characteristic of some species of Psilocybe, and several have a 
design along the margin of the cap which could be interpreted as 
indicative of the scalloped edge of the cap of Panaeolus sphinc- 
trinus. We have, in addition, several tangential arguments which 
have not hitherto been offered and which, we believe, lend 
weight to this interpretation. 
As with the intoxications induced by many hallucinogens, 
levitation—the sensation of flying or soaring through the air and 
visiting distant places—is a commonly experienced psychic 
effect of psilocybine, the principal active constituent of species 
of Panaeolus, Psilocybe and Stropharia (Schultes and Hof- 
mann, 1979; Brown, 1972). 
In her long and involved chant during the Mazatec mushroom 
ceremony, for example, the famous shaman Maria Sabina 
repeatedly sings such descriptive phrases as “Whirling woman 
am I,” “Look, I feel as though I’m going to the sky,” “Woman 
like the big eagle am I,” “Woman of space am I” (Halifax, 1979). 
Dr. Albert Hofmann, the chemist who first isolated psilocybine 
and psilocine from the sacred mushrooms and who elucidated 
their structures and synthesized them, mentions levitation 
amongst other symptoms produced by small doses of psilocy- 
bine: “. . . bodily relaxation and detachment from the environ- 
ment .. . effects . . . associated with a pleasant feeling of 
extraordinary lightness, a bodily hovering” (Schultes and Hof- 
mann, 1979, 1980). Wasson, the first to provide a detailed de- 
scription of psilocybine-mushroom intoxication, reported spe- 
cifically, amongst many other effects, the experience of levita- 
tion: “. . . the bemushroomed person is poised in space, a 
disembodied eye, invisible, incorporeal, seeing but not seen... 
your body lies in darkness, heavy as lead, but your spirit seems 
to soar. . . and with the speed of thought to travel where it 
listeth, in time and space . . .” (Schultes, 1973). 
The Colombian gold pectorals almost invariably have two 
wings formed by spirals and arising at an angle lateral to the 
head dress ornaments. They vary somewhat in shape but always 
involve spiral filagree work. While occasionally abbreviated, 
they are usually elongated. We believe that these represent 
wings, the wings of a mythical bird, and are directly associated 
with levitation. Furthermore, we need not detail how frequently 
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