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Tapinella atrotomentosa Velvet Roll-Rim
Homeopathic proving results Proving supervisor: Olga Fatula August - November 2010 Translation from Russian: Leonid Anikeev. Edited by: Alicia Lee |
Preface
The idea to do a proving of a fungus came to us when hunting for mushrooms in the forest. The choice was made for Tapinella which is widely spread in our region, and often taken for food. Moreover, we have a settlement of these fungi in our garden between a birch tree and a spruce.
The information about the remedy was received from the complex proving – trituration, potentizing to 30СН, dreams after the trituration, meditation on the powder 4СН and pills 30СН, taking 30CH pills drug by the students of the homeopathy course. In the trituration proving and dream proving the source was known. Other provings were blind. The participants: 5 females, 2 males.
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Boletales
Family: Tapinellaceae
Genus: Tapinella
Species: T. atrotomentosa
Originally named Agaricus atrotomentosa, by German botanist August Batsch (1783), and later named Paxillus atrotomentosus by Elias Magnus Fries (1833), the Velvet Rollrim was grouped with the mycorrhizal rollrims; however, it is now known to be a saprobic fungus (a wood rotter) distantly related to other Paxillus species. It was therefore placed in a separate genus and renamed Tapinella atrotomentosa, by Josef Šutara (1992).
The word ‘Tapinella’ derives from tapes the latinisation of the Greek τάπης (tapēs), ‘carpet, rug’ and giving us ‘tapestry’ from Old French tapisserie, from tapisser, meaning ‘to cover with heavy fabric, to carpet’. ‘Atrotomentosa’ comes from the Latin prefix atro meaning ‘black’, and tomentosa meaning ‘covered in short, dense, matted hairs’ - a reference to the distinctive tomentose (velvety) surface of Velvet Rollrims.
Opposites
Whole ↔ Part
Elastic ↔ Stiff
Old ↔ Young
Big ↔ Small
Boundless ↔ Boundary
Boundless ↔ Narrowed
Connected ↔ Separate
Gaiety ↔ Indifference
Omnipotence ↔ Weakness
The Tallest ↔ Dwarfs (Midgets)
The picture of Tapinella may be the following:
1. It is a dream or a near-dream state. It is important for one to settle cosily, at ease, to have a comfortable atmosphere, some shade, to be at one’s own place.
When one falls into sleep, his “self” seems to dissolve and merge with the whole world.
We do not need our physical bodies to travel in dreams; a part of our mysterious inner essence finds itself in various places that are sometimes vague, different from the reality, defined just by a plot (my home, etc.). Occasionally we are awakened with pins and needles in a part of our body, it has gone numb, stiff, then it gradually becomes alive, we feel pricking and formication in it. We are coming to our senses for some time, feeling weakness in our body, some kind of indifference to reality and irritation that our comfort was disturbed.
Sometimes one may feel drowsy after overstretching or drinking too much champagne.
2. It is the age or childhood, infancy. That is the time when one already perceives his own “Self”, however, it still remains a part of something larger, of the whole, it is bound to and connected with the whole. “Self” knows its boundaries within which it feels safe, but a step further, out of these boundaries there is uncertainty. There may be a danger of something or potential damage from somebody. There are specific places that “Self” knows and where it feels comfortable: children's playground with swings and playhouses. Other little people of the same group live there, they have fun, play pranks, speak in cartoon voices.
Everything beyond it seems big, enlarged in size as compared to this place. There is uncertainty outside. The outside is so scary that one’s heart sinks and one can get dumb with fear, lose consciousness, hibernate, fall into a state of suspended animation.
However, there is a way out: one can imagine nothing is out there, nothing exists there. Then, as the outside does not exist everything within the boundaries is fine and quiet.
Another option to deal with an unknown threat is to imagine ones’ self being a Superman, then one feels the strongest, the most important, and the tallest among the others even if one does not know what to do with it. Nevertheless, one feels confident and calm.
Differential diagnosis. Agaricus, Opium, Hydrogen, Cannabis indica.
Themes
1. A part of the whole.
1.1. “Mywe”. Being.
«My body is a living matter, each cell hears everything around. It lives and perceives the world as a whole. Myself is just myself, and there is the world around, it hears and interacts with me. For example, the weather is changing, I feel it and I adapt. I hear everything: not just human words, but the vibrations as well».
DREAM. «I am with us. “I” is a conditional image, a weird matter, because ‘I’ feels like We-or-They-or-All that are combined into one and the same substance as “I”. My “I” is something like “Mywe”. Mywe is a mass diffused in space, not composed of separateindividuals. It exists everywhere simultaneously and sees all the things around as if with various eyes, and communicates with itself, not verbally but with the help of telepathic images or concepts because Mywe exists within itself. Mywe moves without any physical efforts, almost mentally or by air, through the trees and bushes».
«I am not alone, I am a part of the world; I progress all by myself, but I am not forsaken. If I perform my role, then I get appraisal and care from the world. At the same time I am protected».
