FOOD OF THE GODS

It was on Topanga Beach during the worst storm in the city’s history, while watching surfers slide down 12-foot faces in the howling wind and pool-ball-sized hail, that Shaman Ted told me about the mysterious Lemurian shrooms of Mt. Shasta. Shaman Ted grew up in the hills above this beach.

After stints modeling in Milan, bartending in an old horse stable turned cavernous speakeasy in Prague (open 23 hours a day!), and as a tux-clad personal driver for the casino royale crowd in Montenegro, he has returned home. He’s now in the final stages of launching his own mushroom brand. “The vintage sardine tins just arrived from Corsica,” he said, digging into his lobster salad at The Reel Inn on Pacific Coast Highway.

While the Lemurian shrooms won’t be in those tins, Shaman Ted is convinced he has found the second best. “I met this guy in Panama having coffee on the beach,” he said. “He opened his bag to show me his mushrooms. They are the second best mushrooms in the world.”

Just after the quarantine ended, Shaman Ted’s roommate went to Mt. Shasta for the weekend, on a UFO and Sasquatch adventure package. He was deep in the forest when he stopped beside a creek to take a dip. While he was drying off, he saw a tiny patch of unique looking mushrooms: thick white stems, a bulbous scarlet head dappled with spots of white, purple, black, and yellow. He quickly snatched them up and headed back to base camp.

For the next month, Shaman Ted and his roommate shredded the shrooms into mounds of flakes and dumped them on big plates of spaghetti bolognese. For the whole month they both felt peaceful, grateful, at ease, and slightly euphoric.

A few months later, Shaman Ted’s roommate went back to Shasta looking for a new batch but came up empty handed.

MAGIC SPORES, THE NEW ROSWELL, & ASCENDED MASTERS

Most historians agree that Mt. Shasta was discovered in 1817 by Spaniard Narciso Durán, a member of the Luis Antonio Argüello expedition into the upper areas of the Sacramento River Valley. He wrote in his diary:

“At about ten leagues to the northwest of this place we saw the very high hill called by soldiers that went near its slope Jesus Maria, it is entirely covered with snow.”

Mt. Shasta is 14,179 feet above sea level. It makes the surrounding hills, valleys, and town look like toy sets, a snow-dusted Goliath towering above it all. Oh, it’s also an active volcano. And then there’s the legends and lore:

“The mountain is inhabited by the spirit of Chief Skell, who descended from heaven to the mountainʼs summit and fought with a Spirit of the Below-World, Llao; a British prospector allegedly discovered a lost underground city in 1904; there’s an inter-dimensional Sasquatch portal at its base; and the area is, yes, the home of the last descendants of the ancient Lemurians.”

Mt. Shasta has been dubbed the “Root Chakra of the World” and “The New Roswell.” In the 1930s, Guy Ballard was hiking around Mt. Shasta and claimed to have run into an Ascended Master who took him on an enlightening journey with the Lemurian shrooms. Ballard later built an entire movement around his experience, which, at its peak, commanded over a million adherents. Though his movement is obscure today, it still runs strong with the locals.

I was told that Handsome John’s Speakeasy is “the cantina scene in Star Wars” come to life in Shasta. A crossroads watering hole for hipster hikers, world-class botanists, butterfly catchers, volcano watchers, Sasquatch trackers, bald eagle junkies, shamans who like beer, and no-nonsense mushroom foragers.

It was a slow night. I sat at the bar and asked the bartender if he knew anyone in town that I could talk to who might know about the Lemurian shrooms. He chuckled and cocked his head. “You want a drink? You’d more easily find a trove of gold than the mushrooms of The Ancient Gods.” My next stop: The Sacred Valley Spiritual Retreat. Shaman Ted’s ex-girlfriend works there and is a mushroom chef, caterer, respected forager, and farmer. She was a bit more optimistic. She told me: “If they do exist, this is an ideal time to hunt them due to all the biblical storms this year.” She didn’t know where the patches might be but said that a Pleiadian light worker named M who works as a budtender in town claims she’s seen them.

M reminded me of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, only with blue hair and Crocs. She told me she incarnated to Earth at this time to witness—and nudge—the ascension of humanity from the 3rd to the 5th dimension. “We’ve already cleared the grid, closed the portals, and are activating the crystals,” she said. “This is going to happen before 2030.”

We finally got around to the shrooms. She lit an Ember Valley sungrown pre-roll and looked up to the snow-coned mountain bathed under a full moon. “Yeah, I know where they grow...you want to go to Stewart Mineral Hot Springs and the creek behind,” she said. “But you must know precisely where to look.”

Located in the foothills of Mt. Shasta, Stewart is the oldest mineral hot springs in California. M offered to take me there at sunrise.

FUNGI PROFITS

The global mushroom market is valued at $50.3 billion and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% from 2024 to 2030. People have been foraging for mushrooms since the Stone Age, but mycologists across the country say they’ve seen a big increase in the hobby—and consumption—in the last few years.

“Fungi are kind of a hot thing right now,” said Dr. Matthew Nelsen, a research scientist at the Negaunee Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum in Chicago who is also president of the Illinois Mycological Association.

