NATIONAL MUSHROOM MONTH: All through September, National Mushroom Month celebrates the wide variety of "mushrooms" (the fruiting bodies of fungal mycelia) that are available.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also takes advantage of the opportunity to educate people on the versatility mushrooms offer, including their many health benefits.
As a result, mushrooms are gaining more and more appreciation as we learn more about them.
#NationalMushroomMonth
To fully celebrate the heritage of mushrooms (shrooms, toadstools, Easter eggs, fun guys in the garden...), we must first learn about the Mushroom Capital of the World.
Located just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one will find a small town known Kennett Square. Surprisingly, this small Pennsylvanian borough produces over one million pounds of mushrooms a day.
Each year Kennett Square holds the annual Mushroom Festival starting with a parade.
Visitors also enjoy tours of mushroom farms or visit vendors to buy food and other goods.
'Shroom Science
Scientifically, mushrooms belong to the fungi kingdom (not plant, not mineral, not animal).
Fungi grow from carbon and energy from dead plants (particularly the cellulose sugar and chitin proteins from husks) and animals. Interestingly, this has helped scientists to conclude mushroom DNA is more similar to humans than it is to plants, as previously thought.
Through the study of mushrooms, scientists learn more about fungi, especially identifying whether they are single-cell or multicellular organisms.
Mushrooms contain many useful nutrients. Because of this, mushrooms are an excellent source of vitamins (particularly Vitamin D, which significantly increases when cut mushrooms are placed in the sun). Eating mushrooms is a great way to naturally get copper, fiber, potassium, protein, selenium, Vitamin B, and zinc into the human body.
As scientists continue to study mushrooms, there is hope of discovering more medicinal uses -- such as treating depression, PTSD, phobias such as an intense fear of death, and other mental conditions, as with LSD, which is a fungus called ergot that grows on rye). These discoveries only add to the many benefits of mushrooms.
Mushrooms are either edible (nutritious, entheogenic) or inedible (toxic, poisonous). We find edible mushrooms in cuisine throughout the world. Almost all mushrooms available at the store are cultivated and safe rather than wildcrafted (foraged) and risky. These types of mushrooms are available year-round.
The most common cultivated mushroom are the white button, flavorful cremini (just a baby portobello), earthy adult portobello, shiitake, tasty tree oyster, maitake, but most mushroom eat (particularly in the form of mushroom soups) contains no soup at all but the more reliable mycelia).
"There are old mushroom hunters, and there are bold mushroom hunters, but no old-bold ones."
Inedible mushrooms are often found popping up in the wild, though many also grow in backyards and moist front lawns. However, it can be difficult to determine whether a mushroom is poisonous or safe to eat. It takes more than a guidebook; it takes an expert. There are no reliable shortcuts, hacks, or rules of thumb to depend on. For example, some think mushrooms that have red on the cap or stem are known to be poisonous, or that stems that bruise purple are hallucinogenic, but it is nowhere near that easy to tell. Avoid eating mushrooms with white gills, a skirt, or a ring on the stem -- or anything else until knowing with certainty that it is safe for consumption. Not all poisonous mushrooms are deadly; many might just cause a stomachache or voiding. But often there are no symptoms just liver damage leading to death days later. Because wild mushrooms are hard to identify, leave identification of wild mushrooms to professional mycologists and mushroom hunters and foragers.
Eating poisonous mushrooms, even if not deadly (like the famous fly agaric Amanita muscaria, can and often makes eaters very sick. It can possibly kill a person based on their personal constitution or susceptibilities. So, when in doubt, throw it out. Save it for examination rather than consumption. More
(Mind Frequency) Tibetan Zen sounds to destroy unconscious blockages: heal stress, anxiety, and depression [by the practice of progressive relaxation, letting go, giving, surrendering, turning inward with dispassion and radical allowing rather than resistance and strain].
The practice of "contentment" or santosha in Sanskrit and santutthiin Pali, is counterintuitive as it defuses the situation, the looming threat, the internal monologue of neediness and paucity, replacing it with everything being good right here right now just as it is.
BUDDHIST CONTENTMENT (Pāli santutthi) is freedom from anxiety, wanting, craving, clinging.
