This book offers unique insights. Teachings from the Asháninka, Mazatec, Cocama, and the Navajo are recounted, which the author had the fortune to receive while spending extended periods with them. A unique and first-hand perspective of the world of Traditional Indigenous Medicine (TIM) and ayahuasca, and its complex world of plants, purging, and isolation is presented. The importance of spirituality and the need to deal with our past traumas are explored. The most representative authors in fields related to TIM and psychedelics are reviewed, and so are others, relatively unknown but very relevant. Innovative procedures in psychology and medicine are assessed. The School of Psychotherapy, Oxígeme, is also presented. The book analyses the abuse of sacred substances and psychedelic culture, potential positive discoveries, and disturbing contradictions and dangers. This book would appeal to readers ranging from the general public interested in the indigenous worlds, psychology, and spirituality, to more specialized audiences in the fields of anthropology, psychology, medical doctors, and health professionals in general.

Founded in the 1960s, transpersonal psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology that has been dedicated to the study of exceptional human experiences and functioning inclusive of ancient and indigenous spiritual and mystical traditions. While initially holding tremendous promise to expand psychological science and practice beyond the purview of conventional psychology, the field has encountered a variety of challenges that its advocates have recognized as compromising its progress. Among the most pervasive of these challenges has been controversy and disagreement regarding the place of science in transpersonal psychological inquiry and practice. Even though some efforts have been made by scholars in the field to address the challenges, these efforts have been largely piecemeal in nature, involving articles or chapters in books that express the viewpoints of individual scholars without a fulsome consideration of multiple perspectives of people throughout the world who identify as members of the subdiscipline. This book is the first in the history of the field to bring together the voices of respected members of the transpersonal psychological community to specifically discuss the relation of transpersonal psychology to science in order to find ways of helping the subdiscipline move forward in a productive manner. This volume includes invited chapters from a broad array of international experts in transpersonal psychology who proffer interesting and sometimes conflicting perspectives regarding how science fits within the subdiscipline. The book ends with a chapter written by the editors that summarizes and highlights the main points of issue shared by the expert contributors and offers concrete recommendations for how transpersonal psychology can improve itself as a field of inquiry and professional practice.

Limited time offer. In the critically acclaimed The Rope in the Water, Sylvia Fraser described her three-month pilgrimage to India in search of "something larger than myself, something deeper, something more." In The Green Labyrinth, Fraser continues her journey, this time deep into the jungle of the Amazon in the company of shamans, traditional spiritualists practicing ancient rituals. At the heart of Fraser’s quest lies the mind-expanding drug "ayahuasca", a gateway to worlds beyond her own, to a better understanding of the mysteries of existence. Fraser takes us to shamanic sanctuaries that hover at the edge of our modern world, providing a portal to the unknown. Along the way she introduces us to a diverse group of pilgrims searching for their own answers with the help of shamans and ayahuasca. Through meaningful visions and with spiritual guidance, Fraser and her fellow travellers acquire insight into their emotional and psychic lives, and discover that many of the answers they are searching for lie within themselves.

An intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) is a lifelong condition that limits intelligence, learning, and daily life skills. People with IDDs are often not integrated in mainstream society. They have fewer opportunities to participate in recreational activities, hindering their social inclusion, which has the potential to diminish quality of life. As a compassionate society, we must understand how people with IDDs can be socially integrated to ensure their mental health and to maximize their potential so that they can contribute to society in their unique way. Social Inclusion Tactics for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities promotes the social integration of people with IDDs and aims to increase awareness about the lack of opportunities for socialization for people with IDDs. Covering topics such as autism, children with disabilities, and societal inclusion, this book is a valuable resource for organizations, policymakers, academicians, researchers, sociologists, and more.

The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities (PHI) - INTELLIGENCE, CREATIVITY AND FANTASY were compiled with the intent to establish a multidisciplinary platform for the presentation, interaction and dissemination of research. The aim is also to foster the awareness and discussion on the topics of Harmony and Proportion with a focus on different visions relevant to Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Design, Engineering, Social and Natural Sciences, and their importance and benefits for the sense of both individual and community identity. The idea of modernity has been a significant motor for development since the Western Early Modern Age. Its theoretical and practical foundations have become the working tools of scientists, philosophers, and artists, who seek strategies and policies to accelerate the development process in different contexts.

This book brings together ethnographic field research on four permacultural ecovillages in Brazil to highlight the importance of spirituality and ecological epistemologies as key analytical tools. It demonstrates that ecological spirituality can, and should, be understood beyond the dichotomy of personal and political, between people and nature, in the field of environmental anthropology. The book uses a broad philosophical methodology based on the phenomenological theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Tim Ingold and Alfred Schutz combined with post-structuralist conceptions of the relationship between person and world, individual and society. The field research consisted of ethnographic travel, observation and recorded dialogue with individuals based in each ecovillage: Arca Verde, situated in Campos de Cima da Serra; Vrinda Bhumi, a Vaishnava ecovillage in Baependi-MG; Goura Vrindavana, a Vaishnava ecovillage in Paraty-RJ; and Muriqui Assu Ecovillage Project, a secular ecovillage in Niterói-RJ. Throughout the book ethnographic research is woven together with poetic interludes, images, personal narrative experience and phenomenological theory, bringing a new understanding and approach to environmental anthropology as a discipline. Including a Preface written by Tim Ingold, it will appeal to academics, researchers and upper-level students in phenomenology, environmental philosophy, environmental anthropology, religious studies and social sciences more broadly.

