"Urban uncovers a deliciously twisted tale of religion, psychology, enchantment, and mysticism as both spirituality and science. At once tart and sympathetic, Urban takes the magic mushroom seriously while offering a grounded rejoinder to psychedelic hype.”

Erik Davis, author of 'High Weirdness: Drugs, Visions, and Esoteric Experience in the Seventies'

“In this illuminating study, Urban examines the claims of advocates, neuroscientists, and entrepreneurs about mystical encounters with psilocybin mushrooms. His is a fresh perspective on the struggle between science, spirituality, and religion over the meaning of psychedelic experiences.”

Mike Jay, author of 'Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind'

“At last, a critical and sympathetic account of the psychedelic renaissance and the transpersonal states at its core, a fusing of the latest critical literatures with the altered states themselves, and a very smart discussion of the ‘mysticism without religion’ going on around us, in us, and as us."

Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of 'How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else'

“We are in Urban’s debt for his sober approach to the entangled life of mushrooms, mysticism, and the history of religions. Moving between Eleusis and Esalen, Mesoamerica and Middle America, Urban brings his keen eye and clear prose to bear on today’s sporal spirituality, mycelial messianism, and faith in pharmaceuticals.”

Charles M. Stang, director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School