Introduction
ENTHEOGENS
A New Way to View Hallucinogenic Mushrooms

To make this trivial world sublime,
Take half a gramme of phanerothyme.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

To fathom Hell or soar angelic,
Just take a pinch of psychedelic.
HUMPHRY OSMOND

I n most cultures around the world, wild mushrooms are best known either as food or as potential poison. However, mushrooms also have been sought out and used by indigenous peoples in many cultures around the world for the effects they produce above the shoulders—to open and expand the mind in religious ceremonies and as intoxicants during celebrations. On almost every continent, from the Aztec and Mayan cultures that the Spaniards discovered on their arrival and conquest in the sixteenth century¹ to the ancient Greeks use of datura, there have been examples of people using plants and fungi in religious and spiritual practices to engender a state of altered consciousness that helps them access clarity of mind, understand the will of God, or gain insight for healing. In most cases, the living organism that the psychoactive compound is derived from is treated reverentially and can even be considered as a gift from, or synonymous with, the gods. Many powerful hallucinogens come from species of indigenous mushrooms.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, there has been a surge in the investigation of mind-altering natural products as the western world began to explore the application of these powerful traditional medicines. The early western adopters sought to develop a language to refer to the compounds and the experience they unleash as a first step in talking about their effects and applications to a wider audience. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a synthetic drug initially isolated from the fungus ergot, was one of the first mind-altering drugs systematically studied in the West. The first group of modern researchers that sought to understand and describe the effects of LSD coined the word “psychotomimetic” to refer to a drug that induces psychosis. Psychiatrists in Europe who began to experiment with the use of psychotomimetics in therapy used the term “psycholytic” (“mind-loosening”) in the 1950s to describe a form of therapy, the compounds used in the therapy, and the desired action of the compounds. Psycholytic therapists viewed LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and other agents as having the potential to loosen the ego defenses, and used them as an aid to traditional psychoanalysis, especially with resistant clients.² In 1957, the British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond devised the term “psychedelic” (“mind-manifesting”) in an effort to avoid the stigma of mental illness frequently associated with psychology. Osmond wanted to take “psyche” back to the word’s Greek root meaning “soul,” and therefore focused on the action of these drugs on the perception of self in the universe. The term “psychedelic therapy” was used in the same period in Europe and America and relied on higher doses of LSD, and later other hallucinogens, as a way to induce insight, acceptance, tolerance, and profound spirituality.³ In later years, the term psychedelic was broadly applied in pop culture to music, art, and lifestyle and thereby was tainted in the view of Osmond’s followers.

Because the use of mind-altering compounds produces an alteration in sensory perceptions, the drugs became widely known as hallucinogens. The word hallucinate is derived from the Latin “allucinari,” which means to wander mentally or talk nonsensically and is synonymous with verbs indicating insanity or delirium.⁴ Since we don’t refer to shamans in an altered state as crazed or psychotic, this term seems inadequate to describe the traditional role of these powerful soul releasers. Aldous Huxley, who described his journeys under the influence of mescaline in The Doors of Perception, suggested the name “phanerothyme”—which means to make intense emotions manifest— to capture the deep significance of his experience while under under mescaline’s influence. In a playful exchange of ideas with Osmond, Huxley wrote

“To make this trivial world sublime,
Take half a gramme of phanerothyme.”

To which Osmond replied, marketing his own ideas,

“To fathom Hell or soar angelic,
Just take a pinch of psychedelic.”

Since this is probably the first time you’ve come across the term “phanero-thyme,” you know whose ideas prevailed in the search for a language to name this unique class of compounds.

