Customer Reviews

Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda: The Birth of Patriarchy and the Drug War (Volume 1)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is great. The only reason I didn't give it full five stars is because some of the graphics are poor quality (at screen resolution with a lot of moire patterns). The actual content of the book is really excellent. The author gives a very clear picture of the evolution of human relationships to entheogens and the pro and cons of the politics of the related eras. Very well researched and written from the viewpoint of an anthropologist/historian in a very wholistic way. It is one of those rare books that has really changed the way I look at the world - both current and historic. Highly recommended!

Dan Russell - Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda
The Birth of Patriarchy and the Drug War - 1998

This book, at first glance, appears somewhat difficult to comprehend with its lack of introduction, conclusion and explanation of chapter direction. However, the title does say it all.

Mr. Russell first takes us on a history of the shamanic use of herbs and entheogenic plants and calendrical time tracking through the matriarchal ages of the Bone, Copper, Bronze, and Iron ages, showing the progressive development of patriarchy with the advancement of agriculture, which eventually led the tribes away from the female-as-shaman ancient (matriarchal/lunar) practices.

He then delves into the history of entheogenic plant usage in Sumerian, Babylonian and Canaanite/Judean rites as well with the Essenes at Qumran and the take over of patriarchal sun worship. Then he follows into the Greek shamanic Olympian and Eleusinian Mysteries, their entheogen practice, suppression--and the development of Christianity out of the politico/religio mess of the shamanic-suppressive fascism of the times.

He shows us how the Christian icons used today are related to ancient, shamanic rites and entheogen use as John Allegro suggested in the Sacred Mushroom and the Cross with the Amanita Muscaria. However, Russell doesn't stop with just Amanita, he makes many plausible suggestions toward alternative entheogens that may have also been employed.

The final tie in he makes is with the ancient shamanic tradition and the War on Drugs. The Modern Inquisition, written by Harry J. Anslinger, is almost verbatim of the Pius outlawing of entheogens over 1600 years earlier.

His presentation of the history of entheogens reminded me much of Professor Carl Ruck's style of writing whom he does quote often, though without the heavier Christian slant.
Those whom are offended by direct and honest commentary on the horrific history of Christianity may find this book offensive or "attacking Christianity." Russell doesn't find the need to sugar coat the disgraceful and murderous shamanic-inquisitional origins of Christianity.

The problems with the book: 1) it is a little dry. 2) His ideas of the origins of patriarchy with the invention of agriculture does not coincide with new research by Dr. James DeMeo in Saharasia, based on Textor data, showing the Saharasian region's desertification as the actual cause of patriarchy and armament (see also Discover Magazines Aug. 2005 article: Are the Desert People Winning?). Furthermore, it would have been helpful for Russell if he had tied in the work of Social Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in "The Sexual Life of Savages" (1929), or, for that matter, the work of Dr. Wilhelm Reich in "Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality" with this excellent work.

Overall, the book is very well researched with many new ideas. A great addition to any library. 5 Stars!

This book consists of two parts. This first documents that psychoactive plants have been used in religious experience dating back to prehistoric times. The book is thoughtful and well researched, with a number of illustrations not usually presented even in graduate level texts.

The second part is an angry denunciation of orthodox Christianity in favor of gnosticism. Using rather creative methods the author develops a picture of Jesus as a military leader who sought to overthrow the Roman empire. This is certainly different than the description one usually encounters. He continues to find in gnosticism the "true" tradition of pharmacological shamanism.

The book suffers three major flaws. First, the author never really describes what shamans are or how they function in society. The reader is left wondering if the term isn't simply used as a catchall to describe people who take drugs. Second the author never distinguishes between sacramental use of psychoactive plants and recreational use. Thirdly, in the middle ages there was validity in railing against the temporal power of the Christian church. Writing in America today, hundreds of years after the reformation, in a judicial climate openly hostile to the expression of Christianity in a public forum, blaming the injustice of the world on the Christian faith hardly makes sense.

Still, in the end, the author's principal thesis holds. As he argues, for the government to wage war on the sacraments of other cultures is to wage war on those cultures. In a society that advertises itself as multicultural and open to diversity it is unclear why this is the case.

I give this book 3 stars because of its dense amount of information and its potential to be a landmark book in the field of entheogens and religion. This book, however, reads more like an encyclopedia of anthropological eras, than anything else. The book has no introduction, and no conclusion, and no thesis to tie any of it together. The book is ultimately a hodge podge of information waiting for somebody to make some sense of it. In this regard it may be a good resource, but it offers little else. I hope that the author will at least go back and add an introduction to this book so that the readers will at least know what his purpose in writing it was.

Top-notch content. Explains how entheogens were ubiquitous but were suppressed by the institutional Church. Definitely recommended. Covers ancient Western entheogenic origins of religion.

The book lacks statements of how the line of argument proceeds through the chapters and sections, but the content is excellent and much needed.