83. Coming Home to the Mushroom Elders - Amanita Dreamer

When Amanita muscaria says “Hey bitch, what’s up?”, you listen. Also known as the fly agaric, this most culturally significant fungi of all time has been maligned and misunderstood by modern people. May we reweave the ancient relationship between Amanita and humans and hear what these sentient, wise beings are saying to us.

IN THE INTERVIEW:

• How a chance encounter with Amanita muscaria saved AD’s life the day before she was going to end it (trauma, anxiety, and the pharmacological lobotomy that is benzodiazepines)
• The nuances of our bodies that are written in to our nervous systems
• The long history between Amanita muscaria and human beings
• Examining the myth that the fly agaric is deadly
• Nerding out on science and how Amanita affects the GABA neural pathways to help with anxiety and being stuck in fight-or-flight
• The two main active constituents in this fungus: ibotenic acid and muscimol and their effects
• There is great medicinal variability in Amanita compared to psilocybin
• This is the kind of mushroom that asks you to slow down and pay attention
• Preparing the medicine to get the most consistent dosing 
• When mammal meets fungi meets bacteria- was Soma (the revered ancient intoxicant whose ingredients are shrouded in mystery) Amanita muscaria processed with raw milk?
• This medicine, the ancestors, and drums are intertwined in the ancient human past
• When you don’t “get anything” from an entheogenic substance
• Using Amanita as a topical oil
• Science, regulation, patents, commerce and the future of this fungus

RESOURCES (if listening on an app that doesn’t support embedded links, find these at https://mythicmedicine.love/podcast):

• AmanitaDreamer.net
• Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
• My website MythicMedicine.love 
• Take our fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz
• Fly Agaric: A Compendium of History, Pharmacology, Mythology, & Exploration edited by Kevin Feeney
• The Vaults of Erowid
• Psyched Wellness’ research on Amanita
• Medicine Stories Facebook group
• Mythic Medicine on Instagram
• Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)