Santa Claus: Famous Shaman

The history of the old man in red who comes bearing gifts. 
Santa Claus is only the latest of many figures that have come to be associated with bringing gifts on the night of December 25th. 

In Sicily it is an old woman named Strina who brings gifts at Christmas, continuing a tradition that began in the days of the Roman Empire. In fact, his story takes us back to the beginning of recorded history, when some other characters climbed up trees of a different kind, and returned with gifts for everyone. 
These were not toys or perfume or watches, but messages concerning the year to come, the turning of the seasons, or the fate of the world. These people were shamans, who performed the functions of priest, historian, and record keeper, scientist and magician. 

"So, why do people bring Pine trees into their houses at the Winter Solstice, placing brightly colored (Red and White) packages under their boughs, as gifts to show their love for each other and as representations of the love of God and the gift of his Sons life? It is because, underneath the Pine bough is the exact location where one would find this ‘Most Sacred' Substance, the Amanita muscaria, in the wild." -James Arthur. 

Siberian reindeer also enjoy eating amanita mushrooms and thus are often used as a lure by the deer-herding natives. Since one of the hallucinatory experiences often felt on psychedelic mushrooms is that of flying, Santa's flying reindeer most likely derive from this. 

The Sami have a custom of feeding fly agaric to their deer and collecting the urine to drink. The reindeer’s digestive system metabolises the more poisonous components of the toadstool, leaving urine with the hallucinogenic and psychotropic elements of the fungus intact. Drinking the urine gives a ‘high’ similar to taking LSD. 
Under the hallucinatory effects of the drink, the Sami thought their reindeer were flying through space, looking down on the world. The reindeers’ liking for the toadstool hallucinogens are such that they, in turn, have been known to eat the snow on which intoxicated humans have urinated, creating a reciprocating cycle. 

In summary, it seems quite possible that the traditional image of Father Christmas, described in Livingston’s poem and universalised by the Coca Cola Company during the 1930s, has its real origins in shamanistic rituals involving the red and white fly agaric toadstool. 


Santa isn't the only occult Magic Mushroom hero, so is the Easter Bunny, King Arthur of Camelot and many more.

Dr. Rick Strassman

Dr. Rick Strassman (born February 8, 1952 in Los Angeles, California, United States) is a medical doctor specialized in psychiatry with a fellowship in clinical psychopharmacology research. 

Rick Strassman MD performed the first new human studies with
psychedelic drugs in the US in over 20 years.

Rick Strassman was the first person in the United States after twenty years of intermission to embark on human research with psychedelic, hallucinogenic, or entheogenic substances. 
During the intermission period, research was restricted by law to animals studies only.

History of Psilocybe

Hallucinogenic species of Psilocybe have a long history of use among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for religious communion, divination, and healing, from pre-Columbian times up to the present day.

Hallucinogenic Psilocybe were known to the aboriginal Mexicans as teonanácatl (literally "divine mushroom")and were reportedly served at the coronation of Moctezuma II in 1502. After the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, like other pre-Christian traditions, was forcibly suppressed and driven underground.

By the 20th century, hallucinogenic mushroom use was thought by non-Native Americans to have disappeared entirely. However, in 1955, Valentina and R. Gordon Wasson became the first Westerners to actively participate in an indigenous mushroom ceremony. The Wassons did much to publicize their discovery, even publishing an article on their experiences in Life in 1957.
In 1956, Roger Heim identified the hallucinogenic mushroom that the Wassons had brought back from Mexico as Psilocybe and in 1958, Albert Hofmann first reported psilocin and psilocybin as the active compound in these mushrooms.

There is some skepticism in whether or not these "sacred mushrooms" were actually those of the Psilocybe genus. However, according to Heim's research in Mexico, he identified three species of Psilocybe that he believed were used in these Indian ceremonies. The species identified by Heim were; Psilocybe mexicana, P. caerulescen, and P. zapotecorum. Variety of Psilocybe mushrooms that make up the teonanácatl group of hallucinogenic mushrooms, including Psilocybe cubensis.
During Heim's field and culture work, he was under the guidance of a descendent of the Mazotecan ancestors (the natives which partook in experimenting with these hallucinogens), the head of the family, Isauro Nava Garcia.
He was an avid observer of the fungi in his environment while identifying specific characteristics about the fruit body of the Psilocybe genus his ancestors utilized, as well as knowing where they could be found.
At present, hallucinogenic mushroom use has been reported among a number of groups spanning from central Mexico to Oaxaca, including groups of Nahua, Mixtecs, Mixe, Mazatecs, Zapotecs, and others.

