Amanita Muscaria and Psychedelic Mushrooms: What’s the Difference?
Even if you’ve never heard of amanita muscaria in your life, you definitely know it by sight. It shows up all over fairytale illustrations and Super Mario’s world – a mushroom with a bright red cap and white flecks. It’s shockingly ubiquitous for such a powerful psychoactive (and poisonous) substance.
Isn’t it interesting that these red capped mushrooms with potentially dangerous or deadly effects are so prevalent in storybooks? What’s even more interesting is that these red and white mushrooms are 100% legal, unlike the more famous (though less visually striking) “magic mushrooms” containing psilocybin.
In this article, we’ll learn all about the amanita muscaria and what makes it different from magic mushrooms. Is the amanita muscaria psychedelic? What are the amanita mushroom’s effects, and how do they compare to magic mushrooms?
Before we get into the details, here’s a concise summary of the difference between the amanita muscaria and magic mushrooms of psilocybin type.
Is the Amanita Mushroom Psychedelic?
The term psychedelic is used to refer to substances that interact with serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter in the brain, which exerts its effects by binding to those receptors.
Drugs like LSD, DMT, or psilocin are structurally similar to (but, importantly, not the same as) serotonin. In other words, they are close enough that they can bind to the same receptors, but dissimilar enough that the biological effect is quite different. The result is what we call a psychedelic experience. It can result in visual effects and often a spiritual experience, which is described as a feeling of oneness with the universe.
Amanita muscaria is quite different from our typical list of psychedelic substances, because it doesn’t interact with the serotonergic system of the brain. The major active compound in amanita muscaria is called muscimol, and it doesn’t look anything like serotonin. Instead, it more closely resembles a different neurotransmitter called GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid. It exerts its effects by binding to GABA receptors – resulting in an experience that is totally unrelated to what we usually consider to be psychedelic. We’ll take a closer look at this shortly.
Is Muscimol a Psychedelic Compound?
It depends on how you define psychedelic. It’s definitely not a psychedelic in the sense that LSD, psilocin, and DMT are psychedelics. However, if you take a broader definition of psychedelics, you might classify muscimol in this category. Let’s take a closer look at the difference between muscimol and psilocybin.
Muscimol vs Psilocybin
In addition to looking nothing like each other, amanita mushrooms and magic mushrooms have very different active compounds. Amanita mushrooms contain muscimol, whereas magic mushrooms contain psiolocybin. The difference between these two compounds is the secret to the very different experiences they create.
Magic Mushrooms Effects
Magic mushrooms, or psychedelic mushrooms, contain the compounds psilocybin and psilocin. Although psilocybin is the more famous compound, psilocin is actually the more bioactive compound. Psilocybin is converted to psilocin in the body through the process of dephosphorylation. Once it’s converted, it becomes more fat-soluble and can readily cross the blood-brain barrier where it exerts its effects in the brain.
As we mentioned, psilocin is similar enough to serotonin that it can interact with serotonin receptors in the brain. At the right dosages, this results in a psychedelic trip. You are likely to experience your surroundings and your life circumstances in a completely different way. Magic mushrooms are well-known for visual enhancements and a spiritual experience. You may experience the world as if someone maxed out the color saturation filter. You might even see colors where you never noticed them before, like the blue-green shades of your skin. Essentially, the patterns that your brain has memorized disappear, and you may experience the world with a childlike wonderment, and a sense of oneness with the universe.
Amanita Muscaria Effects
The active compounds of amanita muscaria are muscimol and ibotenic acid. Ibotenic acid decarboxylated to form muscimol in the body. Muscimol more closely resembles GABA, another very important neurotransmitter. GABA is what’s known as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, which is exactly what you think it is. It has the effect of decreasing the responsiveness of a neuron – so it down-regulates the communication with other neurons.
What do you think will happen when there’s less chatter between neurons? As expected, GABA has a sedating effect in the brain. So, when muscimol binds to GABA receptors, it also induces a sedative state. Users of the amanita mushroom will experience a calming effect, and often be lulled either to sleep, or into a dream-like state.
