Fly Agaric

The Kamchacals gather them usually during the hottest months ofJuly and August; they maintain that those that dry themselfs in the earth,on the stalk, and that are somewhat furry and velvety to the touch on theunderside of the cap have a far stronger narcotic effect than those pickedfresh and strung up to dry in the air... ...The smaller mushrooms, which are bright red and covered withmany white warty protuberances, are said to be far stronger in narcoticpower than the larger ones, which are pale red and have few white spots. ...The usual way to consume fly-agarics is to dry them and thento swallow them at one gulp, rolled up into a ball, without chewing them;chewing fly-agarics is considered harmful, since it is said to causedigestive disturbances. ...The body's predisposition or susceptability to the intoxcicatingeffect of fly-agarics apperently is not the same at all times, since thesame person may sometimes be strongly affected by a single mushroom and atother times remaining completely unaffected after twelve to twenty of them.Ordinarily, however, one large fly-agaric or two small ones are enough tomake an enjoyable day. The narcotic effect begins to manifest itself about a half hourafter eating, in a pulling and jerking of the muscles or a so-called tendonjump (although sometimes these effects appear only after an hour or two);this is gradually followed by a sense of swimming befoer the eyes,dizziness, and sleep. During this time, people who have eaten largequantity of mushrooms often suffer an attack of vomiting. The rolled-upmushrooms previously swallowed whole are then vomited out in a swollen,large, and gelatinous form, but even though not a single mushroom remainsin the stomach, the fly-agaric eating are, in fact, intensified. Many otherpersons never vomit, even after eating copiously of the mushrooms. ...The nerves are highly stimulated, and in this state the slightesteffort of will produces very powerful effects. Consequently, if one wishesto step over a small stick or straw, he steps and jumps as if the obstacleswere tree trunks. If a man is ordinarily talkative, his speech nerves arenow in constant activity, and he involuntarily blurts out secrets, fullyconsious of his actions and aware of his secret but unable to hold hisnerves in check. In this condition a man who is fond of dancing dances anda music-lover sings incessantly. Others run or walk quite involuntarily,without any intention of moving, to places where they do not wish to go atall. ...Equally remarkable and strange is the extremely subtle andelusive narcotic substance contained in fly-agarics, which retains itseffectiveness permenantly and can be transmitted to other persons: theeffect of the urine form eating one of the same mushrooms can be transmittedto a second person, the urine affects a third, and similarly, unchanged bythe organs of this animal secretion, the effect appears in a fourth and afifth person.Fly agaric is also the kind of mushroom that Vikings took to enter the"beserker" state for battle. The Icelandic name for the fly agariccontains the word 'berserk' in it.

sourced from http://diseyes.lycaeum.org and salviasociety.org