Tryptamines did hippies take shrooms?

[pharmakos]

did you guys catch this bit that i posted on page 4? ::

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_semilanceata

In 1965, forensic characterization of psilocybin-containing mushrooms seized from college students in British Columbia identified P. semilanceata[55]—the first recorded case of intentional recreational use of the mushroom in Canada.[56]

^references cited::

[55] Heim R, Genest K, Hughes DW, Belec G. (1966). "Botanical and chemical characterization of a forensic mushroom specimen of the genus Psilocybe". Journal of the Forensic Science Society 6 (4): 192–201. doi:10.1016/S0015-7368(66)70336-3.
[56] Metzner R. (2005). Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanácatl: A Sourcebook on the Psilocybin Mushroom (2nd ed.). Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press. ISBN 1-59477-044-1.

 

[squidhead]

Since everyone knows that psilocybin mushrooms were not widely distributed until the 70's, and that many people were selling kids LSD-doped mushrooms;

"LSD-doped mushrooms"?? That's ridiculous!! Kinda like sprinkling cocaine on a rock of Crack. Nobody would waste LSD by putting them on mushrooms.

I think getting them was the problem tho. Even Tim Leary couldn't get any mushrooms - he was ordering psilocybin pills from Sandoz, when they ran out he had to move to LSD. Now if Tim Leary couldn't source mushrooms tell me who you think could?
You'll note that's knowledge of them existing in Mexico - which is why lots of hippies travelled to Mexico to try them. The question is when psilocybin mushrooms were identified in the North.

"Psilocybin pills"?? So the mushrooms were ground-up & jammed into capsules? I'm not sure what hippies couldn't find any 'shrooms in the USA, but we were doing them in the Chicago area in the 60s/70s. Timothy Leary was a huge LSD advocate. I never heard him even mention mushrooms, but that's not saying he didn't. Leary was the East Coast LSD guru & Ken Kesey was the West Coast LSD advocate. Check out "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests" written by Tom Wolfe.

/Thread? The picking of Mushrooms only started around the early 70s and growing them came even later.

What?? That's news to my 59 yr old cranium.

No he didn't drunkard. One of the main reasons he switched to acid was because Sandoz stopped selling him psilocybin pills - he'd only ever used psilocybin pills in the US.

Have we worked out how these hippies identified the mushrooms to pick? Remember there was no internet, they wern't in any ID books. And remember - you make one mistake and you don't just die, you're gonna suffer like you would not fucking believe. You don't think that would make most hippies think "Hmm..maybe I'll wait for the next batch of acid"

There were these books called encyclopedias way back then & they even had pictures in them. Plus I don't know where everyone says Leary started out with mushrooms, then moved to LSD because he was cut-off by the supplier? Why would he be refused anymore psilocybin, but LSD was just fine?
This thread is making me hungry for sautéed mushrooms on my T-bone steak!!

Remember the only mushrooms taken were in Mexico - Leary was handing out psilocybin pills at Harvard - NOT mushrooms. Once the pills ran out he switched to LSD because he had no access to mushrooms. I'm pretty satisfied that if Tim Leary couldn't pick mushrooms not many 17 year old hippies would.

This is getting redundant. For the record, I agree with DrunkardsDream.

 

[pharmakos]

"Psilocybin pills"?? So the mushrooms were ground-up & jammed into capsules? I'm not sure what hippies couldn't find any 'shrooms in the USA, but we were doing them in the Chicago area in the 60s/70s. Timothy Leary was a huge LSD advocate. I never heard him even mention mushrooms, but that's not saying he didn't. Leary was the East Coast LSD guru & Ken Kesey was the West Coast LSD advocate. Check out "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests" written by Tom Wolfe.

nah back in the 50s and 60s synthetic Psilocin was way more common than mushrooms were. Sandoz shipped a lot of it.

maybe it wasn't in your circles back then idk, but Leary et. al were handing out a lot of synthetic Psilocin

 

[squidhead]

/\/\/\/\ All righty then...[/over & out]

 

[infantannihilator]

"LSD-doped mushrooms"?? That's ridiculous!! Kinda like sprinkling cocaine on a rock of Crack. Nobody would waste LSD by putting them on mushrooms.

They're talking about doping NORMAL mushrooms with LSD

 

[squidhead]

/\/\/\/\ OK, appreciate the info...

 

[Ismene]

Plus I don't know where everyone says Leary started out with mushrooms, then moved to LSD because he was cut-off by the supplier? Why would he be refused anymore psilocybin, but LSD was just fine?

Because in the early 60s Sandoz were getting nervous of sending psychdelic drugs to long haired guys in America. Leary could source LSD from the black market by Owsley and a guy called Micheal Hollingshead. LSD has a lot more profit in it and you can make millions of doses of it quite easily. Very few, if any, underground chemists were making psilocybin pills.

And of course, Leary couldn't find any real mushrooms for love nor money. So he switched to LSD.

These things come a little clearer when you talk them through don't they squid?

 

[2002Tii]

Only on bluelight can a thread like this turn into a 6 page discussion.

 

[infantannihilator]

Only on bluelight can a thread like this turn into a 6 page discussion.

"no youre right"

"no u"

 

[itsALLfake]

Only on bluelight can a thread like this turn into a 6 page discussion.

lol. a rather testosterone fueled argumentative discussion at that.

 

[Una]

I happen to have this book lying on my floor right now that I am reading. It is called The LSD Story by a journalist named John Cashman.

The copyright year of the book is 1966.

