Do you know the mushroom man?

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sciborg2

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« on: August 06, 2019, 09:09:58 pm »
Do you know the mushroom man?

Chris Taylor

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Stamets has been credited with discovering four new mushroom species and holds eight patents. One of them, for a mushroom-based pesticide, could reportedly upend Monsanto's business model. He has worked with the Pentagon (on mushrooms that cure tuberculosis) and rocked the mic at TED (a 2008 TED talk, viewed more than 5 million times, is the reason Star Trek producers called him in the first place). He's a character in a bestselling book, an author of five books himself, and an old friend of “Optimum Health” guru Dr. Andrew Weil.

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At the conclusion of the talk, Stamets unveils the recent discovery that male cicadas fly around with their asses covered in mushroom spores. The mushroom in question isn't psychedelic, but it does seem to manufacture both psilocybin and an amphetamine when it's on a cicada butt. We don’t know why or how, exactly, and when you follow the research it's pretty terrifying. The spores turn the cicadas into sex-crazed zombies while simultaneously castrating them. Their butts literally fall off, spreading spores far and wide in the process.

But Stamets digs out a fascinating detail — the infected cicadas imitate the female mating call, causing more male-on-male mating — and quickly pivots to the point that psilocybin simultaneously makes us friendlier, more "feminized," less aggressive and more courageous, desirable qualities both in a mate and in a leader. He gets a standing ovation from his tatooed, pierced, dreadlocked audience.

If this all makes Stamets sound like the Timothy Leary of 'shrooms, “crashing around America selling consciousness expansion for three bucks a hit,” to use Hunter S. Thompson’s famous put down of the LSD-pushing former Harvard psychologist — well, that’s not really the case. First of all, Stamets will never give you a dose of psilocybin himself. He’s still wired by paranoia from his days as a DEA-licensed mushroom researcher, worried that anyone could be a potential undercover DEA agent.

He’ll just tell you what parts of the forest in which to find it, how not to mistake it for poisonous mushrooms, and how to store it. His current favorite system involves crushed mushroom juice in ice. (“Ice cubes are great for Burning Man,” he says, deadpan.)

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Secondly, a big portion of Stamets’ spiel, even here among a highly receptive crowd, is about telling people that it’s a profoundly good thing to treat mushrooms as sacred — and thus severely curtail the amount they ingest. He will note that psilocybin has proven effective in the treatment of PTSD, but will also point to a study that shows mice recover from traumatic experiences faster if they take a smaller dose. He will strongly suggest that anyone disposed to take it should “stack” it, in the terminology of drug makers, with the B vitamin known as niacin — partly because it helps unlock the effects, partly because niacin makes your skin flush at high doses, so you don’t want to take too much.

Stamets’ cautious approach to his wonder drug has also infected the movement now pushing for its decriminalization — when it, too, could have gone in the Timothy Leary direction. (He also hates the word 'shrooms.)

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In October 2018, a former chief of staff to the Oakland City Council president named Carlos Plazola, unaware of Stamets’ advice, took what he calls a “heroic dose” of psilocybin mushrooms, then asked his cousin to lock him in his bedroom for five hours.

Luckily, Plazola had the best possible outcome: a life-changing trip. “There was before, and there was after,” he says now. His immediate epiphany: “This needs to be available to people who suffer from trauma and self-annihilating thoughts.” Unlike most ‘shroomers, he had City Hall connections.

More lucky still, then, that last December Plazola hooked up with a so-called “sacred garden,” a 'shroom-friendly group in Oakland that included some old friends of Stamets’. Together, they talked about how they would pitch decriminalization to the City Council. Caution, Stamets-style small doses and education were emphasized. Plazola read up on Stamets.

In January, Plazola became co-founder of a new pressure group, Decriminalize Nature Oakland. The same month Stamets spoke at Lightning in a Bottle they swayed city officials during a hearing at City Hall, winning the attention of a packed house.

Francis Buck

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« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2019, 03:29:41 am »
I like literally everything I heard about him from that article! I'll definitely have to check out the TED  talk, at the very least.

sciborg2

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« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2019, 12:04:27 pm »
I like literally everything I heard about him from that article! I'll definitely have to check out the TED  talk, at the very least.

So you're itching to have your spore-infected ass fall off? Talk about being a total cuck ;-P

Francis Buck

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« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2019, 01:45:19 pm »
I like literally everything I heard about him from that article! I'll definitely have to check out the TED  talk, at the very least.

So you're itching to have your spore-infected ass fall off? Talk about being a total cuck ;-P

Any price for transcendence!

TLEILAXU

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« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2019, 08:24:20 am »
IIRC this guy claimed his mom's cancer was cured by mushrooms. I think he's a scammer.

themerchant

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« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2019, 02:26:15 pm »
“heroic dose” Trademark of Terrence Mckenna.

sciborg2

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« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2019, 04:35:26 am »
IIRC this guy claimed his mom's cancer was cured by mushrooms. I think he's a scammer.

Sauce?

TLEILAXU

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« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2019, 01:36:57 pm »
IIRC this guy claimed his mom's cancer was cured by mushrooms. I think he's a scammer.

Sauce?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHDoROh2hA
Last 3-4 minutes.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2019, 01:59:46 pm by TLEILAXU »