The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience

Book Description

This is a pioneering cognitive psychological study of Ayahuasca, a plant-based Amazonian psychotropic brew. Benny Shanon presents a comprehensive charting of the various facets of the special state of mind induced by Ayahuasca, and analyzes them from a cognitive psychological perspective. He also presents some philosophical reflections. Empirically, the research presented in this book is based on the systematic recording of the author's extensive experiences with the brew and on the interviewing of a large number of informants: indigenous people, shamans, members of different religious sects using Ayahuasca, and travellers. In addition to its being the most thorough study of the Ayahuasca experience to date, the book lays the theoretical foundations for the psychological study of non-ordinary states of consciousness in general.

Customer Reviews:

A must have for any personal Library.......2006-11-30

To this date this book is the best analytical physiological examination and charting of the ayahusca experience that I have ever before seen. It is an exceptional book and a must read for any one interested in Psychology, Visionary substances, Ayahusca, spirituality, religion or the mind. Benny is going through the book charting cataloging and grouping the various Ayahuasca phenomena and experiences into the first ever-scientific exploration into the visionary state. He is very loyal to the scientific western model and I respect this as well as many of his ideas and personal views on the visionary experience as well as his deep admiration for Platonic thought. Although I would like to say that I feel it is quite a shame on his part that he discounts the Spiritual dimension so. I feel that in his attempt to categorize the ayahusca phenomena has allowed him to miss the Forest through the trees if you will. I think it is very presumptuous to assume the entire shamanism history of the world as well as the entire visionary and Ayahusca community is largely in fault to believe in the reality, how ever large or small it may be, to the spiritual dimension. But then again he is not a Physicist and the idea of Other physical realitys as noted in quontom theory is not something he belives in at all, I know I have talked with him personaly on this matter in Peru. But in benny's own words from the book " Ayahusca brings us to the very limits of what rational western psychology can comfortably know or answer he then delvs with the conclusions of his book with a examination of Platonic thought wich I fing beutiful and a perfect intalectial match to the tone of this amazing work. I give this astounding book 5 stars, and a must have for any personal Library.

Brave Journey into Awe (& brave, rational return).......2005-12-03

INTRODUCTION
What happens when a worldly Israeli cognitive psychologist goes to the Amazon Basin where he ingests the famed psychotropic concoction Ayahuasca (the `vine of the dead') again and again and again? Our intrepid philosophical psychologist is no longer a sprightly youth, maddened for adventure. He is instead an accomplished theoretician with widely published articles (several in this journal) and a noted book (*The Representational and the Presentational*, 1993) that speak the from the perspective of cognitive (or phenomenological, for Shanon) psychology against the reductive tendency to view the mind's activities as created by the the brain's activities. Even before his Amazonian quest, he placed himself in the Gibsonian camp seeing the mind as dynamic intermediary between organism and environment and active participant in both. What did happen is this extraordinary book, a scientific analysis of his own visions and the education of both Shanon's views and, perhaps, his soul.

Benny Shanon's accomplishment in this unique and carefully written treatise is nonpareil. In his landmark attempt to chart and classify the experiences that follow ingesting the Amazonian brew, Ayahuasca (always capitalized by Shanon), he demonstrates a will to observe and explain as relentless as carbon steel, but his seeing and experiencing also require him to be as flexible as tungsten when he must shape his interpretations within experiences that have all but overthrown the pretense of objective observation. Indeed, as he becomes `educated' through his journeys with this brewed plant compound, apparently beginning his own shamanic initiation, his will, his very self must capitulate to experiences beyond words. Later, back at his desk, Shanon will use his notes and memory to go discover the order of things. This breakthrough study will achieve the respect and renown it deserves, but it is currently causing a stir in certain circles and amongst the openminded international intelligentsia.

Shanon has written a slow-rising classic that should stay aloft for the duration of our era, not just as cognitive psychology or even as another narrative of the psychedelic experience, but as the revelation of the boundless potentials within the human journey itself. Since its release, it appears to have received universal praise from other critics and readers. However, word has not filtered out into the hungry minds of the general public or surely *Antipodes*(1) would be on a bestseller list. Either its subject matter - pharmaceutically induced altered states of consciousness - is still considered too politically threatening or Benny Shanon needs to hit the talk show circuit. His book enters deep waters yet never loses its way. It may be a challenge for some to wade through his classifications but in doing so may find their thinking clarified. Shanon's writing is clear as a mountain brook. He wastes no words for grand effect but always goes straight and true for the point of the topic he had begun. This makes for a very satisfying read, which is helped immensely by the greater story lurking within it to do with one man's awakening from the sleep from self consciousness. *Antipodes* is neither obscure nor excessive, so it might make a good selection for a book-of-the-month for educated readers. Oprah, are you listening?

Nothing exactly like this has ever been written before(2), beautifully rendered and incisively analysed yet finally superseding its own analytic. The reader joins a dedicated scientist on a journey that most would consider well beyond the possibility of scientific data gathering, except in terms of chemistry or anthropology. This journey is a phenomenological analysis, Shanon's close observation his own experience. He wastes no pages speculating on what the neural correlates of his visionary experiences might be, not even taking much time to explain the active ingredients of the `brew' or how it changes the brain. Within this work (but not always within his own experience), the phenomenological-analytical approach seldom wavers. Such an approach still requires a certain distance, so when the object of study is his own earthshaking visions or emotional tsunamis rising up to lay bare every suppressed anxiety, guilt, or self delusion - not even to mention the digestive trauma often encountered(3), one finds oneself in mute admiration for this stalwart scholar who steadily perseveres, refusing to be swept away from his purpose. He admits to making wrong choices in his early Ayahuasca journeys, lingering at banquet or resisting the lure of jaguar metamorphosis when he should have continued his quest, but he learns and begins again. As new worlds open before him, sometimes terrifying, he never retreats in a desperate attempt to turn the experience off. But he also learns when to surrender. Song pours from him amongst strangers, but he knew he must allow the joy to have voice. Though only briefly alluded to, it seems his perseverance and purity of purpose allowed him to finally transcend the limits of knowledge altogether by surrendering his cognition and his very self in a metanoia beyond the realm of words, memory, or interpretation. Needless to say, this experience is not described.

