Excerpt:
I was nineteen years old when I embarked on my first book, Psilocybe
Mushrooms & Their Allies. I was living in a mountain cabin
near Darrington, Washington, and progress was slow and frustrating,
in part because I was pounding away on a vintage Underwood
typewriter whose keys required perpetual cleaning with toothbrushes.
And yet, the project became a window into another dimension. Twenty
years later, I am still collecting photographs and data on the
subject. This book is an accumulation of research, both my own and
my colleagues, through generations of experiences. (page 1)
While researching Psilocybe, I became accustomed to meeting
great resistance from professional mycologists, many of who had an
instant distrust of anyone expressing a passion for Psilocybe.
There were some mycologists who stated publicly that it would be
better for people to die from mistakes in identification than to
provide them with the tools for recognizing a Psilocybe
mushroom. This bizarre attitude towards Psilocybe mushrooms
and the people who use them reflected a chasm between generations.
Some physicians even seemed to take a perverse pleasure in the
needless pumping of stomachs of patients who had consumed psilocybin
mushrooms. One doctor told me he does so to "teach them a
lesson." (page 3)
Ironically, each one of those pickers-knowingly or not-became agents
for dispersing spores into more and more habitats. To this day, the
grounds around the county courthouse and sheriff's department remain
one of my favorite places to find Psilocybe cyanescens and Psilocybe
stuntzii. Other favored sites include college campuses, utility
substations, hospitals, office complexes, and ornamental gardens.
By the mid eighties, whole cities were overrun with Psilocybes-from
Vancouver, B.C., to San Francisco. The growth of suburbia was
expanding the zones of colonization. In particular, the marketing of
wood chips (beauty bark) for landscaping continues to drive the Psilocybe
revolution. Guerrilla inoculations became commonplace. Legions of
Johnny Appleseed types traveled throughout the land carrying
cardboard boxes filled with white, ropy mushroom mycellum. ...
Similar trends in Europe soon followed. Many of the people I've met
tell me they are on a vision quest; they believe that the world will
become a more spiritual and peaceful place with each new mushroom
patch. Many feel a deep, ecologically awakened attachment to the
Earth, and believe that they are crusaders saving the planet. At any
rate, they are succeeding in expanding the domain of psilocybin
mushrooms. (page 4)
In dream state, I drove hurriedly into the mountains. Then, turning
a corner on a country road, I came into a broad river valley lit up
with a cold, clear light. The valley had flooded. Floating, dead,
and bloated in the frigid sunlight were hundreds and hundreds of
cows. The dream abruptly ended and I awoke in a cold sweat, struck
with a fear of impending disaster. ...
As I entered the Snohomish Valley, I stared in disbelief at hundreds
of cattle who, stranded by the rising waters, had drowned overnight.
It was December 1, the exact day my dream had foretold. This single
event shattered my concept of linear time. The future can be
foreseen.
Now I knew what shamans have known for centuries: the psilocybin
experience can facilitate precognition of the future-especially as
in my case, of an impending biological disaster. Now I understood
why the Mazatecs and Aztecs affectionately referred to Psilocybes as
divinatory mushrooms, genius mushrooms, and wondrous mushrooms. They
recognized that mushrooms are powerful sacraments and a significant
evolutionary advantage for those sensitive enough to heed the call.
This book will be your guide to these sacred mushrooms, giving you
the necessary tools for safely identifying psilocybin mushrooms
throughout the world. The path is ancient, noble, and for many,
holy. I sincerely hope that you will discover the capacity of the
mushrooms to lead to a new type of consciousness. Be careful,
observant, respectful, and wise. The mushroom will be your teacher.
(pages 7-8)
The discovery of mushroom motifs and mushroom stones in excavations
of Mayan temple ruins strongly underscores the important cultural
role these mushrooms played. One of the Psilocybe mushrooms (P.
