by Greg Marley
In his discussion of the experimental results, Pahnke, in a clear moment of prescience, warned of the inherent risks, both ethical and psychic, of human subject experiments with psychedelics. He urged the use of carefully controlled conditions to establish the “set and setting” and screening to protect those study subjects vulnerable to psychic damage. Pahnke also warned of the risk of trivializing the hallucinogenic experience. “The intense subjective pleasure and enjoyment of the experience for its own sake could lead to escapism and withdrawal from the world. An experience, which is capable of changing motivation and values, might cut the nerve of achievement. Widespread apathy toward productive work and achievement could cripple a society.”11
In the years following the Good Friday Experiment, the use of psychedelics became widespread and increasingly uncontrolled as a generation of youth sought release from a society whose values they neither understood nor supported. Timothy Leary became synonymous with the rebellion and his “turn on, tune in, drop out” message was adopted by many promising minds. Leary began his own experimentation with hallucinogens carefully and using responsible protocols, but his later abuse of hallucinogens in the name of experimentation, as well as the negative press surrounding him, led to the end of most legitimate research into the use of hallucinogens and their classification as illegal controlled substances in the United States in 1971.
Many of the therapies and research protocols using several hallucinogens in the United States and Europe during the early years focused on the treatment of alcoholics, believing that the psychedelic experience would facilitate the “bottoming out” phase of the addictive process and lead to a change in perceptions of self and associated behavior. Other areas of research and promising practice were devoted to understanding schizophrenic psychosis, and the therapeutic application of hallucinogen-facilitated therapy for a wide range of disorders including substance abuse, depression, neurosis, and anxiety. Many of these early psychotherapeutic trials resulted in published papers extolling their success, but the work lacked the use of controls and experimental rigor capable of providing it with lasting efficacy.12
During the 1950s and 1960s the U.S. military and the CIA spent years and an unknown amount of resources exploring the weaponization of hallucinogens for potential use to debilitate enemy soldiers and as a means of mind control during interrogation.13 The now infamous project, code named MKULTRA, subjected thousands of military “volunteers” and unwitting civilians to doses of LSD and a number of other mind-altering drugs without their knowledge or consent. To this day, relatively little detail is known of the tendrils of this decades-long project because in 1973, CIA head Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all records of the project. Author John Marks, using the power of the Freedom of Information Act, was able to access some 20,000 pages of preserved documents that were previously thought to be destroyed. This discovery enabled him to write his 1978 book, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control, describing much of the program’s known efforts but lacking a sense of the overreaching goals of the project that could only come from open disclosure by the principal figures who have remained silent over the years.
Gordon Wasson, in his ethnomycological quest for psilocybin knowledge, became inadvertently caught up in these larger Cold War issues. Indeed, apparently unknown to Wasson, one of the early supporters of his psilocybin studies was a little-known front for the CIA known as the Geschickter Fund. The fund provided $2,000 to help pay for Wasson’s trip to Mexico in 1956 to further the exploration of psilocybe mushrooms with curandera Maria Sabina. James Moore was a chemist at the University of Delaware and also in the employ of the CIA, manufacturing an array of mind-altering, and at times deadly, chemicals for them. He contacted Wasson in the winter of 1955 and expressed interest in studying the chemistry of the Mexican psychoactive mushrooms and further sweetened the deal by connecting Wasson with the funding from Geschickter. Moore himself benefited by accompanying Wasson on the trip to Mexico. Once there he was able to secure a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms with the goal of isolating the active component to supply the CIA with another weapon for their psychoactive arsenal. Unfortunately for Moore and the CIA, Albert Hofmann and the Sandoz Company won the race to isolate and synthesize psilocybin.14 Of course, the CIA could now purchase purified psilocybin from the same source as the LSD used in the infamous MKULTRA project.
