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Thursday, Oct. 6

Session I – 2:30 pm

[RHIZE] Creating a Culture of Remediation (60 min.)
Mack Kleiva & Jade Swor

Metamimicry will lead a presentation and discussion on the work we have been doing in our communities, how you can get involved, and how to start something similar in your own! From developing a mushroom program from waste substrates with the Potter Valley Tribe to designing a mycoremediation stormwater project, we want to share some of the ways cultivating fungi can contribute to a changing society.

At Metamimicry, we believe in library-fying remediation resources, meaning, creating places where people can grow their own spawn, have access to cultivation tools and materials, and the space to collaborate with others. Our most recent project with the Squaxin Island Tribe is the development of SPoRE or Salish Place of Remediation Education. The community center, which is part-lab and part-resource library, supports the Tribe’s goals through promoting food sovereignty, nutrition and health wellness, traditional knowledge sharing, and community-led healing of the lands. An open access culture library will support all those who wish to grow at home.

During this workshop we will share how removing the barriers to access remediation knowledge, techniques, and materials allows for more of this work to be done: healing the land, our bodies, and the culture. We hope that sharing our experiences will inspire others to start similar projects in their communities, creating a web of interconnected myco-healing centers.

[DELIQUESCE] The Mycelium Metaphor: Mutually Beneficial Relationships (60 min.)
Ashley Bonn

To me, community is a sense of commonality and support through relationships. There are many different types of relationships in this world, but the most valuable ones are mutually beneficial, where each person feels a sense of balance and reciprocity. I like to use the fungi kingdom as a metaphorical example to visualize this, where mushrooms are interconnected between a web of mycelium. If the web becomes strained due to a harmful experience, the entire system struggles as a whole. The web must be mended with empathy and compassion, not judgment and ostracization. That is why I think the latest trend of “cancel culture” is toxic. It does not give people a chance to learn from their mistakes, heal trauma, and grow into better versions of themselves.

We all play a vital role in the web of life. We all have unique skills, ideas, and resources to offer. If we want to survive what is coming ahead, we must learn how to share, celebrate diversity, and communicate effectively. Conflict can be a healthy tool if it is approached strategically with grace and understanding. It reveals cracks in our society that need to be repaired with care. I think our greatest flaw as human beings is thinking that we are separate from each other. Yes, authenticity is inspiring, but collaboration is empowering. I believe the strength of a community is measured by the depth of its relationships. The further down our roots go, the higher our branches can grow, all connected by the mycelial network.

In this workshop, I will describe how the intricate web of mycelium is a metaphor for community relationships, particularly those that are mutually beneficial. Through useful illustrations and diagrams, I will explain the difference between three relationship types (mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism), as well as the difference between an egocentric mindset and ecocentric mindset. I will conclude the workshop with an interactive activity that can be an impactful tool to create mutually beneficial relationships in communities.

[ANASTAMOSE] Three FUNgal Games with Professor Sporadicus (60 min.)
Paul Lynn

Join the eccentric Professor Sporadicus in three fun, family-friendly, hands-on, interactive, educational games. Both the young and the young-at-heart will enjoy learning exciting facts and enacting different parts of fungal biology.

First, learn about hyphal growth and the amazing enzymatic magic of the Spitzenkörper. Get digested and become part of a giant hyphal tip!

Second, discover the life cycle of dikaryotic fungi. Starting as a spore, fuse with a compatible mate and grow to form a giant tangled mycelial network!

Third, experience how mycelium makes a mushroom, and join all the other spores in a huge sporulation event involving a big rainbow parachute!


Session II – 4:00 pm

[DELIQUESCE] Cultivating Continuity: Managing a Mushroom Culture Library (60 min.)
Paul Lynn

This workshop is tailored to those taking the plunge into mushroom cultivation, where many newcomers quickly find themselves overwhelmed with complexity. As we dance deeper into chaos fungorum, we often find it most rewards a focused approach. With time we find a rhythm, cultivate a little foresight, and match our cadence to the mycelial pulse.