The second chapter of the book is titled “The Other Hallucinogens” and I will take the time to quote some of the pages in regards to what he has to say about mushrooms:

Page 22:

Another of the pre-Columbian hallucinogens is the sacred mushroom (Psilocybe Mexicana) of Mexico, which is believed to have been used by the wild revelers of the Aztecs in 1502. As with peyote, the dried or powdered mushrooms were used as a sacrament in religious ceremonies. But unlike other hallucinogens, the sacred mushroom was thought to have divination and prophesizing powers and was also administered as a panacea for any number of diseases…

He goes on to describe how the Aztecs viewed mushrooms as teonanacatl, God’s flesh, and there were stiff penalties, even death for those who would partake of the wonders of teonanacatl without good religious or ritual reasons.

Page 24:

The various properties of teonanacatl were rediscovered by an amateur botanist named Gordon Wasson in 1953 on a trip to Mexico in search of new varieties of mushroom. Wasson tried the sacred mushrooms and publicized the mushroom’s hallucinogenic powers in a series of articles, one in Life. After having eating twelve of the mushrooms, which he described as having an acrid, rancid flavor, Wasson sat in darkness and saw his own personal visions…

Page 24:

In the middle 1950s one of the alkaloids of the sacred mushroom was isolated. It was called psilocybin. Although psilocybin is not as free from side effects as is LSD, nor as powerful (LSD has 200 times the strength of psilocybin), it has been used extensively for research, sometimes interchangeably with LSD. It has been found to be as effective as hallucinogen as LSD, though much larger doses are required. It was the drug of choice in the early psychedelic experiments of Dr. Leary, and is used in clinical investigation today, without, it might be added, the furor that has grown around the use of LSD.

In the pages before and after, he describes peyote and mescaline, fly agaric, bufotenine from toads, morning glory seeds, jimson weed, yage, caapi, marijuana, as well as a pretty cool discussion of the ergot fungus and St. Anthony's Fire...

Page 16:

The most notable of the hallucinogens that emerged from the darkness of magic ritual in the chemical enlightenment of the nineteenth century were cannabis (bhang, marijuana, etc.), peyote and its alkaloid mescaline, and the “magic” Mexican mushroom and its alkaloid psilocybin.

Page 17:

And in recent years, following the laboratory development of LSD, chemists have synthesized several compounds that have hallucinogenic properties. Among them are mysterious sounding substances such as JB-329, JB-318, DMT, MLD-41, and TMA, all laboratory shorthand for a number of interlinked chemical substances with long names….”

John Cashman, The LSD Story, USA: Fawcett Publicaitons Inc, 1966

 

[Ismene]

^^

Notice how he called it the "sacred mushroom OF MEXICO"? That's what they thought in 1966.

 

[DrunkardsDream]

^^

Notice how he called it the "sacred mushroom OF MEXICO"? That's what they thought in 1966.

Apparently they thought that in the late 50s but in reality Psilocybin mushrooms have been used by many indigenous people in both central, south, and even north America for thousands of years. You were not around in the 60s but those of us who were do remember taking magic mushrooms then.

 

[JBern]

Having done shrooms, I agree with that feeling of being a part of nature. As i began to peak on them, I sat in the woods on a rock surrounded by trees and ferns. I could almost feel the forests energy flowing into me and i could hear it humming. I could without a doubt see hippies tripping on mushies back in the day. Oh, how i envy them...

 

[Ismene]

Apparently they thought that in the late 50s but in reality Psilocybin mushrooms have been used by many indigenous people in both central, south, and even north America for thousands of years. You were not around in the 60s but those of us who were do remember taking magic mushrooms then.

Nah, they definately havn't been used by people in north america for thousands of years - that's horseshit. The native americans wern't even aware of Peyote until 100 years ago.

If you were around in the 60s you can't remember them - that's what they always say isn't it?

 

[twelvesevndi]

ahhhh... the ole double post

 

[twelvesevndi]

Nah, they definately havn't been used by people in north america for thousands of years - that's horseshit. The native americans wern't even aware of Peyote until 100 years ago.

If you were around in the 60s you can't remember them - that's what they always say isn't it?

you may want to read this article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874105002990
i'm not qualified to assess the validity of this article, but it provides an interesting counterpoint to your assertion.

 

[Ismene]

i'm not qualified to assess the validity of this article, but it provides an interesting counterpoint to your assertion.

Not really sevndi, what I'm saying is the Tarahumara and Huichol of the Mexico area (which would have included Texas remember) have been familiar with peyote for a long time. Northern native americans only found about them 100 years ago. Y'follow?

 

[DrunkardsDream]

Taking trips to see Maria Sabina is something that well-known people were doing late 60s. Allegedly even John Lennon went. Now if John Lennon couldn't find mushrooms anywhere except Mexico, you know one thing for certain - no long-haired hippie sat in Haight Ashbury could.

Have you ever been to the Haight or SF at all? I used to live near there in the mid 60s and it was run down and not safe in the 60s or even in later decades but in the 60s you could find whatever drug you wanted pot, hash, LSD, STP, DMT, mushrooms, speed, coke, peyote, and heroin.

Yes hippies did take mushrooms in the 60s. People also took peyote and actual mescaline both synthetic, and from a cactus.

 

[Ismene]

^^

Are you sure? Did some 17 year old hippie you knew claimed he'd got synthetic mescaline? Jonathon Ott said every sample of "synthetic mescaline" he ever tested was fake. And most of the "mushrooms" were store bought edible mushrooms with a bit of LSD on them.