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You've Probably Tried Shrooms If You Get More Than 10/14 On This Quiz

Magic mushrooms have [been around for centuries](https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/drug_data_sheets/Psilocybin.pdf), and any mushroom that contains the chemical is considered a psilocybin mushroom in the scientific community. You might have heard them called shrooms, sherm, or boomers.

Psilocybin is the compound in magic mushrooms that will make you trip out.

What's the name of the compound in magic mushrooms that causes the psychedelic experience?

There are at least 53 species of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms in Mexico, according to [this "exhaustive world revision" from 2005](http://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/708ae68d64b17c52,2cbf07a603004731,3c3817f62136c0bb.html). By comparison, the authors found 22 species throughout the US and Canada, 16 species in Europe, 15 species in Asia, four species in Africa, and 19 species in Australia and other eastern islands.

You'll find most of them in Mexico!

There are _at least_ 144 species of magic mushrooms around the world. Where can you find most of them?

Although it could also mean "god's mushroom," according to American biologist Richard Evans Schultes, [who studied and wrote about hallucinogenic plants in the 1930s](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1525/aa.1940.42.3.02a00040/asset/aa.1940.42.3.02a00040.pdf?s=0afcd0587574b6f9f232fbe904337c09d5df43d8&t=iy35zr0x&v=1). While _teo_ translates to "god," _nanacatl_ translates to "mushroom" and _nacatl_ translates to "meat" or "flesh." We see what you did there, Aztec people!

Teonanácatl roughly translates to "god's flesh!"

Once used during religious ceremonies, the Aztecs called shrooms teonanácatl, which roughly translates to \_\_\_\_\_\_.

Just like any other mushrooms, psilocybin mushrooms can grow in a variety of environments, including [animal poop](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/037887419290020R). In fact, the _Psilocybe coprophila_ is named for it's tendency to grow on cow or horse poop.

This is true!

True or False: Some magic mushrooms grow on poop.

Shrooms work by integrating more regions in the brain with one another while still maintaining the organizational features that existed before the mushrooms were ingested. Essentially shrooms "expand your consciousness," and according to the [study](http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/101/20140873.full), this is what leads to synesthesia, a phenomenon where stimulation of one of the senses causes another to react — like seeing different colors when you hear music. Another [study](http://www.maps.org/research-archive/w3pb/2004/2004_Hasler_20465_2.pdf) found they can loosen the ego's influence on us, giving us new perspectives on things; they can intensify or distort what we see; and they can amplify what we hear. In this image, you can see how communication differs between a normal brain's regions and one that's on shrooms.

They increase communication between normally disconnected regions of the brain.

A 2014 study found that magic mushrooms did this to the brain's neural networks.

They'll typically begin to feel some of the [physical effects after about 20 minutes](https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs6/6038/) — including nausea, vomiting, muscle weakness, drowsiness, and lack of coordination. Peak effects happen around 60-90 minutes after eating them, according to the [2003 study](http://www.maps.org/research-archive/w3pb/2004/2004_Hasler_20465_2.pdf), and last for about an hour or two before gradually wearing off.

A person on shrooms will trip for about 6 hours.

About how long will someone who takes magic mushrooms feel the effects?

They might actually have the opposite effect, according to a [2011 review](https://bitnest.netfirms.com/external.php?id=%257DbxUgY%255CC%2540%251BM6%253E%253F%255C%251BU%255BP%2503JIvc%2560%2515S), which says sleep problems might last up to 12 hours after taking them. That said, recent research has shown shrooms have the potential to [treat anxiety and increase mood](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46158400_Pilot_Study_of_Psilocybin_Treatment_for_Anxiety_in_Patients_With_Advanced-Stage_Cancer) in people with advanced-stage cancer, [tobacco addiction](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27441452), and [obsessive-compulsive disorder](http://www.maps.org/research-archive/w3pb/2006/2006_Moreno_22868_1.pdf) when administered in a controlled setting. Future research involving more people will help to confirm whether psilocybin really helps.

There's no evidence to suggest shrooms can help people with insomnia.

According to recent research, which of the following have certain doses of psilocybin _not_ shown the potential to treat?

That's a lot of shrooms considering the highest "recommended" dose for recreational use is reported to be about 1.7 ounces of fresh shrooms or less, according to the aforementioned [2011 review](https://bitnest.netfirms.com/external.php?id=%257DbxUgY%255CC%2540%251BM6%253E%253F%255C%251BU%255BP%2503JIvc%2560%2515S).

It would take about 37 pounds of fresh shrooms to overdose.

You'd have to eat about \_\_\_\_\_\_ of fresh magic mushrooms in order to lethally overdose.

You'll probably have a bad trip if you take too much — like a really, really bad trip. Taking a too-high dose can lead to severe agitation, confusion, extreme anxiety, and impaired concentration and judgment, according to that [2011 review](https://bitnest.netfirms.com/external.php?id=%257DbxUgY%255CC%2540%251BM6%253E%253F%255C%251BU%255BP%2503JIvc%2560%2515S). And in particularly bad instances, these symptoms can lead to psychotic episodes, frightening hallucinations, severe paranoia, and a total loss of reality — which may prompt dangerous behaviors like self-injury and suicide.

This is false!

True or False: Because it's difficult to overdose, it's OK to take as much as you want.

So far there is no evidence that using magic mushrooms will lead to a physical or psychological [dependence](https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs6/6038/) or [addiction](http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/psilocybin.asp). You can actually build up such a tolerance to shrooms that you'll be unable to get a psychedelic effect no matter how much you take.

True or False: You can develop an addiction or dependency to magic mushrooms.

It was spearheaded by psychologists Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, who had volunteers at the school take shrooms and write about their experiences. The project ended in 1963, however, after Alpert gave an undergraduate student the drug despite school policies prohibiting undergraduates from participating. You can read more about the Harvard Psilocybin Project [here](http://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/timothy-leary).

The Harvard Psilocybin Project started right around 1960.

The Harvard Psilocybin Project was meant to test the effects of psychotropic substances on the brain. Around what year did it start?

Along with heroin, LSD, ecstasy, quaalude, and peyote.

The DEA classifies psilocybin as a schedule I drug.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies psilocybin mushrooms as a \_\_\_\_\_\_ substance.

That was when R. Gordon Wasson, a banker and ethnomycologist, wrote about his experiences with magic mushrooms in the mountains of Mexico for [_Life_](http://www.imaginaria.org/wasson/life.htm) magazine — making it the [first documentation](https://erowid.org/plants/mushrooms//mushrooms_basics.shtml) of an experience on magic mushrooms in modern times.

Magic mushrooms first entered the American mainstream in 1957.

In which year did magic mushrooms enter the American mainstream?

Maybe it's because magic mushrooms don't sound all that ~magical~ to you. Or maybe you just didn't have much of an interest in them in the first place. Whatever your reason is, we hope you learned some fun facts to tell your friends.

You don't know much about shrooms.

Maybe you know people who've done them. Or maybe you're just interested in the way some drugs trip you the fuck out. What we know is already pretty wild, but surely you'll discover more as new research comes out.

You definitely know some things about shrooms.

Like damn — have you tried them before? Maybe you're just really into the 1960s/hippie counterculture, and you've read some things. Or maybe you've just been following recent research. Way to be informed!

You know A LOT about shrooms.

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You've Probably Tried Shrooms If You Get More Than 10/14 On This Quiz

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