Shaman / Photo: rokoto / Feature photo: hkoppdelaney
Magic mushrooms are illegal in many countries around the world. But research reveals we’re losing out on a potent spiritual tool.
Magic mushrooms and other hallucinogenics have been used by cultures across the world for millennia, with early evidence (PDF) including Neolithic cave painting depictions in the Sahara that are thought to date back to 7000 BC.
As recent as 2005, the UK government legislated the use of magic mushrooms as a class A drug – possession could mean a prison term of up to 7 years, and dealing could mean life.
Many other countries, such as the US and Canada, also consider possession illegal.
Yet research from Johns Hopkins University reveals that magic mushrooms have a profound therapeutic effect: when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience.
Two-thirds of them also said the drug had produced “one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they’d ever had.”
Accepting that there are dangers involved in their use hallucinogens for some people, I ask whether governments should rethink their stance on magic mushrooms. Should we allow them to be used to enlighten under controlled circumstances with experienced guides?
Bruce Parry and Tribe
In 2005 Bruce Parry’s traveled around the world to experience cultures still living in a traditional way. The series was first aired on the BBC as Tribe, and later shown in the US under the title, Going Tribal.
Bruce Parry / Photo: BBC/Indus
Parry lived with tribes in India, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Gabon, Mongolia and Brazil for a month each, and tried to integrate into the host societies as much as possible. The spiritual beliefs of each tribe were one of the most prominent aspects covered.
On the Venezuela/Brazil border, Parry lived with the Sanema tribe, who believe in a dream world with spirits all around them: in the animals, trees, rocks and water. Four out of five males in the tribe are shamans.
Guided by one of the shamans, Parry took part in an initiation ceremony, which included the consumption of a hallucinogenic called sakona, which is derived from the sap of the Virola tree.
In an interview about the series with Sam Wollaston in the Guardian, Parry talked about his views on hallucinogens:
“No, I don’t think we should all be taking acid. I think drugs are very dangerous. But I do think I learned from those two experiences. I really had an incredibly deep message that came to me. I’m not saying it came from some deity, but when you do lose your mind – if that’s what you want to call it – it’s a really interesting way of looking at the self.”
Wollaston summarised that Parry had talked about “having extra-ordinary revelations, seeing things in a totally different way, of becoming more connected to nature.”
Parry would continue his search in two more series of Tribe and on his journey from Andes to Amazon.
Government Clamps Down
Ironically, 2005 was also the year when the British government closed a loophole in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, making the selling and consumption of magic mushrooms a Class A crime along with heroin and cocaine.
In January that year, the National Statistician, Len Cook, had answered a question in the House of Commons with the following statistics on death from drugs in England and Wales during the previous decade: there had been one death (PDF) recorded as caused by magic mushrooms, compared to 5,737 from heroin/morphine and 582 from cocaine/crack.
Cigarettes, which are of course legal, are thought to have killed over one million people per decade in the last fifty years.
The government also liberalised the alcohol laws in 2005, allowing licensed establishments to open for 24 hours despite a growth in alcohol-related illnesses in the preceding years.
In a BBC article, critics of the ban say that the mushrooms are harmless to physical health and would only be bad for people with existing mental health problems.
“Obviously I would not suggest someone with schizophrenia took magic mushrooms but nor should they probably take alcohol,” said Chris Bovey, owner of online retailer Potseeds, based in Totnes, Devon.
The Reality Of Experience
Ultimately, there appear to be three types magic mushroom experiences:
- Some people do not enjoy the experience and never try it again.
- Some people take too much, either all at once or over a period of time and significantly alter their minds. This impact is rarely the case with magic mushrooms, and instead involves much stronger hallucinigens (like LSD).
- The vast majority of people have a good experience and learn something about themselves or the world around them. It entertains or enlightens.
As the participants in the John Hopkins study confirms:
“Fourteen months after taking the drug, 64 per cent of the volunteers said they still felt at least a moderate increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic. And 61 per cent reported at least a moderate behaviour change in what they considered positive ways.”
There is a slight risk to hallucinogenics, but it is much less than most other drugs. I believe that under controlled circumstances such as a weekend with experienced guides most people will have the positive experience that Bruce Parry had on his tribal travels.
As Parry reveals, his journey ultimately opened his mind and inspired him to search for an alternative religious reality to the Christian belief he knew as a child:
“When I came back from expeditions, I had some experiences that made me readdress all that. I’d pretty much known all along that Christianity wasn’t for me. Ever since then, I’ve been on my own quest to find another truth.
I can’t read novels, but I do read books about cosmology, about astrophysics, about genetics. I’m interested in altered states of mind, and creation myths. It’s all part of the same thing – I want to know why we think what we think. Now, I’d describe myself as pandeist, reluctantly verging on atheist.”
