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Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom
"Even if read while sober, Andy Lechter's A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom , is a near-transcendent experience." -New York Times Book Review Since its rediscovery only fifty years ago, the magic a hallucinogenic fungus once shunned in the West as the most pernicious of poisons, has inspired a plethora of folktales and urban legends. In this timely and definitive study, Andy Letcher chronicles the history of the magic mushroom—from its use by the Aztecs of Central America and the tribes of Siberia through to the present day—stripping away the myths and taking a critical and humorous look at the drug's more recent manifestations. Informative, lively, and impeccably researched, Shroom is a unique and engaging exploration of this most extraordinary of psychedelics.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
November 28, 2008
Really unsatisfying. I'm not sure who the intended audience was for this book - maybe rabid Terrence McKenna fans, who can't be swayed by any kind of logic, and certainly won't be by Letcher's arguments here. The first half is primarily devoted to refuting Gordon Wasson and debunking what the author feels are popularly held beliefs about magic mushrooms - that Santa is a metaphor for shrooms, berserkers ate mushrooms before battle, and so forth. The main problem, of course, is that the majority of people with even a passing interest in the subject have already concluded that Wasson is full of shit. And I don't believe that the majority of people anywhere think that Santa has anything to do with flying mushrooms. In his debunking zeal, Letcher takes some shots at Robert Graves, Levi-Strauss, and Mircea Eliade, lumping them in with lesser nutcases like Carlos Casteneda and Terrence McKenna. This seems both unkind and unwise. Someday Letcher's methodology and biases will fall out of fashion, and new generations of academics will be taking their potshots at him. If he's lucky, I guess. A more interesting book could have been built out of this, one I'd love to see, exploring scholarly bullshit. When is it enriching, edifying, thought-provoking, and when is it merely crap? I'd say Graves and Wasson, with their giddy passion and their vision, fall into the enlightening category of bullshitters. If you take them with a grain of salt, you can find something of real value in them.
At any rate, Mr. Letcher doesn't go there. Though the first half was seriously boring, it felt solid enough. When he got to the part about shrooms in the Northwest, though (my stomping grounds) I started to notice a LOT of errors. Marysville became Marytown. Tumwater became Turnwater. And the Evergreen State College was variously rendered as 'Evergreen University' or 'Evergreen State University'. Minor points, but it pointed to a general sloppiness about details. After five errors in three pages, I started to wonder what other little mistakes might have been scattered throughout the book. Were the quotes and figures accurate? Did I care enough to scrutinize it that much?
Nope. I gave up there, and am therefore running the risk of missing out on something really brilliant in the last section of the book.
At any rate, Mr. Letcher doesn't go there. Though the first half was seriously boring, it felt solid enough. When he got to the part about shrooms in the Northwest, though (my stomping grounds) I started to notice a LOT of errors. Marysville became Marytown. Tumwater became Turnwater. And the Evergreen State College was variously rendered as 'Evergreen University' or 'Evergreen State University'. Minor points, but it pointed to a general sloppiness about details. After five errors in three pages, I started to wonder what other little mistakes might have been scattered throughout the book. Were the quotes and figures accurate? Did I care enough to scrutinize it that much?
Nope. I gave up there, and am therefore running the risk of missing out on something really brilliant in the last section of the book.
March 27, 2013
I found it an effective counterbalance to all the hyperbole, wild flights of fancy and cherry picking the facts which Terence McKenna and Gordon Wasson resorted to in their theories of psychedelic mushroom use.
One of the main themes that Mr. Letcher so eloquently elucidated was that, in most of recorded history, mushroom intoxication was considered a toxic side-effect of mushroom poisoning and not a unique phenomena worthy of study.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the recorded history of mushroom intoxication. Letcher places particular emphasis on analyzing the historical flaws and lack of solid evidence that the brilliantly idiosyncratic proposition of McKenna's theory that the "coprophilic" (dung-loving) psilocybe mushroom was instrumental in early man's language development and spirituality.
In addition, Letcher takes to task the fascinating story of Gordon Wasson, a Harvard educated, wealthy banker, whose dedicated interest in the "etheogenic" (deity-revealing) psilocybe species of mushrooms led him to Mexico and a critical meeting with a local, Mazatec "curandera" (healer). Under the influence of the mushrooms, he believed that Maria Sabina, the curandera, was "religion incarnate" and the ideological origins of his later ideas that the source of religious impulses originated in Paleolithic mushroom-cults.
