dear mushroom friends,

fungi are a fascinating form of life, which we have barely begun to
understand. i hope, that you are familiar with at least two or three books on
the subject already, and i'll try to put all the additional information i
have into these pages. i will also try to give an answer to all of your
questions, if i have one myself. (so: if you don't find the info you asked
for here, and i don't answer explicitely, i just don't know myself !)

please note, that -just to make sure to be on the safe side- i did not keep
any record of your name or address, and your letters were burnt.

so i cannot write to you again, but i will keep checking for letters at 1092
for quite a time. email to "miracoulix", AN148626@anon.penet.fi will also
find me. should i find out something new about pcy-ao, i would submit it to
the E.R. (and also post it --some place(s)-- on the net), and i ask
you to do the same.      ???   ===============   ???


SPORE GERMINATION AND AGAR CULTURE :

there seems to be hardly any difference between different MEA and PD(Y)A-
formulas or between cheapest agar agar or a highly purified quality, or
whether pH is adjusted precisely, phosphate or trace elements are added or
not. high humidity is absolutely essential for spore germination; within a
reasonable range (i estimate: (5)10-30(40)xC for pcyao) temperature has
effect on the speed but hardly on overall success.

strain selection: dont bet on one horse. if uncontminated you can can use the
(mixed) cultures resulting from spore germination to produce a first run of
spawn. but also select several different strains

GROWING SPAWN ON GRAIN AND WOOD :

pcyao seems to like barley, oats, rye, wheat, or rice alike. the exact
composition hardly seems to matter, but the consistency is very important -
you have to optimize your grain/water-ratio. my personal favourite mixture is
half oats (least "sticky"), a quarter millet (often used for commercial spawn
production. advantage: many small granules), rest: mixture of other as
available.

pcyao also seems to like nearly any kind of wood. i tried fir, larch, beech,
birch, willow, and others, but could not detect any difference in growth. (at
least) for spawn-making i recommend the use of debris from planing (clean +
dry) wood or similar material, more coarse than sawdust, and either soaked in
water overnight or sterilized shortly with steam (allow to drip off a few
hours!), instead of freshly chopped branches.
mycelial growth is stimulated by higher concentration of CO2. i use glass
jars for sterilizing grain media and large plastic bags with only a few tiny
holes for growing wood-spwan.     ..... to-be-continued .....

===========================================================================
McCopies & D.Stribute          *  STARSEED *           PL 0 SAG    MA 0 VIR

Enclosed is spores of PCY-AO, collected in fall 1994. Please treat them with
responsibility and the respect due to all forms of life.

!  item void where prohibited - prohibition void if violating human rights  !

They come from mushrooms growing outside in a forest environment, and
therefore some contamination with other spores is possible. But great care
was taken not to introduce additional contaminants, and the sporeprints were
all sealed into plastic within a few days of taking them. Especially when
kept in a cool and dark place they will stay viable for many years.
At least small parts of the spores of each mushroom were already spread in
promising places and so given back to earth, thankfully.

These spores are provided to enable research on this fascinating but not well
known organism. Your feedback will be highly welcome. I hope that this will
help to find answers to some of below. They must not be sold and neither the
spores nor any derivatives thereof should be used to gain personal profit or
for other ethically doubtful purposes.

There is many things to learn still about TEONANACATL in it's many forms:

- PCY-AO certainly belongs to the genus Psilocybe, but the exact species is
currently not known. Local mycologists stated that sHe does fit the
description of Psilocybe Cyanescens in 'all' points; other people tend to
believe that it is a separate species.

- Very probably the high entheogenic potency of PCY-AO is due mainly to its
comparably high content of psilocybin and/or psilocin. (Nor)Baeocystin and
yet unknown compounds may also be present. To my knowledge until now no
analytical data exist. Dried samples of PCY-AO were sent to the university of
Leipzig for a chemical analysis, the results of which will hopefully be
available soon.

+ Progress in the most promising kind of research, however - the goal of
which was summarized beautifully by Aldous Huxley in 1962 in a letter to
Albert Hofmann (below) -  has been made nearly impossible for several decades
now through propaganda, censorship and oppression, which now openly employ
the methods of war  . . .

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  I hope to see the development of a technique of -Applied Mysticism- - a
   technique for individuals to get the most out of their transcendental
 experience and to make use of the insights from the -Other World- in  the
 affairs of -This World-. (Meister Eckhart wrote that 'What is taken in by
contemplation must be given out in love'.) This is what must be developed -
the Art of giving out in Love and Intelligence what is taken in from Vision
         and the Experience of self-transcendence and solidarity
                 with Universe.           (edited, 1994)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

.. there still is hope .. the wall in Berlin did come down, too, ..

                                       .. just another crack in your wall.
                                                                        0.

