The Psilocybin Solution

the shaman and the mystic, a meaning only alluded to in the conventional religions of the world.

As I see it, if we are genuinely interested in the function of the Universe and the function of human consciousness within it, then we are obliged to follow all and any paths of inquiry. I would suggest that the untrammeled path laid out by entheogenic plants and fungi is, perhaps, the most viable route to evidence that indicates that human consciousness is central to reality. If, instead, this unusual path should prove to lead nowhere, then we may have to accept that human life and human consciousness are devoid of any real purpose, a view proffered, it must be said, by all manner of “experts.” This book can therefore be read as an alternative, user-friendly guide to the nature of reality, the implications of which herald all manner of good news. Very good news indeed.

So stand by for a controversial tale of a recently rediscovered entheogenic substance native to most parts of the Earth’s Temperate Zone. And brace yourself for the astonishing insights into mind and Nature that this substance provokes. Fasten your seat belts, because if I have done my job correctly, you are poised for a roller coaster ride into the very heart of the mystery of existence. As the chapters unfold we will gradually climb up to a peak, from which point we will be propelled through exhilarating vistas in which the significance of consciousness is breathtakingly apparent. By the end of the book, I hope to have shown, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the reality process is essentially smart through and through and that we conscious beings have a privileged role to play in its intentional unfolding. I assure you that this will become crystal clear as the chapters progress.

ONE Sacred Ground

On May 13, 1957, the well-read pages of Life magazine carried a ground- breaking article that was to profoundly alter the West’s attitude toward the wilder side of the natural world. Here was the first-ever personal account written by a Westerner describing the extraordinary psychological effects induced by a mushroom deified and ritually worshipped by native Mexicans. Consumption of the sacred Mexican mushroom allowed one to contact the gods, experience profound visions, and gain mystical knowledge. Or at least these were the most extravagant of the native Mexican beliefs about the mushroom that were reported by anthropologists during the first half of the twentieth century.

In pre-Columbian times the mysterious mushroom had been known by the Aztecs as “God’s Flesh,” testifying to its divine potency. Such veneration ensured the mushroom a cult status among native Mexicans, despite the violent cultural upheavals wrought by the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century. Thus, although the once-mighty Aztec culture was eventually destroyed, the sacred mushroom continued to be used in and around Mexico throughout the Spanish occupation. Yet despite the legendary effects of this peculiar species of fungus, it wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that an outside investigator finally consumed the mushroom and hence verified its alleged spiritual potential.

Transmitted solely by word of mouth from the time of the Spanish Conquest, detailed knowledge of the revered mushroom had lain principally in the hands of jealously guarding shamans or native healers, who were loath to disclose their botanical secrets to outsiders. They feared, perhaps justifiably, that the sacred mushroom’s supernatural power would be diminished or be used profanely should the untrustworthy white folk gain full admittance into its living mystery. Therefore the 1957 Life article in which the secret of the mushroom was openly exposed dramatically symbolized the West’s bypassing of this long-standing cultural security system. The sacred mushroom had been forcibly plucked from its localized shamanic niche and was now being presented to the Western world in the form of mass-circulated print, with color photographs and specimen drawings to boot.

Despite exposure to the prying eyes of the West, the status of the Mexican mushroom remained as lofty and as tantalizingly ethereal as ever, more so even since the Western psyche was just as stunned and awed by its transcendental visionary effects as were local Mexicans. In the following decades a psychedelic mushroom cloud of fascination would slowly expand and loom beyond Mexico, eventually extending its magical influence as far away as Europe, but at this initial stage in its sudden growth, the strange mushroom remained a purely Mexican phenomenon.

On the front cover of that auspicious edition of Life magazine, the simple headline read “The Discovery of Mushrooms That Cause Strange Visions,” a rather unusual claim from such a traditionally conservative magazine. The article was included as part of Life magazine’s series of Great Adventures and was written by R. Gordon Wasson, vice-president of a Wall Street banking firm, who, with the aid of his wife, Valentina, had spent some thirty years of part-time research creating a new scientific discipline—ethnomycology, the study of the cultural and historical use of fungi.

Ethnomycology is clearly specialized and seemingly remote from the affairs of modern culture. It was only through the dedicated efforts of the Wassons—who learned of the sacred Mexican mushrooms, sought to find them, and experienced them firsthand—that psilocybin (the as-yet unnamed active constituent of the mushroom, pronounced silla-SIGH-bin) came to the attention of the West. Once the sacred Mexican mushrooms were discovered, ethnomycological science suddenly acquired a distinctly mystical edge, allowing it to breach the domains of religion and psychology. It also provided a new impetus to humankind’s enduring quest to access transcendental knowledge, and there can be no doubt that Wasson’s discovery and vivid description of the effects of psilocybin were crucial in generating the subsequent cultural wave of psychedelic experimentation that soon followed in the 1960s. Moreover, as we shall eventually see, the mushroom also reveals itself as the key to unveiling the secrets of consciousness and the hidden riches of Nature. Theophany, mind, and reality: these three most profound of topics are all met in some way through use of the mushroom. But, before we jump into the deep end, who, pray, was this Wasson fellow, this financiercum-adventurer? And how had he come to penetrate the Earth’s secret psychedelic dimension? Who was he to bring news of sacred fungi to the attention of the Western world?

In effect, Wasson’s Life article was timed to coincide with the release of his magnum opus two-volume book Mushrooms, Russia and History, cowritten with his wife, Valentina. This work fully reveals the extent of Wasson’s long-standing interest in the cultural use of fungi and how he finally came to be at the door of perception marked psilocybin.

With only 512 handcrafted copies luxuriously bound and printed, Mushrooms, Russia and History stands as a rare piece of art. Indeed, by the late 1970s its value had reached some $2,500, making it the most valuable book in existence at that time whose author was still alive. It is a highly polished book, written in a lively style that reflects the love of ethnomycology borne by the Wassons. It represents the distilled wisdom drawn from their extensive studies into the role that various species of mushroom played in different cultures, and it culminates in their discovery of the sacred mushroom ceremonies still being conducted in Mexico, a discovery important enough to warrant the further account in the more accessible pages of Life magazine.

A Trail Begins

The event that originally launched the Wassons on their mushroom crusade was simple, almost trivial, yet it was enough to provoke them into a three-decade-long bout of invaluable research. The Wassons married in 1927, and one day during their honeymoon they decided to take a casual stroll in the Catskill Mountains of New York. At some stage, Valentina, who was Russian by birth, stopped to pick wild mushrooms, delighting in such a fortuitous find. Her husband, on the other hand, being true to his Anglo-Saxon heritage, was appalled at his wife’s avid interest in lethal fungal abominations, especially since she planned to cook and eat them later. After all, were not all fungal growths poisonous toadstools to be avoided like the plague? With growing dismay, Gordon Wasson