All of the mushrooms SWIM has tried have very distinctly different effects. You could tell most of them apart blindfolded by their distinct effects.
Most mushrooms contain psilocybin and psilocin as their main alkaloids by weight, but that’s not to say that psilocybin and psilocin are the main active alkaloids in all psilocybin mushrooms. It may very well be that some of the other alkaloids present are stronger than psilocybin or psilocin.
Psilocybe azurescens has an effect very unlike psilocin or psilocybin. Its far more like DMT and can easily give you a DMT-like breakthrough experience if enough is taken. This mushroom has substantial amounts of baeocystin (up to 0.4%), nearly equal to the psilocin content (up to 0.5%), while being mostly psilocybin (up to 1.8%). This alkaloid ratio is higher in baeocystin that most other mushrooms. This mushroom is considered the most psychedelic and most visual of them all.
Different ratios of psilocin to psilocybin can also have an impact on the experience. Psilocybe cyanescens has a higher psilocin to psilocybin ratio than Psilocybe cubensis. Their effects are quite noticeably different from each other. Psilocybe cyanescens produces a cleaner more LSD-like effect and has much less body load than Psilocybe cubensis. Most mushrooms with a higher psilocin to psilocybin content have less body load. This is to be expected. Psilocybin is NOT psychoactive at all and produces only bodily symptoms. It’s not until it’s converted in the human body into psilocin that it’s able to have psychoactive effects. That conversion takes more time than people realize. By the time it’s converted to psilocin, it’s already produced dramatic effects in the body. Psilocin is immediately psychoactive. It passes directly into the brain without any delay.
So while it’s true that psilocybin eventually converts to psilocin in the body, it’s also true that this conversion takes time, and before it’s complete a lot of the psilocybin has already been absorbed as psilocybin and has made it to many 5-HT sites in the stomach. This is why it produces far more side effects than psilocin.
It’s been erroneously reported many times that psilocybin has effects identical to that of psilocin. This is most certainly impossible. When psilocybin is taken orally, some is always absorbed before being fully digested. It can be absorbed through the flesh in the mount, the throat, and many other places before being converted to psilocin. This is true for nearly all drugs. By the time it makes it to the point where it’s converted to psilocin, quite a bit has already entered the blood stream. So it is impossible for the effects of psilocin and psilocybin to be identical. They have different rates of absorption, and some of the psilocybin passes into the blood as psilocybin by bypassing the digestive system and effects the body as psilocybin, and some enters the blood as psilocin after it’s fully digested. The amount that enters as psilocin is dependant on many factors and will vary from person to person and from day to day. This is a fact for most of these kinds of drugs.