Author: Daniel Pinchbeck
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767907434
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
A dazzling work of personal travelogue and cultural criticism that ranges from the primitive to the postmodern in a quest for the promise and meaning of the psychedelic experience. While psychedelics of all sorts are demonized in America today, the visionary compounds found in plants are the spiritual sacraments of tribal cultures around the world. From the iboga of the Bwiti in Gabon, to the Mazatecs of Mexico, these plants are sacred because they awaken the mind to other levels of awareness--to a holographic vision of the universe. Breaking Open the Head is a passionate, multilayered, and sometimes rashly personal inquiry into this deep division. On one level, Daniel Pinchbeck tells the story of the encounters between the modern consciousness of the West and these sacramental substances, including such thinkers as Allen Ginsberg, Antonin Artaud, Walter Benjamin, and Terence McKenna, and a new underground of present-day ethnobotanists, chemists, psychonauts, and philosophers. It is also a scrupulous recording of the author's wide-ranging investigation with these outlaw compounds, including a thirty-hour tribal initiation in West Africa; an all-night encounter with the master shamans of the South American rain forest; and a report from a psychedelic utopia in the Black Rock Desert that is the Burning Man Festival. Breaking Open the Head is brave participatory journalism at its best, a vivid account of psychic and intellectual experiences that opened doors in the wall of Western rationalism and completed Daniel Pinchbeck's personal transformation from a jaded Manhattan journalist to shamanic initiate and grateful citizen of the cosmos.
Author: Richard Metzger
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
ISBN: 1934708348
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 467
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Book Description
First published in 2003, Book of Lies was hailed as a 21st century grimoire and instantly became a cult classic. Now reformatted for the next generation of magicians and all counterculture devotees, it gathers an unprecedented cabal of occultists, esoteric scholars,and forward thinkers, all curated by Disinformation’s former "wicked warlock" Richard Metzger. This compendium of the occult includes entries on topics as diverse and dangerous as Aleister Crowley, secret societies, psychedelics, and magick in theory and practice. The result is an alchemical formula that may well rip a hole in the fabric of your reality: Mark Pesce, author of The Playful World, compares computer programming and spellcasting. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, father of Industrial Music and Rave culture explains how samples in a rave song can have magical consequences. William Burroughs and the occult. Nevill Drury, Australia's most noted occult writer, tells of Dion Fortune, Austin Spare, and Rosaleen Norton. Donald Tyson's "The Enochian Apocalypse Working" ask if the seeds of the end of the world sown in the Elizabethan era. A biographical essay on Marjorie Cameron, the fascinating character from Los Angeles' occult and beatnik scene. Hitler and the occult--Peter Levenda interview by Tracy Twyman. Robert Temple on how his book The Sirius Mystery's, controversial thesis (for which he was ridiculed) was proven by the Hubble telescope twenty-five years late. An exclusive Anton LaVey interview by Michael Moynihan, author of best-selling book Lords of Chaos. Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis, looks at H. P. Lovecraft's Magick Realism Robert Anton Wilson on Timothy Leary and Aleister Crowley Comics genius Grant Morrison offers Magic for the people. It’s all here and more!
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 972
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Book Description
Author: Russell Crandall
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030025587X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 521
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Book Description
A sweeping and highly readable work on the evolution of America’s domestic and global drug war How can the United States chart a path forward in the war on drugs? In Drugs and Thugs, Russell Crandall uncovers the full history of this war that has lasted more than a century. As a scholar and a high-level national security advisor to both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he provides an essential view of the economic, political, and human impacts of U.S. drug policies. Backed by extensive research, lucid and unbiased analysis of policy, and his own personal experiences, Crandall takes readers from Afghanistan to Colombia, to Peru and Mexico, to Miami International Airport and the border crossing between El Paso and Juarez to trace the complex social networks that make up the drug trade and drug consumption. Through historically driven stories, Crandall reveals how the war on drugs has evolved to address mass incarceration, the opioid epidemic, the legalization and medical use of marijuana, and America’s shifting foreign policy.
