Red fly agaric

Hello, everyone!

Today I wanted to analyze one of the healthiest mushrooms on our planet in great detail. Why is the red fly agaric safe to eat, how to take it properly, and what amazing healing effects it has.

What it looks like and where to find it: The red fly agaric is an ectomycorrhizal mushroom with a fruiting body in the form of a hat on a stalk. The mushroom cap is up to 20 cm in diameter, thick-fleshed, initially spherical, later convex-expanded with a thin scarred edge, sticky, shiny, bright or orange-red, fading to yellow or faded red with age, with numerous warts or scales – the remnants of the general cover, very rarely without them.

Carpathian red fly agaric

The pulp is soft, thick, white, light orange under the skin of the cap, sweetish in taste, with a pleasant smell. The plates are free, frequent, wide, white, slightly yellowish in old mushrooms. Spore white powder. The leg is up to 20 cm long, up to 3.5 cm thick, cylindrical, with a tuberous thickening at the base, initially solid, dense, later empty, smooth, white, with a wide membranous white, yellow at the edge, gently hanging ring and sheath grew to the leg in several concentric rows of white or yellow borders-warts. It grows in forests of any type, forms a mycorrhiza with various types of coniferous and deciduous trees. Fruiting period: June-October.

Composition of the mushroom: Ibotenic acid and its metabolite – muscimol – penetrate well through the blood-brain barrier and act as psychotomimetics. Ibotenic acid is a non-selective agonist of glutamate NMDA receptors, the activation of which causes excitation of nerve cells and an increase in their Ca2+ level. It also activates metabotropic quasqualate receptors, but its neurotoxicity is associated with the effect on NMDA receptors. Activation of NMDA receptors leads to the production of NO by means of Ca-dependent neuronal NO-synthase, and the release of NO, in turn, causes cell death. The property of ibotenic acid to destroy brain tissue and cause the death of neurons at the site of its introduction is widely used in experiments. In particular, it has been shown that ibotenic acid can cause the death of dopaminergic neurons in the striatum. It can be assumed that inhibition of glutamate transmission in brain structures plays an important role in the occurrence of mental disorders in mushroom poisoning.

Muscimol is the main psychoactive substance, is a product of decarboxylation of ibotenic acid (accumulates in old fruiting bodies, as well as during drying and storage of dried mushrooms) and as a hallucinogen is 5-10 times stronger than its predecessor. Muscimol, being a GABA agonist, activates GABA receptors and thereby inhibits neuronal activity. It is believed that ibotenic acid and muscimol can affect the content of the monoamines norepinephrine, serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine in the brain in the same way as LSD. However, this effect of muscimol is probably not direct, but is most likely mediated by the GABA-ergic system of the brain.

Muscazone is a breakdown product of ibotenic acid under the influence of ultraviolet radiation (sunlight). The initial content in the fruiting body is small. Compared to other active components, amanita has a minor psychoactive effect.

Bufotenine is an alkaloid, a real tryptamine hallucinogen, chemically similar in structure to psilocybin, as well as serotonin (one of the main neurotransmitters of the human and mammalian brain). It is found not only in toadstools, but also in the skin of Bufo frogs (according to some reports, the frog’s skin was sometimes used as a street psychedelic drug), in plants, and in several species of amphibians and fish.

Muscarufin is an orange-red pigment, an antibiotic. In a small amount, muscarufin increases the activity of the glands of internal secretion and raises the general tone of the body, has an antitumor effect. It is used in homeopathic practice. It has a narcotic and intoxicating effect.

Muscarine is a toxic substance that causes poisoning, thanks to which the amanita mushroom is considered a poisonous mushroom. Muscarine also has a stimulating effect. The lethal dose is considered to be 0.005 g. of muscarine, which is equivalent to 3-4 kg. fly agaric

Safety: Red fly agaric contains poison and an antidote for it. Ibotenic acid during drying is decarboxylated into muscimol and in moderate doses is not capable of harming the body. Remains of the acid are excreted from the body during the first 20-90 minutes after oral administration.

Currently, the vast majority of cases of red (and panther) amanita poisoning are recorded in adherents of spiritual practices, in people who are interested in ethnobotany, and simply in hallucinogen lovers. Most of them are young people.

