Psychedelia, p.33
Psychedelia, page 33
15 'Selective Enhancement of Specific Capacities Through Psychedelic Training' by Willis W. Harman and James Fadiman, from: Psychedelics, The Uses and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs; Bernard Aaronson and Humphrey Osmond, 1970. The study began as early as 1963 but could not be completed as planned due to the FDA research halt in 1966. The individual case reports from the same material first appeared as 'Psychedelic Agents In Creative Problem-Solving' by Harman et al (1966). The mass-market book LSD: The Problem-Solving Psychedelic by Peter Stafford & B H Golightly (1967) includes a handful of creative enhancement reports.
16 Comprehensive research anthologies from veteran LSD scholars include: H Abramson, The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy and Alcoholism (1967); A Hoffer & H Osmond, The Hallucinogens (1967); B Aaronson & H Osmond, Psychedelics: The Uses and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs (1970). To this could be added Psychotomimetic Drugs (1970) edited by Daniel Ephron, proceedings of a workshop which included many leading names at a time when psychedelic drug research in the US had been almost entirely terminated.
'It takes at least a dozen experiences to really know what the mushrooms can do for you.' 1
IX
THE MUSHROOM AT THE END OF HISTORY
1
Over the past half-century of psychedelic culture, the sacred mushrooms of the Psilocybe genus have repeatedly surfaced in the public spotlight, only to disappear into the shadows once more. After their extraordinary powers were re-discovered in the Mexican mountains in the mid-1950s, the mushrooms gained rapid entrance into both the academic world and underground culture. No sooner had Psilocybin established itself as a tool for research and creativity, before it was overtaken by the even more dramatic ascent of LSD-25 in the same fields. During the counterculture season of the late '60s, mushroom use fell behind the other psycho-actives, despite its availability and recognized powers. While its symbolic-semiotic value was recognized via images on head shop posters and in rock music lyrics, actual consumption of the plant was paradoxically rare.
A resurgence of genuine use followed in the 1970s, where organic-shamanic highs with a homegrowing potential fit the times. But this new approach remained an underground phenomena mainly restricted to hippies in the USA, and the period that followed was all about cocaine and, later, Ecstasy. Finally, in the late 1980s, the eloquent advocacy of Terence McKenna seemed to bring the psilocybian shroom the full and unswerving attention it deserves'but in the '90s the hallucinogenic landscape shifted again, and DMT and ayahuasca became the favored substances of a new psychedelic era. During the 2000s, great advances in homegrowing techniques may finally and permanently establish Psilocybin as a leading psychedelic agent; perhaps the leading agent, in view of its easy availability compared to LSD and the various DMT drugs.
The mushroom's evasive behavior of the past has added to an aura of mystery that hovers over it in a way that looks almost deliberate. Such anthropomorphic perspectives are as typical of the shroom's special nature as its hide and seek game with public awareness. The mushroom, more than any other plant in the entheogenic kingdom, appears before the Western drug aficionado with an identity, an inexplicable individual presence. This can be perceived directly by swallowing a few pairs and feel its desire to communicate. Inside the trip one may frequently encounter the Mushroom Voice, a strange auditory phenomena which is specific to Psilocybin, shared neither by LSD nor the closely related DMT drugs. As detailed below, this audible voice (sometimes voices) inside the head is a scientifically observed effect which contributes to the eerie atmosphere many associate with this plant drug. But the mushroom's curious personality also makes its presence known on a socio-cultural level, where its ability to proselytize is felt. Gordon Wasson, one of the two great names in psychedelic mushroom history, invented a special term for this proselytization; one is bemushroomed. To be bemushroomed is to fall under the spell of its entheogenic powers, and become its apostle. This certainly happened to Wasson, who at one point of his career was accused by another scholar of 'seeing mushrooms everywhere'.