mexicana) was so esteemed as a holy sacrament as to be called teonanacatl
(God's flesh) in the Aztec language. In the sixteenth century, a
Franciscan friar, Bernardino de Sahagún, who travelled to the New
World several decades after the expedition of the Spanish conqueror
Herando Cortés, reported the ritualistic use of teonanacatl by the
Aztec peoples. However, misguided Catholic missionaries, in carrying
out their campaign against "pagan idolatry," soon forced
mushroom ceremonies into secrecy by persecuting those who were
caught using them. As Christianity subjugated native rites,
religions, and beliefs, artifacts-including mushroom stones and
other motifs-were viewed by the conquering Catholics as idols to
pagan gods and systematically destroyed. (page 11)
If we are to consider Wasson and his colleagues the first generation
of ethnomycologists, then Jonathan Ott, Terrence McKenna, Andrew
Well, Christian Ratsch, Jochen Gartz, Giorgio Samorini, and other
contemporaries could be considered the second generation. ... As the
body of knowledge from this second generation amasses, a broad
foundation is being laid in place for future ethnomycologists. The
course of human history has been dramatically affected by the use of
psilocybin mushrooms and will continue to be for years to come.
(page 15)
Northern Algeria is one example. Today, the region is in stark
contrast to its water-rich past. Once filled with rivers and lined
with riparian woodlands, the Tassili plateau has now been engulfed
by the expanding Sahara desert. In fact, the Tassili-n-Ajjer region
was known as the "plateau of the rivers." In the 1930s and
1940s, hundreds of Paleolithic drawings were discovered in this
region, painted on the walls of caves and rock faces. ...
For the Paleolithic human, the effects from ingesting psilocybin
mushrooms would have precipitated one of the most phenomenal events
ever experienced: a virtual cascade of consciousness, such as the
awakening of the spiritual and intellectual self, the introduction
to complex fractal mathematics, and the introduction to other
dimensions. Such experiences continue to inspire artists, computer
geniuses, and some of the greatest thinkers of this century. (pages
17-18)
Psilocybes have propelled themselves to the front lines of the
evolutionary race precisely because of their psilocybin content. The
production of psilocybin has proven to be a competitive evolutionary
advantage. Psilocybin mushrooms carry with them a message from
nature about the health of the planet. At a time of planetary crisis
brought on by human abuse, the earth calls out through these
mushrooms-sacraments that lead directly to a deeper ecological
consciousness, and motivate people to take action. (page 19)
Rituals: Safety nets for the psychonaut
As the dosage increases, the need for ritual becomes increasingly
important. Working within a ritual setting gives structure to the
experience and progresses events along a positive path. Ritual can
become a safeguard if the going gets rough-it can help lead you
through the experience and make it profoundly meaningful. After
repeated sessions, the ritual becomes a psychological road map,
providing a framework for safe tripping. Rituals are built from the
lessons learned from previous good experiences. But at some point,
for the shamans amongst us, being safe is not the priority-pushing
the envelope to new revelations is. (page 41)
On a recent trip, my eyes became so sensitive that, on a moonless
night, I saw my hands cast shadows on the ground from the starlight
above. Overlaying this display of splendor are colorful, dancing,
geometrical fractals of infinite complexity. The universe moves in
harmony. My spirit moves with it. I feel as though I have become a
thread in the fabric of nature and have returned home. Experiences
such as these leave impressions that are held dear for a lifetime.
It is no wonder that cultures from Paleolithic times up to those of
the present have all been held spellbound by psilocybin mushrooms.
(page 44)
Like the shamans of southern Mexico, I prefer nocturnal tripping.
I'll set up base camp in the late afternoon or early evening. An
hour before sunset, the mushrooms are selected and separated into
pairs. My wife and I have found that an offering of mushrooms to
Gaia, on a makeshift altar, sets the stage for an experience filled
with earth magic. Before ingestion, I like caressing their natural
forms, speaking to them of their beauty, wisdom, and ancient power.
They are the keys to the dimensions surrounding us that ordinarily
cannot be seen. If they permit, you will be granted access to
unimaginable dimensions of beauty, grace, and peacefulness. They
bring me closer to God, Jesus, Buddha, Gaian consciousness, my
origins, and to a deeper understanding of my purpose in the
universe. The experience, by all measures, is profoundly spiritual.
I strongly believe that the environmental movement that took off in
the sixties has been and continues to be fueled by revelations from
the psilocybin experience. (page 45)
Reviews:
From the author of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms comes
the only identification guide exclusively devoted to the world's
psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Detailed descriptions and color
photos for over 100 species are provided, as well as an exploration
of their long-standing use by ancients and their continued
significant to modern-day culture.
CSP's
Entheogen
Chrestomathy entry for Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World
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