Author: Daniel Pinchbeck
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
ISBN: 1786782979
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 323
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Book Description
Ayahuasca is a powerful tool for transformation, that more and more Westerners are flocking to drink in a quest for greater self-knowledge, healing and reconnection with the natural world. This formerly esoteric, little-known brew is now a growth industry. But why? Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew that has a long history of ritual use among indigenous groups of the Upper Amazon. Made from the ayahuasca vine and the leaves of a shrub, it is associated with healing in collective ceremonies and in more intimate contexts, generally under the direction of specialist – an ayahuasquero. These are experienced practitioners who guide the ceremony and the drinkers’ experience. Ayahuasca has gained significant popularity these days in cities around the world. Why? What effect might ayahuasca be having on our culture? Does the brew, which seems to inspire environmental action, simplified lifestyles and more communitarian behaviour, act as an antidote to frenzied consumerist culture? In When Plants Dream, Pinchbeck and Rokhlin explore the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental impact that ayahuasca is having on society. Part 1 covers the background; what ayahuasca is, where it is found, and its cultural origins. Part 2 explores the role and practices of the ayahuasquero in both Amazonian and Western cultures. Part 3 examines the medicinal plants of the Amazon, looking particularly at the ingredients in ayahuasca and their therapeutic qualities, covering the most up-to-date biomedical research, psychedelic science and psychopharmacology. It also covers all the legal aspects of ayahuasca use. Lastly in Part 4 Pinchbeck and Rokhlin question the future of ayahuasca. When Plants Dream is the first book of its kind to look at the science and expanding culture of ayahuasca, from its historical use to its appropriation by the West and the impact it is having on cultures beyond the Amazon.
Author: Margaret Nutting Ralph
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809144068
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
Will help those who Break open the Word in RCIA and those involved in Lectionary-based faith sharing or Bible study groups to hear the Word as a living Word and to know that the Word they are hearing is compatible with what the biblical authors are teaching.
Author: Egil Asprem
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317543572
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
The study of contemporary esoteric discourse has hitherto been a largely neglected part of the new academic field of Western esotericism. Contemporary Esotericism provides a broad overview and assessment of the complex world of Western esoteric thought today. Combining historiographical analysis with theories and methodologies from the social sciences, the volume explores new problems and offers new possibilities for the study of esoterica. Contemporary Esotericism studies the period since the 1950s but focuses on the last two decades. The wide range of essays are divided into four thematic sections: the intricacies of esoteric appeals to tradition; the role of popular culture, modern communication technologies, and new media in contemporary esotericism; the impact and influence of esotericism on both religious and secular arenas; and the recent 'de-marginalization' of the esoteric in both scholarship and society.
Author: Philip Coppens
Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press
ISBN: 9781931882262
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Links the star Canopus in the constellation Orion with the god Osiris, the Grail legend, and alchemy. Proposes that Canopus enabled men to communicate with gods and enter other dimensions, and shows how this connection is part of both Egyptian mythology and modern physics and describes the structure of the universe.
Author: Stella Osorojos
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1583943870
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
Intuition was something that Laura Chamorro knew not to ignore. So when it told her to change her name to Stella Osorojos, she listened—and that’s when things started to get strange. Following the I Ching, kabbalah teachers, channeled masters from Earth and beyond, and her own premonitions and dreams, Osorojos embarked on a remarkable journey of spiritual awakening and self-discovery. Whether receiving extraterrestrial visitations in her living room, sprouting ethereal wings while meditating, struggling with her desire to have a child, or traveling to the high mountains of Peru to visit Altomisayok shamans, Osorojos describes her unusual experiences with wry humor and unflinching honesty. Revealing startling insights into spirituality and the nature of reality itself, Star Sister is a testament to the possibilities that await anyone brave enough to trust in intuition, challenge preconceptions, and keep an open mind. About the Imprint: EVOLVER EDITIONS promotes a new counterculture that recognizes humanity's visionary potential and takes tangible, pragmatic steps to realize it. EVOLVER EDITIONS explores the dynamics of personal, collective, and global change from a wide range of perspectives. EVOLVER EDITIONS is an imprint of North Atlantic Books and is produced in collaboration with Evolver, LLC.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 536
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Book Description
