Welcome to the Psychedelic Bookstore 1

Albert Hoffman strongly believes LSD can be a beneficial way for one to get to know oneself
and experience other worlds, but only if the user is mentally and physically prepared for the journey.

I have attempted to create a bookstore that features the pioneers and visionaries
that have promoted the use of psychedelics to open the "Doors of Perception."
It seems after my research that this is a most "under studied" area
of transpersonal psychology, human behavior, therapeutic studies and methodolgies and escaping the "Matrix"
-partly due to the demonizing and the illegality of these mind expanding gifts from Nature.

So please enjoy this montage of authors, scientists, scholars, psychologists and "interior explorers."

There are more "psychedelic explorers" in our Beat Generation Bookstore
-Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, and many others.

Also visit our Cannabis Bookstore for more information on "higher consciousness."

60s & Further does endorse the safe use of psychedelics..
especially the organic variety gifted to us from Gaia.
I also highly suggest that if you have never "tripped" that you should absolutely
find a guide famliar with the process of mind expansion-
-also be in a friendly and safe environment (Nature is always the perfect place),
these 2 factors, I believe, are imperative to be able to learn from your experience and integrate the experience
into your consciousness and life..your perception of your own Divinity and Potentialities.

I also have attempted to present books and theories of "what we do after we have opened the doors to perception"
and our Higher Selves..books that will point us to new directions of Be-Ing-thinking and creating our own realities.

I also have presented books on Shamanism which are important to consider as that is what we are practising-
as recognizing the healing possibilities and the sacredness of what Nature has offered us. Om Shanti, Shakti, Om

For titles and authors on Shamanism please visit the:
Healing Arts Bookstore!

For Ram Dass Books Visit:
Spiritual Teachers Bookstore

Dr. Timothy Leary Tribute

We DO NOT Endorse the Abuse or Chronic Use of
Methedrine, Cocaine (Crack), Heroin, Synthetic opiates, Barbituates and Alcohol .

If you have any questions on the use of psychedelics please Email me
or if you are having a difficult time withdrawing or stopping the abuse of the harder substances.
I will try to help you or find help for you.

In Peace
LionHeart

September 2006

'Leap of Faith' © Mark Henson

The Consciousness Revolution
"...the human mind can be either used for freedom or slavery.
The choice is up to us..."

What the Bleep Do We Know! (2004)
Starring: Marlee Matlin, Elaine Hendrix Director: William Arntz, Betsy Chasse
What the Bleep Do We Know!? blends interviews with scientists, neurobiologists, quantum physicists, and a 35,000 year old being with live action and wondrous special effects. Oscar winner Marlee Matlin plays a jaded photographer named Amanda who falls down a metaphysical rabbit hole. Through a series of mind-bending events, Amanda is forced to confront what she thought was reality-as well as the source of her boredom, anxiety, and self-contempt.

"God must be greater than the greatest of human weaknesses and, indeed, the greatest of human skill. God must even transcend our most remarkable-to emulate nature in its absolute splendor. How can any man or woman sin against such greatness of mind? How can one little carbon unit on Earth-in the backwaters of the Milky Way, the boondocks-betray God almighty? That is impossible. The height of arrogance is the height of control of those who create God in their own image."

Whether you agree with the ideas presented in the movie is not the point. If individuals at least contemplate an alternative perspective-then this movie will have succeeded. What the Bleep Do We Know!? doesn't tell you what to think, but simply offers ideas and theories for your consideration. At the very least, it opens up a dialogue between people. And, perhaps, if people start talking to one another-especially about concepts like reality, God, spirituality, choice, and human potential-there will be enough cracks in individual and collective assumptions to make way for ideas never before considered as possible since the 60s & 70s.

The Consciousness Revolution
by Ervin Laszlo, Stanislav Grof, Peter Russell
In The Consciousness Revolution, three pioneers at the cutting-edge of Western thought reflect on the chances of peace in the world, on how society is changing, and on the changes we can make in ourselves. They consider the roles of art, science, education, goals and values, world views, religion, spirituality and, above all, consciousness - for the state of our consciousness is the key issue underlying almost everything else.

As Ken Wilber asks in his Foreword, what does it all finally come down to? Peter Russell puts it like this: 'Each little bit counts we are all part of the same ground-swell. The most important question we need to ask is how can I put my own life in greater alignment with that ground-swell? How can I do my little one-hundred-thousandth worth to facilitate that shift a bit further?'

These intense and memorable discussions among three of the finest minds of our time convey a sense of excitement and passion which we can carry forward in our own lives. The Consciousness Revolution is an essential guide to how our map of reality is changing in the midst of the global transformation going on in all parts of the world and in every sphere of life, in us and around us.

The Quiet Center
by John C., Md. Lilly, Phillip Bailey Lilly, Tom Robbins (Foreword)
In today’s world, many people seek shelter from the stresses and stimuli of everyday life as a way to reconnect with their inner reality. Scientist John C. Lill, whose work inspired the films Day of the Dolphin and Altered States, devised the perfect means of finding serene self-awareness: the isolation experience. The Quiet Center presents the core of Lilly’s groundbreaking isolation experiments and the path to higher consciousness. As a leader in consciousness research, Lilly, like his peers Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, and Carlos Castaneda, should be read by a new generation seeking to discover truth about themselves. By learning to create their own isolation space, readers will discover the healing powers of the "quiet center." Photos and illustrations are included.

