Mexico’s Shamans Use Magic Mushrooms to Speak to the Divine Joseph Sorrentino - Mexico News Daily
go to original May 17, 2023

Gerardo, a granicero, conducts a cleansing ceremony for Esmeralda, a granicera herself. (Joseph Sorrentino)

Journalist Michael Pollan’s book and documentary, “How to Change Your Mind” presents convincing evidence that some psychoactive compounds — including LSD, mescaline (from the peyote cactus), MDMA and psilocybin (from certain varieties of mushrooms) — can help people suffering from a variety of psychiatric illnesses, including PTSD, depression and obsessive-compulsive behavior (OCD).

In strictly controlled clinical studies, a single dose of psilocybin has been proven to help patients with OCD, as well as cancer patients who were experiencing anxiety about their diagnosis. Many cancer patients reported losing their fear of death, and 30% who were given a dose of psilocybin said it was the most significant spiritual experience of their lives.

While psilocybin was virtually unknown in the US until 1955, indigenous groups in Mexico, especially the Mexica, Mayans and Mazatecans, have been using hongos sagrados — sacred mushrooms — for thousands of years. They didn’t, however, use them to cure psychiatric illnesses or to end the fear of death — though that may have been a side benefit. They used these mushrooms to communicate with the gods.

There are at least 200 species of mushrooms known to have hallucinogenic effects when ingested. Mexico has the most, with 53 varieties growing in the country. The most potent of these belong to the genus Psilocybe, and these are the ones most often used by indigenous people in Mexico.

The Mexica called the mushrooms teotlnanácatl (from the Nahuatl teotl (god) and nanácatl (fungus). Today, they’re known as hongos sagrados, niños sagrados or niños de agua.

Hongos sagrados are harvested during the rainy season in Mexico, which typically begins in May.

When [the mushrooms are] found, a person will wash their hands, pray and talk to them. The mushroom is a fundamental element for these cultures. Sometimes the human being requires a little help, a push — and this help is through the sacred plants — in this case, hongos sagrados.

Related: ‘I Don’t Understand, but I Believe’: My Encounters With Indigenous Spirits (Mexico News Daily)

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily

Related: Could Psychedelic Mushrooms Be the Drug to Finally Cure Eating Disorders? (The Cut)

Related: Psilocybin Program Stands on Millenia of Indigenous Experience (The Lund Report)

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