Mycelium InstituteMycelium Institute – The Mycelium
Training, research, art and reciprocity around the fly agaric – carried by science, Indigenous knowledge and therapeutic knowledge.
The four branchesReciprocity Foundation
What is visible is only a small part
What we see in the forest as a fly agaric is only the fruiting body. The actual organism lives underground: a widely branched web of fine threads, the mycelium.
There the fly agaric lives in symbiosis with birches, spruces and pines. It supplies the trees with water and minerals, the trees give it sugar in return. Neither takes without giving.
The Mycelium Institute brings together what has so far grown scattered: training, research, art, and giving back to the communities that have preserved the knowledge of the fly agaric.
Four branches
Training
We train people who want to work with the fly agaric mindfully and knowledgeably – with knowledge about effects, risks and guidance, with ritual and respect.
Currently: Shamanic intensive training with the fly agaric spirit, October 2026 to February 2027 · gertischoen.net
Research
There is hardly any research on low-dose fly agaric. The Amanita study was the first to systematically record the experiences of 203 people from 25 countries. Next, a follow-up study with self-blinding and placebo is planned.
Art
Film, music, image and narrative open doors that words alone cannot. These include documentaries about the journeys to the origins of the fly agaric in Siberia.
Reciprocity
10 % of the institute's income flows into the Reciprocity Foundation – to the communities and knowledge keepers who have preserved the knowledge of the fly agaric over centuries.
Three ways of knowledge
None of these ways is enough on its own. We bring them together without ranking one above the others.
Measure, examine, name the limits. A signal is not yet proof – and a gap in the data is a reason to research, not to stay silent.
For many peoples of Siberia and the North, the fly agaric is not a substance but a being. This knowledge belongs to the communities who carry it. We ask before we share.
Decades of therapeutic practice and guidance: how people are well prepared, safely accompanied and supported in integrating their experiences.
Who carries the institute
Gerti Schön
Laura Erceg-Simon
Nora Mamblona Fischer
In preparation: a scientific, an Indigenous and an ethnological advisory board. We will name names only once everyone has explicitly agreed.