Hey friend,

Modern medicine continues to strive to reduce nature to a single molecule.

One active compound. One magic bullet. One thing to isolate, patent, and sell.

But that’s not how nature works.

Herbs and mushrooms are complex chemical symphonies—evolved over millions of years to build resilience, adapt to stress, and defend against threats.

And when you consume them, you inherit that evolutionary intelligence.

Science struggles with this complexity, not because it’s wrong, but because it’s inconvenient. It’s harder to study, harder to monetize, and impossible to fully control.

But that doesn’t make it any less real.

Take psilocybin mushrooms as an example…

Whole mushrooms vs pure psilocybin

Psilocybin—and its active form, psilocin—tend to steal the spotlight.

They’re called psilocybin mushrooms for a reason: it’s the most abundant and studied compound in the fungi.

But it’s not the only player in the mix.

Psychedelic mushrooms also contain other lesser-known tryptamines like:

• Baeocystin
• Norbaeocystin
• Aeruginascin
• Norpsilocin

Emerging research reveals these compounds may offer distinct therapeutic effects of their own.

For example, norbaeocystin showed antidepressant-like effects in rats, without causing hallucinations. [1]

This also suggests that the full spectrum of alkaloids in psilocybin mushrooms may work synergistically, delivering therapeutic effects greater than the sum of their parts.

The problem

Clinical trials on psilocybin almost always use pure, synthetic psilocybin, not whole mushrooms.

And while this purified form has shown remarkable promise for conditions like:

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) [2]
• Anxiety and depression in the terminally ill [3]
• Migraines [4] and cluster headaches [5]
• Alcohol addiction [6] and smoking cessation [7]
• Eating disorders like anorexia [8] and body dysmorphia [9]
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) [10]

…it begs the question:

What added benefits might we unlock by honoring the full spectrum of compounds in the whole mushroom, just as nature intended?

Bottom line

Psilocybin may do the heavy lifting, but the minor compounds might be the secret sauce—the subtle forces that shape the full experience and deepen the therapeutic effects.

Nature doesn’t make mistakes. She’s packaged psilocybin mushrooms with intention. To isolate and extract just one compound is to risk losing the deeper magic encoded in the whole.

What do you think?

Are you team whole mushroom… or team isolated psilocybin?

Hit reply and let me know.

Your fun-guy,

Onjae

P.S. If you're looking to tap into the full therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms, I’ve got you covered. Inside my Psychedelic Sourcing Master List, you’ll find personally vetted online vendors offering whole mushrooms (no matter where you are in the world).