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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[narrator]
There's a feeling.

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The pulse of eternal knowledge.

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When you sense the oneness...

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you are with us.

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We brought life to Earth.

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You can't see us,

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but we flourish
all around you.

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Everywhere.

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In everything.

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And even inside you,

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whether you believe in us

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or not.

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From your first breath
to your last,

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in darkness
and in the light,

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we are the oldest
and youngest.

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We are the largest
and smallest.

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We are the wisdom
of a billion years.

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We are creation.

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We are resurrection,

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condemnation,
and regeneration.

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We are mushrooms.

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Mushrooms are very clandestine
and very much the trickster.

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So, they're hiding
from you all the time.

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We're in Agarikon territory
now.

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There're some big
living Snags up here.

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It's always interesting

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and exhilarating
to be in the old growth forest,

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but not always rewarding

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In accomplishing our mission

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to find a new Agarikon strain,

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but nevertheless,

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it beats being
in the office.

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Fungi are the grand molecular
decomposers of nature.

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Now, what does that mean?
Well,

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they break down wood,

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and here I'm laying
in the forest.

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I haven't peeked yet,

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but here's a piece of wood

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laying down on the ground.

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If I was laying down
on the ground and I died,

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fungi would leap up
to recycle me.

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Well, that's the way
of nature.

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Mushrooms represent rebirth,

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rejuvenation, regeneration.

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Fungi generate soil
that gives life.

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The task that we face today

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is to understand
the language of nature.

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My mission is to discover

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the language of nature
of the fungal networks

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that communicate
with the ecosystem,

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and I believe
nature is intelligent.

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The fact that we lack

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the language skills
to communicate with nature

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does not impugn the concept
that nature's intelligent.

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It speaks to our inadequacy
for communication.

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lf we don't get our act together

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and come in commonality
and understanding

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with the organisms
that sustain us today,

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not only will we destroy
those organisms,

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but we will
destroy ourselves.

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Mushroom.
It's not like a vegetable,

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and It's not like a animal,
but it's somewhere in between.

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The fungus is
its own kingdom altogether.

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There's over
1.5 million species.

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That's six times more
than plants.

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Of all those species
of fungi,

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about 20,000
produce mushrooms,

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and mushrooms come
in an incredible diversity

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of shapes and sizes
and colors and lifestyles.

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There are even bioluminescent
mushrooms.

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A lot of people are afraid
of mushrooms.

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People associate mushrooms
and fungi-- you know, mold--

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with death and decay,
which makes sense.

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You know,
there's a lot of fear

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because of fungi's role
in the cycle of life.

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They decompose
dead and dying organisms

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and move all those nutrients
back into the cycle.

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They kind of are
at the very end of stuff,

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but they're also
at the beginning.

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[Michael Pollan] Once you start
working with mushrooms,

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you get drawn in.

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A really important difference
between plants and fungi

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is that plants have evolved
to catch your eye.

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When a tomato gets red,

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it is saying,
"Hey, I'm ready. Come get me."

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The mushrooms
don't give a shit.

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They're doing their own thing,
and a lot of them are hiding.

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Every time you pick up
a mushroom,

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you are faced
with the omnivore's dilemma.

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Do I know enough
to eat this?

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Should I eat this?

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Will this kill me?

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And that's one
of the reasons why

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people are freaked out
about mushrooms, because yeah,

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there are ones
that can kill you.

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There are some that'll take out
your liver or your kidneys,

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but to be honest with you,

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there's berries in the woods
that can kill you too.

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So, it's really a matter
of knowing your mushrooms.

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There's a huge subculture
of mycophiles,

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of people who are fascinated
with mushrooms.

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They hunt mushrooms together,
and they eat mushrooms together,

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and they're sort
of bloated pleasure seekers

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with a scientific bent.

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You know,
really my kind of crowd.

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[Gary Lincoff]
This is a tricholoma.

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[Bone]
Grifola frondosa.

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[Lincoff] This is
Cortinarius [indistinct].

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[Bone]
Agaricus bisporus.

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That's a Cladonia lichen.

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[Bone] So I started attending
these festivals and forays

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and learning more and more.

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It changed the way
I saw everything.

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Mushrooms actually
were the window by which

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I came to understand nature
in a deeper way.

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[Stamets]
lf we didn't have fungi,

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we would get this buildup

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of plant matter that
would choke the Earth.

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They really are the key.

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They break down plant life
and make it usable

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for new plant life
and for animal life.

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[Bone] They are the digestive
tracts of the forest.

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One of the lifestyles of fungi
is as decomposers,

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called saprobes or rotters,
if you want.

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The yeasts and molds used

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In making beer and wine
and cheese

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are all saprobes.

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That's actually
a penicillin mold

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in Gorgonzola
and Roquefort.

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Bourbon
is fungi-fermented corn.

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But this ability
to break things down

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is a talent,
if you will,

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that can be harnessed

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to help us deal with some
of our problems like pollution.

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These rotters,

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they can break down
anything that's natural.

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That's what
they've evolved to do.

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Anything
that's hydrocarbon-based,

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so that includes stuff
like oil spills,

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pollutant problems.

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That's kind
of the truth of it.

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[Stamets] I was a part
of this experiment.

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There were four piles saturated
with diesel

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and other petroleum waste.

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One was a control pile,

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one pile was treated
with enzymes,

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one pile treated
with a bacteria,

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and our pile, we inoculated
with mushroom spores.

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The fungi absorbs the oil,

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so the fungi is producing
enzymes for oxidases

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that break
carbon-hydrogen bonds.

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These are the same bonds
that hold hydrocarbons together.

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So the fungi becomes saturated
with oil.

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And then when we returned
six weeks later,

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all the taros were removed.

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All the other piles

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were dead, dark and stinky.

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We came back to our pile.

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It was covered with hundreds
of pounds

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of oyster mushrooms.

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Some of these mushrooms
are very happy mushrooms.

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They were very large,

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by showing how much nutrition
that they could obtain.

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But something else happened,

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which was an epiphany
in my life.

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They sporulated.

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The spores attract insects.

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Birds then came,
bringing in seeds,

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and our pile became
an oasis of life.

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[Bone] Mushrooms are
the fruiting bodies of fungi.

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So the mushroom
is like the apple.

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The bulk of the organism
is growing underground

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and it's composed
of these long threads

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and these threads grow
one cell at a time

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and then they branch
and rebranch,

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growing in every direction
they can,

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even three-dimensionally.

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And that mass of threads
is called a mycelium.

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When a stick falls
onto the ground...

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you pull it up...

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and there's mycelium.

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It is virtually everywhere.

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A mycelium has more networks

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than our brain
has neural pathways,

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and works
in much the same way,

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with electrolytes,
electrical pulses.

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They're the most common species
on Earth.

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They're everywhere.

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Just to give you an idea

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of how much fungi
are in the forest,

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what you're walking through
is about 300 miles of fungi

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under every footstep
that you take.

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And that's
all over the world.

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And they form
these massive links.

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It's like a big web just growing
through the forest.

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Mycelium that can grow out
even just this big

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can have trillions,

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literally trillions,
of end branchings.

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Almost everyone knows
about the computer internet.

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The mycelium shares
the same network design.

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[PollanI]Trees are communicating,
using the mycelium as pathways.

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They're connecting
one tree to another.

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They're using the mycelium too
to feed one another.

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In other words,one tree can swap
nutrients with another tree,

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using mycelium
as the passageway.

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[Simard] So we often

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think of kin recognition
as an animal behavior.

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Humans, you know,
we love our babies.

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We know it's our baby,

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and we're going to look
after that baby.

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Well, we never thought
that plants could do that,

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but we're finding
in our research

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that plants can recognize
their own kin.

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So these mother trees
recognize their kin

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through
their mycorrhizal networks.

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The mother tree

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and the baby seedlings
are sending signals,

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talking to each other.

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When they're connected
together

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and carbon is moving
between plants,

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the trees are supporting
the weaker ones.

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If she Knows that there's pests around,
and that she's under danger,

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she will increase her competitive environment
towards her own babies,

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so that they regenerate
further away.

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It's a magical thing.

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And this could not happen
without the fungi.

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[Stamets] I'm not this
super-idealist tree hugger.

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I do hug trees occasionally.
I do confess to that,

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but I was a logger.
I cut the woods.

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Damn, we got a two-for-one
on that one.

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Cutting down these trees
and we're going to let them rot,

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00:13:34,390 --> 00:13:35,849
but we're letting them rot
with a purpose.

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We're letting them rot
with shiitake mushrooms,

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which are delicious
and medicinal... Yes!

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September of '74,

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Paul was working as a logger

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In Darrington.

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00:13:45,984 --> 00:13:47,360
I went up to visit him
one weekend,

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and we were out walking
in the woods,

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and I started showing him
all these mushrooms, you know?

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He says, "What are those?"

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00:13:53,074 --> 00:13:53,908
I said,
"You're looking at mushrooms,"

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_..for the first time.

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We came around a corner and
there's this purple mushroom.

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I'd never seen one
like that before.

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00:13:59,996 --> 00:14:01,080
It was just
like this huge epiphany,

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00:14:01,205 --> 00:14:02,415
like... Whoo-whoo!

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00:14:02,581 --> 00:14:04,500
You know?
And that's where it began.

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00:14:04,625 --> 00:14:06,377
He just never stopped.

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00:14:06,544 --> 00:14:09,839
These are old red belted
polypores.

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00:14:10,006 --> 00:14:12,466
Elegant polyporus.
It's got a furry stem.

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00:14:12,633 --> 00:14:14,885
This is a delicious
shrimp russula mushroom,

255
00:14:15,052 --> 00:14:16,220
edible and choice,

256
00:14:16,387 --> 00:14:18,389
and it grows here
in the old growth forest.

257
00:14:20,349 --> 00:14:25,062
[Pollan] It's rare in science you have
such powerful amateurs.

258
00:14:25,229 --> 00:14:26,897
The meaning of the word
"amateur" is a lover,

259
00:14:27,064 --> 00:14:29,066
and he loves his mushrooms.

260
00:14:29,233 --> 00:14:34,155
And he's proven that amateurs
can do credible, important research.

261
00:14:34,322 --> 00:14:35,239
And that used
to be the case.

262
00:14:35,406 --> 00:14:37,033
The 19th century obviously,

263
00:14:37,199 --> 00:14:39,035
you know, was full of
great amateur naturalists,

264
00:14:39,201 --> 00:14:40,536
Darwin being one of them.

265
00:14:45,416 --> 00:14:49,211
[Harman] He's handed over
to this universal consciousness.

266
00:14:49,378 --> 00:14:51,297
That's where genius
comes from.

267
00:14:52,881 --> 00:14:55,008
Every magnificent thing

268
00:14:55,175 --> 00:14:56,383
that humans have ever achieved

269
00:14:56,550 --> 00:14:58,052
comes from that place.

270
00:15:05,476 --> 00:15:09,104
[Paul Stamets] I grew up in a small town
called Columbiana, Ohio.

271
00:15:09,271 --> 00:15:11,774
Very conservative,
very religious.

272
00:15:11,940 --> 00:15:14,525
And my brother John
went to Yale,

273
00:15:14,650 --> 00:15:16,234
and my brother Bill went
to Cornell.

274
00:15:16,401 --> 00:15:18,487
SO we were
an academic family.

275
00:15:19,446 --> 00:15:22,407
But I had
a severe stuttering habit

276
00:15:22,574 --> 00:15:26,370
that greatly interfered with
my ability to express myself.

277
00:15:26,536 --> 00:15:29,497
I went through six years
of speech therapy.

278
00:15:29,622 --> 00:15:31,874
I could not speak
a single sentence

279
00:15:32,041 --> 00:15:34,543
without stuttering
profusely,

280
00:15:34,710 --> 00:15:37,295
and nothing in speech therapy
could help me.

281
00:15:39,631 --> 00:15:42,050
I couldn't look at people
in their eyes.

282
00:15:42,217 --> 00:15:45,136
So all my life,
I stared at the ground.

283
00:15:45,303 --> 00:15:47,972
Anybody came up to me,
I'd stare at the ground.

284
00:15:48,139 --> 00:15:49,641
I found fossils
and mushrooms.

285
00:16:00,318 --> 00:16:02,903
[wind blowing]

286
00:16:05,447 --> 00:16:08,158
[narrator]
We are all of the stars.

287
00:16:09,368 --> 00:16:12,037
My kingdom was born
from the heavens

288
00:16:12,204 --> 00:16:14,540
four and a half billion
years ago.

289
00:16:17,376 --> 00:16:19,002
We are the pioneers.

290
00:16:20,294 --> 00:16:24,257
We climbed out of the sea
to create the fertile soil,

291
00:16:26,133 --> 00:16:30,220
and set the stage
for all of life.

292
00:16:36,559 --> 00:16:39,186
[P. Stamens] In South Africa,
in the sediments of lava,

293
00:16:39,353 --> 00:16:42,189
they have found
fungus-like organisms,

294
00:16:42,356 --> 00:16:47,361
mycelium fossils in the lava
2.4 billion years old.

295
00:16:47,528 --> 00:16:52,408
This is the oldest record
of a multicellular organism on Earth.

296
00:16:54,452 --> 00:16:58,289
This year another fossil was found
in the sediments of Brazil.

297
00:16:58,456 --> 00:17:00,958
It's 113 million years old

298
00:17:01,125 --> 00:17:03,127
and it's a perfectly shaped
mushroom.

299
00:17:06,213 --> 00:17:11,010
We divided from fungi
about 650 million years ago.

300
00:17:11,177 --> 00:17:12,511
One branch led to fungi.

301
00:17:12,678 --> 00:17:15,931
The other branch led
to animals.

302
00:17:17,223 --> 00:17:21,436
We chose a path of encirculating our nutrients
in sort of a sac, the stomach.

303
00:17:21,603 --> 00:17:23,563
The mycelium
remained underground,

304
00:17:23,730 --> 00:17:26,315
externally digesting
its nutrients.

305
00:17:30,235 --> 00:17:32,195
Biodiversity surged...

306
00:17:38,618 --> 00:17:42,079
until we had these great
cataclysmic extinction events,

307
00:17:42,246 --> 00:17:45,207
and when the asteroids
impacted the Earth, bam!

