Psilocybin Mushrooms and the Mycology of Consciousness

Psilocybin Mushrooms and the Mycology of Consciousness

Paul Stamets — 1 recording in the archive.

The book: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets.

All right so my talk is on the psilocybin mushrooms and the my ecology of consciousness so this is a very famous rock painting cat Harrison redrew it that's this is the original cave art and the northern Sicilian ajar plateau redrawn by jonathan meter it's about seven five thousand years BCE about seven thousand years ago now is interesting the correlation of magic mushrooms and honey and it was a long term method of preserving the psychoactive properties of sulphide mushrooms but it's interesting also to note that the Bavarian beer Purity act in 1516 specifically banned mushrooms by name and i think this is a struggle between paganism and worshipping and the force they struggle between polytheism and then monotheism christianity coming in trying to subjective we suppress the indigenous use of sacred plants and celebration of nature so i this is the on the upper left is a co2 lift from 450 BCE of Demeter giving Persephone a mushroom upon ingesting the mushroom this relates to the ordination and myths of the seasons in Greek culture she falls into a deep sleep she goes into the underworld to Hades and that's the onset of winter upon the beginning of spring she reenters into the into the overworld and this is have been fully described by our Gordon Watson and Karl rock in the book called the II loose Indian mysteries where for over a thousand years thousands of people would embark on a journey to ingest a very potent concoction thought to be mushrooms or a fungal extract and had would have a group psychoactive experience but I also want you to look at the way that the mushrooms are presented present-day this is how you present a sacrament you don't just lay it out in your hands and say hey look you go there you know and so I think that's clearly seen with Maria Sabina it is and in the Greek culture and this is a photograph of my brother John now the Mesoamerican mushroom stones may have been like the coat of arms they may have been symbols to invoke rain but nevertheless they were specifically designated as idols - by the Spanish and they were systematically destroyed by the thousands there's about two hundred mushroom stones in the world dusty my wife and I are the fortunate temporary custodians about eighteen of them…