Hallucinogenic mushrooms of the world

People in various cultures have used psychoactive mushrooms since time immemorial – from religious ceremonies practised by the indigenous peoples of the Americas to the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece.

Most psilocybin mushrooms are small and inconspicuously coloured, so our civilisation paid them no special attention for a long time. This changed in 1957 when Robert Gordon Wasson brought the use of magic mushrooms in traditional Mexican ceremonies to the world's attention. A short time later, both Americans and Europeans set out to find them in the remote regions of the state of Oaxaca, unaware that equally active species were growing in their own countries, sometimes literally in their own backyards. This book shows that psilocybin mushrooms can be found in practically every corner of the world.

In his book Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World, renowned mycologist Paul Stamets presents a fascinating overview of these underappreciated fungi and illustrates their enduring significance in today's culture. The detailed description of more than one hundred species is accompanied by colour photographs, graphs, and a clear summary of the effects of each. Stamets also examines the deadly poisonous lookalikes of psychedelic mushrooms and warns readers about the dangers of consuming them.