So last week I had the good fortune to experience P. azurescens for the first time with my girlfriend, and my mum had a session where we sat for her the following afternoon...WOWZA!!! It was consumed in the form of a chocolate, also imbued with lion's mane mushroom (for proposed synergistic neurogenic effects) and mono atomic gold (personally sceptical of the claims made about the latter). Setting was a cosy bedroom environment with candles, incense and a specially selected psilocybin playlist. We each ate 2/3 of a chocolate, which is equivalent to around 2.5 of dry Azurescens mushrooms. What amazing mushrooms...completely distinct and unlike any other mushroom I've ever had, and I'm a pretty well travelled psilonaut... This experience for me was very interesting...much more fast paced than my usual mushroom experiences, and much more electric feeling. The peak came on disconcertingly quickly after I first started to feel effects, and the speed and driving electric intensity of its onset was very different to other mushroom experiences I've had previously and it caught me off guard, for 10 mins or so I really felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew, which I've not really experienced with mushrooms before. These mushrooms didn't feel earthy in the way all my past mushroom experiences have done...these were experienced on a more cosmic, transpersonal level. It reminded me of a more light filled DPT or DMT experience in some respects during the peak (while very much having its own character), given this high speed, high vibrational electric intensity...very colourful and light filled, with a lot of rainbows and very visionary, including powerful open eye visuals, which I don't always get strongly with mushrooms, my journeys are often more internally visionary. Once things settled down a bit, I found myself in a supremely exalted, blissful, majestic state of bemushroomed consciousness, it really didn't feel 'earthy' in the way mushrooms usually do, I remember remarking I couldn't believe that these came from the Earth...I was in a bejewelled and very golden realm that was regal and resplendent (not sure how much my knowledge of the monoatomic gold factored in, but this was experienced by my mum and girlfriend on these mushrooms to), very sensual, and had a spiritual kundalini-esque feeling, with lots of bodily vibrational and electrical feelings in my hands...it was a physical experience while at the same time feeling clean and easy on the body.

Interestingly, there was very little personal content, shadow or inner work as all three of us have experienced previously with high dose P. cubensis trips...these mushrooms seem to take one to realms beyond that and were experienced by all of us as being much more benign, positive, nurturing and cosmic feeling than P. cubensis. It was also interesting to note that the Imperial College psilocybin-depression 'psilodep2' playlist...such a fundamental part of previous P. cubensis experiences...had little effect on us in this state, and only some songs caught our interest or attention. So perhaps there are better mushroom species for inner work, yet at the same time it is nice to be able to reap the benefits of a psilocybin defrag without having to go through something gruelling. In previous P. cubensis session we would be prone to lying down with eye shades...in these experiences the eye shades never made it on, although there was some much enjoyed closed eyes time. In spite of the lack of personal inner work, we rocked/are rocking a great afterglow, which seems to occur irrespective of one's degree of inner work, it seems more physiological in origin. My girlfriend is a therapist who works with psilocybin, and for her this was a unique experience, in that all of her previous psilocybin experiences (almost all with P. cubensis) have been very challenging and often dark in character. I had said she may find that different species have different characters and experiential effects, but she was sceptical until she experienced the Azurescens...this was her first time experiencing a truly blissful, exalted, cosmic and transpersonal experience with psilocybin, and she likened to a similar very profound and positive San Pedro cactus experience she had a number of years ago.

I know some people hold the view that there is no difference in experiential qualities between different mushroom species, a view I have to say I find rather odd, and feel is likely down to a lack of experience with the various different species. P. azurescens, as well as being the most potent magic mushroom species known (at least on average), also contains high levels of psilocybin analog baeocystin. Beyond one or two bioassays with the latter substance, there has been no human research using it, and talking to psychedelic pharmacologist Prof. David Nicholls, he states that it has different receptor affinities than psilocybin, leading one to suspect it likely has distinct effects...so its presence alongside the psilocin/psilocybin may well modulate the experience, and I suspect varying quantities and proportions of alkaloids like this, norbaeocystin and other tryptophan derivatives and psilocybin precursors occurring among the different species are likely what give rise to the commonly perceived differences in experiential qualities between them. All three of us experienced P. azurescens to feel remarkably different in character to any previous P. cubensis experiences. So if people are curious to explore this for themselves, I would encourage them to ingest other species...there is definitely more to the mushroom world than P. cubensis. I look forward to experiencing this mushroom again, but I feel I'll be content having a lower dose next time, they may feel benign but their power is definitely worthy of respect!! Has anyone else experienced this species and noticed any differences?

