Amanita pantherina Intoxications and St. Catherine of Genoa

[boomer2]

I corrected some English in this paper and switched a few words around such as that and which, and corrected a few mis-spelled words.

A Case of Involuntary Amanita pantherina Intoxication in 1956 and the Secrets of Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510).

Written by Giorgio Samorini and sent to me January 2, 1994.

In the course of the endless bibliographical research which often leads to genuine discoveries or to the detection of studies which lie buried and are forgotten by present-day research workers,  I recently chanced upon an article dated 1956 which describes a case of intoxication by mushrooms.  Due to the patient’s pattern of symptoms, the latter was treated by two psychiatrists of the Psychiatric Clinic in Rome and the relevant report was published in Revista Sperimentale di Freniatria (1),  i.e. a field which is very far removed form the bibliographical network of reference on mycology and ethnomycology.  Indeed, this article is not mentioned in any list of the most important Italian studies on psychotropic or poisonous mushrooms (Arietti & Tomasi, Feti, D’Antuono & Tomasi8, Samorini).

The mushroom, which was responsible for the poisoning, was identified as Amanita pantherina, i.e. the variety that is closest to Amanita muscaria in both appearance (it also9 has a hat with little whitish spots) and chemical content and psycho-variety is more powerful than muscaria.  At present, in some North American States, the use of this variety is preferred to that of muscaria, due to its greater hallucinogenic properties.  But the increase in psychotropic properties appears to be correlated with an increase in physical effects (2).  The case of involuntary poisoning in Rome (the poisoned patients thought they had eaten edible mushrooms) is not exceptional, since there are dozens of involuntary poisoning by pantherina in various parts of the world.  The exceptional aspect of this case is simply that it was one of the cases recorded in Italy that described its features in great detail.

The reason why I should like to describe this case to readers is not merely bibliographical curiosity.  I should like to clarify the subtle connection between the awareness of the act in a voluntary consumer of entheogens and his subsequent experience, and also to shed light on whether or not a plant or substance can be considered enteogenic as such or whether it should merely be considered enteogenic when taken for this reason.  It may be useful to know what happens when the psychoactive agent is consumed without the subject being aware of what kind of experience will happen to him.

The poisoning case in Rome involved a whole family (7 people) and the effects began to show about an hour after the family’s evening meal during which all members of the family had eaten the mushrooms they had collected previous-in a wood.  They were all taken to a hospital emergency department; they seemed to be confused, laughing and â€" the case of one of them â€" very worried.  They all had Mydriasis and rigid pupils.  Gastric lavage was applied to all of them, combined with analeptic and disintoxicating therapy.  The following day, six of them were completely well.  Only one member of the family, a women aged-35, who had eaten more mushrooms than the others, was still confused and hallucinating.  This was why she was sent to the Psychiatric Clinic.

On the day after her arrival there, she was still in a state of severe psychomotor agitation, incapable of concentrating; she was continuously looking all around her, seizing and striking any stimulating object proffered to her, as well as the doctors who spoke to her or the nurses who looked after her.  Among the companions of her ward she sometimes identified a sister or her daughter and, in her acoustic hallucinations, she answered their alleged requests.  Sometimes she shouted to herself without any apparent logical connections whereas, at other times, she merely mumbled unintelligible words.  Her incoordinated behaviour showed all the elements of an unstructured oniric delirium which was almost instantly experienced by the patient in a kaleidoscopic succession of visual, acoustic and even olfactive hallucinations.  The patient said that she was seeing Our Lady who had told her that she had bestowed the grace of healing her form stomach cancer on her.  She heard a heavenly voice that told her that she had never suffered.  She smelt the scent of roses that immediately engulfed her into a vision of Saint Rose of Viterbo.

In the short intervals between her psychic symptoms the patient realized that she was in a hospital, but did not know why and was disoriented in time.  A neurological examination and a general clinical check-up failed to show any pathological symptom, apart from moderate Mydriasis and pupils that showed slight rigidity to light.  Her blood pressure was 130/80, her pulse rhythmical and regular and her body temperature normal.  She was immediately put on hypodermic disintoxications, vitamins and glucose.

Two days later, the patient appeared calm, quiet and aware of her surroundings; of her clinical episode she only remembered having had a strong headache and having felt very nervous.

After four days of recovery she was allowed home; she had a good critical sense of her previous psychic condition, going hand in hand with some hypochondriac concern.  She was now in a slight state of general asthenia and had pins and needles in her hands and feet that went on for about ten days (3).

We do not know whether the lady who suffered this psychic experience was a Catholic or “just how Catholic” she was.  On the other hand we know that the hallucination of seeing Our Lady is a surface concept which is outside the experience of the person undergoing it, with the whole emotional impact which goes hand in hand with such an experience.  It is more an “apparition.”