It is in this sense that *Antipodes* may find itself attacked (or ignored) from two opposed positions at once. Most hard science does not consider phenomenology a respectable undertaking since one's subjective experiences can neither be observed by anyone else nor shown to produce repeatable effects. One attempting to draw up analytical structures for drug-induced visions is likely to be dismissed out of hand as delusional, taking hallucinations for reality(4). On the other hand, true believers - religious followers, mystic esotericists, New Agers - will be annoyed for though Shanon puts the stamp of `reality' upon his altered-state journeys, he continues to be skeptical about the existence of supernatural deities behind the metaphysical curtain. In his captivating Prologue he states: `For years I characterized myself as a "devout atheist". When I left South America I was no longer one' (p. 9), but he later explains that his `theism' is more related to a Spinozan pantheism grounded in creative dynamics than to anybody's pantheon or hierarchy of static divinities. He also rejects as unlikely the many reports of enhanced psi powers during the Ayahuasca intoxication (noting that increased perceptual sensitivity and interpersonal attunement can explain the `mind reading' he has experienced and heard reported). He remains open, however, expressing the wish that reports like that involving the remote viewing of an actual European city by an Amazonian native who had neither seen pictures nor heard stories of such a place should be objectively investigated.

Others will argue, and have done so, that immersion in the vision quest involves the suspension of the judgmental, cognitive faculty. Shanon seems to have learned the right steps to his dance between reception and cognition. When the moment presents itself, he allows the imagery or ambiance to take over; but when he returns he makes note of all that can circumscribed. Such imagistic encouragement is similar to Spinoza's intuitive mode of knowing, as Shanon notes (p. 205), but he also stands by the need for subsequent careful analysis in the same way elucidated by Whitehead (1978): `The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It starts from the ground of particular observation; it makes a flight in the thin air of imaginative generalization; and it again lands for renewed observation rendered acute by rational interpretation' (p. 5). Whether this `rational interpretation' infects that which is so interpreted, thus standing on the primary ontological ground beyond that of visionary experience remains an open question, to be asked again below.

In what follows, I will attempt the briefest of summaries though such is an injustice to this groundbreaking psychological cartography of what is terra incognita to most of us. I will then share my perplexities and a personal response, before concluding.

SUMMARY
As a reader, I was hooked immediately by the dramatic Prologue as well as the few selected illustrations, all details from the artwork Planos by Brazilian `shaman-turned-artist' Céu. Each detail is a picture unto itself - a `frame of reference' - yet `the big picture' reveals them all as aspects of a greater dynamic spiralling out from or in towards a core of light that no doubt `passeth all understanding'. The plates seemed to be metaphor for *The Antipodes of the Mind*, frame of reference within frames of reference, each part structured by the whole, while the whole is changed by the activity of the parts.

In the Prologue, Shanon tells the story of his first encounters with the Ayahuasca brew and the questions that brought him to begin his mammoth research project. In his first experience of any consequence he had visions that included jaguars and snakes. He learned later that this was commonplace for Ayahuasca drinkers and his professional curiosity as a cognitive psychologist was roused: `Snakes and jaguars seem to be just too specific to define cognitive universals' (p. 7). But he also underwent horrible visions of human cruelty throughout history, including what must have been especially wrenching, the Jewish Holocaust. But rather than back away or fall into bitter cynicism, he countered it with contemplation of the beauty that humans had brought into the world: `However evil and petty human beings are, I thought, they are also the creators of some of the most beautiful things that exist in the universe. With culture and art, as well as with religion and spirituality, humankind can be redeemed' (p. 5). The anguish or fear evoked by unexpected and shocking presentations of evil must be the gate that has turned away many other first time drinkers from further pursuing this course. Through his faith in life and the human journey, Shanon himself emerged beyond the gates in a centre of serenity within which it seemed the world and himself was born anew: `It seemed this was the first day of creation' (p. 6).

After these first world-changing experiences with the Santo Daime Church (daime=Ayahuasca), he was thrown into a period of critical self-analysis. He knew he had to further study this vine and its power, but how? It seems he first had to accept who he already was, an accomplished cognitive psychologist; he confirmed this identity by ending his self-analysis and beginning his journey to other realities found through Ayahuasca and then a long critical, objective, and categorical analysis of the Ayahuasca experience. This book is the fruit of his labours. It is clear, however, that he had also personal motivations to discover a way to confront the human dilemma of good and evil, as well as facing (or `being faced by') the everpresent questions of a spiritual nature.

Shanon set the time aside, returned to the Amazon, underwent prescribed purifications, and became a dedicated student of the School of Ayahuasca, a mystes into its mysteries. He knew from the first he would never `graduate' as the result of a handful of Ayahuasca sessions, so he took his work seriously indeed. He travelled to gatherings among the three churches (two Christian inspired, one an offshoot of the Umbanda movement) in Brazil that use Ayahuasca as their sacrament and participated in their organized sessions. He sat with Amazonian tribespeople under the jungle canopy, often with the guidance of a ayahuasquero, the `specialist of the sacred', a shaman. Later, as he began to master his visions, he journeyed with few others among accomplished shaman-healers. He shared the brew with experienced users in urban settings, and, when he felt ready, flew solo. At the time of publication, he had gone on over 130 Ayahuasca journeys, though the `core corpus' of his phenomenological research work is his first 67 sessions. Each session was summarized at its conclusion. Beyond that, he read everything he could find on the brew, from early reports of missionaries or explorers to current extended scientific analyses. None combined scholarly analysis with extended personal experience. Finally, he set out in good cognitive psychological fashion and interviewed others who had just concluded their own sessions or anyone in general who also had extensive experience with the brew: `My estimate is that, all told, the data discussed here are based on about 2,500 Ayahuasca sessions' (p. 410).

Then Shanon got back to his desk to reveal the structure of the world (perhaps that should be `worlds'). The bulk of the book consists of prolonged exegeses, enumeration and elaboration of steps, systems and subsystems, categories of subcategories within supercategories, and lists of effects and affects. His point of departure is the phenomenology of his `core corpus'. I will not summarize here his structural program, central to his topic as he deems it to be. Strange to say, I rarely found this approach tedious. For one thing, as noted above, the objects of his classifications are confrontations and participation with other realities, so there is a veritable tale of wonders interwoven within the data. Running through the exposition like an unruly stream upon well-manicured fields is the underlying narrative of the paradigmatic hero's journey into meaning. Furthermore, Shanon's mind, as expressed in his writing, is so refreshingly clear and organized that one feels perfectly secure in boarding his `aeroplane' to survey mysteries of terror and delight well beyond most of our experience or comprehension. It may be, however, that Shanon needed this comprehensive organization as a grounding for his more ultimate revelations. Perhaps it was necessary for him `systematically to chart the various phenomena that Ayahuasca may induce and *to establish order in them*' (p. 48, my italics), so he could at least recall the pathway back toward the Source, the `still point of the turning world'.