I have also had a few azurescens experiences (they used to be sold in dutch smartshops), and i agree that this mushroom definately is unlike all of the cubensis shrooms i've ever had. I realy liked them back then. They always where extremely visual for me, and energetic indeed.
The closest thing to it, i would say, are liberty caps.

Good to hear you didn't experience woodlovers paralysis. I never experienced it either, but i think i would probably hesitate if someone offered them to me now.

Hey dragonrider, interesting to know that the difference in P. azurescens' character when compared to P. cubensis resonates with you too based on your own experiences...I'm intrigued to sample them again and see if this is consistent. For my girlfriend, the feel and content of her two Azurescens experiences was very similar indeed despite the different settings...she said she went to the same [previously unfamiliar] place both times, and I went somewhere very similar to her it seems.

It's interesting you mention liberty caps, P. semilanceata. My girlfriend's most positive experience with mushrooms prior to the recent Azurescens experiences was her single experience with liberty caps. It is interesting to note that one thing both P. semilanceata and P. azurescens have in common is high levels of baeocystin. It is interesting that I've had a number of experiences with fellow woodloving species P. cyanescens...these were experienced as feeling much clearer and cleaner than P. cubenis...but they also felt quite distinct from the P. azurescens...I wonder if the baeocystin could be a factor.

And no, none of us had any issues with paralysis (although my girlfriend did have a headache in the eve following the experience, but this is fairly common post mushroom experience)...the Azurescens was definitely a highly physical experience but we all experienced it as being clean on the body.

Fascinating and worthwhile read. Thank you! I've always been curious about the infamous Azurescens! Unfortunately it's not to be found or grown in my area. My only mushroom experiences have been P. Cubensis and P. Galindoi truffles. Definitely a difference between those two as well. The P. Galindoi definitely had an easier vibe and much brighter experience.


I am very much interested in trying Pan. Cyanescens. If I ever decide to grow any more fungus I'm going to give it a go. Any of you tried these? Thoughts???


The Mushroom was my first psychedelic love. I think it's time for me to get reacquainted. They were always a good ally till one night they turned on me for eating them with a ball of Syrian Rue reduction. Hardest night of my existence.

Hey Jupitor,

I've sampled P. galindoi (according to recent genetic analyses, apparently a regional substrain variant of P. mexicana), both the truffles and the mushrooms...the latter are even better. Very clean and easy on one's system, a very smooth experience, and a fair bit more potent than the truffles. What you report with them has been echoed by others who have sampled them.

Pan cyanescens is one of my all time favourite mushrooms that I've sampled thus far (all my experience has been with the 'Hawaiian' strain). In my experience, the Hawaiian strain of this species consistently provide a much higher order, highly distinct experience to P. cubensis...for me they reliably yields a much cleaner, clearer, lighter, more lucid, colourful, crystalline, visionary state of bemushroomed consciousness, while being much smoother on the body, than P. cubensis, with a much easier coming up period, and much less of a body load than the latter, which tends to produce a foggier, muddier, more lethargic experience, more likely to induce mental turbulence, difficult and dark trips and weird alien archetype experiences. (I appreciate I may come across as a mushroom snob a bit here, but I still have a deep fondness and reverence for P. cubensis and have had many amazing experiences with them in the past...these days though personally I'm more concerned about the quality as oppose to quantity of mushrooms I ingest). I'm definitely not alone in having this perspective, and the majority consensus from people who have consumed both species is that Pan cyan provides a superior experience to that of P. cubensis (which is not a species held in particularly high regard by indigenous Mexican psilocybe using groups). I feel the more potent the mushroom species, and the less fungal matter required, the better, and that this results in a purer, cleaner and more distilled psilocybin experience. I can only assume people who feel all mushrooms are the same simply lack experience (the differences between them become more apparent at higher dosages). If people are interested in experimenting, I think consuming multiple decent dosages of P. cubensis and Pan cyanescens in the same setting will make potential differences in experiential qualities between species easier to perceive (or not).

