Shroomverse · Stay curious
History
From Mesoamerica and María Sabina to Life magazine and today.
Mushroom-shaped stone sculptures have been found in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. What they meant is still argued.
In the 1500s, the friar Sahagún described small mushrooms called teonanácatl: those who eat them see visions. Colonial authorities banned them as idolatrous.
In June 1955 the Mazatec healer María Sabina led a night vigil in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, attended by the banker R. Gordon Wasson.
“Seeking the Magic Mushroom” ran in Life on 13 May 1957. The publicity drew outsiders to Huautla, and ceremonial use was displaced.
Albert Hofmann’s team reported psilocybin in March 1958. By November they had worked out its structure and made it in the laboratory.
The US listed psilocybin in Schedule I in 1970, and a UN treaty followed in 1971. In Canada today, it is in Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
The full history
Trials returned in the 2000s. Our sourced history tells the whole story, with each date checked.
Educational only. Pictures are Shroomverse AI illustrations and film stills.