Page 8 of 8 FirstFirst ... 678
Results 106 to 117 of 117

Thread: the magic of mushrooms

  1. #106
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    50 words

    Mushrooms communicate with each other using up to 50 ‘words’, scientist claims
    Professor theorises electrical impulses sent by mycological organisms could be similar to human language

    Split gill fungi generated the most complex trains of electrical activity in the study. Photograph: Minden Pictures/Alamy
    Linda Geddes Science correspondent
    Tue 5 Apr 2022 19.01 EDT
    Buried in forest litter or sprouting from trees, fungi might give the impression of being silent and relatively self-contained organisms, but a new study suggests they may be champignon communicators.

    Mathematical analysis of the electrical signals fungi seemingly send to one another has identified patterns that bear a striking structural similarity to human speech.

    Previous research has suggested that fungi conduct electrical impulses through long, underground filamentous structures called hyphae – similar to how nerve cells transmit information in humans.

    It has even shown that the firing rate of these impulses increases when the hyphae of wood-digesting fungi come into contact with wooden blocks, raising the possibility that fungi use this electrical “language” to share information about food or injury with distant parts of themselves, or with hyphae-connected partners such as trees.

    But do these trains of electrical activity have anything in common with human language?

    Hotspots of mycorrhizal fungi are thought to be under threat, from agriculture, urbanisation, pollution, water scarcity and changes to the climate.

    To investigate, Prof Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England’s unconventional computing laboratory in Bristol analysed the patterns of electrical spikes generated by four species of fungi – enoki, split gill, ghost and caterpillar fungi.

    He did this by inserting tiny microelectrodes into substrates colonised by their patchwork of hyphae threads, their mycelia.

    “We do not know if there is a direct relationship between spiking patterns in fungi and human speech. Possibly not,” Adamatzky said. “On the other hand, there are many similarities in information processing in living substrates of different classes, families and species. I was just curious to compare.”

    The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, found that these spikes often clustered into trains of activity, resembling vocabularies of up to 50 words, and that the distribution of these “fungal word lengths” closely matched those of human languages.

    Split gills – which grow on decaying wood, and whose fruiting bodies resemble undulating waves of tightly packed coral – generated the most complex “sentences” of all.

    The most likely reasons for these waves of electrical activity are to maintain the fungi’s integrity – analogous to wolves howling to maintain the integrity of the pack – or to report newly discovered sources of attractants and repellants to other parts of their mycelia, Adamtzky suggested.

    “There is also another option – they are saying nothing,” he said. “Propagating mycelium tips are electrically charged, and, therefore, when the charged tips pass in a pair of differential electrodes, a spike in the potential difference is recorded.”

    Whatever these “spiking events” represent, they do not appear to be random, he added.

    Even so, other scientists would like to see more evidence before they are willing to accept them as a form of language. Other types of pulsing behaviour have previously been recorded in fungal networks, such as pulsing nutrient transport – possibly caused by rhythmic growth as fungi forage for food.

    “This new paper detects rhythmic patterns in electric signals, of a similar frequency as the nutrient pulses we found,” said Dan Bebber, an associate professor of biosciences at the University of Exeter, and a member of the British Mycological Society’s fungal biology research committee.

    “Though interesting, the interpretation as language seems somewhat overenthusiastic, and would require far more research and testing of critical hypotheses before we see ‘Fungus’ on Google Translate.”
    Attack of the Mushroom People was prophesy...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #107
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Zide Door

    Oakland’s psychedelic mushroom church makes a cautious return
    Despite a police raid and global pandemic, Zide Door has accumulated members and slowly begun to resume in-person sermons.

    by Jessica De La Torre
    June 10, 2022


    Video produced by Jessica De La Torre and William Jenkins.

    Smoke twirls from the lips of a man with a long beard and metal-framed glasses, who is dressed like the Pope with a psychedelic twist: embroidered gold hemp leaves decorate his cloak, and mushrooms adorn his stole.

    Dave Hodges is the pastor, preacher, and founder of Zide Door, a nondenominational and interfaith church in Oakland where religious practice centers on the use of natural hallucinogens known as entheogens—mainly, mushrooms containing the psychoactive chemical psilocybin. For Hodges, “Mushrooms are the origin of all religion.”

    Hodges founded Zide Door in January 2019 and, until the pandemic forced him to scale back, presided over psyche-altering sacraments and hot-boxed sermons at the church, a nondescript building on 10th Avenue near E 12th Street, every Sunday at 4:20 p.m.

    Despite two years of a global pandemic—and some unwelcome attention from local law enforcement agencies along the way—Hodges said interest in Zide Door has grown, and the church is now making a cautious return to hosting in-person gatherings, with plans to do more in the coming months.

    A place of worship and a dispensary

    A heavy-set, armed security guard grants access to the church through its main entrance on 10th Street, which sits behind a row of thickly rooted palms. Past the gated door there is a metal detector and, beyond that, a small hall where membership is verified.

    “We do have fairly strict security at the church, and this is an unfortunate issue with Oakland; We are in a very high-crime area,” said Hodges. “So the thing that keeps us and our members safe is having armed guards at the front door who are constantly watching for anything to happen.”

    Once membership is verified, members walk through an open room filled with about five royal-blue pews that Hodges found on Craigslist. A mini stage with a pulpit holds red, yellow, and green candles with an old and tattered printout that reads, “Sermon every Sunday @ 4:20. Free joints for all during the sermon (everyone must be smoking).”


    A sign on the pulpit at Zide Door advertises the church’s Sunday sermons at 4:20 p.m. Credit: Jessica De La Torre and William Jenkins

    Music plays loud in the church. But instead of choir melodies, artists like Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar vibrate the room.

