Psychoactive Amanitas: Divine Mushroom of Immortality

{''Amanita muscaria'' near Tyndrum, Scotland. Picture by Tim Bekaert}

Commonly called Fly Agaric, Amanita Muscaria mushrooms come from the family Amanitaceae. They contain the psychoactive chemicals ibotenic acid & muscimol.

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Legal Status of Psychoactive Amanitas.

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Other mushrooms in the Amanita genus are deadly poisonous. Two of the deadliest mushrooms known:

The Destroying Angel (A. virosa)

{Italy, B.Baldassari}

&

Death Cap (A. phalloides)

{Piacenza's mountains, Archenzo}

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In 1968, R. Gordon Wasson proposed that the A. muscaria {fly agaric} was in fact the entheogenic sacrament described by early Hindus in the Rig Veda as Soma.

Many hymns in the Rig Veda are in praise of Soma. "The drinkable, Immortal, living God, Soma, is mentioned in almost every one of the thousand Hymns as the preferred drink of both Gods and men. There are one hundred and fourteen Hymns specifically about Soma in book nine of the Rig Veda plus a few Soma hymns scattered through the other books of the Rig Veda."
{Read on here.}

There has been much speculations as to the original Rig Veda Soma plant.

{Read more about that here.}

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Onto some beautiful photographs:

Images of these gorgeous mushrooms
More images of the Amanita muscaria variety

And a breathtaking 3 day time lapse of an Amanita Muscaria.

~aymi