Amanita Muscaria mushrooms are noted for his or her psychoactive properties, because of their containing the hallucinogenic chemicals ibotenic acid and muscimol. Also called toadstools, these mushrooms have long been connected with magic in literature. The caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland is portrayed as sitting on one as he smokes his suspicious pipe, and in animated cartoons, Smurfs have emerged to live in Amanita mushrooms. Of course, circles of mushrooms growing in the forest are frequently known as fairy rings.
It has been reported that as early as 2000 B.C. people in India and Iran were using for religious purposes a plant called Soma or Haoma. One up bar A Hindu religious hymn, the Rig Veda also identifies the plant, Soma, although it isn’t specifically identified. It’s believed this plant was the Amanita Muscaria mushroom, a theory popularized in the book “Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality” by R. Gordon Wasson. Other authors have argued that the manna from heaven mentioned in the Bible is actually a mention of the magic mushrooms. Images of mushrooms have already been identified in cave drawings dated to 3500 B.C.
In the church of Plaincourault Abbey in Indre, France is really a fresco painted in 1291 A.D. of Adam and Eve looking at each side of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A serpent is entwined across the tree, which looks unmistakably like a cluster of Amanita Muscaria mushrooms. Could it be true that the apple from the Garden of Eden could possibly have already been an hallucinogenic mushroom?
Siberian shamans are said to have ingested Amanita Muscaria for the objective of reaching a situation of ecstasy so they may perform both physical and spiritual healing. Viking warriors reportedly used the mushroom during the heat of battle so they may enter a rage and perform otherwise impossible deeds.
In the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia the medicinal usage of Amanita Muscaria topically to deal with arthritis has also been reported anecdotally. L. Lewin, writer of “Phantastica: Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs: Their Use and Abuse” (Kegan Paul, 1931) wrote that the fly-agaric was in great demand by the Siberian tribes of northeast Asia, and tribes who lived in areas where in fact the mushroom grew would trade them with tribes who lived where it could not be found. In one occasion one reindeer was traded for starters mushroom.
It has been theorized that the toxicity of Amanitas Muscaria varies in accordance with location and season, as well as how the mushrooms are dried.
Finally, it should be noted that mcdougal of this short article doesn’t in any way recommend, encourage nor endorse the consumption of Amanita Muscaria mushrooms. It’s believed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists Amanita Muscaria as a poison. Some firms that sell these mushrooms refer in their mind as “poisonous non-consumables.”
