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.In antiquity, the entire mass of the ergot was used in thepreparation of the hallucinogenic potion, in which the combined actions of ergonovine andergine could enhance the potency of each other and produce a considerably more powerfuleffect.The biochemistry of Psilocybe mushroom became better understood with the publication ofAlbert Hofmann's laboratory results in 1964.41 He isolated the main psychodynamicchemical agents, which he named psilocybin and psilocin.The first alkaloid, psilocybin, is aphosphoric acid ester of 4-hydroxydimethyltryptamine, with a chemical structure resemblingthat of serotonin, a substance with an important role in the chemical function of mammalianbrain; the other, psilocin, is an unstable compound.The psychoactive ingredients compriseabout 0.03% of the total weight of the mushroom.This structural relationship of the chemicalcompounds is responsible for the mystical effects caused by the excitation of the sympatheticnervous system.Visual and auditory senses become considerably heightened, resulting invisionary exper- Page 147iences, and the person's memory bank often becomes unlocked to release events of a farremoved and forgotten past.Dramatic transformations of consciousness, with changes inallopsychic orientations and perceptual alterations of one's own psychic and physical states,can be brought about in human beings with doses ranging from 6.0 to 20.0 milligrams, withoutany physical side-effects.It seems, almost, to be the fate of Swiss scientists to decode the enigmas of mycologicalperplexities.Conrad H.Eugster, a chemist, and Peter G.Waser, a pharmacologist, bothprofessors at the University of Zurich, provided the world with clues to the nature of the fly-agaric, Amanita muscaria.42 For a long time, it was believed that muscarine played animportant role in the psychodynamic chemistry of this mushroom.Although, in fact,muscarine is present, it has but a minor position in its chemical structure.Instead, two othersubstances contribute, mainly, to the neurochemical activities: muscimole and ibotenic acid,both isoxazoles, with others still to be examined in closer detail.Muscimole is formed byunsaturated cyclic hydroxamic acid, and, essentially, manages to retain in the kidneys itsunchanged characteristics; it, therefore, constitutes the pharmacological keynote to the urinephenomenon (discussed in the previous chapter), a unique property of the fly-agaric.Wasson,who was not a stranger to the effects of A.muscaria commented: "A peculiar feature of thefly-agaric is that its hallucinogenic properties pass into the urine, and another may drink thisurine to enjoy the same effect."43 Muscarine, on the other hand, believed to cause heavysweating and twitching, seems to be filtered out by the kidneys, and is absent in the urine.At the same time, the ibotenic acid tends to convert naturally to the more stable muscimole,producing more of the active ingredient for progressively induced neurophysiologicalprocesses.Ibotenic acid is present in the fresh fly-agaric in widely varying amounts, ranging horn 0.03% to 0.1%.When the fly-agaric dries, the ibotenic acid steadily disintegrates and disappears.T hus we have the uniquesituation where a psychotomimetic agent converts itself through simple drying into another active agentthat is more potent and far more stable.In Soma I [Wasson writes] give in extenso (and in summary on pp.153 ff.) the almost unanimous testimony, extending over two centuries and throughout almost the whole ofthe northern tier of tribes from the valley of the Ob to the Chukotka, that the fly-agaric must not be eatenfresh: it should be dried, preferably sun-dried.The empirical knowledge of the Siberian natives is nowconfirmed by [Conrad] Eugster.44 Page 148Lest I be charged with a major omission, a comment ought to be made about thepsychoactive qualities of tobacco, especially the constituent alkaloid nicotine.Wilbert, whodirects the Latin American Center at UCLA, observes that the revered use of tobaccothroughout the ancient Western Hemisphere is shown to be conditioned by the psycho-physiological effects tying its use, even today, to the "basic tenets of shamanistic ideology." 45The various phenomena associated with tobacco shamanism, such as night vision46 andshamanic voices, must be regarded as functions of the rate of nicotine absorption by thehuman body, and of the biophysical conditions under which the particular variety ofNicotiana spp.is flourishing
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