Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers

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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 "plants of the gods," 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.

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A specialist in the cultural use of psychoactive plants, Christian Ratsch is the author of numerous books, including Gateway to Inner Space, The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants, and the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. A resident of Germany, he is currently serving as the president of the German Society for Ethnomedicine. 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.