What happens if you give magic mushrooms (psilocibine) to experienced Zen practitioners who have never used drugs? What does that teach us about the mystical experience of oneness with nature? Based on these questions, psychiatrist Franz Vollenweider and Zen master Vanja Palmers set up a legal science experiment in a monastery at the top of Mount Rigi in Switzerland. Exactly 50 years after the magic mushrooms were officially banned, a new story begins in what is now called the “psychedelic renaissance”. While in 2021 most studies with psychedelics mainly focus on their promising medical applications, Frans and Vanja are already going a step further. Can the combination of meditation and psilocibin help humanity get out of the mess we have created on ourselves and the planet with our neo-liberal society?

An animation exploring the evolution of mycorrhizal fungal relationships.

The gnarled limbs of an ancient temperate rainforest are reflected in the network of mycelium below ground. Here two worlds meet, enabling the magic which drives so much of life on earth. They mirror each other visually, . while providing symbiotic support. This cycle, powered by photosynthesis, connects sunlight and water from above with a thriving metropolis of microlife below, drawing carbon from the atmosphere into the soil where it is stored.