There has never been a more pressing time to focus on preserving biodiversity. With few resources and little experience, anyone can begin building a mushroom culture library. Still, it helps to look ahead and consider some of the potential challenges first. I’d like to share some simple lessons, learned from a lot of floundering, failure and experimentation, that I wish I’d known when I started.

First, we’ll briefly discuss some of the most miraculous and most limited aspects of fungal biology, explain the concepts of senescence and genetic erosion, and explore the importance of genetic vitality and culture preservation. Next we examine the structure and function of a culture library: how it works, what the workflow looks like and how it scales.

Then we dive into the various ways that fungal cultures can be acquired and preserved. We explore techniques for cloning wild mushrooms, collecting and working with spores, and an introduction to the basics of fungal breeding. We then consider several different methods for backing up, storing, rejuvenating and exchanging cultures, and cover some simple tricks for culture coding, tracking, planning and organizing the library as it grows.

We conclude with a peek into the possibility of DIY fungal genetics preservation and exchange as a kind of collective, distributed, open-source library, and then open the floor for questions and feedback from the audience.

[RHIZE] Mycological Society’s Succession: Decolonial Learning with Fungi (90 min.)
Aaron Tupac

Mycological Societies around the world are changing with a new wave of Radical Mycologists entering their ranks. Much of mycology today still contains colonialized thinking of power over fungi instead of power with fungi – domination instead of relational thinking. Learning *with* fungi, instead using fungi as a mechanistic reductionist tool for consumption as a food, medicine, or technology.


In this workshop we will share the radical and decolonial strategies we’ve learned that works in the successions we’ve witnessed in our mycological organizations. Moving away from regarding fungi or life as something we can control to modes of inquiry based on mindfulness, respect, and even love.

As Wittgenstein puts it – “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” What language can we begin to use to learn from fungi in a decolonial way? What are fungi inclusive ways of organizing and thinking?

What are new ways of storytelling and knowing we can introduce to mycological education organizations? How can we transform these organizations from a place of domination through taxonomy and utility, to one of relationally learning *with* fungi and their ecological partners?

It matters who gets to ask the questions mycology pursues. Thus it matters, who is included in the succession that will follow in these Mycological Society’s.

[GRAIL] Fearing Fungi: Behind the Veil and Below the Surface (60 min.)
Peter McCoy

Whenever mycophobia emerges as a cultural phenomenon, its origin is often minimally explained. While a fear of fungi may in some cases arise in response to the connection between fungi and decay, such an explanation is narrow and unlikely to be universal. What compels humans of various backgrounds to avoid a significant portion of the natural world – one that not only leads to loss, but also to new life. Has mycophobia risen out of deeper aspects of the human psyche? Has it been a guise for controlling access to select mushroom species? These questions and others will be explored by Peter during this talk. An audience Q&A session will follow to discuss how Radical Mycologists and all mycofolk of today can continue to dissolve outdated taboos and fears around the world’s fungi.


Friday, Oct. 7

Session III – 9:45 am

[RHIZE] Spagyric Anatomy of Fungi (60 min.)
Jason Scott

Drawing from the ancient alchemical traditions we will explore the art of Spagyrics, starting with the principles behind what a Spagyric is, and leading into how that relates to fungi. We will bridge philosophy and practice with methods on how to produce mushroom spagyrics, as well as other lesser known types of preparations.

[DELIQUESCE] Spalting Fungi in Historic Art (60 min.)
Seri Robinson

Explore the colorful history of spalting fungi in historic marquetry from the 1400s-1700s in Western Europe, and follow it through to the modern US studio woodturning movement.

[GRAIL] Descendants of Fungi: The Mycelial Succession of Life on Earth (60 min.)
Peter McCoy

Prevailing theories on evolutionary history point toward fungi or similar organisms as being the first forms of complex life, making animals and plants their descendants. In this talk, Peter will detail the chronology of life’s development, noting how at key speciation events fungi are found as agents of change. The notion of whether life came from outer space (“panspermia/pansporia”) will be briefly discussed before more concrete evidence of fungal influences on evolution are explored – from the first eukaryotic cells to the biota of our modern era. This talk is for anyone wishing to have a rich understanding of what it means to honor constant change in the world and in ourselves, as guided by the perennial wisdom of wild mycelium.