So yes, I can recommend this species. Another that gets far less attention than it deserves is P. hoogshagenii 'Semperviva'...a species held in high regard by indigenous psilocybe using groups in Mexico, as easy as P. cubensis to grow, it is more contamination resistant than the latter species, it colonises at the same speed but then goes into slow motion when fruiting...good things come to those who wait though, and its slowness in fruiting is made up for by its highly potent mushrooms...they tend to be very highly regarded as being very clean, friendly and visionary. One of my friends is an experienced grower who has grown and sampled many different species, and this is his most cherished of all of them. P. mexicana would be another recommended species, highly regarded in Mexico and the favourite species of the late great Mazatec shaman Maria Sabina.

Like you, the mushroom was my first psychedelic love, and our bond has stood the test of time, they are still my most cherished and revered psychedelic. I had a Syrian rue and mushroom experience quite recently (using the aforementioned P. hoogshagenii), that was very positive, but I know from past experience that this is a combination very much worthy of respect. I would be careful about dosages and species of mushroom were I to do it again...my body really didn't seem to get on with the Syrian rue last time so I would be wary about doing it again.

I didn't know that semilanceata contains baeocystin. But i don't think it's a coincidence. They definately have something in common with the azurescens. I find they both have something....weird, alien. Probably what you called unearthly. I have never had an encounter with an "entity", but on liberty caps i once did hear strange high pitched voices talking in a weird alien language to me.
In my experience, they also have a more dissociative character, wich is probably why it reminded you of DMT.

Sold. Gonna start my preparations now. Hopefully I can get those babies to fruit. And I've never heard of P. Hoogshagenii. I shall do my research!

Nice dude, I've linked a few threads that may be of interest and may whet your appetite.. I followed the first Copelandia cyanescens grow guide linked below (I got my first print from the late author), it may be a bit dated now but it worked for me when I grew them years back..

http://jontrot.free.fr/champignons/Copelandia.pdf

http://en.psilosophy.inf...d_culture_to_fruits.html

https://mycotopia.net/to...isemperviva-var-convexa/

https://mycotopia.net/to...xicana-var-chicon-nindo/

Interesting. This definitely isn't the first time I've heard of links being made between occurrence of baeocystin in mushrooms and alien archetype or alien vibes in mushroom trips. My past P. semilanceata trips have all felt pretty earthy but I've not really dosed particularly high on them before I think...the Azurescens definitely felt unearthly in some way though, quite distinct from any mushroom experience I've had previously, and yes there was a dissociative feeling to the experience that also seemed distinct. It's interesting to note that the person who gifted me with the Azurescens chocolates did in fact warn me not to dose on more than half a chocolate, as the chance of weird alien entity encounters he considered likely.

Thank you! I will report back.

Great post! I am a little jealous, I have to admit.

Years ago I tried growingP. Azurescens and also P. Cyanescens, getting the cardboard to take and successfully transfering to wooden dowels in spawn bags (if i remember correctly...) I had bags of wood chips and a private, perfect outdoor space located and prepped. Started inside, the dowels transferred well to the chips initially, but then quickly succumbed to various contaminants...

After 2-3 tries with each, I gave up, and my source for the spores is now long gone (as is the spot I could have safely and discreetly grown them.) I never made the transition from indoor spawning to outdoor propagation. My only mycological failure until recently - when 3 strains of 10yr old cube spore prints failed to spawn after creating syringes and inoculating BRF cakes...

I will keep my eyes out for opportunities to grow wood lovers again, though - your experience is inspiring.

Can you post a link (if possible) to the soundtrack you used? I cut & paste & googled your reference and came up with a number of sites with a ton of music, but I'd be curious to see which one(s) you listened to or would recommend. I have my own playlists, but I'd love to hear what you listen to, and maybe try one out myself, though with cubes.