Trituration. «There is no mental ego, there is just the process of being. There is no analysis, no control, there is no “if” and “what if”.»
Trituration. «Sleepiness is an element of dissolving in the process, a loss of one’s “self”, one’s mental and physical body. A physical body is not necessary anyway; the process is progressing as such and there is no need for the conscious physical efforts. They are a part of the process»
Trituration. «Absence. No presence. Even the words do not exist; they disturb the perception; although the word perception does not exist either. No words, no other people, and no my “Self”.»
«The web of Internet, the whole Earth is meshed by this net; everybody and everything is tied by it and linked to each other, absolutely everything. As if a net was cast on the globe from above. This net penetrates everything throughout the whole Earth».
DREAM. «There are many different people: some academicians (my lecturers), schoolmates, other people from my circles. They are all interrelated somehow and know each other».
DREAM. «I stand in a long queue that loops, twists and seems to have many levels. My relatives stand in the queue, too, even those whom I have not seen for ages; there are some other acquaintances»
DREAM. «A group of teenagers. We need… tounite, to find common grounds».
«Twitching and tension of separate fibres, locally».
1.2 The Place. Boundaries
DREAM. «Mywe finds itself a forest city. Mywe sees and registers different places of it. Mywe doesn’t move, doesn’t walk, it just finds itself mentally (and hence physically, i.e. with its senses) first in one place, then in another. It occurs mechanically, without any emotions or sensations, let alone desires or intentions. It registers the existence of this or that place and its mission or maybe just its mental name, for instance “This is The Place” in contrast with another part of the forest which is named “That is not The Place”. One place differs from another only in its mental image. The one that is “The Place” has some forms: one can even imagine a house from broken trunks, a five-storied building like an old-style apartment block. Other shafts that stand upright, bend sideways or lay down appear like swings, pavilions, benches. Sometimes “The Place” mentally becomes a kind of “where-it-is-dampish-dark-there-are-many-bushes-and-brown-trunks-standing-close-to-each-other”-Place, “one-shouldn’t-stay-too-long-there”-Place. Sometimes it’s like a “road-we-are-going-to-follow-now” or “it-is-not-interesting-here”».
«There is an area where I live. I do not know what is outside and I should not cross the border. I have protection here and I will not go further. The border of the area is definite, limited by those bushes, one must not go beyond».
«I am in my apartment, I have my own place there and I have my place outside, too. I havemy place, my role in the world, and I am needed there».
Trituration. «There is nothing outside, it does not exist. As if nothing exists anywhere. There is nothing; if I cannot imagine a thing, that thing does not exist. There are no other factors, they do not and cannot exist, and there is nothing outside these boundaries».
«There is no apprehension or fear. As soon as something appears outside, I feel uncomfortable. Nothing there, no emotions. Comfort resides inside the process where even “I” does not exist. And other people do not exist for anyone who are not Siamese twins».
1.3. Danger, threat. Uncertainty.
«There is an area where I live, I do not know what is outside and I should not cross the border. I have protection here and I will not go further. A danger can be there, someone may attack. It is an intrinsic fear, the fear deep in my heart. My breathing is nearly blocked, the fear spreads over the whole chest. The border is definite and one must not go beyond it».
DREAM. «Conflicts, fights, in the street, not cruel but giving a lesson. I am stronger again, I have more strength».
DREAM. «Some fights, some beating with sticks. I waved a stick away to avoid a threat».
DREAM. «A group of teenagers, about 15 years-old. I do not know them; I don’t know who they are. I am on the alert and uncertain. They can influence the situation adversely. They seem to be on my way. I need to talk to them to learn who they are».
DREAM. «Teenagers bully and tease each other at school».
«DREAM. Gym classes, a warm-up. A group of teenagers has separated. I do not understand why they do not behave like all the others. However, I do not feel any threat».
«If I have to attack, I can very quickly transform from a quiet state into activity, without any thinking: in a jump and a hop. Quickly, and without fear».
«There are no feelings of danger or threat from outside, I can attack anyone myself».
2. The strongest, the foremost, the highest. Almighty.
«The feeling is that I am the master, I am highest in rank. Be quiet everyone; everything will happen the way I want it to. Everything is in my power ».
«The main sensation is that of strength, confidence, wholeness».
«The state of great confidence and strength».
«The experience of physical strength. I am stronger; they will not do anything with me. Everything follows my rules, goes the way I want, because I am stronger».
«No fear. There is absolute peace and certainty».
DREAM. «I took the ball, kicked it like Superman in the movie; the ball flew high in the sky. Everyone liked it, I kicked it once more, it worked out again. The feeling is that I can do everything, possibilities are unlimited, all the things go the way I want».
DREAM. «I am of a high rank, the highest among them. I have to command but I do not know how».
DREAM. «As if I am a teacher and I am in command».
«A feeling that I am a strong man; there is no need to prove it because I simply am the one».
3. Body, transformation, changing
«Delusions of vision: the whole body is of a light-gray silver colour with dark semicircular spots».