It is a wondrous virtue mentioned in many prominent Buddhist sutras like the Metta Sutta ("Discourse on Loving-Kindness"), Mangala Sutta ("Discourse on Blessings"), and so on. In the Dhammapada (Verse 204), contentment is said to be the greatest wealth:
"Health is the most precious gain and contentment the greatest wealth. A trustworthy person is the best kin and nirvana the highest bliss" (based on Bhikkhu Bodhi translation).
In the "Discourse on the Traditions of the Noble Ones" (Ariya Vamsa Sutta, AN 4:28), the Buddha mentions that the noble ones (beings along any of the seven stages* of enlightenment are content with any old robes, any old almsfood, and any old lodgings.
*Yes, seven stages, not four, as detailed in the Vimutti Magga or Path of Freedom, which the Buddha frequently condensed into four main stages, distinguishing various types of stream enterers, popularized by the wider reach of the Vissudhi Magga or Path of Purification).
"Having cast away all deeds (karma),
Who could obstruct one?
Like an ornament wrought of finest gold,
Who is fit to find fault with such a one?" [43] Source
SUTRA: Contentment in the tradition of the noble ones
Dhr. Seven based on a translation by Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org), Ariya Vamsa Sutta, "Discourse on the Traditions of the Noble Ones" (AN 4:28)
"There are four traditions of thenoble ones, longstanding, ancient, unadulterated from their inception, free of suspicion, held faultless by wandering ascetics (shramans) and temple priests (Brahmins) who know and see. What are the four?
1. "A [Buddhist] monastic is content with any old robe cloth and speaks in praise of such contentment.*
[*bhikkhu/bhikkhuni (samana) being rooted in the idea of "rag-picker" from the practice of selecting discarded and donated cloth for the stitching of saffron-dyed, patchwork robes and "alms-gatherer" for collecting donated food sufficient for survival in a dana economy such as existed in the ancient world even before "India" or "Great Bharat" came into being, and "wandering ascetic" (wild shaman, pilgrim, shramana) content with any resting place].
"One abstains from doing anything unseemly or inappropriate for the sake of acquiring such robe cloth. Not getting cloth, one remains without agitation. Getting cloth, one uses it without being tied to it, without infatuation, free of guilt, perceiving danger [seeing the drawbacks of attachment or clinging] and discerning an escape from such dangers.
"One avoids exalting oneself or disparaging others on account of such contentment with robe cloth. In this one is skillful, energetic, vigilant, [conscientious and] mindful.
"This, meditators, is said to be a monastic who stands firm in the ancient and original traditions of the noble ones.
2. "Furthermore, a monastic is content with any old almsfood and speaks in praise of such contentment. One avoids doing anything unseemly or inappropriate for the sake of acquiring almsfood. Not getting almsfood, one remains without agitation. Getting almsfood, one uses it without being tied to it, without infatuation, free of guilt, perceiving danger [the drawbacks of being attached or clinging] and discerning an escape from such dangers.
"One avoids exalting oneself or disparaging others on account of one's contentment with any old almsfood. In this one is skillful, energetic, vigilant, and mindful.
"This, meditators, is said to be a monastic who stands firm in the ancient and original traditions of the noble ones.
3. "Furthermore, a monastic is content with any old lodgings and one speaks in praise of such contentment. One avoids doing anything unseemly or inappropriate for the sake of acquiring lodgings.
"Not getting lodgings, one remains without agitation. Getting lodgings, one uses them without being tied to them, without infatuation, free of guilt, perceiving danger [the drawbacks of attachment and clinging] and discerning an escape from such dangers.
"One avoids exalting oneself or disparaging others on account of such contentment with lodgings. In this one is skillful, energetic, vigilant, and mindful.
"This, meditators, is said to be a monastic standing firm in the ancient and original traditions of the noble ones.
4. "Furthermore, a monastic finds pleasure and delight in developing [skillful qualities], finds pleasure and delight in abandoning [unskillful qualities]. One avoids exalting oneself or disparaging others on account of such pleasure and delight in developing and abandoning.
"In this one is skillful, energetic, vigilant, and mindful. This, meditators, is said to be a monastic who stands firm in the ancient and original traditions of the noble ones.
