From: [j--r--y] at [acusd.edu] (Jerry Stratton)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.psychedelics
Subject: Re: amanita prep stuff
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 1995 11:49:47 -0800

Robert Morrison King <[x 94 qvi] at [juliet.stfx.ca]> wrote:
>One thing I noticed is that when a friend picks these in the wild, then 
>attempts to dry them, little worm-like creatures start eating the 
>mushrooms...  So, he was brainstorming of some ways to get rid of these 
>"foreign invaders".  One way he suggested was to soak the mushroom in 
>water for a day to kill them off, then drying them in an oven.  Would 
>this work, or are there any other possible ways?

Andrew Weil, in "The Marriage of the Sun and Moon", describes another
technique: 

   In front of the altar was a small charcoal fire. On it Julieta burned
   incense--_copal_ (a resin related to frankincense) and _palo santo_ (an
   aromatic wood). She sat beside me on a woven mat, purifying her hands
   and face in the fragrant smoke while whispering prayers. She asked me
   to cleanse myself in the smoke in the same way. Then she took up the
   mushrooms in the sheet of newspaper, studied them for a long time,
   picking up one and then another, all the time praying and wafting
   incense smoke over herself. The mushrooms were about two days old by
   now, somewhat wrinkled and dry, with many larvae and little winged
   insects crawling over them. Julieta bathed them in the smoke, praying
   more fervently. Her husband and the servant girl retired several paces
   to a darker area of the kitchen and waited in silence.

   When the incense was consumed, Julieta took a small dried chili pod
   and placed it on the glowing charcoal. She passed the mushrooms through
   the acrid smoke that went up from the chili, and instantly the larvae
   and insects crawled out of the mushrooms and died on the newspaper. The
   chili was removed and more copal put in its place.

A great book. Very entertaining.

Jerry
[j--r--y] at [acusd.edu]
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