The identity of Lizard King remains unknown, although over years of activity at Shroomery, a popular online community and resource hub dedicated to mycology, a user named “LK,” short for Lizard King, has a different understanding. He’s shared pictures of hunting expeditions, opening a dredging business, having a room in his house dedicated to bearded dragons, car accidents, and legal troubles.

“I am the Lizard King, I can do anything,” sang Jim Morrison in The Doors song “Not to Touch The Earth.” Lizard King became part of Morrison’s legacy forged in an era of psychedelic revolution and expression. 40 years after Morrison’s death, mushrooms gathered by an amateur mycologist just outside Atlanta, Georgia, were brought home and isolated into the psilocybe cubensis strain Lizard King, now bought, sold, and grown by an online community of amateur mycologists.

Lizard King, or LK, is the moniker of an amateur mycologist in Georgia known for extensive foraging throughout the state. After collecting the specimen, potentially in horse manure and wood chips (an uncommon material for cubensis mushrooms), LK developed the specimen at home into a distinct cubensis strain and began sharing the strain online. In the early 2000s Lizard King became fairly popular among users on the mushroom cultivation forum known as Shroomery trading spore prints and eventually retailers carrying the strain. 

“He’s a very nice, very smart guy. He just has a knack for finding mushrooms; he’s got what it takes,” says friend and Shroomery user named Gumby. 

Lizard King’s activity on Shroomery was usually in the foraging section, where he helped people identify psychoactive mushrooms in the wild. Lizard King was particularly well known for finding Psilocybe weilii and P. atlantis, rare Georgia psychoactive mushrooms LK allegedly gathered on lawns and under baby sweetgum trees. 

Not posting for over a decade on the forum, Lizard King’s current situation is unknown, and he didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. In 2007, a user claiming to be Lizard King’s sister posted on Shroomery, “he’s doing fine, not in jail, not in trouble, just grew up a little since his last posts in 2003/2004… but still extremely knowledgeable.”

The physical characteristics of the Lizard King strain are the same as most Psilocybe cubensis. While variations are possible, most Lizard King mushrooms have gold-to-bronze-colored caps and white-to-creamy stems. Some mushrooms will be leucistic, meaning almost entirely white, but not true albino.

 There are many possible variations, just like how growing an apple tree from seed can produce an exciting new variety or something entirely inedible. The psychoactive effects of Lizard King are difficult to describe in simple terms. Whether the active compounds in specific strains can create unique effects is a point of contention among mycologists, with current evidence showing little evidence for pharmacological differences between Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms creating unique effects. What we know with more certainty is that set, setting, and expectations are a more reliable indicator of how a strain will affect someone.

Expectations of a specific strain’s effects can be developed by reading online forums like Shroomery or Reddit. But even these can be conflictingReading multiple trip reports shows a variety of experiences, from profound to boring. While one Redditor summed it up as, “Overall, it was a beautiful trip but was similar to most cube trips I’ve had,” while another, throwaway4mushrooms, described the experience as “very loving.”

The user behind the Reddit account throwaway4mushrooms, a frequent poster on mycology subreddits, has had a love affair with Lizard King and achieved some impressive Lizard King flushes. He opted to stay anonymous but shared with DoubleBlind how they began growing after mushrooms healed him. “I used to be a borderline incel, and was almost devoid of empathy entirely, and over several small trips then one bigger 2 gram trip I literally regained my humanity.”

Throwaway4mushrooms told DoubleBlind they ran Lizard King for 4 years and the strain became one of their favorites in 11 years of cultivation. “They liked to retain moisture more than the typical strain I was running at the time; they didn’t mind a more humid environment, they grew like CRAZY, and always had my biggest flushes from Lizard Kings.” 

Another Reddit cultivator, The Jack Faktor, said: “I’ve been growing it for a couple years. I like it because it’s the most active, aggressive strain I’ve encountered.” Faktor cautioned it’s unclear if this is indicative of the strain as a whole, and it could be that their particular sample is a particularly aggressive colonizer. Jack Faktor describes the strain as having impressive resistance to contamination and preferring warmer incubation temperatures but was skeptical about any special subjective effects Lizard King might have.

