Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

“I tugged lightly on my root and felt the ground move.”

This phrase works as both a literal description and a metaphor. While following a tree root through the Panamanian rainforest, Sheldrake finds tiny fungal strands emerging from the root. If the root is jostled, the mycelial network moves with it. Metaphorically, the passage implies that the smallest of mycelial networks is part of a system that impacts the entire world.

“As you read these words, fungi are changing the way life happens, as they have done for more than a billion years.”

Fungi are one of the oldest organisms on earth. For millions of years they have constantly interacted with nearly every other species on earth. With very few exceptions, all life has been influenced in some way by fungi.

“Whether one calls slime molds, fungi, and plants ‘intelligent’ depends on one’s point of view.”

Sheldrake explains that fungi blur the line between “intelligent” and nonsentient organisms. Fungal intelligence cannot be compared to human or animal intelligence, as fungi do not have literal brains. This does not mean, though, that they do not display their own form of sapience. Fungi display seemingly conscious decisions, complex communication, and intentional choices.