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Comment by dr_dshiv | Hacker News Reader

> R Gordon Wasson's 1950s-era research into traditional psychedelic mushroom use in Mexico (a research program also secretly funded by the CIA's MK-ULTRA program).

I don’t think Wasson had anything to do with MKUltra. Any source?

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"Wasson's 1956 expedition was funded by the CIA's MK-Ultra subproject 58, as was revealed by documents obtained by John Marks under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents state that Wasson was an 'unwitting' participant in the project."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Gordon_Wasson

Thanks for posting, I appreciate it. However… Makes no sense to me. I just don’t understand how they would fund his trip—let alone secretly. Also, he discovered magic mushrooms the first time— none of the ethnobotanists had yet. How did they know? I will remain skeptical till I get to primary sources.

See here: http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/mkultra/mkultra... (58-2)

This document states, however, that Wasson had three expeditions prior to CIA involvement.

Apparently this topic is a deep rabbit hole. Here are some very questionable "fringe" theories.

http://www.gordonwasson.com/

https://logosmedia.com/SecretHistoryMagicMushroomsProject

https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6FBA86B0-0C57-9FCA-5CF9...

> Apparently this topic is a deep rabbit hole.

That's when you know you're on the right path — when the answers start getting harder to find, with more time between your certainty.

Wasson did not "discover" magic mushrooms, he was just the first white person to write about taking them. There were earlier reports on mushroom ceremonies, that is why Wasson went there.

Well, considering that magic mushrooms are native to Europe (and Africa and Asia) and there is ZERO Greek, Latin, Sanskrit or modern language textual evidence, I think it is fair to say he discovered magic mushrooms in the same sense as Columbus discovered America.

So, basically, I 100% agree with you. But pretty nuts that no one knew about them in Asian, Africa, Europe and most of the Americas until Wasson!!

Here’s a primary source. Seems they gave $2000 to contribute to the expedition. Weird. Why would the CIA want to catalyze the the psychedelic revolution???

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/mkultra/mkultr...

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