…gets behind hard cover in terms of recent publishing that you might find interesting. Anyway, there was a festrif published for Gordon Wasson called the Sacred Mushroom seeker that has a bunch of interesting articles in it and a strange article by me that…

…forth that passed between them, there's certainly enough of that in the history of psychedelics. Just as an example, the reason Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina went to Mexico was because Robert Graves told them that they should do that, that there was…

…mushroom shaman of all is the shamaness Maria Sabina, who died a few years ago, who was the person who turned Gordon Wasson on. And everyone, not everyone takes the mushroom, but everyone who wants to takes the mushroom. And the candles are extinguished.…

…just chanting. And then the shaman goes into trance and speaks. And if any of you know Maria Sabina's mushroom phala that Gordon Wasson published, she speaks in a kind of sing song poetry, you know, woman of affairs am I. Medicine woman am I, little…

…be simply a cultural bias of the school of anthropology that he exemplified and the time in which his work was done. Now Gordon Wasson has taken the opposite tack and takes the position that non narcotic shamanism is decadent because it is on its way to…

…I'm glad you reminded me. Amanita mascaria is perhaps the old world hallucinogen par excellence, at least in the opinion of Gordon Wasson and a lot of other scholars. The problem with it is it's extremely difficult to get a reliable, positive experience…

…from the shamanic elders of your tribe, are you going to know whether you've got a good one or not. Nevertheless, Gordon Wasson tried to argue that it was the ur hallucinogen, the prototypic hallucination of prehistory that was being used by these vedic…

…be simply a cultural bias of the school of anthropology that he exemplified and the time in which his work was done. Now Gordon Wasson has taken the opposite tack and takes the position that non narcotic shamanism is decadent because it is on its way to…

…of the opinion that narcotically achieved shamanic trance is a degenerate form and late. But there's a lot of debate about this. Gordon Wasson and I tend to agree with Wasson says that all true shamanism is narcotic shamanism and that it's where you have…

…these dimensions will come under scrutiny. It's been about 28 years since psilocybin was, since the mushrooms were rediscovered by Gordon Wasson in Central Mexico. That's a very short time indeed. He went down there expecting to find an Amanita muscaria cult…

…mushrooms and people are incredulous when I say it but the mushroom speaks. It talks to you. The mazatecans claim this and Gordon Wasson claims it and Andre Michaud said: how is it possible? He said it's absurd. It's absurd that a mushroom should speak.…

…judgments about evolutionary relationships. So Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD, was amazed when carrying out analytical work for Gordon Wasson on magic morning glory seeds that had been sent to Wasson from Schultes, he discovered the same compounds or…

…I'm glad you reminded me. Amanita muscaria is perhaps the old world hallucinogen par excellence, at least in the opinion of Gordon Wasson and a lot of other scholars. The problem with it is it's extremely difficult to get a reliable, positive experience…

…from the shamanic elders of your tribe are you going to know whether you've got a good one or not. Nevertheless, Gordon Wasson tried to argue that it was the ur hallucinogen, the prototypic hallucinogen of prehistory that was being used by these vedic…

…that it was pagamon harmala and it makes a strong case I mean I regard now the whole question as totally reopened. Gordon Wasson was a lovely person and a great explorer, and his accomplishments in the oaxacan highlands can never be gainsayed or naysayed,…

…the avestan language, the language of the parsi religion of Iran It's their fire worshipers an extremely old religion. Gordon Wasson argued very strongly that soma must be Amanita muscaria, but he never examined the avestan literature of zoroastrianism which…

…Okay here is Amanita muscaria. You all know what I'm talking about the red cap with the white dots. We all know that Gordon Wasson believed this to be soma and in fact so argued in his book. Even though Wasson was the discoverer of the Mexican Mushroom…

…it was completely fired and we know that something was seen. We don't know whether it was shown or we don't know. Well Gordon Wasson, in tell Wasson, Nobody had the faintest idea what was going on and there were some really stupid ideas. I mean 19th…

…Greek word for mushroom. Our word mucus is related to this, the sliminess of mushroom it's all connected in there. So then Gordon Wasson, who was a personal friend of Robert Graves, took up this clue and got with Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD,…

…here there's something more complicated going on and they came up with the famous theory now immortalized in a book by Gordon Wasson called the road to Eleusis, that it was ergotized beer, essentially an alcoholic beer laced with LSD type alkaloids. Well…

…no data on a proper dosage of psilocybin, but collectively seemed to remember that in the oaxacan mushroom rituals described by Gordon Wasson, the mushrooms are eaten in pairs and several pairs are consumed. We determined to eat six mushrooms each that same…

…of the shamanic complex at least he wants to take it so other people have held different opinions. For instance Gordon Wasson felt that narcotic shamanism was primary that in fact the chance encounter with hallucinogenic plants in the environment probably…

