Entheogenic Interludes 3

In part one and part two of this conversation X and I cover Kanna, Kava, Salvia, and Wild Dagga among others. In this final installment of our survey of entheogens commonly available via the web, we’ll cover Amanita, energy drinks, green mulberries, and even hallucinogenic toads. So take a second and expand your anecdotal acquaintance with some of the more curious substances available online.

Wes Unruh:

Okay let’s talk about Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) and the difference between a deliriant as opposed to a hallucinogen.

Mr. X:

Yes, it’s more the European mushroom, the one the Vikings and such did. I think that while hallucinogens tend to be a lot nicer, a more pleasant experience, oddly enough the hallucination off a hallucinogen are not near as intense as a deliriant. And the deliriants tend to be more like you’re in a state of delirium, kind of like you have a high fever. It’s like a fevery-dreamish state of mind where you’re confused, talking to invisible entities. Nobody who’s on a hallucinogen is probably going to talk to the same invisible person for three hours. But you might on a deliriant. It’s a lot more brain-disorientating overall, and not friendly. More of a darker, destructive experience I think.

WU:

It was used at one point in history by shamans in far northern areas, and probably still is, and they’d use it multiple times through the drinking of people’s piss to trip again because it’s carried along in the urine. And that’s pretty extreme, fucking hardcore shamanism to be drinking people’s piss.

X:

But it wasn’t just the shamans that were doing it, it’s common. They would kill reindeer, because apparently it’s so strong that they’d find reindeer eating the mushroom they’d kill the reindeer, cook it, and eat it immediately. And the Santa Claus myth is the Amanita myth because Santa has the red cap with the white, his cap looks like the mushroom cap. And he came in through the ceiling in Siberia. They built the door on the roof because the snows were so heavy. And so they would come with this bag full, as many as they could get for the whole family to enjoy them together. Or if they can’t get that, then urine. Apparently seven generations, seven times, seven urinations before it runs its course. So yeah, powerful stuff. I never actually ate it, because I’ve always been kind of hesitant, it is a deliriant after all. But I have smoked it and I did rather enjoy that, kind of peaceful, kind of a, almost cannabis stuff off it, more mellow. Of course if I’d eaten it it would have been much stronger.

I met somebody recently, he ate a fucking two ounce cap of it, he ate a lot more than you’re supposed to do, and he didn’t know anything about it. He went to this place, and this guy had all these internet type things, and the guy was like “Hey, wanna eat some mushrooms?” and he was like “Sure, what kind? Oh, these are different..” and he gave him this mushroom. I was wondering because first he was just telling me he’d eaten this mushroom, and I thought it’s really odd that you’re having these effects off ‘shrooms, but it wasn’t that it was Amanita. He ate a big cap and he talked about just standing in the middle of the road, and staring off into space and being to disoriented to do anything. He said most of the time he just stood around and drooled and couldn’t really control his motor skills. He didn’t look it up first.

WU:

Heheh, okay, right. That sounds like fun.

X:

He said it was like twelve hours of being in hell. Mainly because he was so out of control, and so delirious that he didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t understand the world.

WU:

It’s pretty important to know what you’re eating, especially if you’re eating two ounces of it. And this leads me to another of the questionably legal cactus I’ve read about. What can you tell me about San Pedro Cactus (Trichocereus Pachanoi)? I know it’s got a shamanic history as well, and is considered pretty difficult to eat as well.

X:

Well that’s not technically legal to eat though. It’s legal to own San Pedro in most states, some states have made it illegal to own it or sell it. But for the most part it’s legal as an ornamental plant. But if you ingest the plant, if you eat about a foot of it approximately. And it’s like eating snot, which is the description I’ve heard, if you eat it raw it’s like eating snot. Yeah it’s got mescaline. I’ve got a friend who’s done it, and he said it was one of the most enjoyable experiences he’s had his entire life. But it’s not actually legal.

WU:

I know we’ve covered the bulk of them, not counting the sort of lesser herbs, catnip and what-not. What else is there that you’ve found interesting?

X:

There’s other ones that I don’t know anything about, because there’s a whole new crop of stuff coming out, there’s African Dream Herb. There’s all kinds of seeds and roots and leaves coming from all over the place that they say these people did this and that with this. Most of these things I don’t know anything about. Like Salvia, I researched Salvia for six months before I tried it. I didn’t want to just jump into it. But this new stuff I can’t find any information about it because it’s coming out so quick. And you can’t really necessarily believe what they say about it.

