mandeville

Ditto. Also in traditional doctrine it was good because the fall led to jesus. Look up felix culpa on wikipedia. As for the mushrooms, it's not as if medieval clergy didn't have a good time.

Not an expert, but Heidegger on technology (1950s) seems very similar to Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment from 1944. Funny given their differences.

I have a hypothesis. What if this were agave root, but bathed/stored in something that broke down the cellulose. This would give a second reason they cut only an outside layer, in addition to being against the grain. Also it would explain the secrecy as the chemicals might be harmful.