While psychedelic describes the psychoactive compounds, it also quickly came to refer to an entire lifestyle and movement. In 1979, a small group of respected ethnobotanists, ethnomycologists, and others widely respected for their work in the culture and use of hallucinogens coined the term “entheogen” to describe those psychoactive plants, mushrooms, and extracted compounds used by shamans and priests in traditional ceremonial settings or others seeking to create a similar ritualized setting. They desired to “propose a new term that would be appropriate for describing states of shamanic and ecstatic possession induced by the ingestion of mind-altering drugs.”⁵ Concerned about the rapid proliferation of popular use and abuse of a variety of psychoactive drugs including LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the group felt strongly that there be a method of referring to psychoactive compounds that referenced their ritualized use as gateways to the soul and enlightenment rather than simple recreational use. Entheogen comes from the Greek terms “etheos,” referring to the god within, and “gen,” which is the root of our English word “generative” and connotes the idea of accessing or becoming the god within. The influential thinker and writer Stanislav Grof, MD, wrote of his own fundamental experience following the use of entheogens, “I had a completely atheistic background when I encountered entheogens. For me it was not so that my first entheogenic experience confirmed or deepened something I already believed in; it was a 180-degree turn.”⁶

My intent in the research and writing of the following chapters is to underscore the history of, and potential for, the use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms as entheogens and to underscore the historic use of muscimol-containing Amanita mushrooms in the same light. The abuse of psychedelics in the 1960s and 1970s led to the end of legitimate clinical practice and research into their potential applications in a variety of psychological settings. The slow, deliberate steps toward rehabilitation of the reputation of these entheogens are under way, and the future holds great promise for their use in assisting people to make meaning and peace with their world.

In the process of adding chapters on mind-altering mushrooms to this book, I find myself feeling vulnerable to the charges leveled by the sober and earnest scientific community and by concerned parents of impressionable teenagers who populate the planet of my other professional life as a clinical social worker and suicide prevention specialist. The exploration and publication of information about psychedelic mushrooms, other than as clearly worded cautionary tales used to bolster the ‘just say no’ dogma of adolescent parenting, threatens to place me clearly in the crosshairs of teachers, substance abuse counselors, police, and other people whom we rely on to protect our children. As the parent of an adolescent, my intent is not to glorify or aggrandize the use of hallucinogenic drugs or to encourage their use in uncontrolled settings. At the same time, I don’t want to dismiss the potential for personal enlightenment and self-revelation simply because of the excesses of an ill-informed and irresponsible generation of recreational abusers. We have trivialized historic and ritualized use by indigenous peoples and the legitimate potential of clinical applications of compounds such as psilocybin because of our fear about the wildest excess of group LSD trips. The comparison between indigenous use and clinical applications and the uncontrolled excesses of partying is unfair and blunt. Coming of age in the early 1970s, my life was shaped by the tenor of the times and the people who questioned and challenged the cultural norms and, in so doing, brought about both widespread dissent and needed social change. To many parents and societal leaders, the uncontrolled and stormy turbulence of the late 1960s and early 1970s—and its associated excessive drug use—looked like a forest fire that threatened to consume the society they had spent their lifetimes building. The reaction of the so-called “establishment” was to attempt to quell the storm, and drug use was one of the most visible targets. Looking back, however, it seems that much of the idealism that colored the 1960s has been quelled, and drug abuse continues.

The abuse of drugs—including alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine, along with the increasingly powerful and destructive concentrated and synthetic drugs, including opiates such as oxycontin, amphetamines (including meth-amphetamine), cocaine, and others—remains a major and legitimate concern in the United States and around the world. The ceremonial use of entheogens by indigenous peoples did not include the uber-potent synthetic derivatives, such as LSD, that are available today. LSD presents an increased risk for a bad trip, in part due to its potency, and also because people often use it without the shelter of proscribed ceremony and support. There’s a good reason why powerful prescription drugs are prescribed under the care and supervision of a doctor or other professional. In an ideal world, our doctors act in the role of shaman, establishing the ceremonial “set and setting” by informing and preparing the patient in order to ensure that the medicine can do its work. Every explorer of unknown territory needs a knowledgeable and experienced guide. This is as true for the use of psychoactive mushrooms as it is in the application of insulin for a diabetic.