One of several long-running misconceptions around the psilocybian mushrooms is that they are somehow less potent than LSD or peyote/mescaline. In some parts of the world, this perception runs so deep that it has affected the legal classification of Psilocybin and psilocin, giving them a less restricted 'narcotic' status than the presumably 'more dangerous' lysergic acid diethylamide. However, this wide-spread notion has no basis in experiential fact. If anything, the author would argue that a mushroom such as Psilocybe cubensis is more powerful than LSD, when full-range doses are compared. The fairly simple tryptamine structure familiar from DMT and ayahuasca enters the neurochemical processes in the cortex with a different combination of receptor bindings than LSD (which due to a second indole ring has a more complex structure), and this seems to produce a more concentrated emotional involvement, in addition to the curious communicative element mentioned above. These two aspects, which are of course just a sliver of the full impact of the drug, can in many cases be interpreted as more challenging for the subject than the typical LSD trip, where the energy seems to come entirely from within oneself, like a lanterna obscura projection upon a blank wall. The pure tryptamine space, on the other hand, seems somehow inhabited; there is something else in there. Like the mushroom voice, this peculiar feeling has been scientifically observed across a number of subjects. No explanation currently exists for this, or other phenomenologically observed differences between the actions of classic psychedelic drugs. While waiting for neuro-consciousness research to catch up with psychedelic explorations, these anomalies are simply registered, along with the observation that simple tryptamines are naturally occurring in the human organism, unlike lysergic acid or mescaline.
The reason behind the inaccurate idea that Psilocybin should be 'safer' than LSD can almost certainly be ascribed to insufficient dosage. No matter what other preferences one may have, the shrooms do have a disadvantage in that the precise dose cannot be measured. Even among mushrooms from the same local 'flush' (yield), the levels of psilocin and Psilocybin may differ markedly between different specimens. Extrapolate this situation to a case where you often don't even know the specific genus of the psilocybian plant someone just gave you a bag of, and the uncertainty overrides everything else. For this reason, inexperienced entheogenists will start out low, and take maybe just two mushrooms; a dose which will not trigger more than mild effects with even the strongest species. A fairly popular type such as the small Psilocybe semilancetea may require as many as 30-40 mushrooms to have a meaningful psychedelic effect. While some modern researchers have suggested that the LSD doses people took during the 'hippie' era were generally too strong, there is reason to believe that the mushroom doses consumed over the past decades have generally been too small. Hence, the inaccurate idea that psilocybian mushrooms have only mild effects. In truth, their effects can be unbelievably strange and life-altering.
2
Gordon Wasson, on that magic night long ago in the cloud forest of Southern Mexico, swallowed four mushroom pairs under the watchful eye of curandera Maria Sabina, and with an ideal combination of set, setting and dosage he had a classic entheogenic experience that would affect the rest of his life.2 What is rarely mentioned is the fact that Wasson had discovered and picked the shrooms himself earlier in the day, rather than receiving them from Sabina. She approved of his small batch of Psilocybe caerulescens – the name would not exist until a few years later – and took a slightly larger dose herself. Wasson's wife chose not to partake in the ceremony, while his photographer friend Alan Richardson broke a promise to his own wife, and took a mild trip along with Wasson and the few Mazatec indians in presence. Many years later, Richardson recalled that the camera flashlight he used in the dark hut so startled Maria Sabina that it seemed like she would terminate the session. Also along for the journey, in a true sign of the times, was an undercover agent from CIA, who had somehow found out about Wasson's impending discovery. The Psychedelic Experience of this secret agent, who can be spotted on some of Richardson's photos, remained unknown until the 1990s, when he was tracked down for an interview. Having had an awkward trip where the mushroom, unsurprisingly, put him on the spot for his undercover masquerade, he returned to the US where he unsuccessfully attempted to isolate the hallucinogenic compound of in a CIA lab.
Gordon Wasson would gather all data from his Mazatec sojourns into a large photo article for Life magazine in 1957. Elegantly written by Wasson himself, the revelation of a secret mushroom cult believed extinct since the 1600s, together with Richardson's color photos and French mycologist Roger Heim's drawings and taxonomic details of various mushrooms, make up what is generally considered the most important magazine article in psychedelic history. Parallel to this, Wasson and his wife Valentina published their first book; the massively researched Mushrooms, Russia & History (1957). Less known is a phonograph record that Wasson produced for Folkways Recordings (Mushroom Ceremony Of The Mazatec Indians, 1957), documenting highlights from one of Sabina's all-night mushroom veladas. The LP is rich in atmosphere as the ageing Sabina chants in her native tongue (translated on an insert sheet) invocations and blessings from the syncretic mix of Catholic and folk religion that constitutes the local belief system. The album met with some interest and has been reissued a few times. Wasson, however, felt that this recording hadn't captured a velada at its fullest expression, and later self-published a limited edition 4-LP set (Maria Sabina and Her Mazatec Mushroom Velada, 1976) documenting another session in full, along with a lavish book.