    Red-capped mushroom figurines decorate the small stage, offering some cohesion to the awkwardly staged room as a psychedelic sermon area. This is where members once rejoiced with cannabis, before the pandemic, and listened to Hodges preach about safe access and the use of entheogenic plants.

    The main attraction, the mushrooms, are in a room adjacent to the sermon area that doubles as a dispensary. There is a large poster that reads “20% off Sacraments” on specific days of the week. Black tubs of mushrooms and cannabis fill a metal storage shelving rack against a wall.

    Zide Door is one of the few places in the United States where people can purchase mushrooms without being legally penalized or taxed, as long as they are granted membership, a process that consists of answering an online questionnaire. Among the questions is, “Do you work for law enforcement or any government agency?” Members must also agree to accept entheogenic plants as part of the religious onboarding.

    “We’re very private and we want to make sure we know why you’re coming in and make sure that you believe in what we believe in,” said Hodges.

    Slowed by the pandemic, and then a police raid

    Zide Door began as a cannabis-focused church in early 2019, but Hodges was able to add psychedelic mushrooms to its offerings after Oakland’s City Council approved a resolution in June 2019 that effectively decriminalized mushrooms and other consciousness-altering plants like ayahuasca and peyote.

    Although it’s still illegal to possess these plants under federal law, and illegal to sell them in Oakland, the resolution deemed these offenses “amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Oakland.”

    That didn’t stop Oakland police from raiding the church on August 13, 2020. In security-camera footage made public by Hodges on Instagram and later in news reports, officers can be seen forcing their way into the building with guns drawn and pointed ahead, while people exit the church with their hands in the air.


    Security cam footage from Zide Door shows Oakland police officers entering the building with guns drawn on August 13, 2020. Credit: Used by Jessica De La Torre and William Jenkins, courtesy of Dave Hodges

    Recalling the raid recently, Hodges said police entered the church as if they were storming a mafia headquarters, a scene he found both humorous and alarming.

    “I was about five minutes away from the church when I got a call that the cops were there. They were still clearing people out of the building when I arrived. I started yelling at them that they’re violating the city’s order, and my religious freedom, and that I’m the one responsible for all of this,” he said. “Basically, I was telling them to just arrest me.”

    Instead, said Hodges, the officers, aided by personnel from Oakland Fire Department, insisted on breaking into the church’s safe boxes with the help of rescue tools. After hours of work, they succeeded in tearing open two of them, seizing $5,000 in cash and $200,000 worth of cannabis and mushrooms. Hodges was let go with a fine and a warning. After cleaning up the mess left behind by the raid, he reopened Zide Door 24 hours later.

    “This wasn’t about whether we were doing something wrong,” Hodges told The Oaklandside. “It was about how the police can take money from something that they think is wrong.”

    The Oakland Police Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story. But following the raid in 2020, Oakland Police Capt. Rendell Wingate told CBS News that the department was acting on a complaint by the Alameda County health department of an illegal business that was “creating respiratory health issues” for children living in close proximity, and questioned the church’s validity based on its dual function as a mushroom dispensary.

    “We have several churches in the city of Oakland and they are non-profit and not known to sell cannabis or mushrooms,” Wingate said at the time. “This is the first for-profit religious establishment I’ve seen in my 28 years as an Oakland cop.”

    Hodges said he is actively working with an attorney on compiling a legal case against OPD on the grounds that the department violated religious freedom laws. He now views the raid, and the pending legal challenge, as unfortunate but necessary steps in a longer-term effort to safeguard the church and its practices.

    “From the day we opened up, I knew we would have a raid, but OPD was the last place I thought it would come from because of the City Council’s [resolution]. I thought it would come from the county, the state, or worst case, the feds,” he said. “It’s always been the expectation. And it’s part of the plan, in the sense that we have to have a raid, we have to have a court case, in order to prove that what we’re doing is right. And I know that what I’m doing is right."
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  3. #108
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    continued from previous post

    A return to in-person sermons


    Dave Hodges speaks to the audience about his practice with psilocybin mushrooms at an event hosted by Zide Door in April 2022. Credit: Courtesy of Dave Hodges

    Hodges made it clear that Zide Door never completely closed its doors during the pandemic—the church has remained a place where members can visit and purchase mushrooms—but the weekly public sermons were discontinued as a COVID precaution.

    “Prior to the pandemic I was doing a sermon every week in addition to our space being a gathering space for members and a space for them to get their sacraments,” said Hodges. The weekly sermons drew large groups of people, up to 100 at a time, sitting shoulder to shoulder, usually passing around communal joints. “With the pandemic, we did stop that. But [the pandemic] is still a problem.”

    Hodges resumed the live sermons several months ago as COVID rates declined, albeit cautiously. They currently take place only once per month and for a smaller group of members, at a temporary location on Livingston Street near the Oakland harbor. Zide Door required its members to show proof of vaccination before entering the venue after the city of Oakland adopted a local ordinance mandating it earlier this year, and Hodges said the church continues to follow public health guidelines for COVID.

    Hodges hopes to make the public sermons weekly again when pandemic conditions allow and once he secures a larger venue. “It’s still a challenge during this pandemic, gathering people together. We’re nervous there might be another wave,” said Hodges. “There are a lot of people that want to gather together, but we’re just very cautious about how we can do this consistently.”

    Ironically, he said, membership at Zide Door skyrocketed in the months following the police raid, from roughly 20,000 to 50,000 members, at least on paper. The active community, he acknowledged, is far smaller. But even if one percent of the enlisted members were to show up to a sermon, he said, there wouldn’t be enough room at the church on 10th Street, or the alternate location on Livingston, to accommodate them all.

    “Before the raid, we were purely word of mouth. After the raid, you can now find us online and submit an application on the website and become a member. But we still prefer to be referral-based,” he said. “The whole model is, you bring a friend.”

