BACKGROUND INFO on ETHNOMYCOLOGY:
The study of psychoactive mushrooms and their uses in different societies begins with R. Gordon Wasson. It was with him that the discipline of ethnomycology, the branch of mycology that studies the uses of fungi in various cultures as well as the legends associated with them, began. Wasson is also credited with coining the term "ethnomycology". Psychoactive mushrooms and its association with various religions was virtually unknown to the general public until the publication of Seeking the Magic Mushroom, in the 1957 Life Magazine article on the use of Psilocybe mushrooms, by the Maztec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico. This article had an immediate and profound affect, bringing a deluge of American tourist to Mexico to locate the shaman (spiritual leader of tribe) who took Wasson through the religious ceremony. Among the many Americans that journeyed to Oaxaca, to be enlightened, was Timothy Leary, who would be prfoundly affected by this experience. Although, Wasson was an investment banker by trade, he would go on to study the use of mushrooms in a number of cultures, including those in Mesoamerica, Russia, England, and India. Although he had an avid interest on this subject, Wasson was a true amateur in every sense of the word. As a banker, he had little knowledge of mushrooms, when he began, and because the study of ethnomycology requires a multidisciplinary approached, he forged relationships with linguist, mycologists, chemists, etc. when he pursued this interest. During his studies, he collaborated with notables such as the French mycologist, Roger Heim, the American ethnobotanist, Richard Schultes and the Swiss chemist, Albert Hofman, the discoverer of LSD, to name just a few. His publications include: Mushrooms, Russia, & History; Soma, Divine Mushroom of Immortlity; The Wondrous Mushroom; Mycolatry in Mesoamerica; and Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion. It was through his effort that scholarly interest in ethnomycology has reached its present state of intense study. A great deal of his work was completed following the premature death of his wife, Valentina Pavlona, in 1958, due to cancer. Wasson decided to retire from his profession as a banker after Valentina passed away, and he pursued his interest in ethnomycology until his death on Christmas Day in 1986.
Although Wasson had what seemed to be a life long passion for mushrooms, this was not the case. His interest in mushroom can be traced back to a specific incident, in 1927, a year after he was married, when he and his wife, Russian born Valentina Pavlovna were on a delayed honeymoon trip to the Catskills Mountains, in New York. While hiking, Valentina came upon a large cluster of mushrooms that she immediately recognize as ones that she had often collected in Russia. Her husband became very distressed as he watched her gathering the mushrooms and became more so when she announced that she would cook them as part of their dinner for that night. That evening as Valentina was cooking dinner, Gordon Wasson pleaded with her not to use the mushrooms and announced that he would not eat dinner if they were part of the meal. Paying no attention to her husband, Valentina cooked the mushrooms for dinner, and as she began to eat them, Gordon Wasson begged her not to eat them and was certain that when he woke the next day he would be a widower. However, when his wife woke with no ill effects from consuming the mushrooms, they found it interesting how different their attitudes were towards the mushrooms that were found while hiking. Upon returning from their honeymoon, husband and wife asked their acquaintances, from various cultures, what their feelings about mushrooms were. It was of great interest to them that they found that their acquaintances could be divided into two groups, with respect to their feelings towards mushrooms, mycophobes, those who had a dread and fear of mushrooms and mycophiles, those who had a great love of eating mushrooms. There did not seem to be a middle ground. This cultural difference led them on a quest in documenting the different attitudes, concerning mushrooms and their relationshp to culture, that would go on for nearly 30 years. During this period, Gordon Wasson attitude towards mushrooms changed from that of a typical mycophobic American to one of great interest.
