REFERENCE / ETHNOBOTANYIn the traditions of every culture, plants
have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and
transformative properties. The most powerful plants--those known to
transport the human mind into other dimensions of
consciousness--have traditionally been regarded as sacred. When
taken in a culturally sanctioned context, such plants can produce
important insights into the nature of reality. In The Encyclopedia
of Psychoactive Plants Christian Ratsch details the botany,
history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of
more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and
medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and
works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them.
The author begins with full monographs on 168 of the most
well-known psychoactives--such as Cannabis, Datura, and
Papaver--then presents minor monographs on 135 lesser known plants.
He also explores plants used by indigenous people that have not yet
been identified by modern botanists as well as plants and
psychoactive substances known only from mythological contexts and
literature, such as ephemeron, kykeon, and soma. He offers a
thorough discussion (including 20 full monographs) of psychoactive
fungi, referred to in ancient times as the "food of the gods" and
used by shamans in many cultures for entry to the spirit world. He
also covers psychoactive plant products from around the
world--smoking blends, alcoholic beverages, snuffs, incense, and
ointments. The author concludes with an analysis of the chemical
constituents responsible for plants' psychoactive powers. He is
careful to say, though, that the effects of isolated
chemicalsubstances are not identical to the psychoactive effects
produced by whole plants. Each plant contains a synergistic blend
of active constituents--from the shamanic point of view, the
plant's spirit. The text is lavishly illustrated with 670
black-and-white illustrations and 800 color photographs--many of
which come from the author's extensive fieldwork conducted around
the world. They show the people, ceremonies, and art related to the
ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactives. CHRISTIAN RATSCH,
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 -anthro-pological advisor for expeditions
organized by German magazines such as GEO and Spektrum der
Wissenschaften (Spectrum of Sciences). Before becoming a full-time
author and internationally renowned lecturer, Ratsch worked as
professor of anthropology at theUniversity 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 Himalayas, and Witchcraft Medicine and 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.
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