All the books about psychedelics
Mycelium Running by Peter Jackson, Jane Doe, and Fire Erowid makes the case for using mycology (mushrooms) to save the planet. Although not directly focussed on psychedelics, the book shows the many (other) capabilities that mushrooms have. Both partly speculative and based on sound science, this book highlights how mycelium can help our environment.
LSD – The Problem Solving Psychedelic by Peter Stafford and Bonnie Golightly highlights what was known in 1967 with relation to LSD. It offers information on creative problem solving, mental health disorders and LSD, and how to use LSD.
A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced with Controversy by Marlene Dobkin de Rios and Roger Rumrrill tracks the history of ayahuasca, its current use, and the many links between South- and North America that this ‘spirit vine’ has enabled.
Entheogens, Society & Law: Towards a Politics of Consciousness, Autonomy & Responsibility by Daniel Waterman explores the use of psychoactive plants and substances that occasion ‘religious’ or ‘mystical’ states and their biological underpinnings that make it a quantifiable phenomenon, while also emphasizing the notion that empathy, meaning and purpose emerge from three intersecting areas of human life: biology, consciousness, and culture. It critically analyzes the tensions between powerful institutions exercising hegemonic control and individual’s search for a meaningful existence through drug use and expands the prohibitionist discourse through broader existential, ethical, and humanitarian considerations that are central to religious or therapeutic traditions.
LSD – The Highway to Mental Health by Milan Hausner describes the work at his clinic near Prague, where he supervised over 3,000 LSD therapeutic sessions from 1954 to 1980. As Grof says on a back cover blurb, “He has amassed information that is invaluable for the theory and practice of psychotherapy.” Go to the source with this book and get to know what we already learned in the first era of psychedelics research.
The Pharmacology of LSD: A Critical Review by Annelie Hintzen & Torsten Passie is a comprehensive review of the literature on the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide. It covers both the psychological and pharmacological effects and uses data from over 3000 studies. After reading the book, you will better understand LSD and its impact on the human body and mind.
The Shulgin Index, Volume One: Psychedelic Phenethylamines and Related Compounds by Alexander Shulgin, Tania Manning & Paul Daley provides a detailed overview pertaining to the physical properties, synthesis, and analytical chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacological properties, and legal status of 126 psychedelic phenethylamines and related compounds. It also covers lesser-known structural homologs and analogs, with 1300 compounds in total.
Darwin’s Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and the Evolution of the Noosphere by Richard Doyle explores the notion of an intertwined co-evolution between human beings and psychedelic plants. It delves into the central idea that psychedelic properties seduce human beings to interact with them, and thus engage our awareness of the noosphere, a stage of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships. These ideas are contextualized within a historic review of new-age psychedelic thinkers, as well as evolutionary theory, the war on drugs, and questions related to the nature of human consciousness.
Healing our Deepest Wounds by Stanislav Grof argues that there are approaches to therapy that utilize a specific non-ordinary state of consciousness that enables individuals, with support, to access and heal deeper levels of trauma from the personal and collective unconscious. Grof describes various approaches to achieving this Holotropic state and using it for healing, with his focus on Holotropic Breathwork and psychedelic therapy.
The Ethnopharmacology of Ayahuasca by Rafael Guimarães dos Santos attempts to show the rich diversity that exists around ayahuasca, that involves the interplay between the anthropological, cultural, and social aspects surrounding the pharmacological properties of its bio-active compounds. It explores how ayahuasca is used by indigenous and mestizo populations, and within the context of the Brazilian ayahuasca religions. Moreover, it reviews the pharmacological and neuropsychiatric aspects of this Amazonian brew and discusses the potential for the therapeutic effects of its alkaloids.