Session IV – 11:00 am


[RHIZE] Imbrications (120 min.)
Kaitlin Bryson

I will setup a loom-structure woven between trees on site. This will be the warp of a weaving we will co-construct throughout the RMC. This structure has two meanings and functions; 1) it visually exemplifies how mycorrhizal networks connect plants/trees together underground and; 2) it provides a structure for our weaving. Workshop participants will be given a brief talk about my work in relation to inoculated textiles as means for social and environmental justice and als learn a brief history of how woven textiles have been used historically as a mechanism for storytelling and recording history. Then, we will go out to the weaving together and begin to weave. I will give a demonstration and we will collectively codify our own “language” through the variety of colors for the warp. Our weaving will be focused on the theme of honoring succession. When the weaving is completed (or at the end of the convergence) we will take it down and nutrify it (with PDA or LMEA) and then bury it in the ground, offering our human stories and intentions to the microbial communities on site.

[DELIQUESCE] Extract and Paint with Spalting Fungi (90 min.)
Seri Robinson

Mimic historic art with modern science. Extract spalting fungi from their decayed wood substrates and reapply the pigments to materials of your choice.

[GRAIL] Mycelial Biomimicry: Social Innovation through Nature's Genius (90 min.)
Anne Forti

Mycelium have so many valuable functional strategies that help enable them to survive and thrive in community with the ecosystem in which they live. In Biomimicry, we use the genius of nature as a template to help solve human design challenges. In this workshop, we’ll brainstorm and discuss the functional strategies of mycelium and then have a design jam session around how we can emulate those strategies for social innovation. How might we improve our most valuable relationships (symbiosis) with others? How might we better share valuable resources in a community (network)? How might we improve communication between nodes in a network?


Session V – 2:00 pm

[RHIZE] Make Your Own Medicinal Mushrooms Extract (120 min.)
Courtney Tyler

A hands-on workshop with Courtney Tyler of Hips and Haws Wildrafts (Ireland) discussing a diverse range of tasty and health promoting methods to incorporate medicinal mushrooms into your diet, your regime, your palate.

We will discuss, taste, explore how and why to add more mushrooms into your diet. How to create medicine from mushrooms. How to pickle or ferment them, etc. We will talk about why making medicine from mushrooms is so different than when working with plants. How mushrooms impact our micro-biome (our myco-biome) and how they benefit our immune system. We will learn about how to best extract the medicinal compounds from fungi.

And why you would want to!

Together we will create an immune boosting extract made from medicinal mushrooms and anti-viral elderberries, that you can bring home with you.

[DELIQUESCE] Mycelial Education as Liberation Practice (60 min.)
Shephali Patel

A basic primer on non-hierarchical, participatory education techniques to design mushroom education workshops and experiences for communities. We will discuss how these approaches are informed by fungal ways of being and embody practices toward equity-in-action.

[GRAIL] Fly Agaric: A Mushroom's Journey from the Taboo to the Utilitarian (90 min.)
Amanita Dreamer, Kevin Feeney, and William Rubel

The panel “Fly Agaric: A Mushroom's journey from the taboo to the utilitarian” will address taboos as well as the functionality of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) from three unique perspectives. Anthropologist Kevin Feeney will explore the trajectory of the fly agaric from a traditional folk medicine to a possible (but rejected) pharmaceutical product, to new emerging folk traditions taking shape in online communities and the growth of a cottage industry in artisanal extracts and tinctures.

Food Historian William Rubel will discuss some of the traditional uses of the fly agaric as food, as well as how it can be prepared as a non-inebriating culinary delight. Rubel will also address some of the historical stigma and misinformation that has been perpetuated about this mushroom, much of which continues to hold sway today, but which appears to be lifting, particularly in mycological circles.

Amanita Dreamer will discuss her own personal healing journey with the fly agaric, a mushroom which helped her to break a seemingly hopeless dependence on benzodiazepines, a dependence which developed in response to lasting trauma caused by Hurricane Katrina. Amanita Dreamer will discuss how she came to find the fly agaric as an ally, how it has changed the directory of her life, and what future potentials she sees for this unique fungus.


