07/22/2025
Before psilocybin was studied in labs or microdosed in tech circles, it was held in ceremony.
María Sabina was a Mazatec healer from Oaxaca, known for guiding people through sacred mushroom rituals called veladas.
In 1955, an American published a sensational article in Life magazine in 1957, sharing María’s name, image, and sacred practice with the world, without her full consent.
What followed was a flood.
By the late 1950s and into the ’60s and ’70s, thousands of Westerners descended on her village looking for “magic mushrooms.” The rituals were taken out of context. The medicine was consumed without reverence.
María Sabina paid the price.
Her community blamed her for the invasion.
Her house was burned. She was jailed, accused of drug trafficking simply because foreigners kept showing up at her door. Her son was murdered in the wake of the chaos.
Still, she continued to guide those in need, remaining a healer until her death in 1985.
Today, psilocybin is back in the spotlight, studied in clinical trials, celebrated in documentaries, microdosed in boardrooms.
But María Sabina’s name is rarely spoken in those spaces.
Everything has a price.
When we consume what isn’t ours, without context, without respect, someone pays for that access.
Remember who carried the medicine first, and pay homage to those who walked before you.
