Plants of the Gods: S1E1. Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca – From Argentina to Australia, from Israel to Indonesia, a once-obscure Amazonian vine, admixed with a few other plants is now celebrated – and even venerated – as a plant of power knowledge and healing. Ayahuasca – also known as “the vine of the soul.” Native to the northwest Amazon and employed by indigenous shamans for therapeutic purposes, this plant has played a fundamental role in the ongoing mainstreaming of hallucinogenic plants into western therapeutic practices.  Sources: Luna, Luis Eduardo, and Steven F. White. Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine. Synergetic Press, 2016.  Plotkin, Mark J. Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press, 2020.   Plotkin, Mark J. Medicine Quest: in Search of Nature's Healing Secrets. Penguin Books, 2001. Schultes, Richard Evans, and Robert F. Raffauf. Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia. Synergetic Press, 2004. Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979.  

Om Podcasten

“Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation” is a new and unique podcast focusing on the hallucinogenic plants and fungi whose impact on world culture and religion – and healing potential - is only now beginning to be appreciated as never before. Unlike other podcasts relating to these issues, “Plants of the Gods” is hosted by renowned ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin, a Harvard and Yale-trained scientist who has been studying the healing plants and shamans of the Amazon rainforest for almost four decades. An award-winning scientist and best selling author, Dr, Plotkin is a spellbinding storyteller who will be speaking from personal experience and will be joined by other leaders in the field.