Shanon learns there are stages of advancement into these mysteries: The novitiate begins passively watching wonders unfold as on a screen, but with experience and courage, learns to enter the vision and explore its reality from within. Then there comes a stage where a certain degree of control over the unfolding reality is possible, though such `control' is always partial and participatory - Shanon often uses the metaphor of playing an instrument or being played as such: `Thus, I say that the Ayahuasca experience is like music played on an instrument which is the soul and that this music is a perfect mirroring of one's entire being' (p. 380). Indeed, the final stage seems to involve gaining the power to engage many worlds (or realities) simultaneously, but also the power to act in this world in ways never previously attained or attempted, such as the expressive arts or guidance and healing. The `grades' of the School of Ayahuasca are summarized thus:

`First there was an exposition. ...the second course was discipline. ... The third course of my schooling was primarily concerned with healing and disease. ... The grades that followed focused on the sacred and involved powerful spiritual experiences. Then I had a long period-coupled with my partaking of Ayahuasca with traditional Amazonian healers-that focused on shamanism. ... The subsequent course ... focused on a variety of more specific issues' (pp. 302-3).

To get this far, the novitiate or mystes has endured many trials and temptations, yet s/he must be bold enough to know when to surrender to the reality that presents itself and wise enough to know when to actively alter it. One must have overcome the narcissistic limitations of one's fears while not inflating vanity over one's piloting control or expanding knowledge. Such hubris, as myths have taught us, may lead to the pride that goes before a fall.

Shanon found the pure heart and `empty centre' to be accepted amongst the healers of the Amazon rain forest. He mentions that now he feels his role has become more performative than explorative as guide, hierophant, and something of an ayahuasquero himself. In terms of powers, Benny Shanon emerges as `Benny Shaman' (though I doubt he would admit this or appreciate the wordplay). In terms of wisdom, he states his conviction that the most expressive gesture of ontological truth is found simply in songs of praise for all creation, in the 'Hallelujah' of his ancestors. As to the ontological question of what exactly is being so praised, Shanon avers it is not anything at all but the joy of the eternal dynamic process - neither God as an entity (or any other form of the supernatural), nor is it humanity or nature, as such. Creation is what the name implies, an ongoing unfolding of the infinitely potent creative core of all things, including ourselves.

Obviously, such `knowledge' cannot be attained either through phenomenological or analytic reduction. It is everpresent beyond the edge of the `known world', that is, beyond the conscious mind `Wherefrom words turn back,/Together with the mind not having attained...' (*Tattirïya Upanishad* 2.9). It is at this point that Shanon the scientist must give up on science and even knowledge in any usual sense and admit that such direct communion exceeds communication: `Yet, there were occasions that it was clear to me that I had to make a choice-if I really wished to undergo the experience presenting itself to me, I would have to forgo my future recollection of it and give up any thought of ever talking about it' (p. 355). Furthermore, even the path to the edge of this unspeakable awakening is one not of ordered signposts and structured roads but of intuitive knowledge, well beyond categorical reasoning. After all his phenomenological analysis, Shanon at last confesses that

`very poignantly, I realized how limited the scientific approach is. It was evident to me that [in] pursuing this stance, there are realms of knowledge that can never be attained. I further comprehended that there are levels of knowledge that demand one to let go and relinquish all critical, distanced analysis. ... In this respect, despite all its limitations in terms of sociological power and cultural permanence, the indigenous stance has the upper hand' (p. 356).

PERPLEXITIES
I continue to be perplexed about several things hinted at in this tome but not fully explained and I outline them here. These mainly result from my own application of traditional reasoning to that which eludes it or from Shanon's expressed reticence to reveal more personal detail or delve into metaphysics. My perplexities are mainly to do with the world of light and truth revealed to the author and apparently to other experienced Ayahuasca drinkers. Either the dark side is less real or it plays a smaller role than I had imagined.

Unlike with LSD, there are said to be no `bad trips' with Ayahuasca. Shanon admits he interviewed no one who drank the turbid brew but once, which would surely be the result if anyone `freaked out' or was just turned off by the whole experience. The nausea, gastritis, and vomiting, emphasized in other first person accounts, may be enough to cause one to avoid the substance next time, but actual `mind-blowing' has not been reported, to my knowledge. Shanon makes it clear that when faced with a personal crisis under the intoxication one must soldier on, dealing with fear and related negative emotions in as grounded and unperturbed manner as possible. Still, crises occur: `Quite commonly,' he states matter-of-factly, `people feel that they are about to die' (p. 57). Elsewhere he notes that a mental breakdown is real possibility. Yet not in Antipodes or anything else I have read to do with Ayahuasca experiences is such a breakdown recorded. Is it bad-trip free?

Along these same lines, my all-too-human binary thinking gets skewed in Shanon's brief discussion of the ontological status of good and evil. On the same page he reports that `Ayahuasca leads people to the conclusion that the world contains both good and evil, that the two are intertwined, and that the ultimate reality is beyond good and evil', but that, `Finally, there are visions in which one feels one is encountering the Supreme Good' (p. 174). I realize I'm probably not getting the mystical paradox here, but elsewhere it's said that Ayahuasca has a cosmic sense of humor (not always benign), that it lies or hides as much as it reveals. Is the Supreme Light without shadow, or what?

I wonder also about the dark side of the initiatory process, especially shamanic initiation. In the pattern of the ritual death-rebirth cycle, there must be a dark night of the soul before the dawn of revelation. Shamanic lore especially emphasizes the almost universal experience of death and dismemberment(5) - apparently the death of the everyday self - before the shaman returns, being one with death yet remaining alive. Shanon modestly and perhaps wisely downplays the significance, but he acted as shamanic healer and guide for others and was accepted at least among one ayahuasquero guild. The fact of this exceptional book's existence is enough to convince me of Shanon's shamanic metamorphosis. No ordinary insight could have carried it through to the end. What I want to know is what sort of ritual or visionary death did our author have to endure? Or did he achieve his dawn without a dusk? Admittedly, he states such an autobiographical confessional was not his purpose here and may have to await a future literary venture.

