Amanita 47Drawbacks.One user describes the experience as lacking in feelings of hap-
piness, or love, or sexual impulses—a lack that sets amanita apart from many
drugs that are used recreationally. A scientist who engaged in self-
experimentation had similar results of emptiness. Of 6 subjects who received
the mushroom in an experiment, all were nauseated, 2 vomited, 1 had hal-
lucinations, and several had sensory distortions. None cared to repeat the
experience. The supervising researcher wondered if variations in supplies of
the natural product explained why the experiment’s results differed so greatly
from hallucinations and pleasures reported by other persons. Personality, ex-
pectations, and surrounding environment can shape the experience. A re-
searcher interviewed 18 persons who ate Amanita muscaria or Amanita
pantherina; half had eaten the mushrooms deliberately, and half thought they
were consuming something else. Every person who accidentally ate the sub-
stance found its actions unpleasant. In contrast, the mushroom’s effects were
enjoyed by every individual who deliberately ate it.
Because active chemicals from the natural product are excreted into urine,
people can dose themselves again by drinking their own urine, a dosage
method that may horrify Americans but that a few other cultures have ac-
cepted calmly.
Unwanted amanita effects can include twitching, cramps, abdominal dis-
comfort, sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, confusion, rapid
heartbeat, difficulty in moving around, high body temperature, and convul-
sions. Users can become manic and then sleepy, with those conditions alter-
nating back and forth until a person collapses. Scientific journals contain many
articles about brain damage caused by ibotenic acid, although conditions of
experiments do not necessarily duplicate what happens when mushrooms are
eaten. A person who received a dose of ibotenic acid in an experiment de-
veloped a headache for two weeks. Under laboratory conditions amanita ex-
tracts cause red blood cells to clump together.
Abuse factors.Not enough scientific information to report.
Drug interactions.Not enough scientific information to report.
Cancer.Not enough scientific information to report.
Pregnancy.The muscimol in amanita causes birth defects in rats.
Additional scientific information may be found in:
Davis, D.P., and S.R. Williams. “Amanita Muscaria.”Journal of Emergency Medicine 17
(1999): 739.
Fabing, H.D. “On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry.”Scientific Monthly 83
(1956): 232–37.
Horne, C.H.W., and J.A.W. McCluskie. “The Food of the Gods.”Scottish Medical Journal
8 (1963): 489–91.
McDonald, A. “The Present Status of Soma: The Effects of CaliforniaAmanita muscaria
on Normal Human Volunteers.” InMushroom Poisoning: Diagnosis and Treatment,
ed. B.H. Rumack and E. Salzman. West Palm Beach, FL: CRC Press, 1978.
215–23.
Ott, J. “Psycho-Mycological Studies of Amanita: From Ancient Sacrament to Modern
Phobia.”Journal of Psychedelic Drugs8 (January–March 1976): 27–35.