A clinical psychiatrist explores the effects of DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. • A behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of psychedelic research. • Provides a unique scientific explanation for the phenomenon of alien abduction experiences. From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted U.S. Government-approved and funded clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected sixty volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. His detailed account of those sessions is an extraordinarily riveting inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical found in the psychedelic Amazon brew, ayahuasca, is also manufactured by the human brain. In Strassman's volunteers, it consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences. Many reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman presences, aliens, angels, and spirits. Nearly all felt that the sessions were among the most profound experiences of their lives. Strassman's research connects DMT with the pineal gland, considered by Hindus to be the site of the seventh chakra and by Rene Descartes to be the seat of the soul. DMT: The Spirit Molecule makes the bold case that DMT, naturally released by the pineal gland, facilitates the soul's movement in and out of the body and is an integral part of the birth and death experiences, as well as the highest states of meditation and even sexual transcendence. Strassman also believes that "alien abduction experiences" are brought on by accidental releases of DMT. If used wisely, DMT could trigger a period of remarkable progress in the scientific exploration of the most mystical regions of the human mind and soul.

For the initiated, Exploring the Labyrinth provides a much-needed context and history for their spiritual practices and beliefs; for the novice it introduces a rich and exciting world of new spiritual research and experimentation; for the sceptic it offers an overview of the respectable philosophical and scientific traditions that form the basis of the new spirituality.

Tahir Shah sets out to discover whether the Incas really did fly above the jungles of Peru. Even for a traveller used to surreal adventures, there are many strange encounters - gruesome but often hilarious - before Tahir Shah at last discovers the truth about the Birdmen of Peru.

Since the mid-1950s, the psychoactive compound DMT has attracted the attention of experimentalists and prohibitionists, scientists and artists, alchemists and hyperspace emissaries. While most known as a crucial component of the “jungle alchemy” that is ayahuasca, DMT is a unique story unto itself. Until now, this story has remained untold. Mystery School in Hyperspace is the first book to delve into the history of this substance, the discovery of its properties, and the impact it has had on poets, artists, and musicians. DMT has appeared at crucial junctures in countercultural history. William Burroughs was jacking the spice in Tangier at the turn of the 1960s. It was present at the meeting between Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and Tim Leary's associates. It guided the inception of the Grateful Dead in 1965. It showed up in Berkeley in the same year, falling into the hands of Terence McKenna, who would eventually become its champion in the post-rave neo-psychedelic movement of the 1990s. Its indole vapor drifted through Portugal's Boom Festival and has been evident at Nevada's Burning Man, where DMT has been adopted as spiritual technology supplying shape, color, and depth to a visionary art movement. The growing prevalence of use is evident in a vast networked independent research culture, and in its impact on fiction, film, music and metaphysics. As this book traces the effect of DMT's release into the cultural bloodstream, the results should be of great interest to contemporary readers. The book permits a broad reading audience to join ongoing debates in studies in consciousness and theology where the brain is held to be either a generator or a receiver of consciousness. The implications of the "spirit molecule" or "the brain's own psychedelic" among other theories illustrate that DMT may lift the lid on the Pandora's Box of consciousness. Features a foreword by Dennis McKenna, cover art by Beau Deeley, and thirty color illustrations by various artists, including Alex Grey, Android Jones, Martina Hoffmann, Luke Brown, Carey Thompson, Adam Scott Miller, Randal Roberts, along with Jay Bryan, Cyb, Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule, Art Van D'lay, Stuart Griggs, Jay Lincoln, Gwyllm Llwydd, Shiptu Shaboo, Marianna Stelmach, and Mister Strange. Regarded as the “nightmare hallucinogen” or celebrated as the “spirit molecule,” labelled “psychotogenic” or “entheogenic,” considered a dangerous drug or the suspected X-factor in the evolution of consciousness, DMT is a powerful enigma. Documenting the scientists and artists drawn into its sphere of influence, navigating the liminal aesthetics of the “breakthrough” experience, tracing the novum of “hyperspace” in esoteric and science fiction currents, Mystery School in Hyperspace excavates the significance of this enigmatic phenomenon in the modern world. Exposing a great many myths, this cultural history reveals how DMT has had a beneficial influence on the lives of those belonging to a vast underground network whose reports and initiatives expose drug war propaganda and shine a light in the shadows. This conversation is highly relevant at a time when significant advances are being made to lift the moratorium on human research with psychedelics.