muscari

The big difference is that amanita muscaria is a hallucinagen, so if that got popular it would probably end up as a schedule 1 drug...

Whereas Amanita muscaria are so easy to find that it's almost impossible not to find them on a regular basis by accident, even if you're not looking for them.

...that Jesus in the Gospels was in fact a code for a type of hallucinogen, the Amanita muscaria, and that Christianity was the product of an ancient 'sex-and-mushroom' cult.

Nit, Amanita muscaria does not really contain muscarin but muscimol and ibotenic acid.

Prior art:The Korak tribe in Siberia used to drink the urine of other tribe members who'd eaten the hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria mushroom.

"Looks like there's a historical reason why muscarine is associated with Amanita muscaria: it was first isolated from the mushroom by a German chemist in 1869.

From Wikipedia:Allegro argued that Jesus in the Gospels was in fact a code for a type of hallucinogen, the Amanita muscaria, and that Christianity was the product of an ancient "sex-and-mushroom" cult.

[1] Interestingly, in one of the earliest-documented shamanic traditions, tribes on the Siberian steppe would use amanita muscaria mushrooms, which are visionary, but also mildly toxic.

Back when I studied biology, I found it fascinating that two of the major categories of neurotransmitter receptors are muscarinic and nicotinic receptors, named after: muscarine, from the Amanita muscaria mushroom; and nicotine, from tobacco and other plants from the nightshade family.

I see, you're right - according to Wikipedia:"Muscarine is only a trace compound in the fly agaric Amanita muscaria; the pharmacologically more relevant compounds from this mushroom are ibotenic acid and muscimol.