Looks like prehistoric European shamans keep the goods to themselves . . .



From Science Daily:

Unlike most modern humans, the prehistoric people of Europe did not use mind-altering substances simply for their hedonistic pleasure. Researchers contend that their use was an integral part of prehistoric beliefs, and that these substances were seen to aid in communication with the spiritual world.


http://www.sciencedaily....014/05/140512155025.htm

Interesting article, thanks for sharing!

It's clear that psychoactives and humans have a long history together. However it seems like here in Europe much of the knowledge about psychoactive plants disappeared sometime before recorded history, I wonder how and why?

because of the roman catholic church, perhaps?

+1

And imperialism/colonialism more generally.

Years ago, before I had any experience with psilocybin magic mushrooms or any other psychedelics, I was roaming the forests looking for fly agaric mushrooms, as they somehow had my fascination at that time.

Near the gypsy camp at the edge of the city where I live I ran into an old man. I talked a bit with him, he said he was the "captain" of the gypsies. He was an old man, he showed me the tattoo at the inside of his arm, a souvenir he received during the second world war.

When I told him that I was looking for fly agaric mushrooms, he told me that he and his people traditionally used another mushroom for healing purposes. He called it the "slime mushroom" (liberal translation). It didn't ring a bell with me at the time, but later, when I had gotten accustomed with the psilocybe species, I realized that he had been talking about liberty caps (psilocybe semilanceata). The fields near their campsite are peppered with these.

I never looked the man up again to ask about it, but it struck me that they knew about the magic mushrooms in a way apparently entirely unrelated to the "discoveries" of Gordon Wasson.

That was a very interesting article, thank you for posting. I did a little searching to see if there were any images depicting the mushroom rituals in the Italian Alps but I didn't come up with anything. Would be pretty cool to see.