Magic Mushrooms Explained
True mushroom fanatics—mycologists, archeologists, and psychonauts—spend their careers learning about and uncovering knowledge surrounding the mysterious world of mycelium. There’s always more to learn about these infinitely complex organisms.
Humans have been consuming mushrooms since at least 10,000 B.C.E. (yes, you read that right): the earliest archeological evidence is cave paintings of mushrooms found in Northern Australia. We know humans have been consuming magic mushrooms, ceremonially, for thousands of years, too—from the Koryak of Eastern Siberia (who ate the famed Amanita muscaria mushroom) to their use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies.
Most people have heard of “shrooms,” but there’s a lot of misconceptions about them. Many psychonauts and writers, for example, use the term “shrooms” or “magic mushrooms” interchangeably with “psilocybin,” but, as DoubleBlind mycologist Dr. K Mandrake explains, psilocybin is just one of a number of potentially beneficial alkaloids in magic mushrooms. There’s more than 180 different kinds of psilocybin-containing mushroom species, too, and they grow all around the world.
Then, there’s the more modern history of psychedelic prohibition—why shrooms became illegal, what’s going on with the shrooms black market, and efforts to decriminalize psilocybin in the U.S. and around the world. We cover all of that here.
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