How mushrooms work, taste and feel:

What does it look like?

Many poisonous mushrooms look very similar to ‘magic mushrooms’ and it’s easy for pickers to mistake them. People have fallen severely ill or even died from eating a poisonous mushroom.

Magic mushrooms are often sold raw or dried. In the UK, the most common types are liberty caps (Psilocybe semilanceata) and fly agaric (Amanita muscaria).

• Liberty caps look like small tan-colored mushrooms
• Fly agarics look like red and white spotted toadstools

It’s important to know that some types of magic mushrooms are stronger than others. For example, the fly agaric mushroom is usually more potent than the liberty cap mushroom.

Liquid psilocybin is another way of taking magic mushrooms. It’s made by extracting psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic drug found in mushrooms like liberty caps, and is a clearish pale brown color. It comes in vials (small bottles).

What does it taste/smell like?

Liberty caps are usually eaten raw and have a strong earthy taste and rubber-like texture – which makes them very chewy.

They don’t taste like the mushrooms you cook with at home, and some people try to hide the flavor by putting them in an omelet or in tea.

Mushroom consumption method:

By eating it: After picking, liberty caps are often eaten raw or are dried out and stored. People don’t tend to eat fly agaric mushrooms raw as they can make you feel very sick.

By drinking it: Some people make tea from dried mushrooms.

By taking drops of liquid psilocybin: Liquid psilocybin is made by extracting psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic drug found in mushrooms like liberty caps.

How does it make you feel?

The strength of magic mushrooms varies depending on their freshness, the season, and where they grow. It’s very difficult to predict the strength of magic mushrooms.

For most people, the world appears distorted when they take mushrooms. Colors, sounds, objects, and even time can all seem very different.

Some people get mild hallucinations, which are also called ‘visuals’.

Taking mushrooms can make you feel:

• very giggly
• euphoric
• in awe of the people and things around you
• energized
• excited

It can also make you feel:

• paranoid
• anxious
• panicked
• overwhelmed
• like vomiting

How you feel will be affected by how much you take, your surroundings, who you’re with, and how comfortable you are with them, as well as by your mood.

So if you’re in a bad mood, feeling worried or depressed, the magic mushrooms might just make those feelings worse.

How does it make people behave?

This depends on how many magic mushrooms the person takes. If the person takes a small dose of mushrooms you may not even notice that they’re on it.

People who take larger doses of mushrooms can act unpredictably. They can laugh a lot, become fixated on certain things, be emotional or get paranoid.