113 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
From: aga@qedbbs.com
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Newsgroups: alt.drugs
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Subject: Mushrooms and man
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Message-ID: <J7uiLc2w165w@qedbbs.com>
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Date: 29 Apr 94 02:23:54 GMT
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Taken from GROWING GOURMET & MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS, Paul Stamets:
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[A work not centered on Psychoactives but in order to have the most complete
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compendium of mycological knowledge included a little chapter]
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Humanity's use of mushrooms extends back to Paleolithic times. Few peope-even
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anthropologists-comprehend how influential mushrooms have been in affecting
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the course of human evolution. Musrhooms have played pivotal roles in ancient
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Greece, India and Mesoamerica. Try to their beguiling nature, fungi have
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always elicited deep emotional responses: from adulation by those who
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understand them to outright fear by those who do not.
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The historical record reveals that mushrooms have been used for less than
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beneign purposes. Claudius II and Pope Clement VII wer both killed by enemies
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who poisoned them with deadly Amanitas. Buddha died, according to legend, from
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a mushroom that grew underground. Buddha was given the mushroom by a peasant
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who believed it to be a delicacy. In ancient verse, that mushroom was linked
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to the phrase "pig's foot" but has never been identified. (Although truffles
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grow underground and pigs are used to find them, no deadly poisonous species
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are known.)
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The oldest archeaological of mushroom use discovered so far is probably a
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Tassili image from a cave which dates back 3,500 years before the birth of
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Christ. The artist's intent is clear. Mushrooms with electrified auras are
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depicted outlining a dancing shaman. The spiritual interpretation of the image
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transcends time and is obvious. No wonder that word "bemushroomed" has evolved
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to reflect the devout mushroom lover's state of mind.
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In the winter of 1991, hikers in the Italian Alps came across the well
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preserved remains of a man who died over 5,300 years ago, approximately 200
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years later than the Tassili cave artist. Dubbed the "Iceman" by the news
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media, he was well equipped with a knapsack, flint axe, a string of dried
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Birch Polypores (Piptoporus betulinus) and another yet unidentified mushroom.
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The polypores can be used as tinder for starting fires and as medicine for
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treating wounds. Further, a rich tea with immuno-enhancing properties can be
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prepared by boiling these mushrooms. Equipped for traversing the wilderness,
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this intrepid adventurer had discovered the value of the noble polypores. Even
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today, this knowledge can be life-saving for anyone astray in the wilderness.
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Fear of mushroom poisoning pervades every culture, sometimes reaching phobic
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extremes. The term mycophobic describes those individuals and cultures where
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fungi are looked upon with fear and loathing. Mycophobic cultures are
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epitomized by the English and Irish. In contrast, mycophilic societies can be
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found throughout Asia and eastern Europe, especially amongst Polish, Russian
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and Itialian peoples. These societies have enjoyed a long history of mushroom
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use, with as many as a hundred common names to decribe the mushroom varieties
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they loved.
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The use of mushrooms by diverse cultures was intensively studied by an
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investment banker named R. Gordon Wasson. His studies concentrated on the use
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of mushrooms by Mesoamerican, Russian, English, and Indian cultures. With the
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French mycologist, Dr. Roger Heim, Wasson published research on Psilocybe
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mushrooms in Mesoamerica, and on Amanita mushrooms in Euro-Asia/Siberia.
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Wasson's studies spanned a lifetime marked by a passionate love for fungi. His
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publications include: Mushrooms, Russia, & History;The Wondrous
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Mushroom;Mycolatry in Mesoamerica;Maria Sabina and her Mazatec Mushroom
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Velada;and Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion. More
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than any other individual of the 20th century, Wasson kindled interest in
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ethnomycology to its present state of intense study. Wasson died on Christmas
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Day in 1986.
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One of Wasson's most provocative findings can be found in Soma: Divine
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Mushroom of Immortality (1976) where he postulated that the mysterious SOMA in
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the Vedic literature, a red fruit leading to spontaneous enlightenment for
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those who ingested it, was actually a mushroom. The Vedic symbolism carefully
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disguised its true identity: Amanita muscaria, the hallucinogenic Fly Agaric.
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Many cultures portray Amanita muscaria as the archetypal mushroom. Although
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some Vedic scholars disagree with his interpretation, Wasson's exhaustive
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research still stands. (See Brough (1971) and Wasson (1972)).
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Aristotle, Plato, and Sophocles all participated in religious ceremonies at
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Eleusis where an unusal temple honored Demeter, the Goddess of Earth. For over
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two milennia, thousands of pilgrims journeyed fourteen miles from Athens to
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Eleusis, paying the equivalent of a month's wage for the privilege of
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attendind the annual ceremony. The pilgrimgs were ritually harassed on their
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journed to the temple, apparently in good humor.
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Upon arriving at the temple, the gathered in the initiation hall, a great
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telestrion. Inside the temple, pilgrims sat in rows that descended step=wise
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to a hidden, central chamger from which fungal concoction was served. An odd
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feature was an array of columns, beyond any apparent structural need, whose
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designed purpose escaped archaeologists. The pilgrims spend the night together
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and reportedly came away forever changed. In this pavilion crowded with
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pillars, ceremonies occurred, known by historians as the Eleusian Mysteris. No
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revelation of the ceremony's secrets could be mentioned under the punishment
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of imprisonment or death. These ceremonies continued until repressed in the
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early centuries of the Christian era.
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In 1977, at a mushroom conference on the Olympic Peninsula, R. Gordon Wasson,
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Albert Hoffman, and Carl Ruck first postulated, that the Eleusinian mysteries
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centered on the use of psychoactive fungi. Their papers were later published
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in a book entitled The Road the Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries
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(1978). That Aristotle and other founders of western philosophy undertook such
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intellectual adventures, and that this secret ceremony persisted for neary
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2,000 years, underscores the profound impact that fungal rites have had on the
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evolution of western conciousness.
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*Side Note: Amanitas in general are poisonous. Fly Agaric kills the constant
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* User in approximately 20 years. If you take the responsability
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* of religous quests with psychoative mushrooms and not recreational
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* use. Stropharia cubensis is what you must seek. ---- A.G.A.
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------------------------------
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aga@qedbbs.com or qed!aga
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The QED BBS -- (310)420-9327
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