Mazatec Sacred Mushrooms & Psychedelic Capitalism

This presentation will compare and contrast conceptions of psilocybin mushrooms found in the research, cultures and burgeoning industries of the Global North, with those common to people in the Mazatec region of Southern Mexico, where this knowledge first arose. Despite this historical lineage, what sacred mushrooms are for many Mazatec people; what they’re called upon to do; and the worlds and world views underlying their power, often exist in opposition to the ways psilocybin proliferates in the capitalist dynamics of psychedelic industry. This talk will examine the ways the commercialization of the sacred is affecting Indigenous communities and Mazatec shamanism, and explore possible ways to redress the continuing legacies of colonialism and betrayal underpinning the psychedelic renaissance.