The benefits of psilocybin (aka Magic Mushrooms’) is thought to have been introduced to a wider audience by a banker and ethnomycologist, named R. Gordon Wasson. He was travelling in Mexico in 1955 when he witnessed a Mazatec shamen performing a ritual ceremony. The Mazatec, are indigenous to the Oaxaca region of southern Mexico. Wasson wrote an article about his experience in Life magazine in 1957 when his editor coined the phrase “Magic Mushroom”.   

Timothy Leary, the well known advocate of LSD read the 1957 article and was intrigued, and from there magic mushrooms were associated with the hippie movement until 1968 when its use was banned except for medical research which has only just recently started up again. Research now focuses on its use in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and other disorders that were first suggested in the 1960’s with psilocybin utilizing the neutron receptor site now known as 5-HT2A. 

At Tassili Life Sciences we strive to enhance the knowledge and applications of psilocybin through clinical trials and the development of patents.