The 'magic cactus' flower: sacred peyote

(Forgotten Crops) Why does this entheogenic cactus cause magical "hallucinations"?

Higher levels of consciousness

Ancient Egyptians took psychedelic blue lily

• Peyote
• Blue water lily/lotus (Nymphaea nouchali)
• Entheogen
• Carlos Castaneda
• Psychoactive drug
• Psychedelic experience
• Shamanic "sacrament"
• Banned by Spanish Empire
• Altered state of consciousness

California's corpse flowers in bloom (LIVE)

Corpse Flowers at The Huntington 2026, Los Angeles

Corpse flowers at The Huntington 2026

(The Huntington) Started streaming at onset of anticipation of bloom on July 6, 2026: Join us as we watch and wait for two unpredictable corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) plants to bloom. The Number 1 question: What does it SMELL like? This is very easy to answer and experience without a visit. Scratch your bum. Cup hand. Breathe hot breath on it. Now take a short whiff. WARNING: Do not attempt if living in Boil Heights or experiencing intestinal parasites such as the dirty fruit bug (cyclosporiasis) currently overtaking the U.S. or if under a heat and humidity alert. Learn more: huntington.org/botanical-...

Ten drugs the ancients were addicted to

(Health with Henry) Ten ancient drug [addiction] epidemics that erased entire civilizations

They ruined cannabis: Grow your own

(Ambrosia Buds) Why old weed hits better

• 

  Cannabis sativa (Koehler drawing)

  Entourage effect: The entourage effect is a hypothesis that cannabis compounds, other than the cannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), act synergistically with cannabinoids to modulate the overall psychoactive effects of the plant [1, 2]. The effect has also been applied in the case of magic (psilocybin) mushrooms, with other compounds besides psilocybin having been hypothesized to also contribute to the effects of the mushrooms [3]. More
• Terpenes and Trichomes
• Cannabis sativa (energizing flower)
• Difference between indica and sativa
• Cannabis, pot, weed, flower, bud (drug)
• Marijuana addiction? Cannabis Use Disorder

(GRAMBO GROWS) Josh on the 2026 Sativa Scam: Why dispensary weed doesn't energize

County destroyed this man's greenhouse crop

Greeks and other ancients used 'drugs'?

Roman emperors list: Complete timeline and chronology of rulers for coin buying

Stopping the DMN (default mode network)

(WATIVY) Ancient humans got high on purpose: Scientific evidence is everywhere across continents and has been for a long time. They just didn't want to talk about it.

• (Animated) Shrooms made Olivia Alexander feel like she died in a disco ball Earth | Tales From the Trip
• Ancient Greco-Roman cemetery discovered in Egypt’s Nile Delta (Greek Reporter)
• The unknown wife of ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras

(Professor Historian) Every drug used in ancient civilizations

The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization

Greco-Roman Culture Explained: How Ancient
Greece and Rome Shaped Our World

Dr. D. C. Ammon Hillman has 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 154 reviews). [It's] "The last wild frontier of classical studies," says The Times (UK).

The Chemical Muse uncovers decades of intentional academic misdirection and obfuscation (cover up) to reveal the long history of the widespread drug use in ancient Greece and Rome.

• Greco-Roman Mystery Schools used entheogens as their sacraments during pre- and Christian rites to meet and converse with the God and the many ancient gods

My eyes are red from weeping.

In the city-states that gave birth to Western civilization, drugs were an everyday element of a free society. Often, they were not just available, but vitally necessary for use in spiritual and religious ceremonies, medicine and healing, and war and violence campaigns.

Their proponents and casual users existed in all socioeconomic classes, from the common foot soldier to the emperor.

Citing examples in sacred myths, medicine, and literature, Dr. Hillman shows how drugs (psychedelic gateways to potential creativity or breakdowns) have influenced and inspired artists, philosophers, and politicians whose ideas have formed the basis for civilization as we know it.

Many of these ancient texts may seem well-known, but Dr. Hillman shows how timid, prudish translations have left biblical scholars and readers of the classics in the dark about the reality of drug use in the Classical world.

