I don't think I blogged the time a couple of years ago I ate a whole mushroom I picked from the side of the walking trail in Harrods Hill Park, Lexington, Ky.
When encountering wild mushrooms, I normally take a bite, chew it, see how alkaline it tastes, & spit it out. This one I took a bite of, it was so delicious, I ate the whole thing.
90 minutes later, my GI tract declared an Emergency System Purge. After trying to vomit 20 x, I finally called my wife the pharmacist to ask if there was anything I could take to stop vomiting. It finally let up.
My wife thought that my reaction was due to herbicides used to treat the turf at the park rather than the mushroom.
I don't remember how I got pointed at this BBC article a few days ago, but it definitely got my attention.
'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humansThe mushroom is lanmaoa asiatica. Everywhere they are found, it is well known: if you eat them without cooking them enough, you see little people.
Seeing little people is known as Lilliputian hallucinations. It is a component of several mental pathologies. It is hoped that study of the mushrooms will lead to understanding of the neural problems causing this type of hallucination in general.
It is interesting & unusual that these mushrooms seem to only cause this 1 type of hallucination. So far, the hallucinogen responsible for the little people has not been isolated.
I will definitely rein in my citizen scientist impulses with regard to this whole thing. It is a bad trip, usually lasting 2-3 days & occasionally prompting a week in the hospital. So, no lanmaoa asiatica for me, thanks!
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