Fantastic Fungi, 2019

Summary

Fantastic Fungi is a documentary organized in three parts that explores the hidden world of fungi and their importance to ecosystems, the history of ritual mushroom use, and the therapeutic potential of psilocybin. The film argues that the 1970 Controlled Substances Act halted promising research into psychedelic-assisted therapy, but recent trials show life-changing mental health benefits from a single accompanied psychedelic session. It challenges irrational fears and taboos surrounding these substances, suggesting they offer profound spiritual and therapeutic experiences for patients when conventional medicine has reached its limits.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Genre: Documentary Run Time: 1 h 21 min Director Louie Schwartzberg Writer: Mark Monroe Producer: Louie Schwartzberg, Lyn Davis Lear, Elease Lui Stemp I enjoy films that entertain. I relish films that introduce me to a larger world. Above all I prize films that introduce me to the unknown and challenge those powerful interests that evaluate and control the flow of knowledge for their own benefit. Fantastic Fungi is one such film. The film is organized in three parts that culminate in a message both educational and cautionary. The cinematography is stunning and serves to illustrate and enhance the story. The pacing of the first twenty-three minutes is slow but introduces us to fungi and their importance to our ecosystem. The film comments on the ritual use of mushrooms worldwide across a long span of history. The narrator in the film is the voice of the fungi who acknowledges that we humans “can’t see us but we flourish around you ... even invisible ... clandestine and a trickster hiding from us [humans] all the time.” My knowledge of fungi before watching the film was limited to the many delectable recipes that favor my appetite for mushrooms. Early in the film, I learned that there are “1.5 million species of fungi and 20,000 of them produce mushrooms.” The film suggests that we fear mushrooms because some are poisonous. I have watched, with admiration and envy, women picking mushrooms with apron-bag around their waist. While they picked with obvious pleasure, I was deterred by fear of ferocious abdominal pain, vomiting, and sudden death. I had no knowledge or respect for the function of the “Fungi Kingdom” in the “cycle of life”. The second part of the film, shifts to “magic mushrooms”, exploring the appeal of alternative consciousness and access to uncharted worlds of physical, emotional and spiritual experience. We are introduced to the 1960s counterculture in the U.S, when those reaching beyond cultural norms paved the way for innovators and advocates of the psychotherapeutic use of the mushroom-derived drug psilocybin. The film then speculates that the popularity of the drug’s “recreational” use or the appeal of altered states produced by LSD or magic mushrooms triggered a conservative backlash, resulting in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act and the War on Drugs that eventually made psilocybin and psilocin illegal. At the same time, this legislation prohibited all significant research programs using psychedelic substances. A story told by Paul Stamets, the mushroom expert, is central to a crucial message in the film. Paul was in his teens when he read Andy Weil’s book “Altered States of Consciousness.” He lent it to a childhood friend who showed it to his father. Paul recalls the distress when he learned his friend’s father burned the book. This story points to the presence of irrational fear around something one perceives as taboo or uncontrollable. One way to deal with its presence is to destroy it. The impact of the criminalization of these substances leads us to the third component of this film. The legal prohibition on research resulted in a loss of time and halted progress. However, recent changes have allowed limited controlled research so medical and mental health trials have resumed. Medical professionals testify to the lifechanging mental health benefits that patients have experienced after only a single, accompanied psychedelic “trip.” The film provides a greater understanding of the implications for the care of those for whom traditional medicine has reached its limits. At times this care is supportive in nature, but the film suggests there is a powerful component of current research that points to the spiritual as well as profoundly life altering mystical experiences. The filmmakers invite us to consider the market impact of allowing research into Psilocybin treatments that require a single immersion when the pharmaceutical economy promotes the necessity of long-term use to treat chronic

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