Perhaps, the most outlandish, but highly imaginative, belief proposed by John Allegro, an accomplished Biblical scholar and philologist. Allego contended that the figure of Jesus was an anthropomorphic representation of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushroom. In his seminal book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970), Allego asserts that Christianity was nothing more than a fertility cult centered on the consumption of the fly agaric sacrament. In addition, Allegro shockingly translates the Sumerian text, "Christ crucified" to mean "semen-annointed, erect mushroom."
In the final part, Letcher surveys the recent history of psilocybe mushroom use: the CIA's totally repulsive, illegal use of psilocybe, LSD-25, Mescaline and other potent psychedelic drugs on unsuspecting soldiers and civilians in their perverted goal to find a "mind control" drug; the unregulated, shoddy research methods of Timothy Leary's Psilocybin Project (1960-63); and finally, the contemporary use of psilocybin as a medicine, spiritual adjunct and recreational drug.
To summarize, this book is a well-written investigation into the historical, scientific, cultural and pragmatic experiences of the psychedlic mushroom. Eschewing the rhapsodic, hyperbolic prose of its dedicated adherents, Letcher argues for continued research into the very possible medicinal and/or spiritual benefits of the psilocybe mushroom without the call for its indiscriminate, popular use.
Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom
One of the main themes that Mr. Letcher so eloquently elucidated was that, in most of recorded history, mushroom intoxication was considered a toxic side-effect of mushroom poisoning and not a unique phenomena worthy of study.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the recorded history of mushroom intoxication. Letcher places particular emphasis on analyzing the historical flaws and lack of solid evidence that the brilliantly idiosyncratic proposition of McKenna's theory that the "coprophilic" (dung-loving) psilocybe mushroom was instrumental in early man's language development and spirituality.
In addition, Letcher takes to task the fascinating story of Gordon Wasson, a Harvard educated, wealthy banker, whose dedicated interest in the "etheogenic" (deity-revealing) psilocybe species of mushrooms led him to Mexico and a critical meeting with a local, Mazatec "curandera" (healer). Under the influence of the mushrooms, he believed that Maria Sabina, the curandera, was "religion incarnate" and the ideological origins of his later ideas that the source of religious impulses originated in Paleolithic mushroom-cults.
Perhaps, the most outlandish, but highly imaginative, belief proposed by John Allegro, an accomplished Biblical scholar and philologist. Allego contended that the figure of Jesus was an anthropomorphic representation of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushroom. In his seminal book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970), Allego asserts that Christianity was nothing more than a fertility cult centered on the consumption of the fly agaric sacrament. In addition, Allegro shockingly translates the Sumerian text, "Christ crucified" to mean "semen-annointed, erect mushroom."
In the final part, Letcher surveys the recent history of psilocybe mushroom use: the CIA's totally repulsive, illegal use of psilocybe, LSD-25, Mescaline and other potent psychedelic drugs on unsuspecting soldiers and civilians in their perverted goal to find a "mind control" drug; the unregulated, shoddy research methods of Timothy Leary's Psilocybin Project (1960-63); and finally, the contemporary use of psilocybin as a medicine, spiritual adjunct and recreational drug.
To summarize, this book is a well-written investigation into the historical, scientific, cultural and pragmatic experiences of the psychedlic mushroom. Eschewing the rhapsodic, hyperbolic prose of its dedicated adherents, Letcher argues for continued research into the very possible medicinal and/or spiritual benefits of the psilocybe mushroom without the call for its indiscriminate, popular use.
Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom
June 27, 2015
The thrust of this book, beyond what's indicated by its title, is to explode the myths surrounding psychedelic mushrooms, psilocybin and amanita mushrooms in particular. In so doing, the author focuses in particular on the popular hypotheses that magic mushrooms are behind many, if not all, world religions and that Siberian shamanism, based on mushroom use, paradigmatically represents original religion. Along the way he exposits and critiques such figures as Robert Wasson, Robert Graves, John Allegro and Terence McKenna who have contributed to such speculations.
