Best reference books for entheogens, psychotropic, hallucinogenic and poisonous plants?

[DreamBliss]

I did not intend to come here to these forums to ask about this subject, but I have hit a wall and I can think of no other place to go. Maybe I am delusional, but I feel like there is a concerted effort to block and downright confuse people looking for information on this subject.

 

In a country where nobody agrees on anything, that there is some powerful group somewhere working very hard to make it nearly impossible for me to find the information I am after is mind boggling. I guess I should appreciate that they, whoever they are, have found one thing to agree on!

 

I am not looking to debate or discuss your perceptions of bad, good, should, shouldn't, right, wrong, etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah. If you want to preach find a church or a soapbox. Please do not use this thread.

 

I want one book, just a single text if possible, that covers entheogens, psychotropic, hallucinogenic and/or poisonous plants. I don't care about man's law, man can shove his law where the sun don't shine. I take full responsibility for my actions.

 

I am at a place in my spiritual development where I feel the need to break through some things. I need a wrecking ball, in short, to get through some inner walls. I need a reference that will help me easily and readily identify the wrecking balls growing in my area. In the physical form of plants typically classified as controlled substances.

 

My area is refereed to as the Pacific Coast, Western North America (not Canada North America), the Pacific Northwest, and specifically Washington, Oregon and California. Although something that covers America (not North America, which includes Canada) would also work. But it must be comprehensive and detailed. It would be nice if it told me how to cultivate, extract, process and use the plants. But maybe that would have to be another book.

 

It should be up to date, printed in the last decade or so, with large full color photos. It should be a paperback, as I have to lug it with me when I leave home. An example of a good book that unfortunately is too heavy for me to carry is:

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Altering-Poisonous-Plants-World-Michael/dp/0881929522/

 

That has to be the absolute best I found so far. But it is too general, covering too wide an area and as a result not covering as much of the plants in my specific area.

 

One last thing... I added poisonous to the list not because of reasons some here may think, but because some psychoactive plants are classified as poisonous. Ayahuasca is an example of this, as is the Fly Amantis mushroom.

 

If this thread is considered to be something that is not allowed to be posted at this forums, then you have my permission to delete it. I will not argue with anyone about it.

 

[Edited this part out. Didn't seem appropriate.]

 

I am a Shaman. Plants of this nature are a part of shamanic practice. If you don't like it, tough. Shamanism has been around a lot longer that man's laws and religion.

 

If you know of any books that meet my criteria (and obviously if this thread is not locked or deleted) please post links to them here. I am especially interested in books that you have read or currently own, that you have found invaluable, perhaps in your own shamanic practice.

 

If you feel the need to preach at me about this subject, try to do so through PM. I will hear you out. Get it off your chest if you have to, then go in peace.

 

I appreciate your assistance in this matter.

Edited January 28, 2016 by DreamBliss

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Posting this is a bit of a wry observation. As a child in the fifties the Golden Guides were my little "bibles" of science.  Seeing this appear in the late 70s was a sign of how much the world had changed.  It can be downloaded here:

 

Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants on Scribd

 

Like any book in the series a valuable beginners guide to the field, though a field that one should be very careful exploring.  Judging by some posts I have read here, other people here may have good practical advice.

[DreamBliss]

Thank you.

[silent thunder]

Good topic.  Thanks for posting.

 

I have made significant, abiding and very beneficial breakthroughs using psilocybin in particular, and have always revered plant medicine for its essential contribution to life as we know it.

[ralis]

This one in particular is one to stay well away from. Datura was talked about in the Castaneda books.

 

http://www.desertusa.com/flowers/datura-jimson-weed.html

 

[doc benway]

This one in particular is one to stay well away from. Datura was talked about in the Castaneda books.

 

http://www.desertusa.com/flowers/datura-jimson-weed.html

 

 

I had a good friend in college who like to experiment with entheogens and hallucinogens (as did I).

He made the mistake of ingesting a bit too much Datura without expert guidance.

He had a psychotic break and never recovered.

