Table of Contents

Plants of the Gods
Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers
Preface
Introduction
1. What are Plant Hallucinogens
2. The Plant Kingdom
3. Phytochemical Research on Sacred Plants
4. Geography of Usage and Botanical Range
5. Plant Lexicon
6. Users of Hallucinogenic Plants
7. Overview of Plant Use
8. Fourteen Major Hallucinogenic Plants
9. Mainstay of the Heavens
10. The Hexing Herbs
11. The Nectar of Delight
12. St. Anthony's Fire
13. Holy Flower of the North Star
14. Guide to the Ancestors
15. Beans of the Hekula Spirit
16. Seeds of Civilization
17. The Magic Drink of the Amazon
18. Ayahuasca Analogs
19 Trumpets of the Angels
20. The Tracks of the Little Deer
21. Little Flowers of the Gods
22. Diviner's Sage
23. Cactus of the Four Winds
24. Vines of the Serpent
25. Semen of the Sun
26. Gateway to Dreamtime
27. Chemical Structures of Hallucinogens
28. Uses of Hallucinogens on Medicine
Epilogue
Picture Credits
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

About the Author

Christian Rtsch, Ph.D., is a world-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist who specializes in the shamanic uses of plants for spiritual as well as medicinal purposes. He studied Mesoamerican languages and cultures and anthropology at the University of Hamburg and spent, altogether, three years of fieldwork among the Lacandone Indians in Chiapas, Mexico, being the only European fluent in their language. He then received a fellowship from the German academic service for foreign research, the Deutsche Akademische Auslandsdienst (DAAD), to realize his doctoral thesis on healing spells and incantations of the Lacandone-Maya at the University of Hamburg, Germany. In addition to his work in Mexico, his numerous fieldworks have included research in Thailand, Bali, the Seychelles, as well as a long-term study (18 years) on shamanism in Nepal combined with expeditions to Korea and the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon. He also was a scientific anthropological advisor for expeditions organized by German magazines such as GEOand Spektrum der Wissenschaften(Spectrum of Sciences). Before becoming a full-time author and internationally renowned lecturer, Rtsch worked as professor of anthropology at the University of Bremen and served as consultant advisor for many German museums. Because of his extensive collection of shells, fossils, artifacts, and entheopharmacological items, he has had numerous museum expositions on these topics. He is the author of numerous articles and more than 40 books, including Plants of Love, Gateway to Inner Space, Marijuana Medicine,and The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants.He is also coauthor of Plants of the Gods, Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayasand Witchcraft Medicineand is editor of the Yearbook of Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness.A former member of the board of advisors of the European College for the Study of Consciousness (ECSC) and former president of the Association of Ethnomedicine, he lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Reviews

"This superbly illustrated, encyclopedic volume provides a much needed, well-balanced scientific perspective on the use of hallucinogenic plants. Richard Evans Schultes, the worlds most eminent ethnobotanist, and Albert Hofmann, the former research director at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, emphasize the need for continued education about both the potential benefits and the inherent dangers involved in the use of hallucinogens."
*Shaman's Drum*

"Carefully researched, beautifully written, and abundantly illustrated, this book reminds us that the use of hallucinogenic plants has been a fundamental part of the human experience for millennia."
*Michael R. Aldrich, Ph.D., Curator Fitz Hugh Ludlow Library*

"It contains an incredible amount of rigorous and fascinating information in a highly accessible, beautiful, and compelling format."
*Journal of Scientific Exploration, October 2003*

"Richard Evans Schultes has been the nexus of almost everything interesting and supportive concerned with economic and cultural uses of plants. Plants of the Gods gives precise and illuminating portraits of the many peoples of the Earth who pay homage to and gain insights with the aid of psychedelic plants: an exquisite, thoroughly scholarly book."
*Whole Earth Review*