My Personal Amanita Muscaria Routine: how to Prepare, Effects, Safety, Toxicity

It can certainly be intimidating to try to figure out an appropriate “dose”, the right type of day, and even the right way of taking amanita muscaria. I mean, it’s scary enough just trying sushi for the first time, so trying the worlds’ single most controversial mushroom is a pretty big task even for experienced mycologists.

If you need to familiarize yourself with some of the basic properties of fly agaric mushroom, please check out our first write up here: https://www.hyperborealherbs.com/blog/amanita-muscaria-fly-agaric-mushroom-history-legends-rumors-research-health-benefits

I would highly encourage you to read about the compounds in Amanita first, or, you can skip this section and scroll down to read about my routine.

Bioavailable Targets of Amanita Muscaria:

There are many compounds in amanita muscaria. Almost 99% of the time when this mushroom is discussed, it is being discussed for the isoxazole compounds ibotenic acid and muscimol. They are both considered toxic but the nature of their toxicity is grossly misrepresented and widely misunderstood. They can 100% mess you up if you take too much or don’t prepare your amanita correctly.

The leccinum mushrooms (aka birch and aspen “boletes”) are almost universally described as edible, but they send people to the ER if prepared incorrectly: https://leslieland.com/2009/07/wild-mushroom-warning-the-scaber-stalks-leccinum-species-may-no-longer-be-considered-safe/

A very brief rundown of the toxicity of this mushroom as it presents in humans, cats, and dogs. Based on the information presented it’s unclear whether the human toxicity was from a fresh or dry mushroom, and the dose also remains a mystery.

“Clinical signs of muscimol toxicosis begin within 30 min to 2 h after ingestion and have been termed the “pantherine–muscaria” syndrome in humans, which is characterized by mydriasis, dryness of mouth, ataxia, confusion, euphoria, dizziness, and tiredness. Gastrointestinal signs are not consistently seen in cases of isoxazole poisoning. Full recovery is expected within 1 or 2 days. In cats, clinical signs have been observed within 15–30 min after ingestion of A. pantherina (Ridgway, 1978). After a brief period of sedation, cats experienced a 4-h-long state of excitement with pronounced muscle spasms, followed by a deep sleep. Cats are expected to fully recover within 24 h after ingestion, especially if decontamination measures are taken. In dogs, clinical signs observed after ingestion of A. pantherina include disorientation, opisthotonus, paresis, seizures, paddling, chewing movements, miosis, vestibular signs, respiratory depression, coma, and death (Hunt and Funk, 1977; Naude and Berry, 1997). Recoveries are recorded within 12–24 h after aggressive supportive care measures, including mechanical ventilation during periods of respiratory depression; however, death was reported in several dogs. Similar clinical signs were reported in a dog that survived A. muscaria poisoning (Martin, 1956).”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128114100000672

More contemporary cases regarding human toxicity nearly always involve some idiot eating AN ENTIRE POUND, or even some ridiculous amount like 15 caps. I would never ever recommend trying for a “hero’s dose” of this fungus. It doesn’t seem to carry the potential spiritual reward that a large dose of psilocybin or lsd do for people.

While some people make wildly inaccurate claims about the “benefits” of ibotenic acid, (looking at you “Amanita Dreamer”), we really don’t know very much about it. It seems to the excitatory and stimulating of the two compounds. “Amanita Dreamer” will tell you that it’s “like Adderall”. It is 100% NOT like Adderall. That is a dangerous and inaccurate sales pitch that she is using to make it sound more appealing. Wormwood, and even the morning after drinking alcohol (when you feel kind of “slap happy or psychedelic hungover”) are both things that can produce excitatory brain states, oh, and don’t forget seizures, they do that too. Something inducing neural excitation is NOT the same thing as an amphetamine stimulant. Her fundamental misunderstandings are absurd and dangerous. It IS non-selective glutamate receptor agonist, but is that even good? There are tons of different glutamate receptor types.

Think you understand glutamate? Think again:

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/44752

https://www.corepsych.com/adhd-and-glutamate-neurotransmitters/

https://search.nih.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=nih&query=glutamate&commit=Search

https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?qs=glutamate

Ibotenic acid is the compound that is thought to cause the majority of the physical discomfort and even outright distress that can and does occur to those foolish enough to eat the mushroom raw. But, eating ANY mushroom raw can result in the same and often worse outcomes. We do know that if you inject ibotenic acid DIRECTLY into the brains of rats, it will induce lesions and the lesions in the brain are bad mmkay? But when we’re consuming amanita, we’re not injecting a purified chemical into our brains. Either way, most people seek to convert as much ibotenic as possible before dabbling. Overall, it doesn’t seem like the amount of ibotenic acid a person might absorb from a reasonable, small dose, poses a very serious threat. But we literally don’t know. There are precisely zero long-term studies.