Session VI – 4:00 pm

[RHIZE] Balms & Broomsticks: Entheogenic Plants & Fungi of Europe (90 min.)
Ash Ritter

Toxin and tonic. Nectar and poison. It is said that there is a “secret” drive in our genetic wiring to seek out intoxication. But why? What is the allure of riding these edges between danger and delight… and could they be an evolutionary tool? What even is an intoxicant?!

Here in 21st century pop culture, our attitudes have been corralled to fear poison in some contexts yet embrace it without hesitation in others… And yet, we need not look far to see the traditional use of so-called “poison plants” world-wide for intentional rites of initiation, divination, and edification. As a young herbaceous explorer faced with the flatness of academia, I began to look in my own ancestral backyard for answers... What I discovered transformed everything, breathing life into my herbal practice, my felt human experience, and my lived connection to history.

Enter- the under appreciated technology of flying ointments.

In Eastern Europe and beyond, powerful conscious-altering balms allowed for spirit flight- a means to gather insight from higher ground, revel in ecstatic edges, and bring down embodied data to better self and community.

In this class, we will take a lively look at the mythology and taboo history of women’s wisdom, inner alchemy, and the ethnobotany of entheogenic fungi and narcotic plants. Deeper still, we will examine the role of this type of work, including it’s modern adaptations, with philosophical considerations for the especially pertinent nuance between & beyond the binary of poison and medicine.

[DELIQUESCE] Cold Pasteurization and Low Input Fungi Cultivation (60 min.)
Rick Clarke

Utilizing ph shifts and anaerobic “sterilization “ techniques we create a system of pasteurization without the need for resource intensive pressure cooking. From straw to wood chips, cardboard and more- this workshop teaches you to how to use readily available resources like soap, wood ash or lime combined with water and time to get you on your way to propagating and cultivating your own food and medicine from agricultural and yard waste.

[GRAIL] Brigid, the Amanita Icon: A Mycological Assessment of the Celtic Fertility Goddess (30 min.)
Peter McCoy

As one of the ancient Irish Druid’s most revered deities, the Goddess Brigid embodies an array of attributes that not only made her cultural influence vast, but which also frame her as a Western parallel to various Eastern Earth Mother Goddesses. Though many of these latter goddesses have been reviewed in recent decades for their potential relationship to the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, Brigid has been overlooked for her reflections in this important mushroom.

In this talk, Peter will review the essential traits of this great deity and how they suggest an occulted reverence amongst the ancient Celts for the iconic red-and-white Amanita. Following the talk, Ayla Réalta and others will embody many of these traits in their performance, Brigid’s Caoineadh.

[GRAIL] Brigid's Caoineadh (30 min.)
Ayla Realta
See description on the Performers page.


Saturday, Oct. 8

Session VII – 9:45 am

[RHIZE] Applied Mycology Panel (60 min.)

A panel discussion on applied mycology with several RMC presenters.

[DELIQUESCE] Seeing Mushrooms With New Eyes (60 min.)
Rebecca Chandler

This class will shine a new light on mushroom identification and foraging. Participants may find that the more you see, the more there is to see when it comes to mushrooms. In this class, we will enhance our identification skills by sharpening our senses and honing our observation skills.

First, we will discuss the anatomy and key characteristics of mushrooms in order to better identify mushrooms. Then we will discuss tips, tricks, and tools that will advance your mushroom identification skills. We will have hands-on activities such as making spore prints and making ink with mushroom spores. We will also discuss the various types of keys and the use of chemical reagents to positively identify fungi. We will mainly discuss the macro characteristics of fungi but will also touch on micro characteristics for those who would like to take their identification to the next level by using a microscope. Advanced terminology will also be discussed in order to enhance mycological vocabulary.

We will also discuss mushrooms and their role in different habitats. Participants will become familiar with keeping a foraging journal and taking notes as they walk through the forest. My hope is that all of the participants of this class will walk away with more confidence in mushroom identification than they had when they walked in so they can continue this practice when they return to their homes.

