Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use

ORIGINS OF HALLUCINOGENIC USE

The world's most renowned authorities on the botany and chemistry of hallucinogens have produced an exhaustive study of psychoactive flora.

The properties of the plants and the use made of them by man are examined and detailed by botanist Richard Evans Schultes and chemist Albert Hofmann. Their text is accompanied by many illustrations, over a hundred of which are in colour.

What are hallucinogens? Where do they come from? Answers to these questions precede a lexicon of more than ninety hallucinogenic plants that have influenced the world view of many proto-historical peoples, who consider these plants as older these plants gifts from the gods.

Complementing the botanical lexicon is a reference guide indicating where each hallucinogen is used, by whom and under what circumstances, how it is prepared and what the effects are.

In an ethno-graphic survey, Schultes and Hofmann examine the use of fourteen major hallucinogenic plants by peoples of non-industrialized societies who have passed down religious rites from generation to generation.

Dr. Schultes vividly describes the pilgrimages made to gather the sacred plants; the
rites, prayers, songs, and dances associated with their use and the behavior of the users. Dr. Hofmann's lucid explanation of the plant chemistry is his unique contribution to the biochemistry of psychotropic substances.

Plants and users alike are depicted in rare photographs, many of which are being published for the first time. Each plant in the lexicon is shown in full colour - delicately colored Peyote blossoms and Morning Glories, brilliantly tinted Amanita mushrooms, and beautiful Datura flowers.

And in the anthropological section there is a rich collection of photographs of ceremonies, sculpture, paintings, pottery, and weavings related to the ritual use of these sacred plants.