# From "The Hidden History of Beverages" by Alexander Lukashev

## 12. Corporations and Sacred Substances: How Spirituality Is Turned into a Commodity

Part One (history), chapter 12 of 14 · 7 footnotes to 6 sources
Page: https://herbalmind.bar/history/sacred-substances-as-commodities/

How sacred practices become products: Gordon Wasson and María Sabina, patents on psilocybin, and cacao ceremonies sold to tourists.

Sections:
- **The Banker and the Curandera** — Wasson’s 1955 velada with María Sabina, his article, and what followed for her
- **Psychedelics on the Stock Market** — what exactly is patented in synthetic psilocybin
- **A Cacao Ceremony for $119** — cacao ceremonies sold to tourists, and cacao as an everyday drink in Chiapas
- **What Cannot Be Patented** — the psychedelics market, and what remains of the velada

Questions this chapter answers:
- Who was R. Gordon Wasson, and how did the “magic mushroom” get its name?
  Short answer: A J.P. Morgan vice-president who took part in María Sabina’s velada in 1955; his 1957 Life article, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,” gave the world the phrase.
- What happened to María Sabina after Wasson’s article?
  [The answer is in the book](https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723)
- Can psilocybin be patented?
  Short answer: The molecule cannot be — Albert Hofmann isolated it in 1958 — but Compass Pathways holds patents on a crystalline form of synthetic psilocybin and methods of using it.
- What is a tourist cacao ceremony, and how is cacao drunk in Chiapas?
  [The answer is in the book](https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723)

Short answers only. The full account, with its sources, is in chapter 12 of the book — https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723

Sources:
- Estrada, Álvaro. María Sabina: Her Life and Chants. Translated with commentaries by Henry Munn. Santa Barbara: Ross-Erikson, 1981.
- Wasson, R. Gordon. “Seeking the Magic Mushroom.” Life, May 13, 1957, 100–120.
- Wasson, Valentina Pavlovna and R. Gordon Wasson. Mushrooms, Russia and History. 2 vols. New York: Pantheon Books, 1957.
- Hofmann, Albert, Roger Heim, Arthur Brack and Hans Kobel. “Psilocybin, ein psychotroper Wirkstoff aus dem mexikanischen Rauschpilz Psilocybe mexicana Heim.” Experientia 14, no. 3 (1958): 107–109. [DOI 10.1007/BF02159243](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02159243).
- COMPASS Pathways. US Patent No. 11,149,044, “Preparation of Psilocybin, Different Polymorphic Forms, Intermediates, Formulations and Their Use.” Granted October 19, 2021.
- Xaman-Ha Connections. Listing for a private cacao ceremony in Tulum, “guided by a Mayan local shaman rooted in ancestral tradition,” from 119 US dollars per person, minimum two. [xamanhaconnections.com/private-tours/cacao-ceremony-tulum](https://xamanhaconnections.com/private-tours/cacao-ceremony-tulum). Accessed October 1, 2026.

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These are chapter cards — what each chapter covers, with a few short answers and the book’s free pages — not the chapters themselves.
Apple Books, with a free sample: https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723
Other stores: https://books2read.com/u/mqlAwO