Religion and Mushrooms
The beginnings of religion go back to prehistoric time. So without any historical information, the question on the origin of religion can only be speculative. One that was previously discussed involved the creation of deities that controlled various events in nature that were not understood by early man. Different deities may have controlled events, such as the rising and setting of the sun and moon, lightning, diseases, etc. Thus, early cultures recognized numerous deities and were said to be polytheistic. As a culture becomes more advanced, the number of gods would become reduced to one and the society becomes monotheistic. Regardless of how or when religion came about, one theory concerning religion is that in its infancy, religious ceremonies were carried out with hallucinogens or a more popular term, entheogens. The use of in entheogens, in religion, came about when early man was still hunting and foraging for food. Most food was utilized to nourish the body and a few were discovered that might have had medicinal use. A few, however, were also discovered that could alter the consciousness of the mind. The sources of most of these entheogens were mostly plants, but some were mushrooms and a few were even animals that were believed to allow communication between man and the spirit world and was where the gods resided. In some cultures the entheogens were even considered to be the gods, themselves. As such, these entheogens were considered sacred. Prior to Wasson, ceremonies from various cultures, where the entheogen was not known, were usually assumed to be psychoactive plants. One of the first example of Wasson's work in this area involved what was called Soma in the Rig Vedas, the Sanskrit hymns and songs that became the foundation for Hinduism. Soma was assumed to be a plant for many years until Wasson.
Amanita muscaria is thought to be Soma
Wasson presented a very detailed account of his findings, tracing all descriptions of Soma, and concluded that Soma was a mushroom and specifically, Amanita muscara, the fly agaric. The details of this study can be found in his book, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (1967). According to Wasson, Soma, the narcotic god of ancient India was believed to have originated from the Aryans, who invaded India, 3500 years ago, from the north, which is now Afghanistan, into the Indus Valley, and with them, brought their cult of Soma. Soma is one of the few entheogens that is looked upon as a god rather than a sacred mediator.
Of the 1000 holy hymns in the Rig Veda, 120 are devoted entirely to Soma. With time, the cult eventually died out and although the religious ceremonies continued, the use of A. muscaria was substituted with a plant, and the identity of the original Soma was eventually forgotten. The difficulty in obtaining this species is one reason why it was thought to have been discontinued. In its place, other plants, devoid of psychoactivity, were substituted. Although it appears that A. muscaria may have been the oldest of the hallucinogens used, and may possibly be the most widely used, the cryptic symbolism used in the Rig Veda made determining the identity of Soma a puzzle for two thousand years. It was not until 1967, that a number of interdisciplinary studies were carried out, that brought together substantial evidence that demonstrated that Soma was a mushroom rather than a plant, and that it was A. muscaria. There had been much speculation as to the identity of Soma, which was difficult to identify due to the use of Vedic symbolism that carefully disguised its true identity. Although some Vedic scholars disagree with his interpretation, Wasson's exhaustive research still stands as a well respected scholarly tome.
Use of Amanita muscaria in other cultures
Despite the problem of identiy of Soma, the knowledge that A. muscaria contains psychoactive toxins has been known to Western cultures at least since 1730. Colonel Johann von Strahlenberg, a Swedish military officer, who was a prisoner of war in Siberia for twelve years reported on the use of A. muscaria as an inebriant by the primitive tribesmen in that area. Throughout the history of the various tribes of Siberian mushroom users, there had been no other intoxicant other than A. muscaria until the Russians introduced alcohol. Thus, not all cultures developed the knowledge of fermentation.
The mushrooms are dried in the sun and later ingested alone, or as an extract in water or reindeer milk. Few people know about how the mushrooms are treated after their collection, but it seems that one method of ingestion is well known because of the unusual means by which the psychoactive toxin are introduced into the body. During the ceremonial use of the A. muscaria, a ritualistic practice of urine-drinking had developed because the tribesmen learned that the psychoactive toxins involved passed through the metabolic system unaltered. This practice allowed the toxin to be used over and over again by drinking the urine of someone who had consumed the mushroom or who had drunk the urine of someone who had consumed the mushroom. In this matter, the ecstasy of few mushrooms could be extended for several days. An early account, in 1809, by Georg Langsdorf, on the practice of urine drinking, among the Koryak tribe of Siberia, described the reason for this practicve. He wrote:The Russians who trade with them [Koryak], carry thither a kind of mushrooms, called, in the Russian Tongue, Muchumor, which they exchange for squirrels, fox, ermin, sable and other furs: Those who are rich among them, lay up large provisions of these mushrooms, for the winter. When they make a feast, they pour water upon some of these mushrooms, and boil them. They then drink the liquor, which intoxicate them; the poorer sort, who cannot afford to lay in a store of these mushrooms, post themselves, on these occasions, round the huts of the rich, and watch the opportunity of the guests coming down to make water; and then hold a wooden bowl to receive the urine, which they drink off greedily, as having still some virtune of the mushroom in it, and by this way they also get drunk.
