The news of the Mexican sacred mushrooms burst 
upon the world in the spring of 1957 with the publica- 
tion of our book, Mushrooms Russia & History, and our 
articles in the popular magazines.’” Roger Heim, Mem- 
bre de Il’Institut, Director of the Muséum National 
d’ Histoire Naturelle, visited the Indian country of Mex- 
ico three time in response to our invitation, seeking out 
the sacred mushrooms. He identified fourteen species 
belonging to three genera—Psilocybe, Stropharia, and 
Conocybe—besides a number of subspecies. Most of 
them were new to science, although they had been 
known to the Indians for centuries, probably millennia. 
Dr. Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz laboratories of Basle 
undertook the delicate task of isolating the active agents, 
defining their molecular structure, and finally synthe- 
sizing them. By 1958, a surprisingly short time, he had 
accomplished his work. Many investigators began to 
study the properties of psi/ocybine and psilocine, as Dr. 
Hofmann called the active agents, and their possible use. 
In a recent bibliography I have listed some 200 papers 
on work with these mushrooms that have already ap- 
peared, in the past five years, in learned and scientific 
journals ;’° not to speak of the hundreds of articles that 
have come out in a score of countries in the lay press. 
Here again there seem to be signs that those who have 
experienced the mushrooms feel a compulsion to impart 
to others the staggering effects of teonanacatl. 
Pipiltzintzinth — Salvia divinorum Epling & Javito 
Though teonanacatl has been rediscovered and identi- 
fied, there still remain other plants classed with it in the 
colonial sources as possessed of divine (or Satanic) attri- 
butes that defeat our efforts at interpretation. Both 
Sahagtin and Juan de Cardenas refer to a plant that they 
call respectively poyomatli or poyomate,"’ grouping it with 
