Amanita - A. Muscaria
I ordered an ounce of dried amanita muscaria caps from an online vendor. They arrived a few days later with crinkly, red metallic skin and the subtle stink of their origins. I waited until Friday night to ingest them. Perhaps 2 hours were spent in preparation of the set and setting. My girlfriend and I cleaned all of the 'comfortable' rooms, lit many sticks of incense, turned the lights low and set out all the candles we own. They cast a very pleasant light on our large Tree of Life and Indian Mandala tapestries. I picked out a set of chill CDs, ranging from Massive attack to Loreena McKennit, to Telefon Tel Aviv. As a final preparation, I brewed a cup of Ginger Tea to help with the famous 'Amanita nausea.'
I took one of the larger caps (weighing approximately 7 grams) and cut it into six wedge-shaped pieces to make it easier to eat. Listening to Loreena McKennit's rendition of Yeats' 'The Stolen Child,' I started at 9:50 pm to consume the amanita pieces one by one. The texture of the skin was tough and wrinkly, and the taste was rather salty with a slight hint of mushroom funk. When chewed, the mushroom turns quickly into a paste, and bits of skin-fragment get lodged between the teeth. Between pieces, hoping to avert the promised nausea, I would drink from the cup of ginger tea and wash it all down with bottled water. By 10:07 I had eaten the whole cap, minus a small, unchewable bit near the center of the mushroom where the stalk had been severed.
I had not eaten anything since 1:00pm, so I was ravenous when I consumed the amanita. On top of that, I have a ridiculously fast metabolism, and I usually feel the reactions of chemicals/plants a long time before my friends even when we dose the same quantity at the same time. By 10:20 I was already feeling some strange effects from the mushrooms. Subtle waves of nausea began to roll over me, as I listened to the last tracks of the McKennit CD. I was sitting in half-lotus on the couch in front of some candles, and I found myself following the melody of each song like a yogi following the breath. I invented a short prayer when the nausea started rolling in: 'God inside the mushroom come, and show me worlds I've only dreamed.' Apparently the God inside the mushroom did not take kindly to the plan. At 10:25 I headed for the bathroom and threw up some shiny bits of aminita skin, along with a great deal of worthless ginger tea.
After throwing up, I felt fine for a while. I talked to my girlfriend and felt a sense of being-at-home in the body. At 10:33 I felt nauseous again and took refuge near the bathroom sink, waiting for what would come. By 10:47 it came. I threw up mushroom shards and ginger tea in an almost projectile heave. When it had passed, I felt a warmth in my head and hands and a sense of growing weirdness. I went to the candle-lit bedroom and laid down beside my girlfriend who was worried she was going to have to take me to the hospital. I told her I felt fine, despite the vomiting. The nausea subsided, and I began to feel extremely sleepy -- as if I had taken some kind of tranquilizer. I struggled for over an hour to keep my eyes open, but the mushroom seemed bent on passing me out. At 11:30 my girlfriend alerted me that more than the standard '90 minutes' had elapsed, and asked if there were any new or interesting effects. I had nothing to offer, besides the extreme, artificial sleepiness. At 12:00 I gave in to a heavy sleep.
Between 12:00 and 1:00 am I entered into an obscure and hazy dream state. I can't recall many particulars, but the dreams did not seem particularly visionary -- mostly just garbled mind-junk. At 1:00 am, by some sick twist of cosmic circumstance, the police knocked on the door. My girlfriend answered and the ensuing conversation woke me up for a while. I thought I was dreaming, but found out in the morning that the police had actually come to our door. But they were just looking for a suspect they had been chasing through the neighborhood and left when they realized we would be of no use to them. I heard the conversation between my girlfriend and the cops from a liminal state between waking and sleeping. I felt like a paralyzed, receptive ear. Eventually, I drifted back into dream-laden sleep, but -- again -- cannot remember many particulars. I am certain, however, that the dreams contained nothing particularly mystical or enlightening.
I woke up at 9:30 feeling extremely rested, as if I had slept for a couple days. There were no lingering symptoms the morning after. I would not recommend this substance to others unless they are in the market for a vomit-inducing, foul-tasting sleeping pill. But who knows? Physiology is a peculiar beast, and others (from the reports I have read) seem to have experienced almost mystical states under the sway of this 'ally.' But I can testify to nothing but nausea and sleepiness.
