Today someone turned me onto this website which had one of my photos and a link to the Mushroom John web-site which has not been used since 1999 (Dec).
On this site, written by a doctor was a segment on Psilocybine and its sources.
Here is the URL
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/psilocybin/psilocybinv.htm
Anyway, here are a few paragraphs from this site with some really bad mis-information about shrooms and peyote. So I would like to share it with you and the letter I sent to the Doctor. As of now, I do not know if he is still there.
This is the 12th University to link the mushroom john site from theirs.
The Paragraphs of errors:
"Psilocybin is the main active ingredient in so-called 'magic mushrooms'. It has hallucinogenic properties, and is closely related to mescaline in structure. Both chemicals have been known for centuries by the Aztecs in Mexico, who used them in tribal rites, believing the vivid, colourful hallucinations had religious significance. The Aztecs even had professional mystics and prophets who achieved their inspiration by eating the mescaline-containing peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii). Indeed, the cactus was so important to the Aztecs that they named it teo-nancacyl, or "God's Flesh". This plant was said to have been distributed to the guests at the coronation of Montezuma to make the ceremony seem even more spectacular. During the 19th Century, the use of peyote cacti in tribal rituals spread north to the natives of North America, such as the Comanches, Kiowas and the Mescalero Apaches, from where mescaline obtained its name. Over the years, the use of these drugs in religious rites became fused with Christianity, and even today some tribes believe that God put some of His power into peyote, and Jesus was the man who gave the plant to the Indians in a time of need."
and the other paragraph:
"Psilocybin itself, comes from 'magic' mushrooms (such as Psilocybe mexicana, Psilocybe muscorumi and Stropharia cubensis), several varieties of which grow in temperate regions of the world, including the USA, Europe and the UK. Their use became fashionable in the UK in the 1970s as a 'natural' and legal alternative to LSD. In most countries it is not illegal to possess or consume these mushrooms, however if they are prepared (e.g. crushed or dried), or deliberately cultivated, they then become a Class A drug punishable by imprisonment."
So I wrote the following letter to Dr. May's email addy at Bristol University.
"Dear Dr. Paul May,
I was just turned on to your page on Psilocybin and mescaline and I must inform you that there are several major errors in this page.
Here is the paragraph I am referring to:
"Psilocybin is the main active ingredient in so-called 'magic mushrooms'. It has hallucinogenic properties, and is closely related to mescaline in structure. Both chemicals have been known for centuries by the Aztecs in Mexico, who used them in tribal rites, believing the vivid, colourful hallucinations had religious significance. The Aztecs even had professional mystics and prophets who achieved their inspiration by eating the mescaline-containing peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii). Indeed, the cactus was so important to the Aztecs that they named it teo-nancacyl, or "God's Flesh". This plant was said to have been distributed to the guests at the coronation of Montezuma to make the ceremony seem even more spectacular. During the 19th Century, the use of peyote cacti in tribal rituals spread north to the natives of North America, such as the Comanches, Kiowas and the Mescalero Apaches, from where mescaline obtained its name. Over the years, the use of these drugs in religious rites became fused with Christianity, and even today some tribes believe that God put some of His power into peyote, and Jesus was the man who gave the plant to the Indians in a time of need."
In you?re above statement you said that:
"Indeed, the cactus was so important to the Aztecs that they named it teo-nancacyl, or "God's Flesh."
However, it is the mushrooms which contain psilocybine and/or psilocine and it is the mushrooms which were known amongst the Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs as 'teonan?catl." Not the peyotl cacti as you wrote in your page.
Translated by ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson as meaning either 'God's Flesh' or God's meat.' and Wasson preferred to use the epithet as meaning 'wondrous mushroom' and/or 'awesome mushroom.'
The word teonan?catl as noted by you above is also mis-spelled as 'teo-nancacyl.'
And it was the mushrooms (teonan?catl) which were served to guests at moctozuma's coronation, not cacti.
I would like to refer you to my book, "Teonan?catl: Ancient Shamanic Mushrooms Names of Mesoamerica and other Regions of the World. And the book in its entirety is posted at the Mushroom John web-site at:
Http://www.mushroomjohn.com
The URL at your site does not link to the Mushroom John site at all. And the above-posted URL is now correct for Mushroom John's Shroom World.
Another small matter is Psilocybe muscorumi
Psilocybe muscorumi [sic] is not a psilocybine containing mushroom and its correct Latin name is Psilocybe muscorum s. auct.;=Psilocybe inquillina (Fr.:Fr) Bres.
Another quick note. There are now more than 200 known species of mushrooms belonging to 12 families that are now recognized as psilocybian mushrooms.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
btw, Mushroom John's site has now over 11,800 photographs and more than two dozen published papers and two cd-rom books on magic mushrooms. More than 5000 images apply to the 55 species described on the Mushroom John web-site.
Thanks for using my image, but please correct the mis-information on your web page.
Best regards,
John W. Allen."
mj
Edited by mjshroomer (03/12/06 09:45 AM)
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