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Posted by astronads 23 hours ago

Experts explore new mushroom which causes fairytale-like hallucinations(nhmu.utah.edu)
https://archive.is/CwDtf
420 points | 243 commentspage 2
bjt 8 hours ago|
Looks like the site is being hugged to death. Here's another instance of the article (I think).

https://attheu.utah.edu/science-technology/mushroom-causes-f...

chpatrick 20 hours ago||
Common Side Effects anyone?
nck_p 1 hour ago|
Probably something like temporary death and teleportation
candiddevmike 21 hours ago||
SWIM would like to know how to get paid as (instead of paying to be) "an expert who explores new mushrooms".
dekhn 20 hours ago||
Major in biology, do a grad program in medicinal chemistry, join a lab that already studies this.

(I know folks who read PiHKAL and thought "Hmm, this would be a nice ML training/prediction exercise")

neogodless 21 hours ago|||
Someone Who Isn't Me?
MrDrone 21 hours ago|||
Yes, this was a common phrase in early psychedelic and other drug experience sharing forums. Like a verbal talisman people believe kept them from incriminating themselves. I haven't thought about it in years. Delightful.
Aurornis 19 hours ago||||
In some online drug forums it was believed that if you used SWIM instead of I for all of your posts, the government was powerless to use any of the posts against you. You can still find threads on forums where everyone is saying SWIM did this and SWIM experienced that as if they have discovered a loophole to protect themselves from the law.

It always reminded me of those FTP servers in the early days of the internet that had big warning banners declaring the law enforcement was not allowed to connect.

culi 17 hours ago||
I feel like most people didn't actually believe it would somehow grant them legal protection but still used it kinda tongue-in-cheek. I think it's kinda cute and still use "my friend Swim..." in a joking way when talking about legally dubious escapades
mistersquid 20 hours ago||||
> Someone Who Isn't Me?

Funny, I saw “SWIM” and reasoned “Someone Who Is Me”, thinking “is not” would be represented as “Is Not” instead of the contraction. :)

awesome_dude 20 hours ago|||
Yeah - I was going to ask... for a friend
rolph 20 hours ago|||
some breadcrumbs for your SWIM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Morris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%27s_Pharmacopeia

airstrike 20 hours ago|||
I always feel like they should bring along an artist for the trip so we can get a visual depiction of what it was like
rolph 16 hours ago|||
Ride my Llama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMC3DjAFQEs

optimalsolver 19 hours ago|||
And a poet.
optimalsolver 20 hours ago|||
Exploring new mushrooms is more likely to end in agonizing death than piercing the veil of reality.
attila-lendvai 8 hours ago||
no, statistucally not.

but yeah, a warning is warranted.

markus_zhang 20 hours ago||
I wish it were another dimension, or breaking through the Matrix. I never had the chance to experience such items but look forward to doing so.
anigbrowl 19 hours ago||
When mice are given chemical extracts of Lanmaoa asiatica, their behavior shifts noticeably compared to controls.

Doesn't say how, for some reason. I presume they are shocked to see tiny mice, but I would like to know what behaviors they exhibited.

Ccecil 19 hours ago|
Are they seeing tiny mice...or are they seeing the same 2cm tall "people"?
anonzzzies 15 hours ago||
Psilocybin always gives me fairytale like, animated and very vivid hallucinations. Would be curious how these differ.
contingencies 19 hours ago||
Lived in Yunnan for over a decade, primarily as a vegetarian. Mushrooms there are indeed many and varied and quite tasty. Many poisonings annually but the government are pretty good at helping people to ID with warning posters. Personally ate many mushrooms that looked like this and never had hallucinations. Did have some others which made me feel a little ill, however. I suspect locals are unduly relaxed about types science would avoid due to hepatoxicity.

While occasionally FOAFs would get hallucinogenic effects from dining, I don't recall explicitly hearing of anyone seeing little people, or hearing the term he details in this writing. As such, I wonder where this guy gets his info from. Certainly, most Yunnanese would describe these mushrooms as 牛肝菌 ("bolete") and more specific Chinese common names for similar reddish species would include 桃红牛肝菌 ("peach-colored bolete"). As a general type, they are very common in markets across much of Yunnan.

Given the claims, the clearly infrequent effects, and the personal experience I can trust, I would conclude with three theories: perhaps either the compounds are rapidly degraded when non-fresh, safely broken down when cooking (traditionally these mushrooms are cut thinly before sauteeing or boiling in hotpot), or there are one or two "look alike" species which are more rarely found and contain additional compounds which are responsible for the occasional effects.

reissbaker 18 hours ago|
According to Wikipedia, the Yunnan mushrooms indeed have their hallucinogens broken down after cooking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogenic_bolete_mushroom

Good guess!

Although, the local hospital records imply that hallucinations can last for days or even months, so uh, probably not a great idea to go looking for them...

temp0826 15 hours ago|||
My guess would be there is probably some contamination with something ergot-like going on. Long-lasting but maybe hard to detect because such a small amount is needed for effect that it's easy to miss.
contingencies 15 hours ago|||
According to a voluminous illustrated tome I acquired during my extended stay, Yunnan has at least seven species of native psilocybe. Like nearby areas along the Himalayas, cannabis and opium are endemic and widely utilized in traditional cultures of the area. Heroin processed in Myanmar became a problem in rural Yunnan the early 2000s and present-era government shut it down with a heavy-handed campaign around 15 years ago. These days it's probably trans-shipped more than locally consumed.
amanaplanacanal 20 hours ago||
It appears there are several blue staining boletes in the same genus that grow in the US. Seems like a fertile area for study.
czzprr 19 hours ago||
I have a friend who gave up taking regular magic mushrooms because he always hallucinated tiny Power Rangers.
fluoridation 12 hours ago||
Interesting. Did he find it boring, annoying, disturbing, or what?
culi 8 hours ago||
Giving up right when its getting good
memming 20 hours ago|
Aparently 见手青 is mildly toxic yet commonly consumed in Yunan.
culi 17 hours ago||
Spinach too is mildly toxic because of its oxalate content yet we eat it all the time. Some of those toxic saponins even have certain health benefits. There are plenty other examples of toxic foods we regularly consume: legumes contain deadly saponins, beets contain oxalates, and potatoes contain glycoalkaloids

From what I read Suillellus luridus (见手青) is completely fine when cooked

thaumasiotes 17 hours ago||
Meat is also toxic when eaten raw; that is not generally held to be a reason to avoid eating it cooked.
VladVladikoff 11 hours ago||
What toxins does raw meat contain? Or are you referring to bacteria contaminated raw meat?
thaumasiotes 7 hours ago||
Doesn't have to be bacteria. Raw meat can contain any kind of horrifying contamination. Viruses, bacteria, mold, nematodes... there is no limit. It's the perfect substrate for everything.

Living toxins are much worse than nonliving ones because the living toxins can reproduce to dangerous levels even if you consume a tiny dose.

But if for some reason you think they're not dangerous, foods that contain nonliving toxins when unprocessed are also commonly eaten; a major example would be cassava. See also acorns, nardoo, fugu, and the Greenland shark.

Most things prefer not to be eaten; you can't let that stop you.

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