Dr. Hillman's argument is not simply "pro-drug." Instead, he appeals for an intellectual honesty that acknowledges the use of drugs in ancient societies despite today's conflicting social mores about them.

In our modern world, where academia and university life often get politically charged, The Chemical Muse offers a unique and long overdue perspective on the contentious topic of drug use and freedom of thought. More

• Pamir Plateau
• Tassili n'Ajjer Plateau, Mushroom Cave, Algeria, Africa
• Ethnobotany
• Stoned Ape Theory/Hypothesis
• Eleusinian Mysteries (psychedelic Greek cult)
• Ritual psychedelic use: peyote cave of SW Texas
• Peyote (buttons growing on small cactus plant)
• Entheogens
• Default Mode Network
  

Science of sacred mushrooms (psilocybin)

Paul Stamets: The Mycelium Network Connects Us All (fungi.org)

What are the shamanic ones called? - Fly agaric. - And the magic ones? - Psilocybe cubensis.

(After Skool) The Science of Fungal Psilocybin: How it works, and why it exists

• Psilocybin mushrooms make psilocybin mushrooms
• A psychedelics evangelist tries to turn "magic mushrooms" into medicine
• American Mycologist Paul Stamets (fungi.com)

Stoned Ape Hypothesis, Fungal Intelligence: Paul Stamets with Joe Rogan

TREES, PEOPLE, AND PLANET: Paul Stamets started Fungi Perfecti® with the goal of building the bridge between people and fungi. Since its inception in 1980, Fungi Perfecti has become synonymous with cutting-edge mycological research and solutions. Its continued mission is to explore, study, preserve, and spread knowledge about the use of fungi for helping people and planet.

Ethnobotanist Terence McKenna: Trust yourself. Reject authority

Yakkhas, mushrooms, and DMT portals?

What is MYCELIUM? One of the most significant outcomes of research has been discovering the value of mushroom mycelium, the metabolically active and longest living structure of the mushroom (fungal) organism. It contains numerous novel compounds shown to benefit human health. Years of industry-based research, along with both internal and third-party testing, demonstrate that mycelium-based supplements offer significant immunological support.* More

(North O2) Did shrooms [and shamanism] make us "human"?

Cavemen shamans got high all day? (sutra)

When did humans start smoking cannabis?

(Ink Explainer) June 4, 2026: When did early humans start smoking weed (THC/CBD)? The answer goes back way further than most of us would expect. Our relationship with cannabis did not begin in a college dorm or a back alley. — Rather, it started over 12,000 years ago, when some of the first farmers in East Asia looked at a very useful wild plant and thought, "Let's grow this."

This video traces the full history of cannabis — from a 2,700-year-old shaman's tomb in western China to the smoke-filled burial caves of the Pamir Mountains, the golden cups of Scythian warriors, the sacred altars of ancient Judah, the bhang rituals of India, a Chinese physician's lost anesthesia formula, a Congolese tribe that traded war for hemp, and the American political machine that turned a 12,000-year-old plant into one of the most dangerous [Schedule 1] substances on Earth.

By the end, viewers might start seeing this plant a little differently. All factual research sources are linked below.

Cross faded humans/monkeys?

(Mack) When did ancient humans first drink? Drunken monkey hypothesis

————————————————————

📚 RESEARCH AND SOURCES: ▸ Yanghai Tombs — "Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia" (2008, Journal of Experimental Botany) doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ern260 ▸ Jirzankal Cemetery — "The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs of western China" (2019, Science Advances) doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1391 ▸ Herodotus — The Histories, Book IV, on Scythian cannabis use (c. 440 BCE) ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (1970, UC Press) ▸ Scythian Gold Cups — "Residue analysis of golden artifacts from Scythian kurgan in the Caucasus" (2015, Antiquity) ▸ Tell Arad Shrine — "Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad" (2020, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology) doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2020... ▸ Atharva Veda — Ancient Vedic text listing cannabis among five sacred plants ▸ Robert Dudley and Dušan Borić — Research on anandamide and the endocannabinoid system ▸ Harry Anslinger — Federal Bureau of Narcotics records, the Gore Files, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 ▸ John Ehrlichman — interview quote on Pres. Dick Nixon's drug policy, published in Harper's Magazine (2016) by Dan Baum: "Legalize It All" harpers.org/archive/2016/04/l... ▸ DEA Judge Francis Young — "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (1988, Docket No. 86-22)