[GRAIL] Working with High Doses in a Natural Setting (60 min.)
Shane Norte

Talking about the great use and benefits of high doses in natural setting. Also how natural settings help one connect closer to the earth themselves.

[ANASTAMOSE] Companion Farming Culinary Mushrooms, A Field Tour (60 min.)
Ryan Falk

Companion Farming Culinary Mushrooms, a field tour, will focus on farm and garden systems that incorporate culinary mushroom cultivation with produce production. We'll discuss the annual cycles and stages to grow produce and mushrooms together. Specifically, we'll cover Stropharia, Oyster, and Almond Agaricus cultivars. Covering where they’re best suited to grow onsite, and what combinations grow well from our experience. We'll collect and identify fruiting bodies, look at the literal mycelial networks around our soil, and discuss methods to encourage growth within a low till, Certified Naturally Grown and/or Organic parameter.

In addition, we’ll explore farming practices that encourage soil health via the mycological lens. We’ll cover our results of 6 years of practice on site, so you can see how it’s impacted being a production based farm. Discover how to introduce fungal association in a garden for increased yields and organic matter. We’ve abstained from the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides on this land. You’ll find out how it has benefited our systems, production, and how it’s helped to maintain a relatively disease and pest free farm.

This class is great for anyone interested in companion planting and production growing. Find out what plants should be put on the shoulders of the field or garden to prevent pests or encourage pollinators. What mushrooms thrive in a greenhouse, in a walkway, or in a compost pile. We’ll discuss other combinations of companion planting as well. You’ll get the knowledge of a ten year farmer, and my relationship to farming, foraging, and mycology.

Lastly, we will discuss the benefits of mulching with spent mushroom blocks, and discuss mycoremediation on a small scale for those who want to try at home. We’ll actively spread spent blocks and talk about resourcing materials to try your own integrated gardening at home.


Session VIII – 11:00 am

[RHIZE] Medicinal Mushrooms, the Essential Guide (120 min.)
Christopher Hobbs

This presentation offers an introduction, and a deeper dive to their many health benefits. We will cover the transformative power of mushrooms, how they can be a nutritional powerhouse in your diet with their high levels of vitamins, minerals, high quality protein, microbiome-supporting fiber, and beneficial immune-regulating effects.

We will discuss how to choose the best and most effective products, how to make your own dried tea powders from a variety of active and well-studied species, and how to use them for prevention of infections and other health conditions, and as an anti-aging and health-promoting supplement.

Discover the top 10 most popular and well-studied species like reishi, lion's mane, chaga, shiitake, and more. 90 minute class with 30 minutes Q&A and discussion. Hope to see you there!

Kingdom fungi have so much to offer--healthy food, building materials, bioremediation agents, and especially powerful medicines. We will discuss how mushroom medicine can transform our health in many ways.

[GRAIL] Astromycology (90 min.)
Jason Scott

From the early development of natural medicines, there was always an association with the natural elements. Through traditional cosmology everything is recognized in relationship to everything else. The planets were considered in piecing together this puzzle. In this workshop we will look at the planetary archetypes and their traditional associations to systems, pathologies, and morphology, and why that is relevant and useful when working with medicinal mushrooms. We will discuss planetary remedials and how to get really specific with natural medicine. This class is intermediate to advance, where understanding of medicinal mushrooms and planetary archetypes is helpful, but not necessary.

[ANASTAMOSE] Mushroom Art Foray (120 min.)
Chris Adams and Rebecca Chandler

In this workshop, we will walk around the woods of Brown Bottle Farm, chatting about one artist's process of collecting visual information for their art, while also learning to identify the fungi encountered.

Chris Adams is an illustrator & printmaker from Corvallis, OR who primarily creates pen and ink illustrations of mushrooms and other mushroom related wildness. Although much of his work is a bit out there, he tries to keep a layer of scientific accuracy in the natural elements within each piece.

The foray will consist of essential mushroom identification information, as led by Rebecca Chandler, as well as a first-person view from Chris on how you might collect information to later use for creating morphologically-accurate drawings. Among other things we will talk about sketching & photography techniques specifically for taking home a comprehensive look at each specimen.

