http://www.erowid.org/library/review Reviews of books, articles, and movies Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:22:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 Among books on psychoactive mushrooms, Shroom is unprecedented in the degree to which the author demands that arguments be supported by evidence. No brief review can do justice to the rich detail and close analysis that Letcher offers. This is an essential book on the subject, and an important ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=263 This book will go a long way in providing balance in order to critically weigh information both favorable and critical of psychedelic substances. Despite political pressure, psychedelics are here to stay and current research cited supports the premise that there can be medical applications under controlled conditions. Even ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=261 Controversies and debates that involve different scientific disciplines, religious dogmas and legal concepts make ayahuasca and its consumption a rich topic, which the book by Labate and Araújo develops into three groups of articles: the first deals with the indigenous or “native” use of the beverage, dialoguing directly with ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=260 This two-volume treatise serves a useful purpose not only in providing an update on the limited number of hallucinogenic drugs that already have some therapeutic application (based on relatively limited research), but also by covering the history of these mind-altering drugs and the cultural, social, political, legal, economic, and ethical ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=258 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 ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=259 In this self-published book, Poison I.V., one of the many aliases of the online mini-celebrity, records her long and winding trip from her first time to near-death experiences and back to sobriety. While many people have disapproved of her attitude in the past, this collection of experiences is well worth ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=257 With its all-star cast - Albert Hofmann, Stanislav Grof, Laura Huxley, Humphry Osmond, Abram Hoffer, Myron Stolaroff, Duncan Blewett, Ram Dass, and Ralph Metzner -- Director Connie Littlefield's Hofmann's Potion chronicles and demystifies major psychedelic events of the 50s, 60s, and 70. The film is well-composed, both in content ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=256 ... [T]he shadow side of this book's legacy is that it has helped create a state of confusion among its readership. Strassman's outstanding work is marred by unsubstantiated speculation regarding possible connections between meditation, death and dying, the pineal gland, endogenous DMT, and quantum mechanics. [ read more ] http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=255 The Herb Dangerous series is comprised of four distinct works by four different authors. They are collected here under one cover, along with a 65-page introduction by Israel Regardie, who was one of Crowley’s best students and widely considered to be one of the twentieth century’s most important occult authors. ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=254 This book is particularly memorable for its many wonderful accounts of animal intoxication. Despite the title, most of the cases that Samorini recounts do not involve psychedelics, though he does describe some greedy goats refusing to share Psilocybe mushrooms. Like Jonathan Ott in Pharmacophilia, Samorini contends that intoxication ... http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=253