————————————————————

PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Shen Nong — legendary Chinese emperor, traditionally credited as the author of the Pen Ts'ao Ching, one of the world's earliest medical texts, which recommended cannabis for joint pain and malaria. ▸ Herodotus — Ancient Greek historian (c. 484–425 BCE). Traveled through Central Asia and documented Scythian cannabis rituals in vivid detail. His accounts were confirmed by archeological discoveries nearly 2,400 years later. ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Soviet archeologist who in 1947 excavated frozen Scythian tombs in Siberia's Altai Mountains, confirming Herodotus's descriptions of cannabis use with perfectly preserved tent frames, heated stones, and cannabis seeds. ▸ Hua Tuo — Chinese physician (c. 140–208 AD). Mixed cannabis with wine to create an anesthetic and performed surgery during which patients felt nothing — 1,800 years before modern anesthesia, executed by warlord Cao Cao. His formula was lost when he burned his own writings in prison. ▸ Cao Cao — One of the most powerful warlords in Chinese history (155–220 AD). Had Hua Tuo arrested and executed after the physician refused to serve as his personal doctor. ▸ Harry Anslinger — head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. Criminalized cannabis through racist propaganda, fabricated evidence (the Gore Files), and targeted Black musicians including Billie Holiday. ▸ Billie Holiday — legendary jazz singer targeted by Anslinger, not for drug use but for performing "Strange Fruit," a protest song about American lynchings. ▸ John Ehrlichman — Pres. Nixon's domestic policy advisor, who in a 2016-published interview admitted the War on Drugs was designed to target anti-war protesters and Black communities. ▸ Francis Young — DEA administrative law judge who, after two years of reviewing evidence in 1988, concluded that cannabis should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroin. The DEA rejected and ignored his recommendation.

————————————————————

🎨 Animation by Ink explainer

————————————————————

#cannabishistory #weedhistory #history #ancienthistory #cannabis #marijuana #explainer #animation #education #HarryAnslinger #SilkRoad #archeology #humanhistory

Shamans: communication from spirit world

(Eden Foundation) Psychedelics (Entheogens) as Medicine 2025: Voices of Ancestors with Snow Raven

Ancient cavemen and cannabis smoking

(MACK) High all day? When did ancient human (cavemen) start smoking cannabis?

Doctor Feelgood? Cannabis, MD

(Saturday Night Live) The Pot Doctor (Kevin Spacey, Beck, Will Ferrell)

 

"The Cave of the Body" (Guhatthaka Sutta)

Clinging to this cave heavily defiled [1]

one is stuck, bewildered, far from seclusion

from craving for the sensual pleasures [2]

of the world, which are hard to let go.

Those chained to craving

bound by the allure of becoming

find no release

for there is no liberation by others.

Intent, before and behind [3], on thirst

for sensual pleasure here or before —

full of lust for sensual pleasures,

busy, deluded, greedy, entrenched

in the wobbling way [4] they —

impelled into pain — lament:

"What will we be

when we pass away from here?"

So one ought to train here and now.

Whatever one knows as wobbling

in the world, do not, for its sake, behave,

for such life, the enlightened say, is short.

I see them in the world

floundering

men immersed in craving

for new states of becoming.

Base people moan in the mouth of death, their craving

for states of eternal becoming and annihilation [5] unallayed.

See them floundering in their sense of mine like fish in the

puddles of a dried-up stream — and, seeing this,

live with no sense of mine, not forming

attachments to states of becoming.

Subdue craving for both sides [6], 

comprehending [7] sensory contact free of greed.

Doing nothing for which one would oneself

rebuke oneself, for the enlightened person

adheres not to what is seen, to what's heard.

Comprehending perception, one crosses over the flood —

the sage unstuck from possessions.

