Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include Psilocybe, Panaeolus, Inocybe, Pluteus, Gymnopilus, and Pholiotina. Psilocybin mushrooms have been and continue to be used in indigenous New World cultures in religious, divinatory, or spiritual contexts. Psilocybin mushrooms are also used as recreational drugs. They may be depicted in Stone Age rock art in Africa and Europe but are most famously represented in the Pre-Columbian sculptures and glyphs seen throughout North, Central, and South America.
Psilocybe is a genus of gilled mushrooms, growing worldwide, in the family Hymenogastraceae. Most or nearly all species contain the psychedelic compounds psilocybin and psilocin.
Robert Gordon Wasson was an American author, ethnomycologist, and Vice President for Public Relations at J.P. Morgan & Co.
María Sabina Magdalena García was a Mazatec curandera, shaman and poet who lived in Huautla de Jiménez, a town in the Sierra Mazateca area of the Mexican state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Her healing sacred mushroom ceremonies, called veladas, were based on the use of psilocybin mushrooms, particularly Psilocybe caerulescens, a sacred mushroom important to the Mazatecs. María Sabina's veladas contributed to the popularization of indigenous Mexican ritual use of entheogenic mushrooms among westerners, though this was not her intent.
Richard Evans Schultes was an American biologist. He may be considered the father of modern ethnobotany. He is known for his studies of the uses of plants by indigenous peoples, especially the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He worked on entheogenic or hallucinogenic plants, particularly in Mexico and the Amazon, involving lifelong collaborations with chemists. He had charismatic influence as an educator at Harvard University; several of his students and colleagues went on to write popular books and assume influential positions in museums, botanical gardens, and popular culture.
The Mazatec Shamans are known for their ritual use of psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive morning glory seeds, and Salvia divinorum. María Sabina was one of the best known of the Mazatec Shamans. Her healing psilocybin mushroom ceremonies, called veladas, contributed to the popularization of indigenous Mexican ritual use of entheogenic mushrooms among westerners.
The ancient Aztecs employed a variety of entheogenic plants and animals within their society. The various species have been identified through their depiction on murals, vases, and other objects.
Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi and can be considered a subfield of ethnobotany or ethnobiology. Although in theory the term includes fungi used for such purposes as tinder, medicine and food, it is often used in the context of the study of psychoactive mushrooms such as psilocybin mushrooms, the Amanita muscaria mushroom, and the ergot fungus.
Jonathan Ott is an ethnobotanist, writer, translator, publisher, natural products chemist and botanical researcher in the area of entheogens and their cultural and historical uses, and helped coin the term "entheogen".
Entheogenic drugs have been used by various groups for thousands of years. There are numerous historical reports as well as modern, contemporary reports of indigenous groups using entheogens, chemical substances used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context.
Huautla de Jimenez is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region.
San Juan Cotzocon is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Sierra Mixe district within the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca Region.
Psilocybe aztecorum is a species of psilocybin mushroom in the family Hymenogastraceae. Known from Arizona, Colorado, central Mexico, India and Costa Rica, the fungus grows on decomposing woody debris and is found in mountainous areas at elevations of 2,000 to 4,000 m, typically in meadows or open, grassy conifer forests. The mushrooms have convex to bell-shaped caps 1.5–2 cm (0.6–0.8 in) in diameter, atop slender cylindrical stems that are up to 7.5 cm (3.0 in) long. The color of the caps changes with variations in hydration, ranging from dark chestnut brown to straw yellow or whitish when dry. The base of the stem is densely covered with conspicuous white rhizomorphs, a characteristic uncommon amongst Psilocybe species.
Psilocybe hoogshagenii is a species of psilocybin mushroom in the family Hymenogastraceae. The mushroom has a brownish conical or bell-shaped cap up to 3 cm (1.2 in) wide that has an extended papilla up to 4 mm long. The stem is slender and 5 to 9 cm long. The variety P. hoogshagenii var. convexa lacks the long papilla.
Psilocybe yungensis is a species of psychedelic mushroom in the family Hymenogastraceae. In North America, it is found in northeast, central and southeastern Mexico. In South America, it has been recorded from Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador. It is also known from the Caribbean island Martinique, and China. The mushroom grows in clusters or groups on rotting wood. The fruit bodies have conical to bell-shaped reddish- to orangish-brown caps that are up to 2.5 cm (1.0 in) in diameter, set atop slender stems 3 to 5 cm long. The mushrooms stain blue when bruised, indicative of the presence of the compound psilocybin. Psilocybe yungensis is used by Mazatec Indians in the Mexican State of Oaxaca for entheogenic purposes.
Velada is the name of the healing vigils carried out by Mazatec curanderos. The rituals involved the use of psilocybin or Salvia divinorum to commune with God and experience enlightenment.
Jean Bassett Johnson was an American anthropologist and linguist who conducted field studies in Mexico during the 1930s and early 1940s. A doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, he was a student of Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie.
Valentina Pavlovna (Guercken) Wasson (1901–1958) was a Russian-American pediatrician, ethnomycologist and author. She was involved in the introduction of psychoactive mushrooms to a wide audience in the United States.
Entheogenic drugs have been used by various groups for thousands of years. There are numerous historical reports as well as modern, contemporary reports of indigenous groups using entheogens, chemical substances used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context.
Irmgard Weitlaner-Johnson (1914-2011) was an American anthropologist who was an expert in Mexican textiles. She studied cultural anthropology and ethnographic textiles at the University of California, Berkeley.