    Hodges said he could imagine the church one day introducing other types of plant medicines. But for now, Zide Door only offers marijuana and mushrooms to its members. “Cannabis and mushrooms are two of the safest ones that people can use on their own, for their spiritual practices.”

    Creating safe spaces for guided mushroom trips

    Anthropologist and entheogenic plant researcher Acacea Lewis, 27, is the founder of Divine Master Alchemy, a school for entheogenic practices, and a passionate supporter of widening accessibility to mushrooms and other entheogenic plants that she and many others consider sacred. Lewis, who lectured alongside Hodges earlier this year at a Zide Door event, Spirituality and Beyond 2, believes groups like Zide Door and Divine Master Alchemy are doing important work by creating spaces where curious people can explore their spirituality with the help of entheogens, without judgment and outside the bounds of a clinical setting.

    “I applaud those who are treating entheogens as a sacrament and technology for exploration,” she said. “To give the power back to the people for their own spiritual and religious use, versus limiting them to the purpose of a clinical therapeutic drug [that’s] controlled and administered.”

    Lewis, who grew up in a Pentecostal Christian family, was introduced to psilocybin mushrooms when she was a teenager and said the plants helped her overcome deep feelings of depression and even thoughts of suicide.

    “There was a time I wouldn’t talk to my mother or I wouldn’t even talk to my father because, I [had] come out as a queer, a lesbian, as a youth, and I drove a wedge between me and my family,” she said. “And working with the mushroom helped me to realize that it’s possible for me to forgive myself and my parents and to also study many other different religions.”

    Lewis said using entheogens such as mushrooms can also be safer when done in spaces dedicated to the practice, and with people who have extensive first-hand experience.

    “Would you go scuba diving with someone who’s never gone scuba diving before? I know I wouldn’t. Would you jump out of a plane with somebody who’s never gone parachuting before? Nope. Would you get on a plane with a pilot that has never flown a plane before? No,” said Lews. “Having experienced people who understand the hidden aspects of this realm can really be beneficial for someone who is just coming in.”

    ‘It makes you appreciate even just a breath’

    At an Oakland Hills home that Hodges uses to facilitate smaller ceremonies, Hodges exhales smoke from a joint he just rolled. The aroma of a dead skunk fills the room of the cabin-like home. There are ceiling-to-floor windows that open to the surrounding hills, which are decorated with deep green forest.

    For Hodges, this is the perfect environment to indulge in psychedelics. He hopes to soon provide Zide Door members with access to the home, as a place to safely take “heroic” doses of mushrooms while “trip-sitters,” who’ve been pre-qualified and appointed by Hodges, watch over them to ensure their safety. Hodges calls the project, “God’s Sitters.”

    No special education or background is required to be a trip-sitter, only a dedication to magic mushrooms. Hodges has been training one churchgoer, Christopher Tindall, for the lead trip-sitting role. Their training involves taking large doses of mushrooms.

    Tindall said the mushrooms have allowed him to appreciate life’s smallest gestures. “With the sacred mushroom, it makes you appreciate even just a breath,” he said. Tindall’s clear blue eyes begin to water as he explains how much he’s grown as a person since partaking in mushrooms. Like Lewis, Tindall said the plants have helped him overcome feelings of depression.

    “Before, I thought more about suicide than about appreciating life. And as I’m taking these doses of mushrooms, you literally die and get brought back to life,” said Tindall. His thick, beaded bracelets jingle as he wipes a tear from his face. Now, Tindall said he can’t fathom the dark place he was once in.

    An average mushroom dose for recreational purposes ranges between one to two-and-a-half grams, and this is the range where Hodges claims that life becomes more vivid and colorful, and plants look like they’re breathing. Above five grams is where experiences can get more intense and is considered a “heroic dose.” Anything between 15 to 30 grams is where you can leave your body, according to Hodges, and this is where things can become more hallucinogenic and scary for an inexperienced person.

    “As far as the dangers of psychedelics go in general, and especially when you’re talking about mushrooms, it’s really about education,” said Hodges. “These are very powerful tools and they need to be done in the right [mind]set and setting.”

    Hodges’ message to the skeptics? “You don’t have to listen to me. You don’t have to read a book. You just need to do the dose and experience what you’ll experience. So if you doubt what I’m doing, try it yourself and I can guarantee you won’t doubt it again.”
    Hodges' robe tho...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #109
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    I work in event medicine so this hits me hard.

    Beyond Wonderland Shooting Suspect Told Police He Took ‘Shrooms’
    "This is the end," James M. Kelly allegedly told his girlfriend before opening fire at the Washington EDM festival, leaving two dead and three injured
    BY LARISHA PAUL, TOMÁS MIER
    JUNE 21, 2023


    GEORGE, WASHINGTON - JUNE 11: The Highwomen perform at Gorge Amphitheatre on June 11, 2023 in George, Washington. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
    Gorge Amphitheatre George, Washington, June 11, 2023 GARY MILLER/GETTY IMAGES

    THE MAN ACCUSED of killing two people at Beyond Wonderland in Washington over the weekend told police that he was hallucinating on mushrooms and believed the world was going to end, according to court documents obtained by Oregon Live and King5.

    James M. Kelly — a 26-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Army — allegedly opened fire at the Beyond Wonderland EDM festival on Saturday evening, leaving two individuals dead and three others injured. Among those injured was his girlfriend Lily Luksich, 20, whom Kelly told “this is the end” before the alleged shooting spree, King5 reported.

    According to the court docs, Kelly returned to the campgrounds from the festival proper, where he allegedly grabbed his handgun from his pickup truck, loaded it, and fired at Brandy Escamilla and Josilyn Ruiz, the engaged couple that died on the scene. He also shot at 31-year-old August Morningstar, who suffered a bullet wound in his shoulder and is now in stable condition after receiving treatment at a hospital.

