Since at least 5,000 B.C., people have used “spiritual mushrooms” in their religious rituals. The San Peoples of Tassili in southeast Algeria left behind cave paintings illustrating dancing, masked medicine men with mushrooms in their hands. It’s believed the mushrooms were of the consciousness-altering variety.

Tassili is located in an area that today is an uninhabitable mountainous desert. But in ancient times, the climate was wet, allowing not only humans to live there but also cattle, and even crocodiles. The San Peoples were culturally tied to other tribes across the desert, from Chad to Egypt, maybe even Greece.

The Greek Eleusinian Mysteries – spiritual initiation ceremonies – date back to 1,600 B.C. and for two millennia it was the most important spiritual initiation ceremony of ancient Europe. Many scholars believe the ceremony employed the use of mind-altering mushrooms. With participants such as Plato and Aristotle, the influence of the Eleusinian Mysteries on the formation of western culture cannot be underestimated.

Further north and a thousand years later, the Vikings used Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) to overcome fear before going into battle. In pre-battle spiritual ceremonies, they ate mushrooms and danced through the woods with wild abandon.

Granted, most of us would not consider this form of warrior spirituality in any way “admirable.” But it was part of the Viking religious practices, whatever our opinion of them may be. Meanwhile, to the east, Siberian shamans also used Fly agaric as a spiritual tool to communicate with their deities.

R. Gordon Wasson even claimed in a controversial book titled Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality that Fly agaric was the very substance referred to in ancient Vedic literature as the mysterious soma, a plant or mushroom extract used in ancient Hindu rituals and believed to bestow immortality of the soul and other divine qualities to the consumer.

(Note: Make no mistake, Fly agaric – Amanita muscaria – is poisonous and can also be confused with other deadly species. Consumption for any reason is completely discouraged.)

Across the Atlantic Ocean, spiritual rituals using consciousness-altering mushrooms were first recorded in the Mixtec Codex, which is of uncertain age from between the 13th and 15th centuries. In ancient engravings, the Mixtec gods are often depicted with mushrooms in their hands.

In spite of the fact that the Mixtec people of central Mexico self-professed to use spiritual mushrooms in their religious ceremonies, western scholars still questioned it in a characteristically condescending fashion.

William Safford, an American botanist, believed the supposed mushrooms were actually nothing but peyote buttons. Other western scholars, meanwhile, insisted that the “spiritual mushrooms” of the Mixtec people really were mind-altering mushrooms.

Raging on until the early 1930′s, this debate finally got settled when amateur anthropologist Robert Weitlaner got invited to view a Mixtec religious ritual including the mind-expanding mushrooms.

In 1953, amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina Povlovna became the first westerners to actually participate in a Velada (mushroom ceremony), led by shaman Don Aurelio. Wasson publicized his experience in Life Magazine in 1957, which became the start of the popular awareness of spiritual mushrooms in the west.

Out of 60 Psilocybe species, 25 are known to contain the mind-altering compounds psilocin (unstable) and psilocybin (stable). The two species Psilocybin caerulescens and Psilocybin mexicana are believed to be the ones used by the Mixtec. Although Psilocybin cubensis is now more common even in America, it is believed to have arrived with the Europeans.

Today, use of consciousness-altering mushrooms is illegal in most countries of the world due to the fact that they are often misused as recreational drugs. Only in The Netherlands were fresh (not dried) Psilocybe mushrooms until recently legal.

That all changed after a French 17-year-old girl jumped off a bridge when eating Psilocybe mushrooms. The Dutch parliament responded with a ban on the sale of so called “magic mushrooms,” which took effect December 1, 2008. From Tassili to Amsterdam, the use of spiritual mushrooms is now officially history.

Dr. Rafael has worked with natural health products since the mid-90′s, now specializing in medicinal mushrooms. He does not endorse the use of mind-altering mushrooms. The article on this page is for entertainment only. Click reishi to visit site for more free mushroom articles, or cordyceps reishi for medicinal mushroom products. Note: Absolutely no magic mushroom products, please do not inquire.