Of course it is easy to be a critic in such matters. Letcher sticks to the evidence and the evidence is meagre. Still, I wish he addressed the issues of other worlds and other intelligences, beliefs which play a major role in many religions. Have cultures held to these beliefs because they represent some sort of primitive stage of consciousness as suggested by, among others, Julian Jaynes? Is there an archetypal substrate which appears universally as suggested by C.G. Jung? What about ancient astronauts and modern abductions? Surely, the possibility that people have long believed in other dimensions and in nonhuman entities populating them may have some of its evidential basis in drug-induced visions as well as in those visions arising by other means.
Be that as it may, Letcher's book serves as moderating influence in a field where the imagination tends to run wild. It also happens to be informative and amusing.
Of course it is easy to be a critic in such matters. Letcher sticks to the evidence and the evidence is meagre. Still, I wish he addressed the issues of other worlds and other intelligences, beliefs which play a major role in many religions. Have cultures held to these beliefs because they represent some sort of primitive stage of consciousness as suggested by, among others, Julian Jaynes? Is there an archetypal substrate which appears universally as suggested by C.G. Jung? What about ancient astronauts and modern abductions? Surely, the possibility that people have long believed in other dimensions and in nonhuman entities populating them may have some of its evidential basis in drug-induced visions as well as in those visions arising by other means.
Be that as it may, Letcher's book serves as moderating influence in a field where the imagination tends to run wild. It also happens to be informative and amusing.
May 19, 2021
I saw the book, got excited, and bought it. Then I read some reviews, and got less excited, but read it anyway. And honestly? I really enjoyed this book. I didn't find Letcher's writing style dry at all, this was an enjoyable and entertaining read for me. Letcher's argument - that mushroom use in the West is a modern phenomenon - is well supported throughout the book, and offers a necessary new voice to the mushroom discourse. Letcher does a good job not being too America-centric, and I learned a LOT about the history of mushrooms in Europe from this book.
My only issue with this book is that sometimes Letcher gets carried away with his almost frenzied debunk spree. At times, he discarded entire fields of inquiry in one sentence, apparently personally finding some ideas not worth his time to probe and discuss. He would "debunk" claims, but not provide any sources or elaborate on his thought process. For a book which is so heavily focused on debunking feeble claims, and on calling out biases, Letcher seems blind to his own shortcomings.
While I'm used to "trip-lit" focusing on men, this book was particularly male-focused, and I have to say it bothered me throughout the book. Letcher would mention women involved in the mushroom scene, but only as side notes and caveats, and he discarded the contributions and ideas of women almost completely. Giving due credit to women would have made the book more well-rounded.
Nevertheless, this is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in mushrooms and their more recent, documented history.
My only issue with this book is that sometimes Letcher gets carried away with his almost frenzied debunk spree. At times, he discarded entire fields of inquiry in one sentence, apparently personally finding some ideas not worth his time to probe and discuss. He would "debunk" claims, but not provide any sources or elaborate on his thought process. For a book which is so heavily focused on debunking feeble claims, and on calling out biases, Letcher seems blind to his own shortcomings.
While I'm used to "trip-lit" focusing on men, this book was particularly male-focused, and I have to say it bothered me throughout the book. Letcher would mention women involved in the mushroom scene, but only as side notes and caveats, and he discarded the contributions and ideas of women almost completely. Giving due credit to women would have made the book more well-rounded.
Nevertheless, this is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in mushrooms and their more recent, documented history.
January 23, 2009
I love this book for debunking the grotesque and intellectually-bankrupt beliefs of the crypto-entheo-hermeneuticists. Of course many of them will not be swayed by Letcher's careful argument because they're not terribly rational to begin with. Either way this book provides an engaging cultural history of psychoactive mushrooms and their reception by the credulous masses.
November 1, 2016
Super informative but dry ugh so dry
August 21, 2008
Not nearly as interesting as I was hoping. It's an exhaustive history, but I can't shake the feeling that Letcher had an agenda set before he started his research and worked towards that end of debunking myths he felt needed debunking. He raises an important point about our quickness to look at ancient rites as justification of current indulgences, but I don't think he makes it. Also, for a book on hallucinogens and their cultural impact, you'd expect he'd have some fun writing. Not the case: it's all dry and boring and plodding. I'm not asking for Burroughs, but most of this is worse than Tom Wolfe.