We will also discuss how to create a mushroom journal and make spore prints to further our understanding of mushroom identification. All levels are welcome to join!


Session IX – 2:00 pm

[RHIZE] Fungi Singing Workshop: Commune with Armillaria through the Voice (90 min.)
Ayla Realta

This singing workshop is aimed at preparing participants to begin communing with fungi spirits through the voice. For this RMC workshop, we will be sing-studying Armillaria. All levels of singing experience welcome. The workshop begins with learning the personality of the fungi, where it grows and what it eats, before moving to its cultural significance and human relationships. After learning a bit about the fungi we warm up the voice with a variety of strength building vocal exercises. Finally we commune with the physical form, first meditating with mushrooms and/or mycelium, gathering auric data, then listening for sounds and songs. Together we invite the fungi spirit to channel through our voices, leading us into a flowing fungi filled singing session.

Fungi Basic Facts
We start with learning about the Fungi beginning with its personality- it’s ideal habitat, relationships with other beings, it’s food source, and any unique characteristics about how it grows or what it does. Then we move on to the mushroom’s cultural significance. What relationship has this entity already formed with humans and our ancestors? What was the tone of our dynamic with them- tenuous, symbiotic?

Preparing the Voice
After preparing our mind, we move on to preparing our body instruments starting with our voice. Warm ups include a variety of strength building vocal exercises, some mimicking wild animal sounds combined with simple scales.

Communing Meditation
Next we are ready to commune with the actual mushroom. Being in the presence of the fruit body or mycelium, the physical form of the entity, allows us to begin gathering auric data. We commence with a mushroom meditation by taking 3 slow deep breathes while holding or gazing upon the mushroom. After we feel a sense of ethereal connection we are ready to invite the entity to move into our voices.

Listening for the Song
This last part is the most exciting practice, one of listening. We are invited to listen to the sound and song of the being we’ve studied. The song already exists in the ethereal, it’s already written, but it’s waiting and wanting to be born through you, specifically through your voice. You are not the creator of this song, so your most important and difficult task is to get out of the way, and allow its vibrations to move through you.

Part of setting the container for this workshop is making an agreement that we do our best to set aside harsh judgements of our own and others' voices. When the judgements arise, we let them pass and keep listening. The relieving part is that since it’s not your song, you don’t have to worry about if it sounds good or beautiful enough, you are simply a channel.

Recordings welcome. We will continue singing until the energy of the mushroom shifts. It could call for a stop and restart or an unending flow of mushroom voice jam.

[DELIQUESCE] Make your own Medicinal Mushroom Coffee (60 min.)
Courtney Tyler

Come learn (and taste) how to make delicious and immune enhancing drinks with a blend of medicinal mushrooms and herbs.

Courtney Tyler of Hips and Haws Wildcrafts delights in the ceremony of sharing hot drinks made from a mix of medicinal mushrooms, roots, herbs, and tree extracts such as: chaga, dandelion roots, hazelnuts, and pine cone syrup. Courtney shares these during her mushroom events in Ireland.

Join this workshop to learn how to make some of your own and go home with some new recipes and wow your friends and family with your new concoctions and brews.

We will learn how to easily extract the most medicinal components from your mushrooms to add into your drinks. How to source high quality mushrooms if you aren’t already foraging them for yourself. How to blend both simple and complex brews to enjoy at home. We will learn some methods to simplify the process, yet not to skimp on the quality nor flavour!

[GRAIL] Fly Agaric Panel (90 min.)

A panel discussion on the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, with several of RMC's presenters.


Session X – 4:00 pm

[RHIZE] The Sweet Secrets of Honey Mushrooms (60 min.)
Robert Rogers

Honey mushrooms exhibit interesting interactions with orchids, umbrella polypore, and mycelial interactions with various tree species. The fruiting body contains numerous compounds of interest for a variety of acute and chronic health conditions.

