The Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series is focused on psychedelic plants and fungi among Native American traditions across the North and South American continents. Entries present different plants and fungi, along with their various cultural uses by Native American people. They also document artwork about these plants and fungi. Sacred plants and fungi are psychedelic plants and fungi. While each entry explores the plant or fungi and its cultural contexts, the entries are focused on presenting artwork about these plants and fungi, for art often conveys more meaning and context than any other feature. The series favors Native-language names whenever possible.

The use of plants and fungi with psychedelic properties in the Americas can be traced back centuries, even millennia. Psychedelic plants and fungi, including cacti, exhibit mind- or soul-manifesting properties. The word “psychedelic” is a novel combination of Greek words meaning “mind/soul” and “to show.” These substances enhance human mental faculties such as visionary consciousness and imagination. Psychedelic substances—those substances which “manifest the mind/soul”—are classified as “psychoactive.” They “activate the mind/soul” in pharmacology terms, which means they affect the central nervous system. Both biological and cultural functions must be addressed when considering these sacred plants and fungi. Plants and fungi with psychedelic molecules have specific effects on the human brain. These effects make them culturally significant.

Each entry in the Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series opens and is organized by the name of a psychedelic sacred plant or fungi, including its different vernacular names, common English names, and botanical-scientific names. Headings also include the names of the art in the entry and list the cultures relevant to the art. Throughout these entries, the series will note chemical and biological details for these sacred psychedelics when appropriate.

The first section, titled “Names,” explores the nuance of these plants’ or fungi’s names in different languages and cultures and also documents their scientific study and biological effects. Then, each entry presents a section titled “Introduction and Artwork” that presents and analyzes an image or images of art associated with the plants or fungi in question: paintings, monuments, sculptures, or ritual paraphernalia. Artwork will range from ancient to contemporary. Art provides nuance for cultural relevance and uses of psychedelic plants and fungi that go beyond straightforward reporting. Each artistic image is accompanied by an explanation of the plant or fungi and its place in the cultural heritage of those Native American people and cultures who revere and cultivate these plants and fungi. These sections are titled “Geography and Contexts,” and they include maps whenever possible.

In addition to presenting art, each section presents “Primary Sources and Evidence” that include physical and material evidence as well as primary sources that include these Native cultures’ own “writing” about these plants and fungi, as well as colonial, “outsider” records observing the use of these plants and fungi. 

Entries conclude with two sections that interpret the evidence. One is titled “Interpretation,” and another, titled “Implications,” explains the implications emerging from studying these plants and fungi, as well as the implications for the use of these substances, including their medical-industrial research.  Interpretations especially note these plants’ and fungi’s role in establishing and cultivating relationships with human and more-than-human agents. These agents are considered real entities in the cultures in question. Implications are the important takeaways for readers.

Throughout the Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series, interpretations and implications are supported by scientific evidence. They also employ a humanistic approach. We consider scientific archaeology, history, and material culture to be equal to humanistic ethnography and art. Context is key, and understanding the contexts and cultures that revere these plants and fungi prevents hasty judgments and cultural extraction. These plants and fungi are more than substances and more than drugs. Furthermore, these psychedelic substances are valuable because their effects are not mental or psychological. Many of these substances and experiences are social and communal, and that aspect is understudied.

Psychedelic substances are incorrectly described as hallucinogens, and the psychedelic experiences as hallucinations. Psychedelics strengthen users’ visionary consciousness and cause significant and lasting transformations in thought and mood that amount to changes in consciousness and perception, but these experiences are not mere hallucinations. The term hallucination connotes seeing something false, something that is not really there, that is only apparent to the experiencer and nobody else, something that is, thereby, materially false.  

The psychedelic experience in Native American cultures is a source of knowledge and is not falsehood or distortion. These are not mere escapes from normal thinking. Psychedelic experiences profoundly change perceptions by revealing what is not evident in ordinary states of consciousness. The agency of the experience and the agency of the more-than-human beings encountered through psychedelic experiences prevent dismissing psychedelic experiences as something false. If something has agency, it cannot be a mere illusion. These experiences inspire changes in ordinary life, and Native American cultures consider the beings encountered in these experiences to be real beings.

The Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series disseminates images of Native American artistic masterpieces: ceramics, sculptures, rock art, ritual paraphernalia, ancient codices, and also contemporary art. The series and project encourage informed reflection and responsible scholarship about plants and fungi. Whenever possible, archaeological and art historical archives are interpreted according to cutting-edge research in anthropology and material culture.

A rigorous historical account of sacred plants and fungi in the Americas reveals an array of cultural uses that endure today, uses that are often overlooked in historical and scientific records. Understanding the history of these plants and fungi illuminates the roots of Native cultures’ knowledge about these sacred substances’ transformative power and their value for the cultural heritage of the world. The lack of recognition of different cultural uses of psychedelics has caused unnecessary misunderstandings. It has also led to significant and enduring problems, including prohibitionism, cultural appropriation, and epistemic injustice. Perhaps most urgently, it has fostered extractivism—an ideology of access and cultural consumption that removes these practices from their Native context.

Regarding the diversity of cultural uses in a broad sense, plants and fungi with psychedelic properties can be used for purposes deemed sacramental but can also be used for purposes deemed therapeutic, philosophical, creative or aesthetic, social and political, hedonistic or for pleasure, and palliative for people with terminal illnesses, which expands the United Nations World Drug Report 2023 that distinguishes only three types of use: medical, spiritual, and non-medical. These experiences intensify rather than reduce ordinary life through the potent chemicals they contain. The vibrant experiences depicted in this series demonstrate the ways these sacred plants and fungi enhance human experience.

Taking inspiration from the Harvard Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture interdisciplinary effort, program, the Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series strives for pluralism, cultural diversity, scientific accuracy, reciprocity, and respect. To overcome the hasty generalizations and external denominations that bedevil psychedelic studies, the Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series uses Native American peoples’ self-denominations rather than external terminology, which is not only ethical but best practice.

The Sacred Plants and Fungi of the Americas Series is informed and guided by the Transcendence and Transformation Initiative at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) that highlights cultural uses of plants and fungi with psychedelic properties to explore religious and spiritual traditions that “aim to transcend our normal states of being, consciousness, and embodiment, and thus to transform the individual, community, and society.” The series and project are an example of the collaboration required for studying psychedelics and engaging the emerging field of Psychedelic Humanities. The Harvard Divinity School and the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) are committed to psychedelic education to a broad audience, informed by Native American perspectives, disseminating trustworthy information and responsible philosophical interpretation.