"These are the four traditions of the noble ones, long-standing, ancient, unadulterated from their inception, free of suspicion, understood as faultless by wandering ascetics and Brahmins who know and see.
Be content and bliss you'll find.
"Furthermore, a monastic upholding these four traditions of the noble ones, if living in the east, conquers displeasure [discontent] rather than being conquered by displeasure.
"If one lives in the west...north...south, one conquers displeasure rather than being conquered by displeasure. Why? It is because the wise one endures [remains content through] both pleasure and displeasure."
This is what the Blessed One (the Buddha) said. Having said it, he concluded by reinforcing it more tersely:
Displeasure [discontentment] does not conquer the Noble One.
Displeasure does not suppress. Rather, the Noble One
conquers displeasure by enduring it.
Having cast away all deeds (karma), who could obstruct?
Like an ornament wrought of finest gold, who is fit to find fault?
Even the devas praise such a one, even by Brahma [the Supreme] is one praised.
The Arboretum sold out for everyone who failed to plan. It staggers entrance times, so while it was possible to get a ticket, one would miss most of the fair. The event was packed, the largest in years. Sun broke through the heavily chemtrail sprayed skies. Now the crisscross lines start with perfect X's, which would not happen in nature nor in ordinary flight paths overcrowded LA County. In any case, what was clear was soon covered over in an artificial and no doubt toxin mist. But the sun managed to break through at times. The Fair opened at 9:00 am, the Mushroom Hunt began at 10 with Olga from Smugtown, and it was followed by a fabulous Brando with a culinary demonstration that fed everyone -- hundreds of mushroom fans -- crowding the seating area. It was standing room only after a while, as the samples table was full of gawkers and vendors were hard at work keeping up with demand: medicinal tinctures, popular red-and-white mushroom hats (French berets), grow bags, dried delicacies, books, guide, posters, clothing, jewelry, and services. This is the only event that ever provided samples such as a choice of savory soup, sauteed morrells, black trumpets, or all three. There was a vegan food booth in the back with a line out the door. Then came the first speaker, Mycologist Else, talking about spores, which exists in the billions and trillions. "Spores are not seeds," she emphasized. Each needs a mate since one can create a small mat of tubule structures but must then meet with a partner spore to continue onto the mycelia phase. Mycelia is what keeps forest together, the Woodwide Web, breaking down matter and communicating between individual plants. (See Paul Stamets' Mycelium Running). A "mushroom" is the fruiting body of underground mycelia, what we see popping up from the ground or growing on trees. To study mushrooms and fungi soon becomes the study of trees and ecosystems. Our natural world would not be what it is without fungi.
Where, oh where, do the wild things grow? We're determined to find out!
On Sunday, February 15, 2026, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, we're trekking over to Arcadia in the San Gabriel Valley, next to Pasadena, to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
2:30-3:00 pm - Art and photo contest winners announced
3:00-4:00 pm - Feces, corpses, and the business of fungal decay talk by Sam Shoemaker
4:00 pm - Fair closes
TICKETS: Admission to the Wild Mushroom Fair is FREE with admission to The Arboretum. Tickets are available online. Act now because time slots may sell out as they have before. Check ticket availability here: Hours and Admission (The Arboretum).
Admission to The Arboretum: $18 for adults, $14 for seniors (62 and over), $14 for students with school ID, $8 for children (ages 3-12), and children 2 and under $0 (free). Arboretum members: free. Parking is free. More info about LAMS events is available at lamushrooms.org/events.
Weed Psychosis is exploding in America (but nobody warned us)
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
(African Diaspora News Channel) Feb. 10, 2026: Rosemarie Havsom reports: Marijuana (from the Chinese mahua,* not Spanish "Mary Jane," weed, pot, the Devil's cabbage, cannabis, THC/CBD) is being sold as “safe,” “natural,” and “harmless” — but emergency rooms across America are seeing a disturbing surge in weed-induced psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, schizophrenia and violent breaks from reality. This isn’t about old-school [2% THC] weed. Today’s high-THC products are 10–30x stronger than what past generations used — and the brain is paying the price.