What do you think of magic mushrooms? Should they be legalized and used under controlled conditions? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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16 Comments... join the discussion!
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Surroundings/intentions are paramount. Eating mushrooms as part of a guided spiritual journey in the wilderness could probably never be compared to eating the exact same mushrooms at a college party in the city.
Just like with any drug, when you alter your perception of reality, you have the potential to cause damage and injure yourself and others. I can understand why they’re illegal–it’s a powerful substance. It’d be nice if they could be decriminalized under certain (controlled) circumstances, though.
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While I agree with this article in many ways, I must also say that for those with fragile brain chemistry, hallucinogens can be quite devastating emotionally. When you’re young you often also fail to have the self awareness to understand your weaknesses and so advocating the use of hallucinogenic drugs must also be tempered with the awareness of the damage they can cause.
That being said, I think it’s ridiculous to treat mushrooms with the same regulations as cocaine and heroin. Though I generally disagree with drug laws, this is especially absurd since no one really gets the momentum going with mushrooms that they do with incredibly addictive substances such as heroin.
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I made a deal with myself to only ever try/do drugs that weren’t created in a lab (although, some strains of dope probably are these days). Magic mushrooms used to grow openly in fields where I grew up, although at that time I was too young to understand.
I haven’t touched drugs in a very long time now, but the handful of times I used magic mushrooms were fantastic. It was always in an outdoor/natural setting (camping is the best) and I probably wouldn’t have labeled it as a “spiritual” experience, but I suppose looking back it was. I’ve never had hallucinations on them, but what they did for me was made see things in a very different way, more intensely focused. Like the leaves on a tree were much sharper against the sky.
I don’t know what the medical evidence is or how harmful magic mushrooms are, but that report that found one death by them in 10 years says a lot. So does the fact that alcohol is perfectly legal and is more available than ever, yet causes more harm to society than many other things. Pot and mushrooms are relatively safe I think.
You could also argue they could help fight obesity. For one they suppress your appetite (for me and anyone else I’ve talked to anyway), and you’ll also get a fabulous ab workout from all the laughing!
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Thanks for your comments, and I think they are all close to the gist of the article: that mushrooms and other hallucinogenics can be brilliant spirit leaders, but also dangerous to some people and under some circumstances.
I think this was also pretty much the findings of a study that found LSD the 14th most dangerous drug, with alcohol and tobacco both in the top ten:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6474053.stm↵ -
It’s great to see an article like this in a publication with such a large and–one would hope–open-minded readership.
Whether you view pyschedelics as a portal to other dimensions, a catalyst for spiritual experiences, or simply a way to make your head feel funny (or all three), they have been a part of our shared narrative since the very beginning. I ain’t no anthropologist, but weren’t shamanistic belief systems the earliest on the planet? Their creation myths were our first attempts to understand our place in the universe, and no less valid for it. It is criminal that these substances have…well, become criminal.
Bottom line: what you choose to put into your body should be a matter of personal morality, as long as you do no (minimal) harm to others. As far as I know, magic mushroom distribution is not controlled by vicious gangs of narco-criminals, unlike substances such as Coke (the white powder, not the fizzy drink…though perhaps you could make a case here, too!).
I believe we could learn a lot from these plant teachers, if only we would open up to them. At the very least, we should provide honest information to people who choose to use them, and a support system that helps people integrate the experience into their consensual reality world view.
To paraphrase Bill Hicks (who I think actually gave up magic mushrooms because of a UFO encounter whilst tripping: he wanted to recreate the experience whilst straight), we should use (not abuse) these substances to squeegie our third eye. If you take them and go to Astro-world, of course you’ll have a bad time.
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“we should use (not abuse) these substances to squeegie our third eye” brilliant metaphor! and great comments on the benefits of intelligent use.
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Yeh, I’ll second Ian’s views on Nick’s thoughts wholeheartedly.
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I just answered a question on this article offsite, and thought I’d post it here to add to the article/discussion. Don’t know if you agree or if it makes sense to you?!:
Q. Would you say they open another part of our so closed minds? or do you think its thoughts and feelings induced by the mushroom?
A. I guess they’re connected: the doors of perception are opened and this inspires or releases thoughts and feelings that have either been forgotten, suppressed or remained beyond the reach of the socialised, conditioned and limited sober modern mind.
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Good thought provoking W.C. Fields quote Dave, and nice blog from your link. Just responded over there, so thought I’d recycle here:
Reality is different for everybody I guess, depending on what info they receive and how their brain is structured.
I think some events are decoded by some people the same way, but not all events are decoded by the same people the same way.
It may seem like that some times, but that’s probably because one person is dominated by another, or a group, and just agrees through peer pressure or a desire to be accepted/liked.
