Magic Mushrooms Inspired Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic "Dune"

One of the primary narrative elements in Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction epic Dune is melange – commonly known as “spice” – a naturally-occurring substance found exclusively on the planet Arrakis that provides a variety of good benefits, including heightened consciousness, life extension, and prescience. These properties make it the most valuable commodity in the universe, especially because the ‘Guild Navigators’ can navigate interstellar starships faster than the speed of light. The spice also has more negative consequences, beginning with its addictive tendencies, a sign of which is a dark blue coloring of the whites and pupils of the eyes.

This central theme of Dune has frequently prompted associations with psychedelic culture – the mystical-surrealist avant-garde film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who once attempted to make a Dune-inspired film, stated that he “wanted to make a film that would give the people who took LSD at the time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating.” The story may have also influenced the widespread moniker for the potent psychedelic dimethyl-tryptamine,’ spice.’

However, it appears that the spice theme has a direct link to the psychedelic experience: in his book Mycelium Running, legendary mycologist Paul Stamets notes that not only was Frank Herbert a talented and innovative mushroom enthusiast but that the sci-fi author confessed to him that Dune was inspired by Herbert’s experiences with magic mushrooms:

Frank Herbert, the well-known author of the Dune series, taught me how to use spores. Frank liked mushroom gathering on his farm outside Port Townsend, Washington, when I met him in the early 1980s. He was an ardent mushroom Canada collector who believed that throwing away his less-than-perfect wild chanterelles didn’t make sense. Instead, he’d put a few worn chanterelles in a 5-gallon pail of water, add some salt, and then sprinkle this spore-mass slurry on the ground at the foot of newly planted firs after 1 or 2 claws.

I couldn’t believe it when he told me that chanterelles were shining from trees that were just 10 years old. No one has ever recorded chanterelles growing near such young trees, nor had they grown as a result of utilizing this strategy.” Of course, it worked for Frank, who was only following the natural order.

The mushroom business has now validated Frank’s discovery. It is now recognized that spore slurries from elder mushrooms may be used to cultivate a variety of mushrooms. Many variables come into play, but in some ways, this strategy is similar to what happens when it rains. Water dilutes mushroom spores and transports them to other settings. It is our obligation to make that route less difficult. Nature works in this manner.

Frank went on to say that much of the premise of Dune — the magical spice (spores) that allowed the bending of space, the giant worms (maggots digesting mushrooms), the eyes of the Freman (the cerulean blue of Psilocybe mushrooms), the mysticism of the female spiritual warriors, the Bene Gesserit’s (influenced by Maria Sabina tales and the sacred mushroom cults of Mexico) — came. if you want to get more information, please visit the website mungus.com