The first time that ,hallucinogenic, mushroom was brought to the attention of a general public was in 1957 when R.Gordon Wasson published his article ,Seeking the magic mushroom, in Life magazine. The title was not chosen by Wasson, but by the editors of Life Magazine. Since that time, these mushrooms have often been referred to, especially in popular literature, as ,magic mushrooms,. What is the history of these ‘plants of the gods’?
Cortez and hallucinogenic mushrooms
The first Europeans to come into contact with hallucinogenic mushrooms were most likely the Spanish under Cortes, when they conquered Mexico in 1521. Several sixteenth century writers mention the use of these mushrooms by the Indian population. It was known to them that there were several species which the Indians called teonanacatl or ‘flesh of the gods’. The Spanish brother Bernadino de Sahagun (1529) described one of the rituals he witnessed:
,The first thing which they ate at the gathering was small, black mushrooms which they called nanacatl (teonanacatl). These are intoxicating and cause visions to be seen and even provoke sensuousness. They ate them (mushrooms) before dawn, and they also drank chocolaté before daylight. They ate these little mushrooms with honey, and when they began to be exited by them, they began to dance, some singing, others weeping’…..
The Spaniards and their Inquisition labeled the use of mushrooms as idolatry. From that time on, the Spaniards began to systematically eradicate all aspects of the mushroom cult. This led to the rituals only being but were carried out in secret, and remained secret for almost the next three hundred years.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the American botanist William Safford became interested in a number of Aztec plants. The ethnobotanist Bias Pablo Reko together with Richard Evans Schultes were also interested in the ancient mushroom cult. Schultes was the first to obtain some specimens of these mushrooms. This was in the year 1938, due to the outbreak of the Second World War, work came to a standstill and nothing happened until 1952.
Wasson and mushroom stones
Source: NIDA, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
That was the year that ethnomycologists Valentina and Gordon Wasson learned of the mushroom cult. The Wasson’s had been studying the influence of mushrooms on different cultures for twenty-five years. At that time, archaeologists in Guatemala found several stone statues, which they called ‘mushroom stones’ because of their shape, but no one had any idea why they were made. Some of these stones were more than three thousand years old. The Wasson’s were the first to say that these stones actually represent mushrooms and were part of a very ancient cult. Their persistent search bore fruit when they came into contact with Maria Sabina, a curandera (medicine). They were the first Westerners to participate in a mushroom ritual. That was a real revelation for them, now they understood why these mushrooms were so adored.
Psilocybe and psylocibin
The Wasson’s visited Mexico in 1956 in the company of French mycologist R oger Heim. This collected different types of mushrooms. He managed to identify 14 species, 12 of which were not previously known. In his laboratory in Paris he managed to breed several species. He sent cultivated specimens of Psilocybe mexicana to Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD. Hofmann succeeded in isolating and analyzing two active components. He called them psilocybin and psilocin. Hofmann and Wasson visited Maria Sabina and she confirmed that the effect of synthetic psilocybin was ‘identical’ to that of the mushrooms. Since the publication of Wasson’s article in Life, more and more people have become interested in ,hallucinogens,, eventually leading to the birth of the modern ,psychedelic drug movement,.