Look at energy drinks. As far as I understand it there’s a lot of controversy about Taurine, that it’s bad for the heart, it’s the new stimulant. And it’s the most questionable ingredient. I know it’s a repairing agent for eyes, but I’ve often thought that Taurine energy drinks are stronger than ones without it. And like some of the other ingredients, like ginseng? That’s a pretty expensive herb so I bet they’re using crap ginseng. If you find really good ginseng, that’s a wonderful fucking herb. It’s almost a buzz, it helps you feel so good. It’s definitely one of the Chinese ten top herbs.

As far as that goes, there’s also Nutmeg and green Mulberries, both of which are psychoactive, and both of which will make you really sick as well. I found this out by reading this old herbal book from the 1800′s that my parents had, and in there they mentioned that green mulberries could make you hallucinate. They described it as a hallucinogenic substance that pepped you up and made your stomach hurt. So I grabbed a bunch of them and kept them around until I was bored and had nothing else to do, nothing to get off on, and so me and a friend decided to try them. They were dried so we smoked it. And yeah, it pepped us up, it was about forty-five minutes of amphetamines or whatever, then the end result was three days of diarhea. Later I read about people who’d died or gone into a coma or whatever from eating too much of them. Bad things happen.

WU:

And nutmeg?

X:

I’ve read a lot about that, and you’ve got to grind it fresh from the actual nutmeg, you’ve got to take a fresh nutmeg and ground it up yourself or it’s not going to do anything. If you can somehow eat a lot of it, it makes you very very fucked up. It fucks up your motor skills for two or three days and you sleep a lot and have really fucked up dreams. You feel like you’re heavy as bricks and everything. I never could eat it, I tried it and couldn’t eat enough of it to feel anything. I tried the powder too and that was so fucking nasty. I tried smoking it and that was fucking impossible.

WU:

So what site would you suggest to find out more, and are there sites that had higher quality herbs than other sites?

X:

Well, the best site is Erowid.org. They’ve got thousands of first hand accounts. People can type up experiences, and keep in mind that people could write up things they’d not actually experienced, but I think in general it gives you a good idea what to expect, because you should not go into these things blindly.

And as far as ordering, the last place I ordered something it was from Bouncing Bear and some of the stuff was amazing, some was kind of crappy, but overall all their stuff was generally pretty good. I liked another place too but they just got taken down.

WU:

I’ve heard of Bouncing Bear, they actually sell the Colorado River Toad (Bufo Alvarius).

X:

Yes, again this is something that you cannot do, but they’re legal to own. Bouncing Bear Botanicals actually sells live breeding pairs. They contain 5-meo-dmt I believe, and probably bufotinine. The one’s a hallucinogen, and the other is almost a combination of hallucinogen and a delirriant. They have these venom sacks, and you don’t lick them as much as milk them. Thier natural defense is if like a dog or something bites them they release this milky sap that just tastes hideous, so the dog will drop them and wander off tripping. So if you kind of fuck with the toad a little bit, get them all energized and pissed then take them and rub them against a mirror or plate of glass and sqeeze the motherfucker. Then smear it and dry it out, and it’s ingestible, smokable or whatever. And as I understand it it’s a pretty rough-edged experience, not for light-weights. Then you gotta wait like six months before you do it again or you’ll start hurting the poor thing, it’s gotta rebuild it’s sacks or whatever.

Apparently there’s a case of these people who’d killed a whole bunch of these toads, peel their skins off, and made a tea. “Toad Skin Tea,” then they drank it and it killed them. This is powerful substance, you know? It’s no mild thing. That’s a major overdose of a venom. And speaking of venom, people get high off of cobra venom, king cobra venom. There’s this guy, a friend of a friend who’s from India and he’s said it’s like a three day powerful experience. That’s one you don’t hear about much. Or centipede venom, for that matter. It’s nasty to do something like that that’s produced by an insect. I mean, I can do honey, but anything else I’m really kind of hesitant.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this survey of the various plants out there that are still pretty much legal for the curious to experience. Again, I want to reiterate that you shouldn’t take the advice of an anonymous voice online as a replacement for medical advice. I put this together because I was curious what was out there, and I wrote it up because I figured people would find this interesting. I’m thankful for my interviewee for being willing to speak frankly, even if it had to be anonymously. And lastly, keep an eye out, because there might be a follow-up covering anything this piece has missed.