 The popularization of entheogens by Wasson, Timothy Leary, and others has led to an explosion in the use of hallucinogenic Psilocybe throughout the world. By the early 1970s, a number of psychoactive Psilocybe species were described from temperate North America, Europe, and Asia and were widely collected. Books describing methods of cultivating Psilocybe cubensis in large quantities were also published. The relatively easy availability of hallucinogenic Psilocybe from wild and cultivated sources has made it among the most widely used of the hallucinogenic drugs.

Psilocybe: Description and Classification

Psilocybe is a genus of small mushrooms growing worldwide. This genus is best known for its species with psychedelic or hallucinogenic properties, widely known as "magic mushrooms", though the majority of species do not contain hallucinogenic compounds. Psilocin and psilocybin are the hallucinogenic compounds responsible for the psychoactive effects of many species in the genus. The word Psilocybe comes from the Greek words ψιλός + κύβη, and literally means "bare headed", referring to the mushroom's detachable pellicle (loose skin over the cap). It may be pronounced with the accent on the first syllable or the second. The final e is not silent. The marked difference between the Botanical Latin-based pronunciation (given here) and anglicized colloquial pronunciations (with a silent "e") is sometimes a source of confusion in oral communication about this genus.

Description

Psilocybe fruit bodies are typically small, nondescript mushrooms with a typical "little brown mushroom" morphology. Macroscopically, they are characterized by their small to occasionally medium size, brown to yellow-brown coloration, with a typically hygrophanous cap, and a spore print-color that ranges from lilac-brown to dark purple-brown (though rusty-brown colored varieties are known in at least one species).Hallucinogenic species typically have a blue-staining reaction when the fruit body is bruised. Microscopically, they are characterized by cutis-type pileipellis, lack of chrysocystidia, and spores that are smooth, ellipsoid to rhomboid to subhexagonal in shape, with a distinct apical germ pore. Ecologically, all species of Psilocybe are saprotrophs, growing on various kinds of decaying organic matter.

Classification

 A 2002 study of the molecular phylogeny of the agarics by Moncalvo, et al., indicates that the genus Psilocybe as presently defined is polyphyletic, falling into two distinct clades that are not directly related to each other. The blue-staining hallucinogenic species constitute one clade and the non-bluing species constitute the other. The previous type species (Psilocybe montana) of the genera was in the non-bluing clade, but in 2010 the type species was changed to Psilocybe semilanceata, a member of the bluing clade. A 2006 molecular phylogenetic study of the Agaricales by Matheny, et al., further demonstrates the separation of the bluing and non-bluing clades of Psilocybe in a larger, strongly supported phylogenetic tree of the Agaricales. Psilocybe is placed taxonomically in the agaric family Strophariaceae based upon its spore and pileipellis morphology. The phylogenetic study by Matheny, et al., places the non-bluing Psilocybe and its close relatives in a basal position within the Strophariaceae, a sister taxon to a clade containing the other genera within that family. The bluing Psilocybe, however, form a clade that is sister to Galerina in the newly-erected family, Hymenogastraceae. The phylogenetic study by Moncalvo, et al. has confirmed that the agaric genus Melanotus is simply a subgroup of the non-bluing Psilocybe, and also points to a close relationship between the latter group and the genera Kuehneromyces and Phaeogalera. In 2007, a paper by Redhead et al. proposed conserving the genus Psilocybe with Psilocybe semilanceata as its type species. The suggestion was accepted by unanimous vote of the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi of the International Botanical Congress in 2010, meaning that Psilocybe semilanceata (a member of the bluing clade) now serves as the type species of the genus. Since Psilocybe semilanceata is now the type species of the genus, the bluing hallucinogenic clade will remain in the genus Psilocybe while the non-bluing clade will likely be transferred to the genus Deconica.