Plants and Religion

Steve Beyer has posted a new article over at Singing to the Plants. Steve is a compelling writer and extremely thorough scholar, and the new article raises some truly fascinating points in the discussion surrounding the origin of the ayahuasca brew. Whatever side one comes down on in the debate, the article is highly recommended!

Welcome The Working Group on Plants and Religion at the University of Florida (UF) is hosting a symposium entitled “Multidisciplinary Approaches to Plants and Religion,” to be held 15-17 December 2011. The event will be relatively small and informal, consisting of sessions on specific topics, as well as a planning session to guide the future [...]

The Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture has given us the opportunity to make available the entire PDF version of their issue on “The Religious Lives of Amazonian Plants.”  We’re very excited to have it, and make it available! Full article here: JSRNC 3.1 – The Religious Lives of Amazonian Plants

In his article The Fruit of Knowledge and the Body of the Gods, Robin Wright deals with Pariká, a psychoactive snuff used by the shamans of the Baniwa.  The original link for the document can be found here, and more of Robin’s research can be found at his website www.robinmwright.com. Abstract This article focuses on [...]

The Kogi are what has been described as an example of a “priestly” culture.  They live today in the mountains of Columbia, and twenty years ago, they came down from their remote home to work with the BBC to produce a film called From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brother’s Warning.  It was a [...]

Reference: The Psychedelic Journey of Marlene Dobkin de  Rios. 45 Years with Shamans, Ayahuasqueros, and Ethnobotanists.Inner Traditions. 2009. Summary: With regard to ayahuasca, the plant hallucinogen is indigenous to South Ameerica and employed by shamans for millennia as a spirit drug for divinatory and healing purposes. The late Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes was credited [...]

Matéria da revista New Scientist http://tr.im/schaan Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest 09 December 2009 by Linda Geddes Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil’s [...]