May 21, 2019
Love on a puffball for a long time to come
August 15, 2021
The strongest researched and most admiringly well-written work on the topic.
October 9, 2020
This was an interesting read. I wanted some more information in ways this book didn't get into, however it was light and entertaining throughout. I can recommend this for psychedelic lovers and those intrigued alike, it may sway you either way on the pendulum. Thank you for this book regardless of reception, Letcher, as this content needs to get out there by some method, into the universal consciousness which is you, and which is I. 4/5 stars.
January 21, 2019
A great history on the impact of the Magic Mushroom through out time. From the ancient shamans of Siberia, to the Shamanic teachings and practices of Maria Sabina, a great read for those looking to learn more on the Psilocybin containing Fungi.
February 17, 2021
Very informative and balanced. Investigates the claims of mushroom lovers, and seperates fact from myth... never hesitates to state when his opinion is NOT conclusive. I wish more authors on more topics could write with this clarity, objectivity, scholarship, and humor.
March 6, 2024
Describes how many different cultures used shrooms to enter alternate states of mind and how amply used and significant they were many years ago. However, a lot of it is also speculation since shrooms are biodegradable and leave no residue. Anthropologist can only go by obscure art and folklore.
July 14, 2024
2.5 ✨ I don’t normally read nonfiction. This one started off pretty interesting but became so dry so quick. It’s difficult to follow and the author rambles on, often reiterating to the point of exhaustion. It was meh for me 😑
September 9, 2021
Incredible depth and breadth, but quite dry at times.
July 31, 2022
Well researched but I sometimes find Lechter snarky, not in a nice way
June 3, 2024
How did they make such a dull story out of such a fascinating subject?
May 18, 2011
I initially bought this thinking it would support various theories of ancient psychedelia floating around. Instead, Letcher spends most of the book taking the opposite stance. No bother, I'm still glad I read it. He does recount the earliest newspaper and medical journal articles involving accidental intoxication--then goes on to debunk almost all of the other authors and amateur mycologists with ideas about the rise of religious cults and civilisations built around hallucinogen use.
Letcher saves his most incisive attacks for Gordon Wasson, Terence McKenna and Timothy Leary - the triumvirate of the psychedelic counter-culture. Wasson's ideas of religions based on use of the amanita muscaria ("Fly Agaric") mushroom are dispatched with statements from prominent anthropologists and 'behind-the-scenes' accusations (such as Wasson's relationship with a Native American woman who claimed to have been an initiate into a tribal mushroom cult). McKenna's experiences with DMT and his journey to La Chorrera in the Amazon basin, where he had a life-changing trip (literally & figuratively)are detailed, but McKenna is presented as a quirky and intelligent narrator, but ultimately a nutcase, not a visionary. Leary, well, there are enough hatchet-jobs on him already - Letcher doesn't provide anything new to say.
Lesser lights of the scene, such as John Allegro and Carlos Castaneda are also lambasted in equal measures. I didn't know much about Allegro, so the section on him was helpful to me. Castaneda had already been debunked, so Letcher was beaten to the punch there. I've enjoyed Castaneda's books all the same, as allegories, not as literal anthropological documentation.
He does a good job of spotlighting the burgeoning mushroom scene in the UK and around the world in the 70s and 80s and the changes in the law in both the U.S. and UK/Europe over that period. Letcher (somewhat sneeringly) states that most mushroom enthusiasts believe the stories of ancient hallucinogenic use to justify their own (illegal) activity. For me, though, I have to agree with Bill Hicks when he said "I don't know, doesn't it seem that making things that grow in nature against the law...a little un-natural, to you?"
Letcher saves his most incisive attacks for Gordon Wasson, Terence McKenna and Timothy Leary - the triumvirate of the psychedelic counter-culture. Wasson's ideas of religions based on use of the amanita muscaria ("Fly Agaric") mushroom are dispatched with statements from prominent anthropologists and 'behind-the-scenes' accusations (such as Wasson's relationship with a Native American woman who claimed to have been an initiate into a tribal mushroom cult). McKenna's experiences with DMT and his journey to La Chorrera in the Amazon basin, where he had a life-changing trip (literally & figuratively)are detailed, but McKenna is presented as a quirky and intelligent narrator, but ultimately a nutcase, not a visionary. Leary, well, there are enough hatchet-jobs on him already - Letcher doesn't provide anything new to say.
