***This paperback edition has a new introduction by the author and
updated content.
This is the first volume of North Atlantic Books' updated paperback
edition of Dale Pendell's Pharmako trilogy, an encyclopedic study of
the history and uses of psychoactive plants and related synthetics first
published between 1995 and 2005. The books form an interrelated suite of
works that provide the reader with a unique, reliable, and often
personal immersion in this medically, culturally, and spiritually
fascinating subject. All three books are beautifully designed and
illustrated, and are written with unparalleled authority, erudition,
playfulness, and range.
Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft includes a new
introduction by the author and as in previous editions focuses on
familiar psychoactive plant-derived substances and related synthetics,
ranging from the licit (tobacco, alcohol) to the illicit (cannabis,
opium) and the exotic (absinthe, salvia divinorum, nitrous oxide). Each
substance is explored in detail, not only with information on its
history, pharmacology, preparation, and cultural and esoteric
correspondences, but also the subtleties of each plant's effect on
consciousness in a way that only poets can do. The whole concoction is
sprinkled with abundant quotations from famous writers, creating a
literary brew as intoxicating as its subject.
The Pharmako series is continued in Pharmako/Dynamis (focusing on
stimulants and empathogens) and Pharmako/Gnosis (which addresses
psychedelics and shamanic plants).
