Legend has it that Arctic shamans once stalked reindeer that dined on hallucinogenic fly-agaric mushrooms in order to collect their urine...and then drink it for its trippy effects. People drinking shroom-tainted reindeer pee sound too far-fetched to you? Andy Letcher, author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom, thought so too. That is, until he met a Scandinavian deer herder who did just that at a get-together with some indigenous Saami people. It turns out that the active ingredient in the toxic fly-agarics, ibogenic acid, passes through the reindeer's body largely unmetabolized, while the poisons are conveniently filtered out—giving humans a (relatively) nausea-free psychedelic high. Some even speculate that Christmas traditions are built around the fly-agaric 'shroom, complete with Santa's red 'n' white palette and his “flying” reindeer.

Bryan Le is a Staff Writer for The Fix.