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Psychoactive Lichens

Order your lichen grown kit now :)...........wonder what the chem is?
In a month we are going to hear about some "hippie" who died in the freezing cold trying to find the elusive psychoactive lichen.
 
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm back home in the arctic and I'm currently trying to find a source for some of these lichens for pics for you guys. The only names I know for them are in Inuktituk, and I can't spell in it, Romanized or syllabics.

I think one of the lichens has an MAOI in them, as when combined with my favourite lichen, it dramatically increases the intensity of the trip. On it's own, the secondary lichen does little. It might not be an MAOI, I've never heard of a fungus containing one, but if so, that's remarkable. I have yet to try them together, the Elder I was closest to died, and I need to travel by skidoo for 10-16 hours to get to another one I'm friends with.

I will definately report back with info.

btw, I don't think the lichen has to be live when prepared, as they seem to store it for future use without preparation. However, it is relatively rare, ESPECIALLY in winter (ie, now).

This summer, I was supposed to be allowed to try some of the other plants, but my friend passed away of a stroke. :(
 
You're really on to something here. Psychoactive lichens have been rumored and whispered about for some time, but nothing has ever been documented that I know of.

If I may, you need to get voucher specimens so they can be identified. Get in touch with a botanist, someone with the Society for Economic Botany, that guy from Missouri Botanical Garden (can't remember his name just now), maybe Andrew Weil or Wade Davis or even Christian Ratsch. Someone who understands the importance of this.

As you know, cultural knowledge like this is dying, and this kind of information needs to be preserved.

You've got a subject here that could earn a person a Ph.D.
 
100% agree Bach...

OP, I know you want to respect the word of the elders... but to be quite honest their perspective seems a bit selfish to me. I understand these lichen might be used in ceremonial or religious ways but these are specimens of planet Earth, not the Arctic elders - I don't think it's right for anyone to try to own a monopoly on plant life.
 
This is so exciting.
It's on par with finding out methamphetamine grows naturally in some species of the acacia plant.
Except I'd rather find an obscure icelandish tryptamine than meth flowers....
 
Mr Wobble said:
IIRC lichens are two organisms - an algae and a fungi - living in a symbiotic relationship.

So it might not be so surprising for the fungal component of lichens to contain psychoactive compounds similar to those found in your everyday common-or-garden mushies.
Click to expand...

Tunnelfission said:
I wonder how many undiscovered psychoactives are yet to be stumbled across!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the maximum theoretical number of possible compounds/molecular structures is or if there even is a max but there's thousands if not more of theoretical psychedelic compounds not to mention the ones yet to be proposed. I think there is a pretty high chance of naturally occurring undocumented psychedelic compounds existing.

Whether or not they are as profound as traditional psychedelics is up for debate though. If such un discovered compounds were on par with traditional psychs, wouldn't they be found in many different species around the world like psilocybin, mescaline, and DMT?

Although i suppose if located in remote regions like these lichen are proposed to be, then they wouldn't have spread all over the world do to lack of trade routes and natural barriers, make an undiscovered holy psychedelic grail a real possibility after all.


Hmm.
 
Very very interesting! I don't know though if the lichens Shulgin was talking about are the same because an oral dose of some delta-3-THC seems more likely to produce the milder relaxation to me, though who knows - oral cannabis can make you trip hard but it has to be a lot, it's hard to buy.
The fact that they are in part fungal might suggest some tryptamine indeed, tryptamines are pretty abundant in other life forms as well so it's a good candidate and it would be the primary residue I'd check for in a sample.
 
this thread is very interesting. :) i am sure that there are more substances out there than we can even imagine, as every year new species are discovered/named in the hundreds, and most not even studied. how useful they are remains to be seen.

though i cant help wonder how difficult these lichens are to grow. im sure though that someone out there is working on a tek as we speak.
 
It has already been said that they grow too slowly, these organisms don't live on the same timescale as us.
A much better idea is to try and isolate the active compounds and hope that it's not a crazy mixture that does the trick or a chemical as complex as salvinorins.
Then synthesize.
 
DoorsofPerception said:
Wow...this could be really really big.

Hopefully one day it will be uncovered.
Click to expand...

Haha good one! :D As in "under every rock"??

Actually perhaps it would be better if it were NOT uncovered, lest hordes of buzz seeking frat dorks start ripping up every rock they see while camping and scouring creek-beds... very delicate ecosystems if I recall.
 
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