The Mushrooms Behind the Controversy
Psilocybin-containing mushrooms can be found within a number of different genera of primarily saprobic mushrooms. According to Paul Stamets in Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World, more than 100 species in a diverse mix of genera have been found to be psychoactive due to the presence of psilocybin. A recent worldwide review of the group lists 186 reported psilocybin-containing species in 14 different genera of mushrooms.15 The “neurotropic fungi,” as Gaston Guzman refers to hallucinogenic mushrooms, have a worldwide distribution ranging from Siberia and Alaska in the north, to Chile, Australia, and New Zealand in the south, as well as one island in Antarctica. They occur from sea level to 12,000 feet in an amazing variety of habitats. Mexico has the greatest number of described species (43), but the reported distribution and abundance of species seems to follow the tracks of active mycologists who have interest in these small, brown, easily overlooked mushrooms. Guzman, an expert on the taxonomy of the genus Psilocybe, reports that when he examines collections from regions where there are few resident mycologists (including areas in the United States), he regularly finds collections of new psilocybin-containing mushrooms. The supposition is that as they are more closely studied, more species of hallucinogenic mushrooms will be described and named, as is the case with almost all groups of small, cryptic mushrooms.
The psilocybin mushrooms fall into the ecological niche of primary saprobes, relying on a diet composed of dead plant material that they break down and use as food energy. In the process, they recycle the nutrients bound up in the dead tissue. Stamets further organizes them into different groups based on their preferred habitats.16 The habitats include dung, grasslands, moss lands, woodlands, riparian areas, gardens, and burned land. The most common denominators are habitat disturbance and the opportunistic nature of the mushrooms colonizing and exploiting recently created pockets of organic matter, whether they be a fresh load of dung or the disturbed soil of an avalanche site, road bed, trail, farm field, or building construction. In riparian areas, the debris deposited by cycles of flood and receding water creates islands of organic debris in often-moist conditions, perfect for rapid colonization and fruiting. Like with most primary saprobes, other than those on rotting large trees or logs, most psilocybins grow and fruit ephemerally, only as long as their food source lasts, and tend to be typified by short prolific bursts of fruiting. In small dung deposits, they may have a season or a small portion of a season to exploit the resource; in disturbed ground and gardens, perhaps a few seasons, and in landscapes with wood mulch, it is the same. Their lifespan can be prolonged by the addition of more organic matter, whether by further disturbance like flooding or adding more mulch or manure to landscaped sites.
As you might imagine, humankind’s rise as a dominant species and our subsequent massive reshaping of the landscape has been a boon to the growth, expansion, and proliferation of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Many areas that would rarely see these diminutive species are now visited by troops of them fruiting in homeowner’s lawns and gardens, public landscaping, and disturbances along roads and trails.17 Though this is one group of mushrooms most homeowners would be horrified to imagine fruiting in the mulch, the reality is that they might already be supporting the growth with their landscaping. Keep in mind that while the mushrooms grow, their mycelia is releasing the nutrients in the mulch for the garden plants’ use.
Several of the better-known psychoactive species of Psilocybe and Panaeolus are referred to as dung-rotters or more formally as coprophilic mushrooms. These have evolved to colonize and break down the dung of herbivores
and can be found on domesticated animal dung from cows, horses, sheep, and goats as well as dung from wild animals such as elephants, deer, and moose. I came upon a likely bed of Panaeolus or Psilocybe fruiting in porcupine dung deposited inside a deep granite overhang last year. The very wide distribution of Psilocybe cubensis in tropic and neotropic regions of the world is attributed to the movement of domesticated cattle across the globe. Other species have been spread through the export of nursery stock worldwide.
In the Northeast, the more common mushrooms containing psilocybin include the lawn mower’s mushroom (Panaeolus foenisecii), several species of Gymnopilus and Psilocybe.
