Humanity's use of mushrooms extends back to Paleolithic times.Few peope-even anthropologists-comprehend how influential mushrooms have been in affecting the course of human evolution. Musrhooms have played pivotal roles in ancient Greece, India and Mesoamerica. Try to their beguiling nature, fungi have always elicited deep emotional responses: from adulation by those who understand them to outright fear by those who do not. The historical record reveals that mushrooms have been used for less than beneign purposes.The oldest archeaological of mushroom use discovered so far is probably a Tassili image from a cave which dates back 3,500 years before the birth of Christ. The artist's intent is clear. Mushrooms with electrified auras are depicted outlining a dancing shaman. The spiritual interpretation of the image transcends time and is obvious. No wonder that word "bemushroomed" has evolved to reflect the devout mushroom lover's state of mind.
The polypores can be used as tinder for starting fires and as medicine for treating wounds. Further, a rich tea with immuno-enhancing properties can be prepared by boiling these mushrooms. Equipped for traversing the wilderness, this intrepid adventurer had discovered the value of the noble polypores. Even today, this knowledge can be life-saving for anyone astray in the wilderness.
Fear of mushroom poisoning pervades every culture, sometimes reaching phobic extremes. The term mycophobic describes those individuals and cultures where fungi are looked upon with fear and loathing. Mycophobic cultures are epitomized by the English and Irish. In contrast, mycophilic societies can be found throughout Asia and eastern Europe, especially amongst Polish, Russian and Itialian peoples. These societies have enjoyed a long history of mushroom use, with as many as a hundred common names to decribe the mushroom varieties they loved.
In 1977, at a mushroom conference on the Olympic Peninsula, R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, and Carl Ruck first postulated, that the Eleusinian mysteries centered on the use of psychoactive fungi. Their papers were later published in a book entitled The Road the Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries (1978). That Aristotle and other founders of western philosophy undertook such intellectual adventures, and that this secret ceremony persisted for neary 2,000 years, underscores the profound impact that fungal rites have had on the evolution of western conciousness.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, February 7, 2009
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Psilocybin Mushrooms
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