Several mesolithic rock paintings from Tassili n'Ajjer (a prehistoric North African site identified with the Capsian culture) have been identified by author Giorgio Samorini as depicting the shamanic use of mushrooms, possibly Psilocybe.[3]

Hallucinogenic mushrooms have a history that dates back as far as 3 million years ago, originating in East Africa. Early hominids such as Homo africanus, Homo boisei, and the omnivorous Homo habilis expanded their original diets of fruit and small animals to include underground roots, tubers, and corms.[4] It is said that at this particular time, early hominids gathered Psilocybin mushrooms off the African grasslands and ate them as part of their diet. With the domestication of cattle, Hominids found themselves within greater proximity to cattle, and thus, increased contact with the mushrooms because they grow only in the dung of cattle. As a result, the codependency between humans and mushrooms was enhanced and deepened.[5]Some have even contended that the psychoactive chemical compounds in the early human diet resulted in the reorganization of the brain's information processing capabilities, expanding the human brain size.[citation needed] At a later stage in this process, hallucinogens fueled the development of imagination, which some believe to have acted as a catalyst toward the emergence of language and even religion.[citation needed]

Hallucinogenic species of Psilocybe have a history of use among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for religious communion, divination, and healing, from pre-Columbian times up to the present day. Mushroom-shaped statuettes found at archaeological sites seem to indicate that ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms is quite ancient. Mushroom stones and motifs have been found in Mayan temple ruins in Guatemala,[6] though there is considerable controversy as to whether these objects indicate the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms or whether they had some other significance with the mushroom shape being simply a coincidence.[citation needed] More concretely, a statuette dating from ca. 200 CE and depicting a mushroom strongly resembling Psilocybe mexicana was found in a west Mexican shaft and chamber tomb in the state of Colima . Hallucinogenic Psilocybe were known to the Aztecs as teonanácatl (literally "god's mushroom" or, more properly, "flesh of the gods" - agglutinative form of teó (god) and nanácatl (mushroom) in Náhuatl) and were reportedly served at the coronation of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in 1502. Aztecs and Mazatecs referred to psilocybin mushrooms as genius mushrooms, divinatory mushrooms, and wondrous mushrooms, when translated into English.[7] Bernardino de Sahagún reported ritualistic use of teonanácatl by the Aztecs, when he traveled to Central America after the expedition of Herando Cortés.

After the Spanish conquest, Catholic missionaries campaigned against the "pagan idolatry," and as a result, the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, like other pre-Christian traditions, was forcibly suppressed.[6] The Spanish believed the mushroom allowed the Aztecs and others to communicate with "devils". In converting people to Catholicism, the Spanish pushed for a switch from teonanácatl to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. Despite this history, in some remote areas the use of teonanácatl has remained.[citation needed]

By the twentieth century, hallucinogenic mushroom use was thought by non-Native Americans to have disappeared entirely[citation needed]. Some authors even held that Mesoamerican cultures did not use mushrooms as hallucinogens at all and that the Spanish had simply mistaken peyote for a mushroom[citation needed]. Later investigations by Blas Pablo Reko, Richard Evans Schultes, and R. Gordon Wasson demonstrated that hallucinogenic mushrooms were still widely used by several indigenous Mesoamerican peoples, particularly the Mazatecs of Oaxaca.

At present, hallucinogenic mushroom use has been reported among a number of groups spanning from central Mexico to Oaxaca, including groups of Nahua, Mixtecs, Mixe, Mazatecs, Zapotecs, and others. There has not, however, been any confirmed observations of hallucinogenic mushroom use among the Maya peoples, either in the pre-Columbian or post-Contact eras[citation needed].

The first mentioning of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Western medicinal literature appeared in the London Medical and Physical Journal in 1799: a man had served Psilocybe semilanceata mushrooms that he had picked for breakfast in London's Green Park to his family. The doctor who treated them later described how the youngest child "was attacked with fits of immoderate laughter, nor could the threats of his father or mother refrain him." [8]

In 1955, Valentina and R. Gordon Wasson became the first Westerners to actively participate in an indigenous mushroom ceremony. The Wassons did much to publicize their discovery, even publishing an article on their experiences in Life in 1957.[9] In 1956, Roger Heim identified the hallucinogenic mushroom that the Wassons had brought back from Mexico as Psilocybe and in 1958, Albert Hofmann first identified psilocin and psilocybin as the active compound in these mushrooms.

