Albert Hofmann Libros

This comprehensive guide covers the botany, history, distribution, and cultivation of 414 psychoactive plants and related substances. It explores how culturally sanctioned use of these plants can provide insights into the nature of reality and includes 797 color photographs along with 645 black-and-white illustrations. Throughout history, plants have been valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties, with the most powerful ones often regarded as sacred. The author details the botany, history, and preparation of over 400 psychoactive plants, discussing their ritual and medicinal uses, as well as cultural artifacts and art inspired by them. The text begins with 168 well-known psychoactives, such as cannabis and datura, and expands to include 133 lesser-known substances, “legal highs,” and plants from mythological contexts. Additionally, it covers products like ayahuasca, incense, and soma. Lavishly illustrated with images from the author’s global fieldwork, the book showcases the people, ceremonies, and art associated with the ritual use of these sacred psychoactives.

Focusing on the historical and scientific significance of ergot alkaloids, this work offers an in-depth exploration of the botany, cultivation, and pharmacological potential of the ergot mushroom and other magical plants. Albert Hofmann chronicles the evolution of their use, from early medical applications to modern psychotherapy, detailing the synthesis of key compounds like ergotamine. The book also highlights indigenous practices surrounding psychotropic plants and introduces various classifications of hallucinogens, enriching the understanding of their ceremonial and therapeutic roles.

"In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. In this book, the world's most renowned authorities on psychoactive flora provide a fascinating and moving testimony of these "plants of the gods," tracing their use throughout the world and their significance in shaping history and culture. Of the ninety-one hallucinogenic plants beautifully illustrated and characterized in their lexicon, the authors elaborate in vivid detail on fourteen that have had profound significance for human beings. Drawing on fourteen years of field work, Dr. Richard Evans Schultes describes pilgrimages made to gather the sacred plants as well as the rites, prayers, songs, and dances associated with their use. His accounts are augmented by Dr. Albert Hofmann's lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these psychotropic substances. The text is accompanied by numerous illustrations, more than on hundred of which are in full color. Included are rare photographs - many published here for the first time - of plants and the people who have used them as well as ceremonies, sculpture, paintings, pottery, and weavings related to the ritual use of these sacred hallucinogens" -- Back cover

This work reveals entheogens as catalysts for spiritual growth and direct encounters with the sacred. Contributions from notable figures such as Albert Hofmann, Huston Smith, Stanislav Grof, and Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin provide insights into how psychedelics can facilitate primary spiritual experiences that underpin all religions. The text discusses protocols for the ceremonial use of psychedelics and the challenges of integrating entheogenic insights into lasting change. It questions the reliance on secondary religious experiences, suggesting that powerful sacraments could enable direct experiences of the divine. The book examines psychoactive sacraments in the Bible, myths surrounding LSD, and transformative ayahuasca rituals of Santo Daime. Personal accounts, including Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment and a 25-year follow-up with participants, illustrate the potential of entheogens to foster spiritual development. By dispelling fears of inauthentic spirituality and ill-prepared encounters with the sacred, it posits that entheogens can lead to genuine encounters with God’s power, marking the dawn of a new religious era rooted in personal spiritual experience.

The secretive Mysteries conducted at Eleusis in Greece for nearly two millennia have long puzzled scholars with strange accounts of initiates experiencing otherworldly journeys. In this groundbreaking work, three experts—a mycologist, a chemist and a historian—argue persuasively that the sacred potion given to participants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactive entheogen. The authors then expand the discussion to show that natural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual rituals across history and cultures. Although controversial when first published in 1978, the book’s hypothesis has become more widely accepted in recent years, as knowledge of ethnobotany has deepened. The authors have played critical roles in the modern rediscovery of entheogens, and The Road to Eleusis presents an authoritative exposition of their views. The book’s themes of the universality of experiential religion, the suppression of that knowledge by exploitative forces, and the use of psychedelics to reconcile the human and natural worlds make it a fascinating and timely read. This 30th anniversary edition includes an appreciative preface by religious scholar Huston Smith and an updated exploration of the chemical evidence by Peter Webster.

Obsáhlá obrazová publikace o halucinogenních rostlinách celého světa.

In diesem Klassiker der Chemiegeschichte schildert Albert Hofmann die Umstände der Entdeckung des LSD. Er berichtet von seinen Begegnungen mit Wissenschaftlern, Künstlern, Schriftstellern und Exponenten der Hippiebewegung, die an LSD jeweils aus ganz unterschiedlichen Gründen interessiert waren. Und von seiner berühmten Fahrradfahrt, dem ersten LSD-Rausch überhaupt. 'Ich konnte nur noch mit größter Anstrengung verständlich sprechen und bat meine Laborantin, die über den Selbstversuch orientiert war, mich nach Hause zu begleiten. Schon auf dem Heimweg mit dem Fahrrad nahm mein Zustand bedrohliche Formen an.'

The most extensive collection of Grey's visionary artwork and life's journey in one volume.