Robert Gordon Wasson
Wasson's studies in
ethnomycology began during his 1927 honeymoon trip to the
Catskill Mountains when his bride, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken (1901–1958, a
pediatrician, chanced upon some edible wild mushrooms. Fascinated by the marked difference in cultural attitudes towards the fungus in Russia compared to the United States, the couple began field research that led to the publication of
Mushrooms, Russia and History in 1957. In the course of their investigations they mounted expeditions to Mexico to study the religious use of mushrooms by the native population, and claimed to have been the first Westerners to participate in a
Mazatec mushroom ritual. It was the
curandera María Sabina who allowed Wasson to participate in the ritual, and who taught him about the uses and effects of the mushroom. Sabina let him take her picture on the condition that he keep it private, but Wasson nonetheless published the photo along with Sabina's name and the name of the community where she lived.
[4]
In May 1957 they published a
Life magazine article titled "
Seeking the Magic Mushroom", which brought knowledge of the existence of
psychoactive mushrooms to a wide audience for the first time. In his memoir, author
Tom Robbins talks about the impact of this article on "turning on" Americans himself included.
[5]The article sparked immense interest in the Mazatec ritual practice among
beatniks and
hippies, an interest that proved disastrous for the Mazatec community and for María Sabina in particular. As the community was besieged by Westerners wanting to experience the mushroom-induced hallucinations, Sabina attracted attention by the Mexican police who thought that she sold drugs to the foreigners. The unwanted attention completely altered the social dynamics of the Mazatec community and threatened to terminate the Mazatec custom. The community blamed Sabina, and she was ostracized in the community and had her house burned down. Sabina later regretted having introduced Wasson to the practice, but Wasson contended that his only intention was to contribute to the sum of human knowledge.
[4][6][7]
Together, Wasson and botanist
Roger Heim collected and identified various species of family
Strophariaceae and genus
Psilocybe, while
Albert Hofmann,
[8] using material grown by Heim from specimens collected by the Wassons, identified the
chemical structure of the active
compounds,
psilocybin and
psilocin. Hofmann and Wasson were also among the first Westerners to collect specimens of the Mazatec hallucinogen
Salvia divinorum, though these specimens were later deemed not suitable for rigorous scientific study or
taxonomic classification.
[9] Two species of mushroom,
Psilocybe wassonii R.Heim and
Psilocybe wassoniorum Guzman & S.H.Pollock, were named in honor of Wasson by Heim and
Gastón Guzmán, the latter of whom Wasson met during an expedition to
Huautla de Jiménez in 1957.