Why aren't mushrooms being used more often for medicinal purposes? Despite documented use of mushrooms in other cultures (for instance, ancient Greece) thousands of years ago, Stamets says some people have a fear of mushrooms -- mycophobia -- because the fungi are ephemeral and powerful.
They have the power to feed you, make you high or even harm you, but they don't last very long.
"People's paranoia is a reflex of their not understanding something that's so mysterious," he said. "I was always attracted to that which was forbidden, and these were forbidden fruits."
Stamets isn't the only one who's excited about mushrooms. George Hudler, a professor in Cornell University's Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, doesn't like the taste of them, but thinks there's a lot of potential for mushrooms' healing properties.

"In the next 10 years, we'll just see an incredible expansion of our awareness of chemicals in mushrooms, hopefully even their use in conventional medicine," says Hudler, who teaches a course on mushrooms at Cornell and once had dinner with Stamets.

Yeah, just like there's a mushroom that doubles your height, and one that gives you an extra life.

There are mushrooms like that. Found a guy selling them behind a dumpster. And they made the grass turn orange and all the people turn into dinosaurs.