[BuckarooBanzai]

To start, most of this is opinion based on personal experience and research. I state this now, because I hate peppering a lengthy document with IMOs and IMHOs. Please assume that any statement of “fact” I make is, in fact, just an opinion posing as a fact (what is a fact, after all, but an opinion with a consensus?). So, take this with a grain of salt unless you are preparing to consume Amanitas. If you ARE planning to imbibe (especially if you think you want to do a lot) please give my words some consideration…

This paragraph is NOT opinion. All references to Amanitas in this document speak of Amanita Muscaria var. Muscaria (the Fly Agaric). The Amanita family is huge with some being DEADLY POISONS responsible for more mushroom related deaths than any other species. The most deadly mushroom on earth, statistically, is Amanita Phallodies (the Death Cap or Destroying Angel). This mushroom contains horrible poisons called Amatoxins (cyclopeptides) which first kill your liver and then kill you…slowly…over the course of 3-5 days…by drowning your cells in their own waste – waste your now dead liver can’t remove from your blood stream. NOT a good way to go. Cyclopeptide poisoning can only be treated if diagnosed within a few hours of consumption with massive doses of penicillin and silymarin (a flavinoid in Milk Thistle and your liver’s best friend). Early treatment is not a guarantee of survival, however. Early treatment just ups your chance of survival. The ONLY known therapies for a late stage diagnoses (more than 8 hours after consumption) are prayer and a liver transplant. If you aren’t prepared to bet your life, don’t eat any mushroom which has not been positively identified. Even experienced mycologists gathering a favorite variety for the umpteenth time will verify with spore prints. Mutations and physical variations are facts to be very aware of when gathering wild mushrooms.

There is a ridiculous amount of bad, misleading and simply wrong information about Amanitas on the ‘Net. This misinformation comes from all sides: from the unfortunately overdosed screaming “POISON!” to the shady salesmen screaming “LEGAL ENTHEOGEN!” Amanitas are NOT poisonous and they are legal to purchase/own everywhere except Louisiana (not to eat, however – check your local laws). Amanitas are “legal entheogens.” So are nutmeg, dextromethorphan, Datura, loco weed, mescal beans, aesthetic starvation, sensory deprivation and smashing yourself repeatedly in the forehead with a ball peen hammer. The question to ask your self is NOT “what can get me there?” The question is “how much am I willing to pay for the ride?” Amanitas will get you there but those coins you are saving for the ferryman won’t come close to covering your toll.

The Amanita experience can be most delightful or most terrifying (or both), depending on set/setting and DOSAGE. Therefore, I am writing this up to present my personal experiences and perhaps shed a little light on this topic. If you intend to take on Amanita as an ally, please take heed my warnings to start SMALL (and stay the hell away from Pantherinas).

I am highly biased because I am a huge fan of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom. Everyone I have personally worked with and dosed (7 folks) is also a fan. Please be aware, my dosage weights may NOT be the same as yours. I’ve worked extensively with only a few people who are all very experienced psychonauts; my dosage estimates should NOT be trusted as an absolute gauge of YOUR experiences.

The net is full of stories of folks who ate way too much way too soon and very much regretted ever hearing of Amanita Muscaria (there is, after all, a REASON these fuckers are still legal – and labeled by most mycologists as poison). I remember one story about a guy who ate a whole ounce of dried Amanitas. Poor bastard! I have personally experienced “too much” and can report that it is a VERY VERY VERY harsh way to “get there” which most people won’t/can’t enjoy. There are far more terrifying things out there than “ego death” and Amanita will wave those things in your face for fun. Also, Heroic doses of Amanita carry an INTENSE body load. Start small and move forward cautiously and respectfully or you WILL have a bad time. Also, please realize that Heroic doses of any psychedelic simply aren’t for everyone. This is doubly true with Amanita Muscaria. I, personally, know only one other person who digs the big doses (and he is a truly twisted fucker – like me). Hippie mentioned something about the Datura experience being similar to hanging from metal hooks in a sweat lodge. The Amanita experience runs a close second in terms of pain/pleasure.

