Book Review: SHROOM
By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Did mushroom tea kick-start ancient Greek philosophy? Was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Is Santa Claus really a magic mushroom in disguise?
The world of the magic mushroom is a place where shamans and hippies rub shoulders with pyschiatrists, poets and international bankers. Since its rediscovery only 50 years ago, this hallucinogenic fungus, once shunned in the West, as the most pernicious of poisons, has inspired a plethora of folktales and urban legends.
In this timely study, author Andy Lechter chronicles the history of the magic mushroom-from its use by the Aztecs of Central America and the tribes of Siberia through to the present day-stripping away the myths and taking a critical and humorous look at the drug's more recent manifestations.
In the early days of the cultural movement that would eventually bequeath us the magic mushroom, academics and intellectuals happily and legitmately took drugs such as LSD and mescaline and then marvelled that they had discovered an ancient and secret path to the kingdom of heaven.
One of the first to do so was Aldous Huxley who famously took mescaline in the spring of 1953 and wrote up his experiences in The Doors of Perception. He felt the reason people took drugs was simple: for the longing to transcend the drudgeries of life."
An informative and lively trip!
By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Did mushroom tea kick-start ancient Greek philosophy? Was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Is Santa Claus really a magic mushroom in disguise?
The world of the magic mushroom is a place where shamans and hippies rub shoulders with pyschiatrists, poets and international bankers. Since its rediscovery only 50 years ago, this hallucinogenic fungus, once shunned in the West, as the most pernicious of poisons, has inspired a plethora of folktales and urban legends.
In this timely study, author Andy Lechter chronicles the history of the magic mushroom-from its use by the Aztecs of Central America and the tribes of Siberia through to the present day-stripping away the myths and taking a critical and humorous look at the drug's more recent manifestations.
In the early days of the cultural movement that would eventually bequeath us the magic mushroom, academics and intellectuals happily and legitmately took drugs such as LSD and mescaline and then marvelled that they had discovered an ancient and secret path to the kingdom of heaven.
One of the first to do so was Aldous Huxley who famously took mescaline in the spring of 1953 and wrote up his experiences in The Doors of Perception. He felt the reason people took drugs was simple: for the longing to transcend the drudgeries of life."
An informative and lively trip!
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