308
00:17:45,373 --> 00:17:48,168
Enormous amounts of debris was
jettisoned in the atmosphere.

309
00:17:48,335 --> 00:17:49,711
Sunlight was cut off.

310
00:17:51,796 --> 00:17:53,507
Plants die, animals die...

311
00:17:55,258 --> 00:17:57,719
and fungi inherited
the Earth.

312
00:18:02,682 --> 00:18:06,520
From these extinction events,
there's one lesson.

313
00:18:06,686 --> 00:18:10,524
Those organisms
that paired with fungi survived.

314
00:18:12,776 --> 00:18:14,736
We are more closely related
to fungi

315
00:18:14,903 --> 00:18:16,655
than we are
to any other kingdom.

316
00:18:17,822 --> 00:18:21,284
What this means Is that
we are descendants of mycelium.

317
00:18:21,409 --> 00:18:24,329
Mycelium is the mother
of us all.

318
00:18:32,462 --> 00:18:34,714
[Pollan] Living creatures like fungi
are intelligent

319
00:18:34,839 --> 00:18:38,218
in the sense that they respond
to their environment,

320
00:18:38,385 --> 00:18:40,679
they seek out food,
and they defend themselves.

321
00:18:40,845 --> 00:18:44,266
They solve problems,
and that's intelligence.

322
00:18:52,816 --> 00:18:56,236
[Bone] A mycelium can
theoretically live forever

323
00:18:56,403 --> 00:18:59,196
as long as it
has food to grow into,

324
00:18:59,363 --> 00:19:03,242
which is why the oldest
and largest organism on Earth

325
00:19:03,409 --> 00:19:04,743
is a fungus.

326
00:19:04,910 --> 00:19:08,122
It lives on top
of a mountain in Oregon.

327
00:19:08,247 --> 00:19:09,415
It's like thousands
of acres,

328
00:19:09,582 --> 00:19:11,584
and It's thousands
of years old.

329
00:19:15,588 --> 00:19:19,592
The mushroom is the organ
of sexual reproduction

330
00:19:19,758 --> 00:19:23,262
for the spore
of the fungus.

331
00:19:24,263 --> 00:19:26,765
Fungi don't have seeds.
They have spores.

332
00:19:28,225 --> 00:19:31,604
The spores are extremely tiny,

333
00:19:31,770 --> 00:19:36,400
little lightweight
gene-carrying systems.

334
00:19:36,525 --> 00:19:38,694
When they land on something
they can eat,

335
00:19:38,861 --> 00:19:41,488
they break down the food
that they're on,

336
00:19:41,614 --> 00:19:43,782
and then reabsorb
the nutrients

337
00:19:43,949 --> 00:19:45,409
because you need
to move on

338
00:19:45,576 --> 00:19:48,745
and find another place
where there's food.

339
00:19:52,290 --> 00:19:58,546
The mushroom releases zillions
of spores into the atmosphere.

340
00:19:58,713 --> 00:20:00,381
There's so many spore.

341
00:20:00,548 --> 00:20:02,634
I mean,
you take one breath...

342
00:20:03,968 --> 00:20:06,512
you just breathed in
ten fungal spore.

343
00:20:06,679 --> 00:20:10,350
So they are everywhere.
We've evolved with them.

344
00:20:12,226 --> 00:20:14,395
[Harman]
When you see what mushrooms do,

345
00:20:14,562 --> 00:20:17,649
it's kind of spooky
in the most wonderful way.

346
00:20:17,815 --> 00:20:19,609
I mean, they correct everything
on Earth.

347
00:20:19,776 --> 00:20:21,235
They support life,

348
00:20:21,402 --> 00:20:22,403
they convert life,

349
00:20:22,570 --> 00:20:23,821
they carry life.

350
00:20:23,988 --> 00:20:25,572
They're remarkable beings.

351
00:20:27,741 --> 00:20:30,494
If humans become extinct...

352
00:20:30,661 --> 00:20:33,288
what's the next species
that will take over the Earth?

353
00:20:34,498 --> 00:20:37,834
Maybe mycelium already are
the dominant species,

354
00:20:38,001 --> 00:20:40,712
not just because they're the most
common species on Earth.

355
00:20:40,879 --> 00:20:42,589
They're everywhere.

356
00:20:42,756 --> 00:20:44,340
I mean, you look at humans.
There's seven billion of us,

357
00:20:44,507 --> 00:20:46,425
but we're just one little
creature wandering around,

358
00:20:46,550 --> 00:20:47,842
Incredibly vulnerable,

359
00:20:48,009 --> 00:20:51,346
and don't survive easily
if we're assaulted.

360
00:20:51,513 --> 00:20:54,391
[reporter] Hurricane Harvey
has started to make landfall

361
00:20:54,557 --> 00:20:56,184
here on the Texas coast.

362
00:20:56,351 --> 00:20:58,728
More than 30,000 people
are without power,

363
00:20:58,895 --> 00:21:01,564
and things are only expected
to get worse.

364
00:21:01,731 --> 00:21:03,441
[reporter 2] Puerto Rico
has had the worst storm

365
00:21:03,608 --> 00:21:04,651
in about a century,

366
00:21:04,818 --> 00:21:06,402
and it's struggling

367
00:21:06,568 --> 00:21:07,820
to Understand the new normal

368
00:21:07,986 --> 00:21:09,822
of months ahead
without basic services.

369
00:21:10,948 --> 00:21:12,324
[man] Climate change is one

370
00:21:12,491 --> 00:21:14,743
of the biggest threats
to our present world,

371
00:21:14,910 --> 00:21:17,246
to the future of our planet.

372
00:21:23,961 --> 00:21:26,880
[Simard] CO2 is our biggest
greenhouse gas.

373
00:21:27,047 --> 00:21:28,882
As plants photosynthesize,

374
00:21:29,049 --> 00:21:33,262
they literally inhale CO2
while exhaling oxygen.

375
00:21:38,475 --> 00:21:40,644
CO2 is what plants
photosynthesize,

376
00:21:40,811 --> 00:21:43,939
and they take that carbon,
and they put it in different places.

377
00:21:44,106 --> 00:21:45,816
They put it in their leaves,
in their trunks,

378
00:21:45,983 --> 00:21:49,570
but they put 70% of it,
we're finding, below ground.

379
00:21:55,659 --> 00:21:59,538
And the root systems trade that
carbon for nutrients.

380
00:21:59,705 --> 00:22:03,751
The carbon ends up in the fungal
cell walls, where it's stored.

381
00:22:10,048 --> 00:22:12,760
This fuels
the microbial community

382
00:22:12,926 --> 00:22:14,428
and all the other parts
of the food web,

383
00:22:14,595 --> 00:22:15,803
like the mites and nematodes,

384
00:22:15,970 --> 00:22:17,764
and they start
cycling nutrients

385
00:22:17,930 --> 00:22:19,514
through
that eating process.

386
00:22:20,974 --> 00:22:22,558
So the fungi
are really important

387
00:22:22,725 --> 00:22:24,852
in stabilizing carbon
in soils.

388
00:22:24,977 --> 00:22:26,896
Once the carbon is stable,

389
00:22:27,062 --> 00:22:30,274
it can stay there stored
for thousands of years.

390
00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:33,319
We know, for example,

391
00:22:33,486 --> 00:22:35,362
that carbon can move
from plant to plant,

392
00:22:35,529 --> 00:22:39,575
and it evens out the distribution of carbon
in that system.

393
00:22:39,742 --> 00:22:41,410
They're working really hard.

394
00:22:41,577 --> 00:22:43,662
If we maintain the plant,

395
00:22:43,829 --> 00:22:46,332
the forest, and the natural
fungal community,

396
00:22:46,499 --> 00:22:47,833
we've got a natural engine

397
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:49,794
that's just storing carbon
below ground.

398
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:51,879
So it's essential.

399
00:22:52,046 --> 00:22:53,756
You know,
it's there for us, right?

400
00:22:53,923 --> 00:22:55,466
It's right
in front of us.

401
00:22:58,677 --> 00:23:01,305
[narrator]
We do more than make mushrooms.

402
00:23:02,723 --> 00:23:07,311
We have the ability to do so much more
than just breakdown matter.

403
00:23:09,896 --> 00:23:11,772
Like the fruit
of our labor,

404
00:23:11,939 --> 00:23:15,526
most of you have only scratched
the surface of our usefulness.

405
00:23:18,779 --> 00:23:21,323
We are the changers.

406
00:23:29,998 --> 00:23:32,583
[P. Stamets] I was 14 or 15 years
of age, I believe,

407
00:23:32,750 --> 00:23:34,710
when my brother John
gave me a book...

408
00:23:34,877 --> 00:23:37,880
called Altered States
of Consciousness.

409
00:23:38,047 --> 00:23:38,798
And within that book,

410
00:23:38,965 --> 00:23:40,049
Andy Weil was referenced

411
00:23:40,174 --> 00:23:41,550
on expanded consciousness,

412
00:23:41,716 --> 00:23:43,092
and I got really excited.

413
00:23:45,803 --> 00:23:48,889
I was going to charismatic
Christian revival meetings

414
00:23:49,056 --> 00:23:50,558
and seeing people
being saved,

415
00:23:50,724 --> 00:23:52,600
but it kind of was cool
from my perspective

416
00:23:52,767 --> 00:23:54,477
that they're achieving this
altered state of consciousness.

417
00:23:54,644 --> 00:23:57,021
So I thought that was part
of all the same idea here.

418
00:23:58,605 --> 00:24:01,108
I really owe credit
to Andrew Weill.

419
00:24:03,443 --> 00:24:05,529
[Andrew Weil] I think he read one
of my early books

420
00:24:05,696 --> 00:24:07,447
in which I wrote
about mushroom hunting

421
00:24:07,614 --> 00:24:09,700
and psychedelic mushrooms

422
00:24:09,867 --> 00:24:12,744
and made some reference
to medicinal mushrooms as well.

423
00:24:12,911 --> 00:24:13,787
It was like
a turning point.

424
00:24:13,954 --> 00:24:15,873
You know,
I certainly was awakened.

425
00:24:15,998 --> 00:24:18,458
Other people were thinking
about expanding consciousness.

426
00:24:19,459 --> 00:24:22,546
And so I gave this book
to my friend Ryan Snyder.

427
00:24:22,713 --> 00:24:24,882
So Ryan took it home
and a few days later,

428
00:24:25,048 --> 00:24:26,466
I said,
"Ryan, where's my book?"

429
00:24:26,633 --> 00:24:29,052
And he told me
his dad had burned it.

430
00:24:30,053 --> 00:24:33,724
I said, "Burned my book’?"

431
00:24:33,891 --> 00:24:36,810
Rather than giving it back to me
or calling my parents,

432
00:24:36,977 --> 00:24:39,938
he actually took the initiative
to burn this book.

433
00:24:42,149 --> 00:24:46,528
I owe Ryan Snyder's father
a deep debt of gratitude

434
00:24:46,695 --> 00:24:51,408
because that single act
galvanized my interest

435
00:24:51,575 --> 00:24:53,367
saying, "If this is so powerful

436
00:24:53,534 --> 00:24:55,995
to cause a person to do
such a bizarre act,

437
00:24:56,162 --> 00:24:59,832
then I should examine
what this subject's all about."

438
00:25:03,669 --> 00:25:06,672
[Charles Grob] Human existence
on this Earth goes back

439
00:25:06,797 --> 00:25:09,675
an extraordinarily long
period of time,

440
00:25:09,842 --> 00:25:14,013
most of which we have
no identifiable information.

441
00:25:14,180 --> 00:25:16,641
It's entirely plausible,

442
00:25:16,807 --> 00:25:19,477
given that the indigenous people
all around the world

443
00:25:19,644 --> 00:25:21,562
know intimately
all the plant life,

444
00:25:21,729 --> 00:25:24,522
and will know the different
combinations of plant life

445
00:25:24,689 --> 00:25:26,733
that our prehistoric
ancestors,

446
00:25:26,858 --> 00:25:31,404
they had come across the plants
that do alter consciousness.

447
00:25:32,739 --> 00:25:34,658
[Dennis McKenna]
In about two million years,

448
00:25:34,824 --> 00:25:37,661
the human cortex tripled
in size,

449
00:25:37,827 --> 00:25:42,540
and the brain exploded
over a ridiculously short span

450
00:25:42,707 --> 00:25:44,709
of evolutionary time.

451
00:25:44,876 --> 00:25:48,045
Two million years is nothing
when it comes to evolution.

452
00:25:48,212 --> 00:25:50,130
What triggered that?

453
00:25:50,255 --> 00:25:51,757
[P. Stamens]
In the late 1970s,

454
00:25:51,882 --> 00:25:54,051
Terrence McKenna
and his brother Dennis McKenna

455
00:25:54,218 --> 00:25:58,430
were the first that proposed
the Stoned Ape hypothesis.

456
00:25:58,555 --> 00:26:00,808
It is Known now
that 22 primates--

457
00:26:00,975 --> 00:26:04,061
23, including us--
consume mushrooms.

458
00:26:05,145 --> 00:26:07,940
And the idea Is our ancestors,
they came out of the trees

459
00:26:08,107 --> 00:26:09,024
and went across the savannah,

460
00:26:09,191 --> 00:26:10,401
would be tracking animals

461
00:26:10,567 --> 00:26:11,193
that were pooping.

462
00:26:12,820 --> 00:26:13,821
Well, in the subtropics,

463
00:26:13,988 --> 00:26:15,072
the most common mushroom

464
00:26:15,239 --> 00:26:16,699
coming out
of those cow patties

465
00:26:16,865 --> 00:26:20,077
is Psilocybe cubensis,
a potent magic mushroom.

466
00:26:20,202 --> 00:26:21,578
[McKenna]
One thing that mushrooms

467
00:26:21,745 --> 00:26:23,621
and other psychedelics
do reliably

468
00:26:23,788 --> 00:26:26,040
is they induce
a synesthesia.

469
00:26:27,291 --> 00:26:31,462
synesthesia Is the perception
of one sensory modality

470
00:26:31,629 --> 00:26:32,505
In another,

471
00:26:32,672 --> 00:26:34,464
hearing colors, for example,

472
00:26:34,631 --> 00:26:36,633
or seeing music.