“Nothing really stands out in terms of potency or effects. After growing many strains over the past 18 years, I don’t really buy too deeply into that all that much. My experience has generally been ‘a cube is a cube.’ The potency is more affected by how much did I eat that day, when was my last meal, when was the last time I tripped or had anything impacting my serotonin levels.”

Throwaway4mushrooms also says there is more to growing than choosing a popular strain. “Yeah, genetics play a massive part in how big and how dense [flushes are], but you can get incredible flushes just providing proper conditions.” Whether growing Lizard King or any other cubensis, environment, and substrate are probably the best places for most cultivators to focus their energy, as the legitimacy of strains is a point of contention in the mycology community, with the first steps of research in genetics and strains only just beginning. 

“We’ve also been doing quite a bit of research into the genetics of cubensis, in particular, that we’re able to differentiate the subspecies through our genetic testing,” says Chris Pauli, co-founder of Triptomics, a company specializing in testing psychoactives and natural product research. Understanding how a Lizard King mushroom’s effects compare to other strains means looking at more than just psilocybin, the compound best known for the effects of magic mushrooms, but also other compounds.

“We also see varying levels of the minor alkaloids, such as baeocystin, norbaeocystin, norpsilocin, aerguinascin, and 4-HO-TMT, as well as some presence/absence variation of the beta-carboline class of compounds,” says Pauli. Concentrations of these compounds are so low there is considerable skepticism as to whether they can influence a mushroom trip. But folks like Pauli are developing methods that could one day provide evidence (or perhaps disprove) mushroom strains having specific effects.

“We’re hoping to correlate to the alkaloid profiles we observe in our chemical analysis to provide marker-assisted breeding services to the public in the near future,” adding that when comparing different samples has documented “unbelievable potency differences in terms of total alkaloid concentration, as well as alkaloid profiles drastically differing in composition within the psilocybe cubensis species.”

The message to pay attention to here is that Lizard King and other psilocybin mushrooms can vary drastically between grows, even when the same strain is used. This means the physical characteristics and chemical composition of one batch of Lizard King grown from spores will differ from the next. Testing psilocybin mushrooms through a lab like Pauli’s, or even with at-home testing kit like the psilocybin QTest, can offer a limited perspective on how strong a mushroom is, but until the industry develops standards of testing, results should be interpreted with caution.

For now, experiments to help us understand Lizard King and other cubensis are progressing slowly because psilocybin mushrooms are illegal. Permissions for researchers to explore how mushrooms produce psilocybin—and to gauge the potency and effects of strains like Lizard King—are notoriously hard to secure, complicating the efforts of trailblazers like Pauli.

A few parts of the world, like Jamaica and the Netherlands, allow legal growing and consumption of mushrooms, but psilocybin remains illegal in most parts of the world, including the United States. Oregon has recently created a legal framework for the production and consumption of psilocybin, but a license from the state is still required. Colorado is following suit, although the state has decriminalization regulations in effect that reduce criminal penalities for possession and cultivation. States like Utah allow for medical use and a few others have created advisory groups to investigate the potential medical use of psilocybin.

At the end of the day, one doesn’t need to understand genetics or psilocybin metabolism to take mushrooms. A basic psychedelic education and a healthy dose of respect will suffice because psychedelics can be unpredictable and one needs to be ready for a wide variety of effects. Examples include visual distortions (think breathing walls, shifting patterns, and geometric shapes), along with intense or amplified emotions. Reflection on past events in one’s life or future directions can bring powerful shifts and new perspectives. But in transparency, it’s impossible to put all the emotions mushrooms can make you feel into a paragraph. 

But don’t be intimidated. There are ways to prepare for the unknown and unpredictable journey of a psilocybin trip. Taking time to examine your mindset and build a pleasant environment to trip in can make even the wildest trip at least comfortable, even if things take an unexpected turn. Taking care of these elements is what psychonauts call “set and setting” and is the best place to start when preparing for any trip, along with keeping expectations realistic, because psychedelics aren’t a magic bullet for healing.

If you have any doubts about any aspect of taking psilocybin, consult with someone experienced or even ask them to sit with you while you trip. Finally, if you have a history of schizophrenia, psychotic episodes, or any serious mental or physical health concerns, including taking medications, talk to a medical professional before consuming psilocybin.

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