[DELIQUESCE] MycoMythologies: Storytelling Circle (90 min.)
Kaitlin Bryson and Saša Spačal

This workshop evokes and employs the "mycelial mind" of the participants through alternative methodologies of knowledge gathering practices and embodied mycology. Participants will be guided to create their own mycomythological, speculative stories to share with one another and donate to the Spawn database (a growing collection of Mycomythologies). Participants will learn about World Networks Entanglement also known as planetary infrastructures through the various portions of the performative workshop. They will be given a soundwalk and guided mediation as well as a mythology and writing workshop.

[GRAIL] Amanita muscaria and the Three Filters of Soma (60 min.)
Kevin Feeney

There are many theories regarding possible historical and ritual uses of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), but none have been quite as compelling or enduring as R. Gordon Wasson’s theory identifying the ancient Vedic sacrament, Soma, as Amanita muscaria. Today, it is generally accepted that Soma was a hallucinogenic substance, but the identity of this substance remains a point of controversy. In this talk, Wasson’s theory is revisited, with a specific focus on the three filters described in the Vedic Hymns as essential to the preparation of Soma. When these ancient Vedic techniques are applied to Amanita muscaria significant pharmacological changes take place that affect the quality of the fly agaric’s psychoactive effects in several vital respects. Background on Wasson’s theory will be provided and the intriguing parallels between Soma and Amanita muscaria preparation will be discussed and explored.



Sunday, Oct. 9

Session XI – 9:45 am

[GRAIL] Medicinal Fungi Panel (60 min.)

A panel discussion with several speakers from the RMC.

[DELIQUESCE] Ethnomycology of the Mayan Highlands (60 min.)
Jasper Degenaars

Dive deep into the pyramids of fungal history. This historic exploration shines light on the undeniable reference the Mesoamérican people have for these organisms and how they morphed their societies

During this talk, we explore the lives of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamérica and how they found to work with their local mycosphere for food, medicine, and psychedelic exploration.

The Guatemalan and Mexican highlands are some of the most myco-diverse in the world. In the Guatemalan highlands alone, indigenous peoples forage and consume at least 131 different edible species. More then 60 species are used for medicinal purposes and at least 54 species were used for sacred purposes.

Jasper has spend the last 3.5 years of his life in the Guatemalan highlands discovering the mycophelic history of the Mayan peoples trough forays, conversations and ceremony.

[RHIZE] How to Make Liquid Culture (60 min.)
Paul Lynn

Refined through thousands of iterations, this unique liquid culture technique greatly streamlines the mushroom cultivation process and circumvents many of the biggest stumbling blocks for scaling up.

Developed for the budget-savvy cultivator, this workshop will cover the tools, techniques, recipes, processes and uses of liquid culture. Learn how to hack a cheap blender to make a laboratory-grade Eberbach stirrer, source nutritious ingredients for optimal growth, and test the culture for contaminants, as well as the best ways to use, store and transport the culture after brewing.

The workshop will conclude with an exciting preview of a new technique for bulk inoculation using liquid culture to reduce production time, cost and loss by up to 1000%, eliminating the most problematic part of the mushroom cultivation process: grain.

A Q&A session will follow.


Session XII – 2:00 pm

[RHIZE] The Sporechain: A Radically Decentralized Gene Bank and Seed Library (90 min.)
Paul Lynn & Jack Allard

Much of our global economy relies on the monetization of biological processes: everything we buy comes directly or indirectly from the Earth, and in one way or another fungi and plants are the biological engines of our civilization. In an era of mass extinction, genetic erosion, rampant habitat loss, excessive resource extraction, and heavily monetized genetics sciences, it is more important and urgent than ever to establish alternative genetic conservation and distribution models that value vitality, longevity and diversity over profitability.

Built on an open-source philosophy, the Sporechain couples decentralized file sharing with a dedicated blockchain, a framework to unify and synchronize the efforts of a collaborative global community of independent contributors, each working in concert to collect, catalog, analyze, preserve, breed, propagate and distribute the seeds, spores and other genetics upon which we all rely.

While blockchain technology has been used mostly to reenforce systems of exploitation (e.g. NFTs and other pyramid schemes), we believe it also can be used to undermine them, helping to unify a collective movement while bypassing conventional, closed-loop economic and information systems.

