"Pharmako poeia: plant powers, poisons, and herbcraft focuses on familiar psychoactive plant-derived substances and related synthetics, ranging from the licit (tobacco, alcohol) to the illicit (cannabis, opium) and the exotic (absinthe, salvia divinorum, nitrous oxide)"--Provided by publisher.
Contemporary alchemist Dale Pendell completes his poetic study of botany, chemistry, spirituality, psychology and history in a volume covering the composition and uses of visionary plants. Chapters including Phantastica, Hypnotica and Telephorica explore the hallucinogenic plants, the bringers of sleep and the bearers of distance.
***WINNER, Best Science Fiction, 2010 Green Book Festival Based in scientific reality, Dale Pendell presents a powerful fictional vision of a fast-approaching future in which sea levels rise and a decimated population must find new ways to live. The Great Bay begins in 2021 with a worldwide pandemic followed by the gradual rising of the seas. Pendell’s vision is all encompassing—he describes the rising seas’ impact on countries and continents around the world. But his imaginative storytelling focuses on California. A “great bay” forms in California’s Central Valley and expands during a 16,000-year period. As the years pass, and technology seems to regress, even memory of a “precollapse” world blends into myth. Grizzly bears and other large predators return to the California hills, and civilization reverts to a richly imagined medieval society marked by guilds and pilgrimages, followed even later by hunting and gathering societies. Pendell’s focus is on the lives of people struggling with love, wars, and physical survival thousands of years in California’s future. He deftly mixes poetic imagery, news-reporting-style writing, interviews with survivors, and maps documenting the geographic changes. In the end, powerful human values that have been with us for 40,000 years begin to reemerge and remind us that they are desperately needed—in the present.
Discover the Healing Power of Plants and Prayers Bring traditional methods of healing and magic into the modern world with this impressive book on Ozark folk magic. Providing lore, verbal charms, healing plants, herbal recipes, magical tools and alignments, and more, folk healer Brandon Weston sheds light on the region's secretive culture and shows you how to heal both yourself and others. Ozark Folk Magic invites you to experience the hillfolk's magic through the eyes of an authentic practitioner. Learn how to optimize your healing work and spells according to the moon cycles, zodiac signs, and numerology. Explore medicinal uses for native Ozark plants, instructions for healing magical illnesses, and how modern witches can feel at home with Ozark traditions. Combining personal stories and down-to-earth advice, this book makes it easy to incorporate Ozark folk magic into your practice. Includes a foreword by Virginia Siegel, MA, folk arts coordinator at the University of Arkansas
"The modern version of The Tao of Physics. . . We gain tantalizing glimpses of an elusive alternative to the thing we know as science. . . . Above all, Peat's book is an eloquent plea for a fair go for the modes of enquiry of other cultures." --New Scientist One summer in the 1980s, theoretical physicist F. David Peat went to a Blackfoot Sun Dance ceremony. Having spent all of his life steeped in and influenced by linear Western science, he was entranced by the Native American worldview and, through dialogue circles between scientists and native elders, he began to explore it in greater depth. Blackfoot Physics is the account of his discoveries. In an edifying synthesis of anthropology, history, metaphysics, cosmology, and quantum theory, Peat compares the medicines, the myths, the languages—the entire perceptions of reality of the Western and indigenous peoples. What becomes apparent is the amazing resemblance between indigenous teachings and some of the insights that are emerging from modern science, a congruence that is as enlightening about the physical universe as it is about the circular evolution of humanity’s understanding. Through Peat’s insightful observations, he extends our understanding of ourselves, our understanding of the universe, and how the two intersect in a meaningful vision of human life in relation to a greater reality.
