Gaston Guzman

Authority on the field of Psilocybin mushrooms

Dr. Guzman was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, in 1932. His interest in mycology begins in 1955 when he, while being a graduate student, decides to update the poorly maintained collection of fungi of the National Polytechnic Institute. During his first field work in the forests near Mexico City he finds myriad of species about which little was known by then. This inspired him to declare mushrooms as the topic of his professional thesis and he vowed to someday write a book on Mexican mushrooms.Guzman

In 1957 Dr. Guzman reads the article of R. Gordon Wasson (see there) with a lot of enthusiasm and interest. That same year he is invited by mycologist Dr. Rolf Singer to go on an expedition to study neurotropic mushrooms in the Huautla de Jimenez region. During this expedition he coincidentally meets up with R. Gordon Wasson in person. This chance meeting results in a close friendship between the two men that lasts for nearly 30 years.

Gaston Guzman has done, since he made his first steps in the world of the mushrooms, lots and lots of research on psilocybin species. He has written more than 350 articles and 9 books on the subject among others his masterpiece The genus psilocybe: A systematic revision of the known species including the history, distribution and chemistry or the hallucinogenic species which he began writing in 1957 but which was published in 1983. More than half of the 200 psilocybin mushrooms (neurotropic species) that are known, were discovered by this man.

Up until today it is possible to participate in so-called Mushroom Tours in Mexico led by Dr. Guzman himself. For more info visit the website http://www.mexmush.com