The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants

The most comprehensive guide to the botany, history, distribution, and cultivation of all known psychoactive plants

• Examines 414 psychoactive plants and related substances

• Explores how using psychoactive plants in a culturally sanctioned context can produce important insights into the nature of reality

• Contains 797 color photographs and 645 black-and-white illustrations

In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful plants--those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness--have traditionally been regarded as sacred. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them. The author begins with 168 of the most well-known psychoactives--such as cannabis, datura, and papaver--then presents 133 lesser known substances as well as additional plants known as "legal highs," plants known only from mythological contexts and literature, and plant products that include substances such as ayahuasca, incense, and soma. The text is lavishly illustrated with 797 color photographs--many of which are from the author's extensive fieldwork around the world--showing the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactives.

Autorentext
Christian Rätsch, Ph.D. (1957 ? 2022), was a world-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist who specialized in the shamanic uses of plants for spiritual as well as medicinal purposes. He studied Mesoamerican languages and cultures and anthropology at the University of Hamburg and spent, altogether, three years of fieldwork among the Lacandone Indians in Chiapas, Mexico, being the only European fluent in their language. He then received a fellowship from the German academic service for foreign research, the Deutsche Akademische Auslandsdienst (DAAD), to realize his doctoral thesis on healing spells and incantations of the Lacandone-Maya at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

In addition to his work in Mexico, his numerous fieldworks have included research in Thailand, Bali, the Seychelles, as well as a long-term study (18 years) on shamanism in Nepal combined with expeditions to Korea and the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon. He also was a scientific anthropological advisor for expeditions organized by German magazines such as GEO and Spektrum der Wissenschaften (Spectrum of Sciences).

Before becoming a full-time author and internationally renowned lecturer, Rätsch worked as professor of anthropology at the University of Bremen and served as consultant advisor for many German museums. Because of his extensive collection of shells, fossils, artifacts, and entheopharmacological items, he had numerous museum expositions on these topics.

He is the author of numerous articles and more than 40 books, including Plants of Love, Gateway to Inner Space, Marijuana Medicine, The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants, and The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. He is also coauthor of Plants of the Gods, Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas, Witchcraft Medicine, Pagan Christmas, and The Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs and was editor of the Yearbook of Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness. A former member of the board of advisors of the European College for the Study of Consciousness (ECSC) and former president of the Association of Ethnomedicine, he lived in Hamburg, Germany.

Inhalt
Foreword

Preface

Introduction
What Are Psychoactive Plants?
The Use of Psychoactive Plants
Psychoactive Plants and Shamanic Consciousness
The Fear of Psychoactive Plants
The Study of Psychoactive Plants
Psychoactive Plants as Factors in the Development of Culture

THE PSYCHOACTIVE PLANTS
On the Structure of the Major Monographs

The Most Important Genera and Species
from A to Z
Major Monographs

Little-Studied Psychoactive Plants
Minor Monographs

Reputed Psychoactive Plants
"Legal Highs"

Psychoactive Plants That Have
Not Yet Been Identified

PSYCHOACTIVE FUNGI
The Archaeology of Entheogenic
Mushroom Cults
Cultivating Mushrooms

The Genera and Species from A to Z

Purported Psychoactive Fungi

General Literature on
Psychoactive Fungi

PSYCHOACTIVE PRODUCTS

ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS
Active Plant Constituents
and Neurotransmitters

The Active Plant Constituents
from A to Z

Botanical Taxonomy of Psychoactive
Plants and Fungi

General Bibliography
Bibliographies
Periodicals
Books and Articles

Acknowledgments

Index

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