{"product_id":"still-seeking-the-magic-mushroom-hugh-b-urban-9780226851921","title":"Still Seeking the Magic Mushroom: Fungi, Pharmaceuticals, and Mysticism Without Religion","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA sweeping cultural history of our yearning for psychedelics to free us from both modern life and traditional religion.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1957, \u003ci\u003eLife Magazine \u003c\/i\u003epublished an article called \"Seeking the Magic Mushroom\" about a Mexican healing ritual centered on an obscure psychedelic: Psilocybe mushrooms. Readers raced to experiment with the drug for their own spiritual, therapeutic, and recreational purposes until a psychedelic craze swept the nation. Today, though psilocybin has been transformed from a sacred fungus into a pharmaceutical product, many people still turn to the enigmatic mushroom to encounter profound spiritual experiences without the baggage of traditional religion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eStill Seeking the Magic Mushroom\u003c\/i\u003e, Hugh B. Urban examines the alluring promise of mysticism without religion. With psychedelics, one need not fast, flagellate, or even worship a god to encounter the transcendent; a carefully timed ingestion of psilocybin will suffice. But, Urban argues, stripping the trip from its religion came at a cost: the erasure of Indigenous culture and the eventual commercialization and scientification of the psychedelic underground. Urban shows that psychedelic mushrooms, far from the fringe or countercultural margins, have been central players in shaping American attitudes toward religion and science over the last century. He argues that our love affair with the intoxicating fungus reveals a deep frustration with a disenchanted world, desire for meaning beyond religion, yearning for nature amid ecological crisis, faith in science to save us, and the relentless power of capitalism to turn everything into commodities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Hugh B. Urban\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0226851923\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226851921\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/09\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs","brand":"Hugh B. Urban","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48588443779327,"sku":"9780226851921","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/still-seeking-the-magic-mushroom-hugh-b-urban-9780226851921","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}