3.1. Elastic / Stiff
«My body seems to have become strong and long, as if my body extends to include the length of the legs, and there are no legs at all».
«The body: the feeling is that it is long and flexible».
«The body is strong and graceful. It is elastic, flexible, endurable».
«The sensation that something squeezes and then expands my body, like an elastic substance».
«The muscles are elastic, not stiff, in good shape, neither hard nor flabby».
«The sensation of weight, stiffness, immobility».
«The back keeps straight by itself. Delusion: the back is straight, holds itself».
«The sensation of spine being inflexible, that is why the back keeps straight. That is not the force of the muscles, it is the result of vertebrae immobility».
«I have stiff muscles, I want to straighten myself but I cannot do that».
«I stoop; my head and shoulders are stiff».
3.2. Hump.
«A feeling of something hard in the region of the 7th cervical vertebra and higher».
«A feeling of something like a fur nape that grows on the back; it occurred in the evening».
«A feeling of a hump appeared. I am crooked, folded. I cannot stretch, square my back and shoulders».
«A feeling that I have a hump and I was walking stooped. Stiff muscles, I want to straighten them but I cannot do that».
«Old and humpbacked people were all around, plenty of them, I was afraid of them; I changed to another carriage in the subway».
«Everyone, even young people were going around stooped. But when one is young, what prevents one from walking with one’s back straightened?»
«I have met only old and humpbacked people since this morning».
3.3. Tail.
«I feel that my body is strong, flexible and that I have a tail».
«At the sacrum, I have a feeling as if something else comes down there, something heavy and long. A thick elastic rope. The rope is heavy but fluffy, covered with short hair; and it is thick».
«I have a tail like that of a tiger, but thicker».
«There is a feeling of tail; there is strength in my body».
«The dragging feeling in the coccyx, the feeling of a tail growing; or it drags upward, like a tail. The dragging feeling is concentrated exactly in the coccyx. It is dense like cartilage, sensitive, unusual. The feeling like that of an elastic ball, it compresses and then it releases».
3.4. Stitching. Prickling
«There is a feeling of a stick in the root of nose; it resembles the Indians who prickle their nostrils; I have a wooden skewer, too».
«A sensation as if my arms are constrained and little fingers are numbs. Then a strong prickling sensation comes».
«A sensation of pricking with needles, the small ones, smaller than a hair, they are tiny and there are many of them per each square inch».
«Strong pricking in fingers, making me want to move them».
«Coldness and pricking in fingers, from inside, from the centre of a finger. A sensation of a rod in the finger from which prickles like those of a chestnut shell go to the touch balls».
«A sensation as if a finger is cool and one has to pick up a chestnut that has a green unripe shell, with small prickles, not obtuse but also not sharp enough to make you jerk the hand away».
4. Efforts.
4.1. Overcoming.
«All the episodes in my dreams were accompanied by or incorporated resistance, overcoming, and many efforts».
«Relationship means work. I did a lot of work. This is the reason for irritation and aversion».
«I resisted my condition. I need to take away, to throw away the sense of weight».
«I got up in the morning and started to clean everything, I wanted to do even more, to make a global cleaning at home but then I decided to do it the next weekend».
«On the forth day my energy is better; I renewed my household routines though indifference was still there».
4.2. Overstrained.
«My spine and small of my back seem to be overstrained. As if I have overstretched, overstrained them».
«I woke up feeling broken. The aching pain in the muscles as if I did too much sports and overdid it».
«I got an extended heaviness and an aching pain in my back as if I had overstrained».
«The main feeling is fatigue. Each muscle feels swollen; I can move my muscles only by a strong effort of willpower. It is a soreness that asks for a massage».
«I cannot sit: either the knee hurts, or the wrist and above, just in the bones».
«It is in the back now. The feeling of weight in the dorsal region is gone, that was there after long sitting».
«The back: in the spine, there was an occasional feeling of a single vertebra jumping out of place, and now it is easier to sit longer holding my back straight. I can sit through the whole lecture and feel nothing bad».
«Cervical region: dull pain».
5. Age
«I am both young and old. It is a senile youth. Incompatible».
5.1. Old age. Ancientry.
«An apparition, an image: a mammoth, a cave. A stop sign - stay still where you are. It is something ancient».
«I feel my old age, I even feel dizzy about it».
«I have had enough of my antiquity».
«A sensation that I grew older, my cells are older: there is less elasticity and flexibility in my body».
«My substance got old. I could jump up before, and now I cannot, my muscles are no longer elastic, no longer flexible. I am an old crock, I have no vigour».
«A feeling of getting older, weariness, emptiness. Having to expend my energy feel as if giving a part of me away».
«Sensation: I am a kind of an ancient thing. I am young but feel like I am ancient».
«I have met only old and humpbacked people since this morning».
«The old age. I saw an old woman and I moved to another carriage in the subway, I had an aversion».
«I am stooped, my head and shoulders are stiff. That is the old age».
