The Use of Psilocybin Mushrooms in Recreation, Mental Health and Spirituality

This presentation begins with the 1957 Life Magazine article of R. Gordon Wasson, “The Discovery of Mushrooms that Cause Strange Visions” which introduced Psilocybin mushrooms to North American readers and prompted pilgrimages to Mexico. At this time, The Evergreen State College was coming into existence. In 1975, Paul Stamets, Jeremy Bigwood and Jonathan Ott simultaneously arrived at my door and a series of international hallucinogenic mushroom conferences begins, bringing R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hoffman (the discoverer of LSD) and many others to Olympia. Learn how, working with Paul and Jeremy, Beug determined which North American mushrooms contained psilocybin and psilocin and how potent each species was.

Speaker: Dr. Michael Beug