Entheogens, the Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita Muscaria)
Entheogens, the Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita Muscaria)
-Also known as the "death`s head" mushroom, for the common occurance of hallucinations dealing with death.
Next, Keeping with my thoughts on prophets, and how they came to have these often crazy but sometimes amazingly spot-on prophecies, I looked at Nostradamus, one of the most well-known prohets.
There is some speculation as to what he did while holed up in his study, cannabis is a possibility.
"Nostradamus attributed his power of prophecy to a substance that could well have been cannabis: “Seated at night in my secret study, alone, reposing over the brass tripod.” He referred to the “secrets that are revealed by the subtle spirit of fire.” Nostradamus stated specifically in his will that his papers were to be left to whichever of his sons, upon reaching maturity, “..has drunk the smoke of the lamp.”
I first heard of Amanita Muscaria while reading a book on Nostradamaus claiming he had access to, and asked for this mushroom. It is debated wether he actually did, but anyway, it led me into studying this interesting fungus some more. I wanted to know what it did to people.
I found that this fungus had been around for a very long time, and still is used by some tribes in siberia, quite regularly. The ancient indian religious text, Rig-Veda describe a fruit used in religious ceremonies called the Soma, Many think this was actually the Amanita Muscaria mushroom because no other fuit in the area matches the description. The Amanita can be found at higher elevations, near Birch and/or coniferous trees anywhere in the world where the factors exist. We even have them in Canada. It can also be smoked.
Here`s a site I just found with some info:
http://www.peyote.com/jonstef/flyagaric.htm
Anyway, I really got to thinking about altered states and such at this point. If this really was the Soma, why would it have been heralded so?
I researched it`s effects and found that people often stated they had been talking to someone who wasn`t there while under the influence, and or claimed that some great insight had been bestowed upon them by it`s use, only to not make much sense once they slept it off.
Either way this was a great indication of what the human mind could be capable of dreaming up if it`s chemistry were altered in any way.
It was intriguing..
I decided to obtain some, ingest it, and keep a pad and paper handy to keep an account of what I was feeling and what I saw while under it`s influence, purely for my own research of course. My main interest was in the hallucinations it is said to be able to produce, I had never been in such a state. In retrospect it was quite foolish of course, but I had never read of a fatality, or long term effect, so I went ahead and did my little experiment.
Stay tuned..