A Brief History of Magic Mushrooms

Delicious, human, mystical, dangerous, enigmatic. Mushrooms have developed a wide range of reputations throughout history, both friend and foe. But there would be no full analysis of fungi in regard to the hallucinogenic or poisonous effects of many organisms.

The mushrooms of the Psilocybe family and its families, the ‘magic mushrooms,’ are the best known. Some of the psilocybe genus mushrooms make the psilocybin and psilocin hallucinogens. They are common and widespread, but they are very hard to identify among the “little brown mushrooms.” Since some of them are dangerous, both of them should be avoided. So in this article, you will get to know about the best raw magic mushrooms.

The psilocybin mushrooms are present in over two hundred varieties worldwide, popularly referred to as magic mushrooms, shrooms or psychedelic mushrooms. We now know it as the synthetic drug used to induce hallucination and euphoria, but it is thousands of years after the ancient roots of magic mushrooms.

Aztec, Mayan and other civilizations use mushrooms

Statues of what appear to be fungi discovered in the remains of Mayans and Aztecs in Central America. The Aztecs employed a material known as teonanácatl, which means “the flesh of the gods.” Together with peyotes, evenings of glory and other psychotropics, the mushrooms have been used to sleep, to construct dreams and to communicate with Gods. Some of them wrote about the usage of psychotropic substances when Spanish Catholic missionaries came to the New World in the 16th century.

There have been also reported use of the Mazatec, Mixtec, Nashua and Zapatec by numerous contemporary groups of indigenous peoples in Central America. Fly Agaric was used 6000 years ago in areas of Eurasia as an extra fungus with hallucinogenic effects. Muscimole and ibotenic acid are its active ingredients. Several historians say it is the enigmatic Soma, an ancient Hindu religion adoring a design of God. The Koryak tribesmen from Kamchatka in Siberia were well known to Fly Agaric. They drank and got poisoned by a fungal infusion. It was so strong that poorer people gathered the revellers’ urine.

Once recycled, the effect was said to be as high as it had been for the first time. Renters appear to be urinated with the smell of the fungus for some reason. More than one poisoned tribespeople who relieved themselves has been reported killed by a crazy ruminant!

Fly Agaric appears to be both toxic and hallucinogenic, offering a deep and lasting feeling — which may provide an impression of the fearsome prestige of the Berserkers, ancient Norse guerrillas who are reported to have eaten the fungus until battle.

In the late 1950s, Westerners began eating wild mushrooms. The hippie movement has recently rediscovered fungal properties common to many cultures in ancient times, where mushrooms were used in ritual rituals and curing.

Yet magical mushrooms today have a wider mainstream media acceptability. Most individuals use what is called psilocybin microdosing, which primarily absorbs a limited amount of the drug. You don’t get full journeys. Rather, they experience a change in mood and imagination that decreases and enhances efficiency despite their terror. Certain studies appear to support their claims.

Studies on these enigmatic compounds are now exploring many paths. In the 1970s, psilocybin was banned with the exception of medical research, which started more than 30 years later. Compass Pathways authorized research on mushrooms as a treatment against depression in October 2018 by the Food & Drug Administration. In order to find better ways to combat treatment-protected depression, researchers plan to combine intensive therapy with psilocybin, which they say affects approximately 100 millions people worldwide.