The Sporechain is radically decentralized. It is not an organization, and it has no owners. Its stability, accuracy and completeness rely on a loosely-coordinated collection of individuals. Like a spore, each Sporechain node functions as a self-contained unit. When interlinked like a vast mycelial network, these nodes simultaneously sustain and are sustained by the whole, without any manipulation or direction by centralized authorities like corporations, governments or academic institutions. This allows it to be expanded, adapted and utilized by anyone for any purpose, and hopefully grow far beyond the initial vision.

In this workshop we describe the purpose of the Sporechain and the basics of how it works. We then discuss the role it can play in the larger endeavor to preserve Earth’s dwindling biodiversity. We delve into some of the nitty-gritty of the project, including the value of public-private key encryption, trustless verification, the Inter-Planetary File System and the possible role of cryptocurrency, both in facilitating alternative genetics exchange such as seed swapping, and also in forming a secondary incentive layer to secure the longevity of the project.

[DELIQUESCE] Remediations & Reciprocal Relations with Healers and More-than-Human Healers (90 min.)
Robin Gunkel

Remediations & Reciprocal Relations is an exploration of reciprocity in both plant medicine and sacred mushroom practice, as expressed by curanderos and curanderas practicing in these traditions, as well as a practice of reciprocity with a local phytoremediation project. Healers and more-than-human healers (plants & fungi) have much to teach about place-based healing, more-than-human personhood, and the role of reciprocity as an antidote to capitalism. Remediations & Reciprocal Relations also explores the practice of reciprocity with working to remove lead from a contaminated lot in East Central Baltimore with sunflowers & mycorrhizae, as allies in the remediation process. Soil and sunflower sample extraction data is provided beside interviews with community members to understand how this project has helped work towards a larger community vision. Remediations & Reciprocal Relations explores cultural practices, social relationships, and bioremediation for personal and planetary health.

[GRAIL] Treating Infections with Medicinal Mushrooms and Natural Medicine (90 min.)
Christopher Hobbs

An integrative and evidence-based approach, Will offer a lively and holistic scientific review of clinical studies supporting effectiveness of medicinal mushrooms supported by herbal medicine for prevention, relief of symptoms, and for re-balancing the underlying constitutional issues that form the basis of disease. Standard of practice western, traditional Chinese herbs will be emphasized, along with food pharmacy, diet, and lifestyle factors with research.


Session XIII – 4:00 pm

[DELIQUESCE] One Drop: An Animist's Take on Herbal & Fungal Compounding (60 min.)
Ash Ritter

As the popularity of therapeutic fungi finds its foothold in the colonized west, attitudes and approaches of the industrialized mind influence how we perceive medicine. How does our worldview & language inform the quality and efficacy of mushrooms and botanicals? How has the influence of war-medic allopathy informed our methodology in traditional medicine ways? What would it look like to engage with these organisms as beings nested in a living, relational terrain, as opposed to compounds that we use solely for personal gain?

In a recent conference presentation, an audience member asked me what herbs I recommend stacking with entheogenic fungi. My answer led me to this presentation- a testament to the relational nature of self and land, rather than a one-size-fits-all patentable prescription. In this conversation, we will explore animist philosophies & practical methods to compound potent teas, tinctures and tonics to awaken our experience of reciprocity, where the medicine of place nourishes the body of self and the body of the world alike.

[GRAIL] The Controversies of Amanita muscaria (60 min.)
Amanita Dreamer

In this talk Amanita Dreamer will address some topics around the Amanita muscaria mushroom that cause lots of discussion and sometimes the spread of misinformation and fear about the mushroom. Some items on the list are:

  • What causes so much controversy about the Amanita muscaria mushroom?
  • Is ibotenic acid neurotoxic?
  • Is this mushroom what the Viking Berzerker's used?
  • Is this the Christmas/Santa mushroom?
  • Is Amanita muscaria psychedelic?
  • What is the magic in amanita? (Time travel, precognition, talking to trees, realities and dimensions)
  • Can we grow Amanita muscaria?
  • The Ego and Amanita rage
  • Is the Amanita muscaria mushroom sentient?
  • Does the mushroom have any health benefits?

After the talk the floor will be open to questions.



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