Mushrooms In Religious History, God's Gift to Mankind? Options

After eating some Psilocybe mushrooms, I felt that my eyes were opened. Not necessarily to any great truth - but to how uniquely suited to human use these fungi are, and how many parallels to religion and mysticism there were in my experience. Indeed, there are even studies - at least two - showing that a psilocybin experience can change a life for the better, and at the very least is a spiritual and significant event in most subjects.

Amanitas are another story, and I have not yet experienced them, but because they are just as prevalent as Psilocybe species, this post will be about them as well.

1.) Judaism: There is ample evidence that the so-called "manna from heaven" was, in fact, the Psilocybe mushroom. Manna was only found once the Jews began to wander as a nomadic people, with herds of sheep and cattle, and entered a wetter area - certainly good conditions for growing these mushrooms (which are often found in the leavings of cattle).

Manna is described as being small, round, and found on the ground "like hoarfrost". It appears at night, comes with the rain or dew, and must be collected quickly, or worms will appear. These are just the conditions required for mushroom growth, and the Psilocybe mushroom in particular fruits quickly, seemingly overnight. Mushrooms are also susceptible to infestation by fly and other larvae - the so-called worms. Psilocybe mushrooms also sprout in clusters of small pins, looking somewhat like hoarfrost.

Manna was "sent from heaven"; the Psilocybe mushroom bruises heavenly blue, and ancient peoples often believed mushrooms came from the sky (some also believing it was lightning that deposited 'shrooms) owing to their lack of roots and general mysteriousness. In Numbers, we learn that the Israelites are now drying and powdering manna to take with them; it is now described as having a light tan color and the texture of a wafer - quite similar to dried magic mushrooms! When the King of Babylon consumed manna, he had visions within the hour. Finally, when the Israelites finally reached the arid land of Canaan, manna disappeared.

It is also written in Exodus that manna will "test" whether someone "walks in [God's] law or not." An entheogenic experience will certainly test an unprepared and unsuspecting person! Manna was painstakingly described (and even saved, by order of Moses) for future generations, and even kept in the holiest place of all: the Ark of the Covenant. Finally, the covenant with God was symbolized by the circumcision of all Jewish males... and some strains of Psilocybes look remarkably like the circumcised penis. (Of course, the Egyptians were also known to practice circumcision, so this one may be a stretch.)

There's even a little evidence that Jesus may have been a mushroom devotee, although this is even more of a stretch in my opinion; link at the end of this post.

2.) Hinduism: Everyone is familiar with "soma", the mysterious plant and/or drink that is praised almost excessively in the Rig Veda and quite a few other writings. It, too, is described as mushroom-like, a small leafless, rootless, seedless plant with a fleshy stalk. The psychoactive mushrooms can sometimes cause gastrointestinal difficulty, and the Rig Veda notes that consumption of soma can sometimes do this. These effects are alleviated by preparing a mushroom tea, and the descriptions of soma preparation indicate something very similar. The cow is sacred in India; possibly because certain Psilocybe species grow in cow dung.

Users of soma became inspired, poetic, and saw holy visions. Even the gods enjoyed it, and provided it. It had a slight taste of honey, as some dried psychedelic mushrooms do. Here's the problem, though: it is also described as being red or golden, growing in the mountains, and associated with certain trees. The Amanita mushroom grows on the trees mentioned - only in the mountains - has a red cap, and tastes of honey when dried and cured. So soma may yet possibly be the Amanita muscaria mushroom instead of the Psilocybe, though the Psilocybe mushrooms are often gold. There is also possible mention of psychoactive urine... which fits nicely with Amanita muscaria, which has this property in its users.

Zoroastrianism also had a similar sacrament called "Haoma", and I have read of Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhists using Psilocybe mushrooms in meditation, but I do not know much more.

3.) Shamanism and indigenous religions: In Mesoamerican cultures, the use of the psychedelic mushroom reached its greatest heights. In much of Central and South America, there have been mushroom-idols dated as far as back as three (or more) thousand years ago - making the mushroom cult one of the oldest religions in the world! The Nahua word for the Psilocybe mushroom, teonanacatl, means "the flesh of gods", and they were considered to be pieces of a certain god who gave them to the Nahua peoples as a great gift. Indeed, there was even a god (Xochipilli) of hallucinogenic plants, mushrooms (called "flowers" by the Aztecs) especially. Teonanacatl is not the only word for them, either - there are entire lists of loving epithets for these mushrooms (divine mushrooms, genius mushrooms, children of the water, etc), and they were used to heal, to prophesy, and in sacred rites.

