Dr Lawrence Millman Photo: supplied
When we think about the origins of Santa Claus most of us envision Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas and maybe Coca-Cola. Adventurer, writer and mycologist Lawrence Millman sees a large red and white psychedelic 'amanita muscaria' mushroom.
Millman is a proponent of a theory, backed by Harvard professors, anthropologists, and other mycologists, that Santa is made in the image of a 'shroom loving Arctic shaman, who dispensed psychedelic gifts down chimneys and whose reindeer flew high.
Lawrence Millman is the author of Goodbye, Bye: Arctic Poems, Last Places: A Journey in the North, Fungipedia and Giant Polypores and Stoned Reindeer. He has made over 30 trips to the Arctic and Subarctic during his adventuring career.
Amanita muscaria mushroom and Santa Photo: supplied
