#7 – Magic Mushrooms

Commonly thought of as natural LSD, psilocybin, or ‘magic’ mushrooms are fungi that contain psychoactive indole alkaloids. Although archaeological evidence indicates the use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in ancient times, their height of popularity came in the 1960s when people would take ‘shrooms’ to embark on quests of spiritual and psychological enlightenment.

Possession of psilocybin-containing mushrooms was outlawed in the late 1960s in the U.S. and U.K but in their fresh form, still remain legal in some countries such as Austria.

Some Quick Facts About Magic Mushrooms

• The hallucinagenic effects of magic mushrooms can take between 30 minutes to two hours to kick in. The strongest part of the ‘trip’ can last for 4-10 hours and the after-effects usually last a further 2-6 hours
• Just as with LSD, people who take magic mushrooms can have a good trip or a bad trip and you can’t tell which it is going to be until you have taken them
• Psilocybin mushrooms occur on all continents, but the majority of species are found in subtropical humid forests
• Magic mushrooms are not addictive, but like with LSD you can become tolerant of the effects quite quickly meaning you’ll need to take more to get the same effect as before