In areas in and around Siberia, Amanita use is well-documented; again, both for religious reasons, by shamans (who travel to the spirit world using it) and to heal, given to those who are sick in body or spirit. This is where the practice of drinking the urine of someone who has consumed the mushrooms first became noticed. So holy is the 'shroom that none can be wasted! There's even evidence that druids and the Celts used this mushroom, since the druids venerated trees upon which Amanita species grow, and the legend of Cú Chulainn mentions effects similar to the those one experiences when eating Amanita muscaria.

A cave painting depicting obvious mushroom use dates back more than five thousand years; mushrooms with electrified auras are shown outlining a dancing shaman. One theory I came across in a book about shamanism intrigued me; it is only speculation, but it makes sense: (institutionalized) religion came about directly because of the use of hallucinogens. The awed, mystical state of mind they put one in, and the otherworldly visions they show, are strikingly similar to the earliest descriptions we have of the spirit world. When one feels the unity of all life, and sees a different version of the ordinary world, and maybe even converses with strange entities, it is easy to see how one could, if an ancient shaman, formulate theories about souls, gods, and spirits. The idea is that shamans traveled to this other world, saw reality as the "flesh of the gods" showed it, and returned to tell others of what they had learned. In the end, the ideas took on a life of their own and the original method of obtaining information about other planes of existence was forgotten; all that remained was philosophy and teachings handed down over the generations.

This was mostly written from memory, so I apologize for any mistakes. As for my personal beliefs: I'm neutral. I think this is an interesting idea, and as an amateur mycologist I've known that mushrooms in general have influenced man's development, but I'm not so sure about these claims about soma and so forth.

I thought that others here may find this an intriguing look into a little-studied aspect of spirituality and religion, anyway. Maybe I will write another post explaining what I feel the spiritual benefits of these entheogens are, if anyone is interested. Disclaimer: mushrooms are easy to mis-identify, those in genus Amanita especially. Stick with Psilocybe mushrooms unless you are an expert!

To learn more:

Psilocybe: http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/
Amanita: http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas.shtml
Some people who REALLY like Amanitas: http://www.ambrosiasociety.org/research_center.html (check out the bit about the Eucharist and New Testament - Jesus bemushroomed?)

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Aug 14 2010, 12:44 AM

This is a great post. Have you any personal experience?

Great. Now I have to get sixty bucks together for a quad of shrooms. Thanks a lot man. LOL

Great. Now I have to get sixty bucks together for a quad of shrooms. Thanks a lot man. LOL

Lol whats a quad. I know my drugs and I'm not saying it doesn't exist but I don't know of it. I loved shrooms my friends tried to literally eat me when we were both tripping but fortunately colors started tickling his tongue so he had to stop.
a quarter usually is anywhere from 60 to 80 bucks depending on the dealer and the time of year.

This is a great post. Have you any personal experience?

Thanks! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Yes, I've eaten Psilocybe mushrooms a few (two) times. I had always avoided them, due to fear of nausea or mis-identification, but I finally took the plunge. I'm glad I did, because while they didn't change my life in any radical fashion, they did make me more thoughtful and spiritual. I feel like they gave me a bit of a new perspective on things. I was much more inclined to dismiss the very idea of spirituality before, for instance.

Plus, the experience was intense and enjoyable as heck. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I'd like to approach it with a more respectful and meditative mindset and see where that takes me, since the first time I did it was just for fun. Not that there's anything wrong with fun!

Great. Now I have to get sixty bucks together for a quad of shrooms. Thanks a lot man. LOL

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol_2.gif) I consider this thread a success, then! I wonder how the practice of magic and the use of entheogens go together...

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Aug 14 2010, 10:31 PM

There is a saying that I have heard ascribed to Indian Yogis, as well as Chinese Masters, "Before enlightenment, chopping wood and drawing water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and drawing water."

Often we will have some earth shattering spiritual experience, but afterwards we still have to make a living and engage in mundane activities. On the outside nothing seems to have changed. On the inside you may become more thoughtful and spiritual though.

I like that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Sig'd.

Lol whats a quad. I know my drugs and I'm not saying it doesn't exist but I don't know of it. I loved shrooms my friends tried to literally eat me when we were both tripping but fortunately colors started tickling his tongue so he had to stop.
a quarter usually is anywhere from 60 to 80 bucks depending on the dealer and the time of year.

A quad is a quarter.

A quad is a quarter.

Okay got it. Is that British or something?

Update: Well, I missed a bunch of stuff in my original post. I ordered a book entitled Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, by Clark Heinrich, and I am no longer in any doubt that the mysterious Soma was, in fact, Amanita muscaria... and possibly both Amanita muscaria and Psilocybe mushrooms.

