Mushrooms & Psychedelics

HERES A MUSHI HISTORY LESSON...

Every psychedelic experience requires a mental and physical preparation. A fundamental part of this preparation is getting to know the history of the things that surround you. That way, you´ll feel more connected to the world and to yourself whan you trip.

First stages

Ancient psychedelic civilizations

Modern psychedelics

Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert

Prohibition

Counterculture movement

Paul Staments

Terence McKenna

Rick Doblin

Current psychedelic research

Bill Wilson

Gary Johnson

Psychedelic decriminalization

Last but not least

Now, with the acquired knowledge,  you are ready to make your own criteria about these substances and how you may want to relate to them. We invite you to start a process of reflection and self-analysis, so you can enjoy your psychedelic experience in the best way possible.

HAPPY CONSCIOUS TRIP!

NEWS

Microdose psychedelic insights, the psychedelic scientist, Horizons PBC, NYC Chapter, The Mushroom, Fungi Magazine, DobleBlind, psychedelic science, psychedelic support, psychedelics today, wonderland conference.

BOOKS

The psychedelic experience, The doors of perception, Plants of the gods, LSD my problem child, The psychedelic explorers guide, El manjar de los dioses.

DOCUMENTARIES

DMT: the spiritual molecule, The sunshine maker.

STUDIES

The journal of the royal society, the american journal of drug and alcohol abuse, australian family physician, psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior: a population study by Pal-organ Johansen and Teri Suzanne Krens, Aquilino cancer center- Rockville, Maryland.

SERIES

The midnight gospel, How to change your mind. 

ORGANIZATIONS

Zendo project, fundacion fungi, MAPS.ORG, psychedelic medicine association, Burning man project, POCPC, The psychedelic society, Fauna Flora Funga, harvard psychedelic club, women in psychedelics.

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First Stages

Early hominids were omnivores that relied substantially on forest floor foods, including mushrooms. The presence of mycophagy and self-medication among both primates and Paleolithic humans) suggests hominins also incorporated fungi with bioactive properties in their diet. It is likely that psychedelic mushrooms from the genus Psilocybe were ingested by our ancestors since the Pliocene (beginning 5.3 million years ago [mya]), when semi-arboreal hominids intensified foraging activity on the ground. Exposures to psychedelic fungi by australopithecines and early Homo during the Pleistocene (beginning 2.5 mya) are implied by their presence in African grasslands; Stoned Ape Theory is a hypothesis of one of America's most influential psychonauts, Terence McKenna.
This theory was outlined in McKenna’s 1992 book “Food of The Gods.” In its pages, it states that one of our earliest ancestors, Homo Erectus, began to eat Psilocybe cubensis as part of its diet. The theory is based on the alleged effects of psychedelic mushrooms, cited in studies from the 1960s and 1970s by the likes of Roland L. Fischer. According to the Stoned Ape Theory, this simple act could have profoundly changed the brain of our ancestors. McKenna claims that low doses of psilocybin improve visual acuity, especially edge detection. Basically, the new addition of psilocybin to the diet of pack-hunting primates allowed them to be more discerning, skilled, and communicative hunters.

Ancient psychedelic civilizations

In Spain there are murals from 4000 B.C. with representations of hallucinogenic mushrooms, also The hair, found inside wooden containers hidden deep within a sealed grotto on Minorca, an island off the coast of eastern Spain, tested positive for a number of mind-altering compounds, suggesting that the people who lived there 3,000 years ago incorporated hallucinogenic experiences into the rituals of their lives.
In northern Mexico there is anthropological evidence of peyote use dating back to 3600 B.C. The Olmecs also carried out ceremonial rituals with mushrooms, in their native language they called them teonanácatl, which meant “meat of the gods”, in addition to them, various cultures throughout Mexico consumed them. In ancient Athens, the Eleusinian sects drank kykeon, a magical elixir that allowed them to understand the highest principles of life. It is believed that many of the pillars of Western thought were born in these sects, including Plato’s theory of forms.
The fragrance of the Egyptian nymphaea was considered therapeutic; the flowers were added to the wine to create a hallucinogenic euphoria. Water lily flowers were also used to attract expansion by magical healers for the purpose of healing on a spiritual level, as a helpful guide to the souls of the dead. All these cultures are some examples of man and his relationship with psychedelic substances throughout his existence.

