Mushrooms are absolutely fucking crazy things. You're not kidding when you say they can either kill you or cure cancer someday. I really hope scientists start researching shrooms/fungus more heavily in the future. I find it really fascinating how different the effects of consuming specific ones can be. And, it seems like most of them give nothing but benefits.
I've heard consuming Cordyceps in a big enough dose daily can improve your libido and sexual performance. Reishi's help you sleep more soundly at night, and apparently Lion's Mane can cause you to have vivid dreams if you consume a big enough dose before going to sleep. There seems to be a myriad of effects between all the different types of shrooms out there.
Hell, you can do even weirder, useful things without consuming them. I remember on the Joe Rogan Podcast he had a guest on that talked about how the Japanese apparently used fungus's to make their railway system more effective. They basically used the fungus as a mapping way as it grew to plan out the system. It was some really interesting information. He also talked about how Portabella mushrooms contain a carcinogenic enzyme unless you cook them at a very high temperature, so never eat them raw. Apparently he was threatened by a company not to talk about it in depth, however, which sucks. I learned a lot of weird things about shrooms in that podcast, now that I think about it, haha.
(Also, I really enjoyed the pictures that you actually took. Kinda makes me want to go out and start checking around for mushrooms in my area, lol.)
That's incredible. I'll have to look up some of those stories and learn more, as I haven't heard all of them before. Yes, I think Cordyceps and Reishi both have some strong properties, according to natural health practitioners.
If you have two hours free to listen to this, I would highly recommend it. Lots of information and discussion on mushrooms in this podcast with the mycologist who was speaking about the Japanese train system and Portabella mushrooms.
There's lots of interesting info floating around on fungus, I'm really surprised we don't see more mainstream reporting on the possibilities of what we could do with them.