After the suppression of the psychedelic subculture, which began with the declaring of LSD illegal in October 1966, it seems that the impulse to further forging this substance has dried up. The most significant phenomenon in the 70s from the point of view of the public, which was set up on psychedelic searches with previous experiences with LSD and mescaline, was the emergence, since the end of 1975, of various home bred psilocybin mushroom breeding guides. Several such manuals have appeared; the very first was written by me together with my brother and published under pseudonyms O.-T. Ose and O.-N. Eric “Psilocybin: A Guide for Growing a Magic Mushroom.” The book sold out over the next five years in quantities of over 100,000 copies. Some imitation books also went well. So, psilocybin, long sought and familiar to the psychedelic community by the expansive prose of Wasson and Leary, has finally become available to many people who no longer needed to go to Oaxaca in order to gain real experience.

The general atmosphere in the case of psilocybin is different from LSD. Hallucinations occur more easily, and also there is a feeling that this is not just some kind of lens for observing the personal psyche, but also a kind of communication tool to get in touch with the world of high shamanism of Archaic antiquity. A community of therapists and astronauts of the inner spaces emerged around the use of these mushrooms. To this day, these quiet groups of professionals and pioneers of interior spaces constitute the core of the community of people who have accepted the fact of psychedelic experience in their life and profession and continue to struggle with this experience and study in it.

And here we will leave the story of human enthusiasm for plants that intoxicate, cause visions or destroy insanity. Today, we really know no more than our distant ancestors knew. Perhaps less. In fact, we cannot even be sure whether science is suitable for this task – a tool of knowledge, on which we are now so dependent. For we can begin our search for understanding in the cold realms of archeology, botany, or neuropharmacology, but the exciting and wonderful fact is always preserved that all these approaches, when viewed with psychedelic eyes, seem to lead to the inner connection of self and world that we perceive. as the deepest levels of our own existence.