'Dune' Was Inspired By Psilocybin Mushrooms

[_ronzlo_]

Magic Mushrooms were the Inspiration for Frank Herbert's Science Fiction Epic 'Dune'

One of the central plot devices in Frank Herbert's 1965 science-fiction epic Dune is melange - colloquially known as 'spice' - a naturally-occurring drug found only on the planet Arrakis which has numerous positive effects, including heightened awareness, life extension, and prescience. These effects make it the most important commodity in the cosmos, especially as the prescience allows for faster-than-light interstellar starship navigation (and thus trade) by the 'Guild Navigators'. The spice also has other more, deleterious effects, which begin with its addictive properties, a symptom of which is the tinting of the whites and pupils of the eye to a dark shade of blue.

This central theme of Dune has often prompted assocations with psychedelic culture - the mystical-surrealist avant-garde film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who once attempted to make a film based on Dune, said that he "wanted to make a film that would give the people who took LSD at that time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating". The popular nickname for the strong hallucinogen dimethyl-tryptamine (DMT) - 'spice' - may also have taken some inspiration from the novel.

But it seems the origin of the spice theme actually does have 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 took its inspiration from Herbert's experiences with magic mushrooms:

Frank Herbert, the well-known author of the Dune books, told me his technique for using spores. When I met him in the early 1980s, Frank enjoyed collecting mushrooms on his property near Port Townsend, Washington. An avid mushroom collector, he felt that throwing his less-than-perfcct wild chanterelles into the garbage or compost didn't make sense. Instead, he would put a few weathered chanterelles in a 5-gallon bucket of water, add some salt, and then, after 1 or 2 clavs, pour this spore-mass slurry on the ground at the base of newly planted firs. When he told me chanterelles were glowing from trees not even 10 years old, I couldn't believe it. No one had previously reported chanterelles arising near such young trees, nor had anyone reported them growing as a result of using this method." Of course, it did work for frank, who was simply following nature's lead.

Frank's discovery has now been confirmed in the mushroom industry. It is now known that it's possible to grow many mushrooms using spore slurries from elder mushrooms. Many variables come into play, but in a sense this method is just a variation of what happens when it rains. Water dilutes spores from mushrooms and carries them to new environments. Our responsibility is to make that path easier. Such is the way of nature.

Frank went on to tell me that much of the premise of Dune — the magic spice (spores) that allowed the bending of space (tripping), 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 Gesserits (influenced by tales of Maria Sabina and the sacred mushroom cults of Mexico) — came from his perception of the fungal life cycle, and his imagination was stimulated through his experiences with the use of magic mushrooms.

It seems Frank Herbert did indeed 'let the spice flow'!

[dickman69]

i wish i was on mushrooms when i watched dune

bc otherwise its fucking terrible

[Jizz]

the lynch one? yeah its probably lynch's worst film


and i am not surprised by this revelation at all

[Riddles]

The books are great, first 2 especially. Haven't seen the film.

Also this is hardly groundbreaking news, a creative person took drugs and wrote about it. Loads of songs, art and books are inspired by drug taking.

[RKM]

to pose a different question, do you guys think drugs inspire creativity?

imo a lot of times i'd actually say no, stone's satanic majesty is ok but clearly suffers from being the product of too much weed, and heroin sucked their creativity dry, same goes for jimmy page in led zeppelin

and when i met the meat puppets singer, i asked him about the rumour that they took like an ounce of md a day recording meat puppets II and he kinda laughed and said nah that was only when we'd finished for the day

what u lot think

i could just be projecting cos weed makes me feel sick and tired usually more than inspired

[Jizz]

its subjective really. i find im more inventive with arrangements when high, cos all of a sudden im just looking to put sounds in a way that would reaally get me zoning. but its rare that i actually produce something good while high


I found drugs to be more useful in helping understand the possibilities of imagination rather than helping me actually make use of it. so to me they are more teachers than tools

[wolf89]

I see people often take articles like this who are looking to back up how they think drugs are amazing because they like taking them latch on to the idea that they are somehow proof that "drugs make you creative, they're good!"

Whereas surely Frank Herbert was a writer who was creative already who then had an idea sparked by his experiences with mushrooms. It's just another life experience to draw from as far as I see it. Same way that anything you come across in life can add to a bank of ideas or change how you may think about something.

