Entheogen Book/Journal Reviews, thoughts & discussions

Kadakuda

i was thinking it may be fun to discuss good books/journals or whatever about entheogens. then we can know whats hot and not.

add your opinions about a title, but lets add on WHY you like it. maybe it deals with spirituality, or chemistry, biology, history, medicine etc etc.... One fantastic book to a biologist may be boring as hell to a spiritual person.

whatcha like?

Entheogenetics

I'd like to take this opportunity to warn everyone about Martin Ball's 'Sage Spirit.'

The first 37 pages are the most basic info one could possibly find on salvia and the entheogenic experience, 2 minutes at Erowid will provide more info. Not to mention, the writing is so massively double spaced that most of these 37 pages could be written on a single page or two.

Then from pg. 37-90, it's nothing but his experiences with salvia, which are pretty poorly written and seem to be pretty much the same thing written differently. After every report there are comments (again in massive double space) which are just annoying. Again, Erowid provides MUCH better experience reports.

Then we have 24 pages of excerpts from his children's book. After this it's back to double spacing for 15 (or two in all actuality) pages of discussing the importance of ritual and preparation, which is the only area of the book with any merit...if you're completely new to salvia.

Overall this book is a lesson in Martin Ball's own egocentricity (he makes it clear that the reports are not his only experiences with salvia), and tends to speak to the reader as if they are mentally handicapped. This 130pg book would have been better off as a 20pg pamphlet for those with no access to a computer or other sources of info.

Floyd

"The Healing Forest" is a spectacular book. As is "Native American Ethnobotany"

Journals are harder to judge since many of them cost considerable amounts of money to read. I wish some of us could get together and pay for a JSTOR subscription.

Kadakuda

Quote:

Journals are harder to judge since many of them cost considerable amounts of money to read. I wish some of us could get together and pay for a JSTOR subscription.

a ditto on that. if we can get the price down, count me in

perhaps another thread for that, or pm's.

what are : "The Healing Forest" & "Native American Ethnobotany" about, why do you like them?

Entheogenetics, its funny i had that on the list of things to buy, not anymore, thanks for saving me the $ lol.

i would suggest reading a book called "One River" By Wade Davis. it has a lot to do about ethnobotanicals and discovery, and talks a lot about Richard Schultes. It has most to do with coca, rubber, peyote and lesser amounts on many different things. if you like wordy well written (beautiful, but longer and not so to the point as a scientific report) books on plants (entheogens and ethnobotanicals) and travel/exploring, its a great book. 500+ pages i think.

Another great one is "Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft " by Dale Pendell

again this is a lot of poetry, which i normally dislike, but this one has very clever phrases and poems if your familiar with the plants in question.....covers various entheogens and other things like inhalants and alcohols.

there are 2 more in this "set" by the same author, but i have not read these....i am for sure buying them though as teh one above was really excellent!
Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path by Dale Pendell
Pharmako/Dynamis: Stimulating Plants, Potions, and Herbcraft by Dale Pendell

amazon has those 3 together for something like $60.....not too bad!

lastly "Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers"
by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, Christian Rätsch

honestly i felt this book was a bit of a flop....i expected far more from a book by these 3....pretty basic info, covers many entheogens, but not detailed enough. also didnt find it gave good enough references for some of the claims they made, which other places seem to be at odds with this book. for $30, sure. for $100 i wouldnt....

gkannon77

Anyone read Pihkal or Tihkal? These are staples I haven't read yet, and wondered what others here thought of them.

-G7