84 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
84 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
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Reprinted without permission from the "Canadian Whole Earth Almanac" Vol #3
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no. 1 1972.
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Divine Mushroom of Immortality
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(Fly Agaric Kamachadal)
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by
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Georg Heinrich von Langsdorf
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Frankfurt 1809
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The plant kingdom is of immeasurable influence and usefulness for
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mankind, since it supplies most of our clothing, food, drink, and shelter.
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The medical science of primitive people consists entirely in their knowledge
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of the more or less efficacious plants, and everyday experiance confirms
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the fact that even a number of plants native ot our own regions are known to
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many uneducated nations almost more thouroighly than they are to us.
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To demonstrate this assertion, I should like to say at this point
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something about the fly-agaric, which we regard as extremely poisionous but
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which is used by various inhabitants of northeastern Asia as an intoxicant
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just as wine, brandy, arrack, opium, kava, and the like are used by other
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nations.
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...The Kamchacals gather them usually during the hottest months of
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July and August; they maintain that those that dry themselfs in the earth,
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on the stalk, and that are somewhat furry and velvety to the touch on the
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underside of the cap have a far stronger narcotic effect than those picked
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fresh and strung up to dry in the air...
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...The smaller mushrooms, which are bright red and covered with
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many white warty protuberances, are said to be far stronger in narcotic
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power than the larger ones, which are pale red and have few white spots.
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...The usual way to consume fly-agarics is to dry them and then
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to swallow them at one gulp, rolled up into a ball, without chewing them;
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chewing fly-agarics is considered harmful, since it is said to cause
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digestive disturbances.
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...The body's predisposition or susceptability to the intoxcicating
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effect of fly-agarics apperently is not the same at all times, since the
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same person may sometimes be strongly affected by a single mushroom and at
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other times remaining completely unaffected after twelve to twenty of them.
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Ordinarily, however, one large fly-agaric or two small ones are enough to
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make an enjoyable day.
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The narcotic effect begins to manifest itself about a half hour
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after eating, in a pulling and jerking of the muscles or a so-called tendon
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jump (although sometimes these effects appear only after an hour or two);
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this is gradually followed by a sense of swimming befoer the eyes,
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dizziness, and sleep. During this time, people who have eaten large
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quantity of mushrooms often suffer an attack of vomiting. The rolled-up
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mushrooms previously swallowed whole are then vomited out in a swollen,
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large, and gelatinous form, but even though not a single mushroom remains
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in the stomach, the fly-agaric eating are, in fact, intensified. Many other
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persons never vomit, even after eating copiously of the mushrooms.
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...The nerves are highly stimulated, and in this state the slightest
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effort of will produces very powerful effects. Consequently, if one wishes
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to step over a small stick or straw, he steps and jumps as if the obstacles
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were tree trunks. If a man is ordinarily talkative, his speech nerves are
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now in constant activity, and he involuntarily blurts out secrets, fully
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consious of his actions and aware of his secret but unable to hold his
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nerves in check. In this condition a man who is fond of dancing dances and
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a music-lover sings incessantly. Others run or walk quite involuntarily,
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without any intention of moving, to places where they do not wish to go at
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all.
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...Equally remarkable and strange is the extremely subtle and
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elusive narcotic substance contained in fly-agarics, which retains its
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effectiveness permenantly and can be transmitted to other persons: the
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effect of the urine form eating one of the same mushrooms can be transmitted
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to a second person, the urine affects a third, and similarly, unchanged by
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the organs of this animal secretion, the effect appears in a fourth and a
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fifth person.
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Fly agaric is also the kind of mushroom that Vikings took to enter the
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"beserker" state for battle. The Icelandic name for the fly agaric
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contains the word 'berserk' in it.
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