As a personal aside, never trust any “dealer” farther than you can throw him/her. If you choose to trust your source (hey, he’s an old friend!), remember that he/she has a source too. Would your “old friend” sell you misidentified fungus/poison? Probably not if he KNEW it was poison (then again, just how greedy/broke is this person?). What if, however, he just heard it was good but hasn’t yet sampled them? Street drugs, at there best, are unregulated for quality and dosage. Street drugs at there worst could be ANY powder/crystal a broke junkie thought he/she could pass off as compound X. Ajax and Inositol (with a few drops of Benzene) look, feel and smell like good coke. Until you don’t get a buzz and your nose starts gushing blood, that is. Fake coke will piss you off and maybe give you a little nose bleed. Misidentified mushrooms could very easily kill you.

I’ve heard it stated that mushrooms from web vendors are “two steps above rat poison.” Vendor mushrooms are generally not a great idea but can be acceptable with Amanitas, due to their super distinctive look, smell and feel. At the very least, you can be reasonably certain that vendor Amanitas are what they claim to be (once dried, the red isn’t quite as bright, but the coloration and the white spots are still very obvious). But you can’t spore print dried fungus and you can’t grow out Amanitas anyway, so you can never be 100% certain without lab analysis. Caveat emptor!

I recommend going out and finding your own but for some this isn’t realistic. Some dwell in cities or areas where Amanitas can’t be found growing naturally. If you live in a good area and are simply too lazy to go looking, high dose Amanitas are probably not for you. This shroom will very decidedly bitch slap those just looking to “trip out.” I will reiterate: high doses of this mushroom are HARSH on the body and the mind. Nobody would classify a Heroic Amanita dose as “fun” or a “party drug” unless they were certifiably insane (or hoping to profiteer from your naiveté).

If, for whatever reason, you choose to dose heavily with vendor mushrooms, meditate with them first. Spread them out and feel their energy. Use a smudge stick or incense to purify them and ask them for the visions you need. If you can get over the western “cheesiness” of meditating with dried mushrooms and genuinely connect with the fungus, you will improve it’s efficacy dramatically. Mental preparation and a ritualistic approach will have a hugely positive effect on your set/setting. You can also just grind them up and munch them, but you will be missing a VERY important point. You may also barf up a lung.

If meditating, chanting and waving smudge sticks over dried mushrooms you bought through the mail sounds goofy, Amanitas are NOT right for you as an entheogen. Small/medium doses work for anybody, even the “straights” out there, as a tonic and euphoriant. Medium/high doses are a great party drug for talking and interacting, though you will get a bit clumsy. Truly entheogenic doses, however, are genuinely terrifying (even to the highly experienced psychonaut). Do you really dig Salvia? If so, you might like Heroic doses of Amanita. Did Salvia scare you into not wanting to be in the same room as it again? If so, stay far away from more than 9 grams of dried Amanita. If you find Salvia frightening/intimidating then an Heroic dose of Amanita stands a good chance of putting you in an emergency room, on a psych ward or BOTH. Another good comparison is Datura/Belladonna/Mandrake/Brugmansia. If you enjoy gnawing Jimson Weed or slurping a flying potion, Amanita Muscaria is waiting with open arms.

Please be aware that not even your twisted narrator is willing to mix Amanitas and Jimson Weed. Way too much body load.

If you need a solid reason not to eat a boatload of Amanita, let it be this: Terrence McKenna didn’t care for them. Hippie doesn’t care for them. Almost NOBODY cares for heroic doses of this fungus. On the flip side, Jack Herrer loves them and credits Amanitas, Psilocybes and Ganja with getting him over a terrible stroke which left him half paralyzed...

