posted February 17, 2008 07:28 PM         

Dr. Andrew's Weil

Acclaimed best-selling author and world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil has made a tremendous impact on the ways in which people view healing and health, mind/body interactions and the practice of integrative medicine.
The recipient of an AB degree in botany from Harvard University and an MD from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Weil has worked for the National Institute of Mental Health and for fifteen years served as a research associate (ethnopharmacology) at the Harvard Botanical Museum. He is the director of the Program in Integrative Medicine and clinical professor of internal medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is also the founder of the Foundation for Integrative Medicine and editor-in-chief of the professional journal Integrative Medicine.

As a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, Dr. Weil has traveled extensively throughout the world gathering information about medicinal plants and healing. He has made several expeditions to the Amazon jungle and in 1972 traveled to Huautla de Jimenez where, under the guidance of a curandera, he participated in a velada. In this ceremony he consumed twenty-two specimens of Psilocybe cubensis and later reported that the curandera considered the mushrooms to be the gran remedio cure of all ills.

Above: Psilocybe weilii Guzman et Tapia et Stamets.
Aquarelle by Carol Ann Wells. Courtesy The Stain Blue Museum Collection.
In recognition of his numerous contributions to the fields of ethnomycology, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology, Dr. Weil was given the distinction of having an entheogenic Psilocybe mushroom named in his honor: Psilocybe weilii was discovered in 1995 in Cherokee County, Georgia. A lignicolous species belonging to the Section Cordisporae, this blue-staining mushroom prefers a red-clay soil habitat beneath loblolly pines (Pinus taeda) where it fruits in groups or dense clusters (September through November). Chemical analysis of this mushroom revealed .05% baeocystin; .61% psilocybin; .27% psilocin; and .32% L-tryptophan (as unconverted psilocybin). Psilocybe weilii was authored by Dr. Gaston Guzman, Fidel Tapia, and mycologist Paul Stamets.

Above: "Dr. Weilpaper."
Detail of a wallpaper designed and created by D. Smith. Courtesy The Stain Blue Museum Collection.

Dr. Weil's website: Ask Dr. Weil

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Required Reading
Guzman, G. et al. "A new bluing Psilocybe from U.S.A." Mycotaxon 65: 191-196 (1997).
Stamets, P. Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Foreword by Andrew Weil. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA (1996).
Weil, A.T. (Ed.) "Drugs and the mind." The Harvard Review 1(4): 3-82 (1963).
Weil, A.T. The Natural Mind -- A New Way of Looking at Drugs and the Higher Consciousness. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1972). Revised edition: The Natural Mind -- An Investigation of Drugs and the Higher Consciousness. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1986).
Weil, A.T. "Introduction." In: Lamb, F.B. Wizard of the Upper Amazon: The Story of Manuel Cordova-Rios. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1974).
Weil, A.T. "The love drug." Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 8(4): 335-337 (1976).
Weil, A.T. "The use of psychoactive mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest: An ethnopharmacological report." Botanical Museum Leaflets Harvard University 25(5): 131-149 (1977).
Weil, A.T. The Marriage of the Sun and Moon: A Quest for Unity in Consciousness. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1980).
Weil, A.T. Natural Health, Natural Medicine: A Comprehensive Manual for Wellness and Self-Care. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1990).
Weil, A.T. Spontaneous Healing. Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1995).
Weil, A.T. Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1997).
Weil, A.T. and E.W. Davis. "Bufo alvarius: A potent hallucinogen of animal origin." Journal of Ethnopharmacology 41(1, 2): 1-8 (1992).
Weil, A.T. and W. Rosen. Chocolate to Morphine: Understanding Mind-Active Drugs. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1983). Revised edition: From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything you Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA (1993).

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