Psilocybin - Overview
Overview
About 5,000 species of mushrooms have been discovered and named by scientists. Of these, about 100 species contain psilocybin. How and why did these plants evolve this way? Most botanists think the mind-altering chemicals serve as a defense for the plant. Animals eat the mushrooms, have a bad reaction to the psilocybin, and avoid these types of mushrooms after that.
Experimentation and Religious Ritual
Throughout history, human beings have experimented with altering their mental states. In both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, in fact, cults of hallucinogenA substance that brings on hallucinations, which alter the user's perception of reality. use can be traced back many thousands of years. The ancient Vedas (texts of India) mention a bright red mushroom, believed to be Amanita muscaria, that could be used to connect with the gods. The Greeks made a hallucinogen from a mold called ergot. In the Americas, the indigenous, or native, peoples created religious rituals around mushrooms, toad venom, and other plants that could bring on a variety of psychedelic, or mind-altering, experiences.
Psilocybin use in the Americas can be traced back to the Aztecs, although they were probably not the first to use it. Archaeologists found a statue dating to the year 100 that shows a shaman, or medicine man, seated under a mushroom. Most indigenous cultures approached magic mushroom use with great care. They chose only certain candidates for the experience and guided those individuals through the process. Mushrooms were used only on the most sacred holidays and only by the shamans and their students. Native cultures believed that psilocybin helped them talk to the gods, tell the future, and communicate with the spirits of the dead.
Although psilocybin use is illegal in the United States, some Native American groups are allowed to continue to use Psilocybe mushrooms in their religious ceremonies.
Europeans Ban It
When Europeans began settling the New World in the 1500s, they brought Christianity with them. Spanish, French, and British missionaries hoped to convert the native peoples to their religion. They viewed the use of psilocybin as being contrary to Christian practices, and they severely punished Native Americans who used the drug. However, mushroom use survived underground as the indigenous peoples conducted their rituals in secret.
In 1957, an amateur mycologistA person who studies mushrooms. named R. Gordon Wasson (1898–1986) published a story about his experiences with psilocybin use among the Native Americans of Mexico. The story ran in 1958 in Life, one of the most popular monthly magazines of that era.
Dangers Lead to Restricted Use
The timing of Wasson's magazine article was important. A new, rebellious generation of young Americans had emerged after World War II (1939–1945). They were eager to try mind-altering drugs. Serious scientists such as Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (1906– ) were busy synthesizing hallucinogens in the laboratory. Hofmann isolated psilocybin and found a way of making it without using the mushrooms. He also discovered LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). (An entry on LSD is available in this encyclopedia.) Some people believed that substances such as psilocybin might be fun to try. Others thought the substance might be an effective treatment for mental illness. Still others, including the U.S. government, began experiments with mind control using hallucinogens.
What all of these people discovered was that hallucinogens such as psilocybin and LSD do not act predictably. A person's reaction to the substance depends on many factors, including family history of mental illness and the expectations that the person has when taking the drug. Even people who have taken psilocybin many times could suddenly have a "bad trip"—an intense negative experience where the user has hallucinations or visions or other perceptions of
things that are not really present. Bad trips create a heightened sense of danger; paranoia or abnormal feelings of suspicion and fear; and panic.
Researchers abandoned psilocybin for use with mental patients and criminals. Even so, its use as a recreational drug increased among young people in the 1960s. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973) recommended altering the existing drug laws to make all hallucinogens illegal. The law was passed as the Drug Abuse Control Amendment (DACA) of 1965.
More Restrictions
The DACA bill, however, did not name psilocybin or its related compound, psilocin. Therefore, use of these two substances remained legal for another three years. In 1968, psilocybin and psilocin were specifically made illegal. Keeping "magic mushrooms" off the black marketThe illegal sale or trade of goods; drug dealers are said to carry out their business on the 'black market.' has never been easy, though.
The mushrooms grow wild in the Pacific Northwest and in the warmer regions of the South—especially Florida. Trained spotters can find them. A network of black market growers exchange spores (seeds), which are still legal. They grow mushrooms in homes and greenhouses. Even today, several hundred arrests are made each year, in every part of the United States, for possession of Psilocybe mushrooms.
Milder in their effects than LSD, "magic mushrooms" appeared on the raveOvernight dance parties that typically involve huge crowds of people, loud techno music, and illegal drug use. scene in the 1990s and enjoyed a brief surge in popularity. According to the "2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)," however, overall hallucinogen use was down in the early part of the twenty-first century in the United States. Various personal accounts of psilocybin use are available on the Internet. Such testimonies document both the "enjoyable" aspects of the drug and its ability to cause panic and frightening episodes.
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