This is no joke, folks. Heroic doses of this mushroom can seriously screw with your mind and body in a way that no other psychedelic has prepared you for (except, perhaps, the aforementioned Datura). I don’t want to sound preachy or hokey but these are a true Shamanic sacrament and, as such, they demand a high price for admission. An entheogenic dose of Amanita Muscaria, left to it’s own devices, will make you sweat a river and drool an ocean. It will make you so clumsy that even crawling becomes a chore. It will knock you unconscious and give you truly horrific dreams. It WILL try to convince you that you have consumed a poison and, if you believe it, it will do things to you that will make you wish for death. An entheogenic dose of Amanita requires significant body management and, subsequently, centers you strongly in the physical. No other entheogen I have used has such a strong physical component (not even Ecstasy). Quite the contrary, most of them divide the mind/spirit and body quite decisively, leaving the unfettered mind/soul to wander. This is NOT the case with Amanitas. You may go out of body, but you will still maintain bodily awareness (except while asleep).

Heroic doses of Amanita Muscaria are not things most people will enjoy or want to do again. “Overdose” is the theme of most of the bad trip reports on the ‘net and they all have a few things in common: terrible bodily side effects, thoughts of insanity and a desire to never repeat the experience. Sad but completely predictable. If the first time you ate cubensis shrooms you sucked down 15-20 dried grams, would YOU ever want to do it again? VERY few people “enjoy” extreme psychedelic experiences. Even those who really dig an 8-10 g psilocybe trip are in for a major shock with a big dose of Amanita. The “buzz” from Psilocybes is UTTERLY different than the “buzz” from Amanitas. These mushrooms are NOT interchangeable.

An IMPORTANT note: Amanita Pantherinas are NOT just super potent Amanitas. The Pantherina experience is one that should only be undertaken after many successful Muscaria voyages (even then…wow…). Pantherina can and will destroy you, given a chance. If the Amanita teacher is “mildly annoyed” by your intrusions, the Pantherina teacher is OPENLY PISSED. Amanita Pantherina is truly a sleeping giant. Also, unlike Muscaria, Pantherina looks very similar to the highly toxic Amanita Phallodies (especially mature, sun bleached Pantherinas). NEVER TRY TO GATHER PANTHERINAS UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Identify all Pantherina’s by spore print as well as physical characteristics (get a good field guide with color plates of fruit & spores). A sober guide is essential if you want to experience high dose Pantherina. I’ve done them a few times and they scare the living
shit out of me. I’ll stick with Muscaria 99% of the time, thank you very much. Pantherina is very much a “special occasion” thing, far more so than Muscaria. As a friend once told me, “He who comes to Muscaria unprepared for the experience will be made into a sweaty, twitchy fool. He who comes to Pantherina unprepared is lucky to escape with his sanity.”

Simply put, an Heroic dose of Amanita Muscaria (14+ grams) is just about as “pleasurable” as your first DMT breakthrough. High doses of this mushroom are NOT fun (except, perhaps, in retrospect). I know this will intrigue some of you, but it really shouldn’t. This is not bullshit propaganda cranked out by a society that wants you to stay a nice little consumer cog. This is personal advice from a psychonaut who wants you to stretch your mind just as far as you can (and perhaps a bit “further…”). Said psychonaut would, however, like to see you actually enjoy the process!

When you are gathering Muscarias in the wild, make note of the location as you will probably find them there again when conditions are favorable (I use a GPS device with memory). Also, keep your eyes open for the King Bolete (who loves the same kinds of conditions as Muscaria). King Bolete contains no psychoactive chemicals, but tastes WONDERFUL. Thump each fungus on top with your finger several times before harvesting; this helps to release spores and improve your chances of finding them here next season. Unopened caps are slightly more potent but opened caps are FAR larger (under the right conditions, Amanitas get dinner plate huge). The difference in net quantity of good stuff between a 10g baby and a 200g adult far outweighs the baby having slightly more per gram of mushroom. Let the Amanita complete it’s lifecycle and fulfill it’s mission of dropping spores – come back in a few days and harvest the much larger, mature fungus (you can’t trip the day you gather anyway).

