Editing Amanita muscaria (section)

==== Siberia ====
[[File:Amanita muscaria. Eastern Siberia.jpg|thumb|upright|''Amanita muscaria'', Eastern Siberia]]
''A. muscaria'' was widely used as an [[entheogen]] by many of the [[indigenous peoples of Siberia]]. Its use was known among almost all of the [[Uralic languages|Uralic]]-speaking peoples of western Siberia and the [[Paleosiberian]]-speaking peoples of the [[Russian Far East]]. There are only isolated reports of ''A.&nbsp;muscaria'' use among the [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic]] and [[Turkic peoples]] of central Siberia and it is believed that on the whole entheogenic use of ''A.&nbsp;muscaria'' was not practised by these peoples.<ref name="nyberg1">{{cite journal |last1=Nyberg |first1=Harri |title=Religious use of hallucinogenic fungi: A comparison between Siberian and Mesoamerican cultures |journal=Karstenia |date=1992 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=71–80 |doi=10.29203/ka.1992.294 }}</ref> In western Siberia, the use of ''A.&nbsp;muscaria'' was restricted to shamans, who used it as an alternative method of achieving a [[trance]] state. (Normally, Siberian shamans achieve trance by prolonged drumming and dancing.) In eastern Siberia, ''A.&nbsp;muscaria'' was used by both shamans and laypeople alike, and was used recreationally as well as religiously.<ref name="nyberg1" /> In eastern Siberia, the [[shamanism|shaman]] would take the mushrooms, and others would drink his urine.{{sfn|Wasson|1968|p=161}} This urine, still containing psychoactive elements, may be more potent than the ''A.&nbsp;muscaria'' mushrooms with fewer negative effects such as sweating and twitching, suggesting that the initial user may act as a screening filter for other components in the mushroom.<ref name="Diaz">{{cite book|author=Diaz, J.|title=How Drugs Influence Behavior: A Neurobehavioral Approach|publisher=Prentice Hall|location=Upper Saddle River, N.J.|year=1996|isbn=978-0-02-328764-0 }}</ref>

The [[Koryaks|Koryak]] of eastern Siberia have a story about the fly agaric (''wapaq'') which enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. In the story, the deity ''Vahiyinin'' ("Existence") spat onto earth, and his [[spittle]] became the ''wapaq'', and his saliva becomes the warts. After experiencing the power of the ''wapaq'', Raven was so exhilarated that he told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, could learn from it.{{sfn|Ramsbottom|1989|p=45}} Among the [[Koryaks]], one report said that the poor would consume the urine of the wealthy, who could afford to buy the mushrooms.{{sfn|Wasson|1968|pp=234–235}} It was reported that the local reindeer would often follow an individual intoxicated by the muscimol mushroom, and if said individual were to urinate in snow the reindeer would become similarly intoxicated and the [[Koryaks|Koryak]] people's would use the drunken state of the reindeer to more easily rope and hunt them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=MR |last2=Dukan |first2=E |last3=Milne |first3=I |title=Amanita Muscaria (Fly Agaric): From a Shamanistic Hallucinogen to the Search for Acetylcholine |journal=Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh |date=March 2018 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=85–91 |doi=10.4997/jrcpe.2018.119 |pmid=29741535 |doi-access=free }}</ref>