Moderns psychedelics

In the modern Western era, the use of psychedelics was born when in 1938 Albert Hofmann, a chemist at the Swiss laboratory Sandoz, synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (popularly known as acid or LSD) from a fungus, ergot. After several years of research and an incident in 1943 where he himself used LSD, Hofmann came to the conclusion that his new substance would have multiple applications in the psychiatric field.
Upon the arrival of the Spanish, a Franciscan friar described what happened when experiencing this type of experience and they were considered a threat to Catholicism, resulting in its prohibition and giving rise to a hidden culture for the world until May 13, 1957, on the cover of LIFE magazine appeared the headline: “the Discovery of mushrooms that cause strange visions”, which described the trip made to Mexico by the New York banker R. Gordon Wasson, in which he was guided through the medicine by the famous Mexican healer Maria Sabina.
This article led the scientific community to do research on these types of compounds and their benefits to human health. For example, at Johns Hopkins, Roland Griffiths conducted a study in which he administered psilocybin-assisted therapy to 51 patients with advanced cancer who were displaying symptoms of anxiety or depression. Those who received the highest doses reported improvements in their quality of life, increases in feelings of optimism, and a marked reduction in anxiety associated with approaching death.
Similarly, other researchers around the world began to carry out important experiments that demonstrated the immense potential that these substances have to alleviate ruminant mental illnesses (depression, anxiety, addictions, obsessive-compulsive disorders, among others). Ruminant diseases are characterized by generating excessive, repetitive and intrusive thoughts that prevent the proper functioning of the brain.

Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert

In 1960, two promising young psychologists at Harvard, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, began to explore the effects of psychotropic substances on the human mind. Leary and Alpert sought to document its effects on human consciousness by administering it to volunteer subjects and recording their real-time descriptions of the experience. At the time of Leary and Alpert’s research at Harvard, neither LSD nor psilocybin were illegal substances in the United States.
in the spring of 1963 Harvard was forced to dismiss Alpert after he administered psilocybin to an undergraduate student off-campus. Leary was also fired from the university, and the Harvard Psilocybin Project came to an abrupt end.
Discredited by their lack of scientific rigor and failure to observe established research guidelines, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert were both banished from academia, but that was far from the end of their public lives: both men went on to become icons of the psychedelic drug, counterculture, and human potential movement. Leary became famous for the slogan “Tune in, Turn On, Drop Out”: Alpert, under the name Baba Ram Dass, wrote a popular book called Be Here Now, described as a “modern spiritual classic.”

Prohibition

At the same time that all this scientific research was happening, the government and the main US institutions attributed the responsibility of the counterculture and anti-war movements to the use of psychedelics. In 1971 President Nixon declared the war on drugs and criminalized the use of almost all of these substances without considering a real analysis of the dangers and benefits of each one.
The ideals and the foundations established by the State were seen in danger due to the growth of the counterculture movement and its ideals, which is why the former Nixon precedent began a campaign to persecute and penalize these substances (birth of the DEA) and classified psychedelics in group 1, which rejected any medical use and warned of the risk of generating dependency.
Subsequent to this, he led the UN to sign an agreement in which a handful of countries joined the initiative to penalize this type of psychoactive substance. Not satisfied with this, he decides to carry out a massive campaign of misinformation and fear around psychedelics, paying for false studies to affirm lies such as chromosomal or brain damage when consuming them or physical and psychological dependence, in addition to alerting suicidal or dangerous behaviors.
Over the years and as more investigations were added, all the false information provided by the government was denied in order to create a social stigma around the substance and it stopped consuming it.

Counterculture Movement

The establishment counterculture movement of the 1960s emerged as a youth current at odds with the Vietnam War and the US government of the time.It became known as the hippie movement, which later spread to the entire world and which professed the values of nonviolent anarchy, pacifism, the sexual revolution, concern for the environment, and rejection of the capitalist status quo and Western materialism.
The hippies played a decisive role in the internal opposition to the Vietnam War and the radical policies of the time, and provided decisive support to the fights for gender equality, races and the acceptance of homosexuality in the West.