Siberian Shaman claim that no metal should be used to harvest (or indeed ever touch) the Amanita. These same Shaman also caution against picking a “family” (a group of Amanitas) without asking them first. If you wish to follow Shamanic tradition in your seeking, follow Shamanic example in your gathering. What could it hurt? You can call it a placebo effect or you can call it preparing your set…the end results are the same.

When you find a group of Amanita’s in the wild, resist the urge to immediately jerk them all out of the ground. Sit down with them and soak up their unique energy for a few minutes. They are a truly beautiful fungus with very unique vibes. Ask for their permission to gather them and invite them to give you the experience you need (not the experience you “want”). If they don’t give permission, if you feel any negative energy at all, DON’T pick this clutch for high dose usage. They WILL punish you. A truly focused and Shamanic gathering process will be rewarded by the Amanitas with a more intense and spiritual experience. If you have ever had an Ayuashca brew prepared by a Curandero and consumed as part of a ritual (vs. one cooked and slurped just to “trip out”) you know exactly what I mean. As has been said, “Anybody can cook out the chemicals but only a Curandero can coax out the plant’s soul.”

Fresh Amanitas will not get you off until you dry them (some suggest an open oven at 180F-200F). If you use the oven method, the fungi will “sweat” after a little while. The sweat should be collected because it contains much “good stuff.” Some people recommend pouring the sweat back over the shrooms, but this just makes them take far longer to dry. I do not recommend oven drying as Amanita’s good stuff is sensitive to heat. Drying them in the sun is also not recommended, because of the heat. If you can’t wait a week for them to dry properly, you probably shouldn’t be tampering with Amanitas anyway.

There are as many ways to dry mushrooms as there are species of mushrooms. I simply lay mine on a window screen in front of a box fan for 5 days and then transfer them to a gallon Ziploc with a tyvek bag of silicone desiccant. They will be hard and crunchy within 2-3 more days. Amanitas are much larger and denser than Psilocybes and take a good bit longer to dry properly. Amanitas, properly dried and stored, will maintain potency for many years. Just remember: high temperatures destroy the good stuff in Amanitas AND Psilocybes. Never dry with heat unless you want to destroy a portion of the active ingredients.

Grind up your whole batch to a fine powder and then stir the powder thoroughly to homogenize. This will give you a very uniform material whose activity level can be initially gauged and finally predicted. Go through a low dose test regimen with ALL new batches. Amanitas vary quite wildly in potency, depending on harvest time, size, location and the gatherer’s mindset (spring’s fruits are “better” than fall’s, IMHO). Powdered mushrooms should be kept in a sealed container with a little bag of desiccant or they will reabsorb moisture from the air. I use a coffee grinder to powder my shrooms, but I have seen a blender work pretty well. Food processors don’t seem to work well at all. They just bounce the fungi around.

Bear in mind that grinding up your fungi can easily be interpreted as “intent to consume.” Consuming a “recognized poison” can subsequently be interpreted as attempted suicide. Attempted suicide can put you behind bars for quite a while in many jurisdictions. Attempted suicide can also get you involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution. Be aware of your local laws!

Purchase a digital scale accurate to .1 gram. You can VERY accurately dose with Amanita dust if you have a decent scale (beware predictions with very large doses – surprises abound in the land of Soma). Make yourself aware of the legal implications before acquiring such a scale. Owning a .1 gram scale almost always makes simple possession into intent to distribute (especially if you have empty gel caps, empty baggies and/or other illegal drugs stored with said scale). Calibrate/check your scale regularly, especially if it is inexpensive. If you don’t want to spend big bucks on a standardized brass weight set, just remember that a shiny, new U.S. nickel weighs exactly 5 grams (ten of them make a 50g standard!). Try to use shiny, new nickels. Tell the bank you are a collector and want uncirculated coins. Scratches and oxidation can change a nickel’s weight significantly. Also be aware that a large change in temperature or elevation will affect your scale. Always calibrate/verify accuracy before using a cheap digital scale.