Very rarely, fly agarics in the egg stage are confused with rain mushrooms. In any case, modern medical methods reliably remove possible serious consequences of amanita poisoning. Drying, on the contrary, increases the psychoactivity of amanita, since during drying the less “touching” ibotenic acid is decarboxylated into much more “touching” muscimol. According to many sources, after boiling, red amanita mushrooms become completely edible without any reservations.

It is known that European red toadstools are more toxic than American ones, and in Japan this mushroom is generally considered edible.

Lethal dose is calculated conditionally and not less than 20 fresh fruiting bodies. The only fatal case of red amanita poisoning was registered in a four-year-old child who ate amanitas in the USA at the end of the 19th century. The North American Mycological Association at the beginning of the 21st century. reported that during the 20th century not a single death from consumption of red amanita was reliably recorded. Taking into account the development of modern medicine, fatal consequences of poisoning with this mushroom do not occur. And while many traditional publications list the red amanita as “deadly,” this is incorrect because they represent the red amanita to be much more toxic than it actually is.

It is also recorded that it is safe for health to take dried red amanita caps even throughout the year.

Medicinal properties: Muscimol is an agonist of (Gamma-aminobutyric acid) GABA, one of the main neurotransmitters in the human brain, responsible for inhibiting nerve cell activity, so that unnecessary signals are not transmitted. Approximately 40% of our neurons and synapses work on this neurotransmitter. What does it do?

Focusing on tasks and perseverance while doing them. It improves the dynamics of nervous processes in the brain, increases the productivity of thinking, improves memory, and has a moderate psychostimulant, antihypoxic, and anticonvulsant effect. It helps to restore speech and motor functions after cerebral circulation disorders. In addition, inhibition of nerve cell activity helps people with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) not to distract and concentrate better.

It is used for alcoholism, alcoholic delirium, depression, dull headache in the frontal part, unilateral headache, icy cold sensation in the head, loss of strength, dizziness, paralysis, trembling of the limbs, angina pectoris with stabbing and burning pain in the heart, palpitations, arrhythmias, whitening of the fingers, tips of the ears and nose followed by hyperemia, angioedema of the extremities, burning sensation in the anus, gastric and duodenal ulcers, hyperemia and swelling of the auricles as in chills, itching in the ears.

The mushroom king helps with depressive states, stressful situations, PTSD, panic attacks, relieves anxiety, restores after nervous breakdowns. Based on more than a thousand interviewed people, it was recorded that fly agaric microdosing improves the condition of: psoriasis, onychomycosis, migraine, allergies, hormonal dysfunctions, menstrual pain, gingivitis, stroke, heart attack, hypertension, eczema, epilepsy, swelling of the lower extremities, rheumatoid arthritis. In folk medicine, amanita is used for toothache, belching, increased salivation, stabbing pains in the heart and bad breath. Amanita is used for flies in the eyes, reduced vision, conjunctivitis, inflammation of the edge of the eyelids, myopia and cataracts. Pain in the ears, itching in them and swelling of the auricles can also be cured with the help of fly agaric preparations. This mushroom helps to get rid of heaviness in the stomach, gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. Amanita is used for impotence, painful menstruation, sexual arousal and irritation of the genitals.

They also make various tinctures, ointments, juice tinctures, and alcohol extracts. Ointments and tinctures are used to treat ulcers, abscesses, burns and frostbite, external tumors, cancerous ulcers, skin diseases, including eczema. In the same way, ointments and infusions help with pain in muscles, bones, joints, lower back, salt deposition, and many eye diseases.

Also, fly agaric microdosing showed itself well in the indicators of sports wrestling. Significantly improved: sense of distance, reaction speed, coordination, combat intelligence, neuromuscular connections, endurance of athletes. And also had a positive complex effect on the CNS (central nervous system)

The main purpose of microdosing and why it is taken: Next will be my personal feelings and my experience that I have formed during more than 5 years of taking red and other types of amanita. And also the experience of other people who shared it with me, on the basis of which I found common comments about microdosing and opinions similar to my own.

One of the main reasons and motivations for taking red fly agaric, as well as other types of fly agaric (such as king and panther) is to help with a constant stream of thoughts that are difficult to stop. Toadstool allows you to enter a state of concentration by focusing on those really important objects that you need to bring into your field of attention and not scatter it on various secondary thoughts. Gives the ability to adapt to stressful situations and not react to them emotionally. And instead of including the program of avoiding problems and such programs as “fight, run or freeze”, it gives the opportunity to live them as new experiences and tasks, the solution of which will be found and everything becomes not as scary as it seems at the first idea about them.

