Mushrooms, Russia and History is the 1957 book by Valentina P. Wasson and R. Gordon Wasson, published by Pantheon Books (Wasson and Wasson, 1957). Life’s 13 May 1957 article announced it as a two-volume work limited to 500 copies (Life, 1957).
Its chapter on Mexico and Guatemala set out the Wassons’ view of the carved mushroom stones. They wrote that they appeared to be the first to suggest the stones were mushroom effigies tied to a highland cult, adding “we do not assert”, and printed Stephan de Borhegyi’s chart of the stones (Wasson and Wasson, 1957). One paper says the book also dropped the pseudonym Life had given María Sabina and revealed who she was (Gerber et al., 2021).
The book matters to this history less as evidence than as a record of a theory. The Wassons believed mushrooms lay at the root of religious ideas, and that belief shaped what they looked for and how they described what they found in Mexico.
Sources
- Mushrooms, Russia and History, 1957 (Internet Archive)
- Seeking the Magic Mushroom, Life, 13 May 1957
- Gerber et al., 2021, ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science
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