| R. Gordon Wasson |
Article Index for R |
Website Links For Richard |
Information About ™R. Gordon Wasson |
|
Wasson was a grand amateur in the tradition of Darwin , Mendel , Priestley , Faraday , Lyell and Somerville . His work led to the reorientation of major fields of study, and new research trends in Cultural Anthropology and Comparative Theology . Several of his books were self-published in illustrated, limited editions and have never been reprinted. Wasson's studies in Ethnomycology began during his 1927 honeymoon trip to the Catskill Mountains when his bride, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken a pediatrician, chanced upon some edible wild Mushroom s. Fascinated by the marked difference in cultural attitudes towards the Fungus in Russia compared to the United States , the couple began field research which led to the writing of ''Mushrooms, Russia and History'' published in 1957 . In the course of their investigations, they mounted expeditions to Mexico to study the Religious use of mushrooms by the native population. They became the first westerners to participate in a Mazatec Sacred Mushroom Ritual . In 1957 , they published a ''Life'' magazine article (''Seeking the Magic Mushroom''), bringing knowledge of the existence of Psychoactive mushrooms to a wide audience for the first time. Through his collaboration with Roger Heim , the mushrooms were subjected to scientific study, and Albert Hofmann , using material grown by Heim from specimens collected by the Wassons, identified the Chemical Structure of the active Compounds , Psilocybin and Psilocin . Two species of mushroom, ''Psilocybe wassonii'' Heim and ''Psilocybe wassonorum'' Guzman were named in honor of R. Gordon Wasson. Hoffman and Wasson were also the first westerners to collect specimens of the Mazatec hallucinogen '' Salvia Divinorum '', leading to its description as a new species, and bringing it into cultivation outside of Mexico. Experiences with the ), co-authored with Albert Hofmann and Carl A. P. Ruck , it was proposed that the special potion " Kykeon ", a pivotal component of the ceremony, contained psychoactive Ergoline Alkaloids from the fungus Ergot (''Claviceps spp.''). Wasson's work revolutionized the understanding of the origin of religion. Prior to his work on Soma, theologians had interperted the Vedic and Magian practices to have been based on alcoholic beverages that produced inebriation. Wasson was the first researcher to realize that the form of Vedic intoxication was " Entheogenic ," a term that he coined in order to avoid the more popular "psychedelic." His discoveries were celebrated by a generation of human scientists as well as botanists and chemists. The impact of Wasson is still reverberating throughout a range of disciplines including anthropology, history, theology and psychology. BOOKS
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|