473
00:26:47,227 --> 00:26:49,688
You have these profound
experiences

474
00:26:49,855 --> 00:26:53,567
and you have to put yourself
in their place

475
00:26:53,692 --> 00:26:56,236
and imagine what the impact
of such an experience

476
00:26:56,403 --> 00:26:58,321
must have been
on an early hominid.

477
00:26:59,405 --> 00:27:00,905
These magic mushrooms open up

478
00:27:01,072 --> 00:27:03,241
the floodgates of information
you receive.

479
00:27:04,409 --> 00:27:06,828
Basically, you can think of it
as a contact fluid

480
00:27:06,953 --> 00:27:10,081
between the synapses
within the brain-- Wow!

481
00:27:10,248 --> 00:27:11,624
What a competitive
advantage,

482
00:27:11,791 --> 00:27:12,709
especially if you're working

483
00:27:12,834 --> 00:27:13,960
with a geometry of weapons,

484
00:27:14,127 --> 00:27:15,711
or having
to put together something

485
00:27:15,878 --> 00:27:18,087
that will give you a better
chance of survival.

486
00:27:19,130 --> 00:27:21,966
The fact that this happened
not once, not twice,

487
00:27:22,133 --> 00:27:24,677
but millions
upon millions of times

488
00:27:24,844 --> 00:27:26,220
over millions of years

489
00:27:26,387 --> 00:27:28,181
Is a very plausible
explanation

490
00:27:28,347 --> 00:27:32,100
for the tripling of the brain
two million years ago.

491
00:27:32,267 --> 00:27:35,687
[McKenna] It's not so simple to say that they ate
psilocybin mushrooms

492
00:27:35,854 --> 00:27:37,189
and suddenly the brain mutated.

493
00:27:37,355 --> 00:27:39,023
I think it's more complex
than that,

494
00:27:39,190 --> 00:27:41,066
but I think it was a factor.

495
00:27:41,941 --> 00:27:43,651
It was like a software

496
00:27:43,818 --> 00:27:48,615
to program this neurologically
modern hardware to think,

497
00:27:48,740 --> 00:27:51,951
to have cognition,
to have language

498
00:27:52,118 --> 00:27:54,621
because language
is essentially synesthesia.

499
00:27:54,788 --> 00:27:56,206
Language
is just association

500
00:27:56,372 --> 00:27:58,374
with apparently
meaningless sound

501
00:27:58,541 --> 00:28:01,795
except that it's associated
with the complex of meaning.

502
00:28:02,837 --> 00:28:06,216
A great deal of the brain's
real estate, you might say,

503
00:28:06,382 --> 00:28:08,342
is devoted to the generation

504
00:28:08,509 --> 00:28:11,011
and/or the comprehension
of language.

505
00:28:11,178 --> 00:28:14,807
Those neural structures
are not found in our ancestors.

506
00:28:14,973 --> 00:28:17,726
That's a human trait
to have so much physiology

507
00:28:17,893 --> 00:28:21,230
devoted to generating
and understanding language,

508
00:28:21,396 --> 00:28:23,857
and that's a reflection
of evolutionary advance

509
00:28:24,024 --> 00:28:25,859
that made us
what we are.

510
00:28:31,030 --> 00:28:33,950
[P. Stamens] I couldn't get these
mushrooms for the longest time.

511
00:28:34,117 --> 00:28:35,576
When I was in Ohio,

512
00:28:35,743 --> 00:28:38,621
I actually purchased
a bag of magic mushrooms,

513
00:28:38,746 --> 00:28:40,038
but I had no guide.

514
00:28:40,205 --> 00:28:43,875
I had no recommendations
for how much to consume.

515
00:28:44,042 --> 00:28:46,753
So I had a bag about this big,
so I thought,

516
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:48,672
“Well, that's probably
one dose."

517
00:28:48,839 --> 00:28:50,131
So I consumed the bag!

518
00:28:51,090 --> 00:28:53,134
Now, for those of you
who don't know,

519
00:28:53,300 --> 00:28:54,635
this is like ten times more

520
00:28:54,802 --> 00:28:57,011
than you probably need
to consume.

521
00:28:57,137 --> 00:28:58,345
It was a warm Summer day,

522
00:28:58,512 --> 00:29:02,182
and there was a beautiful
big, big tree,

523
00:29:02,349 --> 00:29:03,350
an oak tree,

524
00:29:03,517 --> 00:29:04,725
and then I noticed

525
00:29:04,892 --> 00:29:06,394
the black clouds
on the horizon,

526
00:29:06,561 --> 00:29:08,855
and I realized
there was a storm coming.

527
00:29:09,021 --> 00:29:10,273
And I thought,
"This is great.

528
00:29:10,398 --> 00:29:11,649
There's great visual.
The storm coming."

529
00:29:11,816 --> 00:29:12,900
And I thought,

530
00:29:13,067 --> 00:29:14,359
“Fm going to climb
to the top of the tree."

531
00:29:14,526 --> 00:29:15,944
So I'm starting
to feel the effects.

532
00:29:22,450 --> 00:29:27,289
I'm getting waves
where the air becomes a liquid,

533
00:29:27,455 --> 00:29:29,291
and...

534
00:29:29,457 --> 00:29:33,086
you'd have this distortion field
go through the visual landscape.

535
00:29:33,253 --> 00:29:35,213
I've never seen that before,

536
00:29:35,380 --> 00:29:38,884
and go, "Oh wow, this is what
they were talking about."

537
00:29:39,050 --> 00:29:41,427
And I see the boiling clouds
are coming closer,

538
00:29:41,594 --> 00:29:43,679
but they're looking angry now.

539
00:29:43,804 --> 00:29:46,056
And then the lightning strikes
would go...

540
00:29:46,223 --> 00:29:48,726
[imitating lightning strikes]

541
00:29:48,851 --> 00:29:50,895
and then
all these geometrical fractals

542
00:29:51,061 --> 00:29:53,189
would emanate out
of the lightning strikes.

543
00:29:53,355 --> 00:29:54,231
And pretty soon,

544
00:29:54,398 --> 00:29:55,399
I have these overlying mosaics

545
00:29:55,566 --> 00:29:57,150
of mathematical patterns

546
00:29:57,317 --> 00:29:59,861
and geometric figures
of multiple colors

547
00:30:00,028 --> 00:30:02,113
that are swimming
in this field of vision

548
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,407
that these waves
were flying through.

549
00:30:04,574 --> 00:30:07,869
I've never in my life
seen anything like that before.

550
00:30:09,245 --> 00:30:11,289
Wind's increasing
and the rains would come,

551
00:30:11,456 --> 00:30:13,791
and I became extremely scared.

552
00:30:13,958 --> 00:30:16,085
And then also I realize
I'm on the top of a hill,

553
00:30:16,252 --> 00:30:18,379
I got a lightning storm
in the tallest tree.

554
00:30:18,546 --> 00:30:19,756
Not the best place to be

555
00:30:19,923 --> 00:30:20,715
when you're going to choose

556
00:30:20,882 --> 00:30:21,841
a spiritual experience.

557
00:30:22,008 --> 00:30:23,426
And so I held onto the tree

558
00:30:23,593 --> 00:30:24,844
for dear life,

559
00:30:25,011 --> 00:30:26,346
and that tree
was my pillar,

560
00:30:26,512 --> 00:30:27,972
back into the core
of the Earth.

561
00:30:28,139 --> 00:30:30,850
And I felt secure as long
as I held onto the tree.

562
00:30:31,559 --> 00:30:33,853
Lightning strikes all around.
Thunderclaps.

563
00:30:34,020 --> 00:30:36,064
One second between the lightning strike
and a thunderclap.

564
00:30:36,231 --> 00:30:37,941
You knew it was coming
closer and closer.

565
00:30:39,108 --> 00:30:41,945
I was terrified
that I wouldn't survive,

566
00:30:43,112 --> 00:30:45,907
And through
this "terr-rific’ experience,

567
00:30:46,074 --> 00:30:47,992
terrifying and terrific
at the same time,

568
00:30:48,159 --> 00:30:49,243
I'm up in this tree
and I'm saying,

569
00:30:49,409 --> 00:30:51,328
"Well, what should I focus on?"

570
00:30:51,495 --> 00:30:53,205
I said, "Well, Stamets,
you're not stupid.

571
00:30:53,372 --> 00:30:55,207
But you stutter all the time.”

572
00:30:56,124 --> 00:30:59,253
And so I thought
I need to stop stuttering.

573
00:31:00,170 --> 00:31:02,381
And so I said to myself,
"Stop stuttering.

574
00:31:02,547 --> 00:31:04,841
Stop stuttering now."

575
00:31:05,008 --> 00:31:07,177
A little inner voice
in my head.

576
00:31:07,344 --> 00:31:09,846
"You hear me?
Stop stuttering now."

577
00:31:10,013 --> 00:31:11,348
I started saying that.

578
00:31:11,515 --> 00:31:13,099
"Stop stuttering now.
Stop stuttering now."

579
00:31:13,266 --> 00:31:15,309
Hundreds, hundreds, hundreds,
thousands of times.

580
00:31:21,148 --> 00:31:22,400
After the storm had passed,

581
00:31:22,566 --> 00:31:24,442
I came down
from the tree drenched,

582
00:31:24,609 --> 00:31:26,361
soaked to the bone,

583
00:31:26,528 --> 00:31:28,530
you know,
in love with life,

584
00:31:28,697 --> 00:31:30,865
with nature,
in love with that tree.

585
00:31:31,032 --> 00:31:33,076
That tree was so important
to me.

586
00:31:33,243 --> 00:31:34,786
And I went home,

587
00:31:34,953 --> 00:31:36,079
and I went to bed.

588
00:31:36,246 --> 00:31:37,372
I didn't see anybody.

589
00:31:37,539 --> 00:31:38,999
And the next morning
I woke up,

590
00:31:39,165 --> 00:31:42,002
and there was
a really attractive lady

591
00:31:42,168 --> 00:31:43,460
that I liked a lot,

592
00:31:43,627 --> 00:31:45,295
but I could never stare at her
in the eyes,

593
00:31:45,461 --> 00:31:47,714
because I was afraid to stutter
and embarrass myself.

594
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,465
So better to avoid social contact
than have social contact,

595
00:31:50,590 --> 00:31:52,509
even though
I was really attracted to her.

596
00:31:52,676 --> 00:31:53,844
And she liked me,

597
00:31:54,011 --> 00:31:55,262
but I didn't Know what to do
with it,

598
00:31:55,429 --> 00:31:56,513
with that tension.

599
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:58,140
And so she was walking past me,

600
00:31:58,307 --> 00:31:59,433
and she looked at me,

601
00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:00,851
and she said,
"Good morning, Paul."

602
00:32:01,018 --> 00:32:02,185
And for the first time

603
00:32:02,311 --> 00:32:03,770
I looked her straight
in the eye

604
00:32:03,895 --> 00:32:05,981
and I said,
"Good morning. How are you?"

605
00:32:06,148 --> 00:32:08,859
And I stopped stuttering
in one session.

606
00:32:18,910 --> 00:32:22,414
[electronic rap playing
in the truck]

607
00:32:31,006 --> 00:32:33,215
This is the newest thing
my employees are listening to.

608
00:32:33,382 --> 00:32:36,260
My employees are my best
source of new music.

609
00:32:36,427 --> 00:32:39,347
We love loud music for the mushrooms
in the laboratories.

610
00:32:39,513 --> 00:32:43,184
It causes everyone
to be synchronized.

611
00:32:43,351 --> 00:32:45,519
We have a lot of nonverbal
Communication in laboratories.

612
00:32:45,644 --> 00:32:47,020
You're not allowed to talk.

613
00:32:47,187 --> 00:32:48,855
Your mouth spreads bacteria.

614
00:32:48,980 --> 00:32:50,356
So we try
to minimize talking.

615
00:32:50,522 --> 00:32:53,317
So a lot of it is done
by gestures and knowing.

616
00:32:53,484 --> 00:32:55,402
So, why not have it
with loud music?

617
00:32:58,238 --> 00:32:59,490
My dad was a businessman.

618
00:32:59,656 --> 00:33:01,532
I swore
I'd never become one,

619
00:33:01,699 --> 00:33:03,868
but I wanted to be
independent,

620
00:33:04,577 --> 00:33:06,954
so I created
a little mail-order business

621
00:33:07,121 --> 00:33:10,208
in order to supply myself and other people who had
like interest in mushrooms.

622
00:33:11,667 --> 00:33:13,127
When we started the business,

623
00:33:13,294 --> 00:33:15,296
it was extremely difficult
back then,

624
00:33:15,463 --> 00:33:17,047
and we didn't have
the resources.

625
00:33:17,214 --> 00:33:18,382
We were putting
little advertisements

626
00:33:18,548 --> 00:33:20,342
In Organic Gardening magazine

627
00:33:20,509 --> 00:33:23,345
back when there was only
three television stations.

628
00:33:25,430 --> 00:33:26,473
I invented this business

629
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:27,808
so I could buy equipment

630
00:33:27,974 --> 00:33:29,934
for my laboratory wholesale.

631
00:33:34,021 --> 00:33:36,482
Amazing to me,
we have nearly 100 employees

632
00:33:36,649 --> 00:33:39,318
and thousands
of media outlets.

633
00:33:41,153 --> 00:33:43,072
These mushrooms
were so powerful to me

634
00:33:43,197 --> 00:33:45,616
that I realized
that I wanted to study them.

635
00:33:46,575 --> 00:33:49,286
This mushroom that's Known as
reishi, or lingzhi,

636
00:33:49,453 --> 00:33:51,497
the mushroom
of immortality.

637
00:33:51,664 --> 00:33:54,500
And it's one of the most amazing
and interesting mushrooms

638
00:33:54,667 --> 00:33:56,210
that we've ever grown.

639
00:33:57,502 --> 00:34:01,255
This mushroom helps the immunity
of not only people, but bees.

640
00:34:14,309 --> 00:34:15,519
Up this hill here,

641
00:34:15,644 --> 00:34:17,312
we have a quarter section
of property,

642
00:34:17,438 --> 00:34:18,981
160 acres,

643
00:34:19,106 --> 00:34:22,067
and we have a large
mycological experiment.