    According to the document, Kelly attempted to fire at a Grant County Sheriff’s Office drone, and later shot at his girlfriend in the foot and upper leg. “At multiple times, Luksich laid down on the ground and Kelly sat either on her, or sat next to her and leaned over her,” according to court records obtained by Oregon Live. “At one point Luksich began to walk north away from Kelly, turned around with her hands raised in the air, and walked back to Kelly.”

    Kelly is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault, and one count of first-degree assault domestic violence.

    The update regarding his mental state comes just hours after the North Central Washington Special Investigations Unit identified the victims and shooter. According to a press release from the department, he was booked into Grant County Jail.

    Another victim, 61-year-old Lori Williams, was treated on-site for injuries sustained in a Polaris Ranger UTV when she “was struck by a single bullet that penetrated the windshield and struck her in the right side of her face shattering her glasses and causing bruising and laceration.”

    The incident occurred at approximately 8:23 p.m. PT in the campground area outside of the Gorge venue in Grant County, Washington. During the shooting, the event itself was occurring in the amphitheater, which had a walking distance of about 20-30 minutes away from the camping grounds where festival-goers had pitched tents and parked their cars for the weekend festival.

    According to Grant County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Kyle Foreman, the suspect fired “randomly into the crowd” in the campground area and continued to do so until he was “eventually taken into custody” in a secondary location from where it all began.

    “Officers located Kelly and Luksich in an agricultural field adjacent to the campground. Moses Lake Police Department Detective Edgar Salazar fired his duty weapon at Kelly striking him one time,” the statement continued. “Responding officers then quickly moved in and Kelly was taken into custody and received emergency medical aid from the officers.”

    The second day of the festival was canceled following the incident. The shooter’s motive remains unclear. His next hearing is set for July 5.

    This story was updated at 7:10 p.m. ET to include new information about the suspect’s alleged use of hallucinogens, along with additional details of the incident.
    the-magic-of-mushrooms
    Mass-public-shootings-on-the-rise-but-why
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #110
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Poisonous mushroom cook’s statement to police



    "Asian grocery"
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  6. #111
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen shroomin

    Yes, Janet Yellen ate magic mushrooms. Here’s why she didn’t get high.
    By Emily Heil
    August 16, 2023 at 2:53 p.m. EDT

    Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing last month. (Pedro Pardo/Pool/Getty Images)

    Former president Bill Clinton once famously claimed to have smoked marijuana but swore that he didn’t inhale. Now, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen is saying that yes, she ate mushrooms that might have had hallucinogenic properties — but (promise, Dad!) she didn’t actually get high from them. America’s CFO was talking about a dinner she ate while attending high-profile meetings in Beijing last month, where one of the dishes was made with a mushroom known as jian shou qing.
    Never ask what’s for dinner again. Get one quick recipe in your inbox Monday through Thursday to inspire delicious meals.
    After the dinner made a splash in China because a local food blogger reportedly posted about it on social media, Yellen was asked about her “mushroom experience” during an interview this week with CNN’s Erin Burnett.
    “There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties,” Yellen said with a laugh, noting that she didn’t order the dish, but the person who arranged the outing did. “I learned that later.” It was tasty, the former Fed said, but didn’t get her high.
    That’s the way locals in the Yunnan province, where they are wild-foraged, typically see these mushrooms, says Colin Domnauer, a PhD candidate at the University of Utah, who has been studying them. Domnauer notes that while Americans and other westerners might prize such a mushroom because of its psychedelic qualities, the locals value it for its taste — which he describes as umami-laden and porcini-like, albeit a bit less nutty. “There’s a difference in cultural attitude about the psychoactive effect — it’s like the food itself is more important than this property,” he says.
    You can find the mushroom (actually a range of species, many of which are almost identical), whose name translates literally as “see hand blue” because its flesh bruises and turns blue when pressed, at markets and in restaurants in Yunnan, as well as other places that serve the province’s cuisine, such as the restaurant where Yellen and her party dined. And although some people have reported experiencing “Lilliputian hallucinations” — meaning people who ingested it claimed to have had visions of small people — it can be rendered decidedly non-hallucinogenic by proper cooking.
    Yellen said she had read that “if the mushrooms are cooked properly, which I’m sure they were at this very good restaurant, that they have no impact.” And indeed, she said, “all of us enjoyed the mushrooms, the restaurant, and none of us felt any ill effects.” Domnauer recently visited Yunnan to collect samples, and he, too, dined on the local delicacy at a hot pot restaurant. There, the staff set out a timer and instructed diners to cook the mushrooms in the boiling liquid for at least 15 minutes before eating it, he said, adding that nobody experienced any hallucinations.
    While the mushroom in question is widely considered to be delicious, it also contains mysteries that mycologists are trying to unlock.
    Here’s what makes these fungi so interesting: Scientists have yet to identify the compound in them that accounts for their psychoactive effects, notes Matthew Kasson, a mycologist and professor at West Virginia University’s Davis College. Analysis has not turned up psilocybin, which is the stuff commonly found in most “magic mushrooms” that makes them a popular recreational drug. Nor did scientists find another such known compound, ibotenic acid, which appears in those red-and-white polka dotted mushrooms sometimes referred to as “Super Mario” mushrooms because of their depiction in the popular video game.
    So what could explain those Lilliputian apparitions?
    Maybe something entirely novel, Domnauer says, possibly a compound that could have exciting uses in medicine or other applications. He likened it to when mycologists first learned about psilocybin, which is now used in various psychiatric treatments, in the 1950s after studying the mushrooms used in ancient ceremonies in northern Mexico. “There was a time when no one outside this small group in Oaxaca knew about it, and now it’s spread all over,” he says.
    After Yellen’s meal, the jian shou qing dish is reportedly selling like hot cakes at various branches of the restaurant where she dined, whose name translates to “In and Out” (though it is, obviously, not affiliated with the American burger chain). And while it might seem strange that a mushroom with the potential to make a diner see visions of tiny humans is a commonly consumed food, Kasson says that can be explained by differences in attitudes toward fungi more generally.
    “That’s not a surprise to me, because in the East, there’s a broader acceptance for fungal foraging, and there is a lot of respect for fungi in Eastern culture in both food and medicine,” he says. Westerners, on the other hand, “tend to vilify fungi — they’re associated with decay, they’re associated with death, or we think they’re going to kill us.”
    CORRECTION
    An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified West Virginia University as the University of West Virginia.



