Books

Get Shroom for the Holidays

Do I know Andy Letcher? It seems I should, as I attended most mushroom festivals in Telluride during the 1990s, and I know half the people he talks about in his first book, Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom

In fact, I’ve read most of the books he mentions in this book, and I had formed the same opinions; therefore I often felt peeved as I read through his chapters, as though Letcher had stolen my ideas.

But, this book review isn’t about me - it’s about a book that is needed and that appears at a most auspicious time, when clarity is required in regard to many aspects of shamanism and to all aspects of hallucinogenics. Letcher lends authority to both realms in his expertise with citations and with his elegant use of the English language. This guy isn’t a slacker, although The Guardian calls him a “one-time psychedelic musician and a former bypass protester,” and the Scotland on Sunday states that, “This man loves his mushrooms, and by the end of this book you too will be as spellbound as Alice is in Wonderland…Letcher is both historian and hippie…[and this is] mind-blowing stuff.”

I was most impressed with the way that Letcher cited even the most seemingly trivial details within this book. Additionally, I was more impressed with his ability to mock - nay - even scorn some previous shamans and their antics. This is the unbiased eye that many scholars crave, yet, in years to come, someone will rip this book apart much as Letcher tears Terence McKenna’s time wave theory to shreds. But, in the meantime - and mark my words - Shroom will prove to be an invaluable resource for street shamans as well as for researchers who will use this book as a foundation for further research. It’s that good.

You might have gathered that Letcher is from the UK from the two quotes above. So his perspective is British, not American, and this is to his advantage when he analyzes such gurus as Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, and Andy Weil. I found his perspective remarkable, as I knew little about British and European involvement in hallucinogenics, other than my research into mushrooms as a cause for the dream sequence in Gilgamesh during my college years. Letcher’s writing, therefore, is both entertaining and logical - a bit of Piccadilly thrown in with 10 Downing - to emphasize how psychedelic mushrooms have altered mindsets, cultures, spirituality, and - at the head of it all - the laws regarding growing and ingesting now illegal substances.

I don’t know if I know Letcher or not. But, I would be proud to make his acquaintance simply for the way that he handled Kat Harrison, the former wife of Terence McKenna (and a person in her own right, please). At first, the letdown was heartrending, as Letcher states that Harrison’s rendition of a be-mushroomed man in prehistoric rock art from Tassili, Africa, as no less than a “moot” portrayal (shown at right). Then, at the very end of the book, Letcher states that Harrison was the “star performer” at a recent Telluride visit (most likely at the 2005 mushroom festival), and that she brought a “refreshing womanly perspective to what has been hitherto a male-dominated field, and in a gentle way laid out the case for the rightness of indigenous, animistic approaches to the use of psychedelics in general, and mushrooms in particular.”

This is my only regret - that Letcher isn’t female. I agree that men have for too long dominated this field and have ignored the female energy that is so much a part of hallucinogenics. But, with that obstacle acknowledged, Letcher’s book is the best - by far the very best in a long time - to explore this field without falling prey to the genre. If you know someone who believes that hallucinogenic mushrooms date back to prehistory, you might buy this book as a present and rock that person’s world. I wouldn’t stick around for the debate, as it would prove difficult at this juncture to contradict the author.

© 2007 FUNGIFEST.