I love weird mushroom flavors and dried Amanitas still taste bad to me. Dried Amanitas smell like dried fish snacks (yummy) but they don’t taste like dried fish! As my wife says, they taste like “mouldy, four day old, pickled ASS.” Fresh Amanitas won’t get you off (too many WILL make you sick) but they taste lovely! Seriously, fresh Amanita Muscaria is one of the tastiest mushrooms out there (barring Morels). The flavor is full and rich, almost meat like, but still delicate. They make a marvelous addition to virtually anything but are absolutely fantastic in sauces. I have to agree with the other poster who said they don’t mix well with chilies. I would expound that they don’t seem to mix well with any highly spicy ingredients (mixing them with a strong curry is quite gross, leaving a metallic aftertaste). If you want to eat a bunch of fresh Amanitas, cut them into ½ inch strips and par boil in mildly acidic water for about 5 minutes. That will remove virtually all the bad stuff (because it’s highly water soluble). Even mycologists who don’t believe in tripping and call Amanitas poison are known to eat them parboiled (as I said, they taste fantastic).

To “get off” on Amanitas I recommend making a batch of tea, filtering/tossing the grit and holding your nose while gulping it down. Like a shot of cheap whiskey, the worst taste comes from letting the fumes get into your sinuses. When you make tea, boil the water first then remove it from the heat. NEVER boil Amanita tea as high temperatures quickly destroy the good stuff. Personally, I like my tea with a healthy squirt of lemon juice and a big dollop of honey. Honey is optional, but tea made with lemon is more active (because of the acidity). If you are into psychedelic cooking, I wholeheartedly recommend adding a little Amanita to your next batch of ganja treats. Not only does the Amanita body buzz synergize wonderfully with THC, it potentiates it’s activity nearly two fold. Start small with Amanita laced munchies! My personal favorite for space cookies is a combination of ganja butter, Amanita powder, Kava extract, Valerian root and Milk Thistle. Plenty of nutmeg/all spice/cinnamon will help conceal the more intense flavors of Amanita and Valerian. If anybody out there knows a recipe which effectively covers the flavor of dried Amanitas, PLEASE SHARE!!!

To dose Amanitas, I suggest you start small with 1-4 grams and give it four hours to come to full strength. Take notes on what you feel and when you feel it. My experience has been that some people are markedly more sensitive to Amanitas than others. Females, also, seem to have a slightly higher sensitivity. One very overweight friend of mine is an Amanita hardhead, though, requiring nearly 250% of the amount I use (he, however, is a hardhead/extremist with everything else as well – he can only feel 20X Salvia after almost a full bowl and he considers 4 hits of LSD a mild trip). The point is start small and move ahead cautiously. Amanita can (and probably will) surprise you at least once in a major way. For whatever reason, this fungus seems to enjoy bitch slapping “dabblers” who eat a bit too much. Psilocybes are forgiving – Amanitas are NOT.

In my experiments, I have noted only a very small tolerance effect even with daily use. Regular doses of Amanita actually seem to lower tolerance. Once you’ve “been there” it takes less to “get there” the next time. This is ESPECIALLY true with high dose experiences. After years of regular use, a high dose for me is 6-8g. 10+, at this point, is super intense (I still do it, but I’m a glutton for punishment).

For those who want to know, I consider 24g – 8g every hour for three hours – a “perfect” heroic dose FOR ME. This is NOT a dose I would recommend, however. 24 grams of dried Amanita can make the Ayuashca purge seem kind of tame.

