The Sacred Mushroom Andrija Puharich (pictured at left) has been described as a rouge CIA man. He enticed One Step Beyond host John Newland to televise his own mushroom trip in 1961. In a January episode dealing with the discovery of mind-altering drugs, Newland traveled to Mexico, where he met with a local shaman who was an initiate in ritual use of magic mushrooms. The then-unknown mushrooms were purportedly able to increase the user's psychic powers. On camera, Newland actually ingested several mushrooms and allowed his reactions to be filmed for broadcast. This was the only episode of the entire series to have a relatively reality-based "documentary" tone, rather than the scripted docudramas that made up all other episodes; possibly because of the controversial subject matter, this episode was omitted from the syndication package and has been seen only rarely since its original broadcast. However, according to Newland, it was the most popular episode of the series
Photo from a filmed interview by Tom Howell
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