One of the most eye-catching mushrooms, Amanita muscaria (or Fly agaric mushroom) is associated with magic and fairytales.  It is perhaps the oldest hallucinogenic plant known to have been used by humans, and its use has been recorded for over six thousand years.  Amanita muscaria is used by many cultures in the northern hemisphere to give the person who is eating the mushroom visionary experiences.  The tribesmen of Siberia used Amanita muscaria in abundance to help aid in shamanic rituals.  Shamans with a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication of the spirit world in Siberian, would eat the mushroom to enter a psychedelic trance state and mobilize their shamanic powers of healing.  The mushrooms also are ingested when someone wishes to communicate with the gods, and with the souls of their ancestors.  The traditional dose is between 1 to 3 mushrooms with the effects being felt in about twenty minutes.  The Siberian tribes and others are said to have recycled the urine of someone who has eaten the mushroom, and because a substantial amount of active substance in it remained unchanged, it could be used  later or given to someone who could not afford to buy the mushroom.  This fungus is also suggested as being related to the tale of Santa Claus and his reindeer.  It grows underneath conifer (Christmas) trees, and is red with a white trim --circumstantial evidence of a connection with Santa Claus.  Also reindeer have been documented to forage on the mushrooms. Jonathan Ott, a student of such lore, also speculated about the relationship of Santa to Amanita muscaria.  The Siberian hut, or yurt, was equipped with a smokehole at the top of it, and Ott says that a shaman would enter the yurt through this smokehole with a sack of mushrooms.  He then would place a stocking over the fireplace to fill with the mushroom to be used as celebratory use.  Well…..?  

--Derrek Mart