Wasson would later regret publishing the Life magazine article, but its immediate outcome was positive and invigorating. While the mainstream readers of Life marvelled at the exotic strangeness of Wasson's narrative, word on this newly discovered hallucinogen spread rapidly through artistic and intellectual circles. In France, noted poet-artist Henri Michaux became probably the first Westerner outside Wasson's research team to experiment with Psilocybin. Aided by a direct connection to Roger Heim, Michaux expanded upon his earlier mescaline experiments by undergoing two Psilocybin trips in 1958. His experiences of the Mexican mushroom are documented in one of the more vital works on psycho-active drugs and creativity, Light Through Darkness (1964). Michaux, who previously had found the hallucinatory landscape of mescaline annoyingly objective and impersonal, noted that Psilocybin produced similar results but seemed a little less visual in its effects. Conducted in a typically dull hospital setting with several doctors present, Michaux' attention was invariably drawn to the facial expressions of the medical staff, and the various emotions and responses he seemed to discern there. This is a familiar element to seasoned psychedelicists, but in the case of Michaux it appears as the dominating theme for his entire trip. It is possible that this effect had been discussed before-hand, as his fascination with facial transformations is curiously similar to what Albert Hofmann noted during his first mushroom trip.
Underground scenes, such as the Beat writers, were quick to pick up on this new organic high, adding it to a creative pharmacopeia of marijuana and peyote. A pop culture reference to Mexican mushrooms can be found as early as 1959, via Rod McKuen's Beatsville LP. Late-phase beatnik, future Merry Prankster and hippie elder Wavy Gravy makes a similar reference on his early spoken word comedy album Third Stream Humour (1962; credited to Hugh Romney). But the most important effect of Wasson's piece was the psychedelic baptism of Timothy Leary in Mexico 1960, from which the Harvard Psilocybin Project and subsequently the entire East Coast Psychedelia scene developed. Several months after Leary, his colleague Richard Alpert had a similar life -altering experience with 10 milligrams of tablet Psilocybin, and he fully agreed with Leary on the compound's importance. As detailed in a previous chapter, the Harvard research team was entirely orientated towards Psilocybin during their early phase, and the two most important projects they completed were facilitated by the use of Psilocybin (20 mg per subject at Concord Prison; 30 mg at Marsh Chapel), rather than LSD.
It remains something of a mystery today why the Harvard group so easily dropped Psilocybin from the agenda when Michael Hollingshead turned up with a big jar of Sandoz LSD -25. The Psilocybin was as easy or even easier to administer than lysergic acid, since the researchers had been equipped with pharmaceutical Psilocybin pills developed by Albert Hofmann at Sandoz. Hofmann's 'mushroom pills' had been approved by no less authority than Maria Sabina, who professed delight at being able to lead healing sessions even when it wasn't mushroom season.3 It's been suggested that early clinical researchers such as the Harvard project preferred LSD-25 because it was more of a pure laboratory drug than the mushroom pills, thus purportedly increasing the academic credibility of the studies. According to statements from Leary, among others, the Harvard group around this time felt that LSD could replace Psilocybin in its entirety. This position seems questionable today, and is difficult to reconcile with the vast knowledge of psychedelic drugs that Leary, Alpert and Metzner had already assembled. Why did they fail to see the marked differences between the LSD trip and the Psilocybin trip? Today, no one would consider the two interchangeable, and in fact a recent, informal survey by the author among experienced psyche- delicists gave a circa 70% vote in favor of mushrooms over acid.