«Weariness, less strength, and my brain does not work so fast».
DREAM. «A room… with old decaying wooden furniture, samples of the ‘50s and ‘60s.
5.2. Childhood.
DREAM. «It was just once that Mywe came across a place that had a human name. It was a “children’s playground”. There was a sandpit filled with rot, a carousel made of curved sticks on the ground, swings made of semi-fallen trunks, a playhouse of the same construction».
Trituration: «There is an association with legs, tender ones, tiny fatties, toddlers. Slippers. Bootees».
Trituration: «A silly childish smile appeared before my eyes, like that of a baby from “Malyutka” cereal pack: the baby with unnaturally red face and extremely fat cheeks, a silly smile, he is a kind of Calc-carb. type, good-humoured».
Trituration: «Suddenly I recalled my birth. I was born big, 4.7 kg, I was like a little elephant. I was sleeping all the time; once I slept for 24 hours, nobody could wake me up».
Trituration: «I want to sleep. I seem to return to my childhood, I felt good then: I eat, and then I sleep».
DREAM. «Someone's children, children's toys and things».
5.3. A feeling of youth
«On the first days after taking the remedy I feel enthusiasm, I have a jolly mood, and I feel young».
«It seems I am 18 again. Energy, dancing, impressions. Here I am now, and I am already different».
«As if I am many years old but at the same time I am young».
«A pleasant sensation. I felt young, about 15. But at the same time I am senile. That’s the confusion, not senile but young».
«Recollections my youth came up, dancing, disco, there is even nostalgia».
DREAM. «I have an appointment with my friends. I am waiting in the car. Some teenagers of about 15 were playing ball in front of me…»
DREAM. «A school, teenagers bully and tease each other».
DREAM. «We are going somewhere in a group, they are all acquaintances of my youth».
6. Exhilaration. Intoxication
«Exhilaration».
Trituration. «What a merry mashroom!»
Trituration. We listened to a funny song about travelling by train, “here the wheels go-go choo-choo–choo”. It was fun, but not too much.
«I made a report on Tapinella proving at a homeopathic conference. The whole audience got excited and cheered up. The next speaker had a hard time; nobody took his report seriously».
«There is energy. A sensation of bubbles rising up in the body from solar plexus to the face and some mirth as if I had drunk some alcohol».
«A feeling: if I drink a glass of wine now, I will go dancing».
«In the middle of the day I felt weakness like after alcohol».
«An association with champagne: swinging, dizziness, I cannot concentrate».
«Intoxication is the same, both from champagne and from the remedy».
«A desire to dance right now, it came during a lunch break».
«Recollections of my youth came up, dancing, disco».
«I drank a bit of champagne at a jubilee; I got extremely drunk, I wanted to go to sleep».
«I wanted to get relief myself from the proving and drank some alcohol but it didn’t really antidote. Alcohol does not bring relief. I became angry when I woke up and felt everything the same way, I achieved nothing».
7. A state of suspended animation
7.1. Sleepiness, weakness. Indifference. Fed up
«There are no sensations, no desires, no emotions either. Everything is registered, quietly and calmly, without any negative feelings; everything moves slowly, sluggishly, without rush».
Trituration: «I want to wrap myself up and lie under a blanket».
Trituration: «An offer to take rugs and wraps, and to lie down on the carpeted floor in the living room instead of triturating».
Trituration: «As soon as I imagine that I have to triturate for three hours, I am fed up immediately, and I want to stop».
Trituration: «A lazy feeling is inside. I want to sleep».
Trituration: Two participants left after the 3rd trituration and went out to the balcony; they were sitting there for an hour hardly able to utter a word. They had a lazy talk about trifles and came back by the end of the 4th trituration. They caught the remaining prover falling down from the chair; he was about to spill all the powder. He was literally falling asleep with the mortar in his hands.
«It is better to lie without bright lights. To lie sprawling out like a jellyfish or a starfish. Bliss is in each cell. Anabiosis. (A restoring to life from a deathlike condition) Do not touch me».
«The weakness that keeps you lying horizontally. The laziness lets you sprawl. Even the words are heavy, neither desirable nor unnecessary. If one has to immerse one should immerse properly, for every cell to experience it».
«I noticed weakness after meals, dizziness like after alcohol; I had a desire to lie down».
«I felt weakness, swinging. I am losing consciousness and cannot concentrate. There is a desire to sit down or lie down, to hold my head».
«I want to sleep. I seem to be returning to my childhood; I felt good then: I eat, then I sleep».
«Weakness overwhelms me, there is mental emptiness, an overload, the brains can perceive but I would rather get a good sleep».
«I have no desire to communicate with the loved ones or to work. There is indifference and fatigue».
«I do not want any activity; I did not call my supervisor, and I shirked the seminar. There is fatigue, heaviness, reluctance».
«A persistent feeling of fatigue, heaviness, old age».
«Fatigue not only physical, but mental as well».
«Indifference, I am so tired, I need rest».
«I have to push myself to do things».