Several other cases that are similar to this one are known.  In a case in Germany, the ecstatic patient repeatedly said to whomever he met in the ward of the hospital where he had been recovering: “This is the most beautiful day of my life (4).”  And there is no doubt that, in spite of the unpleasant situation in which he found himself (in hospital), that day, for the patient, really was the mot beautiful day of his life.  From this point of view, the disturbing element was his environment rather than the exogenous agent consumed.

Most of these intoxication's are accompanied by a high mood and a sense of euphoria, which have been pointed out by doctors who dealt with three cases.  There was the case of some German soldiers who were poisoned by these mushrooms and treated their superiors with clumsy familiarity.  In the Roman case, too, the two doctors reported that “the high mood was the most striking of the symptoms, so much so that the only one of all the poisoned people who worried about the severity of the symptoms was the one who had eaten the fewest of the mushrooms” (5).

Within the last thousand years, countless men and â€" more often â€" women (apart from impostors) have gone through the experience of “seeing Our Lady”, of hearing heavenly voices and of smelling the scent of roses; and the case reported here clarifies one of the motives â€" perhaps the least frequent one â€" for these events:  the accidental eating of a kind of mushroom, i.e. the Amanita. In this case, the psychoactive agent manifests its enteogenic properties, although it has never been assumed to have them.

Any conclusion drawn in this context would be forced; let us leave the data as they are, but bare them in mind for future speculation.

All this brings to mind another case with a connection between a Christian Visionary experience and the Amanita mushroom, recently discussed by Daniele Piomelli (6) abd Giorgio Spertino (7): that of Saint Catherine of Genoa.

This Saint, who was born Caterina Fieschi-Adorno and lived from 1447 to 1510, was subject to frequent ecstatic raptures.  Apparently her behavior does not seem to be far removed from the general picture of her medieval Catholic mysticism.  And yet, in her hagiographer’s detailed biography, we can read the following passage (: “God, who had taken control over her body, wanted to regulate it and remove from it all human and earthly instincts.  Since he wanted her to lose the sense of taste of the food she ate, he saw to it that she always carried aloe and agaric with her, so that, whenever she found that a food gave her pleasure or suspected that it did, she secretly put these bitter substances on it.  Once God had prepared her soul in this way, he attracted her with spiritual temptations (…) (9).”

In the passage reported by Spertino which differs slightly, it is specified that the agaric is a kind of bitter mushroom.  The temptation of seeing in this agaric the Amanita muscaria (or Amanita pantherina) is strong, and so is the temptation of making this mushroom responsible for the Saint’s mystical experiences.

We do not know â€" and perhaps never shall â€" whether Catherine was aware of the possible effects of the mushroom which she added to her food or whether â€" like the Roman lady who was poisoned in 1956 â€" she was unaware of it.  There remains the fact that Catherine, too, saw Our Ladies.  She saw so many of them that she was canonized (10).

References

1). L. Frighi & L. Covi.  1956.  Disturbi psichici da avvelenameno da funghi.  Riv. Sperim. Fren. Vol. 80:679-685.

2).  Jonathan Ott.  1978.  Recreational Use of Hallucinogenic Drugs in the United States.  In: B.H. Rumack and E. Salztman (Eds.) Mushroom Poisoning: Diagnosis and Treatment:231-243.  CRC. West Palm Beach, Florida.

3). Frighi & Covi: op. cit., p. 680.

4). Ibid., p. 683.

5). Id.

6).  D. Piomelli.  1991.  One route to religious ecstasy.  Nature: vol. 349:362.

7).  G. Spertino.  1993.  Anorexia and Mysticism.  Altrove col. 1: 65:76, p. 76.

.  Rep. in M. Craveri.  1980.  Sante e Streghe.  Milan, Feltrinelli,  pp. 144-161, which I was unable to consult.

9).  Rep.  in Piomelli: op. cit., p. 362.

10).  In spite of this great interest of this case to ethnomycologists, I very much doubt that the mysticism of the Catholic Saints can be wholly explained away in terms of exogenous factors, such as psychotropic mushrooms.

I would like to add a few comments about the alleged Christian aspect of this paper.

1).  No one knows what “Our Lady” looks like, except she is always portrayed in art dress in a cowl over her head similar to that of a nun.  Yet thousands of people say they see the Virgin Mary all of the time.  Since no one has ever seen her in this life for the lat two thousand years.  No one knows what the hell she looked like if, indeed, she did exist.

Seeing what one believes to be the vision or image of the Vision of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady) is nothing more than the results of mass hallucinations from hypnotic mind control and continued year after year of Catholic Dogma and indoctrination into their religion.

That is my own personal belief about seeing someone who no one knows what he or she looks like.

2).  I like Giorgio Samorini’s last comment:

In spite of this great interest of this case to ethnomycologists, I very much doubt that the mysticism of the Catholic Saints can be wholly [holy] explained away in terms of exogenous factors, such as psychotropic mushrooms.

The above brackets on the word Holy in Samorini’s statement are mine.

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