🍄: A Winter Solstice Tale

The Science and Mythology of Amanita muscaria

Dec 24, 2021

The Gift of the Fungi

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A twirl down the hallway and rush down the stairs, 
Your dreams a bit odd but who cares?
Thine eyes turn their sight 
to a tree shining bright,
And what beckons below oh ho ho

A present it sits 
standing out amidst
A white speckled brown forest floor

It’s red with white dots, 
as you rip up the box
you’re met with the scent of old socks

A cup full of pee?
Oh gee golly me!
And right down the chimney it goes

Oh now I remember
that dream of December
was in fact not a dream at all

Twas’ but a vision
of an earlier decision 
to swallow a friend née fungal

3 hours earlier...

Trip Report

| Body weight: 80 kg |

It was cold and the air was heavy with the smell of our warm hearth ahead. I was walking haltingly through the forest, bent over to see the footsteps I had made earlier in the day. Between the setting sun and the fact that I had lost my glasses foraging earlier in the day, it made for slow-going.

Tied to my back was a wicker basket full of freshly plucked Amanita muscaria. Every so often I would straighten up so I could check and readjust the basket. The wind was frigid and intrusive, but thickening scent of burning wood was motivation enough. Not that I could see it, but a billowing stream of smoke was rising into the air ahead of me, obscuring the emerging Christmas Eve stars. At its source, my girlfriend and our Solstice cabin awaited.

I soon breached the orange glow cast into the surrounding forest by our lodge. The sharp thud of an axe reminded the forest around me that humans are present. Wood stacked, fire burning, tea brewing, board games spread about, ‘twas a winter burrow ready be enjoyed. I shout my arrival and opened the door.

“Where are your glasses??” my girlfriend, a blur to me at the time, asked as she squeezed through the back door. The wood slices stacked in her arms teetered above her head.

I explained my misfortune.

“Oh! Well, at least you found your way!” she told me as she let the wood clatter onto the existing pile near the fireplace. “We’ll have to skip the board games.”

She met me at the mantle to remove my pack as I fumbled around to get my boots off. “Good haul then?” she asked as she opened the basket. Yes, it was a good haul. A grove of the Fly Agarics in all stages of growth awaited me beneath a pine tree neaar the river. I was careful not to pick any of A. muscaria’s deadly doppelgängers, such as A. phalloides.

Boots off, old socks laid by the fire, we settled in on the sofa, and laid the plump red mushrooms out on the coffee table. I remember how the flames in the fireplace cast dancing shadows among the drying toadstools.

“So, will one of us eat and the other drink? Or both eat both drink? How should we do this?” she asked.

“The muscimol and ibotenic acid levels can be pretty variable and this is our first time so... I’m thinking we eat a light dose, see how we feel, and then we can re-dose with our own... you know.”

“Okay that makes sense. What’s a light dose then?”

“Erowid said one to five grams, so I say we do… three grams?”

“Alright then, weight it up.”

I weighed out our bounty and put the rest on a plate under our tree in the corner. We ate our Amanita with hot tea and laughed at my fungus-induced de-spectacling. Wrapped in the warmth of the fire, the peace of the silent evening, and the encroaching veil of Amanita, we drifted to sleep in about an hour. Before we fell asleep, however, we made sure to relieve ourselves. For later.

*Amanita muscaria* in two stages of growth. Photo by Holger Krisp

Disclaimer1

The Science of Amanita muscaria 🍄

The hunt for inebriation is not solely a human enterprise. Across the tundras and taigas of Europe, Siberia, and North America, reindeer graze for Amanita muscaria, a conspicuous delicacy among the arctic landscape. Reports suggest mushroom-engorged reindeer act drunk, a tell-tale sign of fungal inebration, at least to the Sámi herders who witness this phenomenon regularly.

A. muscaria contains a slew of bioactive compounds, some common to fungi in general, others not. Among the molecules unique to A. muscaria, are ibotenic acid and muscimol. They are similar in structure; ibotenic acid is in fact a pro-drug to muscimol. The former is decarboxylated by the body into to the latter, similar to how psilocybin is dephosphorylated into psilocin. Once in the bloodstream these compounds become bioavailable to our native physiological systems, such as the brain.2 3

Ibotenic acid is converted into muscimol in the body. Muscimol passes through the blood-brain barrier and binds to a subtype of GABA receptors. GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in our brains. Ibotenic acid is converted into muscimol in the body. Muscimol passes through the blood-brain barrier and binds to a subtype of GABA receptors. GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in our brains.

Muscimol is an agonist for a subtype of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors. GABA is our primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. When GABA is released by a presynaptic neuron, it binds to post-synaptic GABA receptors. These GABA receptors then open, allowing negatively-charged chlorine ions into the dendritic branches of the neuron. This influx of negative charge decreases the chance that the neuron will release neurotransmitters (i.e. send a signal) to other neurons in its network.