Ibotenic acid is a pro-drug form of muscimol, meaning it can be broken down into muscimol when the conditions are right. This is done via decarboxylation. Even if you don’t recognize the word, the chances are high that you already sort of understand this process. This is what happens when cannabis is ignited. The heat “decarbs” the cannabis and now the active form of thc will be bioavailable. This is why smoking amanita muscaria is actually an effective way of taking it.

Back in the day, amanita muscaria was overwhelmingly consumed after drying it, or in a lacto-fermented “juice”.

There is a rapidly growing body of scientific literature forming around this now beloved mushroom and the bulk of discussion is specifically about how much different preparations decarb amanita, and how much should you even want to decarb it? I mean, traditional users of this fungus were not doing all the things that we’re doing today to prep it, but that doesn’t mean they were right and we’re wrong.

Muscimol is a selective GABA agonist. This is the sedating compound, the “delirium” compound. The compound that everyone wants. But how much is even in amanita? How much can we get?

Well, the dehydration of the mushroom at the right temperature is the first step (and for some the final). You will see a lot of wildly speculated numbers out there, but here’s some hard tangible measurements for you:

https://sci-hub.se/10.3358/shokueishi.34.153

Many people will tell you that drying your mushrooms will only decarb up to 30% (“Amanita Dreamer” says 15% lol).

Check out this super helpful reddit post about drying: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmanitaMuscaria/comments/usqdk8/drying_as_a_means_of_decarboxylation/

Temperature is the big variable here. If dried at high enough temperatures, you can achieve up to an 80% conversion.

Next harvest season I’m going to experiment with a fresh amanita tincture in an acidified solution to convert everything. The potency would be higher, and less compounds would be lost, but….would it be safe? I’ll just have to try it out.

After the initial conversion via drying, the next traditional conversion happens in the stomach. A ph in between 2.5 and 3 will convert ibotenic acid into muscimol. But this won’t convert of all it because of the short time it would be in your stomach, and, stomach acidity varies. Ibotenic acid has been detected in urine after ingestion, so clearly the stomach does not fully decarb it.

So clearly some combination of drying and acidic-solution preparing are required.

My Personal Routine:

For me it’s pretty simple. I will take two (sometimes three) full droppers of the tincture we make, under my tongue (NOT in a drink), hold it there as long as possible, typically 4 hours ish’ before bed.

I also sometimes just eat a 50 cent sized piece of the cap. If you have access to dried amanita, making a decoction (basically simmering on the stove) to drink the tea is a good way to go as well.

Though I’ve never smoked it, I’m extremely curious to try it and plan on doing so soon as it seems like a highly effective and low-effort way to get that sweet sweet muscimol.

I ALWAYS have incredibly enhanced dreams after amanita, and to me this is one of the fun benefits with this mushroom.

I really just want the alleged therapeutic effects from this fungus, I’m not really looking for a “high” with this. I’m interested in the anti-addiction and anti-depressive possibilities.

I also really enjoy taking some amanita when I’m out in the forest walking around. Everyone who’s ever altered their consciousness in a beautiful, natural setting, can attest to the enhanced experience of “oneness” that can be felt.

The best experience I’ve ever had doing this was heavenly. It was like I was locked into a trance of seeing everything in the best possible light, literally and metaphorically. Everything seemed euphoric and I felt compelled to stay outside as long as possible to continue appreciating the beauty. The landscape doesn’t quite “breathe” like on psilocybin, but the colors were definitely more vivid and everything seemed way more “alive” than usual. I realize that’s quite different than a lot of other people describe their experiences, but my guess is that a lot of people are not processing their amanita quite correctly. Ours is properly decarbed and we actually test the ph during this process to ensure we end up with mostly muscimol.

Other experiences have simply left me sleepy but gave me some very intense lucid dreams. The intense lucid dreams happen every single time I’ve ever taken amanita and for me it’s a very enjoyable aspect of this eccentric fungus.

Link to our Alaskan Amanita Muscaria tincture: https://www.hyperborealherbs.com/shop/p/2lt7kfctmii8jfnvqkyh67t8qvd39o