Since the thought is not the person itself, but only a collection of data flying in space, the fly agaric helps to look at your thoughts from the side, without associating them with yourself, and to make a decision based on which thought is more suitable (resonates) for you in a given situation, and which can be sifted. It makes it possible to realize that thought is like clothes that you can try on yourself and choose whether you want to walk in it or prefer another, more interesting one that will bring you a better state. And everything else can be put back in the closet.

Toadstool is like a meditative state where you completely dissolve into some process, allowing your inner self to act boldly and confidently. At the same time, stopping the internal dialogue does not mean that all thoughts will go away and you will do nothing. On the contrary, by removing the unnecessary stream of thoughts, it becomes possible to focus on the present moment. Which, in turn, gives you the opportunity to be very attentive and notice the small but important details that surround you and dive headlong into them, because it’s interesting. In a moment of time, it becomes possible to determine your inner states, feelings and thoughts, which you can live and work on yourself.

It gives an impulse to action. What used to be only in the head, can now be implemented live, and energy and the desire to do it appear. The ability to creatively approach the process and create something new, progress in self-expression appears. It is like the state of a very intelligent child who does not yet have limiting and inhibiting patterns of behavior and distorted ideas about the world. There is only this world as an unconditional, boundless sandbox, and you want to learn more and more about it. Only this second and moment in which you want to immerse yourself completely begins to exist.

Fly agaric and addiction: Red fly agaric is also a powerful helper for various types of addictions. During an experiment by independent scientists, 529 people were interviewed and significant improvements were found in relieving addictions to alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, marijuana, heroin, amphetamine, opioids, methadone, and salts.

The result of this experiment:

With regard to alcohol addiction, respondents indicated a prolonged and stable result of the anti-alcohol effect in 66%! A return to the previous level of consumption was observed in only 12%

Assumptions why amanita is so effective in giving up alcohol are based on the fact that amanita affects Dopamine receptors (a neurotransmitter, the “happiness hormone” that affects pleasure, reward and cognitive functions). Which, in turn, can improve mood and make it possible to enjoy life and various activities, reducing the pleasure of alcohol.

Also thanks to Muscimol, the fly agaric affects the ethanol molecule. The same molecule that alcohol uses. Seizing the initiative and taking the main place – muscimol does not allow the desire to drink alcohol to develop. But if you have already taken a certain amount of alcoholic drink after taking fly agaric microdosing, it is alcohol that will take all the initiative in muscimol back.

Amanita not only helps on a mental level with alcohol addiction (improving mood, giving peace and freedom from intrusive thoughts, adapting to stress, from which a person often runs to alcohol to save himself from negative psycho-emotional states), but also has a chemical effect on addiction , reducing the desire and pleasure of taking it.

Improvements in addiction to computer games and electronic cigarettes are also noted.

When microdosing is refused: What happens when a person stops drinking amanita? It has been recorded that when working on oneself or with a therapist after the end of a course of red amanita that lasts 1-3 months, the effect remains with a person for six months and only then begins to decrease. As described earlier, amanita in this case works as an excellent assistant in therapy. From 2019 to 2020, there were a number of experiments in one of which it was found that the group that received fly agaric microdosing in the first two weeks built the maximum level of mutual trust between them and the psychotherapist who was present during the experiment. Which, in turn, is one of the most important factors when undergoing psychotherapy. In this case, amanita helps to calm down, discard a large number of unnecessary thoughts and emotions that prevent opening up to another person.

Once a mental problem has been identified and worked on during the course, there is a fairly high probability that a person will fixate on the new state so strongly that he will not return to the problem again, creating a new, strong pattern of behavior in his head.

Contraindications: At the moment, only one contraindication is known in the use of red amanita. About 1 person in 10,000 (0.01%) has a severe sensitivity to muscimol, which in turn will lead to nausea, frequent and loose stools, and abdominal pain.

The main recommendation will be to try one capsule or about 0.5 g of red mushroom and see the reaction of the body. If mild symptoms from the above are observed, it is recommended to stop microdosing and choose another mushroom. Or take 3 times less dosage than the average of 0.5 g of red fly agaric at a time.