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Magic mushrooms are fungi of the genus psilocybe (whose active ingredients are psilocybin and psilocin). These belong to the Agaricaceae family and grow in a variety of substrates, among them cow dung and wood chips and bruise with a bluish color, often still visible on dried stems.
Examples of magic mushrooms are Psilocybe cubensis, Psilocybe cyanescens and (Psilocybe semilanceata) Liberty cap.
Rock paintings in the Sahara of mushroom effigies date back to 7000 BC. Some scholars believe that the Soma of Vedic literature are magic mushrooms. Albert Hofmann and Carl Ruck contend that the Eleusinian MysteriesThe Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysterie made use of magic mushrooms.
S. Odman, in 1784, first suggested that Nordic Vikings used fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria) to produce their berserk rages. The Norse took these mushrooms so that the effect came on during the heat of battle or while at work. During the berserk rage they performed deeds which otherwise were impossible. The rage started with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and a chill. Their faces became swollen and changed color. A great rage developed in which they howled like wild animals and cut down anyone in their way, friend or foe alike. Afterward their mind became dulled and feeble for several days. In 1123 AD a law was passed making anyone going berserk liable for several years in jail. It was not heard of since.
Psilocybe mushrooms were a revered tradition in native Central American cultures at the time of the European invasion , and have been in continuous use up to the present time . Named teonanacatl in Nahuatl, "flesh of the gods," they have been employed for healing, divination, and for intercession with the spirits. Since the beginning of colonial times their use has been hidden due to persecution by the Christian church, which branded all native religious practices and especially those employing entheogenic sacraments as "devil worship."
Around the middle of the 20th century two amateur western mycologists, R. Gordon WassonGordon Wasson (born 22 September 1898, died 23 December 1986) was an author, amateur researcher and banker. In the course of his self-funded research, he made significant contributions to the field of ethnobotany. Wasson's studies in "ethnomycology" begun and his wife, Valentina Pavlovna, were admitted to these secrets rites and became the first westerners to experience the agape of this sacrament. The ceremony, known as a velada, Spanish for "vigil," took place in a MazatecThe Mazatec are an indigenous people hailing from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Their name comes from the relative closeness to the city Mazatlan and the early Spanish explorers' naming them accordingly. They are a "humble" people, and often ref mountain village named Huautla de Jimenez, and the shamaness who introduced the Wassons and a few of their friends to the secret rites was named Maria SabinaHer Life Maria Sabina Garcia (1888 November 23, 1985) was a Mazatec medicine woman who lived her whole life in a humble hut in the Sierra Mazateca of southern Mexico. Her practice was the use of the 'holy children' (Mazatec euphemism for various species o. Later, as the village was overrun with westerners seeking either god or kicks, she was to rue her action, declaring "From the moment the foreigners arrived the 'holy children' [Mazatec euphemism for the mushrooms, which are otherwise not named directly] lost their purity. They lost their force, they ruined them. Henceforth they will no longer work. There is no remedy for it."
Subsequently the Wassons wrote about their experiences, first in an article in Life magazine, followed by various books. Their accounts triggered a wave of experimentation with these mushrooms which resulted in their eventual classification in the USA and international treaties as a Schedule I drug.
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