644
00:34:23,026 --> 00:34:24,528
We planted 33,000 trees,

645
00:34:24,695 --> 00:34:26,989
half with mycorrhizal fungi
attached to the roots,

646
00:34:27,156 --> 00:34:27,948
half without,

647
00:34:28,115 --> 00:34:30,617
and this is year nine.

648
00:34:30,742 --> 00:34:33,370
SO, we are putting into
an Excel spreadsheet,

649
00:34:33,537 --> 00:34:35,873
or have put in
1,100 trees

650
00:34:36,039 --> 00:34:38,333
to compare the treatments.

651
00:34:38,500 --> 00:34:39,710
I came into a chunk of change

652
00:34:39,877 --> 00:34:42,588
from licensing one
of my patents,

653
00:34:42,754 --> 00:34:46,008
and so when the political
climate of the USA changed

654
00:34:46,175 --> 00:34:47,718
to be adverse
to environmentalists,

655
00:34:47,885 --> 00:34:49,385
we bought land in Canada.

656
00:34:53,473 --> 00:34:54,557
[Pollan] I think the fact

657
00:34:54,724 --> 00:34:57,143
that he didn't come up on
a conventional academic pathway

658
00:34:57,310 --> 00:34:58,394
Is part of the reason
he's as willing

659
00:34:58,561 --> 00:35:00,605
to really explore ideas
that...

660
00:35:00,730 --> 00:35:02,273
are not
on anyone else's radar.

661
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,320
[P. Stamens] I'm really honored
that I discovered a few things

662
00:35:07,487 --> 00:35:09,238
that no one else
had yet discovered.

663
00:35:09,405 --> 00:35:13,158
So, I have now five patents
on entomopathogenic fungi.

664
00:35:13,325 --> 00:35:15,160
These are fungi
that infect insects,

665
00:35:15,327 --> 00:35:18,038
and in particular,
termites.

666
00:35:18,205 --> 00:35:20,248
The biggest problem in
the commercialization

667
00:35:20,415 --> 00:35:22,334
of biopesticides
from fungi

668
00:35:22,459 --> 00:35:24,544
has been the spore
repellency property.

669
00:35:24,711 --> 00:35:27,464
The insects avoid the spores
of these fungi.

670
00:35:27,631 --> 00:35:29,215
In fact,
SO concerned are termites

671
00:35:29,381 --> 00:35:31,175
that if a worker goes out
and encounters this fungus,

672
00:35:31,342 --> 00:35:33,511
when the worker returns back
to the nest,

673
00:35:33,677 --> 00:35:35,471
guards,
they'll capture that worker

674
00:35:35,638 --> 00:35:37,138
that's infected
with these spores,

675
00:35:37,305 --> 00:35:38,681
take the worker
to a graveyard,

676
00:35:38,848 --> 00:35:41,726
and they cut off
the worker's head,

677
00:35:41,893 --> 00:35:44,062
and then the two guards
commit suicide.

678
00:35:44,187 --> 00:35:45,647
They're trying to protect
the queen and the nest

679
00:35:45,813 --> 00:35:47,397
and the colony
from infection.

680
00:35:47,564 --> 00:35:48,648
And I discovered something

681
00:35:48,814 --> 00:35:51,108
that no one else
had ever reported

682
00:35:51,275 --> 00:35:52,651
in the scientific literature.

683
00:35:52,817 --> 00:35:55,529
I found a biological switch
that delayed sporulation,

684
00:35:55,695 --> 00:35:58,406
and then the insects
were not repelled.

685
00:35:58,573 --> 00:36:00,492
But they were
super attracted,

686
00:36:00,659 --> 00:36:03,703
which means one finds the fungus
now, and others follow,

687
00:36:03,870 --> 00:36:05,622
and it ends up
being a Trojan horse.

688
00:36:05,747 --> 00:36:08,625
The same fungi now are taken
past the guards,

689
00:36:08,792 --> 00:36:10,084
given to the queen,

690
00:36:10,251 --> 00:36:11,710
the queen feeds it
to the brood.

691
00:36:11,877 --> 00:36:14,672
The whole colony becomes mummified
with this mycelium,

692
00:36:14,838 --> 00:36:19,426
and, whoosh! The whole colony
is infected and dies.

693
00:36:19,593 --> 00:36:21,553
And then the spore repellency
properties

694
00:36:21,678 --> 00:36:24,138
protects your house
from subsequent invasions.

695
00:36:24,305 --> 00:36:26,391
This is a huge discovery.

696
00:36:26,558 --> 00:36:28,226
And then I tried it
with carpenter ants,

697
00:36:28,351 --> 00:36:30,478
with fire ants,
fungus gnats,

698
00:36:30,645 --> 00:36:31,813
and then mosquitoes,

699
00:36:31,980 --> 00:36:33,648
and now werre working
with bed bugs,

700
00:36:33,815 --> 00:36:36,400
and we've had successes
across the board.

701
00:36:41,738 --> 00:36:44,825
The entire ecosystem
is infused with fungi.

702
00:36:46,285 --> 00:36:50,455
So, I see these deep reservoirs
of the ecology all around us.

703
00:36:58,505 --> 00:37:00,424
[narrator]
In a world of invention,

704
00:37:00,591 --> 00:37:02,383
the answer
to our greatest problems

705
00:37:02,508 --> 00:37:05,885
may be hiding right
under our feet.

706
00:37:07,261 --> 00:37:08,596
[Bone] There are mushrooms

707
00:37:08,762 --> 00:37:11,139
that have been used
in Western medicine.

708
00:37:11,306 --> 00:37:13,098
Penicillin, for example,

709
00:37:13,265 --> 00:37:15,684
is a really effective
antibiotic.

710
00:37:16,727 --> 00:37:19,146
Before it was synthesized,
during the Civil War,

711
00:37:19,313 --> 00:37:21,522
when a soldier
would get wounded,

712
00:37:21,689 --> 00:37:24,482
they would slap a piece
of moldy bread on his wound

713
00:37:24,649 --> 00:37:28,153
to benefit from
those antibiotic properties,

714
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:29,738
so he wouldnt get
an infection.

715
00:37:31,906 --> 00:37:35,744
[P. Stamens] Alexander Fleming
discovered penicillin in 1927.

716
00:37:35,869 --> 00:37:36,786
The problem was that

717
00:37:36,953 --> 00:37:38,204
they couldn't find strains

718
00:37:38,371 --> 00:37:39,455
that could be
commercialized,

719
00:37:39,622 --> 00:37:41,414
that could produce enough
of it

720
00:37:41,581 --> 00:37:42,832
in a commercially
economic fashion.

721
00:37:43,916 --> 00:37:45,292
We fast forward,

722
00:37:45,459 --> 00:37:47,251
and in 1942,

723
00:37:47,418 --> 00:37:50,211
a group of researchers
in Chicago went shopping,

724
00:37:50,378 --> 00:37:52,755
and a lab assistant found
a cantaloupe that was rotting

725
00:37:52,921 --> 00:37:54,881
with a beautiful
golden mold,

726
00:37:57,258 --> 00:37:58,801
and from that strain,

727
00:37:58,968 --> 00:38:02,472
we got the first hyper-producing
strain of penicillium.

728
00:38:04,641 --> 00:38:06,267
Penicillin literally saved

729
00:38:06,434 --> 00:38:09,145
tens of thousands
of soldiers’ lives.

730
00:38:09,270 --> 00:38:10,605
The Brits had this,

731
00:38:10,772 --> 00:38:12,899
but the Germans
and the Japanese did not.

732
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:17,362
It's been suggested
that the discovery

733
00:38:17,528 --> 00:38:19,404
of this hyper-producing strain
of penicillin

734
00:38:19,571 --> 00:38:22,366
was a significant influence
in winning World War Il.

735
00:38:22,532 --> 00:38:25,869
Alexander Fleming then received
the Nobel Prize in 1945,

736
00:38:25,994 --> 00:38:28,455
in recognition
of the huge impact

737
00:38:28,622 --> 00:38:30,749
that penicillin had
on human health.

738
00:38:38,757 --> 00:38:41,718
[Bone] Here's how medicinal
mushrooms are thought to work:

739
00:38:42,761 --> 00:38:46,514
A fungus will produce
all kinds of enzymes--

740
00:38:46,681 --> 00:38:48,473
it's like
a chemical warfare--

741
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,433
in order to fight off
competition for food,

742
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,602
like other microbes,

743
00:38:53,769 --> 00:38:57,314
other fungi,
bacteria, virus.

744
00:38:57,481 --> 00:39:00,484
That's what makes
antibiotics work.

745
00:39:00,651 --> 00:39:03,153
Chemicals that are produced
by fungus,

746
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:05,739
like the one
that penicillin is made from,

747
00:39:05,906 --> 00:39:07,241
the fungus produces it

748
00:39:07,408 --> 00:39:09,493
to kill bacteria
that are competition,

749
00:39:09,660 --> 00:39:13,288
and when we take penicillin,
it kills our bacteria.

750
00:39:14,456 --> 00:39:16,416
[Weil] There's a long tradition
of using mushrooms

751
00:39:16,582 --> 00:39:18,626
as medicines in East Asia,

752
00:39:18,793 --> 00:39:21,421
especially in Korea,
China, and Japan.

753
00:39:21,587 --> 00:39:23,923
They appear
to be able to enhance

754
00:39:24,090 --> 00:39:27,885
and protect the body's innate
defensive mechanisms.

755
00:39:28,052 --> 00:39:30,388
The uses for them fill niches

756
00:39:30,555 --> 00:39:33,599
for which we really don't have anything
in Western pharmacology.

757
00:39:33,766 --> 00:39:35,642
In Western medicine,
all of our effort

758
00:39:35,809 --> 00:39:38,270
is on identifying
agents of disease

759
00:39:38,437 --> 00:39:39,563
and eliminating them.

760
00:39:39,730 --> 00:39:40,605
That has its place,

761
00:39:40,772 --> 00:39:41,856
but we do almost nothing

762
00:39:42,022 --> 00:39:43,566
about supporting the good.

763
00:39:48,279 --> 00:39:50,781
[P. Stamets]
Shamans would treat patients

764
00:39:50,948 --> 00:39:52,616
and the diseases
were thought to be

765
00:39:52,783 --> 00:39:55,578
elements
of the spirit world.

766
00:39:55,745 --> 00:39:58,247
Well, physicians today
treat infections,

767
00:39:58,414 --> 00:40:00,458
and their spirits
are bacteria,

768
00:40:00,624 --> 00:40:02,626
or a pathogenic,
or viruses.

769
00:40:02,793 --> 00:40:04,962
So, whether the shamans
called them spirits

770
00:40:05,129 --> 00:40:08,298
or whether the scientists
call them microbes,

771
00:40:08,465 --> 00:40:10,257
with the invention
of microscopes

772
00:40:10,424 --> 00:40:12,885
we get to see the microscopic
universe and landscape

773
00:40:13,051 --> 00:40:16,889
that we thunder upon
with every footstep.

774
00:40:17,055 --> 00:40:19,266
The fact
that these fungal networks

775
00:40:19,391 --> 00:40:20,601
are seemingly invisible,

776
00:40:20,768 --> 00:40:21,769
but then represent themselves

777
00:40:21,935 --> 00:40:23,311
In a big flourishing mushroom

778
00:40:23,478 --> 00:40:24,729
In a matter of a few days,

779
00:40:24,896 --> 00:40:27,689
give us a window
into the invisible landscape

780
00:40:27,856 --> 00:40:29,274
underneath our feet.

781
00:40:45,874 --> 00:40:47,626
Fungal networks
have defended themselves

782
00:40:47,751 --> 00:40:50,796
against vectors of disease
for millions of years.

783
00:40:50,962 --> 00:40:54,382
Viral pandemics
occur periodically.

784
00:40:54,549 --> 00:40:57,677
Between 1347 and 1353,

785
00:40:57,803 --> 00:41:00,555
one-third
of the European population died

786
00:41:00,722 --> 00:41:02,265
from
the black plague.

787
00:41:03,725 --> 00:41:06,436
The great flu pandemic
of 1918,

788
00:41:06,603 --> 00:41:08,772
two percent
of the world population died.

789
00:41:08,939 --> 00:41:10,857
Millions upon millions
of people.

790
00:41:12,692 --> 00:41:16,279
I think everyone is aware
of the threat of bioterrorism,

791
00:41:16,446 --> 00:41:18,490
but few people
may know that

792
00:41:18,615 --> 00:41:20,784
Europeans were actively
involved,

793
00:41:20,951 --> 00:41:22,451
consciously
or unconsciously,

794
00:41:22,618 --> 00:41:24,578
in bioterrorism
against indigenous peoples,

795
00:41:24,745 --> 00:41:27,914
especially in the New World,
in Meso-America.

796
00:41:28,081 --> 00:41:29,624
They brought in diseases,

797
00:41:29,791 --> 00:41:30,959
and when you're extremely sick,

798
00:41:31,125 --> 00:41:33,378
you can't fight off an invader.

799
00:41:34,586 --> 00:41:36,546
It's an irony of history
that now,

800
00:41:36,712 --> 00:41:38,339
the US government
is interested

801
00:41:38,506 --> 00:41:41,425
in protecting people
from viral pandemics.

802
00:41:41,592 --> 00:41:43,636
[man] Paul Stamets cultured
numerous strains

803
00:41:43,803 --> 00:41:45,930
in his lab,
and prepared natural extract.

804
00:41:46,055 --> 00:41:47,765
He then submitted samples

805
00:41:47,932 --> 00:41:51,477
to the Defense Department's
BioShield program for testing.

806
00:41:51,644 --> 00:41:52,562
[P. Stamets] And Ironically,

807
00:41:52,728 --> 00:41:53,855
I have a debt of gratitude

808
00:41:54,021 --> 00:41:56,524
to Dick Cheney
and George W. Bush.

809
00:41:56,691 --> 00:41:59,360
It is vital that our nation
discuss and address the threat

810
00:41:59,485 --> 00:42:01,361
of pandemic flu now.

811
00:42:01,528 --> 00:42:02,863
[P. Stamets]
Their funding of that research

812
00:42:03,029 --> 00:42:04,697
led to some
very novel discoveries,

813
00:42:04,864 --> 00:42:06,949
to which
we're still elaborating today.

