Lightning Crashes

Forces pulling from the center of the earth again

I read an odd post that got me thinking about the relationship between lightning and my little fungi friends, and all life for that matter.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by lightning. My dad told me that giants were throwing boulders down a hill. A science show said they didn’t know what caused lightning or why it existed. Neither of these explanations seemed legitimate to me, even then. Lightning always seems to add a special energy and freshness to the air. We had some wonderful lightning storms last spring before my great mushroom discovery. I didn’t think about the correlation until reading a rather out there post about gods, lightning and the intricate workings of mycelium networks.

mycesinheritance

A post shared by The Myce's Inheritance (@mycesinheritance)

In some of the earliest pre Vedic Hinduism texts, a bolt of lightning was hurled to the Earth and up from the land it struck a mushroom grew and from it sprouted the God that is referenced as “Soma '' , A literal God upon the Earth, as well as the name of the sacred substance of intoxication of the gods themselves, but I’d like to focus for now on the second part of this, that of the Lightning itself and how fungi contribute to the process of lightning and storms themselves.

I know, weird right? But, I am a little intrigued by the possible correlations between lightning and mycelium. It sounds plausible in relation to the interconnectedness of God's wonderful creation. The more we try to separate it, the more we fail to understand it.

So I gave it a peek and there are studies showing that lightning actually increases fungi growth.

Credit: Frank Cone/North Spore. Photo montage edit: Luana Steffen

Mushrooms Thrive And Multiply When Lightning Strikes Nearby

https://medium.com/a-microbiome-scientist-at-large/how-lightning-helps-plants-grow-9c88075b266b

Science, alas, has had little to say about mushrooms and thunderstorms. Until now. Recently, scientists in Japan have demonstrated a link between lightning and prolific mushroom fruiting. Although their interest in lightning and mushrooms is not driven by a religious quest, their research may inadvertently shed light on an ethnographic mystery.

https://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2013/01/20/zap-lightning-gods-and-mushrooms/

I guess it is not a new idea, just new to me like all these mushrooms. Check out this article from 1932.

Tiny Thunderbolts Help Mushrooms Grow MINIATURE thunderstorms, artificial fogs, and a drumming kind of “jazz music” are among the artificial means employed in a new scientific method of growing mushrooms, developed by A. G. Hupfel, Jr., of New York City. With such a combination of stimulants, Hupfel claims he can grow mushrooms above ground as well as in the cellars or caves where they are usually raised.

Now I have to explore the effects music has on mushrooms. Live gets it.

Oh, now feel it comin' back again
Like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
Forces pullin' from the center of the Earth again
I can feel it.

Live