The use of plants and fungi to alter consciousness for spiritual purposes is arguably the oldest documented religious practice in human history. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests psilocybin mushroom use in North Africa dating back 7,000 years (depicted in Tassili cave paintings). Cannabis use in ritual contexts has been documented in Central Asia going back 5,000 years. The Vedic hymns (c. 1500 BCE) contain hundreds of references to the sacred drink Soma — whose exact identity remains debated but which clearly produced profound mystical states.
In Mesoamerica, psilocybin mushrooms (called teonanácatl — "flesh of the gods" — by the Aztecs) and peyote cactus were central to healing ceremonies, divination and contact with the divine. In the Amazon, ayahuasca (the "vine of the soul") has been used by indigenous healers (curanderos, ayahuasceros) for healing, divination and communication with plant and spirit intelligences for at least 1,000 years — and possibly much longer.
What is consistent across all these traditions: plant medicine was not recreational. It was ceremonial — embedded in a framework of intention, preparation, experienced guidance, community and integration. The stripping away of this context in modern use is one of the most significant losses in the contemporary relationship with these medicines.