814
00:42:08,492 --> 00:42:09,910
And what we know about these
mycelium networks

815
00:42:10,077 --> 00:42:12,037
is they're learning membranes.

816
00:42:12,204 --> 00:42:14,915
They are self-learning
and network-based organisms

817
00:42:15,082 --> 00:42:17,835
that can share
and store knowledge.

818
00:42:18,002 --> 00:42:19,962
The mycelium
is vaccinating itself

819
00:42:20,129 --> 00:42:22,756
against pathogens
in the ecosystem.

820
00:42:22,882 --> 00:42:24,425
We can capitalize on this

821
00:42:24,550 --> 00:42:26,594
because many
of the same bacterial pathogens

822
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:30,431
that infect fungi,
also can infect animals.

823
00:42:30,598 --> 00:42:31,724
We have found novel molecules

824
00:42:31,891 --> 00:42:33,976
highly active
against pox viruses,

825
00:42:34,143 --> 00:42:35,477
novel molecules highly active

826
00:42:35,644 --> 00:42:38,063
against HPV,
the human papillomavirus.

827
00:42:39,189 --> 00:42:41,566
Many scientists are trying
to come up

828
00:42:41,733 --> 00:42:44,777
with the next antibiotic,
the next penicillin,

829
00:42:44,944 --> 00:42:47,155
but we have barely tapped
into the fungal genome,

830
00:42:47,322 --> 00:42:49,991
especially the mushroom form
of fungi.

831
00:42:51,951 --> 00:42:55,163
Think of it: our old-growth forests
that contain these ancient fungi

832
00:42:55,330 --> 00:42:57,415
are deep reservoirs

833
00:42:57,582 --> 00:43:00,668
of potential compounds
that can fight pandemic viruses.

834
00:43:00,835 --> 00:43:04,881
We should save the old-growth forest
as a matter of national defense.

835
00:43:15,183 --> 00:43:16,142
[Weil] I recommend mushrooms

836
00:43:16,309 --> 00:43:17,852
and mushroom products
frequently to patients

837
00:43:18,019 --> 00:43:20,188
and I teach other doctors
about their uses.

838
00:43:21,688 --> 00:43:25,025
Mushrooms have molecules
not found elsewhere in nature.

839
00:43:25,192 --> 00:43:27,694
There're some that have
totally unusual properties

840
00:43:27,819 --> 00:43:29,695
like Lion's Mane mushroom.

841
00:43:30,987 --> 00:43:32,614
[P. Stamets]
The Lion's Mane mushroom

842
00:43:32,781 --> 00:43:35,825
is a globular cascading
icicle-formed mushroom.

843
00:43:35,992 --> 00:43:37,868
Tastes like lobster
or shrimp when you cook it,

844
00:43:38,035 --> 00:43:41,038
but a researcher in Japan
by the name of Kara-Jishi

845
00:43:41,163 --> 00:43:43,666
discovered in around 1993,

846
00:43:43,832 --> 00:43:46,460
and I don't have the foggiest
idea how you discover this,

847
00:43:46,627 --> 00:43:51,090
but he discovered that this mushroom
stimulates nerves to regrow

848
00:43:51,215 --> 00:43:55,260
and he postulated it could be an effective
treatment against Alzheimer's.

849
00:43:56,552 --> 00:43:58,054
[Weil] Since we don't have
anything for Alzheimer's

850
00:43:58,221 --> 00:44:01,474
and since this Is nontoxic,
we should test it.

851
00:44:01,641 --> 00:44:03,935
Mushrooms are
completely unusual organisms

852
00:44:04,102 --> 00:44:05,812
and they're ignored
by so many people

853
00:44:05,979 --> 00:44:07,939
and yet
they're a vital interface

854
00:44:08,106 --> 00:44:09,941
between all forms
of life.

855
00:44:17,365 --> 00:44:19,157
[P. Stamets] At the University
of Southern Florida,

856
00:44:19,324 --> 00:44:21,743
a very interesting study
came out.

857
00:44:21,910 --> 00:44:24,079
Mice were trained to have
a conditioned fear response

858
00:44:24,246 --> 00:44:26,999
and so when there's a sound
that is associated with a pain,

859
00:44:27,124 --> 00:44:28,166
later on when they just heard
the sound,

860
00:44:28,333 --> 00:44:29,751
they cowered in fear.

861
00:44:32,212 --> 00:44:34,589
When they treated the mice
with psilocybin,

862
00:44:34,756 --> 00:44:36,800
the compound
of magic mushrooms,

863
00:44:36,967 --> 00:44:39,136
the mice dissociated
that link.

864
00:44:39,302 --> 00:44:42,597
The mice overcame
the fear-conditioned response.

865
00:44:42,764 --> 00:44:44,266
[Sanchez-Ramos]
We started with very low doses

866
00:44:44,433 --> 00:44:47,102
to as high a dose
as one milligram per kilogram.

867
00:44:47,269 --> 00:44:48,812
Now what was interesting,

868
00:44:48,979 --> 00:44:50,855
if you look
at double-labeled cells,

869
00:44:51,022 --> 00:44:52,732
in other words,
the birth of new neurons,

870
00:44:52,898 --> 00:44:56,110
we saw an increase
in neurogenesis.

871
00:44:56,277 --> 00:44:58,946
Neurogenesis literally means
"neuro" for nerves

872
00:44:59,113 --> 00:45:01,866
and "genesis,"
rebirth or beginning of.

873
00:45:02,033 --> 00:45:03,743
The regrowing of neurons.

874
00:45:06,704 --> 00:45:08,164
They were not using the same

875
00:45:08,330 --> 00:45:10,583
neurological pathways
they have in the past.

876
00:45:10,750 --> 00:45:12,250
This is really exciting

877
00:45:12,417 --> 00:45:16,046
because It means that the brain
has a plasticity about it,

878
00:45:16,212 --> 00:45:18,589
is able to heal,
is able to grow.

879
00:45:18,756 --> 00:45:20,758
It just needs
the right compounds

880
00:45:20,924 --> 00:45:23,719
to help it develop new
neurological pathways.

881
00:45:25,137 --> 00:45:26,597
We're all getting older.

882
00:45:26,764 --> 00:45:28,724
We'll all suffer some degree
of dementia.

883
00:45:33,270 --> 00:45:35,189
What compounds can we take

884
00:45:35,355 --> 00:45:38,275
that enhances and preserves
neurogenesis?

885
00:45:42,738 --> 00:45:44,281
I Know many, many people

886
00:45:44,448 --> 00:45:47,326
who would not dare take
a psilocybin mushroom trip,

887
00:45:47,493 --> 00:45:50,913
but the concept of them taking
one 50th of a dose,

888
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,916
something like that,
and it causes neurogenesis

889
00:45:54,083 --> 00:45:56,835
that might make them smarter
or in a better mood or happier?

890
00:45:57,002 --> 00:45:59,004
That's a whole different
subject.

891
00:46:02,965 --> 00:46:06,344
[narrator] We are on a never-ending
search for partners,

892
00:46:08,012 --> 00:46:10,597
life-affirming relationships,

893
00:46:13,058 --> 00:46:14,976
or at the very least,

894
00:46:15,143 --> 00:46:18,021
nourishment for the next leg
of our journey.

895
00:46:19,356 --> 00:46:23,317
We have flourished side by side
with your species

896
00:46:23,484 --> 00:46:27,363
symbiotically
for centuries.

897
00:46:30,241 --> 00:46:31,951
[Harman]
Many shamanic cultures

898
00:46:32,118 --> 00:46:34,078
relied on mushrooms

899
00:46:34,245 --> 00:46:36,705
for their transcendental
experiences.

900
00:46:36,872 --> 00:46:40,000
This is pre-religion
all over the world.

901
00:46:41,292 --> 00:46:43,711
It was all about
the individual's connection

902
00:46:43,878 --> 00:46:45,213
to the spiritual world,

903
00:46:45,380 --> 00:46:49,341
or the mystery that is
our context for living.

904
00:46:53,011 --> 00:46:55,722
These are ancient artifacts
from the Mayan culture.

905
00:46:55,889 --> 00:46:57,975
These are called
mushroom stones.

906
00:46:58,100 --> 00:46:59,600
This may be
the largest collection

907
00:46:59,725 --> 00:47:01,561
of mushroom stones
in the world.

908
00:47:01,727 --> 00:47:04,104
The Mayan culture
was very mycophillic

909
00:47:04,271 --> 00:47:07,064
and they revered mushroom stones
for divination,

910
00:47:07,231 --> 00:47:09,316
for spirituality.

911
00:47:09,483 --> 00:47:12,153
Also to be able
to predict incoming armies,

912
00:47:12,278 --> 00:47:14,029
and how to strategize
against them.

913
00:47:23,247 --> 00:47:27,793
A great ethnomycologist
by the name of R. Gordon Wasson

914
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:30,129
came up with the phrase
mycophilia,

915
00:47:30,296 --> 00:47:32,673
the love of mushrooms
that the Mayans shared.

916
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:34,716
Mycophobia
is a classically--

917
00:47:34,841 --> 00:47:36,759
the English
had a fear of mushrooms

918
00:47:36,926 --> 00:47:38,720
because they're enigmatic.

919
00:47:38,887 --> 00:47:40,930
You know, these mushrooms
can get you high,

920
00:47:41,097 --> 00:47:43,600
they can heal you, they can feed you,
they can kill you.

921
00:47:43,766 --> 00:47:47,103
And so that which is so powerful
is naturally feared.

922
00:47:47,270 --> 00:47:49,230
[Nicholas Cozzi] Wasson was
an amateur mycologist,

923
00:47:49,397 --> 00:47:51,733
a person
who studies mushrooms

924
00:47:51,900 --> 00:47:58,740
and was invited to participate
in a ceremony by a curandera,

925
00:47:58,907 --> 00:48:01,326
Maria Sabina in 1955.

926
00:48:02,327 --> 00:48:04,704
He took these mushrooms

927
00:48:04,829 --> 00:48:07,832
and had
a psychedelic experience...

928
00:48:10,043 --> 00:48:12,252
[P. Stamets] And when R. Gordon Wasson
came out with this research

929
00:48:12,419 --> 00:48:15,255
that was published
in Life magazine in 1957...

930
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:21,636
that was basically a field guide
to psilocybin mushrooms

931
00:48:21,802 --> 00:48:24,263
delivered
to tens of millions of Americans

932
00:48:24,430 --> 00:48:27,475
on their doorstep,
during the peak of the Cold War.

933
00:48:28,392 --> 00:48:31,353
This then was quickly noticed
by academics at Harvard

934
00:48:31,478 --> 00:48:36,066
and other lvy League schools
and then the cognoscenti,

935
00:48:36,233 --> 00:48:42,405
including Timothy Leary,
Ram Dass, and Dr. Andrew Weil.

936
00:48:42,572 --> 00:48:44,866
Why do mushrooms
produce molecules

937
00:48:45,033 --> 00:48:47,911
that fit receptors
in the human brain and body?

938
00:48:48,078 --> 00:48:50,038
What does that say?
What does that mean?

939
00:48:50,205 --> 00:48:52,790
I mean, does that mean that we're supposed to be
using these things?

940
00:48:53,791 --> 00:48:56,794
Psychedelics during
the '50s and '60s

941
00:48:56,961 --> 00:48:59,129
were the cutting edge
of psychiatric research.

942
00:48:59,296 --> 00:49:01,090
There were remarkable studies

943
00:49:01,257 --> 00:49:04,176
with very, very promising
findings.

944
00:49:05,928 --> 00:49:09,765
[Ross] Psychedelics became part
of research in psychiatry for 30 years.

945
00:49:09,932 --> 00:49:10,849
and there were several

946
00:49:11,016 --> 00:49:13,269
very interesting indications
that they were researched.

947
00:49:13,435 --> 00:49:15,729
The best data was actually
for alcoholism.

948
00:49:16,563 --> 00:49:19,275
[Grob] We found that having
a mystical experience

949
00:49:19,441 --> 00:49:21,025
during the course
of one session

950
00:49:21,192 --> 00:49:24,237
was the strongest predictor
of positive outcome,

951
00:49:24,404 --> 00:49:28,449
meaning maintaining sobriety
over the long follow-up period.

952
00:49:28,616 --> 00:49:30,326
It was very impressive.

953
00:49:31,494 --> 00:49:33,121
[Pollan]
Some of these drugs,

954
00:49:33,246 --> 00:49:35,415
they had "escaped the lab,”
as the phrase goes.

955
00:49:36,999 --> 00:49:39,042
Millions of people
were using them

956
00:49:39,209 --> 00:49:40,836
and you have to realize

957
00:49:41,003 --> 00:49:44,172
that this was a radical force
unleashed in the West.

958
00:49:51,305 --> 00:49:54,224
[Timothy Leary] The kids who take psychedelics
aren't going to fight your wars.

959
00:49:54,391 --> 00:49:56,435
They're not going to join
your corporations,

960
00:49:56,560 --> 00:49:58,228
they wont buy it.

961
00:49:58,395 --> 00:50:01,188
[Bill Richards] A lot was going on
back in the '6Os.

962
00:50:01,355 --> 00:50:04,734
It was a time
of rapid cultural change.

963
00:50:04,900 --> 00:50:07,778
There was irrational fears

964
00:50:07,945 --> 00:50:11,449
about too much cultural change
too fast.

965
00:50:11,574 --> 00:50:14,159
President Nixon
called Timothy Leary

966
00:50:14,326 --> 00:50:16,535
the most dangerous man
in America.

967
00:50:16,660 --> 00:50:19,413
We must wage what I have called
total war

968
00:50:19,580 --> 00:50:22,791
against public enemy number one
in the United States,

969
00:50:22,958 --> 00:50:24,501
the problem
with dangerous drugs.

970
00:50:27,504 --> 00:50:29,423
When everyone says
"shrooms" to me,

971
00:50:29,590 --> 00:50:31,382
it invokes this whole idea

972
00:50:31,549 --> 00:50:34,134
of using psilocybin mushrooms
as a party drug,

973
00:50:34,301 --> 00:50:37,554
They are so much more important
than just getting high.

974
00:50:41,850 --> 00:50:46,188
The movement to marginalize
the major psychedelics

975
00:50:46,355 --> 00:50:48,357
is incredibly complex.