Thanks for sharing that Bancopuma,

JBArk

jbark - I've found that success beyond the cardboard stage (with cyanescens at least) seems to be down to getting everything outside with a good biologically balanced substrate. My woodchips were prepared by soaking them fully submerged in a closed container of rainwater for at least a month, followed by a thorough rinse with a hosepipe. The water supply in that location was chlorinated at about 0.6ppm.

Granted, I started with found mycelium so spores could be a different story altogether. Are you saying you germinated your spores directly on the cardboard?

I looked at my (sparse and incomplete) notes from back then and I pieced together that I inoculated wooden dowels and sawdust in spawn bags , then sandwiched that between cardboard in a tub indoors; when the cardboard took I put the wood chips (all maple) between the two layers of cardboard and on top. It took, but contaminated before fully colonizing and before I could put them outdoors with another huge lump of wood chips (so, yes, in my memory, I got the sequence backwards! )

I'd love to try again, but I no longer have access to wood loving spores. My outside area isn't available either, though i do have a basement and a tea for growing both species indoors. Once I finish my current grow of P. Cubensis I might try and track down some spores and try this. This thread has inspired me!


JBArk

Hey JBArk

I can highly recommend the playlist, it has been a fundamental part of the mushroom experiences of myself and a few people close to me, and is what is being used in the Imperial College new psilocybin-depression study which started on Monday. It requires Spotify, which I don't actually have currently (meaning to get hooked up when I next get paid), if you do a search for playlists on there 'psilodep2' is the one you want.

I tried to establish an outdoor P. cyanescens bed in my garden a few years back and wasn't successful...the Azurescens I sampled though were gifted by a friend who grew them outside here in the UK, so I know it can be done, and if can do it I don't see why I can't...my mycological knowledge has grown since then. One thing I would highly recommend looking into is liquid culture, this is has really upped my grow game, and woodlovers apparently thrive in LC, I've heard woodlovers do well in LC, and I feel this could provide a major boost to growing them and establishing an outdoor bed...I did hear an unconfirmed tale of mycologist Paul Stamets conducting guerrilla inoculations on woodchip beds via a super soaker water pistol filled with woodlover LC. A recipe for Azurescens LC can be found here:

https://mycotopia.net/to...id-culture-spawn-fruits/

Hey downwardsfromzero,

That sounds like a good approach that...I think I'll replicate that when I try and establish my outdoor woodchip beds.

I'll add, my woodlovers grew well for a couple of years outdoors in large plastic tubs with drainage holes. Also in planter troughs on a mulch layer. Since then I've had no luck with spores and some mycelium saved from when I moved house has petered out, possibly due to senescence.

Any kind of indoor woodlover grow will be far more likely to have mould problems. Looking back on things it seems I was incredibly lucky to have had the success that I did - especially, it seems, with my special knack for finding cyanescens patches.

Glad to hear that there's been an outdoor azurescens grow in the UK - the spores are now out there and will find their way. It would be most fulfilling to meet this fabled mushroom 'in person'.

Great - i'll give it a listen on Spotify.

And I love the guerrilla inoculations - Paul Stamets is the dude.

JBArk

Love this!

Thanks everyone for this fascinating and informative thread...now I'm off to go down the rabbit hole!

So I had another high dose Azurescens experience a month and a half ago, in a very different setting, and yet the mushrooms still had a very distinct character and feel that was reminiscent of my first experience. While my first experience took place inside a cosy candle lit bedroom environment with one other person, my girlfriend at the time...this time the experience took place outside in some stunning nature, in a forested river valley in a remote part of rural Wales. I had a feeling this would work well, as I didn't feel much compulsion to journey inwards with these mushrooms previously as I tend to with mushrooms...I was more externally interested and preoccupied. It was a special group composed of some of my nearest and dearest friends...some old, some new...and a certain explorer known for a few BBC series and a documentary film, who was a most warm, generous and interesting host. The day before, we'd all had a 5-MeO-DMT/Bufo session...everyone else had had Bufo, and whereas I had opted for the pure synthetic 5-MeO...I feel I was dosed a fair bit more liberally than anyone else, and it look a fair bit longer for me to re-enter. The experience was very intense for me, but the afterglow state, and sharing that state with everyone, was very pleasant.