And one wonders about the whole question of the existence or creation of orderly categories from the data resulting from his phenomenological and statistical analysis. What sort of lists, tables, categories, and structures are being brought forth here, and why? On the one hand he notes commonalities in his visions and those of many others as well as intriguing parallel reactions to these visions, especially amongst the Ayahuasca cognoscenti. As noted, it was in fact these inexplicable similarities that set him on his quest in the first place, professionally speaking at least. Does he then think his structural analyses is revealing the universal latticework of creation, or at least of the Ayahuasca experience? Or is he himself creating such a latticework to place over the chaos of creation? Neither, it seems, or both. Shanon is well aware of the ambiguities of his project and how boundaries in the realms of visionary experience seem to shift or even, with a wink and smile, disappear altogether. In a universe in which the only constant is creative dynamism itself, it is impossible to distinguish between that which one discovers and that which one projects. He states that `there is no clear-cut differentiation between interpretation and creation. ... In essence, all is interpretive, all is creative' (p. 351). If it is so that all phenomena are simultaneously the product of interpretation and creation then - aside from the author's need, personal or professional, `to establish order in them' (p. 48) - it feels like such cartographic detail is mapped onto shifting tides that will change with the phases of the moon.

This is a slippery metaphysics with which we are left. Shanon lays his detailed phenomenological analysis upon the creative essence with some ambiguity, it seems to me, like placing the picnic blanket on the lake. If our acts participate in the unfolding of reality then categories, maps, structures, laws of science, and what have you achieve their substance over millennia of cultural or even transcultural `use', which results in the reality of habitual consensus. They are as real as anything else that seems to just be there, in one place, here and now. Does this leave his categories and structures and patterns with a ground on which to stand? Probably - at least temporarily. In fact, his studies prove beyond much question that certain visionary and experiential patterns reoccur across cultures and in times far apart.

Several times Shanon asserts that his purpose is not to explore ontological questions, but he takes enough steps in that direction that the reader understands that when Shanon finally states that `the view put forth here is that the Ayahuasca experience is one of generation and creation' (p. 383), he is tantalizingly close to claiming this for our usual experience too.

He even briefly discusses the source of these patterns of creation, which brings me to my last perplexity, the uncertainty over the terms `creativity' and `imagination'. Early on, Shanon assures us that `Ayahuasca visions [exhibit] a beauty that is beyond imagination' (p. 17)', referring to our usual notion of the imagination as a post-language faculty activated by the self from other images already stored in memory. In speculating on the source of such beauty, he denies that such creative imagining comes either from a `world of forms', already `out there' in their own ultimate reality or from psychology, that is, the unconscious `in here'. So, in his interpretation, neither Platonic ideas nor Jungian archetypes will do.

To account for the reality of Ayahuasca experiences (and by implication, all experience), he posits a creational reality in which our own creativity participates but which ultimately exceeds our personhood or existence. So, `the notions of "human creativity" or "power of imagination" turn out to be much more fantastic then they are usually thought to be" (p. 396). Yes, indeed, but the originality of this position is where perplexity arises. In the first place, isn't this the core of the Romantics' apotheosis of the transpersonal imagination? Creativity as the core can also be found in some form in both Bergson and Whitehead.

In the second place, I think Shanon is too dismissive of Jung's concept of the collective unconscious by reducing it to residing `in here', but this may be mistaken assumption based on Jung's misuse of Freud's original term, the unconscious. In his later years, Jung wrote a good deal about the *objective psyche*, meaning that the collective or transpersonal unconscious is the very world with which we engage and which is our source. Shanon refers approvingly several times to the somewhat similar notion of the *anima mundi* (`world-soul') as source of the real, both subjective and objective. Then again, as a result of his experiences of communion he would likely disagree that the world or world-soul should be understood as `unconscious' (even if Jung meant `unconscious from the perspective of our self-contained conscious').

The Jung-inspired archetypal psychologist James Hillman (1975) brings us to the point where Jung meets Shanon when he proclaims that every perception, cognition, or memory is fantasy-laden and not possible without such imaginative elaboration. Fantasies, in this sense, are not individual: `The revelation of fantasies exposes the divine, which implies that our fantasies are alien because they are not ours' (p. 184). This may add some flesh to the ontological skeletal frame of Shanon's `generation and creation' pantheism, though he adds the last note that in the `dance' of creator and created it is impossible to tell who is leading.

Allow me to reemphasize that my above `perplexities' are not in the way of criticism. These are questions I would love to sit and discuss with the author; no doubt the inadequacy of my understanding would soon be made plain. I should even apologize for critiquing the few hints of ultimate matters which he deigned to mention, for he himself admits they have not yet been fully thought through. However, feeling perplexed by Shanon's extraordinary encounters and the great work of his phenomenological analysis, I couldn't help but wonder, `What does it all mean?' Perhaps in his next book Shanon will explore an answer to that question.

PERSONAL REACTION
After reading Antipodes with great pleasure and new discovery each time over several careful readings, I retain two reactions that are probably mine alone. One is that I am now sure I will never seek an opportunity to drink the brew of the `vine of the dead'. Put simply, I doubt that I have the strength of character it took for Shanon to advance from audience member to conductor of the orchestra. In part, my reticence arises from my tendency to wander off and become thoroughly lost in the aforementioned psychedelic era, sidetrack to sidetracks. It is my understanding - faith, if you will - that cognition, rationality, and analysis are themselves particular cultural fantasies. When one give intuition primacy, one tends to wander as way leads on to way. Shanon could absorb his incredible experiences and then later at his desk, `establish order in them'. In fact, to the extent that it is possible, he has done just that. However, I fear I would become an Ayahuasca drifter, lost in other realities, but with no wish to return and nothing in order at all.

