The author wisely chose to focus Peopled Darkness entirely on his own first-person experiences with the plant, and the philosophical questions that those experiences raised. While many people try any given drug once or twice, and can write up spectacular trip reports or even hit the lecture circuit as “experts,” relating riveting tales of their limited encounters, it is much more difficult to take the time to develop a long-term relationship with a single plant ally, like Arthur has done with Salvia divinorum. [ read more ]

This book does an excellent job of succinctly covering the history of Salvia divinorum up to the new millennium, pulling together the various aspects of ethnobotany, pharmacology, cultivation, chemistry, and contemporary use, into one place for the first time. Alas, it doesn’t present any recent information . . . do we really need another book on Salvia divinorum at this point? The answer may be “yes,” but predominantly because this book is in German, and hence will reach an audience that might have a hard time reading the myriad of information that is already available in English. [ read more ]