=========================================================================
to my revered teacher, and powerful ally,    T E O N A N A C A T L

"I am older, older than thought in your species. My Mystic and Magickal
powers have been known by WOmen since thousands of years before Buddha and
Christ. Societies that have followed my rule have lived in harmony with
nature. I can bring the mightiest wars before your eyes, or - show you -
Death. Can show you: certainty (not faith) and peace - unutterable. And I
can give you laughter, joy, and ecstasy - ineffable. Showing the future to
those who dare is nothing: I could place you with the Gods. And my joy is
to see your joy and my ecstasy is in yours. Learning to reproduce my
growing environment you will come to love me. The mushrooms which you see
are only the part of my body dedicated to sex thrills, sunbathing and the
communion with symbiotic species. My true body, hardware for my collective
hypermind, is an underground network of fine fibers, which may cover many
acres, grow for thousands of years, and can have far more connections than
even the human brain. Learning .. thy Way .. you will look upon me with awe
and amazement  -  For I am the Flesh of the Gods. "

(1) O. T. Oss, O. N. Oeric - Psilocybin/ Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide
(1976), 2nd, revised ed. available. (2) S. L. Peele - Fruit Of The Gods
(1982). (3) for descriptions of giant armillaria fungi (honey mushrooms)
see Nature, April 1992; Mycoinfo, archived at: gopher.econet
.apc.org/environment/misc/mycology.  (4) Lao Tse - Tao Te King

The classic (1) sold more than 100,000 copies and helped a lot to ensure
that TEONANACATL will not be (again) censored into oblivion. The grain-jar
method of growing Ps. Cubensis and other leave/compost/dung-eating species
is fastest and can easily be done indoors. But it is also quite laborious,
and even if these mushrooms are grown on straw or compost, the cultures are
short-lived and require repeated sterile lab work for propagation. (5)

Wood-loving species, however, (and especially those preferring a colder
climate), like Ps. Cyanescens, can easily be allowed to grow in outdoor
beds like perennial plants -comparable to trees-, requiring no (more)
labwork. It should be pointed out, that mushrooms of a strikingly similar
habitat are probably (among) the biggest living organisms on earth today,
as well as among the oldest (3).

J. Gartz recently described a "new method of mushroom cultivation in N-
America", which can indeed do without any labwork (6).

Some european growers prefer to start with a (onetime) run of spawn-
production (agar-dishes, glasses of oats/rye/barley, then glasses/bags of
woodchips) in spring, which usually results in a first harvest in fall, and
a mushroom bed that can be enlarged both in area and yield in the next
years and very probably be maintained far beyond human lifetime. Clean wood
debris (like from a planing machine. sawdust does not work) seem to work
even better than freshly chopped wood. Although Ps. Cy. seems to be able to
fruit on plain wood without any casing, it is advisable to supply the bed
with enough soil (+seeds), and leaves and larger branches, as the mushrooms
really love to grow in between and under grass or other plants.

The mushroom-beds obtained can be left on their own most of the year and
(in a good location) need attention only at harvesting time. Outdoors
unfavorable weather may of course diminish or prevent a year's harvest, but
as this cannot hurt the mass of underground mycelium, the shrooms will just
make up for it next season.

(5)  P. Stamets, J. S. Chilton - The Mushroom Cultivator (1983)
(6)  Integration, J. for mind-moving plants & culture, 4 (1993)

----------------------------------------------------------------------


"Oh, growing them seems to be no less consciousness - expanding than eating
them." a -then new- pupil of Teonanacatl quite correctly realized.


Psilocybe cyanescens Astoria Ossip made its way to europe from the northern
U.S., but may well have originated elsewhere, even -as a mycologist pointed
out- from (sub)tropical mountain areas. Like Psilocybe Cyanescens
(Wakefield), the "Wavy Cap" known from Britain and US., IT NEEDS A FEW
WEEKS OF COLD (NEAR FREEZING) WEATHER FOR FRUITING, and seems to feed on
any kind of wood, cardboard or similar. Mycelium and fruiting bodies are
strongly blueing and the latter have an entheogenic potency, which was
described as 'at least twice that of Ps. Cub.' and 'not weaker than Ps.
Semilanc.' after comparisons with dried and weighed samples. The caps of
Ps. cy. A. O., which easily grow bigger than 3" in dia, are often
distinctly umbonate and rarely wavy, and there is other hints, that it may
just as well be a species closely related to, but not identical with
Psilocybe Cyanescens.

The visionary experience induced by 2 to 2.5 g (dry/80 kg) of P. cy. A. O.
has been described as colorful, psychedelic and as deep and far-out as can
be, effecting the mind without any stress on the body. It may encompass
about everything which S. Grof described in his excellent books (7) or
which can be found in the Bardo T.dol (8). It is sometimes threatening,
nearly always astonishing and enlightening, and has been found healing in
quite a few cases.

(7) (+Halifax) Human Encounter with Death -- Realms of the Unconsciousness
-- LSD Psychotherapy -- Beyond Death.  (8) The Tibetan Book of Death.

Ps. cy. A. O. grows very vigorously and usually produces spores copiously.
It is quite exciting to watch under a microscope, how a high percentage of
these germinate within 6-36 hours when put onto agar at room temperature.

*  Send at least $ 2 (cash or stamps only) for more infos, or $ 5 for a
small sample of spores (but ample enough for microscopy and propagation),
or $ 10 to $ 20 for an entire, more decorative sporeprint of P. cy. A. O.
to: TEONANACATL/(postlagernd)/ Postamt 1092 Wien/ A-1092 Vienna, Austria *


 TUNE IN:                to universal knowledge and perception unveiled.
 DROP OUT:    object consumerism. stop the war against Earth and People.
 TURN ON:                             SMI**2LE:  Increase  Intelligence.

... and *study* all of Leary, A. Huxley and R. A. Wilson ! and Kerouac &
Castaneda.  TEONANACATL teaches patience and perseverance, too.

                                     !
 TEONANACATL does not sell mushrooms. TEONANACATL does not sell anything.
     TEONANACATL teaches that materialistic consumerism is endangering
   WOmankind. TEONANACATL advocates conscientious consumerism objection.
       TEONANACATL explicitly disrecommends the breaking of any Law.
                    TEONANACATL teaches responsibility.
          TEONANACATL is a model for networking and cooperation.
                                     !
                           McCopies & D.Stribute
                                     !