Inspired by the Wassons' Life article, Timothy Leary traveled to Mexico to experience hallucinogenic mushrooms firsthand. Upon returning to Harvard in 1960, he and Richard Alpert started the Harvard Psilocybin Project, promoting psychological and religious study of psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs. After Leary and Alpert were dismissed by Harvard in 1963, they turned their attention toward evangelizing the psychedelic experience to the nascent hippie counterculture.

The popularization of entheogens by Wasson, Leary, and others has led to an explosion in the use of hallucinogenic Psilocybe throughout the world. By the early 1970s, a number of psychoactive Psilocybe species were described from temperate North America, Europe, and Asia and were widely collected. Books describing methods of cultivating Psilocybe cubensis in large quantities were also published. The relatively easy availability of hallucinogenic Psilocybe from wild and cultivated sources has made it among the most widely used of the hallucinogenic drugs.

I'll admit that Ive experimented with psychedelics in the past

thats way to long to read and to many big words

Oh ok. Shrooms.

I have been planning to go mushroom hunting and didn't want to get the wrong kind. Some are even poisonous.

I had no idea that they were once for religious use. I thought that flesh of the gods was interesting and it was thought they could make the brain larger.

The human brain can also increase in size due to the force of a blunt trauma.

I liked that part of 'god's mushroom'. I certainly would want to get into an argument about whose mushroom it was. I could just see me finding a mushroom and somebody telling me it wasn't my mushroom. Especially if it was a really nice mushroom.

Looks like an interesting post Roy. I don't have time to read it right now. Owl try to come back to it later.

In the meantime if you have any psychedelic mushrooms left, my address is,...

Abracadabra Poof
Pantheism Path
Heaven, PA IM6E-UR2

Ok, James. Hope you are having a nice day. See ya when you have more time. Happy mushroom hunting.

HIMEMATSUTAKE
Mushroom of the Gods
Alternative names:
Agaricus blazei Murrill
Kawariharatake
Royal Sun Agaricus
Cogmelo de Deus

Scientific studies show that Himematsutake mushrooms have been successful in treating:
Anti-tumor activity against various allergenic and syngeneic tumors
Lung cancer
Prevention of oncogenesis
Prevent tumor metastasis
Enhancer when used as an adjunct to chemotherapy

Description:
Its stem is a pure white fluffy color. and holds up a large golden brown box shaped cap. Its shape and size have a kingly grandeur. It has a rich sweet almond flavor, that lingers on your pallet, leaving you longing for another taste. The stem turns a bright yellow upon scraping it, and it also turns a golden yellow when sautéed with butter in a pan. The mushroom cap is 10 to 25 cm across, and the whole mushroom weighs between 50 to 120 grams. The Japanese especially like the stem, for it has the strongest almond flavor.

Medicinal Properties:
On a dry weight basis its protein content is 37 to 48%. It contains B1, B2, and Niacin. The mushroom produces 1,3 and 1,6 beta glucans between 9% to 14%. These glucans have a molecular weight in the range of 800,000. The beta glucans stimulate the bodies immune system to produce Natural killer cells. Within days of eating the mushroom the body has been shown to produce 3000% to 5000% NK cells. This mushroom also contains chemicals which cause apoptosis of cancer cells, but does not effect healthy cells. This mushroom has been administered (3g/day), as an adjunct to chemotherapy, and it has been reported in the scientific journals that less hair loss occurred, an increase in appetite, and less nausea existed, while significantly increasing the patient survivability (10% to 80%).

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/mushrooms.shtml

You might like this link, James. I had no idea there were so many types of mushrooms.

Personally, I find the entire family of fungi to be disgusting. The taste, the texture, everything.

I've never done shrooms, though, so I don't have much to contribute to this conversation.

what is it?? a magical mushroom?

if u eat one does it make u get bigger??giantlike?
or another piece and then teeny tiny like an ant..

crap i think that happened to alice once upon a time!

At one point in my life I was studying to become a veterinary doctor. So I was taking a lot of biology classes. I found the fungi family to be of particular interest. It's a whole kingdom in it's own right, neither vegetable nor animal. Although most people think of mushroom as vegetables but they really aren't. They're fungi. I love mushrooms and eat them al the time.

James

Yes. I think that was one of Alice's first encounters with mushrooms. Hard to say though because one not had 'eat me' on it and one note had 'drink me' on it. But the part I rememember was when she was sitting on the mushroom talking to the caterpillar while the chesire cat was there. Do you think the chesire cat tried the mushroom and what kind of tea do you think the mad hatter offered to Alice at the table?

There's a fungus among us.