David F. Musto presents a penetrating assessment of the history of American anti-drug policies, and the impact of propaganda on public opinion. There is no single book that does a better job of summarizing the history of—and motivations driving—the intensive efforts directed against those who use inebriating substances, and how social controls on these people have been orchestrated within American … [ read more ]
With Psychedelics Reimagined, Thomas Lyttle has assembled a diverse collection of writings, and as has been consistently true for his past works, this book will be of great interest to anyone with a love for this field. However this particular work also has substantial value for many other people. While it could just as easily have been entitled Psychedelic Monographs … [ read more ]
In 1963, Harriette Frances went to the International Foundation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park, California, to explore whether a legal substance being used at that time for psychotherapy could straighten out or enrich her life. She had been suffering from serious depression and had attempted to commit suicide. This mother/wife/artist was desperate, yet also searching for something … [ read more ]
A quick read loaded with insights, The Secret Chief Revealed serves multiple purposes effectively. The actual “text” of the conversations is less than 100 pages, but the introductions, forward, prologue, tribute, epilogue, appendixes, additional tributes, and a special section devoted to resources, introduce the reader to some of the main personalities involved in psychedelic research, and extend the book … [ read more ]
An illustrated pocket-sized book on how to deal with being the underdog in the war on drugs in America, Busted provides tips on how to avoid cops, observations of a variety of situations with the law (most gone bad) and useful charts, such as how long you’ll do time if you’re caught with weed in Arizona as opposed to Michigan. … [ read more ]
Ayahuasca Analogues is certainly not light reading, although it is a slim book of a mere 127 pages. As those who appreciate the writings of Jonathan Ott would expect, this book is dense with information: detailed, technical, extensive, and thorough, for those who want to know all there is to know about the history, pharmacology and pharmacognacy … [ read more ]
If I were to teach a course about psychedelics, the first book I would have my students read is Higher Wisdom. Edited by Roger Walsh and Charles Grob, this gem of a book provides in-depth interviews with fourteen psychedelic luminaries. Collectively, their published books, papers, lectures, and research reports would take up a significant amount of shelf space.
Fortunately for those … [ read more ]
While studies of indigenous use of the psychotropic drink ayahuasca (or yajé) in the Spanish-speaking countries of the Amazon region have resulted in an impressive bibliography over the past few decades, relatively little has been published to date about equivalent practices in Brazil. This gap has now been filled by an anthology in Portuguese of 26 essays by … [ read more ]
Smythe-sewn hardcover; 941 pp.; 32 pp. index; 27 pp. bibliography with 1059 citations, 5 pp. mushroom bibliography with 178 citations plus bibliographies to individual articles; 8 pp. botanical systematics appendix. Foreword by Albert Hofmann, p. 6.
The long-awaited publication of Christian Rätsch’s Enzyklopädie der psychoaktiven Pflanzen is a major publishing event for ethnopharmacognosists as well as psychonauts, to both of which … [ read more ]
As the title states, the latest edition of From Chocolate to Morphine is an easy to read and informative guide to drugs of all kinds. From beginning to end, the authors maintain the approach of providing the facts about drugs while explaining relevant terms and presenting first hand experiences of drug use. Each chapter deals with an issue … [ read more ]