From the Mazatec jungle to scientific essays: Why does everyone want to know the power of mushrooms?

In recent years, mushrooms have become a constant presence on new releases tables. Fungi culture has ceased to be a rarity and has become part of academic and artistic conversations, even Netflix documentaries. It's not just about botany: behind the publishing boom on the fungal world are diverse topics such as psychedelia, philosophy, ecology, alternative medicine, and theories of consciousness. Books explore plant intelligence , the therapeutic uses of psychedelics , and mycelium as a model for political organization . What are some recent texts that explore these topics, and from what perspectives?

The Inner Journey (Fondo de Cultura Económica), new for April, explores the use of psychoactive substances such as peyote and psilocybin in Indigenous ritual contexts, their adoption by the psychedelic counterculture, and their current therapeutic potential. Through the experiences of writers, scientists, and psychonauts, the author offers a historical and cultural perspective on these visionary drugs, highlighting their ability to foster new understandings of identity and human connection.

"In this book, in six elastically arranged chronological chapters, I address a series of accounts by European and American travelers who describe their entheogenic experiences—a term that replaces 'hallucinogen' or 'psychedelic', since it can be considered pejorative—in Mexico between 1936 and 1963," writes Guillermo Giucci in the opening pages. A doctor in Latin American literature from Stanford University and a member of the National Agency for Research and Innovation in Uruguay, he has written several books on travel. This time, as the title of his latest work suggests, his research is internal.

One such writer, for example, is Antonin Artaud. Here, he recounts his experience with peyote among the Tarahumara Indians. He also discusses the arrival of the American ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes in Oaxaca and the development of scientific knowledge that catalogs botanical species and legitimizes entheogenic research . The Beatniks also appear, and the significance of the delivery of the synthetic psilocybin pill by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann to the shaman María Sabina in Huautla de Jiménez is studied.

Regarding this shaman – a Mazatec indigenous woman known worldwide for her dissemination of psilocybin mushrooms – it is recommended to read another book that addresses her figure and was reissued at the end of 2023: Vida de María Sabina, La Sabia de los Mushrooms ( Life of María Sabina, The Wise Woman of Mushrooms ), by Álvaro Estrada (Siglo Veintiuno Editores).

This indigenous, mystic, religious woman, and defender of the ceremonial and curative use of mushrooms, told her life story to Estrada, who wrote it in the first person , since she was illiterate. She narrates one of her first visions this way: "Another day we ate mushrooms, and I had a vision: A well-dressed man appeared, as tall as a tree. I heard a mysterious voice say: This is your father, Crisanto Feliciano. My father had been dead for years; now I was pleased to meet him. The immense man, my father, spoke. Pointing at me, he said these words: María Sabina, kneel. Kneel and pray. I knelt and prayed. I spoke to God, whom I felt more and more familiar with. Closer to me. I felt that everything around me was God. Now, I felt that I spoke a lot and that my words were beautiful."

Another new release from the imprint of the interdisciplinary science, art, and design collective El Gato y la Caja (The Cat and the Box). Earlier this year, they published El reino. Vida y obra de hongos y humanos (The Kingdom: The Life and Work of Mushrooms and Humans ) by Eugenia López. There, the biologist, who holds a master's degree in Neuroscience and Education from Columbia University, explores the links between mushrooms and people from diverse angles and registers —essay, encyclopedia, travel diary—with beautiful photographs curated by Florencia Cesari Tommarello and Alejandro Sequeira.

Some approaches have mentioned aspects of fungal culture to analyze social behavior. One example is Mushrooms at the End of the World (2023), by anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, published in Spain by Caja Negra. “This book speaks of my travels in the company of mushrooms to explore indeterminacy and the conditions of precariousness, that is, of life without the promise of stability,” she writes in the first pages of a text subtitled “On the Possibility of Life in the Ruins of Capitalism.”

This stems from one mushroom in particular, the matsutake , which is very popular in Japan. It sprouts in landscapes altered by human action, recovers from environmental crises, and is considered a delicacy: “ Taking matsutake as a guide reveals possibilities for coexistence within the context of environmental disturbance. Obviously, that's no excuse for causing more damage, but matsutake shows us a certain kind of collaborative survival,” he reflects.

This is not the only book that Caja Negra has published on the subject: Let's Be Like Mushrooms. The Art and Teachings of Mycelium (2024), by the artist and researcher Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez. The book uses the figure of mycelium to imagine new ways of inhabiting and connecting in the world . It reflects on the coexistence between species, the relationship with death, uncertainty and the possibility of unlearning colonial logic. Drawing on authors such as Donna J. Haraway, Tsing, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pauline Oliveros and Davi Kopenawa, it combines scientific, spiritual and artistic knowledge. It invites us to think about political transformation not only from direct action but also from sensitive and sustained connections.

Many books maintain an encyclopedic tone . From the Anagrama imprint, Planet of the Mushrooms , by journalist Naief Yehya, is an interesting tour of the history of psychedelic mushrooms , stretching from the Stone Age to Silicon Valley. Written by a reporter who dedicated himself to chronicling the origins of computing, he finds several parallels: "Mushrooms acted as an operating system update, like software packages that transformed the brains of our ancestors," he states.

The publishing industry's major publications , Penguin and Planeta, didn't want to be left behind by this trend: the former published Sacred Mushrooms: From Ancestral Wisdom to the Science of Microdoses by Juan Acevedo Peinado. The author, a descendant of a long line of Guaraní peasants, conducts thorough research and explains everything from the parts of a mushroom to its mystical, shamanic, medicinal, and psychedelic uses . He challenges several commonplaces and adds little-known facts: "The fungi kingdom has provided us with the basis of all the antibiotics we know, an astonishing achievement," he emphasizes.

Planeta published Fungipedia. A brief compendium on the world of fungi , edited by mycologist Lawrence Millman. Arranged alphabetically , like an encyclopedia, and accompanied by beautiful illustrations, it provides stories, anecdotes, and key facts about most existing fungi and cultural references linked to psychedelia, such as Alice in Wonderland.

Psychedelic, political, scientific, medicinal —there are books about mushrooms for every taste, and it seems to be a phenomenon here to stay. Because in a world that's becoming increasingly complex and indecipherable, every clue is welcome. Even one that grows underground with mystical and little-known properties.