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10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/R. Gordon Wasson.md
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@ -20,16 +20,18 @@ In August 1954, Wasson shared his information with Puharich, who then briefed hi
In June 1955, Wasson, accompanied by photographer Allan Richardson, arrived in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, and became the first white men in recorded history to eat the divine mushrooms. Wasson reported intense hallucinations but no divinatory powers. Upon his return, he sent a cache of mushrooms to Puharich for chemical analysis[^1].
Wasson's work gained widespread public attention when he struck a publishing deal with *Life* magazine and authored a twelve-page account of his experience titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom." While he omitted any mention of the CIA's involvement, he highlighted the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. The article caused a sensation, effectively undermining the CIA's desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon under military intelligence control, as pleasure seekers flocked to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
Wasson's work gained widespread public attention when he struck a publishing deal with *Life* magazine and authored an account of his experience titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom," published on pages 100 to 102 and 109 to 120 of the May 13, 1957 issue.[^2] While he omitted any mention of the CIA's involvement, he highlighted the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. The article caused a sensation, effectively undermining the CIA's desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon under military intelligence control, as pleasure seekers flocked to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
### Mushrooms, Russia and History
Decades before the Mexican expeditions, Wasson and Valentina had become fascinated by how different societies treat mushrooms, finding whole nationalities (Russians, Catalans) to be mycophiles and others (Anglo-Saxons) mycophobes; their limited-edition *Mushrooms, Russia and History* (1957, $125 new) catalogued the legends and photographs of nearly every known species.[^2]
Decades before the Mexican expeditions, Wasson and Valentina had become fascinated by how different societies treat mushrooms, finding whole nationalities (Russians, Catalans) to be mycophiles and others (Anglo-Saxons) mycophobes; their limited-edition *Mushrooms, Russia and History* (1957, $125 new) catalogued the legends and photographs of nearly every known species.[^3]
### The 1955 Velada and the 1956 Expedition
On June 29, 1955 Wasson and photographer Allan Richardson reached the town hall at Huautla de Jiménez and were led to [[Maria Sabina|María Sabina]], a curandera Wasson called a *señora sin mancha*; that night the two men each ate twelve mushrooms, and Wasson recorded "a fission of the spirit, a split in the person." On the 1956 return trip, joined by James Moore and the French mycologist [[Roger Heim]] with a $2,000 contribution from the [[Geschickter Fund for Medical Research|Geschickter Fund]], Heim later grew the mushrooms from spore prints in [[Paris]] and sent samples to [[Albert Hofmann]] at [[Sandoz]], who isolated the active compound and named it [[Psilocybin]], beating the CIA to "God's flesh." Wasson's 1957 *Life* account ran 17 pages and lured waves of Americans to Mexico, among them a young Harvard psychologist named [[Timothy Leary]], who ate his first mushrooms in 1959.[^2]
On June 29, 1955 Wasson and photographer Allan Richardson reached the town hall at Huautla de Jiménez and were led to [[Maria Sabina|María Sabina]], a curandera Wasson called a *señora sin mancha*; that night the two men each ate twelve mushrooms, and Wasson recorded "a fission of the spirit, a split in the person." On the 1956 return trip, joined by James Moore and the French mycologist [[Roger Heim]] with a $2,000 contribution from the [[Geschickter Fund for Medical Research|Geschickter Fund]], Heim later grew the mushrooms from spore prints in [[Paris]] and sent samples to [[Albert Hofmann]] at [[Sandoz]], who isolated the active compound and named it [[Psilocybin]], beating the CIA to "God's flesh." Wasson's 1957 *Life* account ran 17 pages and lured waves of Americans to Mexico, among them a young Harvard psychologist named [[Timothy Leary]], who ate his first mushrooms in 1959.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*, Chapter 7.
[^2]: Wasson, R. Gordon. "Seeking the Magic Mushroom," *Life*, vol. 42, no. 19, May 13, 1957, pp. 100-102, 109-120. https://archive.org/details/Life-1957-05-13-Vol-42-No-19
[^3]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*, Chapter 7.