Park Street Press

Since 1999 Jan Kounen has regularly travelled to the Peruvian Amazon to participate in ayahuasca ceremonies. At first only a curious filmmaker, over multiple trips he transformed from explorer to apprentice to ayahuasquero and often found himself surrounded by other foreigners coming to the jungle for their first taste of ayahuasca medicine. Knowing how little guidance is available on how to prepa

Stephen Hawking once said that the unanticipated consequences of artificial intelligence will be the greatest threat to humanity's survival. In this book, Dr. Andrew Silverman reveals why the powerful consciousness of the human mind could never be manufactured and so cannot be reproduced with technology. Integrating extensive scientific research from three seemingly unrelated fields of study - qua

When couples enjoy cannabis together in the proper set and setting, the experience can deepen relationships through honest sharing and compassionate bonding, as well as boosting sexual pleasure, emotional growth, and spiritual togetherness. In this step-by-step guide to harnessing the benefits of getting high together, psychologist John Selby explores how to use cannabis as a powerful and effectiv

Brewed from a combination of two plants--the leaves of Psychotria viridis and the vine stalks of Banisteriopsis caapi--ayahuasca has been used for millennia by indigenous tribes throughout the Upper Amazon for healing and spiritual exploration. The shamans of the Peruvian Amazon call the plant spirit within the vine Abuela Ayahuasca, Grandmother Ayahuasca. She is said to be a mother spirit of natu

Despite the recent resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, Cannabis sativa as a psychedelic therapy has been completely overlooked. Yet, as psychedelic specialist Daniel McQueen, MA, reveals, when used skilfully and with intention, cannabis can be used to treat trauma and other mental health concerns just as psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA can. It can also be used as a p

These four remarkable women, core members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, left a lasting imprint on the politics, literature, and theater of 19th-century Europe. Less well-known than the famous men in their lives, including Yeats and Shaw, their stories are now told.

The 1960s were a time of huge transformation, sustained and amplified by the music of that era: Rock and Roll. During the 19th and 20th centuries visionary and esoteric spiritual traditions influenced first literature, then film. In the 1960s they entered the realm of popular music, catalysing the ecstatic experiences that empowered a generation. Exploring how 1960s rock and roll music became a sc

After the deaths of Jerry Garcia, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, it appeared that the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s had finally been suppressed. But the opposite was occurring, evident in the popularity of transformational festivals like Burning Man and BOOM!, the media coverage of ayahuasca use and the growing number of celebrities and Silicon Valley billionaires readily admitting the benefit

Drawing on more than 50 years' experience as a transpersonal psychotherapist, Ralph Metzner explores the spiritual overtones, karmic undercurrents and ancestral connections that shape our individual psychologies.Sharing 15 detailed histories from his casebook and the innovative practices he uses in his therapeutic sessions, Metzner shows how the psychological problems we confront often derive from

Embracing the revival of psychedelic research and the discovery of new therapeutic uses, clinical psychologist, Dr. Richard Louis Miller, discusses what is happening today in psychedelic medicine - and what will happen in the future - with top researchers and thinkers in this field, including Rick Doblin, Stanislav Grof, James Fadiman, Julie Holland, Dennis McKenna, David Nichols, Charles Grob, Ph

Art, magic and the occult have been intimately linked since our prehistoric ancestors created the first cave paintings some 50,000 years ago. As civilisations developed, these esoteric forces continued to drive culture forward, both visibly and behind the scenes, from the Hermetic ideas of the Renaissance, to the ethereal worlds of 19th-century Symbolism, to the occult interests of the Surrealists

Encounters with apparently sentient beings are reported by half of all first time users of the naturally occurring psychedelic DMT, yet the question of DMT beings and plant sentience, interspecies communication, discarnate consciousness and perhaps even talking to the divine has never been systematically explored. In September 2015, ten of the world's leading luminaries noted for exploring the mys

In FUTURE SACRED, Julie J. Morley offers a new perspective on the human connection to the cosmos by unveiling the connected creativity and sacred intelligence of nature. She rejects the “survival of the fittest” narrative - the idea that survival requires strife - and offers symbiosis and cooperation as nature's path forward. She shows how an increasingly complex world demands increasingly complex

Just as the search for the philosopher's stone is the core symbol of the alchemical tradition, Ralph Metzner, psychotherapist and one of the respected elders of the psychedelic research community, sees it as the central metaphor of his life-long quest to find methods of healing and insight through heightened states of consciousness. Through captivating stories, Metzner shares his encounters from t

One of the oldest and most potent natural stimulants, the leaves of the coca plant is the organic source from which cocaine is synthesised. Fresh coca leaves and products made from them have verified medicinal and healing properties - and not the same addictive qualities or negative side effects as cocaine. In the late 19th century, coca products became hugely successful in Europe and the United S

Unbeknownst - or unacknowledged - by many, there is a long tradition of psychedelic magic and religion in Western civilisation. As Thomas Hatsis reveals, the discovery of the power of psychedelics and entheogens can be traced to the very first prehistoric expressions of human creativity, with a continuing lineage of psychedelic mystery traditions from antiquity through the Renaissance to the Victo

Women have been shamans since time immemorial, not only because women have innate intuitive gifts, but, also, because the female body is wired to more easily experience altered states, such as during the process of birth. Whether female or male, the altered states produced by psychedelics and ecstatic trance expand our minds to tap into and enhance our feminine states of consciousness as well as r

Just as we can write and install apps in our electronic devices, we can construct “mindapps” and install them in our brain-mind complex and, just as digital apps add capabilities to our devices, mindapps can expand our mental powers and creative abilities, allowing us intentionally to redesign our minds. Using psychedelics as the prime example, Thomas B. Roberts explores the many different kinds o

In India, both yoga and cannabis are considered gifts from the Hindu god Shiva. They are seen as twin currents of wisdom and enlightenment, allies for healing and consciousness expansion. As ethnobotanist and yogi Chris Kilham explains, when wisely and thoughtfully combined, cannabis and yoga offer profound benefits for body, mind, and spirit. Kilham examines the history and lore of both cannabis

On November 24, 1979, Christopher M. Bache took the first step on what would become a life-changing journey. Drawing from his training as a philosopher of religion, Bache set out to explore his mind and the mind of the universe as deeply and systematically as possible, with the help of the psychedelic drug LSD. Following protocols established by Stanislav Grof, Bache's 73 high-dose LSD sessions ov