Don’t think alcohol is a solution, but it can be a stimulus or medicine at times.
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I agree that magic mushrooms produce spiritual awakenings. In fact I firmly believe that magic mushrooms ( And maybe all mushrooms) are a type of entity that actually communicates with you as if you were some type of medium. Picture this, imagine frequency like VHF UHF Microwave and so on and then you have this frequency for the human mind if you can achieve it I call “The human Internet”. I call it this because when you achieve this “frequency” or state of mind you become some sort of medium for this being or state of conciousness what ever it is. And when you are like this I have actually tapped into a pool of knoweldge that other people can access if they were to achieve this same state and it was kind of like the internet. We can all access this state of mind if you just believe and let your self get there. I am so serious and I am not crazy! In fact I aam starting to realize why the native Americans and other tribal ALL have some sort of spiritual leader,Shamans amongst the tribe. They were all accessing a sort of “human Internet” that provided them with knowledge from another state of reality. May be they can even communicate with each other that I don’t know for sure. But what I do Know for sure is that through out history all tribal people had some sort of spiritual leader and they didn’t just have him for giggles, they had him/her for wisdom and guidence, And all of these spiritual people were pretty much saying and doing the same thing take a look for your self!!!
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The UK government scientific advisor has been sacked because he publically disagreed with the government when they went against his advice and upgraded cannabis from c to b.
He also said the government didn’t ask scientific advice on mushrooms and their decision to categorise them as A would have been against their advice.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8334774.stm
Scientific/political debate about mushrooms:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmsctech/65/6112206.htm
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I’ve just read the the article and comments with great interest. Seems to me that there is no chance of a rational discussion about drugs in the political arena, the sacking of Prof. Nutt is clear proof of that. I might be wrong but the grading system was initially devised to scientifcally look at the “harm” different drugs have physiologically. This was adopted by lawmakers as some kind on bench mark and over the years social harm as been grafted into it. Cold politics has surely followed with home secrataries trying to appear tough on crime etc., by moving drugs into different categories. Perhaps Prof. Nutt was guilty of being politically naive but why should he not voice his opions, he is probably the country’s leading authority (not alan johnson) on the subject after all.
I agree with the comments above about mushrooms being a natural experiance. From going out to pick them to the experiance of the trip itself. Most people prefer to take mushrooms in familar surroundings with familar people or in the great outdoors where you can just go with it. Even the “come down” can be quite nice with the mushrooms giving you a proper sleep, so you feel refreshed in the morning. People react quite differently to mushrooms some have deep spirtual experiances some just run round giggling. Its difficult to put your finger on the experiance which is the magic.
On the downside you can have too much of a good thing, in one go and cumatively. Also you can put yourself in harms way whilst tripping which is probably more dangerous than the physiological effects of the drug.
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Magic Mushrooms are the greatest psyche healers I have ever known, but must be used in the correct setting. I’m only talking about the only ones I know and they would be P. Cubensis. The greatest way to pull a person out of depression or anxieties is to set them up to “Go off the clock” to take a time-out from all their seriousness, and prepare to laugh your hardest and your longest. This laughter is healing and brings you home to a state of total freedom for a temporay time to help people realize they must know this state to know how happy they could possibly be. Coming down from the trip causes a tremendous amout of awareness. There is a reason they are called magic, because they heal you like magic, but if you are in the wrong setting, or are tired, they can cause the bad trip which basically causes you to be in a state of paranoia. Many people with very selfish and controlling personalities have a very bad trip and never ever wqnt to take it again, and that is because they have taken them in the presence of others. I have found the best way to enjoy the experience if you do not know if you are a control freak or not is to go out nature far away from anyone, and then you can enjoy them for sue. One thing they are not is an escape drug. My experience of eating them after a hard day of stressful work cause me to relive work in my mind for hours, and helped me realize that I was being too much of a slave to my job, as I had a bad trip all night about work; over and over I saw the machines running and the people working. Needless to say, I was sick of work by the time it was time for me to ge up and go back to work the next day, and I quit my job about a week later. They make you become a better person for others, by helping you realize how selfish you may be, and perhaps how controlling you are, and they also help you realize how controlled by shame you have been. They help you become a much freer person. In a group setting everyone should simply realize that we are not held accountable for the things we say and do while hig. You definately do not want to do them around people you are uncomfortable with; especially if you are a teenager in the United Stateswhere we have the most divided habits, and I am talking about how our peers control us with shame and criticize everything we say and do and make fun of each other. You must be in a “Trust circle” where everyone is supportive and happy and caring and sharing for the best group results. I always tell people to plan on laughing your ass off, and then they do. Thus is simply my witnessed Truth as a psychedelic shaman in training.
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Thanks for your accurate and extensive thoughts Tony.
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