhaps, some would say, this mushroomhas remained hidden only to call out to thechosen one who found it, so she could giveit to me to clone.”Regardless of how you feel about suchphilosophical musings, this is the bookto get if you want to identify psilocybinmushrooms.The Genus Psilocybe: A systematicrevision of the known species, includingthe history, distribution, and chemistryof the hallucinogenic speciesVolume 74, Beihefte zur Nova HedwigiaGastón Guzmán1983 / iSBN 3-7682-5474-7(Hardcover, 439 pp.)J. CramerVaduz, GermanyOriginal price DM200Currently not readily available.This is a typical professional monographdealing with the genus as generally acceptedduring the latter half of the 1900s and early2000s. it is lengthy, contains numerouskeys and extensive descriptions, supportedwith good-quality line-drawings of fruitingbodies and microscopic features. it alsoincludes a number of black-and-white andcolor photos that range in quality from fairto excellent. A good resource for someoneequipped with a microscope if you can finda copy.Sacred Mushrooms & the Law,2nd editionRichard Glen Boire1997 / ISBN 1-890425-00-1(Softcover, 69 pp.)spectral mindustriesDavis, CAOriginal price $9.95Currently available, $5-$75The one exception to our focus onidentification guides, this is a summaryof the laws and other legal aspects ofpsilocybin, psilocin, and the mushroomsthat contain them. However, from apractical viewpoint, such a guide seemshardly necessary if one considers thatpossession of psilocybin and psilocin isa crime throughout the U.S. Althoughapparently the laws have not beenenforced to this extent, in many states, ahome- or landowner could be prosecutedif psilocybin mushrooms were found onhis/her property, regardless of whethershe/he knew they were there and whatthey were. Boire makes much of the factthat the laws are written in terms of theactive compounds, not the mushroomsthat contain them. However, the cases hedescribes suggest that defendants arrestedfor possessing psilocybin mushroomshave had little or no success pursuing adefense strategy that makes use of thatdistinction. Of interest for those whowant to understand the legal backgroundassociated with magic mushrooms. A 2002edition is also available in about the sameprice range.-Steve Trudell66 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 67

Advertiser Directory & Q uick LinkAsheville Mushroom Club www.AshevilleMushroomClub.com 33Beyond Immunity Inc. www.beyondimmunity.com 30Breitenbush Mushroom Gathering www.mushroominc.org 7Earth’s Tongue www.earthstongue.com Inside Front CoverEverything Mushrooms www.everythingmushrooms.com 97th Annual Fungi Festival www.fungifest.com 34Fungi Magazine www.fungimag.com 14Fungi Perfecti LLC www.fungi.com Back CoverThe Hoosier Mushroom Company www.hoosiermushroom.com 13Just Mushroom Stuff www.justmushroomstuff.com 32Kelly Chadwick - Decomposition kelly.chadwick@odomcorp.com 15Mushroaming in Tibet & Beyond www.MushRoaming.com 17Mushroom World Audio CD www.musicbysteveroberts.com 16Morel Mania, Inc. www.morelmania.com 37Sam Ristich www.samristich.com 35Taylor Lockwood www.kingdomoffungi.com 12Telluride Mushroom Festival www.shroomfest.com 3Texas Mushroom Festival www.texasmushroomfestival.com 11An entomophagous fungus Akanthomyces fruits from a moth in a grim scene caught on film byDanny Newman in Ecuador. We ran into Danny at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair last year and he hadplenty of weird things to show us. This was possibly the most striking.Among so many “active” species of Psilocybe how didone, P. cubensis, wind up being de rigeur for mushroomcultivators, enthusiastics, and myconauts the worldover? As Michael Beug points out in this issue, it’s likely thatluck had a lot to do with it. And probably ease of cultivation.While it is an “active” species, its potency is much lower(according to Beug, who’s done the chemical analysis) thanseveral other species of the genus. Nevertheless, just as theevolutionary fates of several other crop plants that we humansrely on for our very existence (coffee, tobacco, rice, corn,potatoes, and tomatoes to name a few) are probably secureas long as humans walk the planet, so too might be Psilocbyecubensis.—B. Bunyard and J. Hutchins68 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 FUNGI Volume 4:3 Summer 2011 69

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