…though they were possessed and and look to people as the reports began to filter out aha another mushroom cult and Gordon Wasson and his people went and made extensive collections and the problem was that the mushrooms a number of species were indicated…

…is another one of these language and information inducers. There are stories that are hard to know what to do with. I mean Gordon Wasson tells a story I think the second time they went to the sierra mazateca he took the mushroom and he took more than…

…rig Veda, it does not exist in that form in India today and various candidates have been put forth. Ephedra is one. Gordon Wasson made the case very eloquently for Aminata muscaria, but those of you who've read his book probably recall the only problem…

…future of religion and some of the contributors are Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD and the synthesizer of psilocybin, Gordon Wasson, our own brother David Stendelrast, Who's lived and taught at esalen many years jack kornfeld, myself, Ann and Sasha…

…and the Abraham of the field. Now he's very elderly and retired, but his influence is major. Now well, another person is Gordon Wasson who now his legacy has to be assessed differently maybe than it was 10 years ago. What Gordon Wasson was above all…

…well, another person is Gordon Wasson who now his legacy has to be assessed differently maybe than it was 10 years ago. What Gordon Wasson was above all else was an enthusiast and he was never a man short of theories. But now it appears that some of…

…of the shamanic complex, at least he wants to take it so other people have held different opinions. For instance, Gordon Wasson felt that narcotic shamanism was primary that in fact the chance encounter with hallucinogenic plants in the environment probably…

…judgments about evolutionary relationships. So Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD, was amazed when carrying out analytical work for Gordon Wasson on magic morning glory seeds that had been sent to Wasson from Schultes. He discovered the same compounds or…

…I'm glad you reminded me. Amanita muscaria is perhaps the old world hallucinogen par excellence, at least in the opinion of Gordon Wasson and a lot of other scholars. The problem with it is it's extremely difficult to get a reliable, positive experience…

…from the shamanic elders of your tribe are you going to know whether you've got a good one or not? Nevertheless Gordon Wasson tried to argue that it was the ur hallucinogen, the prototypic hallucinogen of prehistory that was being used by these vedic…

…a lot of time in ashrams and was brought up in that guru based European Tradition of spiritual ascendancy. Gordon Wasson, Weston Labar and others who've looked at this have reached exactly the opposite conclusion: that shamanism without psychoactive plants…

…it becomes a big arm wrestle between various competing schools of scholarship. We do not to this day know what soma was. Gordon Wasson, who some of you may know as the discoverer the modern discoverer of the mushroom cults of Mexico, Founder of the…

…as you leave the sonoran uplands and go south in the sierra mazateca, it is this mushroom complex which Valentina and Gordon Wasson discovered in the 1953s: 17 to 22 species it depends on who's counting of extremely endemic, meaning very localized species…

…rig Veda, it does not exist in that form in India today, and various candidates have been put forth. Ephedra is one. Gordon Wasson made the case very eloquently for Aminata muscaria, but those of you who've read his book probably recall the only problem…

…psilocybin was lost to the entire planet except for some tribes in the Mexican mountains for several millennia until Valentina and Gordon Wasson went in the early 1950s and found these mushrooms and brought them out, and then Albert Hoffman who had earlier…

…is that it seems to stimulate the language forming capacity. This has been remarked upon by writers such as Henry Munn and Gordon Wasson I mean it is literally true that the mushroom shaman is a man of language. It seems to facilitate a kind of…

…Veda is entirely devoted to singing the praises of soma. And yet we do not know what soma is or was r Gordon Wasson spent a considerable portion of his life researching this problem and reached the conclusion that soma was Amanita muscaria, a mushroom…

…organization. And some of you who have heard this lecture or these ideas before know that it is my opinion, going beyond Gordon Wasson that this really lays the basis for the genesis of religion. Religion begins in the notion of the holy. The holy is…

…out of the ultimate fantasies of the neurotic judeo Christian Tradition a world to plunder ends very oddly with Gordon Wasson and Valentina Wasson in 1953 penetrating into the jungle highlands of Mexico and finding there something more astonishing than…

…soma, which was greater than Indra, Greater than the gods of the old vedic pantheon the central mystery of the vedic civilization. Gordon Wasson has argued very persuasively that it was a mushroom of some sort. So I really believe that if we had a…

…attention that has been given to that mushroom is, to my mind, entirely out of proportion to its cultural importance. This is because Gordon Wasson fastened in on it with a tenacious will as soma he decided that it was soma. Are you all up to speed on…

…was prepared some way, it was pressed, it was filtered, and then they talk about this golden liquid which they drank and Gordon Wasson, because of the importance of the indo Aryan people who wrote the vedas for connecting up all of the history of what…

…part of a complete inventory of the world's people, languages, belief systems that characterizes anthropology. But there it is in 1953 Gordon Wasson returns from the village of watla de jimenez in the sierra mazateca and he has the body of eros you know…