Ibotenic acid may also exert an effect before being converted into muscimol. The effect of ibotenic acid is more excitatory, so it may result in alternating periods of excitement and lethargy.
Is Amanita Muscaria Legal?
Unlike psilocybin-containing mushrooms, amanita muscaria is completely legal. Psilocybin is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The amanita muscaria, on the other hand, is not even mentioned on the list of prohibited substances. Isn’t it interesting that the mushroom that is famous for creating a spiritual awakening is illegal, while the one that induces sleep and dreams is completely legal?
How to Consume Amanita Muscaria
No need to go out foraging for mushrooms with red caps. Remember, amanita muscaria is technically poisonous as well. The wrong method of ingestion or high dosages can result in delirium, confusion, muscle spasms, as well as nausea, vomiting, and increased defecation. The mushroom should not be consumed raw in order to avoid the poisonous effects. Traditionally this mushroom has been cooked or prepared in brine, while eliminating the most poisonous and potent parts.
Lucky for you, you can consume it candy form, as amanita gummies. This eliminates the dangers of misidentifying other red mushrooms for amanita, improperly preparing the mushrooms, and makes dosing much safer and easier.
What About Other Psychoactive Mushrooms?
Since amanita muscaria doesn’t contain psilocybin, it might be tempting to lump it in with other legal mushrooms like lion’s mane, cordyceps, and reishi mushrooms. These mushrooms are part of a class of medicinal mushrooms, and are often added to drinks and gummies because they contain health benefits. For example, lion’s mane is thought to improve memory and cognitive function, whereas many reishi mushroom benefits are related to immune system function.
Amanita mushrooms actually don’t belong in this grouping. Even though they are not technically psychedelic, amanita mushrooms still exert powerful effects on the brain. Be careful to follow dosing instructions, and be sure to start slow if you’re trying them for the first time.
The Take-Away
The amanita mushroom is a famously beautiful red mushroom with white flecks. It is different than psychedelic mushrooms, because it does not contain the psychedelic compound psilocybin. However, it does contain a different powerful compound called muscimol, which has a powerful sedating effect on the brain. It’s also 100% legal, which makes it easy to purchase and consume in gummy form.
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Amanita Muscaria is a psychoactive, trippy, and federally legal mushroom. The twisted tales of Amanita are as trippy as the mushroom itself. Amanita muscaria contains a high quantity of alkaloids and its pharmacology is complex and not fully understood. The most relevant alkaloids are ibotenic acid, muscinol, muscarine, and muscazone.
Shrooms that contain psilocybin are considered federally illegal, at least in the U.S., because psilocybin itself is a Schedule I Controlled Substance. This means that, in the eyes of the federal government, psilocybin has a high potential for misuse, no accepted medical uses, and can only be safely used under the supervision of a medical professional.
Whether or not this classification of shrooms is really fair is up to you, but there are fortunately other options for those looking to experiment without breaking the law. Remember our friend Amanita muscaria, the classic red-and-white toadstool mushroom? Its active ingredients are not controlled substances, which means they are not subject to the same restrictions and legal penalties.
The word “shrooms” is generally used as an umbrella term for different types of psychedelic or “magic” mushrooms.
Unlike the mushrooms we might eat in a dish, shrooms often contain compounds that can produce psychedelic effects, like hallucinations, distorted senses, and altered states of consciousness, also known as “trips.” The most common psychoactive compound found in these sorts of shrooms is psilocybin, but not all shrooms capable of impacting the brain rely on psilocybin to do so.
Many people turn to shrooms for recreational or medicinal purposes (or both), which isn’t a new phenomenon; many types of mushrooms have been used for centuries or even longer to treat common ailments, promote spiritual exploration, and bring people closer together.
In fact, some shrooms, like fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), are so ancient that researchers have traced their origins back to the period before indigenous peoples crossed from Eurasia to the Americas via the Bering Straits. That means that shroom use has been around for almost as long as modern human society has!
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