Go into any market these days and the mushroom aisle is growing: chaga, turkey tail, oyster, lion’s mane, reishi, shiitake, tremella, enoki, poria cocos, meshima, and dozens more all stylishly packaged. The health benefits of mushrooms—boost your immune system, lower blood pressure, increase levels of Vitamin D, promote brain and heart health—have been known for a while. What wasn’t known until recently is that the magical combination of selenium, B6, riboflavin, potassium, and zinc is more medicinally potent than initially thought.

Today, some scientists know mushrooms can help us break down plastic, nuclear waste, and other debris. This may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but we’re already well on the way to using mushrooms to clean up our planet—and our bodies.

THE CULT OF MUSHROOMS

Mushrooms have been used as food, medicine, and spiritual aids for centuries. Many cultures that ate mushrooms for food also used certain hallucinogenic species for spiritual ceremonies, divine inspiration, and even recreation. The Vikings ingested amanita muscaria mushrooms during religious ceremonies in the Middle Ages. Halfway across the world, Mayan elders chose a very similar path to reflect upon important decisions. For the Egyptians, mushrooms were the “food of the gods.” They believed that eating them could help them live longer—or even make them immortal. The Greeks drank ergot mushroom soup during certain ceremonies and reported seeing visions and ghostly apparitions. Montezuma II, the last ruler of the Aztecs, is said to have eaten copious amounts of teonanacatl (flesh of the gods) at his coronation ceremony. The Spanish missionary Bernardino de Sahagun observed a gathering of indigenous people and noted in his diaries:

“They ate the mushrooms with honey. When the mushrooms started having an effect, there was dancing and weeping.... Some saw in their visions how they would die in the war, some how they would become wealthy, some how they would commit adultery and would then be stoned and have their skulls smashed in.”

Over the years, fairy tales have popped up with mushrooms as the protagonist. In the stories, mushrooms often serve as the dwelling place of dwarfs or fairies. The oldest is a German fairy tale, “Das Märchen von den Pilzen,” written in 1870:

“So think carefully, you dear little girls, and also you boys, when you meet the nice, fragile things in the forest. Do not smash the beautiful mushrooms out of sheer lust for destruction.... They too have received life from Him and enjoy their brief existence.”

In the late 50s, hallucinogenic mushrooms experienced a renaissance. Despite all the bans imposed by the conquistadors, the descendants of the Aztecs and Mayans kept the mushroom cult alive. In 1955, U.S. mushroom researcher R. Gordon Wasson became the first outsider to attend a sacred ceremony among Mexico’s Mazatec people. Wasson wrote the article “Seeking the Magic Mushroom” for Life magazine in 1957, canonizing the magical effects of the teonanacatl. Scientists, hippies and rock stars—Dylan, Jagger, Lennon, Harrison—made pilgrimages there. But the party was ending by the late 60s. Magic mushrooms became illegal in the United States in 1968.

EAST OF PLEIADES

After breakfast, M and I headed out for the springs. It’s about a five mile walk. M goes to the hot springs once a month, where she soaks for an hour and then plunges into the ice cold creek. The last time she saw the Lemurian shrooms was the spring of 2022. She spotted a tiny patch of them on a bank straddling the creek. She added them to her ramen for six weeks and life was like floating on air. Everything began to fall into place, a flood of positivity surged through her, and she felt connected to something greater than herself.

To be sure, the lion’s share of mushroom foraging happens further east in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, the largest national forest in California. The 2,210-acre forest, which lies at the intersection of the Eastern Klamath Mountains and the Southern Cascades, is an enchanting kingdom of pine trees, Douglas-firs, and oceans of willows, white alders, and tobacco brush. The Trinity River meanders through its heart while Shasta Lake and its many inlets and isles are a clandestine haven for solitary fishermen.

Wild mushrooms, including popular varieties like morels and boletus, flourish under the forest’s panoply of leaves, fallen trees, and dead wood. They typically sprout after moderate to heavy rain. Individuals can collect up to one gallon of mushrooms per day for personal use under the Incidental Use regulation, with a five-gallon yearly limit. The most common are the matsutake mushrooms, an edible mycorrhizal mushroom that is prized in Japanese cuisine for its distinct spicy aroma.

M has her own theory about why the Lemurian shrooms don’t grow in the forest but only on the shores of the creek. She told me that Earth is going through a solar flare cleansing and that the soil and waters of the world are going back to their original pristine state—and this has awakened the slumbering spores of Lemuria. These mushrooms were supposedly used in Lemuria by the high priests to increase telepathy, dilate the pineal gland, and aid in dimension and timeline hopping. The Lemurians were tall beings, around 7 to 8-feet in height, with elongated heads, thin bodies, and pale skin. They had fine, golden hair and large, deep-set eyes that were blue or green. While some people think Lemuria exists only in the mind, others say they’ve seen tall robed Lemurians shopping in town, or traveling in and out of the mountain in cloud-shaped UFOs.

