Still seeking the magic mushroom: fungi, pharmaceuticals, and mysticism without religion

"In Still Seeking the Magic Mushroom, Hugh B. Urban traces the complex journey of a simple mushroom from the mountains of Mexico to the laboratories of major universities and pharmaceutical companies. He focuses on Psilocybe mushrooms, which were once used by healers in private rituals in the mountains of Mexico but are now widely consumed not only for recreational use but also for potential therapeutic uses to treat a wide range of psychological disorders. In the process, these mushrooms have been largely divorced from their traditional cultural and religious contexts. As traditional religious forms and institutions started to lose their hold in the modern secular world, many people turned to psychedelics as a way to tap into profound spiritual experiences. Psychedelics thus gave birth to a new kind of spiritual revelation in their own way-a kind of mysticism without religion. In tracing the modern resurgence of interest in psychedelic mushrooms from the 1950s to the present, Still Seeking the Magic Mushroom reveals that psychedelic mushrooms-long portrayed as fringe, countercultural, and subversive substances-are in fact a key part of "the American experience" and have deep roots in American attitudes toward religion, mysticism, nature, and drugs from late 1800s onward"-- Provided by publisher.