The evidence that Soma was the fly agaric mushroom is too great to post here. That is, there's so much of it I've probably already forgotten half of it. One thing I noted that, in Mr. Heinrich's retellings of Vedic and Puranic legends, they seem pretty damn crazy... until one begins to draw parallels with psychedelic mushrooms, the fly agaric in particular. In one, we have a red monkey with sharp white teeth convincing other monkeys to stand on one foot, expanding in size, and raising the dead with a flaming red plant identified with Soma. Fly agaric happens to have sharp white "teeth", stands on one "foot", starts out as a small "egg" and expands to become nearly large enough to sit on, and is of course a flaming, striking red. Moreover, it can sometimes cause consumers to become briefly as dead in a coma-like state, which doesn't sound pleasant but is not fatal.

And that's just one legend, and not even the best at that. Clark Heinrich also includes a few Indian temple carvings and paintings depicting mushrooms, which seems like pretty good evidence to me. But the most interesting thing I found was several references to Psilocybe-like mushrooms; Soma was associated with the cow or bull, Krishna finds a better Soma* in the cow dung of his village, and when the gods are "churning the lake of milk" to obtain more Soma, a poison rises to the top. Why it should be a poison, I'm not sure - Heinrich's suggestion is because the mushrooms can sometimes cause nausea - but in any case, when Shiva eats the poison, he holds it in his throat and it (his throat) turns blue. When picked by the stem, the Psilocybe mushrooms bruise blue. The holding in the throat may be additionally significant: Heinrich doesn't mention it, but I immediately thought of sublingual use. If one holds morning glory seeds in the mouth, I am told, one avoids the nausea usually associated with morning glory experiences; I am willing to believe that sublingual use of Psilocybe mushrooms also avoids the "poison" of the experience.

I'm now in the middle of reading about why Mr. Heinrich thinks the Grail legend is also about the Amanita muscaria! I will post anything particularly convincing.


*The idea is that Krishna was a native god, and Shiva/Indra/Rudra were gods of the invading Aryan people. When the Aryans found that the lowlands of the south contained no Amanitas, it is native Krishna to the rescue, pointing out that (in his opinion) a superior Soma can be found in the dung of cows or bulls... thus why Krishna is depicted as a cowherd.

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Aug 18 2010, 12:24 PM

Terence Mckenna's Food of the Gods touches on all of this actually and he in fact derives human evolution from the use of the substance, he also argues that soma was in fact these mushrooms and thinks there's a sort of archaic human knowledge one taps into when using the substance. I would disagree with him on the point that humanity evolved through a symbiotic relationship with mushrooms on multiple grounds but I certainly think it's something to consider. I have used this before as well and I have to agree with him with the biological memory one seems to tap into when ingesting the chemical.

Terence Mckenna's Food of the Gods touches on all of this actually and he in fact derives human evolution from the use of the substance, he also argues that soma was in fact these mushrooms and thinks there's a sort of archaic human knowledge one taps into when using the substance. I would disagree with him on the point that humanity evolved through a symbiotic relationship with mushrooms on multiple grounds but I certainly think it's something to consider. I have used this before as well and I have to agree with him with the biological memory one seems to tap into when ingesting the chemical.

Now that's an interesting idea. Odd, because I considered something like that myself - after my trip, I thought perhaps the mind-expanding powers of the mushroom propelled human evolution to be more cerebral, as it were. What mechanism it could be working through, though, I have no idea. Which is why I don't believe it either, but still, there does seem to be some sort of biological memory; I agree. (I saw things like chariot wheels with eyes - because I had read the Bible, or because mushrooms just cause these things?) I gotta check that book out.

I'm growing some shrooms atm, its a great hobby.
Something flying about in cultivation forums recently is the idea that fungi originated from out of space and have consciously helped evolve life on this planet in order to be taken to new ones.
It's not a bad idea, spores are nearly indestructible an have natural resistance to radiation so.. maybe they are alien gods from other worlds?
I don't know but what i do know is they have been around since practically the start of life on this planet, which means for millions of years virtually all the land on this planet will have been covered with fungi,
properly giant skyscraper mushrooms with giant interconnected neural like thingys like that film avatar!

If organic life leaves a spiritual echo then the roots of life's spirit in this world will have a mycelium like quality to them at the very least.
plus sometimes they look quite like penis's
which is clearly the most important thing in the universe.

What kind are you growing draw? That's really interesting I have seen pic of that online but never in person. Are you using mason jars or something?