***This paperback edition has a new introduction by the author and updated content. This is the first volume of North Atlantic Books’ updated paperback edition of Dale Pendell’s Pharmako trilogy, an encyclopedic study of the history and uses of psychoactive plants and related synthetics first published between 1995 and 2005. The books form an interrelated suite of works that provide the reader with a unique, reliable, and often personal immersion in this medically, culturally, and spiritually fascinating subject. All three books are beautifully designed and illustrated, and are written with unparalleled authority, erudition, playfulness, and range. Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft includes a new introduction by the author and as in previous editions focuses on familiar psychoactive plant-derived substances and related synthetics, ranging from the licit (tobacco, alcohol) to the illicit (cannabis, opium) and the exotic (absinthe, salvia divinorum, nitrous oxide). Each substance is explored in detail, not only with information on its history, pharmacology, preparation, and cultural and esoteric correspondences, but also the subtleties of each plant’s effect on consciousness in a way that only poets can do. The whole concoction is sprinkled with abundant quotations from famous writers, creating a literary brew as intoxicating as its subject. The Pharmako series is continued in Pharmako/Dynamis (focusing on stimulants and empathogens) and Pharmako/Gnosis (which addresses psychedelics and shamanic plants).
The essential book on CBD as medicine This practical, accessible guide to using CBD-dominant cannabis contains a wealth of information for both first-time explorers and experienced patients who want to know more about safely treating a number of health conditions with remarkable results and low to no psychoactivity or negative side effects. CBD (cannabidiol) is a component of cannabis that can provide relief for conditions such as seizures, pain, inflammation, anxiety, depression, arthritis, and a number of other issues. This book offers guidance on various forms of the medicine such as oil infusions, alcohol-based tinctures, capsules, and CO2 concentrated extracts. The information is organized by health condition and also by recommended CBD-rich strains, which do not produce the "highs" associated with THC. With dosage suggestions, potential side effects and contraindications, and the pharmacology of the plant, this is an essential guide for both doctors and patients looking for a nontoxic alternative to opiate-based pain medications and other pharmaceuticals. While cannabis has been used for medicinal and recreational purposes for thousands of years, only in the last fifty years have scientists begun to shed light on the chemistry of the plant and its interactions with the human body. Research has led to the discovery of a whole new system in the body, the endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in mediating functions such as appetite, immunity, mood, pain response, and memory. The authors present case studies, interviews with doctors who prescribe cannabidiol products, and the latest research regarding other active phytocannabinoids and terpenoids present in cannabis that are being studied for medical use. They also address the difference between CBD products derived from industrial hemp or in a lab, versus those made from medical marijuana using the whole plant. In addition to offering the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on CBD-dominant cannabis therapy for humans, this book is the first to offer guidance for using the medicine for animals, with suggestions for dosage and delivery and useful forms and strains for common health issues in pets. Finally, the authors take a look at the future of cannabis medicine, charting trends in the legalization movement and suggesting how CBD might be used to fight the opioid epidemic.
The term “spiritual transmission” refers to the passing of the state of enlightenment from teacher to student, which takes place in many spiritual traditions. In itself, the transmission is synonymous with the experience of enlightenment. But the fact that the student’s experience is rooted in a relationship with a human teacher who is perceived to possess absolute knowledge lends the experience much of its intrinsic, yet hidden, nature. Following the breakup of his 21-year relationship with his own spiritual teacher, Amir Freimann launched a quest to discover the deeper realities of the student teacher relationship, logging over 1,000 hours of interviews with students and teachers. These interviews reveal the promises and perils of the guru-to-student relationship and explore hot-button topics such as the differences and similarities between therapists and gurus; the role of trust vs. rationality in the spiritual quest; and how money, power and sex are dealt with during the course of a student’s training. Spiritual Transmission includes never-before-published dialogues with many prominent spiritual teachers, plus a revelatory afterword by renowned integral theorist Ken Wilber. If you have ever been involved with a spiritual teacher or know someone who has, you need this book. Interviewees in Spiritual Transmission include Peter (Hakim) Young, Andrew Cohen, Stephen Fulder, Christopher Titmuss, James Finley, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, Saniel Bonder, Mariana Caplan, Mooji, Lakshmi, Barry Magid, Claire Slemmer, James Swartz, Diane Hamilton, Bill Epperly, Aliya Haeri, Thomas Steininger, Peter Bampton, Carolyn Lee, Terry Patten, Steve Brett and Mary Adams.