Yes, you can eat too many mushrooms. Especially if they’re the kind that make your curtains breathe and your ego dissolve into the carpet.
When most people ask this question, they are thinking about mushrooms sautéed in butter, maybe added to risotto. Those mushrooms—shiitake, portobello, cremini—are unlikely to cause problems unless you eat them in truly heroic quantities. They are mostly fiber, water, and mild fungal charm. At worst, too many will give you a stomachache, some gas, and a newfound respect for moderation.
But let’s be honest. That’s not the kind of mushroom you’re asking about, is it?
You’re asking about those mushrooms. The ones with names like Psilocybe cubensis, Liberty Caps, or Golden Teachers. The mushrooms that don’t just flavor your pasta, but instead politely escort your consciousness out the back door and into a realm where time forgets how to work. So let’s talk about what happens when you eat too many of those.
First, You See Some Things
After a mild to moderate dose, you might see colors a little differently. Music feels like it’s speaking directly to you. Trees seem like old friends. You feel at peace, like maybe everything in the universe is exactly where it should be.
But you didn’t eat a mild to moderate dose, did you?
No, you ate an eighth. Then you waited twenty minutes, decided it “wasn’t working,” and ate more. Now you’re sitting on the floor, watching your hands stretch out into infinity like taffy made of meat and memory, and wondering whether you’ve always been a lizard pretending to be a person.
Then, You Forget Some Things
Your name, for instance. What time is. How toilets work. The concept of furniture. You’re not sure how long you’ve been staring at the same spot on the wall, or whether the wall was always staring back.
If someone speaks to you, it sounds like they are underwater, or maybe you are. It’s unclear. Words are happening, but not to you.
The Geometry Phase
At higher doses, visual patterns become intense. Fractals bloom across every surface. Your friend’s face is now composed of puzzle pieces and ancient hieroglyphs. The floor is breathing. The ceiling is reciting poetry in Latin, despite never having studied the language.
You try to describe this to someone, but words fall apart in your mouth like wet crackers.
Ego Death
This is a common feature of high-dose experiences. Your sense of “self” dissolves completely. You are no longer a person who had a job, or a phone, or a body. You are now an awareness floating somewhere inside a melting kaleidoscope.
This is often described as “profound,” “transformative,” or “an excellent reason to cancel plans for the next six months.”
Time Stops
At some point, you realize that clocks are a cruel joke. You’ve been tripping for twenty minutes, but it feels like you’ve lived entire lifetimes. You’ve remembered childhood, relived every mistake you’ve ever made, made peace with the universe, and eaten a sleeve of Ritz crackers without realizing it.
Eventually, you accept that you may never come back. This becomes fine with you. You’re part of the floor now.
Coming Down
Eventually, the tide recedes. The colors fade. Your sense of self reassembles slowly, like someone trying to rebuild a toaster using only vibes and leftover screws.
You check your phone. You check the mirror. You wonder if anyone noticed. You realize it’s been six hours, and you’re hungry in a way that feels almost offensive.
Then you sleep for a long time, and wake up with the deep, resonant understanding that you will never look at a salad bar the same way again.
So, Can You Eat Too Many?
Yes.
Not in the way that your liver will fail, or your kidneys will revolt, or your heart will stop. Psilocybin mushrooms are not toxic in the way many substances are. The danger is psychological. Your brain will remain in your skull, but your mind may attempt to sneak out the back.
Too many psychedelic mushrooms won’t kill you. But they might convince you that you’ve died, been reborn, and now understand the true purpose of beetles.
Which is worse, or better, depending on your plans for the evening.
What About Food Mushrooms Again?
Ah, yes. The edible kind.
If you eat too many, you might fart. You might feel bloated. You might wonder why your pasta tastes like compost. But you will not see the face of God in your ceiling fan. You will not become an orb of light drifting through an astral DMV.
So in summary: yes, you can eat too many mushrooms. But only some of them will make you text your ex from a place of cosmic enlightenment.