I'm growing some shrooms atm, its a great hobby.
Something flying about in cultivation forums recently is the idea that fungi originated from out of space and have consciously helped evolve life on this planet in order to be taken to new ones.
It's not a bad idea, spores are nearly indestructible an have natural resistance to radiation so.. maybe they are alien gods from other worlds?
I don't know but what i do know is they have been around since practically the start of life on this planet, which means for millions of years virtually all the land on this planet will have been covered with fungi,
properly giant skyscraper mushrooms with giant interconnected neural like thingys like that film avatar!

If organic life leaves a spiritual echo then the roots of life's spirit in this world will have a mycelium like quality to them at the very least.
plus sometimes they look quite like penis's
which is clearly the most important thing in the universe.

Yep, it's an awesome hobby. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) That is a pretty cool idea. I'm thinking of the game Morrowind, where mushrooms were both food and dwelling-places... I have never run across any descriptions of giant prehistoric mushrooms, but I'm lookin' it up now.

And don't forget, the Amanita muscaria also seems to have a vulva... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol_2.gif)

"If organic life leaves a spiritual echo then the roots of life's spirit in this world will have a mycelium like quality to them at the very least." - beautiful.

What kind are you growing draw? That's really interesting I have seen pic of that online but never in person. Are you using mason jars or something?

Kerr jars are best, IMHO, with a Rubbermaid fruiting chamber. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) A mason jar will work if you plan to spawn to a bulk substrate.

I grow edible mushrooms, mostly oyster and shiitake, but I'm thinking of branching out.

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Aug 18 2010, 09:42 PM

I'm growing Equador's at the moment, can't afford to get any new strains right now but as soon as i can I'm going to do some cross-breeding, just multi-spore inoculation though.

I'm just using microwavable plastic tubs ATM, Ive been using a pressure cooker to sterilize them but it seems quite inefficient so I've been trying
lots of different methods recently.
Actually I've built this thing that im going to attempt to make a kind of hydroponic system with, i would attach a picture but i've not got anywhere to upload it,
not sure if its going to work but its worth a try, the trouble with hydroponic systems is it's far to easy to introduce contaminants but i think i've worked out a good way round it.
i've basically got a rectangular plastic storage container (about a foot long) and ive put a big egg box at the bottom, then i made some holes in the sides and threaded tubes down
through the egg box too the bottom.
what im going to do is boil up lots of the substrate with some campden tablets (used for brewing) pour it in so its a good few inches thick over the egg box and then im going to spray everything
with water/campden tablet mix an seal it up, wait 24hours, inject the spores and wait for it to colonize, then when i need to feed the shrooms i can attach two sterilized
nutrient rich demi-johns one either side and use the gravity between the two in order to get a slow flow of water between the egg box bobbles.

I've not herd of anyone doing this yet so its going to be hit an miss while i try it out.

Last October a Fly agaric poped up in the park outside my flat, i dried it out but not eaten it yet, next time i see one i'm going to take a spore print!
Sounds like a completely different experience, i expect my dried up old one won't cut the mustard however, so i will wait until i have more.

Actually I've built this thing that im going to attempt to make a kind of hydroponic system with...

That sounds pretty cool. I've recently been thinking about that and whether or not it's possible, actually. Let us know how it works out. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Last October a Fly agaric poped up in the park outside my flat, i dried it out but not eaten it yet, next time i see one i'm going to take a spore print!
Sounds like a completely different experience, i expect my dried up old one won't cut the mustard however, so i will wait until i have more.

You lucky dog! No mushrooms grow wild here in the desert. Actually, though, your dried one is probably the best sort; I've read from multiple sources that you should always dry it before consumption - converts some ibotenic acid to muscimol, IIRC. Some also recommend then re-hydrating them and making a water extract to drink. Difficult experiences don't seem uncommon, though, so be careful.

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Aug 19 2010, 10:56 AM

"i've not got anywhere to upload it" try imageshack.com

So this is pretty cool I can't believe you both grow like this. I would love to see pics of your set-ups. Ha alright Vilhjalmr, I'm remembering Kerr jars for future reference. "I'm thinking of the game Morrowind, where mushrooms were both food and dwelling-places" Yes! I played that way back in the day that was such a in depth game. I loved my high elf wizard that would die at the slightest hint of a magic attack. The floating moon was very cool too.

This post has been edited by ☞Tomber☜: Aug 19 2010, 01:59 PM

(IMG:http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1779/photo0008q.jpg)

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woohoo it works!!. I will keep you posted on the progress!

This post has been edited by Draw: Aug 20 2010, 01:01 PM