The dose this time was half a chocolate (equivalent I think to around 1.75g dry Azurescens mushrooms). We consumed our doses (there was 8 of us) while trekking through this wooded valley. The coming up period was quite the ride, and our group split up. It was in some sense hard to gauge one's level of ascendency while in such stunning nature. In my case, it was coming across a road that intersected the woods...and the level of outrageous geometric patterns and colours it was crawling with...that made it hit home how deeply in it I was. We found the rest of the group, and ventured on into the woods. One of my friends was finding it hard to walk, and was bowled over at the intensity of the mushrooms he was experiencing, him being no spring chicken when it came to fungal forays into the bemushroomed realms. I said it before and I say it again...Azurescens stand apart from any other mushroom I have so far experienced. There was a physical, driving high vibrational electrical intensity to them which I have found very present the previous time I had taken them...they don't feel mushroom like to me, in the sense from what I've come to expect from mushrooms. They don't feel particularly earthy either...it's like they were engineered on an alien planet or came from somewhere else.

I was DEEP in it. It was on the outer fringes of what I feel I could cope with socially. Part of me wanted to go lie down on some moss alone and dissolve for a bit. We found a water fall and bathed under it, naked for a time...the coldness of the water didn't seem to affect us much. And I felt this weird compulsion to do it, and it was quite a grounding experience bathing under the waterfall in that state! I remember feeling at one point like I must have left my phone in my pocked and got it wet as I felt electricity surging through my leg...no phone at all, just my nervous system. I felt like I had stuck my finger into the Gaian plug socket and was getting a bit zapped...the mushrooms were mostly friendly, but there was this driving electrical intensity that was quite imposing...I'm glad I hadn't eaten any more. The closed eye visuals when splashing water on one's face were outrageous.

We found a very nice mossy tree by a lovely river and hung out in and around it...time was acting very odd, in that it had apparently only been an hour and a half since dosing, but so much seem to have been experienced in that time, the trip seemed to have levelled out and stabalised at that point...we had a top up, another quarter chocolate, and I wasn't really expecting much going on past mushroom experiences, I assumed it would just extend the experience a bit. But quite rapidly, we were right back in it!! After the rather turbulent journey to the peak, this caught some us off guard...and again, my friend and I felt a little socially awkward, so we hung out in the river bed a bit away from the tree where everyone else was, sharing his alpaca wool blanket...in a state of complete hilarity. Nature was just absolutely stunning, wherever one looked...even the boulders in the river bed were riotous works of natural art, and quite amusing at the time. My friend was producing copious amounts of mucus, I was too, particularly following the re-dose, but not on his level! It was a curious mental state...socially almost slightly uncomfortable...yet in a state of uninhibited joy and hilarity..interspersed with spells of intense introspection. We stayed outside until it went dark, having a fantastic walk back to our digs, in awe of all the stunning natural forms around us. When we got back we made a fire, opened a few beers and rolled a joint or two and cooked up a fantastic dinner and had some wonderful chats. What a day!

This was definitely one of the best weekends I've had in a while, and this summer ha not been lacking in great weekends. Paul Stamets, who identified this species, interestingly doesn't partake of them as he feels they are too powerful. I do sort of see where he's coming from...these mushrooms, in my experience, are in a league of their own. I know some people take the view that all mushrooms are alike (which to me seems like a gross oversimplification, as scientifically we know this simply isn't the case...with Azurescens being a particularly potent source of baeocystin, as well as psilocybin)...but if anyone holds that view, I would encourage them to seek out and become acquainted with this mushroom. What a gift of nature, but one demanding of respect!

They definately are different.

Sometimes, this mushroom gave me weird and very distinct visual effects, like double vision or very strong morphing effects or tracers. I never had that with any other psilocybe, or psilocybe related mushroom.

If there is one mushroom that can easily send you to other dimensions, it is the azurescens.

It is the woodlovers paralysis that makes me a bit wary of this shroom though. I am very glad that i have had a couple of realy good experiences with it, but i don't think i would ever want to take them again, because of the risk of that woodlovers paralysis thing happening. Especially since it usually seems to happen to people who have taken azurescens before. I don't want to push my luck there.

It realy is a mushroom worth exploring. But it is probably also a mushroom worth saying goodbye to after a couple of good experiences.