    By Emily Heil
    Emily Heil is a reporter covering national food news and trends. Previously, she co-authored the Reliable Source column for The Post.
    A bit sensational - like saying someone didn't know pufferfish was poisonous - but I'm amused nonetheless.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  7. #112
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    AI-written books

    Slighty OT for AI-Responses-to-Common-Kung-Fu-questions because it's not KF related (but relevant for the-magic-of-mushrooms). I may be hijacking this thread for AI-written stuff in general. I'm still getting an AI-written submission nearly every week.

    Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI
    Sample of books scored 100% on AI detection test as experts warn they contain dangerous advice

    Dan Milmo Global technology editor
    Fri 1 Sep 2023 12.32 EDT



    Amateur mushroom pickers have been urged to avoid foraging books sold on Amazon that appear to have been written by artificial intelligence chatbots.

    Amazon has become a marketplace for AI-produced tomes that are being passed off as having been written by humans, with travel books among the popular categories for fake work.

    Now a number of books have appeared on the online retailer’s site offering guides to wild mushroom foraging that also seem to be written by chatbots. The titles include “Wild Mushroom Cookbook: form [sic] forest to gourmet plate, a complete guide to wild mushroom cookery” and “The Supreme Mushrooms Books Field Guide of the South-West”.

    Four samples from the books were examined for the Guardian by Originality.ai, a US firm that detects AI content. The company said every sample had a rating of 100% on its AI detection score, meaning that its systems are highly confident that the books were written by a chatbot such as ChatGPT.

    Examples of prose from the books include: “The sweet smell of freshly cooked mushrooms wafted through the air, bringing back fond memories of my mother” and “Foraging for wild mushrooms is a deeply rewarding experience that connects us with nature’s abundance and the rich tapestry of flowers that the Earth provides.”

    The other books tested by Originality.ai were “Wild Mushroom Cookbook: A beginner’s guide to learning the basics of cooking with wild mushrooms for health and flavor, complete with easy-to-follow recipes!” and “Wild Mushroom Cookbook: unlock the delicious secrets of nature’s most flavorful fungi”. The Guardian has attempted to contact the authors named on the books.

    Leon Frey, a foraging guide and field mycologist at Cornwall-based Family Foraging Kitchen, which organises foraging field trips, said the samples he had seen contained serious flaws such as referring to “smell and taste” as an identifying feature. “This seems to encourage tasting as a method of identification. This should absolutely not be the case,” he said.

    Some wild mushrooms, like the highly poisonous death cap, which can be mistaken for edible varieties, are toxic.

    Frey said that one book refers to the lion’s mane fungus, which is edible but a protected species in the UK and should not be picked. “I would recommend choosing books from reputable sources,” he added.

    Prof Myron Smith, a fungi specialist at Carleton University in Canada, said the books were “totally irresponsible”. He said: “Some of the differences between edibles and non-edibles are very subtle and it really takes an experienced eye and knowledge to discriminate between them.”

    The AI mushroom books were first reported by the 404 Media site. The AI-generated works had also been highlighted by the New York Mycological Society, which posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “@Amazon and other retail outlets have been inundated with AI foraging and identification books. Please only buy books of known authors and foragers, it can literally mean life or death.”

    Amazon said it was reviewing the books brought to its attention by the Guardian.

    An Amazon spokesperson said: “We take matters like this seriously and are committed to providing a safe shopping and reading experience. We’re looking into this.”
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  8. #113
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    blaming shrooms...

    You'd be down after 48 hours unless you took a heroic dose or experienced a psychotic break during a trip tht triggered pre-existing factors.


    Alaska Air pilot in aborted flight said he used 'magic' mushrooms, documents show

    By David Shepardson and Steve Gorman
    October 25, 20237:37 AM PDTUpdated 21 min ago


    Oct 24 (Reuters) - An off-duty pilot charged with trying to disable the engines of an Alaska Airlines jet in flight told police afterward he was suffering a nervous breakdown, had taken psychedelic mushrooms two days earlier and had not slept in 40 hours, court documents showed on Tuesday.

    Joseph David Emerson, 44, an Alaska Airlines (ALK.N) pilot, was riding as a standby employee passenger in the cockpit "jump seat" of Sunday's flight, en route from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco, when the airborne altercation occurred, authorities said.

    After a brief scuffle inside the flight deck with the captain and first officer, Emerson ended up restrained by members of the cabin crew and was arrested in Portland, Oregon, where the flight was diverted and landed safely.

    He was charged in Oregon state court on Tuesday with 83 counts of attempted murder - one for every person aboard the plane besides himself - and a single count of endangering an aircraft.

    He pleaded not guilty to those charges at a brief arraignment on Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, and was ordered to remain in custody pending a detention hearing to be held within the next five days.

    Emerson was charged separately in federal court with one count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants.

    The criminal complaints in both cases were filed with sworn affidavits from investigators outlining a harrowing sequence of events that came close to shutting down hydraulic operation and fuel to both engines of the twin-jet aircraft, an Embraer 175.

