Jack-O-Lanterns have an unique tell tale characteristic. They give off a faint glow when in complete darkness, hence the name. They also tend to grow on rotting wood or stumps unlike chanterelles , but not always.
LBM's (little brown mushrooms) just aren't worth the risk. A proper ID is really difficult and a vast majority of them are highly toxic. If you're looking for the magic kind of "mushies" just follow the sacred cows around and check the pies they leave behind. The chance for any other type of mushroom to be growing there is virtually nil.
Terrance McKenna had an interesting theory about the evolution of man being closely tied to magic mushrooms. I'll try to sum it up in a nutshell. Basically the climate was changing the jungles of Africa into grass land, and primitive man was forced out of the trees and onto the prairie. He began to hunt and follow the herds of herbivores, which led to the discovery of the hallucinogenic mushrooms they kept finding in the wake of their new prey. It was during this same period that man's brain increased in size, complex language began to emerge, cave paintings began to originate, and major advances in primitive technologies occurred. It's quite humorous to think that we might owe our intellectual superiority to eating a fungus that grows on cow turds. Gives a whole new meaning to sh** for brains if you really stop and think about it.