«Fatigue, I do not even want to read».
«I have no desire to dance as before. The music does not engage me. Fatigue».
«Detachment during the day».
7.2. Numbness. Paralysis
«I started to feel numbness in the occiput and the spine: there is numbness, burning, stitching, as if pins and needles».
«Numbness from the tip of the little finger up to the middle of the elbow like anaesthesia».
«Both little fingers got numb; this happened within 10 minutes. I thought that [the drug] must be a radioactive element».
«I stood up, I felt as if numb and paralyzed, my arms are chained and my fingers are numb».
«A cramp but not exactly. Jerking and tension of separate fibres, locally».
«I lay down, I decide to meditate. Now a finger aches, now the shin. I am lying and don’t know where to put my legs».
8. Unreal.
«Everything is unreal and life is unreal».
«Gray, resilient, homogeneous as if a toy».
8.1. Enlarged - Diminished. Dwarfs. Little people
«There came some apparitions or sensations of mischievous little people like in old cartoons where dwarfs come out of boxes or cupboards, they laugh, tease and play pranks».
«Everything is like in the “Dunno” cartoon. Everybody speaks in stupid voices, cartoon voices. I am in a zany mood. The city where Dunno lives; everything is unreal and the life is unreal».
«I woke up at night and I had an apparition as if I were in the subway and there were a lot of people passing by, many of them. The people went by, one by one, in twos. And everything is in strange colours».
«People seem to have no dimension; they are small, narrowed and elongated».
«A feeling that people are small like children».
Trituration. «I have an association of these fungi with little obese Hoteis with sacks.»
Trituration. «I had an apparition of Baba Yaga with a fly agaric on the tip of her nose».
8.2. Big / Small
«We discuss which mortar to choose. We choose the biggest one».
DREAM. «I memorized an empty room very well; I liked the fact that it was not untidy. The feeling of space».
DREAM. «The room is big like a cinema hall or a conference hall with old decaying wooden furniture (chairs), samples of the ‘50s and ‘60s».
«Usually I do not write with thick pens, but now they are convenient».
«A feeling that the computer is tiny. My fingers do not fit».
Trituration. «I recalled my birth, all of a sudden. I was born fat, 4.7 kilos, I was like a little elephant».
«My body seems to have become strong and long, as if my body extends to include the length of the legs, and there are no legs at all».
8.3. Multitude. Large quantity
DREAM. «It was highly complex, with many plots, crowded, with a lot of things around».
DREAM. «There are many different people: from some academicians to just people we work with»?
DREAM. «I stand in a long queue that loops, twists and seems to have many levels».
«You can never have enough Mushrooms. I like a big quantity of them».
«I gathered 20 kilos of mushrooms, is that much or not? They diminish fourfold when cooked».
«One should love mushrooms. Washing barrels (by quantity) of them is not a problem for me».
«Big pots are generally better; it is more convenient to cook in big capacity pans».
DREAM. «May-bugs are crawling among chairs drawn together; I have to reassure a friend of mine that there are many of them, they abide».
Trituration. «These mushrooms are bountiful, if they come on they really do. You just squat down and pick the whole bucket. You have to search through the whole forest to find other kinds of fungi. As for these, you just find one and can stay there for many».
9. Comfort
9.1. Comfortable. Self-sufficient
«Inner peace and certainty, a very comfortable state».
«The state of certainty and comfort: no doubts, no fears, no mess in the brain, no grinding thoughts. One is living through a stable life process».
Trituration. «I feel very comfortable that others have left. There are no other factors, nothing exists outside of these boundaries. There is no presence, this is comfortable by definition. Comfort is incorporated into the process itself».
«I take the events as they are, no emotions or analysis».
«Perception of life as it is, like a plant: it rains, all right, let’s fold the leaves. No rain but fir trees, also fine».
«Self-sufficiency: I have everything I need».
Trituration. «It is more convenient to triturate in a big mortar».
Trituration. «It is more convenient to type straight into the computer».
Trituration. «It is more convenient to triturate on the knees, putting a towel under the mortar».
«This ‘something’ exists as a part of me for coordination and convenience».
Trituration. «The question is how to hold the pestle so that the muscles do not get tired. The arm became sweaty, now the question of comfort applies to the wrists».
9.2. Irritability
«Irritability with everyone, with my husband, children».
«I am irritated with everyday trifles, it is a mess: some things are scattered, they did not put them where they belong».
«Relationship means work. I did a lot of work. This is the reason for irritation and aversion».
«I am irritated with the shoes (wearing the shoes)».
10. Nature. Plants. Insects.
«The world is huge: the nature, the grass, but also small trees. There is the boundary, where the shrubs grow, these are larger than Bonsai but not too tall. Curved trunks, yellow grass, I have not seen such trees as here, there are no similar trees in my area».
DREAM. «There are two aspen leaves on the white background: one is rotten and the other one is yellow. A separate frame, like a slide or a sheet in a herbarium».
