María Sabina — The Mushroom Shaman of Oaxaca
María Sabina (1894–1985) was a Mazatec curandera and shaman from Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, whose use of sacred psilocybin mushrooms in healing ceremonies gained worldwide fame. Her legend — part historical, part mythic — tells of a poor indigenous woman who discovered the sacred mushrooms as a child and was called by the spirits to become a healer. She conducted veladas (night ceremonies) in which she consumed the 'little saints' (as Mazatecs call the mushrooms) and channeled spirits who could diagnose and cure illnesses. In 1955, she was visited by American banker and amateur mycologist R.