The second reaction was not one I had expected. *The Antipodes of the Mind* gave me, first dimly then with increasing illumination, *hope*, suffusing me generously with that unfamiliar but uplifting emotion. By reminding me, `There is more here than meets the eye and you know it!', a flood channel of forgotten memories opened and I was able to recall the moments I had found myself elsewhen or elsewhere (and not always as the result of substance ingestion). In the need to `get real' as I grew older, I had simply suppressed such experiences of wonder and awe because they were not `useful'. I had pushed aside visions or encounters that threw into doubt the solid finality of day-to-day reality so I could join the grim march through the lifespan toward dusty death. I'm no fatalist, but I felt as though this book fell into my hands at just the right time. It is not just poetic license but a fact of consciousness-limited awareness that we walk about in worlds unrealized. So I wish to end this book review with appreciation rather than criticism: Thanks, Benny. You've done wonders. Hallelujah to you and your important book.

NOTES
1. There is no singular form of `antipodes'. From my 1938 Funk 'n Wagnalls *New Standard Dictionary*: `antipodes, n. sing. & pl. 1. A place or region on the opposite side of the earth; also, any two places or regions so opposed; as, australia is the antipodes (or at the antipodes) of England. 2. Those who live on the diametrically opposite sides of the earth; as, our antipodes sleep while we wake; the two nations are antipodes.'

2. The only comparable work I know of may be John Horgan's (2003) recent study. Former senior writer at *Scientific American* and noted science writer, Horgan takes a similarly skeptical show-me approach, even to his own ayahuasca experience. In Horgan's Amazon.com review, he puts *Antipodes* on a par with classics on the further reaches of conscious experience by such as William James and Aldous Huxley. He errs, however, when he states that, after his journeys, Shanon remained an atheist, except in the most narrow definition of the term.

3. Shanon downplays the extreme digestive tract disturbances that have been widely reported, occasionally resulting in projectile vomiting. With experience, Shanon found he could avoid bringing forth such unpleasantness by bringing forth spontaneous song instead!

4. Benny cogently argues that such visions are more `other realities' than fictional hallucinations (also see Shanon, 2003).

5. `The shaman learns to know death in the course of his initiation, when he goes for the first time into the underworld and is tortured by spirits and demons,' declares Mircea Eliade (1990, undated entry 1952). Such universality (all universality for that matter!) remains highly controversial in academic circles.

6. It would be most intriguing for Shanon write a phenomenological cartography after experimentation on LSD trips. Knowing the differences and similarities would tell us much about the status of visions. Do they arise from specific drug, personal idiosyncrasy, or have they a transpersonal status?

Revolutionary cog-psych approach to dissociative state.......2005-09-11

Antipodes is a major milestone in the scholarly and scientific theory and methodology of visionary plants, entheogens, and the phenomena of the dissociative cognitive state, in the tradition of William James. Nitrous showed James the ordinary state of consciousness isn't enough for a full account of the mind.

Shanon critiques previous approaches to cognitive psychology, entheogens, and the mystic state and surpasses previous coverage of drug-induced mysticism. He presents and calls for a sophisticated, well-informed phenomenological Cognitive Psychology approach to the mind and to the dissociative cognitive state and primary religious experiencing.

He presents a research methodology, framework, and paradigm of extensive first-hand experience and training in the dissociative visionary cognitive state, with extensive comparison of experiential observations with many other experienced observers or trained practitioners, per Ken Wilber's Eye to Eye. He demonstrates how the altered, dissociative cognitive state informs the scientific study of the mind, and how a phenomenological cognitive psychology perspective informs the scientific, systematic study of the states induced by visionary plants.

He approaches cognitive psychology as a concern with overall dynamic mental activity and phenomena, rather than underlying-level mental representation. He critiques the established Psychology models of mystic-state experiencing, emphasizing that the visionary altered state affects and works comprehensively and non-specifically upon the entirety of experiencing and cognitive activity, including movement and performance, neither centered in uncovering hidden layer of already-ongoing sub-cognitive activity nor being restricted to merely the isolated faculty of imagination.

Antipodes opens a new era in research and theory on visionary plants and mythic metaphor. Myths were discovered through the use of substance-induced altered states of consciousness; the world of myth is the world of entheogens. Ayahuasca drinkers tend toward the universal metaphysical conclusion, of idealist monism: only interconnected thoughts exist.

Although noting Ancient Jewish mysticism used a Ayahuasca mixture such as Rue and Acacia or Mimosa, he emphasizes myths as metaphorical description of dissociative cognitive experiencing induced by visionary plants, not of the plants themselves like previous entheogen scholars. Myth describes dissociative experiencing through small-scale mythemes and larger-scale structures, and represents mental transformation over multiple sessions.

Shanon's coverage of mystical phenomena is less developed and coherent than of imagery. His categories of experiential phenomena and visionary metaphor don't cover the specifically religious-experiencing realm such as a willing sacrificing of kingship; he covers temples as merely a visual object, not really explaining why kings and temples are seen. He covers control-instability, personal autonomy issues, and fear as though separate from religious/spiritual divine-encounter aspects.

Practitioners fearfully cross themselves and pray for mercy before taking the Eucharistic potion. Cognitive dissociation brings thought-control crisis in which reliance on one's own powers and resources is of no avail; to combat fear and restabilize mental control, trust is needed in something beyond one's local autonomous self.

He advises mastering fearful thoughts and remembering you're an autonomous self who can influence thoughts -- yet asserts Ayahuasca drinkers feel the source and master of which thoughts happen isn't themselves, but external forces; it's scientifically unknown how thoughts originate; and the source of thoughts, control, and what happens in one's mind is not oneself, but a hidden, transcendent source.