A simplified diagram of a neuronal network. Muscimol binds to GABA receptors on the dendrites, which lowers the membrane potential of the cell. The membrane potential at the base of the axon needs to reach a certain voltage threshold to fire an action potential. Refresher on psychedelics in the brain here. Image by Jennifer Walinga

Let’s zoom back out. Muscimol enters the brain and binds to GABA receptors. Its binding alters how neurons in GABA networks communicate, namely, by lowering their activity. GABA neuronal networks are mainly found in the forebrain, which includes the caudate nucleus, putamen, thalamus, and hippocampus. These regions are involved in processes of learning, memory, control of action, consciousness, alertness, and sleep.

What about ibotenic acid? It seems this compound’s main role in the subjective experience of A. muscaria is being converted to more muscimol. Although ibotenic acid can activate the same receptors as the neurotransmitter glutamate, I didn’t find any convincing evidence that ibotenic acid can even pass the blood-brain barrier. For example, the study in Footnote 2 claims ibotenic acid crosses the blood-brain barrier, but the study cited does not even involve ibotenic acid. What it can do in the brain is only known because scientists inject it directly into the brain, or expose it to isolated cells and slices of brain. Taking a pill of pure ibotenic acid can induce a subjective experience, but this could just be because the body converts it to muscimol.

Injections of ibotenic acid directly into mouse brains may be the root of A. muscaria’s bad reputation as poisonous mushroom.4 This technique was, and still is, used to induce lesions in certain regions of the brain in order to study how those regions work. A conclusion drawn from these studies is that ibotenic acid, and therefore A. muscaria, is toxic. This description can be found in many places, including in mushroom field guides.5 While incidences of A. muscaria poisonings have been reported, they could also be interpreted as unwitting trips, which would definitely be scary AF. Further, I am not aware of any confirmed deaths from A. muscaria intoxication (beware of misidentification, other species in the Amanita genus are toxic, such as the Death Cap, Amanita phalloides).

GABA receptor agonism is the primary action of muscimol in the brain, however, there are many other secondary pathways it impacts. This includes effects on the dopamine and serotonin networks. For sake of time, I will link resources below if you wish to explore on your own.

The Mythology of Amanita muscaria

The reindeer are definitely on to something. Super Mario, smurfs, emojis, and Christmas lore all include reference to a bright red toadstool speckled with white dots. A. muscaria are quite literally everywhere, and more engrained in the ethos of this time of year than you might suspect.

The Sámi people of Finland have herded Amanita-eating reindeer around their boreal forest ranges for generations. It doesn’t take a stretch of imagination to believe they’d find their reindeer huddled around pine trees, tearing up the plump red and white flesh that grows in a symbiotic relationship with pine trees. Curious about these gifts of nature and the behaviors of the reindeer after eating them, the herders may try a few. After enjoying the celestial flight they took with their reindeer hoard, they might string some up around the pine tree to dry out, almost like the ornaments some people hang on the trees they inexplicably bring into their home this time of year.

Sámi legend has it that, around the Winter Solstice, village shamans would travel house to house delivering dried chocolate chip cookie-looking Amanita caps to the townspeople. Wearing a red and white coat to honor the arctic entheogen and to protect from the harsh winter, they’d find doors blocked by snow. The only way in was through… have you guessed it? The chimney.6

Although often associated with North and South American spritual leaders, the word shaman is derived from the Tungusic word ‘samān.’ Tungus is a language family originating with the Tungusic people of Eastern Siberia.7

Is the Christmas we know a modern Christian consumerist distortion of a pagan tradition? We don’t know, but I personally think it is likely. Historical records and ongoing shamanistic practices involving Amanita exist in local traditions in Siberia, Japan, India, Northern Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and more.8 9 In some of these traditions, shamans eat Amanita themselves, and then offer their urine to cermonialists to imbibe for celestial communing. Sámi psychonauts would drink the urine of reindeer known to have eaten the mushrooms.10 The idea is that the body removes toxins and converts a portion of the ibotenic acid to muscimol, making for a gentler experience.11

No matter the choice of ingestion, regardless of the “poison” stigma, and despite the near absence of research on Amanita muscaria therapies, people today benefit from A. muscaria. If you keep an eye on r/AmanitaMuscaria, browse forums such as Shroomery, and listen to the personal journeys of people such as Amanita Dreamer, you will see that there is something special about this entheogen. Despite its legality and global distribution, it is largely ignored by the psychedelic industry, save for Psyched Wellness.

I am interested in exploring this story further. If you’d like to connect, discuss, collaborate, or learn, shoot me an e-mail or DM me on Twitter or Instagram.