I ran into him on the streets of Baltimore many years later, homeless and incoherent, it broke my heart.

[DreamBliss]

There is a risk in using Angel's Trumpet. But note well that the Native Americans were using it, I forget the specific tribe, for thousands of years. The problem is not in using it, but in not knowing how to use it correctly.

 

That knowledge is in many ways more important that knowing what plants are psychoactive. It does us little good to know if something is psychoactive if we do not know exactly what parts  to use, how to process it, and in what amount.

 

I am sorry to hear about your friend. His state may be wretched, but he is still alive. Datura has claimed lives, or so I have read. You may want to research this, but it could be that the right amount of Datura, applied correctly, could bring him back to normal.

Edited January 29, 2016 by DreamBliss

[doc benway]

There is a risk in using Angel's Trumpet. But note well that the Native Americans were using it, I forget the specific tribe, for thousands of years. The problem is not in using it, but in not knowing how to use it correctly.

 

That knowledge is in many ways more important that knowing what plants are psychoactive. It does us little good to know if something is psychoactive if we do not know exactly what parts  to use, how to process it, and in what amount.

 

I am sorry to hear about your friend. His state may be wretched, but he is still alive. Datura has claimed lives, or so I have read. You may want to research this, but it could be that the right amount of Datura, applied correctly, could bring him back to normal.

 

Yes, and to gain the knowledge of how to use it properly requires an apprenticeship to an experienced curandera.

It's not something one can learn from books.

One needs to be invited and introduced and, if accepted, then spend a lifetime developing a relationship to the spirits.

It is not to be taken casually.

 

I doubt I'll look into it further.

If he is still alive today, I would have no clue how to find him.

Even if I did research this, I would never presume to be able to do something like that myself.

One would need an accomplished and experienced curandera for that.

[ralis]

There is a risk in using Angel's Trumpet. But note well that the Native Americans were using it, I forget the specific tribe, for thousands of years. The problem is not in using it, but in not knowing how to use it correctly.

 

That knowledge is in many ways more important that knowing what plants are psychoactive. It does us little good to know if something is psychoactive if we do not know exactly what parts  to use, how to process it, and in what amount.

 

I am sorry to hear about your friend. His state may be wretched, but he is still alive. Datura has claimed lives, or so I have read. You may want to research this, but it could be that the right amount of Datura, applied correctly, could bring him back to normal.

 

 

For the most part, the really powerful entheogens are best left alone or under the guidance of a qualified shaman. Special preparations such as fasting, abstaining from any food, wine or drug that are contraindicated for MAO inhibitors is vital, unless, one is interested in having convulsions.

 

There are a number of fake Amazonian shamans that are allegedly responsible for deaths of ayahuasca tourists.

[ralis]

Yes, and to gain the knowledge of how to use it properly requires an apprenticeship to an experienced curandera.

It's not something one can learn from books.

One needs to be invited and introduced and, if accepted, then spend a lifetime developing a relationship to the spirits.

It is not to be taken casually.

 

I doubt I'll look into it further.

If he is still alive today, I would have no clue how to find him.

Even if I did research this, I would never presume to be able to do something like that myself.

One would need an accomplished and experienced curandera for that.

 

Most are into the recreational aspect of entheogens where one trips one's brains out, as a 'far out trip', as opposed to obtaining real knowledge about one's relationship, with the natural world.

Edited January 29, 2016 by ralis

[doc benway]

While not an entheogen cookbook by any means, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock offers a fascinating perspective on the subject.

[ralis]

Lest we forget Terence McKenna.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Terence-McKenna/e/B000APLFMW

[mostly_empty]

OP

   Just my .02 cents, but I really cannot think of a single book that fits the bill. I would instead recommend two or three. I would get 

A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Flexi binding

​or one of the equivalent plant guides (e.g. peterson). Mushrooms, if you go that direction require a different book!

 

I would then get PIKHAL or something similar to give you a grasp of what to do when you get home. 

 

However, most anyone I know with this sort of interest would instead recommend that you choose one teacher at a time. That is, choose whichever seems the best based on some research and try it - you need a certain affinity even if you don't have a guide.

 

Good luck

[Bud Jetsun]

Some entheogens are rougher than others.  Datura, Nutmeg, Amanita muscaria, Morning Glory, and Hawaiian Baby Woodrose. 

 

Some are neutrally toned.  Salvia Divinorum, Ayuausca, Ibogaine, Bufotoxins, Night Shade, Ketamine, GHB. 

 

Some tend to be more gentle and uplifting instructors, Psilocybin mushroom, Peyote, LSD, MDMA. 

 

It is not required to have a shaman or to apprentice anyone, ultimately the experience happens inside your own mind, and trans-mind trans-thought trans-personal state of being. 

 

The experience will be a combination of what you're bringing into it, and what your intent is to learn from it or resolve inside this illusion of yourself.

 

As a compassionate being, I would not recommend anything from 'rough' category above, yet paradoxically I am indebted with gratefulness towards one of them for humbling me like no other earthly experience has yet to match.

 

If you want to take the advise of a non-expert, non-teacher, non-guru, non-shaman who has himself taken an indeterminate leave of absence from this plant assisted path that is ultimately a fear-rooted choice, I would go with something from the gentle teachers list, and leave the cruel teacher list alone.  It's not a humbling you need, but forgiveness of yourself first and completely, followed by all living beings that ever have been or will be. If you made your trip center on completing this, it would be a positive step towards your mind reflecting it's natural Love upon yourself and all of the world around you, which reflects it back amplified beyond your wildest expectations. 

 

Low doses give you recreational effects that may optionally be focused with intent towards helpful inner work, or not. Heroic/spiritual doses are more like being thrown down a gauntlet that ultimately is as cruel or kind as you make it on yourself.  Many folks with extensive trip experience will often later acknowledge that trips that seemed impossibly cruel and left them shaken for weeks or months after in retrospect were the most beneficial towards making large positive life changes. 

 

Even if you're every excited, give yourself at least a week between small trips, and at least 2 weeks between big trips (most likely you won't want anything to do with another big trip for many months/years after if you went big enough).  Get your body well nourished (particularly neuro-transmitter precursors) leading up to trip, fast day of trip. 

 

Erowid has reasonable advise regarding a tripping safely.  Even though they don't use religious/spiritual nomenclature and jargon, there is much profound wisdom (along with a majority of fools/trolls) on forums like DMT nexus and Shroomery, along with advise on subjects related to MAOI preparation and use that seem better left off Taobums.  

 

No need to rush into this or force it to happen, it's not a race and where you already are ultimately is un-appreciated perfection and no-thing more is needed than to gain awareness of being Now.  If the universe throws obstacles in your path to this type of experience it's likely done in compassion. 

 

Unlimited Love,

-Bud

Edited January 29, 2016 by Bud Jetsun

[Brian]

Some very good advice in this thread. I would only add that power plants are fundamentally unnecessary and are often counterproductive.

[DreamBliss]

Well Mr. Jetsun I have had psilocybin mushrooms, given to me by a friend. I no longer have access to these as we have since parted ways. I feel I have an affinity towards mushrooms, I use cordyceps to help boost my immune system and lion's mane for a mind booster and oneirogen.
 
As I have stated before, psilocybin shrooms  changed something inside of me. I was previously very depressed, since I took them, and it has been a few years now, I might get depressed, but I bounce back, I don't just get stuck there. Maybe other factors are involved. But I still remember how much brighter and more colorful things were even the day after taking them. I credit them for bringing me out of my depression.
 
I have learned one lesson I will never forget... I would rather recommend shrooms for depression than any other substance on earth, without exception.
 
Peyote and LSD have long since been on my list, so it seems as if the gentle category is the path I have been and intend to continue following. I have recently added ayahuasca and DMT to the list.
 
I have no idea what a heroic dose VS a safe dose would be. I am open to learning under a teacher, if you know anyone here on the west coast of America by all means let me know.
 
As for Steve and others who have posted similar sentiments... I advise caution with this, "leave it to the authorities" attitude. Please forgive me for being blunt, but that is sheep-like behavior. You are a human being, not a sheep. Think for yourself!
 
I will not argue that others may have experience or know better about certain things. But I will certainly argue that this means we should leave everything to those who may have more experience or know better. Both experience and knowledge is acquired, everyone you think of as experienced and knowledgeable started out the same as you.

 

And it certainly does not mean that everyone with more experience or knowledge automatically knows better than you. You are the only authority on you, stop looking to others!
 
Frank Lloyd Wright didn't know jack shit about architecture. He stepped out one day, I think there had been a huge fire (the Chicago or Boston fires), and he saw someone die, I think it was when a building was falling apart. He though about how he could make buildings safer. He had no experience or knowledge. He dived in to help rebuild and learned how to do things like this as a result:

 

We can't do that today. Because of man's laws and this prevailing attitude that you have to leave it to others with more experience or knowledge, we no longer have Frank Lloyd Wrights, Einsteins, Leonardo DaVincis or Nikola Teslas. We are taught we have to go to school for some extended period of time or leave it to the professionals. We never question this. I exhort you to start questioning.

 

Do not, ever, accept the limitations of others! And do not, ever, impose limitations on others!

Edited January 29, 2016 by DreamBliss

[ralis]

Some entheogens are rougher than others.  Datura, Nutmeg, Amanita muscaria, Morning Glory, and Hawaiian Baby Woodrose. 

 

Some are neutrally toned.  Salvia Divinorum, Ayuausca, Ibogaine, Bufotoxins, Night Shade, Ketamine, GHB. 

 

Some tend to be more gentle and uplifting instructors, Psilocybin mushroom, Peyote, LSD, MDMA. 

 

It is not required to have a shaman or to apprentice anyone, ultimately the experience happens inside your own mind, and trans-mind trans-thought trans-personal state of being. 

 

The experience will be a combination of what you're bringing into it, and what your intent is to learn from it or resolve inside this illusion of yourself.

 

As a compassionate being, I would not recommend anything from 'rough' category above, yet paradoxically I am indebted with gratefulness towards one of them for humbling me like no other earthly experience has yet to match.

 

If you want to take the advise of a non-expert, non-teacher, non-guru, non-shaman who has himself taken an indeterminate leave of absence from this plant assisted path that is ultimately a fear-rooted choice, I would go with something from the gentle teachers list, and leave the cruel teacher list alone.  It's not a humbling you need, but forgiveness of yourself first and completely, followed by all living beings that ever have been or will be. If you made your trip center on completing this, it would be a positive step towards your mind reflecting it's natural Love upon yourself and all of the world around you, which reflects it back amplified beyond your wildest expectations. 

 

Low doses give you recreational effects that may optionally be focused with intent towards helpful inner work, or not. Heroic/spiritual doses are more like being thrown down a gauntlet that ultimately is as cruel or kind as you make it on yourself.  Many folks with extensive trip experience will often later acknowledge that trips that seemed impossibly cruel and left them shaken for weeks or months after in retrospect were the most beneficial towards making large positive life changes. 

 

Even if you're every excited, give yourself at least a week between small trips, and at least 2 weeks between big trips (most likely you won't want anything to do with another big trip for many months/years after if you went big enough).  Get your body well nourished (particularly neuro-transmitter precursors) leading up to trip, fast day of trip. 

 

Erowid has reasonable advise regarding a tripping safely.  Even though they don't use religious/spiritual nomenclature and jargon, there is much profound wisdom (along with a majority of fools/trolls) on forums like DMT nexus and Shroomery, along with advise on subjects related to MAOI preparation and use that seem better left off Taobums.  

 

No need to rush into this or force it to happen, it's not a race and where you already are ultimately is un-appreciated perfection and no-thing more is needed than to gain awareness of being Now.  If the universe throws obstacles in your path to this type of experience it's likely done in compassion. 

 

Unlimited Love,

-Bud

 

Your classification makes no sense whatsoever and is bad advice. Bad trips can happen on any psychoactive substance. In terms of LSD doses you must be referring to 300 mcg doses which are mild to say the least. Back in the 60's, 1000 mcg doses were common and Kesey's 'Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, doses were higher. Ayhuasca, nightshades and so forth are neutral? I don't agree.

[ralis]

Well Mr. Jetsun I have had psilocybin mushrooms, given to me by a friend. I no longer have access to these as we have since parted ways. I feel I have an affinity towards mushrooms, I use cordyceps to help boost my immune system and lion's mane for a mind booster and oneirogen.

 

As I have stated before, psilocybin shrooms  changed something inside of me. I was previously very depressed, since I took them, and it has been a few years now, I might get depressed, but I bounce back, I don't just get stuck there. Maybe other factors are involved. But I still remember how much brighter and more colorful things were even the day after taking them. I credit them for bringing me out of my depression.

 

I have learned one lesson I will never forget... I would rather recommend shrooms for depression than any other substance on earth, without exception.

 

Peyote and LSD have long since been on my list, so it seems as if the gentle category is the path I have been and intend to continue following. I have recently added ayahuasca and DMT to the list.

 

I have no idea what a heroic dose VS a safe dose would be. I am open to learning under a teacher, if you know anyone here on the west coast of America by all means let me know.

 

As for Steve and others who have posted similar sentiments... I advise caution with this, "leave it to the authorities" attitude. Please forgive me for being blunt, but that is sheep-like behavior. You are a human being, not a sheep. Think for yourself!

 

I will not argue that others may have experience or know better about certain things. But I will certainly argue that this means we should leave everything to those who may have more experience or know better.

 

Both experience and knowledge is acquired, everyone you think of as experienced and knowledgeable started out the same as you. I will also argue that this means everyone with more experience or knowledge automatically knows better than you. You are the only authority on you, stop looking to others!

 

Frank Lloyd Wright didn't know jack shit about architecture. He stepped out one day, I think there had been a huge fire, and he though about how he could make buildings safer. He had no experience or knowledge. He dived in to help out and learned how to do things like this as a result:

 

We can't do that today. Because of man's laws and this prevailing attitude that you have to leave it to others with more experience or knowledge, we no longer have Frank Lloyd Wrights, Einsteins, Leonardo DaVincis or Nikola Teslas. We are taught we have to go to school for some extended period of time or leave it to the professionals. We never question this. I exhort you to start questioning.

 

Do not, ever, accept the limitations of others! And do not, ever, impose limitations on others!

 

Comparing scientific and artistic achievements to taking psychoactive substances is a false equivalence. Bud Jetsun's idea of rough and soft entheogenic psychoactive substances has no basis in fact, and is extremely bad advice.

Edited January 29, 2016 by ralis

[DreamBliss]

I am not saying anyone's advice here is bad or good. And I'll give it to you that the expressions are different. But the spirit needed is the same, one that is inquisitive and questioning.

 

As far as Bud Jetsun's advice, he never claimed to be an authority on the subject. I just noticed that those items he classified as gentle and uplifting are the same items on my own personal list. It just seemed relevant to me.

Edited January 29, 2016 by DreamBliss

[ralis]

I am not saying anyone's advice here is bad or good. And I'll give it to you that the expressions are different. But the spirit needed is the same, one that is inquisitive and questioning.

 

As far as Bud Jetsun's advice, he never claimed to be an authority on the subject. I just noticed that those items he classified as gentle and uplifting are the same items on my own personal list. It just seemed relevant to me.

 

You seem young and inexperienced on this subject, otherwise, why would you be here asking for reference material? Like I said before, entheogens are powerful medicine and are not to be trifled with.

[liminal_luke]

Yes, and to gain the knowledge of how to use it properly requires an apprenticeship to an experienced curandera.

It's not something one can learn from books.

One needs to be invited and introduced and, if accepted, then spend a lifetime developing a relationship to the spirits.

It is not to be taken casually.

 

I doubt I'll look into it further.

If he is still alive today, I would have no clue how to find him.

Even if I did research this, I would never presume to be able to do something like that myself.

One would need an accomplished and experienced curandera for that.

I like this. I don´t get a "leave it to the authorities" vibe. I get a "respect the power of the plant spirit" vibe, a useful attitude, I´d say, for any would-be shaman. Learning from a book might be a good first step, but if this is your path don´t stop there. Take it all the way. Devote your life to getting a first-rate education. Open yourself to finding that experienced curandera and becoming an apprentice.

Edited January 29, 2016 by liminal_luke

[Bud Jetsun]

Your classification makes no sense whatsoever and is bad advice. Bad trips can happen on any psychoactive substance. In terms of LSD doses you must be referring to 300 mcg doses which are mild to say the least. Back in the 60's, 1000 mcg doses were common and Kesey's 'Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, doses were higher. Ayhuasca, nightshades and so forth are neutral? I don't agree.

 

 

You're free to take whatever dose of whatever you like and trip however you prefer sir. 

 

Everything on the list of advice I wrote is from personal direct experience.  Your experience may vary, I know it's possible to have a rough time with any of them.  After much experimental dabbing, some of them seem purpose-built for dishing out rough times, I labeled them as such, but of course it doesn't mean mushrooms or LSD couldn't also help you give yourself an awful rough time. 

 

DMT (Ayahuasca) has never been a serotonin/dopamine brain flooder for me, maybe it is for you.  Neutral doesn't mean it's not potent and an extremely effective and direct and powerful teacher, just that you're alone with your own emotional state in the experience rather than being drown in positive loving sensation chemicals like some tended to do (at least for myself).  DMT never failed to answer a question I entered a trip with, and always did so in a painfully crystal clear way that I generally wasn't ready to accept and took weeks or months to integrate.  Others have provided less direct answers that were generally less disrupting to what shreds of reality models one may have left.  Doesn't mean DMT's experience and lessons aren't priceless, just less beginner friendly in my limited experience of trying it perhaps 15 times total.

 

Horse for courses, but some horses tend to be a more pleasant ride than others. 

 

Unlimited Love,

-Bud 

[DreamBliss]

You seem young and inexperienced on this subject, otherwise, why would you be here asking for reference material? Like I said before, entheogens are powerful medicine and are not to be trifled with.

 

Your implication is of course that being young and inexperienced is a negative, that it is bad or somehow lacking. I say it is better to be young and inexperienced than old and inflexible! I will also point out that none of these plants growing around us came with instruction manuals, so whatever energy or force has brought them into human experience doesn't seem too concerned with our youth or inexperience. It seems a clear enough message to us to try and learn for ourselves. After all the first shaman never had a teacher.

 

Also when you believe that something is powerful you give it power of you. As I said I have been, am and will continue to be responsible and respectful. But I am not going to submit to abject threats intended to control or direct or influence me to fear. We have quite enough of that in modern society's obsession with controlling everything. I still remember the DARE police lying to me about drugs, including marijuana. I may have been young and inexperienced, but even way back then I sensed something was off.

Edited January 29, 2016 by DreamBliss

[DreamBliss]

OK, back on topic. I thought links were needed for some books mentioned earlier:

 

Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin

http://www.amazon.com/Pihkal-Chemical-Story-Alexander-Shulgin/dp/0963009605/

 

Tihkal: The Continuation by Alexander Shulgin

http://www.amazon.com/Tihkal-Continuation-Alexander-Shulgin/dp/0963009699/

 

These seem to be more concerned with usage, and have a reference for recipes the author prepared and used.

 

I have also found MAPS:

http://www.maps.org/

 

And this page of free books:

http://www.maps.org/resources/freebooks

 

Also Trout's Notes:

http://troutsnotes.com/trouts-notes-library/

Edited January 29, 2016 by DreamBliss

[Brian]

Almost hate to mention it but many of Wright's designs proved to be structurally unsound.