Although partially true, Langsdorf’s tale tells only half the story. Because the purpose of drinking the extract of the mushroom was for religious reasons, it is thought that the sharing of the shaman’s own intoxicating body fluid with his fellow tribesmen, and theirs among themselves, served to show unification of the celebrants with one another as well as with the sacred mushroom. Recall also that A. muscaria contains muscarine, as well as other toxins that cause profuse sweating and twitching. When drinking the urine of individuals, who had consumed the mushroom, apparently the muscarine and other toxins are metabolized and the urine drinker is spared the unpleasant side effects. Thus, there is a practical reason for drinking the intoxicating urine. Amanita muscaria contains the only known hallucinogen, which is not metaboized and can be utilized in this fashion. The practice of drinking urine was not restricted to Siberia and was also referred to in the Rig-Veda.
The fresh mushroom was usually not consumed until after it had been air-dried out in the sun. There is evidence that the drying of the mushrooms before consumption had a purpose. It is now known that the toxin ibotenic acid is an unstable precursor to muscimole, in A. muscaria. When the mushroom is dried, the ibotenic acid is converted into the more stable and potent muscimol. It is the latter that can pass through the kidneys in an unaltered form, making possible the urine drinking ceremonies. Both the Russian tribes of Siberia and the Soma Cult, in India, knew of the greater potency of the dried mushroom. A common fate was also encountered by these mushroom cults was that with the introduction of alcohol, the purpose and the tradition of the mushroom ceremonies was lost.
It was once believed that Amanita muscaria was also employed in religious ceremonies in Mesoamerica where it occurs naturally in highland areas in southern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as farther north in Canada and the Great Lakes regions. However, much of these stories have now been discounted. As in the case of Ergot, it is now known that there is a great deal of variation in the amount of ibotenic acid and muscarine that occurs in this species. In North America, where it is a common species, there have been various efforts to determine the hallucinogenic quality of this species. Those who have tried, including Wasson and a group of his colleagues, often became nauseous and fell into a deep sleep, but without the visions that are often described for this species. Locating populations of this species that will have the "desired effect" has been difficult in modern time. Fortunately, experimentation has not led to any deaths since this species of Amanita does not contain the harmful amatoxins that is usually fatal when consumed.
Finally, the story of A. muscaria and religion would be incomplete without the theory by John Allegro, who spoke of another cult which, was centered around this mushroom. Only this was not any cult, but a cult that Allegro theorizes as the one from which Christianity had arisen. In 1970, Allegro published a book, The Mushroom and the Cross, which included the evidence that he used to support his theory. Although, this came out as a pocket book, it was not something that anyone could pick up and understand. A linguistic’s background is mandatory to understanding his line of reasoning and also in determing the validity of his theory. There were simple arguments that were used, such as a Christian fresco depicting A. muscaria as the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. However, Wasson has addressed this type of evidence. Although, the mushroom is intepreted as being the fruit of the tree in this fresco, Wasson did not take this literally. Amanita muscaria is a mycorrhizal mushroom and can be found associated with various species of Birch, Pines, Firs and other conifers. Thus, Wasson has interpreted the mushroom as being always associated with these trees rather than being the fruit of the tree. After reading about the presentation of his theory, early on in this book, I was unable to follow it any further when the linguistic evidence was presented. However, its publication was followed by angry attacks by followers of the Christian faith. Although he has been unsuccessful in persuading others to his point of view, in truth very few people have the knowledge to criticize his theory, based on the data that was presented in his book.