    Alaska Airlines reported no blemishes in Emerson's employment record. And the head of a California flying club he once belonged to said Sunday's alleged behaviour was completely at odds with the meticulous, mild-mannered family man he remembered Emerson to be.

    MENTAL CRISIS SUGGESTED
    According to the affidavits, Emerson told police after his arrest that he was suffering a mental crisis during the incident and had struggled with depression for the past six months.

    The court documents said he also told police that he had taken "magic mushrooms" for the first time, ingesting them about 48 hours before boarding the plane.

    Alaska Air Group, the airline's parent company, said in a statement on Tuesday that at no time during the check-in or boarding process did employees observe any signs of impairment that would have led them to prevent Emerson from flying.

    Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 was operated by the group's regional subsidiary Horizon Air, the company said.


    Joseph David Emerson, 44, an Alaska Airlines pilot who was riding in the cockpit "jump seat" and is accused of trying to disable the engines of a Horizon Air jet, appears in Multnomah County court in Portland, Oregon, U.S. October 24, 2023. Dave Killen/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights

    Court documents gave no indication of whether investigators had confirmed any drug or alcohol use by the suspect, though one of the arresting officers told investigators that Emerson did not appear "outwardly under the influence of intoxicants."

    Medical research has shown that psilocybin, a naturally occurring hallucinogen found in certain mushroom varieties, to be beneficial in treating anxiety, depression and other mental disorders. A ballot measure approved by voters in 2020 made Oregon the first U.S. state to decriminalize psilocybin and to legalize its supervised therapeutic use for adults.

    COCKPIT AND CABIN STRUGGLES
    The two pilots who were at the controls of Flight 2059 told investigators, according to affidavits, that Emerson had started out chatting with them casually, before suddenly hurling his radio headset across the cockpit and saying, "I'm not OK."

    He then reached up and grabbed two red-colored fire-suppression handles, pulling them downward, the affidavits said.

    A scuffle ensued as one of the two pilots quickly clutched Emerson's wrist to keep him from fully engaging the handles, while the other declared an in-flight emergency, before Emerson abruptly quieted down again and left the cockpit.

    The flight crew later told investigators that had Emerson managed to fully deploy the shut-off handles, the plane was "seconds away" from being turned into a glider.

    In his interview with police, the affidavits said, Emerson acknowledged pulling the handles, saying he did so because he felt like he was trying to awaken from a dream.

    After leaving the cockpit, he was escorted to the back of the plane, placed in a flight attendant's seat and was fitted with handcuffs, having warned the cabin crew: "You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad," according to affidavits.

    Even as he was under restraint, the court documents said, Emerson tried to grab an emergency exit handle, but a flight attendant stopped him by placing her hands over his and making conversation to distract him.

    Another flight attendant was quoted as telling authorities she overheard Emerson say: "I messed everything up," and that he had stated that he had "tried to kill everybody."

    Emerson joined Alaska Air Group as a Horizon first officer in August 2001 and became a captain at Alaska Airlines in 2019, the carrier said, adding that "at no point were his certifications denied, suspended or revoked."

    A Federal Aviation Administration pilot database showed Emerson received a medical clearance last month. Aviators are expected to self-report any mental health conditions.

    Reporting by David Shepardson and Allison Lampert; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis, Mark Porter and Jamie Freed
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #114
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Designer Shrooms

    Magic Mushrooms: Why Psychedelic 'Designer Shrooms' Could Be The Future
    HEALTH
    09 December 2023
    By RUSSELL MCLENDON


    Cultivated magic mushrooms grown in Australia. (Alistair McTaggart/CC BY-SA)

    Magic mushrooms can do some amazing things, from triggering vivid hallucinations to temporarily "dissolving" a person's ego and potentially even relieving treatment-resistant depression.

    Humans have long marveled at these seemingly supernatural fungi, but thanks to modern genomics, we are gaining new insights about where their magic really comes from – and how we might harness it more effectively.

    A new study compiled genomic data for 124 different isolates and cultivars of the psilocybin-producing fungus Psilocybe cubensis, which humans have likely used to varying degrees since prehistory.

    The researchers sought to shed new light on P. cubensis, including how domestication and cultivation by humans have influenced its genetic diversity.

    They sequenced genomes of 38 isolates from a population of P. cubensis that appear to have been introduced and are now naturalized in Australia, then compared those with 86 commercial cultivars of P. cubensis, whose genomes had already been sequenced.

    The team from Australia and the US hoped to reveal the evolutionary history of the fungi growing wild in Australia and to learn how domestication has altered commercially available cultivars of the magic mushroom species.

    Commercial cultivars showed a dramatic lack of genetic diversity, the researchers report, likely owing to the effects of domestication.

    The naturalized population in Australia showed far more diversity, including unique gene variants that control production of the mushroom's active ingredient, psilocybin.

    "What was surprising was the extreme ****zygosity of some cultivars of magic mushroom," says lead author and mycologist Alistair McTaggart of the University of Queensland in Australia.

    "Some of these cultivars have been nearly stripped of any diversity except at their genes controlling sexual reproduction.

    "Whether this happened intentionally, by targeted inbreeding to fix traits over the last half century, or unintentionally through a lack of diversity to cross against is hard to know," he adds.

    In lieu of financial support, the study relied on a broad community of mushroom enthusiasts who collected the samples and shipped them at their own risk and expense, the authors note.


    (Alistair McTaggart/CC BY-SA)

    "The trailblazers who domesticated magic mushrooms have set the stage for how we can advance cultivation and innovate with shrooms as we improve our understanding of psilocybin and its benefits," McTaggart says.

    The population of P. cubensis in Australia is indeed naturalized, the study found, likely having been introduced from elsewhere and establishing itself in the wild, developing a population large enough to maintain genetic diversity.