976
00:50:48,523 --> 00:50:51,360
I mean, it plugged into
a counterculture movement,

977
00:50:51,526 --> 00:50:55,822
an anti-war movement,
an anti-establishment movement.

978
00:50:57,240 --> 00:51:00,535
There are many, many forces
that were at play.

979
00:51:08,126 --> 00:51:09,961
[Richards]
Somehow the fuse blew

980
00:51:10,128 --> 00:51:12,255
and one of the victims was

981
00:51:12,422 --> 00:51:16,259
the medical research
with psychedelics.

982
00:51:16,426 --> 00:51:21,264
There was a very irrational
and anti-scientific climate

983
00:51:21,431 --> 00:51:24,351
that was fueled even
in government pamphlets,

984
00:51:24,518 --> 00:51:27,062
really had
distorted information

985
00:51:27,229 --> 00:51:30,107
that was not scientifically
accurate.

986
00:51:31,942 --> 00:51:34,486
It was a bad trip,
instant insanity.

987
00:51:37,030 --> 00:51:39,533
[Ross] The research came
to a halt in 1970.

988
00:51:39,699 --> 00:51:41,367
War was declared on drugs.

989
00:51:41,534 --> 00:51:43,410
The Controlled Substances Act
was passed

990
00:51:43,576 --> 00:51:45,452
and the research essentially
was erased

991
00:51:45,619 --> 00:51:47,621
from being taught
in psychiatry.

992
00:51:48,705 --> 00:51:52,167
[Richards] I think I may have the dubious
distinction of being the last

993
00:51:52,334 --> 00:51:56,087
to give psilocybin
to a cancer patient

994
00:51:56,254 --> 00:51:58,256
at the Maryland
Psychiatric Research Center.

995
00:51:59,715 --> 00:52:02,676
And then the research
became completely dormant.

996
00:52:07,639 --> 00:52:10,392
In our evolution
as a species,

997
00:52:10,559 --> 00:52:12,602
we're at a point
of coming to terms

998
00:52:12,769 --> 00:52:15,397
with a major paradigm change.

999
00:52:16,523 --> 00:52:20,986
A change in how we view
what we call reality.

1000
00:52:25,031 --> 00:52:29,369
And that always evokes
tension and fears.

1001
00:52:31,329 --> 00:52:36,543
The culture wants to cling
to the old view of the universe.

1002
00:52:42,174 --> 00:52:44,426
[P. Stamets] You realize
that you've been limited all this time

1003
00:52:44,593 --> 00:52:46,344
with your perspective
of reality.

1004
00:52:46,511 --> 00:52:51,057
Had reality been known to you
at this level early on,

1005
00:52:51,224 --> 00:52:53,643
how much more evolved
would we be as beings?

1006
00:52:55,227 --> 00:52:57,146
A lot of people would be afraid
of that.

1007
00:53:00,858 --> 00:53:03,402
This is very dangerous
territory.

1008
00:53:03,569 --> 00:53:06,489
People want to give up the responsibility of
being able to understand

1009
00:53:07,406 --> 00:53:09,658
and because they can't understand,
then they have faith.

1010
00:53:09,825 --> 00:53:11,744
and they put their faith
in other people

1011
00:53:11,911 --> 00:53:13,162
who say
they can understand.

1012
00:53:13,329 --> 00:53:16,081
And I think it's a situation

1013
00:53:16,248 --> 00:53:19,043
that is ripe
for a predatory relationship.

1014
00:53:28,344 --> 00:53:30,513
[Bob Jesse] Anyone who's had one
of those experiences

1015
00:53:30,679 --> 00:53:32,639
in a country where
it's not legal to have them

1016
00:53:32,805 --> 00:53:34,557
is stuck in this position

1017
00:53:34,724 --> 00:53:37,060
where something
really precious...

1018
00:53:37,227 --> 00:53:40,563
and really giving
a great gift to you

1019
00:53:40,730 --> 00:53:43,399
is not understood
by the culture at large

1020
00:53:43,566 --> 00:53:46,611
and furthermore, puts you or
other people or/and other people

1021
00:53:46,778 --> 00:53:48,362
at risk of prosecution.

1022
00:53:50,447 --> 00:53:51,782
And one response to that

1023
00:53:51,949 --> 00:53:54,201
is to get angry,

1024
00:53:54,326 --> 00:53:55,786
and to want to fight that.

1025
00:53:55,953 --> 00:53:58,121
And another response to it
is to say,

1026
00:53:58,288 --> 00:54:01,124
We've just got to explain
to people what's going on here.

1027
00:54:01,291 --> 00:54:02,709
And when people understand it,

1028
00:54:02,876 --> 00:54:06,296
then there will be accommodation
and respect.

1029
00:54:08,632 --> 00:54:10,551
There are a number of elders
living in the Bay Area

1030
00:54:10,717 --> 00:54:12,427
who've devoted some part
of their career

1031
00:54:12,594 --> 00:54:15,097
in psychology
or religious studies

1032
00:54:15,264 --> 00:54:16,598
who ended up being invited

1033
00:54:16,765 --> 00:54:19,726
to a small invitational
conference at Esalen

1034
00:54:19,893 --> 00:54:22,813
called the Pacific Symposium
on Psychedelic Drugs.

1035
00:54:22,980 --> 00:54:25,274
As we went around the room
making introductions,

1036
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:26,732
most of the people who were
clinicians

1037
00:54:26,857 --> 00:54:28,609
were excitedly talking about

1038
00:54:28,776 --> 00:54:30,652
what kind of clinical trial
they would run

1039
00:54:30,819 --> 00:54:32,611
If they could use one
of these substances

1040
00:54:32,778 --> 00:54:34,113
to treat PTSD...

1041
00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:36,115
or to treat
depression.

1042
00:54:37,283 --> 00:54:39,577
[Richards] We wrote
the best design we could.

1043
00:54:39,743 --> 00:54:43,581
We submitted it to the FDA
and they approved it.

1044
00:54:43,747 --> 00:54:45,415
This was 1999,

1045
00:54:45,582 --> 00:54:49,627
and it reactivated
psychedelic research

1046
00:54:49,794 --> 00:54:54,424
after basically a 22-year
dormancy in the United States.

1047
00:54:55,383 --> 00:54:57,594
It's like
a Rip Van Winkle effect.

1048
00:54:57,719 --> 00:55:01,431
You know,
it's waking up 20 years later.

1049
00:55:01,598 --> 00:55:03,308
The methodologies,

1050
00:55:03,474 --> 00:55:06,769
the questions that we can ask
on so many different levels.

1051
00:55:11,732 --> 00:55:14,651
[Tony Head] I had been diagnosed
with prostate cancer.

1052
00:55:14,818 --> 00:55:18,614
My diagnosis was so bad
that...

1053
00:55:19,531 --> 00:55:24,202
You know, they weren't giving me
any chance whatsoever.

1054
00:55:25,370 --> 00:55:28,498
[Judith Goedeke] My diagnosis
was kidney cancer.

1055
00:55:28,665 --> 00:55:33,670
Finding out that you may want
to get your affairs in order.

1056
00:55:34,754 --> 00:55:36,756
[Head] I first found out
about the study

1057
00:55:36,881 --> 00:55:39,300
when my oncologist gave me
a pamphlet.

1058
00:55:39,425 --> 00:55:40,885
He said, "Here's something that

1059
00:55:41,052 --> 00:55:43,137
might be able to help you
with the anxiety."

1060
00:55:44,555 --> 00:55:46,849
And I was accepted
into the study.

1061
00:55:46,974 --> 00:55:48,392
The most important thing

1062
00:55:48,517 --> 00:55:51,478
is to remember
that you're always safe.

1063
00:55:52,395 --> 00:55:56,483
And a recommendation is
that whatever is coming up,

1064
00:55:56,650 --> 00:55:57,734
that you allow it,

1065
00:55:57,901 --> 00:55:59,777
that you don't have to like it,

1066
00:55:59,943 --> 00:56:01,779
but you say okay,

1067
00:56:01,945 --> 00:56:03,697
rather than trying
to run away from it.

1068
00:56:04,698 --> 00:56:07,409
Once a volunteer is enrolled
in the study,

1069
00:56:07,576 --> 00:56:09,620
they're with us
for the preparation,

1070
00:56:09,787 --> 00:56:11,246
the psilocybin sessions

1071
00:56:11,413 --> 00:56:13,666
and the integration follow-ups
after.

1072
00:56:14,667 --> 00:56:19,546
I have been a guide for
around 350 psilocybin sessions

1073
00:56:19,713 --> 00:56:21,131
and then about a thousand

1074
00:56:21,298 --> 00:56:23,592
of the preparatory
and integration meetings.

1075
00:56:23,759 --> 00:56:24,885
Alright.

1076
00:56:26,428 --> 00:56:27,888
Okay, lift your head up.

1077
00:56:28,055 --> 00:56:30,640
It's really just about
experiencing what comes up

1078
00:56:30,807 --> 00:56:33,267
as the psilocybin takes effect.

1079
00:56:53,329 --> 00:56:55,331
[Head] In the intense part
of this journey,

1080
00:56:55,498 --> 00:56:58,501
this world and things
that matter to most people,

1081
00:56:58,626 --> 00:57:00,169
family and all that,

1082
00:57:00,294 --> 00:57:02,755
that wasn't even
what it was about.

1083
00:57:02,922 --> 00:57:05,258
They say anything mystical
can't be explained.

1084
00:57:05,383 --> 00:57:06,883
It's something like that.

1085
00:57:07,008 --> 00:57:12,222
It's a feeling
of such immense power

1086
00:57:12,389 --> 00:57:14,181
that you can't even imagine.

1087
00:57:14,932 --> 00:57:17,309
I've never felt
anything like it before.

1088
00:57:20,312 --> 00:57:24,442
It was about being in a place
of infinite space

1089
00:57:24,608 --> 00:57:27,361
and just being there.

1090
00:57:32,658 --> 00:57:35,286
[Griffiths] There's a
experience of positive mood,

1091
00:57:35,453 --> 00:57:38,205
sometimes openheartedness,
love,

1092
00:57:38,372 --> 00:57:40,248
a transcendence
of time and space,

1093
00:57:40,415 --> 00:57:43,668
and then finally,
it's thought to be ineffable.

1094
00:57:45,378 --> 00:57:48,381
People say, "I can't describe
that experience."

1095
00:57:53,887 --> 00:57:56,472
[Goedeke] In my mind I said,
"Okay, hold it.

1096
00:57:56,638 --> 00:57:58,766
If I give myself over to you...

1097
00:57:59,767 --> 00:58:01,267
can you promise me

1098
00:58:01,434 --> 00:58:06,272
that I will be in at least
as strong a shape

1099
00:58:06,439 --> 00:58:08,023
as when I entered this room?"

1100
00:58:09,065 --> 00:58:12,486
And I felt a voice
that I needed to heed.

1101
00:58:14,446 --> 00:58:19,576
"Do you think I would
disrespect my own handiwork?"

1102
00:58:21,995 --> 00:58:24,580
This is the voice
from on high saying,

1103
00:58:24,747 --> 00:58:27,625
"Do you think I would
disrespect my child?"

1104
00:58:28,667 --> 00:58:31,836
And I felt so beautiful.

1105
00:58:33,338 --> 00:58:37,592
I felt
like I have never felt before.

1106
00:58:37,759 --> 00:58:39,803
My sense of being loved,

1107
00:58:39,969 --> 00:58:45,600
of being worthy of love,
of being cared for,

1108
00:58:45,767 --> 00:58:49,771
of being important
to someone.

1109
00:58:53,732 --> 00:58:55,024
It's huge.

1110
00:58:59,821 --> 00:59:02,865
You're going into it,
you're doing beautifully.

1111
00:59:19,715 --> 00:59:22,552
[Griffiths] One-third
of individuals in the study

1112
00:59:22,718 --> 00:59:24,887
said it's the single most

1113
00:59:25,054 --> 00:59:27,723
spiritually significant
experience of their lives.

1114
00:59:28,599 --> 00:59:30,768
About 70% say

1115
00:59:30,935 --> 00:59:35,940
it's among the five most personally meaningful
experiences of their lives.

1116
00:59:36,107 --> 00:59:39,318
Then you say,
"Well, so what does that mean?"

1117
00:59:39,485 --> 00:59:42,280
You know?
And initially I thought,

1118
00:59:42,446 --> 00:59:46,325
I wonder if they don't have
pretty dull lives.

1119
00:59:46,492 --> 00:59:48,869
But no,
people would say,

1120
00:59:49,035 --> 00:59:53,415
you know, when my firstborn came
into this world,

1121
00:59:53,582 --> 00:59:54,958
Il never forget that.

1122
00:59:55,125 --> 00:59:57,918
And life has never
been the same since.

1123
00:59:58,085 --> 01:00:02,423
Or my father passed away.
That was deeply moving to me.

1124
01:00:02,590 --> 01:00:04,300
I'm different now
in the world.

1125
01:00:04,466 --> 01:00:06,552
They say, you know,
it's kind of like that.

1126
01:00:09,638 --> 01:00:12,433
[Head] The most glorious part
was that

1127
01:00:12,600 --> 01:00:17,021
it made me feel more comfortable
with living,

1128
01:00:17,146 --> 01:00:19,815
you know,
because, uh...

1129
01:00:19,982 --> 01:00:22,651
you're not afraid of dying.

1130
01:00:24,737 --> 01:00:27,615
[Griffiths] Frankly,
I'm just a laboratory scientist

1131
01:00:27,781 --> 01:00:30,534
and I wasn't prepared for that.

1132
01:00:30,701 --> 01:00:32,036
[Richards] From the memory

1133
01:00:32,202 --> 01:00:34,496
of the transcendental state
of consciousness,

1134
01:00:34,663 --> 01:00:38,959
many people report less anxiety,
less depression,

1135
01:00:39,126 --> 01:00:41,962
less preoccupation
with pain,

1136
01:00:42,129 --> 01:00:45,382
closer interpersonal
relationships,

1137
01:00:45,507 --> 01:00:47,551
and perhaps most impressive,

1138
01:00:47,718 --> 01:00:51,095
they claim to have a loss
of the fear of death.

1139
01:00:52,013 --> 01:00:54,057
It recalibrates
how they see death.

