Antonio Ceraso

Entheogens and the Public Mystery: The Rhetoric of R. Gordon Wasson

Configurations March 1, 2008 Antonio Ceraso 11 citations

This article explores the work of R. Gordon Wasson, who discovered the use of psilocybin mushrooms among indigenous people in Mexico. I argue that Wasson's writings on these and other psychedelic substances involve two primary moves. First, Wasson seeks to open up processes of scientific research beyond institutional and disciplinary boundaries, thereby constructing deinstitutionalized...