The Lawn-Mower’s Mushroom
The almost globally ubiquitous haymaker’s or lawn-mower’s mushroom (Panaeolus foenisecii), is found on most lawns through the wet periods of summer. Chemical analysis of this species has found variable amounts of psilocybin and psilocin and the species is generally viewed as mildly psychoactive, at most, with many collections reported as lacking in psilocybin or psilocin. As I mentioned in the common mushroom poisoning scenarios section earlier in this book, the problem is that the suburban backyard niche that this small brown mushroom inhabits is also home to a most common and indiscriminate mushroom grazer: the human toddler. I handle several calls per year, on average, from the Northern New England Poison Control Center involving a child under age five who has ingested or is feared to have ingested this mushroom. As is the case with about 80 percent of calls involving children and mushrooms, almost none of the kids ever develop symptoms, but occasionally there have been reports of agitated children seeing things not present in the exam room, including one recent case in Maine. There is real risk here. Unlike the normally benign course of adult psilocybin intoxication, infants and young children can react strongly and spike a high fever or—more dangerously—develop convulsions with a high dose of psilocybin.18
The Gymnopilus Group
Another relatively common and psychoactive group of mushrooms in New England belong in the genus Gymnopilus and the most notorious or best known is the laughing mushroom or big laughing gym (Gymnopilus spectabilis). Not all members of this relatively common genus are psychoactive, and identification to species is not easily done without a microscope. Several years ago, I spent part of a lovely fall day in the woods with a high school class, teaching them about the beauty and ecology of Maine’s mushrooms. We came over a small rise and there on the rim of the hill stood the branched stump of a large white birch. Sprouting from cracks in the bark and along the broken edges of the stump were at least a dozen clusters of a golden-tan mushroom with a distinct ring stained orange-brown from released spores. One of the more robust and prolific flushes of the big laughing gym that I’d ever seen was staring me in the face. My dilemma, of course, was whether or not to tell this impressionable and very interested group of kids about the more controversial characteristics of the mushroom, or to simply stick to the ecology of a wood-rotter. I decided to leave the decision in the hands of the teacher.
The Psilocybe Group
Several years ago I visited a site that had recently been subdivided for sale as housing lots, and where the developer had cleared most of the understory and used a chipper to reduce the slash to chips. He then used the chips to create several inviting paths through the woods and down to the edge of the sea. As I walked along one of these paths, collecting a few honey mushrooms and Stropharia, I saw a troop of tiny golden brown mushrooms fruiting from the chips. I looked more closely at them and realized I was seeing a species of Psilocybe, one I had never before encountered. As I handled the fragile stems, I noticed that they bruised a faint blue, an indication of the likely presence of psilocin, the more active ingredient in magic mushrooms. As I continued walking, I saw hundreds of the 1-inch caps along the trail in troops through the wood chip carpet. I later tentatively identified the species as Psilocybe quebecensis, a hallucinogenic species originally described from collections in the Jacques Cartier River Valley in Quebec19 and never before reported from Maine. This may be yet another species extending its range thanks to our environmental disturbance and use of wood mulch for landscaping. Or it could be that it has been in the area in small numbers for many years and current landscape practice has increased the numbers.
Other Psilocybe mushrooms containing measurable amounts of psilocybin and psilocin include P. semilanceata, the liberty cap, found in pastures and fields throughout much of the world in temperate climates, though not reported from Maine until 1993, when a young man here disappeared and was later found drowned following consumption of a large quantity of liberty caps. Local youth had known of the presence of the mushrooms in wet fields in the area for some years, but had neglected to tell the mycologists. Undoubtedly, there are additional species of hallucinogenic mushrooms growing in our woods and fields, but these are the better known of the northeastern species.