I mean it's funny how psychedelics being referenced as inspiration for something always draws a "holy shit! aren't they amazing mind opening spiritual substances!" response but any other thing someone has done sober that directly sparked their imagination is just a bit of experience a talented artist or writer drew from. Especially frustrating when it goes the other direction and someone assumes that because someone came up with something wildly creative or unusual it was drug fueled.

And this isn't me being negative about shrooms. It's probably the only drug experience I actually rate that much any more, just that there's countless numbers of kids sitting in bedrooms smoking shitloads of weed thinking it's somehow making them a better musician who're probably reading articles like this and patting themselves on the back

[wubstep]

and 'How High' was apparently inspired by spliffsticks, just a rumor I heard.

[wubstep]

Of course it's about/made on/influenced by fucking drugs

[kay]

I thought the film was alright.

[hubb]

I think very few drug experiences exist that isn't mirrored directly in our body or have some sort of counterpart in nature. And not in a spiritual sence. It's just that what drugs do is push a few buttons inside the brain and the brain is pretty cool.


I think the reason why drug discussions seem so bait in most cases, is that the consensus in humans right now, is that we only attribute those kind of amazing effects to drugs in general conversation. It's not really accepted socially, to actually go into detail in how a girl literally fucked your brains out, where it felt for a few seconds like a fuse blew and everything went orange, despite it probably being the same thing. So eventhough these things could be things all people shared, it's right now still a niche carved out by nerds that probably mostly get that sort of input from 'tripping' -so they have trouble relating it to more general experiences. And then there's the principle that in society you have to make room and stop asking questions when someone calls something spiritual, which I hope excessive collective drug use would get rid of.

[hubb]

dune is fucking amazing btw

most disgusting villain in it and im not talking about sting

[deadly_habit]

The Dune movie that never was seemed like it would have been awesome


http://jodorowskysdune.com/

[_ronzlo_]

I see people often take articles like this who are looking to back up how they think drugs are amazing because they like taking them latch on to the idea that they are somehow proof that "drugs make you creative, they're good!"

Whereas surely Frank Herbert was a writer who was creative already who then had an idea sparked by his experiences with mushrooms. It's just another life experience to draw from as far as I see it. Same way that anything you come across in life can add to a bank of ideas or change how you may think about something.

I mean it's funny how psychedelics being referenced as inspiration for something always draws a "holy shit! aren't they amazing mind opening spiritual substances!" response but any other thing someone has done sober that directly sparked their imagination is just a bit of experience a talented artist or writer drew from. Especially frustrating when it goes the other direction and someone assumes that because someone came up with something wildly creative or unusual it was drug fueled.

And this isn't me being negative about shrooms. It's probably the only drug experience I actually rate that much any more, just that there's countless numbers of kids sitting in bedrooms smoking shitloads of weed thinking it's somehow making them a better musician who're probably reading articles like this and patting themselves on the back

I think this can be somewhat true for some people, certainly - burnouts looking to justify their burned-outedness. But on the flipside I also think that there's so much misinformation and uninformed prejudice against something that genuinely does have positive effects for some people that it's important to call attention to significant episodes of our cultural history that came from the positive use of a drug. Psilocybin has shown a lot of potential for PTSD, alcoholism, and depression and yet because of kneejerk ignorance was completely impossible to research in any sort of legitimate way until very, very recently (and it still has a ways to go.)

[m8son666]

WOW when will these breakthroughs stop!?

First i get told that some drugs may improve sporting performance and now that they might increase creativity! Madness!!!

[_ronzlo_]

WOW when will these breakthroughs stop!?

First i get told that some drugs may improve sporting performance and now that they might increase creativity! Madness!!!

Don't forget the ones you take to get the junk working.

[Genevieve]

Drugs are a perspective like any other. People often view the perspectives they get while high as 'more authentic' or 'revelatory' than what they usually see, but is there any solid evidence that it's a more "real" perspective? I really don't think so. Drugs may increas your sensitivity, which increases the impact of your perceptions, including how real things are, but for as long as you have no accurate way of measuring 'reality', than drugs are on the same level of "reality" as the sober perspective.

I view drugs, psychedelics especially, just as a way to step aside from where you're usually standing and to view the same thing from a different angle. Kind of like moving away from the pavement and standing on a rooftop. It's a perspective that offers you both benefits and drawbacks from your usual sober perception, but just experiencing a change in perspective itself may be the thing that's great about it.