Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Chavín de Huántar, poison path, dream helper, The Ally, Peyote Way, Ghost Dance (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Essential reading, a modern classic."
—Stephen Silberman, Wired Magazine

"The poet of plantsÉPendel may be America’s answer to Blake, Coleridge and Wordsworth…."
—Emily Green, Los Angeles Times

"Whereas all other drug encyclopaediaists are accompanied by excessive slyness, the seemingly free verse of Dale Pendell is constrained by compulsive accuracy, to paraphrase Zarathustra's Hom Yost, by the (scruples) that drive forth truth."
—David Flattery, author of Haoma and Harmaline

"A beat alchemist working textual DJ decks."
—Erik Davis, Bookforum --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

"Pendell's ongoing subjects are the botanical 'allies ' humans have always associated with, and the 'pharmakon,' the drug that is both poison and cure. A poet, ethno-botanist and amateur chemist, he's the best writer on drugs to come along since the late Terence McKenna."-Richard Gehr, The Village Voice

"There is genius to Pendell's approach, an erudite playfulness and poetic virtuosity unmatched by anyone writing about plants and drugs today. Pendell's books present a Pandora's box, and once opened, the steadfast and curious reader will soon find herself on the path."-Sarah Fox, Rain Taxi

Contemporary alchemist Dale Pendell completes his poetic study of botany, chemistry, spirituality, psychology and history in a volume covering the composition and uses of visionary plants. Chapters including "Phantastica," "Hypnotica" and "Telephorica" explore the hallucinogenic plants, the bringers of sleep and the bearers of distance. Pharmacognosis is the branch of pharmacology that deals with herbs and unprepared medicines in their natural state, those whose cure is held in a deeper wisdom. Pharmako/Gnosis weaves together ancient shamanic rites, historic cultural lore and the contemporary use of plant poisons.

Dale Pendell is a poet, software engineer and longtime student of ethnobotany. His poetry has appeared in many journals, and he was the founding editor of KUKSU: Journal of Backcountry Writing. In addition, his work appeared in Entheogens and the Future of Religion, edited by Robert Forte. He has led workshops on ethnobotany and ethnopoetics for the Naropa Institute and the Botanical Preservation Corps. He lives in the Sierra foothills in California.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mercury House (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562791303
• ISBN-13: 978-1562791308
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,619 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading, a Modern Classic, April 15, 2006

By	Stephen Silberman "writer, Wired Magazine" (SF, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Pharmako/Gnosis" is the crown jewel of Pendell's superb trilogy, and indispensable reading for anyone interested in psychedelics, botany, anthropology, and earnest inquiry into the nature of existence. Covering LSD, mescaline and peyote, DMT, psilocybin mushrooms, esoterica like Syrian rue and even xenon inhalation, as well as other signposts on what he calls "the Poison Path," Pendell continues his profound investigation of mankind's relationship with plants and chemicals that can seem like helpful teachers, demons, pernicious addictions -- or all three at once. (The truly addictive substances are mostly discussed in the previous two volumes of the trilogy, "Pharmako/Poeia" and "Pharmako/Dynamis.")

Even if you never touch the stuff yourself, Pendell's trilogy is worth reading as one of the most graceful and powerful breakthroughs in prose in many years. Combining poetry, deep history, science, psychological insight, and Zen-style humor in the face of "the Great Matter," Pendell has created a voice that is wholly his own. He can be radiantly tender in one passage, saltily irreverent in another, and certain sections of this book -- such as "Splitting the Hair" and "The Two-Dragon Problem" -- come as close to saying the Unsayable as any literature I know, outside of such Zen classics as "The Blue Cliff Record." A section called "The Hallucinogenic Properties of Maize" is a brief tour-de-force that should bring a knowing smile to fans of "The Matrix" and other works that suggest that what we call normal waking consciousness is worthy of closer scrutiny.

Like the Poison Path itself, Pendell's books are not for everyone. They may be difficult reading at first for those who are totally unfamiliar with botany or Zen, and their frequent flights into personal witnessing of altered states may piss off readers who are expecting an "objective" textbook or how-to-get-high cookbook. But stick with them -- these sly books instruct even as they tease or confound expectations, and will still be whispering in the inner ears of shamans and potential initiates many generations from now, long after most so-called drug books of our era have been forgotten. And Pendell's Coyote-like wit -- taking the narrator to task for his own pomposity in italicized sections that the author calls "the back channel" -- never allows him to wallow in the kind of self-importance or vacuous yakking that afflicts so many self-appointed psychonauts.

At the level of book design, Pendell's luminous and subtle use of images is nothing short of revelatory. The sudden appearance of Walt Whitman's youthful face after a particularly lovely passage, for example, says more than another ten pages of prose could have. Mercury House has done an admirable job of bringing the author's hard-won mapping of the other world into this one.

In some of the book's most memorable passages, the author seems to step aside to let the spirits of the plants themselves speak -- no easy trick without seeming ridiculous. Bravo to Pendell for creating a guide to uncovering essential experience (with the help of potent allies) that will be, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, "good to eat a thousand years."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind, June 18, 2008

By	J. A. Rombouts "Jeroen" (Utrecht, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This book, last part of the beautiful, highly recommended "Pharmako-" trilogy is dedictated to Pendell's traveling companions. And what an artful lot they are. "Pharmako/Gnosis" covers what the author defines as "Phantastica" and "Daimonica", bringers of visions and darkness, respectively. Interspersed are fragments relating to the walk down the Poison Path, intricate tales of supernatual encounters and the social dynamics of drug use.

Do not expect hard science here, this book is all about the transcendental, the unspeakable, the heart. Or, do expect at least some degree of science, shoulder to shoulder with personal opinion and the voices of plant spirits themselves. The way the author weaves a holographic contextual web of ideas on the subject of plants and their constituents is in my view unprecedented. The book is truly in a class of its own, the views Pendell offers his readers are original and sometimes highly evocative.

Do not buy this book if you are looking for Erowid-style trip reports (there are however, to my delight, some references to online drug culture hidden in here). Instead this book offers so much more for the experienced traveller or fans of poetic psychedelia. It has buddhism, history, economics, chemistry, botany, poetry. And a ridiculous but completely adorable comparison of drugs to sexual positions.

As the verbal flow seems a little less inspired to me than in the other two volumes, his nonetheless brilliant book deserves four stars. Buy it together with its sisters and you'll be the prowd owner of fifteen stars worth of textual Medicine.

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The LSD chapters, man..., May 18, 2006

By	Lev Brouk (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is great. Highly recommend to "experienced travellers" - it'll most definitely bring familiar (mostly pleasant) memories back to life. But even more I'd recommend it to people who are still thinking about taking the plunge and are afraid for one reason or another.

As far as style goes... it reminded me very much (surprisingly, somewhat) of Cortazar's Hopscotch - fragmented poetry, broken story, yet the whole is so much greater than the sum of the fragments. Excellent!