*According to our botany and plant medicine teacher, USC's Dr. Adams, who is fluent in Chinese and whose wife is Chinese, our word "ma-rijuana" (potent strain of hemp) comes from the Chinese word ma, including mahua (麻花), mafen (麻蕡), and mabo (麻勃), referring to specific parts of the male and female flowers of a cannabis plant with differing cannabinoid ratios. More
Don't smoke drugs, Kids, because according to good Dr. Gabor Mate if one has early childhood traumas, one will become addicted to its use and abuse.
This video segment was produced by the African Diaspora News Channel team. All content is human-generated and delivered. Connect with Rosemarie: @havsom
This easy-to-read book includes a line drawing for each plant and photos that make identification easy. There is also a numerical graph that gives each plant a “score,” depending on how useful the plants are for
food,
medicine,
water,
fire,
shelter, and
other uses.
There is also a guide on how to use and store plants, showing whether a plant can be eaten raw or cooked, and whether it is best when stored dried, frozen, or pickled, or all three.
The authors include plants readers are likely to find anywhere across North America. They also include plants they use most of the time because these plants are widespread, common, easy to recognize, and good tasting.
The book contains 29 entries, though it covers many more than 29 individual plants. For example, in the tree section, there is a discussion of elderberries, oaks, and willows. What they say about these three genera of trees is applicable to every species worldwide of elders, oaks, and willows.
There are 20 species of Sambucus (elder) worldwide, about 600 species of Quercus (oak trees) worldwide, and about 400 species of Salix (willows) worldwide.
What is written about Rubus (blackberry) applies to all species, and comments about cattail apply to all 15 species worldwide.
The book talks about individual species used as food -- such as chickweed, lamb’s quarter, and purslane. Several in the section on herbaceous plants contain many individual species, such as grasses, with about 10,550 species worldwide, and onions of which there are about 500 species worldwide, and seaweeds.
Seaweeds are marine algae, divided into the three major categories: green, red, and brown for a combined total of about 10,000 species worldwide.
The book is a refreshing addition to any botanical collection whether one studies as a novice or expert.
(MSN/Footprints of The Frontier) Hidden beneath the legend of the Wild West lies a story few historians dare to tell -- the forgotten connection between cowboys and magic mushrooms.
What's that on those cowpies, Casey? - Shrooms!
As European settlers invaders, loggers, and ranchers spread westward, psilocybin mushrooms* flourished in their wake, sprouting in wood chips, cattle pastures [on dung], and mining camps across the frontier. While whisky fueled the saloons, some frontiersmen and Indigenous healers quietly turned to the “flesh of the gods” for vision, healing, and escape. These fungi spread along the same trails as the pioneers, forming a psychedelic undercurrent to the age of expansion. It’s a chapter of the American frontier buried by religion, shame, and time — until now.
Psilocybin "magic mushrooms" (psilocybin-containing mushrooms, commonly known as shrooms [1]) are a type of entheogenic, psychedelic (mind-making), hallucinogenic mushroom and a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain the prodrug psilocybin, which turns into the psychedelic psilocin upon ingestion [2].
The most potent species are members of genus Psilocybe, such as P. azurescens, P. semilanceata, and P. cyanescens, but psilocybin has also been isolated from approximately a dozen other genera, including Panaeolus (including Copelandia), Inocybe, Pluteus, Gymnopilus, and Pholiotina [2].
Among other cultural applications, magic mushrooms are used as spiritual medicine (early psychology) and foolishly as recreational drugs [2].
Shrooms were used ritualistically in pre-Columbian [before Columbus] Mexico, but claims of their widespread ancient use are largely exaggerated and shaped by modern idealization and ideology [3].
Natural occurrence
Natural occurrence. Non-psilocybe species of psilocybin mushroom include Pluteus salicinus, Gymnopilus luteoviridis, and Panaeolus cinctulus, formerly called Panaeolus subbalteatus. In a 2000 review on the worldwide distribution of psilocybin mushrooms... More
(North Spore) How scientists believe psilocybin (4-PO-DMT, dimethyltryptamine, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) rewires the human brain.
Could the same heightened experiences be achieved with stability and not freaking out?
This isn't about tripping b*lls but access to mind.