Most likely it was a question of chemical purity, combined with the dosage issue once more. When Leary received his notorious spoonful of LSD paste from Hollingshead's jar, he was sent on a trip that by his own accord was stronger than anything he had ever experienced before. He remained in a dissociated state for three days, causing his colleagues to worry that he had lost it permanently. In retrospect this doesn't really tell us much, except that few people at the time were aware of the miniscule amounts of lysergic acid diethylamide needed to produce a full-blown experience. Leary unwittingly took a 'heroic dose' of LSD-25 and was sent into previously unseen spaces, and upon return he took what may have been a mere question of quantity for an issue of quality. In other words, an equally heroic dose of Psilocybin might have put him equally far out, but this option was never tried. Several decades later, this inference can be suggested with a certain veracity, because all empirical observations and anecdotal data point towards Psilocybin being, at high doses, as powerful as high-dose LSD. Alas, the exceptionally pure Sandoz lab drugs that the Harvard group had on hand are basically non-existent today, and in the choice between mediocre street LSD and powerful organic Psilocybin, the latter will naturally be preferred by many modern- day psychedelicists.
The confusion of dosage around Psilocybin had begun even earlier. While Wasson had been successfully guided by the most experienced mushroom shaman in the world, some of the mycologists and chemists who picked up on his research trail had no such mentors to rely upon. Betty Eisner reports in her autobiography that the early response from Sandoz was that the psilocybian mushroom 'wasn't much of a hallucinogen'. No doubt the pharma-chemists had played it defensively and tried just a couple of mushrooms, a threshold dose where psychedelic aspects may be entirely lacking. However, by 1958 Albert Hofmann demonstrated his mastery of analytic chemistry once more, and within six months of laboratory work he isolated the active compound (actually two: Psilocybin and psilocin) from the Mexican mushroom samples. At the psycho- pharmacological conference held in Rome the same year, Hofmann and his colleague Aurelio Cerletti reported on the new drug Psilocybin. A similar lab study in Delaware – perhaps involving the CIA agent who had accompanied Wasson to Oaxaca - had not managed to identify the key alkaloids after more than a year's work, and the US team congratulated Hofmann on his success. Like so many others, the Delaware lab failed to understand the importance of the bio-assay, wherein the chemist tries the compound upon himself; animal testing is inconclusive and meaningless for psychedelic drugs. Hofmann knew this since long, and Humphry Osmond's team in Saskatchewan had reached the same conclusion. During the 1958 conference in Rome, Hofmann discussed the newly discovered Psilocybin with Betty Eisner, and stated that 'he felt it was much like LSD'. He was, as always, speaking from personal experience.
Dr Hofmann's autobiography LSD – My Problem Child (1980) contains a chapter describing this exciting late 1950s period of mushroom research together with Wasson and Roger Heim. However, Hofmann's original account of the discovery of Psilocybin and its metabolite psilocin appeared many years earlier in an obscure Mexican journal, Artes De Mexico. After chronicling the adventures of Wasson and a few trials and errors in laboratory analysis, Hofmann offers a trip report from his first mushroom experience. The article describes a fairly strong debut dose, 32 Psilocybe mexicana with a dry weight of about 2.5 grams (equalling 20-25 grams fresh), thereby in all likelihood exceeding the virgin doses of Wasson, Michaux, Leary and Alpert. This had the fortunate effect that Hofmann immediately realized the potential of Psilocybin, in addition to providing him with a memorable experience. Like his famous bicycle ride on LSD, the anecdote has both amusing and eerie undertones, and it captures essential elements of the experience that any modern shroom-head will recognize:
After a half hour, the exterior world began to transform in a strange manner. Everything took on a Mexican semblance. Being fully conscious that because of my knowledge of the Mexican origin of these mushrooms I might be imagining a series of Mexican scenes, I attempted with diligent resolution to observe the surrounding world in the way that I would normally know it. However, all my strongly willed endeavors to see objects with their familiar forms and colors were unproductive. With my eyes open or closed I perceived only Indian motifs and colors. When the doctor who controlled the experiment leaned toward me to check my blood pressure, he was transformed into an Aztec priest of sacrifice, and I would not have been surprised if I had seen him take out an obsidian knife. Despite the seriousness of the situation, it seemed comic to observe how the Germanic face of my colleague took on an Indian appearance. At the climax of my intoxication, approximately an hour and a half after the ingestion of the mushrooms, the series of hallucinations, which were mostly abstract and were rapidly changing in color, became so distressful that I feared that I should be pulled along into that vortex of forms and colors and finally be dissolved in it […] The coming back to familiar reality was experienced as a joyous return from a strange and truly visualized world to my sheltering homeland.