Lesser lights of the scene, such as John Allegro and Carlos Castaneda are also lambasted in equal measures. I didn't know much about Allegro, so the section on him was helpful to me. Castaneda had already been debunked, so Letcher was beaten to the punch there. I've enjoyed Castaneda's books all the same, as allegories, not as literal anthropological documentation.
He does a good job of spotlighting the burgeoning mushroom scene in the UK and around the world in the 70s and 80s and the changes in the law in both the U.S. and UK/Europe over that period. Letcher (somewhat sneeringly) states that most mushroom enthusiasts believe the stories of ancient hallucinogenic use to justify their own (illegal) activity. For me, though, I have to agree with Bill Hicks when he said "I don't know, doesn't it seem that making things that grow in nature against the law...a little un-natural, to you?"
April 23, 2008
This jarringly pseudo-sober account of what evidence there may be of intentional mushroom use throughout western (and other) civilizations turned me off at first by the author's so very British tone. The first great labor of the work is tearing down the mythologising that has overtaken plenty of us as to the role mushrooms have played in the history of religion, medicine, consciousness, language, space travel, etc., which the author does rapidly and cursorily. It was both fascinating and difficult to take how directly he discreditted many modern myths (e.g. the great shaman Santa Claus is Amanita muscaria in disguise, and a range of others most sensationalistically and popularly divulged in Pinchbeck's "Breaking Open the Head") by tracking down the sources from which these ideas sprung into the collective consciousness, and their foundationlessness (the well researched notes here are key). The real story that emerges has a lot more to do with the 2nd half of the 20th century than prehistory, but becomes equally enthralling, as a host of players take the scene to make their experiences generalizable and "get the word out". This book recounts a fascinating intimate history of the many specific people who all took part in a fascinating ascendancy of mushrooms in popular culture, and is told lovingly, if academically. It's a fun eye-opener, and helps me balance my perspective with those irresistible stories of mushroom-induced trances around the fire that helped nomadic hunters begin to turn their grunts into civilization.
October 16, 2007
I saw a copy of Shrooms in Barnes and Nobles and after reading the prologue, an account of an unsuspecting individual’s experience with magic mushrooms, I decided to buy it. The book was much better then I could have hoped and in retrospect, it really ought to have been; the hard cover set me back about $27. Shrooms is Andy Letcher's first book and hopefully not his last for it is impossible to ignore the ease with which Letcher writes. The beginning of Shrooms is full of hard scientific information, lists of mushroom species and the active chemicals within those species; however, Letcher's clear prose make this section not just bearable but also extremely interesting. It is not until the last half of Shrooms, however, that I truly became engrossed in the material. Here, Letcher describes some engaging characters involved in the history of the magic mushroom and tells a few unforgettable stories. It is these stories, stories about anthropologists turned shamans and ancient Siberian mushroom rituals, that are the high point of the book and what compelled me to give Shrooms such a high rating. I would recommend Shrooms to anyone and would add that the reader should not be discouraged by the slow start. It gets very, very good.
May 26, 2015
Probably only for those seriously interested in the history of psychedelic drug use, this is a surprisingly academic and sober book, definitely not an Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.
Lechter spends a lot of time debunking claims of mushroom use in ancient times by the likes of Gordon Wasson, and the spaced-out fantasies of Terence McKenna, that probably don't need debunking anyway. He makes a strong case that mushroom use is actually a modern phenomenon (although I couldn't help thinking that the absence of evidence isn't necessarily evidence of absence; the evidence is so fragmentary that we really just don't know). The book explores how the modern myth of ancient mushroom use was constructed.
Lechter spends a lot of time debunking claims of mushroom use in ancient times by the likes of Gordon Wasson, and the spaced-out fantasies of Terence McKenna, that probably don't need debunking anyway. He makes a strong case that mushroom use is actually a modern phenomenon (although I couldn't help thinking that the absence of evidence isn't necessarily evidence of absence; the evidence is so fragmentary that we really just don't know). The book explores how the modern myth of ancient mushroom use was constructed.
