Synergetic Press – förlag

In addition to contributions from Wade Davis, Dennis McKenna, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmotoff and Richard Spruce, the new edition includes essays from Graham Hancock, Alex Grey, Jeremy Narby, Susana Bustos, and a section on Ayahuasca art. The Ayahuasca Reader remains the most comprehensive collection of authoritative writings on the subject ever published. An essential reference for anthropology, ethnobotany and Latin American literature studies, it will be of intense interest to students of Amazonian indigenous culture, Native American spirituality, and metaphysical studies.

An uplifting account of the ambitious environmental experiment, Biosphere 2, and the extraordinary life of its creator, John Allen.

The 2009 Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Biography/Memoir, Me and the Biospheres is the definitive autobiography of John P. Allen, inventor of the largest laboratory for global ecology ever built and one of the most luminous minds of our time.

Contained within a magnificently designed air-tight glass and steel frame structure, Biosphere 2 covered three acres of Arizona desert and included models of seven biomes: an ocean with coral reef, a marsh, a rainforest, a savannah, a desert, farming areas and a micro-city. Eight people lived inside this structure for two years (1991-1993) and set world records in human life support, monitoring their impact on the environment, while providing crucial data for future manned missions into outer space. Anyone concerned with the current world trajectory will identify with Allen’s uplifting account of the most ambitious environmental experiment ever undertaken.

Humorous and Whitmanesque, Me and the Biospheres is a tribute to the ingenuity and dauntlessness of the human mind and a passionate call to reawaken to the beauty of our peerless home, Biosphere 1, the Earth.

Mystic Chemist tells the story of Albert Hofmann’s life and the parallel story of LSD. 

Authors Dieter A. Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller, close friends of Albert Hofmann, take readers on a journey through Hofmann’s mystical childhood experiences with nature to his chemistry studies with Nobel Prize winner Paul Karrer in Zurich through his discoveries of both LSD and psilocybin at Sandoz; to his adventurous expeditions; to his many years of retirement devoted to philosophy of nature. Hagenbach and Werthmüller document Hofmann’s rich social life including and interactions with illustrious writers, artists and thinkers including luminaries like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass). 

Throughout Mystic Chemist, the authors reveal the eventful history of LSD, and they chronicle Hofmann’s work with the drug, groundbreaking work that was later featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary series, “How to Change Your Mind.” From the start of his experimentations, Hofmann he took a positive view towards LSD-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of illness, and he maintained that mystical experiences and trips to other worlds of consciousness are the best preparation for the very last journey we all must eventually make. 

Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD contains more than 500 photos, illustrations and drawings as well as a foreword by renowned Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof.

This is a thoroughly researched, comprehensive overview of our planetary situation and outlook. Schwägerl off ers tools to create realistic solutions to our ecological crises, and shares his vision of a world that balances ecological sustainability, economic prosperity, political justice and cultural vibrancy.

Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness is a trailblazing guidebook for anyone interested in psychedelic-assisted therapy and integration.

When psychologist and psychotherapist Marc B. Aixalá began fielding questions from people around the world seeking help integrating their own psychedelic experiences, he couldn’t find a singular source of collected research and support. What began as an attempt to help others became Psychedelic Integration, a work that traces the evolution of psychedelic-assisted therapy and integration research from the 1960s to the present moment, explains therapeutic techniques and outlines a clinician’s real-world observations on the deep work of healing.

Written for practitioners and the generally curious, this book offers 11 metaphors for understanding integration and concisely explains the seven dimensions of integration, which Aixalá sees as part of a process inextricably linked to preparation and the psychedelic session experience. 

Grounded in the idea that integration work serves two main objectives: maximizing the benefits of a psychedelic experience and dealing with adverse effects, Aixalá maintains that understanding why an individual seeks integration support can inform therapeutic techniques. Psychedelic Integration outlines foundational practices like rest and nutrition, spiritual approaches including water rituals and tarot, embodied techniques of dance and singing, and frameworks including Holotropic Breathwork, Gestalt therapy and integration circles. 

The author acknowledges that psychedelic experiences can be difficult and even traumatic, and he confronts that reality with compassion. In this book, Aixalá shares stories and artwork created by some of his patients as they progressed through their own integration journeys. 

Psychedelic Integration is an essential companion for practitioners, their patients, and those seeking integration work not as a solution but as a tool for self and collective discovery. 

Where the Gods Reign is a scientific and creative anthropological overview of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem-featuring writings and excerpts on rivers, ethnic groups, cultural customs, rubber and cocoa plants, drugs and medicines, and more.

Beautiful photographs taken by Dr. Schultes during his 14 years residing in the Colombian Amazon are accompanied by short poetic reflections, precise summaries which showcase Schultes’s immense knowledge of the area, and carefully selected quotes from other great ethnographers of the Amazon.

Essays on the history of psychedelics, the present renaissance, and visions for an inclusive and equitable future.

As psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapies explode into the popular consciousness, what does it mean to cultivate and embody a psychedelic renaissance that learns from the past and prepares for the future? 

From cultural appropriation and sustainability to diversity, inclusion and venture capitalism, Psychedelic Justice: Toward a Diverse and Equitable Psychedelic Culture examines the history of psychedelics, celebrates its present moment and contemplates how advocates and policymakers can shape the future integration of psychedelics into general society.

An anthology of essays written for the Chacruna Institute and edited by its co-founders Bia Labate, Ph.d, and Clancy Cavnar, Psy.D, Psychedelic Justice highlights the need for an inclusionary, societal-level approach to the psychedelic renaissance. In addition to psychedelics and drug policy, works in this book examine psychedelics in the contexts of capitalism, Indigenous traditions, reciprocity, sustainability, mental health, diversity, sex, power, and more. 

A mirror of the vision for a more inclusive psychedelic future, Psychedelic Justice highlights voices that have been long marginalized in Western psychedelic culture: women, queer people, people of color, and Indigenous people. Essay authors include Labate, Cavnar, Belina Eracho, MPH, Bill Brennan, Ph.D (C), NiCole T. Buchanan, Ph.D, Erika Dyck, Ph.D, Jeanna Eichenbaum, LCSW, Sean Lawler, MFA,  Monnica T. Williams, Ph.D, ABPP and more.

Explorations of plant consciousness and human interactions with the natural world.

From apples to ayahuasca, coffee to kurrajong, passionflower to peyote, plants are conscious beings. How they interact with each other, with  humanity and with the world at large has long been studied by researchers, scientists and spiritual teachers and seekers. The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence brings together works from all these disciplines and more in a collection of essays that highlights what we know and what we intuit about botanical life.

The Mind of Plants, featuring a foreword by Dennis McKenna, is a collection of short essays, narratives and poetry on plants and their interaction with humans. Contributors include Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the New York Times’ best seller Braiding Sweetgrass,  Jeremy Narby, John Kinsella, Luis Eduardo Luna, Megan Kaminski and dozens more. The book’s editors, John C. Ryan, Patrícia Vieira and Monica Gagliano – each of whom also contributed works to the collection – weave together essays, personal reflections and poems paired with intricate illustrations by José María Pout.

Recent scientific research in the field of plant cognition highlights the capacity of botanical life to discern between options and learn from prior experiences or, in other words, to think. The Mind of Plants includes texts that interpret this concept broadly. As Mckenna writes in his foreword, “What the reader will find here, expressed in poetry and prose, are stories that are infused with cherished memories and inspired celebrations of unique relationships with a group of organisms that are alien and unlike us in every way, yet touch human lives in myriad ways.”

The Bear Is My Father: Indigenous Wisdom of a Muscogee Creek Caretaker of Sacred Ways is considered a love story between Bear Heart and a community that stretches across the globe. This book celebrates the life, teachings and legacy of Marcellus Bear Heart Williams, a Multi-Tribe Spiritual Leader and author of the critically-acclaimed The Wind is My Mother.

Bear Heart (1918 - 2008), was a Muscogee Creek Native American Church Road Man with a talent for seeing people as individuals, and for making them feel seen and special in their own ways. The Bear Is My Father: Indigenous Wisdom of a Muscogee Creek Caretaker of Sacred Ways contains the final words Bear Heart wrote before his “going on” as well as contributions from friends and family whose lives were forever changed by Bear Heart’s presence and work. In this new book, Bear Heart uses stories of his youth and traditional medicine practices to convey lessons and knowledge about living in harmony and with respect for all.

Offering a mix of history and spiritual wisdom, The Bear is My Father is co-authored by Reginah WaterSpirit, Bear Heart''s Medicine Helper and wife of 23 years. 

When Reginah would ask Bear Heart exactly how he made his medicine, he always answered, “I don’t make the medicine, it was here before me. I’ve been entrusted to be a caretaker of certain sacred ways.”

As the world’s billionaire class reaps record profits and global inequalities further divide nations and communities, this anthology compiled by renown activist Dr. Vandana Shiva pulls back the curtain on how ruthless capitalistic exploitation branded as philanthropic altruism forges a direct path to global destruction. 

Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens’ Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture details how global philanthrocapitalist organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and affiliated entities effectively monopolize and privatize common land for food production in a manner that jeopardizes public health around the globe.

Through various initiatives, sub-organizations, development schemes, and funding mechanisms, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s empire in particular weaves an intricate network of power and influence designed to ensnare local communities and traditions in an unwavering pursuit of profit and market expansion. 

Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy calls to account problematic initiatives that serve to corrode the integrity of democratic institutions, often under a banner of future-oriented innovation. This book lays bare the destructive power of overly capitalistic systems that enable mass human suffering and environmental catastrophe via the entanglement of private investment and public policy.

This democratic emergency is analyzed in detail by leading experts and civil society movements’ leaders, such as: Dr. Vandana Shiva, Farida Akhter, José Esquinas Alcàzar, Nicoletta Dentico, Fernando Cabaleiro, Seth Itzkan, Dru Jay, Satish Kumar, Jonathan Latham, Aidé Jiménez-Martínez, Chito Medina, Zahra Moloo, Silvia Ribeiro, Adelita San Vicente, Ali Tapsoba, Jim Thomas, Timothy A. Wise. International organizations and national movements who also participated include ETC Group, Community Alliance for Global Justice/AGRA Watch, Soil4Climate, Bioscience Resource, GM Watch, Naturaleza de Derechos – Argentina, Masipag – Philippines, Terre à Vie – Burkina Faso, UBINIG – Bangladesh.

A synthesis of more than three decades of interdisciplinary research and practice,  Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: An Evidence-based Guide to Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change, provides evidence-based solutions to some of the world’s most pressing crises in global ecology, agriculture and public health.

Featuring the work of Navdanya, an organization founded by Dr. Vandana Shiva that promotes agroecology, seed freedom, and a vision of Earth Democracy that seeks justice for the Earth and all living beings, this work serves as a guidebook for agriculture scientists, policy makers, environmentalists and every individual who cares about their own health as well as the vitality of the planet.

Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture, provides a detailed analysis of the multiple planetary dilemmas we face due to chemical and industrial agriculture, including land degradation, water depletion, biodiversity erosion, climate change, agrarian crises, and health crises while also focusing on practical and evidence-based solutions.

Those solutions include methods of using biodiversity-based organic farming to regenerate soil, conserve water, increase climate change resilience, and ensure food security in rural populations. As editor, Dr. Shiva takes an organized approach to these wide-ranging topics and provides practical knowledge that can inform the future of agriculture and sustainable food systems. With detailed scientific evidence, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture shows how an ecological agriculture based on working with nature can regenerate the planet, the rural economy and our health.

Transformational experiences are as unique as they are profound, yet each portrays universal truths of human nature. In The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience,  Ralph Metzner, PhD, unveils common dynamics and archetypes of the transformative experience, offering seekers and those in the throes of personal or societal transformation a reliable guide.

Drawing from multiple disciplines ranging across the world’s cultures (beginning with his collaborations with Dr. Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert at Harvard University in the early 1960s), Dr. Metzner explores subtle concepts using a tapestry of myth, allegory, and historical context.

The Unfolding Self promises to provide its reader with valuable tools to become "wise, impartial judges" in their process of transformation into becoming a more integrated and fulfilled person. Readers who immerse themselves in these masterful descriptions can catalyze their own process of evolution.\

No comparable psychology of spirituality exists that draws from such a rich lifework of scholarship, experiment, and spiritual practice. Drawing from multiple disciplines and ranging across the world’s cultures, Dr. Metzner goes beyond his roots in transpersonal psychology to uncover universal structures of spiritual transformation. Readers who immerse themselves in these masterful descriptions can catalyze their own process of evolution.

Dionysian Buddhism: Guided Interpersonal Meditations in the Three Yanas will assist readers in exploring their own emotional landscapes. This sequence of guided interpersonal meditations by the renowned spiritual teacher and psychotherapist Dr. Claudio Naranjo is structured to guide individuals towards acceptance of what is and to be fully present -- to meet pain with joy, expand awareness into consciousness and to learn how to share in the full presence of others.

The "Dionysian" context of Buddhism provides a lens in which to interpret non-attachment through non-interference with the stream of life. Naranjo draws on a wide range of Buddhist traditions, from Theravada to Vajrayana, in order to create a work that emphasizes both the experiential and multifaceted aspects of meditation.

As Naranjo, who first wrote Dionysian Buddhism in Spanish and translated it himself into English, says, "Only a change of consciousness might save our world, and that in view of this collective shift in consciousness there is nothing more relevant we can do than start with ourselves."

Handwritten over four years from maximum-security federal prison cells, The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets and Sacraments, is a unique work of psychedelic literature that explores the potential of human cognition. This book follows the narrator, a Harvard graduate student and researcher, as he uncovers an intricate, global psychedelic network through encounters with “the Six,” clandestine LSD chemists who synthesize planetary-scale batches of the substance, traversing states of consciousness and advancing human evolution. 

From Cambridge to Moscow, Oxford to Zürich, Princeton to Mazar-i-Sharif and Bangkok, this book illuminates lifestyles within a rare and elusive organization, one that has evolved special gifts: advanced capacities of thought, memory and perception.

The Rose is a psychedelic biography of its author, William Leonard Pickard, a former Harvard chemist who served 20 years in prison for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute LSD. An excerpt from The Rose was published in The Nature of Drugs: History, Pharmacology, and Social Impact (Synergetic Press, 2021).

One of the documentarians who made a podcast series dedicated to readings of The Rose said of the book, “Other than LSD, it’s quite possibly the most psychedelic thing you’ll ever find on paper.”