There's old shroomers and there's bold shroomers but there's no such thing as old, bold shroomers.
Thats not true, we must not run in the same circles... I know a few old bold mushroomers, they are just really good at it.
About 5% of wild mushrooms will kill you, and about 5% are edible. The rest lay somewhere in between. (over 70,000 species have been described) Some will make you sick, some just don't taste any good.
I'd highly suggest that if your interested in learning about wild mushrooms, that you got to your local mycological club meetings and familiarize yourself with both poisonous and edible mushrooms. The best and worst are fairly easy to learn, and it helps to have the assistance of experienced mushroomers.
Heres a good rule of thumb...
When in doubt, throw it out. Meaning if your not 100% sure what it is, don't eat it.
Some edible mushrooms have poisonous lookalikes.
Most of them will just make you ill, but some can be fatal. There are ways to tell the good ones from the false ones, but it takes practice and education.
As far as hallucinogenic mushrooms go, I don't mess with them, nor have I taken the time to learn much about them. As far as I'm concerned I just put them in the "do not eat" catagory with 95% of the others.
How to cook wild mushrooms? Well depends on the type first of all.
With so many different varieties, textures, and tastes, its like asking how do you cook vegetables. It depends on the vegetable and the end result you'd like to consume.
Sauteed is almost always a winner. Deep fried is usually good too. They make a great addition to eggs, steak, fish, soups and stews.
There is one type called a candy cap (
Lactarius rubidus) which is quite like maple and is sometimes used to make cookies.
Just do make sure you cook them, many wild mushrooms can cause stomach upset if not properly cooked, and some can make you quite sick if not properly cooked. This is even true of the (
Agaricus bisporus) button mushroom you see in the grocery. It doesn't necessarly effect everyone poorly when eaten raw, but it has the potential.
All that being said, mushrooming has a stigma attached to it, but its really a fun and rewarding hobby once you learn the basics.