May 18, 2009
I'm not sure if I'd recommend this to anyone else, unless you have an undying thirst for information about psychedelic mushrooms. I only read this because Dan bought it forever ago and never read it, so I figured that at least one of us should.
That said, it's remarkably interesting, packed full of random knowledge that might serve me well in Trivial Pursuit one day. The only things that I really didn't like was the UK-centric-ness of the stories and the author's general self-satisfied tone when proving other researchers wrong. Otherwise, lots of weird and fascinating stories and facts about this subset of our culture.
That said, it's remarkably interesting, packed full of random knowledge that might serve me well in Trivial Pursuit one day. The only things that I really didn't like was the UK-centric-ness of the stories and the author's general self-satisfied tone when proving other researchers wrong. Otherwise, lots of weird and fascinating stories and facts about this subset of our culture.
July 25, 2011
It is hard to say how I feel about this book. On one hand Andy Letcher takes too much self pride in debunking theories. A whole chapter was wasted on talking about Gordon Wasson's theories, when I'm sure his targeted audience already found them out-dated. On the other hand, all of his mycological research is put together very well and is very interesting. I also like how he focused on every time period's ideas of magic mushrooms allowing the reader to see the transition to how we view magic mushrooms today. I have never read a book I was so undecided on, however, I rated it high because whether I was mad or intrigued with what he was writing about I couldn't put the book down!
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October 1, 2011Interesting little history on how psychedelic mushrooms have been viewed by Western culture. The author obviously was involved with the mushroom culture but still seems to keep a pretty realistic and critical viewpoint for most of the book. If you have interest in anthropology, the counter-culture, or a little better understanding of how the drugs work. It's aimed for the mass market, but still has lots of nice reference and history.[return][return]The author is also British, so there's details of the counterculture in the UK that I hadn't heard before.
September 12, 2012
A measured, academic, and critical review of the history of psychedelic mushroom use, both alleged ancient and recent. The last couple chapters profiling two of the most famous, yet insufferable, "psychonauts" (Timothy Leary & Terrance McKenna) did wonders to turn me off ever having any personal experiences with the culture of shroom use. But it was an interesting critique of shroom myth vs. shroom fact, and a nicely removed armchair understanding of what the whole thing's about. That's enough for me.
January 21, 2016
Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom by Andy Letcher (ECCO 2007) (394.14). What a book! What a story! Could it possibly be that the identity of the magic mushroom had been lost until not much more than fifty years ago? Now THAT'S trippy! Here's something I had never heard before concerning the relative strengths of mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD-25: according to the author, psilocybin is ten times stronger than mescaline, and LSD is one hundred times stronger than psilocybin (p.15). My rating: 7/10, finished 4/8/15.
August 31, 2016
Like Antipodes of the Mind for ayahuasca, this is a refreshingly analytical look at the rise of magic mushroom subculture over the last 100 years. If you'd prefer to think that Jesus and the ancient Greeks took shrooms, than this book will destroy your dreams (or just piss you off). But if you want a thoroughly researched piece of work that addresses why people use magic mushrooms currently, and the interesting and unexpected ways they've influenced psychedelic culture, then you're in for a very funny and engaging read.
May 27, 2011
A thorough look at all the myths, particularly the religious/pagan/romantic ones surrounding "magic" mushrooms; very well-researched. Skillfully shows the deceit and New Age b.s. surrounding Robert Graves, Gerald Gardner, and the neo-Pagan resurgence in general (though that's not the overall point, it was interesting and appreciated). Really does cover all the known history of human interaction with hallucinogenic mushrooms, and does it entertainingly.
December 10, 2021
A great book if you want to know the messy history of psychedelic mushrooms, ranging from disgust to delight. From cultural appropriations to shroom cult-like cultures and mythologies, or academics who sunk their careers in shroom historical assumptions to JP Morgan upper management becoming rich by making the American cult of shrooms- the book is definitely worth checking out if you’ve ever been curious about what’s what with shroom lovers.
January 18, 2011
A comprehensive history, a little on the dry side without much discussion of the importance of primary mystical experiences, but a worthy addition to the fascinating story of psilocybes and their chemical components. Also discusses Amanita muscaria and is sharply critical of Wasson's Soma theory and other "alternative" historical analyses (Allegro, Ruck, Heinrich, etc.).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews