Description
Book SynopsisIt has been more than 50 years since sacred mushrooms were plucked from the shamanic backwaters of Mexico and presented to the modern world by R. Gordon Wasson. After sparking the psychedelic era of the 1960s, however, the divine mushroom returned underground from whence it mysteriously originated. Yet today, the mushroom’s extraordinary influence is once again being felt by large numbers of people, due to the discovery of hundreds of wild psilocybin species growing across the globe. In The Psilocybin Solution, Simon G. Powell traces the history of the sacred psilocybin mushroom and discusses the shamanic visionary effects it can induce. Detailing how psilocybin acts as a profound enhancer of consciousness and reviewing the research performed by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Johns Hopkins University, and the Heffter Research Institute on psilocybin’s ability to dispel anxiety in the terminally ill and its helpful effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder, he examines the neurochemistry, psychology, and spirituality underlying the visionary psilocybin experience, revealing the interface where physical brain and conscious mind meet. Showing that the existence of life and the functioning of mind are the result of a naturally intelligent, self-organizing Universe, he explains how sacred mushrooms provide a direct link to the wisdom of Nature and the meaning of life.
Trade Review“Simon G. Powell has crafted a magnificent, multifaceted argument for the reintegration of psychedelics into science, culture, psychotherapy, and religion to inspire our unbalanced species before we ‘push the biosphere into total decline.’
The Psilocybin Solution persuasively illuminates the profound social value of large numbers of people experiencing communion with and direct personal perception of Nature as a single system of self-organizing intelligence. A massive accomplishment!” * Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studi *
“This book provides a clear and up-to-date picture of what goes on in the brain during the visionary psilocybin experience. The author’s intrepid speculations, centering on information as the fundamental stuff of the universe, are clearly signposted. The writing is lucid and a joy to behold, an important contribution.” * Jeremy Narby, anthropologist and author of The Cosmic Serpent, Intelligence in Nature, and The Psych *
“The profound experiences unlocked by the visionary psilocybin-containing mushrooms are more than a recreational holiday for the mind. They are, in fact, the key to understanding that consciousness is not an aspect of reality, it is reality itself.” * Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., ethnopharmacologist and coauthor of The Invisible Landscape *
“A worthy successor to Aldous Huxley’s
The Doors of Perception,
The Psilocybin Solution takes the reader behind the grand curtain of reality with a compelling hypothesis that approaches a unified field theory of human consciousness in an intelligent and interconnected universe.” * Bill Linton, CEO of Promega *
“In this fascinating and provocative book, Simon G. Powell speculates on the nature of reality. He posits that Nature is a deliberate and intelligently behaving system, and he proposes that psilocybin, by altering the neurochemistry of the brain in specific ways, enables novel patterns of information to emerge, allowing the psyche to become a sort of conduit to the Other. If in fact that is what actually happens, then entheogens (psychedelics) are much more important to the human species than has been realized.” * David E. Nichols, Ph.D., president and cofounder of the Heffter Research Institute *
“It’s as if these fungi, which grow wild on most of the Earth’s land surface, beckon us to commune with them, Powell hints. And if we do have the chance, we’d do well to heed his advice on the “retuning” process. This communion offers a link with the intelligence of Nature. Opening the doors of perception and returning to entheogenic wisdom could ultimately create a more mystical, meaningful society.” * Nexus Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 6, October 2011 *
“Read this book. Follow directions in the last chapter closely. Confirm or deny.” * Diana Reed Slattery, Reality Sandwich, October 2011 *
“Overall, another adequate introduction to entheogenic thought but one that, interestingly, broaches questions about neurology more explicitly than others, in attempting to locate entheogenic thought in a wider metaphysics.” * Psychedelic Press, November 2011 *
“All in all, this is a stimulating and revolutionary volume, whatever your take on “chemically induced theophany.”” * Mac Graham, Whole Life Times, December 2011 *
Table of Contents
Foreword by Graham Hancock
Preface
Prologue A Question of Life and Death One Sacred Ground
Two An Ancient Form of Communion
Three Psilocybin Flows in and out of the Western Mind
Four Investigating the Earth’s Alchemical Skin
Five The Mushroom and the Synapse
Six The Stuff of Consciousness
Seven A Universe of Information
Eight Does the Universe Compute?
Nine The Fantastic Hypothesis
Ten A Neo-Shamanic Climax
Epilogue Trick or Treat?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