…United States, and I wonder what you have to say about the mushroom and the culture. Well, it's an interesting question. Gordon Wasson, who was the discoverer of the mushroom cults of Mexico that were based on psilocybin mushrooms, pointed out that cultures…

…utterly, overwhelmingly incomprehensible. It remains you know a living, breathing mystery experienced in the here and now and so as Gordon Wasson and others were quick to point out it becomes the compass for the religious quest. And the understanding of that…

…was enthroned, scientific method was enthroned and the civilization that we know arose around us. But then, in 1953, Valentina and Gordon Wasson went to guatla de Jimenez in the sierra mazatec of Oaxaca and they discovered this mushroom cult and it's my…

…2 000 years, everyone who was anyone in the ancient world made the pilgrimage to Eleusis and had this experience, which Gordon Wasson and Karl Ruck have argued very convincingly was a hallucinogenic intoxication on ergot. But of course as soon as the…

…I like to think that the end of that repression came in a very odd way when, in 1953, I guess it was Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina in the village of huatla de jimenez in the sierra mazateca of Oaxaca discovered the psilocybin mushroom cult. It…

…Shamans walking into the metropolitan areas. Do you see the shaman taking on a new form? Well I believe, along with Gordon Wasson and others but in distinction to Mircea Leod, who is a major writer on shamanism, that it is hallucinogenic shamanism that…

…is a whole domain of controversy and discourse about the role of mushrooms in human culture, because it was noticed by Gordon Wasson in the 1950s that there are two kinds. Invariably there are two kinds of cultural attitudes toward mushrooms. One is called…

…there are only toadstools and don't touch them please they're highly poisonous. That's the general English and attitude toward mushrooms. So Gordon Wasson wrote about this all through the 50s and 60s and he decided that you all probably have seen, if not…

…a mysterious intoxicant soma. Nobody knows what soma is but much scholarly ink and blood has been shed on the question, and Gordon Wasson argued that it had to be Amanita muscaria and made a case which impressed some people and not others. The most…

…human enterprise than by availing yourself of the tools and the compounds which men like John Lilly, Albert Hoffman, Richard Schultes, Gordon Wasson, Oscar Janager have placed before us. Don't let anyone tell you that we're not living in an age of heroes,…

…2 000 years everyone who was anyone in the ancient world made the pilgrimage to Eleusis and had this experience, which Gordon Wasson and Karl Ruck have argued very convincingly was a hallucinogenic intoxication on ergot. But of course as soon as the church…

…I like to think that the end of that repression came in a very odd way when in 1953 I guess it was Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina in the village of huatla de jimenez in the sierra mazateca of Oaxaca discovered the psilocybin mushroom cult it…

…Shamans walking into the metropolitan areas. Do you see the shaman taking on a new form? Well I believe, along with Gordon Wasson and others but in distinction to Marcella iod who is a major writer on shamanism, that it is hallucinogenic shamanism that…

…in the Amur river basin the yakut shamans. And a couple of other tribes have utilized this for a long long time Gordon Wasson wrote a book in which he tried to suggest that aminida muscaria may have been the basis of the vedic hallucinogen soma.…

…terms of pharmacology, that's a totally obsolete and silly category, and not true to boot psychedelics are in no sense narcotic. Gordon Wasson, on the other hand who was a brilliant amateur and the discoverer of the psilocybin cults in Mexico, Along with…

…is not entirely unreasonable. Now a few years ago there was a book written by the great mushroom enthusiast and discoverer Gordon Wasson and the chemist who discovered LSD, Albert Hoffman, and the classicist ruck the three of them, and Jonathan Ott I think…

…white dots on top of it the toadstool of European Mythology. It's used in Siberia and places like that as an intoxicant and Gordon Wasson thought that it was the basis of soma. But it now looks like it probably isn't the basis of soma and that it's…

…But as it is, I think we turned the bend sometime in the 20th century either when Albert Hoffman invented LSD, or Gordon Wasson found the mushrooms of Oaxaca, or Richard Schultes brought back news of ayahuasca from the Amazon basin. You see we have to…

…almost as though there was something in the ancient world that has gone latent, that we can no longer touch or imagine. Gordon Wasson, who discovered with his wife Valentina the mushrooms, told a very interesting story in one of his books about how in…

…be simply a cultural bias of the school of anthropology that he exemplified and the time in which his work was done now Gordon Wasson has taken the opposite tack and takes the position that non narcotic shamanism is decadent because it is on its way to…

…it becomes a big arm wrestle between various competing schools of scholarship. We do not to this day know what soma was. Gordon Wasson, who some of you may know as the discoverer the modern discoverer of the mushroom cults of Mexico, Founder of the…

…Across the eurasian continent, North America, Northern Mexico. Now things get interesting because as you leave the sonoran and Gordon Wasson discovered in the 1953s 17 to 22 species it depends on who's counting of extremely endemic, meaning very localized…