University of Bath PHD Appeasing the Mushroom Gods A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Magic Mushroom Users' Constructions of Meanings Surrounding Psilocybin Mushroom Use Thompson, James Award date: 2014 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 Appeasing The Mushroom Gods: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Magic Mushroom Users’ Constructions of Meanings Surrounding Psilocybin Mushroom Use. James Malcolm Thompson A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of Psychology April 2014 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author. A copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that they must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author. This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation with effect from...................(date) Signed on behalf of the Faculty/School of ................................. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the University of Bath for funding this PhD through their University Research Studentship scheme. I would also like to thank my supervisors Professor Christine Griffin, Dr Helen Lucey and Dr Sarah Riley for their support and guidance through different stages of the project. Many thanks to the friends who have supported me through good and challenging times (you all know who you are). A special thanks to my parents Mandy and Steve who always knew I could do it. Lastly, a huge thank you to my participants, many of them strangers who agreed to talk to me about something private and a little unusual. Without their generosity this thesis would never have been possible. Contents Title Page Number Abstract 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 Mushrooms and Multiple Meanings: Rationale for Researching the 3 Constructions of Magic Mushrooms and the Experiences they Occasion 1.2 Psilocybin ‘Magic’ Mushrooms: Definition and Effects 5 1.2.1 Varieties of magic mushrooms 5 1.2.2 Psilocybin and Psilocin: Key Effects, Set & Setting, Tolerance and 7 Addiction 1.3 The Magic Mushroom in Western History 9 1.3.1 ‘Ancient’ History and Mushroom Myths: From the Neolithic to the 19th 9 Century 1.3.2 ‘Rediscovery’ and Academic Interest: 1950s-1970s 10 1.3.3 Mycology and Mushrooming Comes to Britain: 1970s-1990s 12 1.3.4 Renaissance, Legality, and Legacy: late 1990s- to Present 14 1.4 Research Question and Aims 17 1.5 A Note on Terminology: Hallucinogen, Psychotomimetic, Psychedelic 18 and Entheogen; Psychonaut, Consumer and User 1.6 An Overview of this Thesis 19 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 21 2.1 Overview: Conceptualising the Magic Mushroom 21 2.2 Psychopharmacological Research with Psilocybin 23 2.2.1 Neuropsychological research: Subjective Effects 24 2.2.2 Psilocybin as Cognitive Tool 27 2.2.3 Experimental Mysticism 28 2.2.4 Applications: Therapeutic Agents 29 2.3 Psychedelic Research on the effects of Psilocybin 30 2.3.1 Psychedelic Methods and the Harvard Psilocybin Project 30 2.3.2 Psychedelic Mysticism 33 2.3.3 Crisis and Counter-Culture 34 2.4 Mushroom Auto-ethnographies: Psychonauts, Entheogens and Elves 36 2.4.1 Key Writers of Mushroom Auto-ethnography 36 2.4.2 Trip Reports and Online Psychonauts 40 2.4.3 Academic Interest in the Claims of the Psychonauts 41 2.5 Epidemiological Research 43 2.5.1 Medical Case Reports 43 2.5.2 Social Harm Research 44 2.6 Social Research with Magic Mushroom Users 46 2.6.1 Survey Research with Magic Mushroom users 46 2.6.2 Interview and Focus-Group Research with Magic Mushroom Users 48 2.7 Summary: Literature Review 53 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS 55 3.1 Epistemological Approaches and Magic Mushroom Experiences as 55 ‘Nexus’ 3.2 ‘Realist Epistemologies’ and Magic Mushrooms 58 3.2.1 Psychopharmacological Realism 58 3.2.2 Realist Representation and Magic Mushrooms 61 3.2.3 Limitations of Psychopharmacological Realism 63 3.3 Social Constructionism and Magic Mushrooms 65 3.3.1 Magic Mushrooms and Discourse: Definition 67 3.3.2 Discourse, History, and Multiplicity 68 3.3.3 Discourse, Truth, and Power 70 3.3.4 Discourse, subjectivity and language 73 3.5 Summary of Theoretical Orientation 74 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 76 4.1 Research Design and Research Process: Iteration, Research Question 76 and