One, with arrow removed, lives heedful,

longing for neither

this world nor the next.

ENDNOTES

1. Nd.I: Covered with defilements and unskillful mental states, characteristics, qualities.
2. "Sensual craving" and "sensual pleasures" are two possible translations of kama ("sensuality"). According to Nd.I, both meanings are intended here.
3. Nd.I: "Before" ("in front") means experienced in the past; "behind" means to-be-experienced in the future.
4. Nd.I: "Wobbling way" means the karma of the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. (See AN 10.176).
5. States of not-becoming = "oblivion." These are states of becoming that people can get themselves into through a desire or craving for annihilation, either after death or as a misguided goal of their spiritual striving. (See Iti 49, ucchedavada, annihilationism). As with all states of becoming, these states are impermanent (transient) and disappointing (painful).
6. According to Nd.I, "both sides" has here several possible meanings: sensory contact and the origination of sensory contact; past and future; name-and-form; internal and external sense media; self-identity (view) and the origination of self-identity. It might also mean the states of becoming and not-becoming (eternalism and annihilationism) mentioned in the previous verse and below, in Sn 4.5.
7. Nd.I: Comprehending sensory contact has three aspects: (1) being able to identify and distinguish types of sensory contact; (2) contemplating the true nature of sensory contact (e.g., impermanent/inconstant, disappointing/unable to fulfill, and impersonal/not-self); and (3) abandoning attachment to sensory contact. The same three aspects apply to comprehending perception, as mentioned in the following verse.

• See also: AN 4.184

• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Guhatthaka Sutta, based on translation and notes by Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org, Sn 4.2 PTS: Sn 772-779), Wisdom Quarterly

Drunk monkeys? Ancient highs? Legal highs?

(GrowOn) When did ancient humans first drink alcohol, June 12, 2026

(once) Ancient humans got high every single day

How good are legal highs kratom, kava, kanna?

(Metta Beshay) Patreon: mettabeshay. All links are at linktr.ee/mettabeshay. "Getting high" [finding a temporary way out of our "normal" or usual state of consciousness] is an almost universal human experience. We are taught that alcohol is the default option for humans, but I learned that this is not the case.

 

Let's delve into the history of kanna in South Africa with the Koi Koi and the San people (Khoi San people). [The San people were made famous in The Gods Must Be Crazy (film series)].

Let's discuss the complex morality of the growing kratom use in the world. 

Let's try the most famous and confusing legal magic mushroom, the shamanic fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) and explore how to use it for sleep.

Finally, let's learn the best methods to prepare the popular Pacific Island plant kava.

I try all of these plants [from Nature's Plant Pharmacy] and provide a firsthand and honest report on how they make me feel.

I have learned that there is an insane number of legal plant medicines to explore, such as Mormon Tea made of ephedra, shrooms like psilocybin, areca nut or betel nut, Salvia divinorum or seer's sage, and fermented kanna...

CHAPTERS

• 0:00 Intro and disclaimer
• 1:28 Amanita muscaria (fly agaric)
• 6:39 Kava
• 12:50 Kratom
• 22:58 Kanna
• 30:17 Outro

WARNING: This video is strictly for educational and documentary purposes. I do not recommend anyone to try or repeat any of my actions in this video.

SOURCES

• The father of pharmacognosy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedaniu...
• High Uses of Benadryl / how_to_trip_safely_on_benadryl
• Kanna: Kanna History: https://kanna-info.com/history-of-kanna
• Basic kanna info: https://www.erowid.org/plants/kanna/k...
• Ann and Alexander Shulgin talking: • Ann and Sasha Shulgin Discussing Phen...
• European Conquer Kanna reports: “The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope” Translated in 1731 Active ingredients: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
• True Review Kanna Video: • Video Zembrin: https://www.amazon.com/Nutricost-Zemb...
• Mesembrine: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31299...
• Mesembrine: https://www.drugs.com/npp/sceletium-t...
• Pharmacology of Kanna: / all_you_need_to_know_about_kannas_pharmaco...
• More Chemistry Talk: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
• South African Ethnobotanist post / clarification_on_kanna
• Source also good dosing info and more: https://sceletium.com/knowledge/
• Its Chemical Action: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26615...
• Amanita: Amanita History: https://psychedelicspotlight.com/a-cu...
• Amanita Psychnautwiki: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Amani... • The Fly Agaric 🍄 Facts, Myths, and Ex...
• Great Podcast Kava: Great Kava Info • The Science Behind Kava Alcohol Use in Micronesia https://micsem.org/article/alcohol-an...
• Native American Powwow • I Experienced My First Native America... • Salvia Trip Professionally Filmed • Salvia 2023 bad trip
• Mandrake: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
• https://www.botanical.com/botanical/m...
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
• https://wellcomecollection.org/articl...
• https://digirepo.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/1...
• https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscri...

