“In pursuit of the magic mushroom”. Convinced that a link exists between the taking of psychedelic substances and the birth of certain religions, the

American banker Robert Gordon Wasson sought, as early as the 1960s, to prove his hypothesis by delving into the myths and rituals of Antiquity.

For the scientific community, Johns-Hopkins University represents much more than a place of study, with several hospitals.

It is a venerable institution, an authority that has inspired respect since its creation in 1876, in mushroom Baltimore, in the northeastern United States.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, its count of the number of dead and sick people very quickly appeared to be the most reliable source, beyond the countries.

Within this temple of knowledge, Roland Griffiths is a soldier monk. This 76-year-old psychopharmacologist has long “led an aggressive career , he admits, working seven days a week”.

• After entering Johns-Hopkins in 1972, he acquired an international reputation for his research on addictions – particularly caffeine.
• In the mid-1990s, however, he suddenly doubted his vocation. "I was like, 'What's the point of all this? ,
• He says, pointing to the photos of cups of coffee, sodas and baboons that line his office. Performing experiments on monkeys, in particular, became difficult for me, for ethical reasons.

A study of thirty people
Introduced to meditation, Roland Griffiths then plans to leave Johns-Hopkins to join an ashram in India.

"It's this mushroom that made me stay," he says, this time pointing to the slender stem and conical hat of a psilocybe, a hallucinogenic species whose active ingredient, psilocybin, was isolated in 1958.

Research on this molecule had been interrupted in the 1970s, following the bad publicity surrounding get magic mushrooms psychedelic substances, which include, in addition to psilocybin, LSD (diethyllysergamide), ecstasy or mescaline.

“If you were interested in these compounds, continues Griffiths, you found yourself, de facto, marginalized. »