Subject: Psychoactive Morels

From: [email-masked] (STEPHEN BURDEN)
Date: 8 Jun 1995 21:36:56 GMT

Someone told me that certain species of Morels "pack a punch." Has
anyone experienced intoxication resulting from ingestion of Morels? Was
it pleasurable?

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From: [email-masked] (Eric Hirst)
Date: 9 Jun 1995 19:30:27 GMT

>anyone experienced intoxication resulting from ingestion of Morels? Was

If you prepare them in a tasty enough manner, they can cause
extreme pleasure, but probably not enough to bristle the DEA.
My parents report vivid dreams after a good meal of wild mushrooms
as well.

But the most entertaining side effect of morels for me has been
visual.  After every morel hunt, whenever I close my eyes I
see morels.  This spring, I found myself closing my eyes and
seeing hundreds of morels.  A week later, after an even better
hunt, I closed my eyes and kept seeing BIG morels!

This happens only with morels, I think (maybe boletes and gypsys too,
but not chanterelles or hedgehogs), and several of my friends
have had it happen as well.  The search image seems to burn into
the retina for a good 12 hours.  Anyone else experience this?

Eric Hirst
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (BrianMc)
Date: 10 Jun 1995 01:41:50 -0400

The search image really DOES get burnt into one's retina.  I find that
after several days of intense morel gathering  (itself a source of
pleasureful stimulation), I see morels even when they aren't there.  This
is certainly not the result of psychoactive properties of the mushrooms,
as I usually take all my collections home and dry them.

----------------------------------------------------------
| Brian McNett                  e-mail: <[email-masked]>
| Editor: MycoInfo         Submissions: <[email-masked]> 
|        Promoting Mycology in the Online Community

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From: [email-masked] (Steve Pencall)
Date: 9 Jun 1995 20:07:06 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked]  
> anyone experienced intoxication resulting from ingestion of Morels? Was

This probably falls into the category of urban (forest?) folklore.  In  
over 10 years of experience I have never heard of a psychoactive reaction  
>from  morels.  Some (very few) people experience an allergic reaction to  
cooked morels--nausea, GI distress,etc--and lot more have experienced the  
same reaction from raw morels.  But intoxication--nope!

Gyromitra species which are sometimes mistaken for morels by inexperienced  
collectors contain a compound called gyromitrin which is acutely toxic in  
large amounts (it has caused a number of fatal poisonings in Europe) and  
carcinogenic when consumed in subacute doses over sustained periods of  
time.  When heated gyromitrin releases the compound N-methylhydrazine,  
sometimes used as rocket fuel.

Looks like you'll just have to content yourself with Psilocybes, Paneolus  
species and the like.

Steve Pencall
Editor, The Spore Print
Journal of the Los Angeles Mycological Society

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"Leave the beaten path and dive into the woods"
--Alexander Graham Bell

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From: [email-masked] (Steven Carpenter)
Date: 12 Jun 1995 13:15:32 GMT

Many years ago I spoke with some people who had eat large amounts of
morels over a period of several days.  They experienced a minor loss of
coordination temporarily, such as not being able to get the fork of morels
to their mouth on the first try.  Whether they were eating morels or
Verpa I cannot vouch.

This wouldn't account for a true psychoactive response, but mimics some
of the side-effects.