    Commercial cultivars, on the other hand, lack diversity across their genomes, the researchers report. Humans likely had a hand in that, although many questions remain about our history of cultivating magic mushrooms, including why genetic diversity fell so far.

    Regardless, genetic diversity like that of Australia's naturalized population can help pull back the curtain further on magic mushrooms, offering valuable new details about what exactly they – and we – are capable of.

    These results suggest the Australian mushrooms' gene variants might enable differences in the way they produce psilocybin and related compounds, the authors report, noting some intriguing implications from this kind of insight.

    Their data on mating compatibility and diversity at the genes controlling psilocybin production, for example, "will advance breeding for 'designer shrooms,' in which heterozygosity of psilocybin alleles may unlock variety in the production of psychedelic tryptamines," McTaggart explains.

    Humans have a long history with shrooms, and although they've been widely banned as dangerous drugs in modern times, a growing body of research is also raising awareness of their therapeutic potential, including for severe depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

    "Magic mushrooms are the cheapest source of psilocybin and may fill a niche in natural drug development," McTaggart says. "There is yet more to understand about how magic mushrooms produce other compounds that may impact a psilocybin experience, and this will be an exciting area of research to watch unfold."

    The study was published in Current Biology.
    This stands to reason given what has happened to cannabis since it has been decriminalized in so many regions.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #115
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Death caps and destroying angels

    Beware: Deadly mushrooms are blooming across the East Bay
    Death caps and Western destroying angels, both common in Oakland, thrive after rainfall, the East Bay park district warns.
    by Iris Kwok
    Jan. 3, 2024, 10:12 a.m.

    Amanita mushrooms in display at the Tilden Fungi Fair on Jan. 28, 2023. Credit: Iris Kwok

    December pours spread fungal spores.

    The rainy season means a blooming of a colorful array of mushrooms — some of which are deadly — in wooded areas in and around Oakland.

    California Poison Control System operates a free hotline at 1-800-222-1222
    As it does every year around this time, the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is warning of the danger posed by toxic mushrooms — reminding park visitors that two of the world’s deadliest types of shrooms thrive in the East Bay: the Amanita phalloides (death cap) and the Amanita ocreata (Western destroying angel).

    Both are associated with oak trees, and can be found growing anywhere oak roots are present, according to the park district. Both the death cap and the destroying angel contain amatoxin, a lethal chemical compound that causes liver failure. Symptoms of mushroom poisoning typically appear around 12 hours after consumption.

    Mushrooms tend to thrive after heavy rains, but when it comes to deadly amanitas, it’s not a hard and fast rule, Debbie Viess, a retired zoologist who founded the Bay Area Mycological Society, told Berkeleyside last year.

    “Mushrooms don’t behave the same all the time. They have windows of fruiting and they have times that they like to fruit,” Viess said. “Amanitas share resources with many other mushroom species on the same tree. Sometimes they take turns, and sometimes they compete, so there’s really no predicting what’s going to come.”

    Other species of mushrooms, including the Lactarius rubidus (candy cap) — great in ice cream — and the plump, orblike Calvatia gigantea (giant puffball) — which can be sliced into discs and turned into a “pizza” — also thrive in the East Bay’s parks. But if you’re hoping to forage any, you’ll have to do it elsewhere, as mushroom collecting is prohibited in Tilden and other EBRPD parks.

    Experts generally advise against eating foraged mushrooms — especially when it’s one you can’t identify with utter certainty.

    The California Poison Control System, which took 71 calls for human mushroom exposures in Alameda County in 2021 and 2022, advises people to use caution and eat mushrooms from grocery stores, not friends. Most of those calls came from patients between 1 and 3 years old and those in their 20s, who were presumably “getting into stuff more deliberately,” CPCS executive director Stuart Heard has told Berkeleyside.

    In 2016, there were 1,328 emergency department visits nationwide and 100 hospitalizations from accidental poisonous mushroom ingestion, according to a 2021 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Pets are also at risk. Last January, one Berkeley resident spoke out to warn others after her puppy died from eating a death cap in Codornices Park. A Berkeley animal hospital said it sees about 20 suspect pet poisonings annually.

    To safely learn more about fungi, explore the East Bay Regional Park District’s toxic mushroom page(which contains handy photos of mushrooms to avoid) or visit the Tilden Fungus Fair on January 20 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Area.
    Tiger Claw HQ is in the lower East Bay...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  11. #116
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Deadly Morels

    THIS FUNGI'S NOT FUN, GUYS —
    Deadly morel mushroom outbreak highlights big gaps in fungi knowledge
    Prized morels are unpredictably and puzzlingly deadly, outbreak report shows.
    BETH MOLE - 3/15/2024, 9:51 AM

    Mature morel mushrooms in a greenhouse at an agriculture garden in Zhenbeibu Town of Xixia District of Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
    Getty | Xinhua/Wang Peng

    True morel mushrooms are widely considered a prized delicacy, often pricey and surely safe to eat. But these spongey, earthy forest gems have a mysterious dark side—one that, on occasion, can turn deadly, highlighting just how little we know about morels and fungi generally.

    On Thursday, Montana health officials published an outbreak analysis of poisonings linked to the honeycombed fungi in March and April of last year. The outbreak sickened 51 people who ate at the same restaurant, sending four to the emergency department. Three were hospitalized and two died. Though the health officials didn't name the restaurant in their report, state and local health departments at the time identified it as Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman. The report is published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

    The outbreak coincided with the sushi restaurant introducing a new item: a "special sushi roll" that contained salmon and morel mushrooms. The morels were a new menu ingredient for Dave's. They were served two ways: On April 8, the morels were served partially cooked, with a hot, boiled sauce poured over the raw mushrooms and left to marinate for 75 minutes; and on April 17, they were served uncooked and cold-marinated.