Aims 4.2 Sampling 77 4.2.1 Sampling: Inclusion Criteria 77 4.2.2 Sampling: ‘Styles’ of Magic Mushroom Use 78 4.3 Recruitment 80 4.3.1Recruitment: Network/Snowball 80 4.3.2 Recruitment: Open recruitment/Advertising 80 4.4 Participants 82 4.4.1 Demographics 82 4.4.2 Psilocybin Mushroom Consumption 83 4.4.3 Other Substance Use 86 4.5 Ethics 87 4.5.1 Privacy and Anonymity 87 4.5.2 Right to withdraw and Informed consent 88 4.5.3 Harm 89 4.5.4 Illegality 90 4.6 Data Generation: Interviews 90 4.6.1 Interviews and ‘the subject’ 90 4.6.2 Selection of Interviews 91 4.6.3 Style of Interview- Narrative, Semi-structured, and 92 Active/Conversational 4.6.4 Conducting interviews: Face-to Face, Skype & Telephone 95 4.6.3 Criticisms of Interviewing: Interview Practice, Artificiality, & 97 ‘Naturalistic Records’ 4.7 Reflexivity 100 4.7.1 The need for reflexive accounting: construction and co-construction 100 4.7.2 Researchers Stake & Interest 100 4.7.3 Researcher & Participant’s Perceptions: ‘Psychologist’ 101 4.7.4 Insider/Outsider Status and Psychedelic Drug Use 102 4.8 Analytic Strategy 104 4.8.1 Transcription 104 4.8.2 Analytic Process: Foucauldian Discourse Analysis 105 CHAPTER 5: WHAT MAGIC MUSHROOMS DO: ‘ALTERING 110 REALITY’ 5.1 Pharmacological Discourse 110 5.2 Psychological Discourse 114 5.2.1 Mind and Brain 114 5.2.2 Neuro-Psychedelic Discourse 115 5.2.3 Mushrooms as Hallucinogens 117 5.2.4 Orientation and Belief 118 5.3 Parallel-reality Discourse 120 5.3.1 Breaking the Veil 120 5.3.2 Entities: Things Beyond the Veil 123 5.3.3 Questing 125 5.4 The Relationship Between The Discourses of ‘Reality’ 126 5.4.1 Rejection of Parallel-Reality Discourse 127 5.4.2 (Attempted) Accommodation 129 5.4.3 The Value of Uncertainty 132 5.5 Celebrating Uncertainty 133 5.6 Summary: Chapter 5 What Magic Mushrooms Do: ‘Altering Reality’ 136 CHAPTER 6: WHAT MAGIC MUSHROOMS ARE: NATURAL 138 DRUGS OR BEINGS WITH AGENCY 6.1 Discourse of Naturalness 138 6.1.1 ‘Natural’ vs. ‘Man-made’ Drugs 138 6.1.2 ‘It’s ‘natural’ to take them’ 142 6.1.3 ‘It’s wrong to make nature illegal’ 145 6.2 Discourse of Mushroom Agency 147 6.2.1 Mushroom Spirits and Mushroom Gods 148 6.2.2 Teachers of ‘Neo-Archaic truth’ 152 6.3 Scepticism: Troubling the Discourses of Distinction 156 6.3.1 ‘They’re just a drug’ 156 6.3.2 Scepticism and Irrelevance of Mushroom Agency and Neo-Archaic 160 Teaching 6.4 Summary: Chapter 6: What Magic Mushrooms Are 163 CHAPTER 7: WHAT MAGIC MUSHROOMS ARE FOR: 165 RECREATION OR SPIRITUAL IMPROVEMENT 7.1 Recreational Discourse 165 7.1.1 Magic Mushroom Experiences as ‘Fun’ 166 7.1.2 Entertainment and Shared Experience 168 7.1.3 Recreation and Escapism 170 7.2 Work: Neo-Spiritual discourse 171 7.2.1 Neo-Spiritual Tools 172 7.2.2 ‘‘Neo-Spiritual’ use is appropriate use’ 173 7.3 The Relationship Between the Discourses of Recreation and 178 Spirituality 7.3.1 ‘They aren’t ‘spiritual’ they are just fun (it’s what you do them for)’ 178 7.3.2 Tension and Multiplicity: Combining Uses 180 7.4 Value and Transformation: Beyond the Spiritual and Recreational 183 Dichotomy 7.4.1 Value 183 7.4.2 Transformation 185 7.5 Summary: Chapter 7 What Magic Mushrooms Are For 189 CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION 191 8.1 Summary of Empirical Chapters 191 8.2 Contribution to Literature: Magic Mushrooms, Neo-liberalism and 192 Neo-shamanism 8.2.1 Magic Mushrooms: Neo-liberalism- Just Drugs and Drugs of Distinction 194 8.2.2 Limited resistance: Neo-Shamanic Sacraments and the Spectre of 196 Psychedelia 8.3 Specific Arguments from Data Analysis 199 8.4 Methodological Evaluations 200 8.4.1 Recruitment and Sampling 200 8.4.2 Evaluation of the use of Interviews 203 8.4.3 Evaluation of Interview Modalities: Skype, Telephone and Face-To- 205 Face 8.4.4 Evaluation of Interview Style: Narrative, Semi-structured and Active. 207 8.4.5 Summary of Methodological Evaluations 208 8.5 Theoretical Evaluations 208 8.6 Further Contributions to Research 210 8.6 Conclusion 211 References 213 Appendix 1: Recruitment Materials 235 Appendix 2: Participant Information Sheet 237 Appendix 3: Participant List 238 Appendix 4: Consent Form 239 Appendix 5: Interview Schedule 241 Appendix 6: Example Transcription & Key 242 Abstract Magic mushrooms, more than any other psychoactive substance, are steeped in mythology.