DREAM. «Twilight. I am standing next to wheat spikes and there are wasps and locusts sitting among grains. There are plenty of spikes, and a lot of insects are sitting there. I squashed them. I did not save the whole field, but this is now not a disaster»
«A sensation as if a finger is cool and one has to pick up a chestnut that has a green unripe shell».
11. Texture, perception
«Gray, resilient, homogeneous as a toy».
«Smooth like under-fur».
«The way men grow bald: the fluff they do not shave, the texture is like fluff».
«It is neither rubber nor fluff, more like velvet».
«A muscle, it feels like being watery, softish, skid-proof. The fibre is not long but oval, jelly-like, it is in a capsule, it has a membrane. It is elastic, it sags and regains its shape, one cannot pinch it. It is softer than jelly (gelatin). As if it has thawed a bit in warmth and began to melt».
«The muscle texture feels like taking a frog in your hands and pressing it: there is a membrane, and a soft belly inside. The skin is neither sticky nor slippery, it is heterogeneous, it has thick clots inside».
«It is like a thick springy rope. The rope is thick but fluffy, short-haired and dense».
«Dense like cartilage».
Miscellaneous
During the trituration the following themes occurred: alchemy, nanotechnologies, different kinds of fungi, especially toadstools. Cats, strangely, growing bald. Indifference to cleanliness. Mould and rot in a woodland is not dirt, they are organic compounds.
General
«Chilliness, shivery a bit».
«A sense of heat throughout the body followed by bitter cold in 5 minutes, freezing cold, could hardly warm up in pajamas under a thick blanket. Then heat again».
«I sweat severely, including my head».
«It feels sweaty but there is no sweat and it does not feel like a fever».
«Feeling of sweat and a flux of sweat».
«I am hot. My forehead feels sweaty».
Sleep.
«I had uneasy sleep, my consciousness was there and did not switch off».
«I had sound sleep, without dreams».
«I slept very well and woke up with pleasure and without irritation at the alarm clock».
Dreams.
«They are hard to recall because they consist of mental images, it is impossible to find verbal equivalents».
«All the moments in dreams were accompanied or filled with resistance, overcoming, many efforts».
«There are a lot of things and people in dreams».
«No dreams. Sleep without dreams».
Appetite
«Lack of appetite».
«Satiety».
«I ate much less».
«I ate without being hungry».
«I can stay without food for a few days but everybody eats and so do I».
«Sensation, the food stands in the oesophagus, as if there is too much food for me».
«We asked our child to give us some bread-rings. It is just the right thing to eat some pastry after 6 pm».
«Thirst. I want very much to drink. A bucket of water would be the best».
«Voracious appetite».
«A desire to eat to bellyful, lie down and keep lying».
«I baked buns, ate too much of them and lay down».
«I could eat everything they would give. And I will not go to the gym to lose weight».
«I want to lie and to digest all that I ate. A feeling of weakness and weariness, I don’t have to go anywhere. Anyway, I have eaten too much».
Head
Dizziness like after alcohol.
«Aching in the right temple».
«It is throbbing hard in the right temple».
It feels like something is walking about in the hair.
A feeling of insects on the head.
A feeling of insects on the head, like flies.
Eyes
«A flash of light before eyes as if vision comes from inside».
«There is a human-type vision. This one is different, however: it comes from inside».
«Vision, as if at a broad angle in front of me and it narrows in a triangle».
«Vision, as if I am looking from the distance».
«Vision, as if everything is in different colours».
«Vision, as if people are little, they are diminished».
«Vision, as if people are not dimensional but narrowed and elongated».
«Vision drifts, floats».
«Vision, a lot of brightness and sharpness».
«I blink often, I notice it».
«It feels I have something hard in my eyes».
A feeling as of sand in the eyes.
«My eyes feel tired like after the whole day at the computer».
Ears
Tingling.
Sounds seem to be very loud.
Sounds, loud, they drown out my tinnitus.
Nose
Nose, obstructed.
Nose, it feels cold.
Nose, the right nostril running.
A feeling as if full.
A feeling as if liquid has gone through it.
A feeling as if the air is passing easier than usual.
A feeling of a stick in the root of nose.
A feeling of a wooden skewer in the nose.
A feeling of nostrils being prickled.
Throat
Throat, tickling, better from swallowing.
Throat, moderate heat.
Mouth
Mouth, bitter taste.
Mouth, feels it has become dry.
Stomach
Nausea, some.
A strong desire for seasonings and herbs like cilantro and basil during meals.
Desire: vegetables.
Aversion: meat.
I am thirsty again. Compote is not enough, I need tea.
Desire: pastry.
Bladder
Urination, frequent.
Urination, dribbling.
A feeling of false urges to urinate.
I urinate in dribbles and still feel urge but have no more urine.
Rectum
«Almost constipation».
«Old haemorrhoids returned, I didn’t have it for a long time».
Back
Delusion: back is straight, holds by itself.
The spine feels stiff.
Head and shoulders feel stiff.
A feeling of something hard, in the region of the 7th cervical vertebra.