Psilocybin as a Toxin
Psilocybin and psilocin are the two main active ingredients found in magic mushrooms and are responsible for the high most recreational users seek. Psilocin is a breakdown product of psilocybin and the compound quickly formed in the body of anyone eating psilocybin mushrooms. The compounds trigger a sense of relaxation and detachment from reality. At higher doses there is a change in the person’s perception of both time and space. Increase the dose yet again and a person begins to experience hallucinations, with prominent features including distortions of time, space, and the perception of colors and form.20 Cardiac symptoms can occur with increase in heart rate noted in about 50 percent of people. A 1996 clinical study reported that people showed an increase in heart rate of about ten beats per minute and a mild increase in blood pressure, both peaking within two hours.21 Some people experience numbness and headaches. The emotional and psychic effects of psilocybin intoxication can include confusion, euphoria, exhilaration, and uncontrolled laughter or giggling. Visual hallucinations marked by vivid colors and moving images occur, but these are not common. Closing one’s eyes to block out external stimulation increases the visual and psychic manifestations.
The type and emotional content of the perceptions can be quite variable and are heavily contingent upon the mindset of the person and the setting in which the experience takes place. This is where the emotional and psychic vulnerability of the person can play a large role in determining whether he or she will have a good or a bad “trip.” Anxiety can rise, especially for an emotionally vulnerable or constitutionally anxious individual, and anxiety can be further heightened in a person not prepared for the experience.
Frightening images and intrusive beliefs can overwhelm the person, contributing to a profoundly terrifying experience. The sensations generally peak within two to three hours of ingestion and gradually diminish with complete return to normal function within four to eight hours after eating psilocybin mushrooms.22
What is perceived as toxicity to a physician is viewed as potency by the recreational or clinical user of magic mushrooms. Chemists, mycologists, and toxicologists have over time attempted to evaluate the general levels of psychoactive psilocybin and psilocin in the various species. A sense of potency is needed in order to have some indication of the number of mushrooms needed to trigger a positive effect and avoid being overwhelmed by the sensations. Stamets notes the percentage of the two main components psilocybin and psilocin, when known, for the species covered in his guide. He gives a range of likely content based on the results of multiple analyses. It is clear that the growing conditions, substrate, genetic variation, and methods of preservation and storage all affect the level of active components.23 Psilocybin mushrooms are most potent when they are consumed fresh and potency, though not affected by drying, diminishes over time in stored mushrooms as the active ingredients break down. Mushrooms growing in or dried in the sun have more rapid degradation of the psilocybin than those dried in shade.24 The variability requires some caution when deciding how many mushrooms to use. Unfortunately, many illicit recreational “shroomers” are of
ten young, impulsive, and decidedly not cautious.
Caveats on the Recreational Use of Psilocybin Mushrooms
One vexing problem with people who seek experimental dalliance with psychoactive mushrooms is the challenge of accurate identification. Remember the young adventurer described in Chapter 7 whose identification skills lagged behind his desire for the big laughing mushroom? His symptoms could easily have been caused by his deepening anxiety as he realized the dangerous depth of his ignorance.
In the mushroom identification classes that I’ve been teaching for twenty years, I occasionally have students whose primary goal is to learn the psychoactive mushrooms available in the area in order to expand their repertoire of recreational entertainments or avenues to spiritual enlightenment. The first time a young man expressed his keen desire to learn what Amanita muscaria looked like, I froze, and thought, “OK, now what do I do?” Caught between my desire to awaken a broad interest in mushrooms and my concern over safety and liability, I came down on the side of education. I welcomed him in and happily taught the skills needed to recognize the common mushrooms of Maine and to begin the lifelong process of identifying the less common species. As a normal part of the class, I also give an extensive lecture about mushroom toxicity and the potential for harm with misidentified mushrooms. I don’t make it a goal to find a psilocybin-containing mushroom or, in the example above, the fly agaric to show the magically inclined, but I do hope they learn good basic identification skills from the class. Some very dedicated professional mycologists started out in the 1960s and 1970s primarily seeking psychedelic mushrooms. They may have started their mycological fascination with mind expansion, but the long-term consequences have been a whole different form of mind expansion and some very gifted professionals adding to the font of knowledge about mushrooms in the United States and the world. Much of our knowledge and many of our techniques of exotic mushroom cultivation have been furthered by the work of early pioneers seeking to find or cultivate magic mushrooms.