• My kratom source: https://left-coast-kratom.com/buy-bul...
• My kanna source: https://sceletium.com/product/sceleti...
• My discount code: METTA99
• My Amanita muscaria (red mushroom) source: https://mn-nice-ethnobotanicals.com/c...
• My discount code: METTA
• Kava and kratom extract shot: https://www.shorebreakkava.com/produc...
• Discount code: METTA
• Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MettaBeshay
• Venmo: @Metta-Beshay

Oh, thought I was joking? No, I want that dang dolla. Instagram: mettabeshay

• once; Metta Beshay, Oct. 10, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, orig. June 16, 2024

Gummy 'flower' on 4/20? Cannabis

Naga sadhu smoking ganja (weed) in Gangasagar Fair Transit Camp, Kolkata (Calcutta), India

High time to celebrate: NBC interviewed people smoking weed on Hippie Hill, SF, on 4/20

(NBC Bay Area) What used to be an unofficial cannabis celebration on April 20th (four-twenty in American cannabis culture) in San Francisco has grown into a huge, city-sanctioned free event, and just about anyone one walks up to is happy to expound on what he or she loves about it.

• Medicinal Plants Workshop, USC's Dr. James Adams
• Science finds new birthplace of marijuana
• Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West: Cultural and Scientific Basis for Their Use (4th ed.) by Dr. James Adams, Cecilia Garcia

Sadhus smoke herb in spiritual India?

Entheogenic use of cannabis to 'bring out the divine': Marijuana [or Chinese Ma Huang, pronounced as if it were the Spanish name Marijuana/MaryJane, from Mexico] has served as an entheogen—a chemical substance used in religious or spiritual contexts [1]  to bring to the surface inner divinity—in the Indian subcontinent since the Vedic period, dating back to approximately 1500 BCE, but perhaps as far back as 2500 BCE in ancient China. It was introduced to the New World by the Spaniards in 1530-1545... More

• KROQ's Klein Ally Show, the No. 1 morning radio show in LA, takes pot-infused gummies in a cautionary tale to tokers
• NBC News, Bay Area, April 25, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Mexico's sacred grain: Amaranth (not corn)

More protein than beef per acre, canned by Spanish Conquistadors, erased from every farm

More protein than beef per acre, banned by Conquistadors, erased from every farm

Mexico invented chocolate helped by gods

(Forgotten Roots) Feb. 19, 2026: There is a grain (seed) so powerful that Mexico's Aztec Empire dedicated 200,000 acres to it—more than any crop except corn (maize). #amaranth

• Mind you, ancient Mexicans are the same people who gave the world chocolate or xocolatl (bitter cocoa water), which they called Theobroma cacao, "The food of the gods." Who were these celestial visitors or "gods," who pointed out the potent nutritional seeds and delicious flavor of the cacao fruit?
• The first chocolate drink is believed to have been created at least 5,300 years ago, starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador [3] and later consumed by the Maya around 2,500–3,000 years ago. A cocoa drink was an essential part of Mexico's Aztec culture by 1400 AD [4]. The drink was introduced by Mexico (New World) and became popular in Europe has undergone changes since. Until the 19th century, hot chocolate was used medicinally to treat ailments such as liver and stomach diseases. More

Amaranth (family Amaranthaceae) delivers complete protein, survives drought, and for centuries fed 20+ million people. Then in 1519, Spanish Conquistadors made growing it punishable by death in Mexico (Mesoamerica) and the Americas.