A feeling of something like a fur nape grown.
A feeling as if a hump has appeared.
A feeling of being crooked, folded.
A feeling of dragging in the coccyx.
A feeling of a tail growing.
A feeling of a tail, it drags upward.
Limbs
Numbness.
Itching.
Prickling.
Jerking.
Constrained.
Cramp, as if.
«It feels as if arms are constrained».
«It feels as if little fingers are numb».
«A feeling of pricking with needles, there are many of them per each square inch».
«Sensation of a rod in the finger from which needles like those of a chestnut extend to the finger tips».
«Numbness and cold in wrists, fingers, little finger, ring finger».
«Cold and prickling in fingers, from inside, from the centre of the finger».
«Numbness from the little finger up to the elbow like anesthesia».
«My legs itch, nothing helps».
«I hold back from scratching legs as it aggravates itching».
«There is prickling in legs, then burning».
Skin
Itch.
A feeling of being bitten by insects.
«After meals, a feeling of urticaria, but without eruption. Rash was felt by touch. It disappeared quickly».
«A feeling of being bitten by insects, like mosquitoes, but not so painful. These spots itch intensely».
Connection with the source
Mushrooms grow in the same regular places. There is a proverb: “one should know where mushrooms grow”. Mushroom hunters take notes of such places and go there each season.
«There is an area where I live. I do not know what is outside and I should not cross the border. I have my place, my role in the world and I am needed».
Mycelium spreads radically in the soil whereas fruit bodies of the most pileate fungi develop peripherally, in rings. [Pileate fungi are capped: having a pileus or cap].
«During the trituration everyone wants to make circles with the pestle, from the centre of the mortar outwards. The circle expands and then shrinks back to the centre».
The pileate fungi we collect and eat have a longeval and tenacious mycelium. In some places that people hardly visit the mycelium can live up to 200-500 years.
«Sensation, I am a kind of an ancient creature. I am young but it feels like I am ancient».
Fungi need a certain combination of environmental factors such as humidity, temperature and illumination in order to thrive.
DREAM. «Everything around is damp, dim, and the temperature is comfortable».
An underground young mycelium only consists of transparent threads that get thicker, darker; single threads grow onto each other and stick to each other to form a kind of a cord.
«A web, the whole Earth is meshed by this net; everybody and everything is tied by it and linked to each other, absolutely everything. As if a net was cast on the globe from above. This net penetrates everything throughout the whole Earth».
«I» is a kind of a conditional “Mywe”, a mass diffused in space, not composed of separate individuals. It exists everywhere simultaneously and communicates with itself».
A mature primordium of the fruit body has distinct borders of the future stipe and the cap. Its parts seem to swell, to stretch when coming out to the surface.
«Body - the feeling is that it is long and flexible. It is elastic, flexible, endurable».
As soon as the cap emerges on the surface, the stipe begins to grow very fast raising the cap higher and higher.
«The dragging feeling in the coccyx, the feeling of a tail growing and dragging upward».
The cap of Tapinella is velvety, rusty-brown. The stem is brown, velvety.
«Sensation: neither rubber nor fluffy, like velvet».
We know that many sorts of fungi are hallucinogenic. Shamans of various cultures used them in their rituals. Tapinella contains muscarine in small quantities which can cause certain effects in people, like changes in vision.
«An apparition as if you are in the subway and there are a lot of people passing by, many of them. These people are small, narrowed, elongated. And everything is in strange colours».
In the myths of some nations mushrooms were considered as enchanted by witches or dwarfs who decoyed people into the woods. One can read about dwarfs turning into fungi whereas Russian fairy-tales depict Baba Yaga with a fly agaric as a compulsory attribute.
«Some apparitions or sensations came, of mischievous little people like in the old cartoons where dwarfs come out of boxes, cupboards; they laugh, tease and play pranks».
«I had an apparition of Baba Yaga with a fly agaric on the tip of her nose».
Natural history
Nobody knows the correct “literary” name of these fungi. People gave them a discordant name of “Svinushka” (from Russian “свинья [svinya]” – “a pig”) or “Pig-tenders”. No one can explain why. Maybe the reason is that these fungi are unpretentious, they grow both under firs and birches, and in raspberry-yards. It may be attributed to their dense “fleshy” pulp. There are several species in the two closely related genes, Paxillus and Tapinella.
Paxillus involutus often grows “in packs” both in deciduous and coniferous forests, on different kinds of soils, but preferably in damp and light places, in thinned groves, on the skirts. Sometimes one can come across Paxillus involutus at the base of tree trunks and on anthills. It emerges in June and grows until the late autumn. The cap is large, up to 20 cm wide, fleshy, with a rolled rim when immature and with a depressed centre, sometimes funnel-shaped in mature fungi. The cap colour is yellowish-brown, the gills are light, partly pale brownish. The flesh is lighter that the cap, it is friable and darkens at fracture. The stipe is short, dense, and of the same colour as the cap, sometimes lighter, and has a tubular structure of shills. Just due to this feature it was ascertained that Paxillus belongs to the boletes and thus it is related to cep, Suillus, orange-cap boletus, etc.
Other species (Tapinella atrotomentosa, Paxillus filamentosus, Paxillus panuoides) are still considered nonpoisonous, edible fungi though of low quality.
Tapinella atrotomentosa (former syn. Paxillus atrotomentosus) is a big fleshy fungus, it occurs rarely; it emerges to the surface a bit later than Paxillus involutus. Its fruit bodies have eccentric (curved at the base) stipe and grow on tree stumps and roots of conifers, mostly firs and pines. The cap is 8-20 cm wide, velvety, rusty-brown. The shills are rusty-yellow. The stipe is 1-4 cm tall, of brown colour, velvety. The flesh is dense, and pale yellow. The taste is acrid, and the smell is vague.
The edibility of Paxillus fungi is still being debated. Medical biologists seem to have proven that they contain such poisonous substances as hemolysin and hemoglutin (both destroyed by boiling) as well as muscarine that does not dissolve in water and can accumulate in the blood. If the concentration of these substances exceeds certain limits, then there is a threat of some severe diseases.
All Paxillus species grow in similar areas and next to each other. Therefore, the authorities of the official medicine do not recommend taking Tapinella atrotomentosa for food. It is not included in the edible fungi list approved by the Sanitary regulations (№2408-81) by the Ministry of Health of the USSR, back in 1981.
However, accessibility of Paxilli makes them very popular among ordinary people. One can easily come across a fungi place even in a city park. Paxillus mycelium is so abundant unpretentious and fertile that some indiscriminate fungi hunters fill their storage rooms with only these mushrooms for consuming in winter. Paxilli can be dried, pickled and frozen.
The caps of the old fungi can reach up to 20 cm in diameter but unlike ceps (Boletus edulis) of the same size, nobody cares to weigh them. Paxilli are the most legendary fungi in a situation when you cannot find any. They are outcasts among fungi but they so often become real lifesavers for unlucky mushroom hunters.
Fungi are a powerful factor that influences life and formation of a healthy forest. They inhabit abundantly the forest floor, humus, bogs and take part in the complicated processes of soil formation along with bacteria. Fungi form mycorrhizas with the roots of many trees.
The role of fungi that destroy forest remnants can scarcely be overestimated. Fungi process an enormous mass of organic remains, leaves, needles. They clean the surface of the forest soil from stumps, boughs and fallen trunks and prepare it for colonization by a new generation of forest vegetation. The decay of complex organic substances of woody remnants such as cellulose and lignin is one of the most important problems in biology. The ability of fungi to fully decompose lignin is a unique phenomenon.
Fungal mycelium (spawn) usually develops from a spore, expands on top and constantly enlarges occupying ever wider surface of its nutrition substrate. The pileate fungi we collect and eat have a longeval and tenacious mycelium. In some places that people hardly visit the mycelium can live up to 200-500 years.
Mycelium spreads radially in soil therefore the space taken by it gets bigger each year whereas fruit bodies of the most pileate fungi develop peripherically, in rings.
There is an interesting description of how the fruit body of a fungus forms: “Let’s have a mental look at an underground young mycelium, fully consisting of threads – hyphae but gradually growing and maturing. Transparent cell walls of some hyphae become thicker, darker, single threads get closer and seem to stick into a kind of cord. One end of such cord nears the soil surface and interweaves into a nodule of hyphae: this is the start of a fruit body. It contains all the tissues that form the stipe and the cap though it has not emerged on the soil surface yet. Its flesh is dense, seems solid and is covered by an outer membrane from mycelium hyphae. A more mature primordium of the fruit body has clearly distinct borders of the future stipe and cap. Its parts seem to expand and stretch coming out to the surface. As soon as the cap has emerged over the surface, the stipe begins to grow fast raising the cap higher and higher.”
Fungal fruit bodies have no analogues among other organisms. They possess the maximum mycelium differentiation, they have special cells performing excretory and secretory functions, they produce bioactive substances that are not found in mycelium. Fruit bodies of the pileate (Agaricales) fungi have reached the highest level of the evolution in the fungi Kingdom.
To grow properly fungi need not only nutrition sources but also a certain combination of environmental factors such as humidity, temperature, illumination, soil acidity, etc.
Fungi have different mechanisms of poison synthesis. Muscarin, for example, is a by-product of carbohydrate metabolism. Muscarin selectively stimulates cholinergic receptors of postsynaptic membranes in cells of different organs. That is why such receptors are called M-receptors or muscarinic receptors.
Muscarinic syndrome may include the following symptoms: increased salivation; excessive sweating; debility and dizziness; weakening and decrease of the pulse wave velocity; lowering of blood pressure; miosis (constriction of the pupil of the eye and vision disturbances. Then vomiting and repeated diarrhoea set in. Death may occur if a lot of this poison is taken (0.25 g, contained in about 4 kilos of raw fresh fly agarics).
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