Shroom: A Cultural History Of The Magic Mushroom

If you are interested in magic mushrooms, you need to read the book “Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom” by Andy Letcher. You may or may not agree with many of his viewpoints and conclusions. But read it you must!

Why? Because there is probably no other human alive besides Letcher that has read practically every piece of information ever published about magic mushrooms. And he has been good enough to put it together for us in a compact book of only 300 pages. (384 with reference section and index.)

Two major portions of Shroom are devoted to the Siberian use of the Fly Agaric for both recreational and spiritual purposes, and to Gordon Wasson’s mid-century discovery of magic mushroom use in Mexico and subsequent popularization of Psilocybin mushrooms in the West.

Later on in the book, Letcher give a historic account of the immensely popular ‘free festivals’ in Britain during the late 1970′s and early 80′s. The no. 1 ‘drug’ of choice at these festivals was wild-harvested magic mushrooms. Margaret Thatcher successfully put a stop to these festivals, thereby ending the second wave of magic mushroom use. The third and still ongoing wave of shroom popularity began when simple methods of cultivating Psilocybe mushrooms in large quantities were developed by American Terence McKenna.

My only reservation to this book is that Letcher seems to side too much with the skeptics of the various theories of historic use of magic mushrooms, even when the arguments of those detractors are rather flimsy.

E.g. he points out that the ancient petroglyphs in Tassili, Algeria, which many shroom enthusiasts are convinced depict shamans with magic mushroom, could potentially have several other interpretations. The reader is left with a sense that because there are other possible interpretations, therefore, the mushroom interpretation is wrong.

While critical evaluation is definitely much appreciated in a work of this importance, it should be balanced. It is not Letcher’s skepticism that I question, but the lack of balance in his skepticism.

One example of this is how he uses a “changing environment” to argue that British druids did not use magic mushrooms (because the isles were too heavily forested back then), while at the same time not allowing for a “changing environment” scenario in Egypt, which could mean that Fly agaric related mushrooms may have grown there thousands of years ago even though they do not today.

However, towards the end of the book, the author begins to be more balanced in his presentation. Several times he acknowledges that there is no objective way to be certain of various claims for or against something and that both viewpoints could be potentially valid. Kudos for that!

Overall, this book contains and astounding wealth of information on everything relating to the history of shrooms, in particular the discovery of magic mushrooms by western enthusiasts over the past century. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

In addition to magic mushrooms, Shroom is also an account of the history of psychedelics in general. Large portions of the book tell the stories of Aldous Huxley and mescaline, Timothy Leary and LSD, and the more recent use of ecstasy at rave fests.

So in spite of my reservations against Letcher’s somewhat unbalanced siding with the critics against various theories of the historic use of magic mushrooms, I insist that if you have a sincere interest in shrooms, you really do need to read this book. It’s a fascinating account of the history of shrooms.

Get your copy of Shroom by Andy Letcher today! Dr. Rafael graduated from Chiropractic College in 1996. He now focuses on studying and writing about herbal medicine. You can find additional reviews on mushroom books at mycelium-running.info. This article, Shroom: A Cultural History Of The Magic Mushroom is available for free reprint.