Scott, hi!
I have done shrooms on several occassions, and will be doing them in Amsterdam shortly.
Its a step up from smoking dope, thats for sure. With dope your more in control, but with shrooms it can be overpowering, which is good/bad depending on what kind of trip ur having.
I would DEFINATLY make tea from the shrooms. Eating them is skanky as hell, unless u like eating mushrooms. To make tea, just chop them up, put in boiling water, let it sit for 15 mins or so, then pour a cup

We put ALOT of shrooms in, so it only took one cup to batter me. If you have one of thoes tea strainer jugs, they work well to seperate gunk/shroom from the liquid. Depending on how many shrooms you use, you mite not be able to see to the bottom of the cup, its really mirky
Dangers: You can overdose, but you would need a fair amount to do this. Just "google" it and look up the specifics on it. DONT pick your own unless you know what the fuck your doing, since alot of shrooms look alike, and can give you serious liver/kidney damage, not to mention kill u.
As for different types, it does vary. I cant remember off hand which ones i did, but mexican and columbians ring a bell. Get a grow kit if you can, then you know your shrooms are gonna be the shit! Really simple to do too, and only 20 pounds or so for three cycles of shrooms (more than plenty!)
Ive had loads of hallucinations on shrooms. I saw these gals on a poster, and i thought they were talking! My mate saw the exact same thing too! also thoughyt my friends face was purple, had tunnel vision, severe memory loss (couldnt remember day, month, or what subjects i was studying at school, a great feeling!). Tracer effects too (conkers falling off the trees looked messy!). I also freaked out a bit....but it wasnt that bad, since i was so fucked i couldnt really freak out that much lol.
Whatever you decide to do, just dont look in the mirror when on shrooms. It will mess with your mind seriously...
Also, dont expect to be moving about alot at first. I fell into the floor and smashed my face when i got up, since there was no energy in my legs, due to chronic laughter fits, which everyone seems to get when shrooms sets in.
The FX come in waves, and takes about 30 mins, lasts bout 5 hours, but it varies. Eat vitamin C if you want to come off shrooms, or so ive heard. SMoking a joint mellows you out too. You will feel foggy for 3/4 days after shrooms too...
If you see somethign funny, say it out loud, since i guarantee you your mates will see the same thing...its strange, but its happened every time ive done shrooms.