The Role of Mushrooms in Ancient Healing Practices: A (Very) Brief History
Mushrooms are – and have always been – something of the miraculous.
Mushrooms have existed since, well, the dawn of time. (Some theorists consider mushrooms evolutionary catalysts).
You'll find mushrooms growing in all parts of the globe, where they’ve been used as folk medicine since antiquity. They support the well-being of individuals, communities, and societies.
While their adoption into the Western medicine canon is new – their role in healing is not. As humans, we've had plenty of time to get curious about these curious-looking fungi. Read on to learn how ancient civilizations used mushrooms to support mind, body, and spirit.
The Ancient Healing Practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine (or TCM for short) is an ancient healing practice originating in China. It emphasizes an energetic understanding of the body. Dietary adjustments, acupuncture, and herbal medicine are the most common TCM therapies.50
In TCM, "health" occurs through balancing four essential substances: Qi, blood, yin, and yang. Tonification is the process of nourishing these energies to restore vitality. Certain functional ingredients, like functional mushrooms, support this process.
(Fact: Our founder, Maria, is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist – and TCM influenced her decision to build Madre Mushroom.)
Mushrooms in Traditional Chinese Medicine: Reishi and Cordyceps
The Chinese have been using mushrooms in ancient healing practices for millennia. Daoist monks revered these funky little fungi, believing they promoted longevity.
Reishi/Lingzhi
One of China’s most ancient healing texts is the Shennong Ben Cao Jing.51 Written over 2,000 years ago, it features several mushrooms we’ve incorporated into our Madre Mushroom blends.
Credit this ancient text with giving the reputation of “mushroom of immortality” to reishi (called lingzhi in Chinese). In this guide to herbalism, reishi is associated with strengthening cardiac function, increasing memory, enhancing Qi, and promoting anti-aging. Reishi is also revered for its spiritual potency.
Cordyceps/Dong Chong Xia Cao
The earliest mention of cordyceps dates back to the 15th century. It was mentioned in a Tibetan text, called "Man ngag bye ba ring barrel" ("Instructions on a Myriad of Medicines").
Cordyceps belongs to the 'Tonic Herbs for Yang Deficiency' category of TCM. These "herbs" are used in patterns of deficiency. This is when qi, blood, yin, or yang are lacking.52 In TCM, Cordyceps tonifies the lungs and kidneys, addresses back and knee pain, and resolves phlegm.52
Ayurvedic Medicine: The Ancient Healing Practice of India
Ayurveda is another system of traditional medicine. It originated in India thousands of years ago. Like Traditional Chinese Medicine, it’s governed by the properties of energy. It relies on balancing three particular energetic blueprints or doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. If you’re reading this, you have a primary (and sometimes secondary) dosha.
Ayurveda categorizes foods by taste, energetic quality, and post-digestive effect.53 Foods are assigned to each dosha based on what that body type needs to restore balance.
The Role of Mushrooms in Ayurvedic Medicine
The ancient healing practice of Ayurveda focuses on plant-based remedies. But fungi – called “kavaka” – are still used to support plants in the following ways:
Boosting Immunity
In Ayurveda, culinary mushrooms are seen as heavy and grounding (or tamasic). However, some varieties are recognized for their immune-boosting polysaccharides. These include functional mushrooms like reishi, shitake, and maitake.
Adaptogenic
Mushrooms are less common in Ayurveda than in Chinese Traditional Medicine. Known adaptogens like reishi help the body resist stressors, bolster the immune system, and guard against infection.
Balancing Doshas
The grounding effects of mushrooms are beneficial in small quantities. This is true for those with excessive vata (which shows up as anxiety or overthinking – and who hasn’t been there before?)
Fungi in Indigenous Ancient Healing Practices
Functional mushrooms have also played a role in the healing practices of indigenous groups worldwide. For communities who possess a sophisticated understanding of their environment, wild-foraged fungi are an accessible and powerful medicine.
The Pacific Northwest: Agarikon (Laricifomes officinalis) and The Haida People
In the United States, the Haida and Kwakwaka'wakw people revere the Agarikon mushroom for its antibacterial and antiviral properties. (Well-known mycologist Paul Stamets is also a superfan.) For these communities, the agarikon mushroom is a symbol of resilience. Similar to reishi, they believe it promotes longevity and vitality.
Agarikon are rare and only grow in old-growth forests,54 where their wisdom and mystique confound their devotees.
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) and The Khanty People of Siberia
The Khanty are a group of semi-nomadic people living in Western Siberia. They rely on fishing and reindeer hunting for their livelihood. They have a rich cultural heritage rooted in shamanism.
The Khanty people rely on chaga for medicine, since chaga grows on birch trees in cold, northern climates.55 The Khanty prepares chaga as tea that’s believed to aid in digestion and improve lung health.
Because of Chaga’s recent celebrity, it’s becoming over-harvested in the wild. We use only cultivated chaga mycelial biomass powder in our six-mushroom formula – a sustainable alternative to wild-harvested Chaga. This ensures wild-harvested Chaga is available to the traditional communities who use it in their sacred practices and rituals.
Psilocybin (Psilocybe) and The Mazatec People of Mexico
Psychotropic mushrooms are considered sacred tools for connecting with the divine – this is true of both modern and ancient healing practices.
Psilocybin in particular has a history with the Mazatec people of Mexico, where it is used in shamanic ceremonies. These rituals, called veladas, promote healing and spiritual insight.
Mushrooms, Ancient Medicinal Practices, and Religion
Some scholars believe ancient Europeans experimented with mycophagy or mushroom consumption.56 Mycophagy may have influenced the philosophical and cultural development of these civilizations.
In Nola, Italy, archaeologists discovered a bowl of food containing mushroom residue dating back to the Bronze Age. Historians have long suspected that these people may have been consuming wild foraged mushrooms for nutrition and as an ancient way of healing.
Greco-roman Beliefs
Some scholars believe that the Eleusian mysteries, one of the ecstatic rituals of the Greeks, were fueled by a fungus called ergot (Claviceps purpurea). Ergot, a fungus that grows on grain, is hallucinogenic (and also toxic) and is the chemical precursor to lysergic acid (LSD).
Hinduism
Ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson (1898-1986) studied the role of mushrooms in mythology, religion, and human culture. He popularized the idea that psychoactive mushrooms may have influenced ancient religious thought and ancient healing.
Much of his research looked at the connection between psychotropic mushrooms, ancient healing, and the Rig Veda, a sacred Hindu text. The Rig Veda references soma, a mysterious plant-based substance used in Vedic rituals. Wasson theorizes soma was actually a reference to what we call mushrooms.
Ancient Egyptian Beliefs
According to some accounts, the ancient Egyptians called mushrooms “sons of gods”57 and plants of immortality. This notion was proposed by Porphyry, a mycophile from the Phoenician city of Tyre.
He remarked that mushrooms could reasonably be called “sons of the gods” because they were born without seed.58 Instead, these people believed the storm god Set created fungi by hurling lightning bolts coated in mushroom spores to Earth.
Mushrooms And Healing: A Tale As Old As Time
Mushrooms have a deep and far-reaching history in ancient healing practices across the globe. The healing properties of mushrooms cannot be overstated – or oversimplified – and we’re grateful this knowledge is spreading across the developed Western world. What we call “functional mushrooms” in the West, ancient healing practices have simply deemed medicine.
