Plants of the Gods
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€32.50
World-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Christian Ratsch provides the latest scientific updates to this classic work on psychoactive flora by two eminent researchers.
- Numerous new and rare color photographs complement the completely revised and updated text.
- Explores the uses of hallucinogenic plants in shamanic rituals throughout the world.
- Cross-referenced by plant, illness, preparation, season of collection, and chemical constituents.
- First edition sold 33,000 copies.
Three scientific titans join forces to completely revise the classic text on the ritual uses of psychoactive plants. They provide a fascinating testimony of these andquot;plants of the gods,andquot; tracing their uses throughout the world and their significance in shaping culture and history. In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. The text is lavishly illustrated with 400 rare photographs of plants, people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactive flora.
Christian Rätsch, Ph.D. (1957 – 2022), was a world-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist who specialized in the shamanic uses of plants. He is the author of The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants and Marijuana Medicine, and coauthor of Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas and Witchcraft Medicine. He lived in Hamburg, Germany, and lectured around the world. Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) was a Jeffrey Professor of Biology and Director of the Botanical Museum at Harvard University, considered by many to be the father of modern ethnobotany. Albert Hofmann (1906-2008), discoverer of LSD, was a world renowned research biochemist.