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Ltd Ed 'Solve et Elucido' Art Giclee
This reverberating psychedelic giclee print is a gift for a
$500 donation to Erowid. 12" x 12", stretched on canvas, the
image wraps around the sides of the 1" thick piece. Signed
by artist Vibrata, and Erowid founders Earth & Fire.
Preparation information about A. muscaria
by Petri

At first I'd like to say that I'm very pleased to hear that people are interested in this fine sacred mushroom! I have taken it 3 times at doses from 5-15g and my experiences have been very nice and somewhat weird. I don't know why but this substance is one of the most natural drugs you can take. Maybe because it is almost the only entheogen that has had sacred uses in my home country Finland. Also one can go and pick them from nature - THEY GROW EVERYWHERE and I think they are the better ones (A. muscaria var. muscaria), but not sure though (if someone has more info on "finnish situation" let me know). All you people have read that these mushrooms have been taken in Siberia, but it's not that simple - they have been taken by LAPPISH SHAMANS who have lived in Siberia, Northern Finland (and maybe in Sweden and Norway too). Oh! and one might ask why don't I eat them more if they are that good? Well I don't know :/ I could pick kilos of them every fall, but there is something in the mushroom that tells me that "don't do this too often - it's for special occasions only!".

How do I prepare them? You should dry them first so all the ibotenic acid (bad stuff) will turn to muscimol which is what you want. Drying has to be done in a temperature of about 170-200F to make the reaction to happen. If you dry them in an oven leave the door little open to let the steam come out. When the mushrooms are heated they will "sweat" their juice out and you don't want that to happen so pour the semi-dried juice back over the mushrooms and do this as often as needed. When the drying is done you may do what ever you want with this stuff: you may make a meal, boil some tea, eat them like that, extarct the alkaloids or smoke them (that didn't work for me though) , but don't take more than 5g at the first time! The dosage varies lot from a person to a person and the potency of the mushrooms varies too. If you have lot to spare throw away the gills and stems and keep just the skin and the yellowish flesh under the skin, because they are the best parts. All the 3 doses I have taken have been only this good part ... like I said there is no lack of them over here.

One more IMPORTANT THING: The mushrooms may cause nausea which is EASILY handeled with cannabis. I know that MJ is a good anti-nausea medicine, but it's AWESOME with A. muscaria! ALL THE NAUSEA will be gone with just a toke of MJ! This makes also the trip stronger which might not otherwice get strong enough. Here is one of my experiences in a written format. You might have seen it on the net because it has been there for years. Please notice that there is some differences in the preparation and etc. between what I told and what is in the story. This is just because I know more now than back then, so rather trust what I told you above.

--- Pete