• Amaranth was very successfully grown in Mexico's floating gardens or chinampa

Amaranth: robust, delicious, and very nutritious

They did so not because it failed but because it was so valuable it was considered "the body of the gods" [devas, celestial "light beings," helpers, alien visitors, rulers].

 

Amaranth contains 13-14% complete protein with all 9 essential amino acids, one of the very few vegan plant sources of a complete protein, along with quinoa.

Amaranth produces more usable protein per acre than cattle grazing and thrives in conditions where wheat dies.

The Aztecs mixed it with honey to create tzoalli—sacred dough shaped into gods, worshipped, and eaten for supreme nourishment.

To the European Spanish invaders, this was demonic and cannibalistic. To modern agriculture, it's a threat.

Donkeys (burros) and hairless dogs in the New World, natural helpers of humans

Heirloom seeds: DNA treasure

By 1970, amaranth had nearly gone extinct. Today it is sold as a $30-a-pound (lb) superfood in health food stores while wheat and corn—both harmful and incomplete proteins—dominate 90% of global grain production.

The amaranth ban ended, but the seed companies never brought it back. This is the story of how religion, colonial conquest, and industrial agriculture buried the most nutritious grain in the Americas.

🔍 IN THIS DOCUMENTARY:

• Why amaranth was banned under penalty of death (2:15)
• The complete protein the Aztecs discovered (4:30)
• How Spain weaponized food to destroy a civilization (6:45)
• Why modern agriculture still refuses to grow it (10:30)
• Where amaranth survived for 500 years in hiding (12:00)

📚 SOURCES AND RESEARCH:

• Florentine Codex (Bernardino de Sahagún, 1600)
• Aztec tribute records and archaeological cultivation data USDA nutritional database comparisons
• Robert Rodale's Organic Gardening research (1975)
• International Center for Tropical Agriculture yield studies

🌿 RELATED LOST VAULTS: → The painkiller growing in ditches (wild lettuce) → The Omega-3 weed in our driveway (purslane) → The Native American fruit that vanished (pawpaw)

• Mexico unearthed 1,400-year-old tomb, and it gives insight into the mysterious underground Zapotec culture

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational and historical purposes only. Always consult qualified professionals before making dietary changes. Historical events are presented based on documented sources and scholarly research.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE to Forgotten Roots for suppressed knowledge on forgotten plants, erased medicine, and food history they don't teach us in school. #Amaranth #AztecHistory #AncientGrains #ForgottenFoods #Conquistadors #Protein #Superfood #Agriculture #SuppressedKnowledge #Documentary

• Forgotten Roots; Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Wild Mushroom Fair 2026, Los Angeles

WHAT HAPPENED?

Mushroom heads for all: snug headwear for fans

The Arboretum sold out for everyone who failed to plan. It staggers entrance times, so while it was possible to get a ticket, one would miss most of the fair. The event was packed, the largest in years. Sun broke through the heavily chemtrail sprayed skies. Now the crisscross lines start with perfect X's, which would not happen in nature nor in ordinary flight paths overcrowded LA County. In any case, what was clear was soon covered over in an artificial and no doubt toxin mist. But the sun managed to break through at times. The Fair opened at 9:00 am, the Mushroom Hunt began at 10 with Olga from Smugtown, and it was followed by a fabulous Brando with a culinary demonstration that fed everyone -- hundreds of mushroom fans -- crowding the seating area. It was standing room only after a while, as the samples table was full of gawkers and vendors were hard at work keeping up with demand: medicinal tinctures, popular red-and-white mushroom hats (French berets), grow bags, dried delicacies, books, guide, posters, clothing, jewelry, and services. This is the only event that ever provided samples such as a choice of savory soup, sauteed morrells, black trumpets, or all three. There was a vegan food booth in the back with a line out the door. Then came the first speaker, Mycologist Else, talking about spores, which exists in the billions and trillions. "Spores are not seeds," she emphasized. Each needs a mate since one can create a small mat of tubule structures but must then meet with a partner spore to continue onto the mycelia phase. Mycelia is what keeps forest together, the Woodwide Web, breaking down matter and communicating between individual plants. (See Paul Stamets' Mycelium Running). A "mushroom" is the fruiting body of underground mycelia, what we see popping up from the ground or growing on trees. To study mushrooms and fungi soon becomes the study of trees and ecosystems. Our natural world would not be what it is without fungi.

