The Antipodes of the Mind
Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience
Rating :
Author(s) :
Pages :
475
Pub Date :
2002
Edition(s) at Erowid :
2002(hb,1st ed,vg)
Publisher :
Oxford University Press
ISBN :
0199252920
FROM THE EROWID REVIEW #
- Review by Thomas B. Roberts, 2008 Mar 30
This is the first professional study of ayahuasca from the perspective of cognitive psychology, and so far as I know, it is the most academically sophisticated example of how the cognitive sciences might approach other diverse mindbody states too. In data collection, detailed interpretation, and theoretical grounding, Antipodes sets a standard that future cognitive psychologists will strive to live up to.. . . (more) - Review by John Horgan, 2005 Nov 02
Benny Shanon's The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience is one of the most compelling books on altered states I've read, up there with James's Varieties of Religious Experience, Huxley's Doors of Perception (to which Shanon's title alludes) and PIHKAL and TIHKAL by Ann and Alexander Shulgin. Unlike, say, the psychedelic performance artist Terence McKenna . . . (more)
BACK COVER #
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 analyses them from a cognitive psychological perspective. He also presents some philosophical reflections. Empirically, the research reported 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.