1140
01:00:55,183 --> 01:00:58,853
[Anthony Bossis] It's been amazing hearing them
talk about this idea of love.

1141
01:01:00,063 --> 01:01:01,147
Many of them spoke about

1142
01:01:01,314 --> 01:01:03,149
how nature itself
is something like

1143
01:01:03,316 --> 01:01:05,068
this substance called love.

1144
01:01:06,652 --> 01:01:08,528
And having touched that,

1145
01:01:08,695 --> 01:01:11,198
They've recalibrated and
reshaped how they die differently.

1146
01:01:18,913 --> 01:01:20,957
[Jesse] The Johns Hopkins
psilocybin research team

1147
01:01:21,123 --> 01:01:24,460
has completed or has underway
a total of nine studies

1148
01:01:24,627 --> 01:01:26,879
and it got
the world's attention.

1149
01:01:31,258 --> 01:01:34,178
When we finally released the
results of our first experiment

1150
01:01:34,345 --> 01:01:36,597
In a peer-reviewed
scientific journal,

1151
01:01:36,764 --> 01:01:38,516
it was very gratifying to see

1152
01:01:38,683 --> 01:01:41,143
how the daily press responded
to it.

1153
01:01:41,310 --> 01:01:42,812
A little bit of health news
for you.

1154
01:01:42,979 --> 01:01:45,606
A single dose of psychedelic
magic mushrooms

1155
01:01:45,773 --> 01:01:48,067
can make people with severe
anxiety and depression

1156
01:01:48,234 --> 01:01:50,569
feel better
for months.

1157
01:01:50,736 --> 01:01:53,656
[Richards] It changes the way
they view themselves,

1158
01:01:53,823 --> 01:01:56,032
other people in the world...

1159
01:01:56,199 --> 01:01:58,618
from a single experience,

1160
01:01:58,785 --> 01:02:01,997
not Prozac that you have
to keep taking day after day.

1161
01:02:03,832 --> 01:02:06,625
[Pollan]
These are not chronic drugs,

1162
01:02:06,792 --> 01:02:08,877
and that's where most
of the research

1163
01:02:09,044 --> 01:02:11,130
and development
in Big Pharma goes.

1164
01:02:12,089 --> 01:02:14,591
The treatments that are
being explored for psilocybin

1165
01:02:14,758 --> 01:02:18,137
involve one, two,
maybe three pills.

1166
01:02:18,303 --> 01:02:19,679
That's tt.

1167
01:02:19,804 --> 01:02:20,972
That's not a very good
business model.

1168
01:02:21,139 --> 01:02:23,015
You can't make
a lot of money that way.

1169
01:02:26,059 --> 01:02:30,856
The core of this mystical
experience Is, um...

1170
01:02:32,232 --> 01:02:34,609
Is a mystery,
frankly.

1171
01:02:34,776 --> 01:02:36,194
It's the existential mystery

1172
01:02:36,361 --> 01:02:38,822
of what are we really
doing here?

1173
01:02:38,947 --> 01:02:41,700
What's the meaning
of all this?

1174
01:02:41,867 --> 01:02:45,662
and that is a very uplifting
kind of experience to have.

1175
01:02:45,829 --> 01:02:46,788
[Richards] As a whole,

1176
01:02:46,955 --> 01:02:48,874
there's a sense of being part

1177
01:02:48,999 --> 01:02:51,208
of a larger network.

1178
01:02:52,960 --> 01:02:57,214
And somehow, that's more real
after a mystical experience.

1179
01:02:59,174 --> 01:03:00,925
You feel
that you really are connected

1180
01:03:01,092 --> 01:03:02,802
In some meaningful way

1181
01:03:02,969 --> 01:03:04,929
with every atom
of the universe.

1182
01:03:06,139 --> 01:03:08,099
[Griffiths]
From my perspective,

1183
01:03:08,266 --> 01:03:10,685
this core experience then forms

1184
01:03:10,852 --> 01:03:14,064
all of the religious, ethical
and moral traditions.

1185
01:03:14,230 --> 01:03:18,860
I mean, that is the core of
"Love thy neighbor as thyself."

1186
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:23,280
If we don't get some
of these priorities straight

1187
01:03:23,447 --> 01:03:25,741
with respect
to how we treat other people,

1188
01:03:25,908 --> 01:03:27,700
how we treat our environment,

1189
01:03:28,868 --> 01:03:30,368
we're going to cease
to exist.

1190
01:03:31,244 --> 01:03:33,080
I could see this
as being critical

1191
01:03:33,205 --> 01:03:36,124
to the evolution
of the species, frankly.

1192
01:03:39,044 --> 01:03:40,836
[P. Stamets] You wouldn't go
hiking the Himalaya mountains

1193
01:03:41,003 --> 01:03:42,295
without any preparation.

1194
01:03:42,420 --> 01:03:43,880
Well, this is a journey.

1195
01:03:44,798 --> 01:03:46,257
These are sacraments
and medicines

1196
01:03:46,424 --> 01:03:48,134
that should be treated
with respect

1197
01:03:48,301 --> 01:03:49,593
and caution.

1198
01:03:55,182 --> 01:03:58,935
Consider it to be going
to your own personal church.

1199
01:03:59,060 --> 01:04:01,853
You're going to sit
in awe of the universe.

1200
01:04:36,012 --> 01:04:37,972
[Bossis] We have a new study,
which is kind of remarkable.

1201
01:04:38,139 --> 01:04:39,639
It's work
with religious leaders.

1202
01:04:39,806 --> 01:04:42,183
These are ordained clergy
who have many traditions.

1203
01:04:42,350 --> 01:04:45,979
Christianity, Buddhism,
Judaism, Hinduism.

1204
01:04:46,146 --> 01:04:48,398
Since these experiences are
at the core

1205
01:04:48,565 --> 01:04:50,233
of the major
religions,

1206
01:04:50,400 --> 01:04:52,819
why not bring in
religious leaders

1207
01:04:52,986 --> 01:04:56,281
who spent their careers
studying this landscape

1208
01:04:56,447 --> 01:04:58,031
to have the experience?

1209
01:05:13,462 --> 01:05:16,299
-[phone vibrating]
-[Stamets] You guys hear that?

1210
01:05:16,465 --> 01:05:17,757
-You didn't?
-[man] Vibrating?

1211
01:05:17,924 --> 01:05:19,634
Vibrating.
Phone call was coming in.

1212
01:05:19,801 --> 01:05:20,760
There she goes.

1213
01:05:22,095 --> 01:05:24,181
Message from Mom.

1214
01:05:24,347 --> 01:05:25,974
Inbound message
from Mother.

1215
01:05:26,141 --> 01:05:28,101
I think
I had the best of all mothers.

1216
01:05:28,268 --> 01:05:30,228
My mother was extremely kind.

1217
01:05:34,149 --> 01:05:36,902
[cheering and applause]

1218
01:05:37,944 --> 01:05:42,199
So another mushroom
empowers the immune system

1219
01:05:42,365 --> 01:05:43,949
and this is turkey tails.

1220
01:05:44,074 --> 01:05:45,784
and turkey tail mushrooms
have also been used

1221
01:05:45,951 --> 01:05:47,870
for more than a thousand years.

1222
01:05:48,037 --> 01:05:52,791
This hit home to me very
personally, in June of 2009

1223
01:05:52,958 --> 01:05:55,127
when my 84-year-old mother
called me up

1224
01:05:55,294 --> 01:05:56,921
and said, "Paul,

1225
01:05:57,087 --> 01:05:58,881
I have something very serious
to talk to you about."

1226
01:05:59,048 --> 01:06:01,926
She said, "My right breast is
five times the size of my left.

1227
01:06:02,843 --> 01:06:06,222
I have six swollen lymph glands
the size of walnuts,"

1228
01:06:06,388 --> 01:06:07,972
and her voice started shaking

1229
01:06:08,139 --> 01:06:09,891
and I'm not ashamed to admit
that I started crying.

1230
01:06:10,016 --> 01:06:12,936
She had stage four
breast cancer.

1231
01:06:13,102 --> 01:06:14,312
But then the doctor said,
"You know,

1232
01:06:14,479 --> 01:06:16,231
you're too old
to have radiation therapy.

1233
01:06:16,397 --> 01:06:18,316
You can't have
your breasts removed.

1234
01:06:18,483 --> 01:06:20,902
But there's an interesting study
on turkey tail mushrooms

1235
01:06:21,069 --> 01:06:22,277
at Bastyr Medical School.

1236
01:06:22,444 --> 01:06:24,821
You might want
to try taking those."

1237
01:06:24,988 --> 01:06:26,072
And that's when my buddy goes,

1238
01:06:26,239 --> 01:06:27,949
"Well, my son's
supplying those."

1239
01:06:28,115 --> 01:06:31,994
So she was put on Taxol
and Herceptin, wonderful drugs.

1240
01:06:32,161 --> 01:06:33,287
And then she started taking

1241
01:06:33,454 --> 01:06:35,038
eight turkey tail capsules
a day.

1242
01:06:35,205 --> 01:06:37,790
Four in the morning
and four in the evening,

1243
01:06:37,957 --> 01:06:41,293
and that was in June of 2009.

1244
01:06:41,460 --> 01:06:46,257
And today, my mother
has no detectable tumors.

1245
01:06:46,423 --> 01:06:48,425
And I'd like
to bring my mother up.

1246
01:07:02,106 --> 01:07:04,984
You have to live through it
to believe it.

1247
01:07:06,235 --> 01:07:08,153
Hey, by the way, thank you
for giving birth to me.

1248
01:07:08,320 --> 01:07:09,446
I really appreciate that.

1249
01:07:09,613 --> 01:07:11,907
Oh, you haven't
thanked me lately?

1250
01:07:15,828 --> 01:07:18,080
[P. Stamets] It has been
reported in literature that

1251
01:07:18,247 --> 01:07:20,123
medicinal mushrooms
like turkey tail

1252
01:07:20,290 --> 01:07:22,375
help chemotherapeutic agents
work better.

1253
01:07:22,500 --> 01:07:24,376
And I think
she's a living example of that.

1254
01:07:33,218 --> 01:07:35,803
One can argue with me
on the statistics,

1255
01:07:35,928 --> 01:07:37,263
but my mother's alive,

1256
01:07:37,430 --> 01:07:39,473
and all the doctors
that saw her

1257
01:07:39,640 --> 01:07:42,225
did not believe
that she would survive.

1258
01:07:56,906 --> 01:07:58,158
[man] It is my great honor...

1259
01:07:59,117 --> 01:08:01,286
to introduce Paul Stamets.

1260
01:08:01,453 --> 01:08:04,830
[cheering and applause]

1261
01:08:08,207 --> 01:08:10,209
I have brought
a fungal friend of mine

1262
01:08:10,376 --> 01:08:11,044
from the old-growth forest

1263
01:08:12,128 --> 01:08:16,049
and I present to you...
agarikon.

1264
01:08:16,215 --> 01:08:18,926
[cheering and applause]

1265
01:08:22,221 --> 01:08:24,390
Agarikon was described
in 65 A.D.

1266
01:08:24,557 --> 01:08:26,976
as elixirium ad longam vitam.

1267
01:08:27,143 --> 01:08:28,519
The elixir of long life.

1268
01:08:31,147 --> 01:08:32,857
So I want to take you

1269
01:08:33,024 --> 01:08:35,109
on a magical mushroom
mystery tour.

1270
01:08:37,236 --> 01:08:39,572
and I'm going to push
the envelope here, folks.

1271
01:08:40,490 --> 01:08:44,327
Microdiversity
is biodiversity.

1272
01:08:44,494 --> 01:08:47,455
You will decompose.
I'm going to decompose.

1273
01:08:48,373 --> 01:08:49,457
We're all going to die.

1274
01:08:51,167 --> 01:08:52,543
That's okay,

1275
01:08:52,668 --> 01:08:55,880
because we will enter
into the micro-verse.

1276
01:08:57,632 --> 01:09:00,176
We will forever exist together

1277
01:09:00,343 --> 01:09:03,012
within
the micromolecular matrix.

1278
01:09:03,179 --> 01:09:04,931
[Lincoff]
When he talks the way he does,

1279
01:09:05,098 --> 01:09:06,057
he Is...

1280
01:09:07,433 --> 01:09:10,103
channeling the mycelium.

1281
01:09:10,269 --> 01:09:12,438
And this is a marvelous thing.

1282
01:09:12,605 --> 01:09:13,940
Brain neurons,

1283
01:09:14,107 --> 01:09:14,941
mycelium,

1284
01:09:15,108 --> 01:09:17,235
the computer internet,

1285
01:09:17,402 --> 01:09:21,322
the organization of the universe
all shares the same archetype.

1286
01:09:21,489 --> 01:09:24,575
I believe
matter begets life.

1287
01:09:24,742 --> 01:09:26,452
Life becomes single cells.

1288
01:09:26,619 --> 01:09:28,454
Single cells
form chains.

1289
01:09:28,621 --> 01:09:30,623
Chains forms branches.

1290
01:09:30,790 --> 01:09:37,380
Matrices form interlocking,
intercepting mosaics of mycelium

1291
01:09:37,547 --> 01:09:41,008
and mycelium-like organisms
ebb and flow

1292
01:09:41,175 --> 01:09:42,510
not only on this planet,

1293
01:09:42,635 --> 01:09:45,138
on other planets
into the future.

1294
01:09:45,304 --> 01:09:46,596
Thank you very much.

1295
01:09:53,603 --> 01:09:55,647
Paul was wonderful
in bringing us information

1296
01:09:55,814 --> 01:09:58,108
about all these
aspects of mushrooms

1297
01:09:58,817 --> 01:10:01,153
and that it inspired
all these young people.

1298
01:10:01,319 --> 01:10:03,029
Now we have people
like Tradd Cotter

1299
01:10:03,196 --> 01:10:04,990
carrying on the great work
that Paul started,

1300
01:10:05,157 --> 01:10:07,117
talking about biopesticides,

1301
01:10:07,284 --> 01:10:09,578
talking about the ways
you could detoxify oil.