    The mystery poison worked fast. Symptoms began, on average, about an hour after eating at the restaurant. And it was brutal. "Vomiting and diarrhea were reportedly profuse," the health officials wrote, "and hospitalized patients had clinical evidence of dehydration. The two patients who died had chronic underlying medical conditions that might have affected their ability to tolerate massive fluid loss."

    Of the 51 sickened, 46 were restaurant patrons and five were employees. Among them, 45 (88 percent) recalled eating morels. While that's a high percentage for such an outbreak investigation, certainly enough to make the morels the prime suspect, the health officials went further. With support from the CDC, they set up a matched case-control study, having people complete a detailed questionnaire with demographic information, food items they ate at the restaurant, and symptoms.

    Mysterious poison

    Forty-one of the poisoned people filled out the questionnaire, as did 22 control patrons who ate at the restaurant but did not report subsequent illness. The analysis indicated that the odds of recalling eating the special sushi roll were nearly 16 times higher among the poisoned patrons than among the controls. The odds of reporting any morel consumption were nearly 11 times higher than controls.

    The detailed consumption data also allowed the health officials to model a dose response, which suggested that with each additional piece of the special roll a person recalled eating, their odds of sickness increased nearly threefold compared with people who reported eating none. Those who ate four or more pieces of the roll had odds nearly 22.5 times higher. A small analysis focusing on the five employees sickened, which was not included in the published study but was noted by the Food and Drug Administration, echoed the dose-response finding, indicating that sickness was linked with larger amounts of morel consumption.

    When the officials broke down the analysis by people who ate at the restaurant on April 17, when the morels were served uncooked, and those who ate at the restaurant on April 8, when the mushrooms were slightly cooked, the cooking method seemed to matter. People who ate the uncooked rather than the slightly cooked mushrooms had much higher odds of sickness.

    This all strongly points to the morels being responsible. At the time, the state and local health officials engaged the FDA, as well as the CDC, to help tackle the outbreak investigation. But the FDA reported that "samples of morel mushrooms collected from the restaurant were screened for pesticides, heavy metals, toxins, and pathogens. No significant findings were identified." In addition, the state and local health officials noted that DNA sequencing identified the morels used by the restaurant as Morchella sextelata, a species of true morel. This rules out the possibility that the mushrooms were look-alike morels, called "false morels," which are known to contain a toxin called gyromitrin.

    The health officials and the FDA tracked down the distributor of the mushrooms, finding they were cultivated and imported fresh from China. Records indicated that 12 other locations in California also received batches of the mushrooms. Six of those facilities responded to inquiries from the California health department and the FDA, and all six reported no illnesses. They also all reported cooking the morels or at least thoroughly heating them.

    Morel of the story

    The poisonous agent that appears to have been lurking in the mushrooms remains a mystery. But this is not the first time that morels have been linked to unexplained poisonings. In 2019, morel mushrooms were a suspect in an outbreak at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain. In that outbreak, 29 people were sickened, including one 46-year-old woman, who died. (In 2020, a judge ruled that the death was due to natural causes.) And according to a report from the US Department of Agriculture, there is a story reported by multiple reputable sources in the 1990s of a retirement banquet for a police chief in Vancouver, British Columbia. "A pasta salad with raw morel, shiitake, and button mushrooms was served, followed by 77 of the 483 attendees experiencing distress, many vomiting dramatically," the report said.

    The USDA report emphasizes how little we understand about morels, noting that their taxonomy is confusing and many of the species in North America don't even have official names. "Their biology, nutritional sources, life cycle, and modes of reproduction are unusual and complex," the report noted. They're difficult to cultivate, and it's unclear why they seem to proliferate after forest disturbances, such as fires and tree death.

    It's also unclear if they sometimes contain toxins, like their look-alikes. But morels can readily absorb toxic minerals and compounds, such as heavy metals and pesticides, from the soil where they grow, the USDA notes. Whatever potentially poisonous component they contain, "Morels are more likely to cause intestinal distress if eaten raw, although even raw, they can be tolerated by some people," the agency wrote. Morels should be cooked before eating, as cooking can destroy bacterial contaminants. "For that matter, all mushrooms, wild or cultivated, should be cooked to release their full nutritional value because chitin in their cell walls otherwise inhibits digestion," the USDA writes.

    Additionally, the FDA stresses that proper fungi handling is also critical. Mushrooms should be refrigerated (at temperatures of 40° F or below) and kept in breathable packaging, allowing airflow that prevents the growth of harmful bacteria and toxins.

    In addition to serving the morels uncooked, Dave's Sushi may have made a misstep in handling the morels. The health officials noted in their report that "multiple violations were identified at the time of inspection, including temperature control issues, improper time control and sanitization procedures, and improper storage of personal items." The report notes that Dave's addressed the health code violations and reopened after the outbreak but elected to stop serving morels.



    BETH MOLE
    Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes.
    Buddha died eating bad mushrooms. It can happen to anyone...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  12. #117
    Greetings,

    The use of mushrooms for psychedelic purposes has been going on since very ancient times. There has been a lot of responsible research on which mushrooms to use for such purposes. The real issue here is that "magic" mushrooms are very hard to control because of their abundance and because there are people taking the path of growing their own. The only way to assert any kind of control with mushrooms is through the use of FEAR. The previous two posts, while informative, are a veiled stab at the use of mushrooms for psychedelic purposes, citing DANGER. One would have to consume a ridiculously large amount of magic 'shrooms to even begin to have problems. These scare tactics were done with sassafras and there are people who still believe it causes cancer; yet, no one screamed "CANCER" when Ecstasy was in vogue. By the way, if you don't know, Ecstasy comes from sassafras.

    mickey

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •