IT'S no wonder Rudolph and his reindeer pals can fly: scientists say they have found that the animals regularly eat magic mushrooms to get high.

Scientist Andrew Haynes says reindeer deliberately seek out the mind-bending fungi to escape the monotony of dreary, long winters, Britain's The Sun newspaper reports.

Writing in the respected Pharmaceutical Journal, Haynes said: "They have a desire to experience altered states of consciousness."

"For humans a common side-effect of mushrooms is the feeling of flying, so it's interesting the legend about Santa's reindeer is they can fly," he continued.

Haynes also said that in some parts of the world herdsmen drink reindeer urine to get high themselves.

source @ http://www.heraldsun.com...y-e6frfhk6-1225975330982

Well...... Why wouldnt they?

Though the article doesn't say, I believe they're talking about flyagarics here, correct? I've often heard of reindeer eating Amanitas for the high. Plus, Amanitas seem to grow in more cold-weathered places than Psilocybes, no?

Anyway, it's very interesting, none the less. Humans are not the only species that can appreciate an altered state.. far from it. Thanks for sharing.

Ya it is Amanita Muscaria mushrooms that they seek. And ya, there are lots of animals that seek altered states such as reindeer with amanitas, jaguars with jage, house cats with catnip, etc...

Yes there are animals that will ingest certain psychoactive substances but: Is there any proof that jaguars really consume caapi vine and is there any proof that caapi vine will give them some kind of psychoactive experience?

The only source for this claim I ever saw was in that famous video which looks very staged and selectively edited, I dont know how trustable it is (not saying it doesnt happen, but would be interesting if there was some sort of peer-reviewed publication or some other more reliable source, because so far all the claims I heard regarding this would actually be using that video as a source)

Maybe this is why i always seem to come back to psychedelics in winter...

Haha, I just posted another article about this... Why is the media suddenly covering this?

http://www.npr.org/2010/...-and-his-reindeer-flying

reindeers can fly because they don't know that they can't

I have several friends with cats and dogs who always joins us when we smoke cannabis, a few hours hotboxed with us they usually lay down passed out in the couch.

I heard from a friend who had returned from spending some time in Alaska that during the state fair/festival every year they auction mushroom caps for close to $100.

This is because they feed reindeer magic mushrooms, and after the reindeer does its business off in a corner, more mushrooms grow out of their feces, but twice as strong as the first! So they re-pick those mushrooms, feed the reindeer, and repeat the process over and over until they have these caps that make you trip for hours and hours, harder than you'd ever trip before.

He said he had eaten one and tripped for an entire day, but could only recall bits and pieces of his 24 hour journey.

Sounds like misinformation to me. Amanitas dont grow out of reindeer feces, and AFAIK muscimol is excreted through the urine, not the feces. Plus even if the reindeer pissed where mushrooms are growing, I doubt it would effectively absorb back all the alkaloids as this myth seems to imply.

yeah, it'd have to defecate out the spores undamaged. and amanitas can only grow with the symbiotic help of certain species of trees. like birch and fir trees I believe.

this is just a late night idea but what if the reindeer is a metaphor for enlightenment???

the reindeer on mushrooms (entheogens) allow santa ("truth/god/allah/etc." to deliver the presents (enlightenment) to the people of the world?

wheres jesse ventura when you need him?

afaik in sieria people have used to eat amanitas,and the poor people drank urine from richer siberians to get high without negative effects
or maybe there was just a curandero that drink and piss for all, i don't remember but it would be impossible to him to piss for many people..

figured I'd share one more article on the topic.

It seems that European shamans would actually seek out reindeer whom had consumed Amanita mushrooms and drink their urine; as the psychoactives were still potent in the urine. Very interesting.

This article also explains how the Amanita mushroom was a very important symbol adopted and translated by early Christianity to convert the pagan holiday into a Christian one.

http://www.stumbleupon.c...icle.php/mambo1167330679

not only the psychedelics compound are still present but the toxic compounds that has negative effects on body like muscimol and others has already been metabolized by the firt user,so urine is better!

because its christmas season!

i know this has been posted before, but this video has the most info on the topic at hand and then some:

http://video.google.com/...ocid=825942553983229569#

The stoned reindeer theory Maybe in time, reindeer will start evolving their own language and prove Mckenna right.
Now that would really be something!

Edit: Just saw it was amanita muscaria they were eating, but I found this: http://www.dailymail.co....ing-magic-mushrooms.html

Goats like to trip too!

Shamans around here indeed used to feed their reindeer amanitas and drink their urine, many times Shamans gave the amanitas to their wives too. Used to hear lot of these stories when I was a kid. I used to own around a dozen reindeer too back in the day, though I didnt feed them any amanitas (or drink their piss)

The original article was in December's Pharmaceutical Journal and is here:

http://www.pjonline.com/christmas/pj2010_723

I, too, am interested in substantiation of the "jaguars eat aya" meme - anyone?

L