Paul Stamets

Speaker, author, mycologist, medical researcher and entrepreneur, is considered an intellectual and industry leader in fungi: habitat, medicinal use, and production. He lectures extensively to deepen the understanding and respect for the organisms that literally exist under every footstep taken on this path of life.
His presentations cover a range of mushroom species and research showing how mushrooms can help the health of people and the planet. His central premise is that habitats have immune systems, just like people, and mushrooms are cellular bridges between the two. Our close evolutionary relationship to fungi can be the basis for novel pairings in the microbiome that lead to greater sustainability and immune enhancement.

Terence McKenna

He embodied the figure of the intellectual of the psychedelic counterculture and was one of the precursors of the theory of natural visionary plants, which include psychedelic mushrooms, ayahuasca and DMT, which led to the exploration of altered states of consciousness that opened the mind. mind to new dimensions of great power and beauty.
McKenna was also involved in the early rave scene. He gave numerous conferences and published various books, such as El manjar de los dioses (1994), The new psychedelic consciousness (1993) and Chaos, creativity and cosmic consciousness (2005).

Rick Doblin

Is the Founder and President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences.
He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist.

Current Psychedelics Research

Some of the most influential scientists in the field include Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris at Imperial College London, David Nichols at Purdue University, and Dr. James Fadiman at Sofia University.
Dr. Carhart-Harris is best known for his work with MRI scans and functional connectivity analysis of the brains of psychedelics users. He has demonstrated that hallucinogens can alter our brains’ functional networks, with effects lasting for weeks after taking psychedelics. His research is mainly focused on psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. His findings suggest that psychedelics may be useful in treating depression, addiction, anxiety, chronic pain, eating disorders and more.
Dr. David Nichols has been researching psychedelic chemical structures since the 1970s. He has developed a number of theoretical models to explain how these drugs interact with the human body. He also works closely with other researchers to develop safer ways of administering various psychedelics as medicine.
James Fadiman – known affectionately as “Psychonaut Jim” by some – has been researching psychedelics both professionally and personally since 1966. He studies what he calls “the creative potential of psychoactive substances” – the ability they have to spur creative thoughts and ideas when used in a controlled environment. He is currently conducting ongoing microdosing experiments that he believes could revolutionize mental health care if properly backed up by empirical research findings in the future.

Bill Wilson

Creator of Alcoholics Anonymous, used belladonna (another psychoactive plant) when he created his famous AA program. Later he also experimented with LSD and claimed that it offered the mystical experience required to break free from the chains of addiction.

Gary Johnson

Former New Mexico governor, who in 2019 signed into law a bill that decriminalized “natural psychedelics” such as psilocybin mushrooms within Albuquerque city limits. In doing so, Johnson opened up new avenues of research around psychedelic substances as well as provided a model for other cities to follow. Much like Doblin, Johnson has become an outspoken proponent of increasing access to psychedelic treatments and expanding research into their potential benefits

Psychedelic Decriminalization

In 1986 Doblin founded the Multidisciplinary Association for the Study of Psychedelics (MAPS), a non-profit association whose objective was to promote the study and legalization of this and various other psychoactive substances. MAPS has been granted breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA, an endorsement given only to high-impact medicines.
In February 2021, the Drug Enforcement Administration said that it took into account the investigation and the recommendations of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). However, it determined that “these substances are abused for their hallucinogenic properties.” Therefore, they did not reclassify it. Something similar happened in Australia in 2021.
Meanwhile, substances such as opioids and methamphetamines, the use of which has caused a public health crisis, continue to cause deaths and are in lower positions on the table (sites II to V). So the fight continues, with your help and support in the future legal psychedelics will be available for everyone, seeking to improve mental health and life in all ways. LOVE NOT WAR!

Last But Not Least

Although there is a general public perception that psychedelics are dangerous, from a physiologic viewpoint they are one of the safest classes of central nervous system “drugs” . Psilocybin, in particular, is exceptionally harmless. This is reflected by its high therapeutic index, 641, which is indicative of very low toxicity.
A review of literature on psilocybin risks found that in spite of moderate acute toxicity, psilocybin has low chronic toxicity and negligible public health risk. Other public health assessments have similarly concluded that psilocybin mushrooms are the safest of all common recreational drugs.
Moreover, psilocybin is not neurotoxic, its lethal to psychoactive dose ratio is estimated at 1000:1, it has little or no potential for creating dependence, and there is no evidence of long-term cognitive impairment.

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