Customer Reviews

The Psychedelic Journey of Marlene Dobkin de Rios: 45 Years with Shamans, Ayahuasqueros, and Ethnobotanists

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This is an interesting overview of Dr. de Rios work studying the cultural uses of hallucinogenic plants. I'm not sure who the intended audience is. It's not written in a purely scholarly manner to appeal to the academic crowd, but it's also not written for a general audience that isn't a student of anthropology, ethnobotany, etc. While it is an overview of Dr. de Rios career, it is definitely not an autobiography. The book is interesting, thought provoking, and somewhat frustrating.

I had taken a few classes from Dr. de Rios at Cal State Fullerton, and had always found the data she shared about her studies of cross-cultural use of hallucinogens quite interesting. In this book, I enjoyed getting a little more information on some of the subjects she could only briefly touch on in class. I also appreciated the fact that there are a large number of references listed, so I can do further reading on the specific topics that interest me the most. However, I would have liked a little more data into her research methods. I also didn't think it necessary to repeat part of her book "Hallucinogens, Cross-Cultural Perspectives". I thoroughly enjoyed her discussions of the many traditional healing sessions she attended in South America, and of the work with her father-in-law who was a shaman healer. I also found the discussions of her work with UCI dealing with burn victims, and how hallucinogens can be used to treat pain and her work in pain management very fascinating.

The book is rather circular in form. It starts off with a timeline of Dr. de Rios career, detailing papers given, field studies, important life events (marriage, motherhood, earning a pHD), research interests. Then the book proceeds to go into more detail on some of the topics. As with any work of this sort, there are a number of topics and research avenues that are mentioned that I would like to have learned more about, but at least there are references so that I can read more on the topic(s) as I choose. However, if you are a linear thinker, you will probably find this book frustrating. There is no linear progression for Dr. de Rios studies, and topics are briefly discussed then you are told that the topic will be discussed in more depth later. There are only so many times you should be told, but we'll discuss this in more detail later...

I personally would have liked to have seen a little more artwork demonstrating the effect of hallucinogenic plants on the artist's perspective. There was a particularly interesting series of drawings that showed an object, then the object drawn by an artist prior to ingesting hallucinogens, then the same object drawn by the same artist after ingesting hallucinogens.

To sum up, if you are interested in how psychedelic plants have been used in various cultures, you will enjoy this book. If you have read books by Christian Ratsch and/or Claudia Muller-Ebeling, you should find this interesting. This book might also be of interest to people following the medical marijuana issue, if only to broaden their perspective. While this book discusses and touches on a number of topics and issues, I don't think it gives too many definitive answers. In fact, I think it actually raises more questions, than it answers, which may have been Dr. de Rios purpose. I hope that some student of ethnobotany, cultural/medical anthropology, or related discipline discovers this book and decides to continue pursuing some of the topics that Dr. de Rios has followed in her fascinating career.