I was trying to cure some boredom by clicking through wiki links (went from younger dryass inpact hypotheseis to mushrooms) when I hit on this, a new word for me, referring to a category of mushroom;Subcubensis.

The brief wikipedia page immediately caught my attention with this intro:


A quick look at other pages seem to refer to psilocybe mushrooms as 'psychedelic'. It looks to be the original syntax of the entry by the history. I'm not sure I'm entirely on board, I think it just leads to confusion and is agenda-driven-(even if the agenda is benevolent, and in this case is it really?) - maybe using 'potentially medicinal' along with the word psychedelic if someone wants to highlight a medical use?

There has been for a very long time an (I think) uneccessary debate surrounding what to call plants with psychedelic compounds within them. All of the debates seem to emanate from a certain corner of the psychedelic culture- people who think they are best used ceremonially call them entheogens, those who want them in therapy sessions call them medicine, etc. I am perfectly happy and think that psychedelic is a great umbrella term; it rolls off the tongue nicely and was it not coined by none other than A. Huxley, perhaps the most dedicated intellectual to the psychedelic experience we have ever seen, and therefore the word should be inviolable in my opinion. (If you are not familiar, google The Death of Aldous Huxley) Whatever, I am spending more words on it than it deserves, but just wanted to point that out and ask whhere any of you interested land on the whole thing?

Subcubensis wasn't nearly as interesting as an entry otherwise as I hoped, but it has kept me entertained through the writitng of this at least. Thanks, WP, mission accomplished.

Subcubensis is just a sub variety of cubensis, as the name implies. I believe the subcubensis has smaller spores iirc.

Psilocybin is being developed in clinical trials for depression and anxiety, but also has studies demonstrating use for smoking cessation and treating alcoholism. This would account for the use of medicinal in this context.

It was Humphrey Osmond that coined the term psychedelic in a letter exchange with Aldous. Aldous proposed "To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme" and Humphrey countered with "To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic".

Interesting, thanks for posting that.

OP, I don't see the reduction in value in the use of the term medicinal and at any rate, in this time and place in the evolution of social understanding of these substances, it would only serve to help cleanse the stigma to people who are not as informed as we. Regardless of the possibility to use them recreationally or medicinally, or the origins of the term psychedelic, or how nicely it rolls off the tongue, surely cleansing stigma is a greater purpose than being syntactically accurate or proper absolutely.

"Psychedelic" doesn't cover it because while it is quite a broad term, it merely means "mind manifesting", which covers the psychological aspects of the substance but does not account for its spiritual and out of body/mind experiences that seem to transcend normal space time. Which brings us to...

"Entheogen", meaning "becoming divine within". Also a pretty broad term, but is lacking in the same way "Psychedelic" is because it doesn't take into account the real world therapeutic effects, or its recreational usage (which could be argued IS also therapeutic in nature).

"Medicine" is the word in trial here. Also very descriptive and accurate, but narrow in scope when used in its common context.

These substances are also used recreationally. Here the word "Drug" would probably work best. But it too is not a fully descriptive word for what these substances are.

And so we see that these substances can be called medicines, psychedelics, drugs, and entheogens. Therefore it is set, setting, and intention that decided what they will be called on any specific occasion. And there are people that use all terms or only one of them.

Is there a single word that describes all this??? Hell if I can think of one.

Maybe we shouldn't try and put whatever it is in a box.