EVENT DETAILS

LA Mycological Society (lamushrooms.org)

Where, oh where, do the wild things grow? We're determined to find out!

On Sunday, February 15, 2026, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, we're trekking over to Arcadia in the San Gabriel Valley, next to Pasadena, to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

• LA Arboretum & Botanic Garden
• 301 North Baldwin Avenue
• Arcadia, Los Angeles, California

How could an entheogen bring out the divine?

It's time for the 42nd Los Angeles Mycological Society (LAMS) Wild Mushroom Fair. This event is FREE (with the price of admission to the Arboretum). RSVP:

• Wild Mushroom Fair, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, 9:00 AM | Meetup
• Wild Mushroom Fair (Los Angeles Arboretum with LAMS), Sun, Feb 15, 2026, 9:00 AM | Meetup
• (PasaDharma) Dharma Buddhist Meditation
• (Nature Center) Dharma Buddhist Meditation

Wild Mushroom Fair Schedule

• 9:00 am - Wild Mushroom Fair opens
• 10:00-11:00 am - Mushroom Walk with Olga Tzogas
• 11:00 am - 12:00 pm (noon) - Culinary mushrooms of California cooking demo with Brando Farr
• 1:00-2:30 pm - Fascinating mushroom spores keynote address by Else Vellinga
• 2:30-3:00 pm - Art and photo contest winners announced
• 3:00-4:00 pm - Feces, corpses, and the business of fungal decay talk by Sam Shoemaker
• 4:00 pm - Fair closes

TICKETS: Admission to the Wild Mushroom Fair is FREE with admission to The Arboretum. Tickets are available online. Act now because time slots may sell out as they have before. Check ticket availability here: Hours and Admission (The Arboretum).

Admission to The Arboretum: $18 for adults, $14 for seniors (62 and over), $14 for students with school ID, $8 for children (ages 3-12), and children 2 and under $0 (free). Arboretum members: free. Parking is free. More info about LAMS events is available at lamushrooms.org/events.

DIRECTIONS: The Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia: lamushrooms.org/locations

• LAMS (lamushrooms.org), Rich C. (Meetup); Ananda, Dhr. Seven, Jen B. (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Weed psychosis: real Reefer Madness now

Weed Psychosis is exploding in America (but nobody warned us)

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

(African Diaspora News Channel) Feb. 10, 2026: Rosemarie Havsom reports: Marijuana (from the Chinese mahua,* not Spanish "Mary Jane," weed, pot, the Devil's cabbage, cannabis, THC/CBD) is being sold as “safe,” “natural,” and “harmless” — but emergency rooms across America are seeing a disturbing surge in weed-induced psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, schizophrenia and violent breaks from reality. This isn’t about old-school [2% THC] weed. Today’s high-THC products are 10–30x stronger than what past generations used — and the brain is paying the price.

How trauma manifests later in life | Dr. Gabor Mate - Dr. Maté on childhood trauma

• 

  Buddhist clingy hungry ghosts

  *According to our botany and plant medicine teacher, USC's Dr. Adams, who is fluent in Chinese and whose wife is Chinese, our word "ma-rijuana" (potent strain of hemp) comes from the Chinese word ma, including mahua (麻花), mafen (麻蕡), and mabo (麻勃), referring to specific parts of the male and female flowers of a cannabis plant with differing cannabinoid ratios. More
• For "spiritual" uses, see: entheogenic use of cannabis
• Don't smoke drugs, Kids, because according to good Dr. Gabor Mate if one has early childhood traumas, one will become addicted to its use and abuse.

This video segment was produced by the African Diaspora News Channel team.  All content is human-generated and delivered. Connect with Rosemarie: @havsom