The Psilocybin Connection: Psychedelics, the Transformation of Consciousness, and Evolution on the Planet-- An Integral Approach

A comprehensive guide to psilocybin mushrooms and their impact on our psychology, biology, and social development.

How--and why--do psychedelics exist? Did psilocybin catalyze our early human ancestors’ social evolution? And how can an integral understanding of psychedelics quite literally change the world?

In an ambitious and comprehensive look at psilocybin--and an inside look at how humanity co-evolved alongside ＂magic＂ mushrooms--Jahan Khamsehzadeh, PhD, explores our historical and ancestral relationship to psychedelics and presents new and exciting research about what psilocybin can mean for us today.

Separated into three sections--Present, Past, and Future--The Psilocybin Connection advances our understanding of psychedelics in unexpected and original ways. Khamsehzadeh shares compelling research that suggests how naturally occurring psychedelics may have played an essential role in humanity’s social, cultural, and linguistic evolution. Supported by archaeological evidence, neuroscience, and academic studies, he explores how mushrooms gave rise to art and expression, impacted spiritual experiences, and even spurred human brain development.

Blending the most comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of psilocybin research with stories of his own and others’ psychedelic awakenings, Khamsehzadeh moves our understanding of the psychedelic mushroom forward toward a fresh, hopeful, and exciting future.

JAHAN KHAMSEHZADEH, Ph.D. completed his dissertation on psychedelics in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). He earned his Masters in Consciousness and Transformative Studies from John F. Kennedy University, and his Bachelors in Philosophy with minors in Physics and Psychology from the University of Arizona. Khamsehzadeh is a graduate of Hakomi somatic-psychotherapy and trained within the Mazatec psilocybin mushroom lineage. For two years he assisted the Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Certificate training at CIIS and now mentors at the emerging School of Consciousness Medicine. He works as a facilitator for legal psilocybin mushroom ceremonies in Jamaica with Atman Retreats and is on the integration and education team at PsiloHealth. He facilitates a monthly public group with the San Francisco Psychedelic Society called ＂Developing a Relationship with Sacred Mushrooms.＂