The body has a pineal gland, possibly the physical base of the mythical third or "divine eye," the dibba cakkhu in Buddhist psychological terms. The endogenous product it makes is DMT, the same active ingredient in entheogens, substances capable of bringing out (manifesting) the divine within. We as ordinary human beings have the capacity for divinity -- for being reborn as devas or even experiencing what brahmas experience all the time, namely, the Four Divine Abidings the Buddha recommended, and exhibiting the magicalpowers they customarily wield. One of these powers is extrasensory perception or the use of the divine senses.
Try psychedelics. Access transcendence. | James Fadiman
(Big Think) Expert James Fadiman explains how psychedelics (entheogens) have the power to expand consciousness, enhance creativity, and deepen our connections to the world around us.
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► @bigthink. Watch the full Perception Box series ► Perception Box™
James Fadiman, a distinguished figure with over six decades in psychedelic research, examines the profound impact psychedelics have on consciousness, creativity, and connectivity. Fadiman shares insights into how these substances shift perception, offering perspectives that challenge and expand our understanding of reality.
He also delves into the scientific underpinnings of psychedelics, their therapeutic potential, and the societal benefits of fostering deeper empathy and open-mindedness.
Highlighting the importance of integration post-experience, Fadiman sheds light on the transformative power of psychedelics to not only alter individual consciousness but also to enhance community bonds and personal relationships.
Through a focus on responsible use and the expansion of human awareness, Fadiman's expertise offers a compelling view into the capacity of psychedelics to redefine our interaction with the world and ourselves.
Psyched Substance, The Purple Lady on DMT; Dakota of Earth, Is Mother Ayahuasca Real [for Amazonian shamans]?; A Mindful Emergence, Do this after inhaling cannabis as plant medicine; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
It is fascinating what is hidden from us. Edgar Cayce, America's "Sleeping Prophet," gave detailed instructions on how to build a device that is able to see the aura he spoke of so frequently in his readings (edgarcayce.org). Where is this device? More importantly, where are those original instructions? If they still existed unaltered, someone would have assembled one.
The Buddha could see auras and had a tremendous one himself that others may have been able to see as it extended out a league, according to legend.
Crystals might help in building and seeing auras
Humans, science has recently discovered, emit light. If so, it must vary due to mood, health, vibrancy, youth, emotions, mental states, and so on. It would hardly be static and lifeless. Kirlian photography records something beyond an electrical discharge -- because if it did not, how could one explain that a hand with a missing finger when viewed by Kirlian photography shows the missing finger? A freshly cut leaf shows the missing piece as if it is still there energetically.
It is one of the first Western medical studies of the aura or "human atmosphere," proposing its testable existence, nature, and possible use in medical diagnosis and prognosis.
In its conviction that our human energy field is an indicator of health and mood, Dr. Kilner's study resembles the later work of Harold Saxton Burr. However, while Burr relied on voltmeter readings, Dr. Kilner, working before the advent of semiconductor technology, attempted to invent devices by which the naked eye could be trained to observe "auric" activity.
He hypothesized that it was ultraviolet radiation, stating that the phenomena he saw were not affected by electromagnets [2].
Dicyanin coated glass slides were called "Kilner Screens" [3]. The slides were treated with alcoholic solutions of variously colored dyes and held to train the eyes to perceive electromagnetic radiation outside the normal spectrum of visible light [4], namely, N-rays.
Treatment of the screens notably involved dicyanin, a toxic coal tar dye originally used in infrared sensitization of photographic plates.
While this dye is rumored to be banned by the US government due to its paranormal properties, these claims are inaccurate.
Dr. Kilner reported that long-term viewing through these screens was not recommended as they "had a very deleterious effect upon our eyes, making them very painful." But after regular viewing and sufficient training, one could dispense with the apparatus [and still see auras].
Dr. Kilner's illustration of a healthy woman with "a very fine aura" [and a not bad naked body] from The Human Atmosphere
According to his study, Dr. Kilner and his associates were able, on many occasions, to perceive auric formations, which he called the "Etheric Double," the Inner Aura and the Outer Aura, extending several inches from patients' naked bodies.
His book gives instructions by which the reader might construct and use similar devices [2]. More
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