“Other than crystals, the shrooms were the most prized commodity in Lemuria,” she said.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

We reached the springs by midday. The sun finally poked its head out from behind a canopy of cotton candy clouds. It’s not until you are at the base of the mountain that you realize just how awe-inspiring it is. As we eased our way into the balmy springs, we spied a bald eagle circling above us. In the past decade, America’s national bird has made a dramatic comeback in this territory.

“That is a good sign,” M said. “It’s not just a coincidence that the eagle crosses your path. It carries important messages to you.”

The medicinal waters were soothing but it was the plunge into the icy creek that really got my blood pumping. After our dip we began foraging. We slowly made our way along the creek’s banks for the rest of the day. In those handful of hours, I witnessed a rugged yet forgiving beauty that rivals anything I have ever seen. The last time M was here she saw a black bear and Jack, the one-eyed coyote, who both stared at her like she was an alien.

However, the shrooms aren’t the only Holy Grail in these bewitching forests. The Shasta owl’s-clover is critically imperiled and was believed to be extinct. In May, 1996, botanist Dean Taylor of the University of California, Berkeley, rediscovered the evasive plant on the higher, drier ground of a sagebrush-covered hillside.

The forest grew dark and cold and it was time to head back. We were empty- handed but in good spirits. I asked M what the 5th dimension is like.

She smiled.

“5D is a realm of light, a realm of love, beauty, and creativity,” she said. “Earth humans experience the 5D energy as the energy of the sacred heart. The Heart Chakra is the physical receptor of love, a bio-device that receives, transmits, and radiates love.”

“Do the Lemurian shrooms coming back now aid in our love journey?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Those spores were buried deep in the Earth to be used as tools for going though this once-in-a-billion year experience.”

Rob Hill has written for Ray Gun, Maxim, Playboy, Rolling Stone, LA WEEKLY, Treats!, The Riv, FHM, and mg. He is Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Hiii.

Stay

MOUNT SHASTA RESORT

Rustic-style with stunning mountain and lake views, offering activities including swimming, hiking, and nearby trails.

Eat

LA PERLA CANTINA

The street tacos are created with fresh handmade tortillas. The birria is tasty and enchiladas are hot and made with loads of enchilada sauce.

Dispensary

SUGAR CONES

Only a few blocks from central Mt. Shasta, Sugar Cones offers an array of Northern Californiaʼs premium selection of cannabis products.

Nightcap

GOLD ROOM SALOON

Established in 1931 and known for its Old West ambiance, the bar features a large selection of craft beers, wines, and cocktails.

Crystals

CRYSTAL KEEPERS

Renowned for its selection of vanadinite, the golden colored crystal that promotes creative energy. Excellent for healing and expanding your aura field.

Coffee

NORTHBOUND COFFEE ROASTERS

Roasted in small batches in 1956 German Probat roasters. They source and select the finest beans; each green bean is shaped by the geography and climate of the farm where it is grown, and then put through a cupping process.

Wine

SHASTA WINE VILLAGE

In a picturesque location surrounded by gentle rolling hills, The Shasta Wine Village provides the ambience and feel of visiting an estate winery, complete with a vineyard.

The magic mushroom business is booming. Silicon Valley VC’s have been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into shroom startups. The microdosing craze came fast and has benefited from cannabis blazing its own hard-fought trail to legalization. In 1968, the U.S. officially banned psilocybin. It’s remained illegal ever since, but thanks to the effort of activists and researchers these laws are changing rapidly. At the U.S. federal level, psilocybin is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance.

If state regulators so choose, they could move to legalize magic mushrooms for recreational use, medicinal use, or both. Magic mushrooms themselves aren’t banned in the U.S.—it’s their active ingredients, psilocybin and psilocin. Magic mushrooms are considered a “container” for these illegal compounds and are, therefore, illegal by proxy. On the other hand, magic mushroom spores (used for cultivation) are legal in most states, as they do not contain either of these psychoactive chemicals.

Recently, several municipalities in California have moved to decriminalize natural psychedelics. Colorado and Oregon have an optimistic view on moving to decriminalize natural psychedelics for recreational use and legalized several for medical use in clinics and healing centers throughout the state. How and where legal shrooms will be sold is still a bit of the Wild, Wild West. Companies are selling them on their websites, and, finally, there is talk of dispensaries putting them on shelves.

MUSE, FLOW

Each capsule is made with a proprietary blend of infused mushrooms plus added ingredients such as ashwagandha (anti-anxiety), theobromine (energy), niacin (blood flow), L-Theanine (mental focus), lion's mane (memory), and Alpha GPC (cognitive). Each vegan capsule has 125mg of the brandʼs exclusive mushroom blend per capsule. MyMuseLife.com

POLKADOT

One of the oldest and most trusted brands, these gummies contain 4-AcO-DMT and psilocybin. The products are handcrafted in small batches, every detail carefully considered, from the subtle flavors blended into the chocolate to the playful polka dots that adorn each bar. PolkadotMushroomBar.com

SHROOMIEZ

Made with premium quality G3 mushrooms in all of their products. The gummies come in two potency options: 500mg and 750mg. Consuming a single 500mg gummy will cause psychedelic effects. Flavors include: cherry lime, berry sour, sour grape, and orange. ShroomiezWorld.com