Mushroom Ceremony Of The Mazatec Indians of Mexico 01 Chjon Nka

Original release: Folkways Records 8975, 1957 Recording by Gordon Valentina Wasson in Oaxaca, Mexico Participants: native Mexican curandera (witchdoctor) Maria Sabina, a male Mazatec indian, the Wassons and some research friends of theirs. Comments: This field recording is of substantial historical interest, both as the earliest known vinyl document of people under the influence of hallucinogens, and as part of the Wasson couples legendary forays into remote Mexican mountains on the trail of an obscure mushroom cult. Wasson s exploits became the subject of a Life magazine article which is a watershed event in the history of psychedelics, and the psilocybin shrooms would attract interest from the whole academic, literary, ethnobotanic hallucinogen set in the late 1950s. Although the Mazatec mushroom culture has been well documented over the years, this particular LP has drawn less attention than Wasson s works and the many subsequent essays and books published, but is obvious