History

When was the psilocybin mushroom discovered?

The power of this medicine is vast. Our ancestors ingested entheogens like psilocybin to connect with sacred beings/spirit guides, promote healing, and strengthen their communities.

“Time and again, you find these visionary experiences that can’t be divorced from the birth of religion—from the burning bush of Moses to Paul on the road to Damascus, to Peter caught up in a trance in [the book of] Acts… It seems to me like psychedelics are these very reliable, very potent means of having these transcendent visions… and maybe catching a glimpse of what happens to a Moses or a Paul or a Peter when they’re caught up in the ‘third heaven’.” ~ Brian Muraresku, author of The Immortality Key

Quick overview on Psilocybin.

If you haven’t listened to the “Stoned Ape Hypothesis,” by Terence McKenna, I highly recommend it. It suggests that when early humans took magic mushrooms, it triggered intellectual advancements that led to evolutionary benefits—including the mind as we know it today.

From five million years to two million years ago, our human brains actually tripled in size. The theory is that the consumption of mushrooms advanced our use of tools, communication and language, empathy, longevity, and our brain mass. It’s not too far-fetched considering what we know today about how mushrooms work with our neural chemistry.

Archaeological evidence from the Sahara Desert suggests that humans have been using psychedelic mushrooms for 7,000–9000 years or more, and mushrooms are represented in prehistoric art across the globe. In most cases, they’re thought to be religious symbols, often in the context of ceremonies celebrating rites of passage. It’s thought among some that if our ancestors used mushrooms, the experience may have influenced prehistoric culture, from art to religion to social values that regulate everyday life. We can see that same influence on our own social values today.

As we look back at the history of mushrooms, there are extensive accounts of pre-Columbian psilocybin use among the Mayan and Aztec cultures of Mesoamerica, namely in Mexico and Guatemala. After conquering these areas in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Spanish forbade psychedelic mushroom use by indigenous peoples, regarding it as uncivilized cultural practice. Despite this, the indigenous shamans continued to use mushrooms in secret for over 400 years to preserve the ritual and traditional use.

One of the first accounts of someone consuming psilocybin was in 1799 when a father gathered and cooked a stew for his 4 children. Can you imagine the after-dinner chat that night? HA!

Gordon Wasson, former vice president of J.P. Morgan & Company, apparently had a fascination with psilocybin mushrooms, which grew into an obsession. In 1955, he traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to meet mushroom shaman Maria Sabina, a member of the indigenous Mazatec Indian tribe, who introduced him to psilocybin mushrooms. On his first mushroom trip, he reported feeling as if his soul had been scooped out of his body. Wasson can be thanked for influencing the psychedelic mushroom movement in the West when in 1957 Time Magazine published, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,” in which he detailed his experiences.

During this time, Harvard Professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) started the “Psilocybin Project“ along with Harvard grad students to help with prisoner rehabilitation. It sounds like a great project, but there wasn’t a lot of structure and safety around the use of psychedelics at that time – especially between the students and teachers. A lot of research and exploration was happening in the ‘60s with this amazing medicine, but unfortunately, they were later booted from Harvard. Apparently, the board did not take kindly to the slogan “tuning in, turning on and dropping out.” Leary was also labeled “the most dangerous man in America” by President Nixon.

Soon after, Terrance and Dennis McKenna wrote about their journeys into the Colombian Amazon and their findings of Psilocybin cubensis. The word began to spread throughout the USA on how to cultivate and use magic mushrooms. The mycelium network was in full swing.

Nixon’s war on drugs in the 1970s put an end to psilocybin research. It’s hard to fathom where we might be if the research into psilocybin had continued at that time.

In 1971, psilocybin was listed in the UN’s Convention on Psychotropic Substances as a Schedule I drug in the U.S., making it illegal for all purposes. However, just like the Spanish forbade the use of psilocybin mushrooms in the 15th and 16th centuries, the use of psilocybin mushrooms remained in use in underground ceremonies, religious practices, and recreationally. Furthermore, psilocybin mushrooms were not part of the UN convention, which, to this day, allows countries who have signed the convention (essentially a treaty) to regulate mushrooms that naturally contain psilocybin as they see fit. That said, psilocybin mushrooms are illegal in most countries today.

To see the legalization around the world, please click here.

And then something amazing happened… the third wave of psychedelics began with anecdotal accounts of psilocybin’s therapeutic effects finally capturing the attention of medical professionals. In 1999, Roland Griffith, the founding member of John Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Conscious Research, conducted research using psilocybin to treat distress in cancer patients, depression, and nicotine addiction with favorable results. This news started trickling into the mainstream, and now research is being funded and conducted by many organizations, including MAPS, The Beckley Foundation, The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research, Cybin Compass Pathways, Atai Life Science, MindMed, Field Trip and many more.

Like the research done in the ‘60s and ‘70s, current research shows that psilocybin has profound therapeutic effects.

Read more on the first and second wave of psychedelics (link to article)B

Fun fact: Many believe that the Amanita Muscaria mushroom used by Siberian Shamans is the basis for the Christmas tradition of gift giving and Santa Claus. It’s a fascinating story that you can learn more about on Joe Rogan’s interview with Brian Muraresku and Graham Hancock discussing the book The Immortality Key: The Secret History of Religion with no Name