Anyone who has ever had the chance to experience a successful magic mushroom or magic truffle trip knows that it can undoubtedly be one of the most life-changing and breathtaking moments of your life. The unprecedented visual changes, the ability to see your own life from a completely different perspective… the positive effects of psilocybin sometimes seem endless. At the same time, we also know that a bad trip can be very, very unpleasant. But there may soon be a solution for that…
No more bad trips?
The easiest solution to never experiencing a bad trip again is, of course, to simply never try magic mushrooms in the first place. But then again, that’s obviously a lot less fun, and in our opinion, you’re just missing out on a whole lot of life experience if you deprive yourself of psychedelics. A bit like Terence McKenna once said: “I think of going to the Grave without having a Psychedelic Experience is like going to the Grave without ever having Sex. It means that you never Figured out what it is all about. The Mystery is in the Body and the way the Body Works itself into Nature.”
In short: abstaining is simply not an option for the true psychonaut. Another solution may lie in science. Researchers at a company called CaaMTech believe they have identified the molecule that influences positive psychedelic experiences. The team of scientists, working in a small research lab in the North American city of Issaquah, is engaged in a truly extraordinary project: creating magic mushrooms that cannot give you a bad trip. Wow!
The perfect magic mushroom
CaaMTech, a relatively new company, is no rookie when it comes to psychedelics. They’ve been researching the properties of various compounds in hallucinogenic magic mushrooms for over a year now, aiming to pinpoint exactly which substances cause which effects. In this way, the company hopes to optimize psilocybin-containing mushrooms (and perhaps truffles as well) to develop the perfect—bad trip-free—magic mushroom.
“We believe that preventing bad trips can increase the success rate for patients,” Andrew Chadeayne, founder and CEO of CaaMTech, told the online psychedelic magazine DoubleBlind. “We want to find a way to at least give people the opportunity to increase the likelihood of a euphoric experience rather than a dysphoric one,” he continued.
Aeruginascine
The specific compound that’s currently attracting so much attention? That’s the naturally occurring compound aeruginascine. Aeruginascine is considered one of the chemicals that work together with psilocybin to create the unique magic mushroom trip. Scientists believe this compound may have the potential to drastically reduce bad trips, or perhaps even eliminate them entirely. You get the picture: if this is confirmed, it would be an extremely significant discovery for both you, the home tripper, and the medical world.
German mycologist and chemist Jochen Gartz also believes that this specific substance could be groundbreaking. “Aeruginascin is now a hot topic in this wave of new psilocybin therapies,” says the brilliant mind. It was Gartz who discovered the compound in the 1980s while studying people during their magic mushroom trips. He found that while some people reported feelings of deep dysphoria and anxiety, it was primarily users of Inocybe aeruginascens who had an exclusively positive experience.
It all sounds very promising, but it could still take many years before such a magic mushroom sees the light of day. Until then, you’ll just have to do your best to avoid bad trips, and if you do end up in one, we always have our powerful Mister Make Trip Stoppers.