Amanitas take a while longer than Psilocybes to achieve maximum impact and last longer, as well. Give an Amanita dose 3.5 hours before you judge it, especially at first. Experienced psychonauts will recognize the mild onset clues at about 20-30 minutes (the first thing for me is always noticing the “sparklies” followed quickly by mild “coming up” anxiety). The inexperienced should not mix Amanita with any other psychedelic (Amanitas potentiate everything, it seems). The trip is simply too harsh, inescapable, inevitable and “loop like.” Salvia or, preferably, DMT at the peak of an Amanita trip is chief amongst the harshest learning experiences I’ve ever been through. If you can imagine arriving on the elves’ doorstep while still maintaining full bodily awareness, you have an idea what I mean. Ever FELT your molecules unravel?

I do NOT recommend high dose Amanita for your first entheogenic experience, though lower doses are a great introduction to psychedelics for anyone. Final warning: people who seek a second heroic Amanita experience are FAR less common than people who enjoy extreme Salvia or DMT experiences. “Seeing God” with these mushrooms is not a particularly pleasant experience. Amanita is FAR less tolerant of “dabblers” than the Psilocybes. Please note how often I have reiterated this point…


Most mushroom field guides qualify Amanita Muscaria as poisonous. Amanita Muscaria is NOT a poison in doses of less than a couple hundred grams – in 300+ years there is only one “suspected” death (a small child who ate quite a few of them) and one coma/death (but he ate over a hundred of them for dinner). If you start to fixate on the “poison shroom” myths, you WILL start to feel poisoned. JUST REMEMBER: going to the emergency room can turn a bad trip into a hellish one. Especially when the only thing they can do for you is shoot you up with sedatives and atropine (there is no treatment for acute Amanita poisoning more than 4 hours after ingestion and you won’t even get the atropine “come down” until they are CERTAIN what kind of mushroom you ate). As a final note on this “poison” myth please remember that acute Amanita poisoning doesn’t manifest for 12-16 hours (then it comes as nausea, vomiting and severe diarrhea). If you experience ANY of these symptoms the next day, see a doctor immediately as you may have eaten a toxic mushroom. SOME diarrhea is normal, especially if you drink alcohol with them. Severe/uncontrollable diarrhea should be evaluated by a medical professional immediately. Dehydration can kill you pretty quickly.

So, these are my experiences and MY OPINIONS. Your mileage may (and probably will) vary. All I can say for certain is that nobody I’ve given low/medium doses of Amanita has disliked them. Quite the contrary, I haven’t met anybody yet who didn’t enjoy low/medium dose Amanitas (except for the taste, EVERYBODY hates the taste). Small doses (1-4g dried) of these guys are an energizing tonic that mixes well with anything. Medium doses (5-9g dried) are a good buzz with mild cosmic overtones that make anything more enjoyable. Large doses (10-14g dried) can be a cosmic blast if the “side-effects” don’t annoy you and ruin it. Heroic doses (14+g dried) can be a horrible mistake you will remember/regret for many years to come. If the worst that happens to you on a Heroic dose is nausea and drooling, count yourself fortunate!

MY conclusions: small/medium/high dose Amanitas are quite enjoyable with physical side effects and potentiation that ramp up exponentially with dosage. Medium/high doses do NOT mix well with other psychedelics (unless you are looking for a very intense/frightening experience). Heroic doses are NOT FUN TO ANYONE, MY SELF INCLUDED. You will not laugh (but you may scream) and nothing will melt/morph. There are no pretty visuals with Amanita, just very intense visions. IF you hallucinate, it is more likely you will see the face of death/God (and once you see it, it can NOT be forgotten and will, in fact, be visible everywhere). Amanita is a very powerful teacher which is difficult to make an ally. Stick with low/medium doses and you will love them. Take a Heroic dose and, most likely, you’ll regret ever having taken physical form for at least a few hours.

Just remember: the vicious and vindictive child “god” of christianity was, most likely, originally conceptualized by people in the throws of an Heroic Amanita experience. That (and the fact that McKenna didn’t care for them) should tell you all you need to know.

“Thus spake Zarathustra.”