Book Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World
Harpignies, J. P. (ed.). Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World. Park Street Press/Inner Traditions, 2007.
Summary: This is a fascinating collection of talks and discussions about psychoactive plants from some of the planet's leading thinkers on the topic, including Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Wade Davis, Michael Pollan, Alex Grey, Paul Stamets, Jeremy Narby, John Mohawk, and Kat Harrison. These plants have long served some indigenous shamans as enhancers of perception and healing as well as vehicles to communicate with what some call the "mind of nature." This book explores what these ancient ways of knowing from cultures with far more sophisticated environmental ethics than ours might have to teach us, and also offers honest, clear-eyed views of the risks inherent in using such powerful consciousness altering methods.
Editor's biography:
J. P. Harpignies, associate producer of the annual Bioneers national eco conference (http://www.bioneers.org/), cofounder of Eco-Metropolis (http://www.ecometropolis.org/) in New York City and a former program director at the New York Open Center, is the author of two books, Political Ecosystems and Double Helix Hubris, associate editor of the Bioneers books Ecological Medicine and Nature's Operating Instructions, and editor of the just released Visionary Plant Consciousness. J.P. has also been an instructor of Taijiquan (Ta'i Chi Chuan) in Brooklyn, NY, for 24 years.
See a review of the book here: https://web.archive.org/web/20101220064644/http://shamansdrum.org/Pages/ReviewsVisionaryPlant.html