1302
01:10:09,744 --> 01:10:12,205
All of these amazing things
were started

1303
01:10:12,372 --> 01:10:13,540
because people like Paul

1304
01:10:13,707 --> 01:10:15,542
brought that
to the culture at large

1305
01:10:15,709 --> 01:10:17,252
and young people now
have taken up the cause

1306
01:10:17,419 --> 01:10:19,671
and are really expanding
our insights

1307
01:10:19,838 --> 01:10:22,299
into what the world of mushrooms
can do for us.

1308
01:10:22,466 --> 01:10:23,717
Hi, my name's Peter

1309
01:10:23,884 --> 01:10:25,468
and I'm with the radical
mycology project.

1310
01:10:25,634 --> 01:10:26,718
I recently trained a mushroom

1311
01:10:26,885 --> 01:10:28,970
to digest
used cigarette filters.

1312
01:10:29,137 --> 01:10:30,388
Paul Stamets's book
Mycelium Running

1313
01:10:30,555 --> 01:10:32,515
got my mind sort of in a whirl.

1314
01:10:32,682 --> 01:10:34,100
That was when I first discovered
that

1315
01:10:34,267 --> 01:10:36,311
there was much more to mushrooms

1316
01:10:36,478 --> 01:10:37,520
than just food.

1317
01:10:39,188 --> 01:10:40,439
If you would have seen me

1318
01:10:40,606 --> 01:10:41,523
when I dropped out
of high school,

1319
01:10:41,690 --> 01:10:43,108
I was just making
rap music.

1320
01:10:43,275 --> 01:10:44,651
I knew very little
about the natural world.

1321
01:10:44,818 --> 01:10:47,696
I had never even went
on a hike until I was 18,

1322
01:10:47,821 --> 01:10:49,448
but finding Paul Stamets's
TED talk video

1323
01:10:49,615 --> 01:10:52,075
was one of the biggest
inspirations that pushed me

1324
01:10:52,242 --> 01:10:54,453
Into the wonderful world
of mycology.

1325
01:10:54,620 --> 01:10:56,079
My first mushroom book

1326
01:10:56,246 --> 01:10:57,206
was [he Mushroom Cultivator

1327
01:10:57,372 --> 01:10:58,624
by Paul Stamets.

1328
01:10:58,790 --> 01:11:01,043
I will be eternally thankful
to him

1329
01:11:01,210 --> 01:11:04,338
for showing me that it's okay
to be mushroom mad.

1330
01:11:05,422 --> 01:11:08,050
[Lori Cariss] We really don't
even know most fungi.

1331
01:11:08,217 --> 01:11:10,802
We're discovering new species
on a daily basis

1332
01:11:10,969 --> 01:11:13,346
and you dont have to go
to exotic locations

1333
01:11:13,513 --> 01:11:14,347
to discover them.

1334
01:11:15,806 --> 01:11:17,266
[McCoy]
Anybody can add to the science,

1335
01:11:17,433 --> 01:11:18,768
from identifying a new species

1336
01:11:18,935 --> 01:11:21,437
to developing
a new micro-mediation protocol.

1337
01:11:21,604 --> 01:11:24,690
[Cariss] There is a great need
for more people to study fungi

1338
01:11:24,857 --> 01:11:27,610
and there's lots
of opportunities.

1339
01:11:27,735 --> 01:11:29,611
[Cotter] It's amazing what
we don't know about mushrooms.

1340
01:11:29,778 --> 01:11:31,780
They really are a frontier
of knowledge.

1341
01:11:31,947 --> 01:11:35,534
They probably can help us
solve all sorts of problems

1342
01:11:35,700 --> 01:11:37,660
if we look a little deeper.

1343
01:11:37,785 --> 01:11:40,287
Anyone, anyone can help

1344
01:11:40,454 --> 01:11:41,622
by going and walking
in the woods

1345
01:11:41,789 --> 01:11:43,457
and contributing
to mycology.

1346
01:11:43,624 --> 01:11:46,085
You may have found a species
that has never been found.

1347
01:11:47,753 --> 01:11:49,421
We need these mushrooms.

1348
01:11:49,588 --> 01:11:53,300
We work together as a community
to solve problems.

1349
01:11:53,467 --> 01:11:57,263
We could be the community
that heals the planet.

1350
01:11:58,389 --> 01:12:01,100
[P. Stamets] It's been estimated
two-thirds of our food supply

1351
01:12:01,267 --> 01:12:03,476
Is bee-pollinated-dependent.

1352
01:12:03,643 --> 01:12:06,228
Unfortunately, we're losing bees
across the world

1353
01:12:06,395 --> 01:12:08,271
in a dramatic die-off
that is very dangerous

1354
01:12:08,437 --> 01:12:10,481
for the biosecurity
of this planet.

1355
01:12:11,691 --> 01:12:13,776
So I started exploring ways
to help save the bees

1356
01:12:13,943 --> 01:12:15,443
and I noticed
in the summertime

1357
01:12:15,610 --> 01:12:17,194
there's a continuous convoy
of bees

1358
01:12:17,361 --> 01:12:19,655
going from my beehives
to my mycelium.

1359
01:12:19,822 --> 01:12:21,532
But then it dawned on me,

1360
01:12:21,699 --> 01:12:24,243
maybe the bees are benefiting
from the mycelial extracts

1361
01:12:24,410 --> 01:12:26,495
because they have
antiviral properties.

1362
01:12:26,662 --> 01:12:29,164
And so I cultured the most
aggressive strains

1363
01:12:29,331 --> 01:12:30,623
and then submitted them.

1364
01:12:30,790 --> 01:12:33,084
We started testing the effects
of these extracts

1365
01:12:33,251 --> 01:12:34,835
In helping bees survive.

1366
01:12:35,877 --> 01:12:38,171
[Nicholas Naeger] Some of these
fungal extracts are really good

1367
01:12:38,338 --> 01:12:41,091
at reducing viral levels
in the bee.

1368
01:12:41,216 --> 01:12:42,508
So here we have a fungus

1369
01:12:42,675 --> 01:12:44,635
that is helping fight viruses

1370
01:12:44,802 --> 01:12:46,137
in an insect.

1371
01:12:46,304 --> 01:12:47,471
[man] We're using mushrooms
to create

1372
01:12:47,638 --> 01:12:49,473
an entirely new class
of materials

1373
01:12:49,599 --> 01:12:52,351
which are totally compostable
at the end of their lives.

1374
01:12:54,311 --> 01:12:55,103
[woman]
The researchers found that

1375
01:12:55,270 --> 01:12:56,146
when they heated

1376
01:12:56,313 --> 01:12:57,439
a portobello mushroom skin

1377
01:12:57,606 --> 01:12:59,106
to roughly 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit,

1378
01:12:59,273 --> 01:13:01,317
it became a lattice
of carbon nano ribbon

1379
01:13:01,483 --> 01:13:03,067
that could be used
in battery design

1380
01:13:03,234 --> 01:13:05,153
because it allows a good amount
of surface area

1381
01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:06,571
for storing energy.

1382
01:13:06,738 --> 01:13:07,864
[Cotter]
You can filter water.

1383
01:13:08,990 --> 01:13:11,743
You can create medicinal
compounds almost on demand.

1384
01:13:11,909 --> 01:13:13,411
We've worked In Haiti,

1385
01:13:13,578 --> 01:13:15,162
and they look at you
like I have super powers.

1386
01:13:15,912 --> 01:13:17,372
Well, I tell them, I said,

1387
01:13:17,539 --> 01:13:19,541
"You are about
to have superpowers too."

1388
01:13:20,876 --> 01:13:23,170
[Brown] Coming from the background
of not having any training,

1389
01:13:23,337 --> 01:13:25,546
getting myself into the lab
was very empowering.

1390
01:13:25,713 --> 01:13:27,465
I felt like a Superhero.
I felt like I could do anything.

1391
01:13:29,257 --> 01:13:31,133
You're officially
a mushroom farmer.

1392
01:13:32,551 --> 01:13:34,261
Sporulating.
Sporgasm.

1393
01:13:34,428 --> 01:13:37,723
[Lincoff] I see my species
as part of a larger whole.

1394
01:13:37,890 --> 01:13:40,225
Rather than being at the top
of the pyramid,

1395
01:13:40,392 --> 01:13:43,479
being one of the organisms
with inside the circle.

1396
01:13:44,396 --> 01:13:47,650
and the circle
is made up of mycelium,

1397
01:13:47,816 --> 01:13:49,400
holding us all together.

1398
01:13:57,533 --> 01:14:00,578
[Simard] We've always thought of
plants as these inert objects,

1399
01:14:00,745 --> 01:14:03,581
these things that don't
actually interact with each other

1400
01:14:03,748 --> 01:14:05,500
and build things,

1401
01:14:05,667 --> 01:14:07,876
and what my work is showing,
and other people's work as well,

1402
01:14:08,001 --> 01:14:10,629
it's saying actually,
they need each other.

1403
01:14:11,755 --> 01:14:14,340
They need each other
to grow in a community

1404
01:14:14,507 --> 01:14:16,425
so that they can start sharing
the load.

1405
01:14:17,426 --> 01:14:19,512
You do this, I'll do that,
and together,

1406
01:14:19,637 --> 01:14:21,889
we can make a beautiful
resilient community.

1407
01:14:24,642 --> 01:14:26,394
They have incredible capacity

1408
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:29,188
to make things change
very, very quickly.

1409
01:14:29,355 --> 01:14:30,563
So if we can work with them,

1410
01:14:30,730 --> 01:14:32,732
if we get it, you know?
lf humans get it,

1411
01:14:32,899 --> 01:14:35,360
we can change this thing
really fast.

1412
01:14:35,527 --> 01:14:37,195
So I am super hopeful.

1413
01:14:37,362 --> 01:14:39,864
We just got to get busy
and help nature do its thing.

1414
01:14:45,787 --> 01:14:47,371
Evolution never stops.

1415
01:14:47,538 --> 01:14:48,914
There's not one point
that it happens

1416
01:14:49,081 --> 01:14:50,416
and then
it doesn't happen again.

1417
01:14:50,582 --> 01:14:52,250
It's continuously happening.

1418
01:14:57,755 --> 01:14:59,549
The core concept of evolution

1419
01:14:59,716 --> 01:15:01,175
is that
through natural selection,

1420
01:15:01,300 --> 01:15:04,261
the strongest
and the fittest survive.

1421
01:15:04,428 --> 01:15:05,679
But moreover,

1422
01:15:05,846 --> 01:15:09,182
communities survive better
than individuals.

1423
01:15:09,349 --> 01:15:11,435
Communities rely
upon cooperation,

1424
01:15:11,601 --> 01:15:13,770
and I think
that's the power of goodness.

1425
01:15:15,605 --> 01:15:16,897
Evolution is based

1426
01:15:17,064 --> 01:15:20,151
on the concept
of mutual benefit,

1427
01:15:20,317 --> 01:15:22,862
and the extension
of generosity.

1428
01:15:26,365 --> 01:15:29,243
[Simard] When we see it,
we understand it.

1429
01:15:29,410 --> 01:15:31,370
And when we understand it,
we care about it.

1430
01:15:31,537 --> 01:15:32,621
And when we care about It,

1431
01:15:32,788 --> 01:15:34,456
we'll do something
to help save it.

1432
01:15:35,623 --> 01:15:38,376
We need to have a paradigm shift
in our consciousness.

1433
01:15:38,543 --> 01:15:39,794
What will tt take
to achieve that?

1434
01:15:43,965 --> 01:15:46,384
We are not an individual.

1435
01:15:46,551 --> 01:15:48,343
We are a vast network

1436
01:15:48,510 --> 01:15:52,222
of molecules
and energies and wavelengths.

1437
01:15:52,389 --> 01:15:55,809
The interconnectedness of being
is who we are.

1438
01:16:00,731 --> 01:16:03,859
[narrator] This world of ours
is always changing,

1439
01:16:04,026 --> 01:16:06,278
not for the better
or for the worse,

1440
01:16:07,696 --> 01:16:09,782
but for life.

1441
01:16:09,948 --> 01:16:13,410
If the storms come
and the water rises,

1442
01:16:13,577 --> 01:16:16,370
if fire scorches the land,

1443
01:16:16,537 --> 01:16:18,539
or darkness descends,

1444
01:16:18,706 --> 01:16:19,749
we will be here

1445
01:16:21,041 --> 01:16:23,210
working,

1446
01:16:23,376 --> 01:16:24,795
as we always have.

1447
01:16:25,796 --> 01:16:27,839
Extending the network.

1448
01:16:28,006 --> 01:16:29,925
Building community.

1449
01:16:30,091 --> 01:16:31,802
Restoring balance.

1450
01:16:33,678 --> 01:16:35,680
One connection at a time.

1451
01:16:38,725 --> 01:16:41,394
It may take a million years,

1452
01:16:41,561 --> 01:16:42,771
or a hundred million,

1453
01:16:43,688 --> 01:16:47,776
but we will still be here.

1454
01:17:48,378 --> 01:17:51,423
Lieutenant Paul Stamets.

1455
01:17:51,548 --> 01:17:55,010
I became an astral mycologist
because of awe.

1456
01:17:55,176 --> 01:17:57,345
Awe at the miracle of life.

1457
01:17:57,512 --> 01:17:58,763
[TV host] How did you feel

1458
01:17:58,930 --> 01:18:00,724
seeing a fictional
character on Star Trek

1459
01:18:00,891 --> 01:18:03,059
that is inspired
by your science?

1460
01:18:03,184 --> 01:18:04,895
I'm super honored.

1461
01:18:05,061 --> 01:18:07,021
I tuned into Star Trek
when I was about 12 years old.

1462
01:18:07,187 --> 01:18:09,857
Spores by their nature
travel through the cosmos.

1463
01:18:10,024 --> 01:18:12,568
When they germinate,
some mushrooms form.

1464
01:18:12,735 --> 01:18:16,030
Some magic mushrooms help you
bend time and space.

1465
01:18:17,656 --> 01:18:20,701
[TV host] So, uh,
if I were to visit you...

1466
01:18:20,868 --> 01:18:23,537
could we have some
of these magic mushrooms?

1467
01:18:24,288 --> 01:18:25,956
[P. Stamets] Nature provides.
I don''t.

1468
01:18:26,123 --> 01:18:29,168
[laughter]

1469
01:18:29,335 --> 01:18:32,463
♪ ♪