FoundationalConceptsNeuroscience

—but it was a novel idea not so long ago. When molecular structural
similarities were noticed between serotonin and LSD, it was proposed
that serotonin might be a brain neurotransmitter and LSD might
exert its effects in part by interacting with some kind of serotonergic
system in the brain. A new era in neuroscience was emerging.
Psychedelic mushrooms—sometimes referred to as “magic mush-
rooms”—many of which are members of the genus Psilocybe, grow
throughout the world. Their shamanic use is known from the Mazatec
peoples of southern Mexico, where their ritual use extends back many
centuries. However, when the Spanish conquistadors came to Mex-
ico in the 1500s, they brought with them from Europe the Catholic
Church and the Roman Inquisition. Rituals using plants and fungi
to facilitate access to states of consciousness considered sacred and
mystical were condemned by the Inquisition as devil worship, and
practitioners of such rituals risked torture and even execution. Thus,
the mushroom ceremonies became closely guarded secrets, and the
secrecy persisted for four hundred years.
Contemporary society learned about psychedelic mushrooms
only in 1957, via an article in Life magazine written by R. Gordon
Wasson (1898-1986), a New York City bank executive and mush-
room scholar. Wasson, together with his physician wife, Valentina,
had received knowledge of the ritual use of these mushrooms from
Maria Sabina (1894-1985), a Mazatec healer from a small mountain
village in southern Mexico. Maria Sabina made a profound decision
in choosing to share this ancient secret with outsiders, knowing it
would be secret no more and, indeed, would be revealed to a large
number of people. Her decision had a tremendous impact on history,
as Wasson’s magazine article would be one of the major ways by
which information concerning the powerful consciousness-altering
effects of psychedelics reached a wide audience. After his meeting