This authoritative guide by Paul Stamets is exclusively devoted to the world's psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Detailed descriptions and color photographs for over 100 species are provided, as well as an exploration of their long-standing (and often religious) use by ancient peoples and their continued significance to modern-day culture. Some of the species included have only been recently discovered, and still others have never before been photographed in their natural habitats.

Author Paul Stamets is the founder of Fungi Perfecti and co-director and founder of the Rainforest Mushroom Genome and Mycodiversity Preservation Project. He is the author of two seminal mycology textbooks, has been published in numerous journals, and is a leading lecturer on all things fungi. An advisor and consultant to the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical School and the 1998 recipient of the Collective Heritage Institute’s Bioneers Award, Stamets lives in Kamilche Point, Washington with his collection of more than 250 medicinal mushroom cultures.