Metaphorical descriptions of dissociative phenomena are also covered in Metzner's Unfolding Self; Culiano's Out of this World; Collins' Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys; Arbel's Beholders of Divine Secrets; and Thorne's Marihuana: Mysticism & Cannabis Experience. Antipodes is a must-have for consciousness and entheogen researchers.

a mold breaking study - exceptional.......2005-07-01

Dr. Shannon has made an exceptional study of the ayahuasca experience. After reading such a very well written text,it was hard for me to immediately read other studies of entheogens currently in print, his thinking, use of vocabulary and general quality of argument were that muscular in a print world of terribly sophmoric writers, one-time experience experts, their oohs and ahhs fleshed out by flabby 1 and 2 syllable words in pages and pages of loose whipped-cream text.
He treats his subject with respect and breaks certain idea associations as "psychosis" as defining the ayahuasca state (bravo)and argues with evidence that indigenous cultural exposure alone does not necessarily condition visualizations content during the ayahuasca experience. For any individual looking for a serious, highly disciplined, ga-ga-lite approach to what could be a pretty slippery, "feeelings" driven topic, you must read this honest, unpretentious text.
Not easy, bouncy and full of New Age PC spirit-jargon. Despite this relieving manque, it is nevertheless a most inspiring read, personal enough at the right times to keep the mortal odour of subject clinician or pedantic social-anthropologist out of the air. Really a "right on" experiential read, built upon years of studied personal experience with the brew within and outside of the associated cultural settings and hence, rare indeed.
It is an award winning piece of work on an international scale.
Dr. Shannon is Professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

The Best of the Best.......2004-10-07

Finally a book on Ayahuasca that goes beyond the surface....way beyond the surface ! Dr. Benny Shanon picks up where the others leave off . This exceptionally in-depth book cuts right to the chase : the phenomenology of the visions produced by Ayahuasca . For the first time we get a detailed analysis of the visions from every angle , including the multitude of visionary themes , cross-cultural themes , the importance of set and setting , non-visual perceptions , general stages and order of the visions , along with the many illuminating insights supplied by Shanon and his experienced informants along the way . I must say that of all the books I've read concerning entheogens in general , and Ayahuasca in particular , I've found this one to be the most useful .....and like a rich piece of music by Bach , I can keep going back to it again and again to discover something new .

Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Doctors, Pharmacists, Toxicologists, Biologists and Veterinarians

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Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Doctors, Pharmacists, Toxicologists, Biologists and Veterinarians
Dietrich Frohne
Manufacturer: Timber Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0881927503
Release Date: 2005-08-15

Book Description

Garden flowers, ornamental shrubs, and houseplants â€” as well as common species in the wild â€” can all contain substances poisonous to humans or animals. In fact, after medicines and household chemicals, toxic plants rank third in causes of calls to poison control hotlines. Non-native plants, both temperate and tropical, can be found in many domestic environments. This volume identifies potentially dangerous plants, giving comprehensive information on their distribution, kind and degree of toxicity, symptoms of their poisoning, and suggested treatment. Illustrations, both actual scale and enlarged representations of recognizable features, make each plant identifiable. Separate sections discuss the significant toxins found in plants, and the problems they cause, list plants of special concern to veterinarians, and present identification tables for berries and leaves. The second edition contains more than 50 percent new text and illustrative material, with special attention to North America. This practical reference, with updated glossary, index, and bibliography will be valued by a wide range of medical, veterinary, pharmacological, and botanical professionals for years to come.

Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants

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book of poison
Excellent Resource
What I have been waiting for
Best handbook on poisonous plants in 20 years! Replaces the AMA Handbook
Gardeners handbook

Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants
Lewis S. Nelson
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

ASIN: 0387312684

Book Description

In the 20 years that have passed since the publication of the first edition, both Poison Control Centers and Emergency Departments have witnessed an expansion in the number and variety of poisonings caused by toxic plants. At the same time, there is a proliferation in the diversity of plants in our gardens and homes, continually expanding the range of possible consequences from exposure to toxic plants.

This second edition of the Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants is created to assist the clinician in the initial response to the needs of a child or adult exposed to a poisonous or injurious plant. It lists common plants that might lead to the development of the symptom complex and describes the mechanisms of action of the implicated toxin, additional clinical manifestations, and specific therapeutics for each presentation. It has methodically enhanced the previous editionâ€™s botanical rigor with insights from both pharmacognosy and clinical medicine to make it a truly comprehensive source.

With its thorough references and full-color photos of hundreds of potentially toxic and injurious plants inside the home, anyone who has an interest in plants will find this book useful outside in the garden or out in the wild.

This book will fascinate botanists, horticulturists, and naturalists as well as hikers, gardeners, and all those who simply enjoy the wonders of nature and the great outdoors!

With Foreword by Lewis R. Goldfrank, MD and Introduction by Andrew Weil, MD

Customer Reviews:

book of poison.......2007-08-24

Hyped in NYT review. All things are toxic, including apple pits. Well, I would consider that if you chew that en mass. Pictures are a bit small. Good collection of common garden flowers.

Excellent Resource .......2007-06-15

This book fills a real void, since the publication of the first edition (in 1985 by Lampe and McCann) has long been out of print. There are over 150 species of plants discussed, detailing the description, location, toxin, toxic parts, clinical findings and management, each with a few key references. The photographs are of very high quality. Often there is more than one photograph of a particular species depicting the plant with and without flowers or perhaps a view from a distance and then a close up. This handbook is essential for all poison centers and toxicologists and would be extremely useful for any healthcare provider, botanist, or gardener who wanted to learn more about poisonous plants!

What I have been waiting for.......2007-04-22

This is the book that I have been waiting to own. As a mother of young children, an avid gardener, an ethnobotanical researcher, a naturalist, and a practicing physician, I think this handbook should be on the bookshelf of every member of these professions. The information provided is practical, insightful, and accurate, and the plant photos add life to a very abstract subject. It is also a beautiful book--in handy field guide proportions with vivid photographs-- this book can go out into the field with you or grace your coffee table. I only wish that it had been published 10 years ago, because it fills a niche left empty when the AMA stopped publishing their book on poisonous plants. Worth the wait--this book is better.

Best handbook on poisonous plants in 20 years! Replaces the AMA Handbook.......2007-01-24

The rigorous organization and approach to this topic results in a tremendous practical contribution to the clinicians who care for the poisoned patient.
Thre first four sections provide detailed management guidlines and general principles for dealing with the poisoned patient. The 5th section is a beautifuly detailed description of the poisonous plants complete with sharp crisp color photographs, pertinent clinical information, and references.
This book should be in every Emergency Department, Poison Center, and Office that gives advice to children and adults who have come in contact or ingested plants that are potentially toxic.

Gardeners handbook.......2007-01-23

This book is full of surprising facts and information about many plants which are commonly known. This is a great book for anyone interested in gardening.

Handbook of Toxic Plants of North America

Average customer rating:

An invaluable reference.
Excellent sourcebook on poisonous plants

Handbook of Toxic Plants of North America
Ronald J Tyrl , and George M. Burrows
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813807115

Book Description

This user-friendly handbook on plants poisonous to animals has been written and organized to serve the needs of veterinarians, livestock owners, and students. Authors Burrows and Tyrl combine the insights of a veterinary toxicologist with that of a botanist and taxonomist to provide a quick reference for individuals who deal daily with livestock or companion animals in natural settings where plant poisoning may occur.The authors have previously been acclaimed for providing easy accessibility to information in their comprehensive 2001 reference work Toxic Plants of North America that was quickly established as the gold-standard book for those requiring information on plants poisonous to animals and humans on the North American continent.Now, to satisfy the needs of veterinary clinicians, ranchers, farmers, animal scientists, toxicologists, and other diagnosticians, Burrows and Tyrl have organized this handbook by body system affected, then subdivided by clinical manifestations. Each chapter begins with a table of the plants affecting a given system, e.g., plants affecting the liver and causing necrosis. The table lists those plants and comments briefly on the salient signs. It also includes plants that would produce the same effect but will be detailed in other chapters. For each plant, signs, pathology, treatment, and problems and causes are discussed followed by general information on the plant, keys to identification of that plant, illustrations, and location maps.

Customer Reviews:

An invaluable reference........2006-11-07

The hefty price tag of this paperback may limit it to college-level collections, but there it's appropriate and important for any collection strong in environmental science, veterinary science, agricultural science or botany. The organ or body system affected by the plant poison serves as a point of reference here, with chapters organized with vets, livestock owners and students in mind. Each coverage begins with the system and moves to an explanation of the toxic plants that can affect it. Color photos of each plant round out the details. An invaluable reference.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Excellent sourcebook on poisonous plants.......2002-09-10

Toxic Plants of North America is a grandiose work, fruit of many years of intense labor, as one can confirm just by leafing through its hunderds of pages. More than just an academic resource work, this treatise is one of the very few that can actually be used as a textbook for a course on poisonous plants.

Burrows and Tyrl's book is one of the most ambitious projects ever to be undertaken about North American toxic flora since 1964. Indeed a newer source of information was long overdue.

The book has also many salient features including its clarity, objectivity and a usually neglected feature in other publications, which is the inclusion of pertinent information about poisonous plants of Mexico.

I highly recommend this book as a text for courses dealing with poisonous plants offered by Universities in their colleges of Animal Science, Range Ecology and Veterinary Medicine.

Book Description

Phytotoxins are poisonous substances produced by plants, mostly for reasons of protection and compound transport. The study of these substances has yielded many new medicinal products both for humans and other animals. This book provides a concise and comprehensive source of information on plant toxins.

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Review of Mr. Rush's AP Environmental Science Class
Are you reading This??? im only 11 why does it matter what i think
"And the Waters Turned Mediocre..."
Awesome Book for the Lay Scientist!
A True Life Horror Story!

And the Waters Turned to Blood
Rodney Barker
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684838451

Amazon.com

Don't drink the water. Don't swim in it, fish in it, or even bathe in it. Rodney Barker's book, And the Waters Turned to Blood details the latest plague to visit our shores: Pfiesteria piscicida, the "cell from hell," an aquatic microorganism that causes sufferers to exhibit symptoms similar to Alzheimers or multiple sclerosis. As it follows the fortunes of Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, one of the first scientists to recognize the danger of Pfiesteria, Barker's book reads like a cross between science fiction and conspiracy theory: Dr. Burkholder discovers that excessive pollution in the rivers and coastal waters of the Southeastern United States causes a deadly microorganism to breed like crazy; state and federal government attempts to suppress the report.

An investigative reporter by training, Mr. Barker writes And the Waters Turned to Blood like a thriller, revealing pieces of the puzzle judiciously as he builds tension. Unlike in a literary thriller, however, there is no tidy ending to this story. Readers will be left with the disturbing knowledge that fish are still dying, fishermen are still getting sick, and the potential for disaster in this latest scourge is still unmeasured.

Customer Reviews:

Review of Mr. Rush's AP Environmental Science Class.......2007-01-02

This dramatic account of this toxic dinoflaggellate is factual and descriptive. The beginning is well-paced and keeps the reader's attention. However, toward the middle of the book the plot becomes repetitive and more politically based. It was frustrating for the reader to read all the processes of funding and the failures. The book informs the public of a topic that is kept secret by the government. The author researched the data well and presented the information in an interesting way including a cliff-hanger to end each chapter. Overall, this book is recommended for an interesting read into the danger that lurks the coastal waters of North Carolina.

Are you reading This??? im only 11 why does it matter what i think.......2006-02-28

This book was overall a good read, but the widespread exaggeration of the effects of the dinoflagellate became quite repetitive. I was impressed that the book was able to tie politics and environmental policies together. At times, the plot was mildly interesting when compared to other environmental books. The government policies, though, became very confusing at times and the romantic aspect of Dr. Joanne Burkholder's life was not sufficiently explained.

"And the Waters Turned Mediocre...".......2006-02-28

The sheer mediocrity of this novel is stunning. It seems to be split into two main parts. The first half of the book is about the actual investigating of the organism and is quite compelling. However, the second half of the book is about a poorly covered up conspiracy theory and is very repetetive. This is dry and is pretty boring. Therefore, the two halves balance each other out to make the novel mediocre. This book is very good, though, in showing the life and career of a scientist, so would be great for an aspiring scientist. It also reveals the state of the waters in North Carolina, a concern to any of the state's citizens.

Awesome Book for the Lay Scientist!.......2005-12-16

Picked this book up while at the pubic library with my family. The except about an "ancient life form" peaked my interest and I had to borrow it. It reads like a very practical novel with a roller coaster ride of excitement about Dr. Burkholder's discovery of this toxic ameoba. I was truly fascinated and couldn't put the book down. The science is broken down so that a lay person can grasp it and understand the importance of JoAnn's findings. Her trials and tribulations with back stabbing colleagues, NC bureacrats, and the dinoflagelate itelf are very interesting. Would highly recommend this book to anyone.

A True Life Horror Story!.......2005-10-10

I live in North Carolina and this is very scary. People are not being told about this very real danger that can do real damage to a persons health just from going in the water.

The fact that I still haven't heard anything about this in the news just makes it worse.

This is scary but the fact that our goverment keeps this type of information from us is even worse.

When you come to N.C., remember there is a monster in the water and it is as bad or worse then the shark in Jaws. Maybe it's time for the movie version. At least an update on the subject.

Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America

Average customer rating:

Best poisonous plant book to date!
good tips regarding wild and garden plants
Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore".
Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore".

Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America
Nancy J. Turner , and Adam F. Sczawinski
Manufacturer: Timber Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0881923125

Book Description

In this invaluable guide, learn how to identify a toxic plantâ€”in the wild as well as house plantsâ€”and how to treat a poisoning victim.

This book contains all the information needed to identify toxic plants, including house plants. Each plant is fully described and pictured for easy identification, and instructions for treating the poisoning victim are given.

Customer Reviews:

Best poisonous plant book to date!.......2004-07-03

Common Poisonous Plants by Dr. Nancy Turner is the top of the line field guide to deadly botanical beauties you could come across while exploring the great outdoors.
This book is top quality in information, details, poisoning symptoms, and content! It is well worth the expense, which is a good amount. The book itself contains, plants, mushrooms, and fungi that could be hazardous to humans and animals alike. The main highlight, by far, is the toxicity section on each of the poisonous plants. The symptoms of ingestion, (contamination) are well described and could easily compell the reader to shudder. The symptoms are specific to every single plant, so that an infected person's life could easily and efficiently be saved. There is also a very helpful insight on treatment of potential poisoning.
The book is so specific, it even tells you the degree of toxicity! Unfortunately, this book is very expensive and going out of print. So, any hardcore naturalist or interested botanist should purchase this online ASAP!

good tips regarding wild and garden plants.......2002-11-16

This is a beautiful book, both in the quality of the photos and the depth and readability of the information within. Perhaps its greatest strength is that it covers both native plant species and cultivated garden plants. This book is enough to convince any parent of the wisdom of edible plant gardening, and to shy away from the deadly, flashy ornamentals.

Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore"........2000-10-25

Dr. Turners books are without a doubt unparalleled regarding her ability to use the trust she has cultivated with the indigenous peoples of the PNW. This gives her an entirely unique and very interesting look at hows plant were used by the native populations of this and surrounding areas. The people who would find her writing fascinating would cut across many disciplines from of course not only botany but anthropology, archaeology, paleontology; perhaps even modern "new-age" religious seekers. Having said that though, I dearly wish she would quit deviating in to the field of mycology. I'm not exactly sure where she gets her info from, but I suspect that working under the auspices of the BC Provincial Museum, that she has elected to defer to the often antiquated mycological texts from the among the ranks of those in the possesion of professors in the back rooms of the museum that are gathering as much dust as are the books that they in turn rely upon for ID'ing the fungi.

Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore"........2000-10-25

Hallucinogenic and Poisonous Mushroom Field Guide

Average customer rating:

West coast only.
Read the notes below (I can't summarize this in a description)
Mushroom Magic
A great summarizing mushroom identification guide.

Hallucinogenic and Poisonous Mushroom Field Guide
Menser
Manufacturer: Ronin Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0914171895

Customer Reviews:

West coast only........2006-05-18

This is for north-western hunters. Drawings are low quality. I wouldn't trust myself with just this book.

Read the notes below (I can't summarize this in a description).......2006-05-14

Most of the psilocybe literature (identification guides, etc) are written with a certain geographical position, meaning those guys over in the "Pacific Northwest" (Northern California, Wyoming, Washington State, Etc) - they are the ones who know a lot about finding and discussing the "Actives." This book is great. I take no issue with its subject matter. It is written with a clean, direct approach. Originally written in the seventies, it has become outdated in specific content matters. We as a human population are discovering "new" (newly identified) species almost every single year, sometimes multiple new species are discovered within a few months time. My point is this: This book covers only a small portion of the species out and about in American wood chip piles, lawns, and cow pastures. Bottom line: This book is a healthy addition to other books. There is no single volume out there that stands perfectly by itself. But its good. Worth the money, for sure.

Mushroom Magic.......2002-07-11

A well written and easy to understand book which clearly defines each type of mushroom with illustrations and photographs (in the appendix). It shows how to identify and distinguish between poisonous and hallucinogenic mushrooms (a vital skill). It also gives details on habitat. A useful reference guide. The only extra bit of advice I would give those thinking of ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms is to always keep a sample in case something goes wrong so they can easily be identified. If in doubt don't pick. This book will certainly help reduces the confusion between similar looking psychotropic and poisonous mushrooms.

A great summarizing mushroom identification guide........1999-06-07

Easily identifies the genus of the mushroom to help identification in further examination. A great, pocket size manual to show which mushrooms are worth picking and which are better left alone. Used with another guide that features expanded species and photographs this book is a neccesity for hunting.

Field Guide to Plants Poisonous to Livestock : Western U.S.

Average customer rating:

Poisonous or not?

Field Guide to Plants Poisonous to Livestock : Western U.S.
Shirley A. Weathers
Manufacturer: Rosebud Press (UT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Camelid Companion

ASIN: 0966039734

Book Description

The first field guide to poisonous plants in the western U.S., designed by and for livestock owners to help protect against plant poisoning. Horses, llamas, cattle, goats, alpacas, sheep, and swine are addressed.

Customer Reviews:

Poisonous or not?.......2001-12-15

This book put my mind at ease when it helped me identify some very poisonous plants in my pastures. Photos would be more helpful than the illustrations but the detailed information on signs of poisoning and treatments is comforting to have close at hand.

Handbook Of Biologically Active Phytochemicals & Their Activities

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Handbook Of Biologically Active Phytochemicals & Their Activities
JAMES DUKE
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0849336708

Book Description

CRC Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and Their Activities presents an alphabetical catalog of some 3,000 biologically active phytochemicals (elements and compounds) from higher plants. The data includes at least one and in some cases as many as 25 biological activities for each phytochemical. The book's tables also provide data on effective dose, inhibitory concentrations, and lethal and/or toxic doses. Entries after 1990 indicate the source of the data. CRC Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and Their Activities makes it possible for the first time to locate the concentration of many compounds in plants and compare this data with dosage information to calculate how much of a given plant food it would take to cause lethality, antioxidant activity, hypoglycemic activity, or artemicidal activity. These handy tables of hard-to-find information make this book an indispensable resource for pharmacologists, toxicologists, nutritionists, pharmacognocists, and food scientists.

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