One Foot in the Future
by Nina Graboi
One Foot in the Future: A Woman's Spiritual Journey. One woman's odyssey from the center of Nazi Europe to the center of the Acid Age and beyond. This is an extraordinary tale of humor and hope writ large on the canvas of the 20th Century.
Born December 8, 1918 in Vienna, Austria, and died in December of 1999 in Santa Cruz, California

The Psychedelic Reader:
Selected from the Psychedelic Review
by Gunther M. Weil, Ralph Metzner, Timothy Leary (Editor)
This book contains the works of many of the pioneers of the psychedelic revolution not to be found anywhere else. While I read this several years ago, I am left with the impression that this one of the best sources of both scientific and/or spiritual writings by some of the greatest minds to survey the outer limits of the human psyche in one volume. Well worth the price. Get yours before it goes out of print!-morninglory-

Cleansing the Doors of Perception :
The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemical
by Huston Smith
Religion scholar and "missionary kid" Smith discovered psychedelic drugs in good company, alongside Timothy Leary and the crowd at Harvard that experimented with LSD, mescaline and psilocybin in the 1960s. In Cleansing the Doors of Perception (the title a play on Aldous Huxley's cult classic The Doors of Perception), Smith argues that while psychedelics can illuminate the religious life, these drugs can not induce religious lives. Therefore, Smith concludes, religion must be more than "a string of experiences." If drugs cannot replace religion, however, they can aid the religious life, when psychedelics are used in the context of a larger religious commitment,as with the Native American use of peyote. But this provocative inquiry into the relationship between drugs and religion is overshadowed by Smith's unreflective strolls down memory lane such as his description of the Good Friday experiment of 1962, when a group of Harvardites popped psychedelics and attended Good Friday services. Smith says it was one of the most spiritually meaningful days of his life. Partly because of such reflections, his book, which includes many previously published essays and interviews, does not hang together. The reader skips from Smith's musings about John Humphrey Noyes to a case study of Hindu drug use to a bizarre comparison of Leary and the church historian Tertullian. In the acknowledgements, Smith thanks the Council on Spiritual Practices for encouraging him to gather all his essays on drugs into one volume.

The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience :
The Classic Guide to the Effects of LSD on the Human Psyche
by Robert Masters, Jean Houston
If "The Doors Of Perception" was the most important work on psychedelics because of its influence, this then is by far the greatest because of its impeccable research, its far-ranging implications and its clear, lucid and compelling putting together of the evidence for the remarkable therapeutic and consciousness-illuminating value of LSD and other psychedelics (principally peyote). They don't, however, proselitize, and this is much to their credit. In fact, they go to some lengths to inform the reader that an active pro-drugs "for the sake of drugs" mindset is fraught with peril, and do so in a way that is both impartial and learned.
They're at their best, however, in their extraordinary recounting of the psychedelic experiences they conducted themselves as guides. There are so many instances where the subject, usually a person with a very intense psychological or emotional problem, arrived at a life-changing breakthrough, that it lingers long in the mind.

Dr. Timothy Leary
1920 - 1996

Timothy Francis Leary was born is Springfield, Massachusetts in 1920. He attended West Point in the early '40s (where he didn't exactly fit in) and then served in the military during WWII. He earned his PhD in psychology from U.C. Berkeley and taught there briefly but moved to Harvard after his first wife's death. He first took psilocybin mushrooms in 1960 during a trip to Mexico. When he returned to Harvard he began the Harvard Psilocybin Project, studying the effects of psilocybin on humans. As part of the project he, along with Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner, gave psilocybin to a series of volunteers including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Arthur Koestler, among others.

Leary was a respected Harvard psychology professor who became a guru for hundreds of thousands of people, espousing the use of the powerful hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering drugs as a means of brain change. After he was forced out of academia, Leary became associated with many of the great names of the time including Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Charles Mingus. In the mid-1960s his fame grew to international proportions. He was targeted as "the most dangerous man in the world" by the U.S. government and given a 10-year sentence for possession of two marijuana cigarettes. After he was released from prison, he continued to advocate brain-change through various means including computer software.

He acted in a number of movies, and was well-regarded as a stand-up comedian/philosopher. Leary became interested in virtual reality and cyberculture and spent the last twenty years of his life writing and lecturing. He worked with a group of friends to document his own process of dying from prostate cancer. He died quietly in his own bed, surrounded by friends, and on Feb 9 1997, a portion of Leary's cremated remains were launched into space.

Please Visit our NEW!
Tribute to Timothy Leary

Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of
American Psychedelianism Recension of 1997
by Art Kleps
Currently Out of Print--but keep Checking..
There are books, and then there are STORIES made into BOOKS. This book is one of the greatest STORIES ever told. ... WHY? ... Because there is NOTHING more important in this world than spiritual enlightenment that can lead to ultimate spiritual liberation - and that is the truth. MILLBROOK is a book that, if read with an open mind and with an open heart, will bring you ever so closer to understanding what enlightenment is all about. Gaining that understanding - which can lead to enlightenment and the transcendence of illusion - is of great value in any day and age.

Reading MILLBROOK will most definitely increase your understanding of enlightenment; no small feat. ... It will not guarantee that you will become enlightened, which is the negation of illusion ( and NOT the aquisition of ANYTHING! ), but it WILL bring you closer. Along the way, you will be entertained by one of the most glorious, interesting, and humorous bunch of characters you will ever come across in the world of literature. ... Trust me! If you read this book, you will love it so much that you will not only want to read all four versions of it, but you will also want to read THE BOO HOO BIBLE and every remaining issue of DIVINE TOAD SWEAT available in existence before you will be satisfied that you have a full and clear understanding of the writings of Art Kleps; a true, modern, American philosopher if we ever had one. ... I am sorry he dropped his body before I had the chance to have a true conversation with him face to face." - The Aeolian Kid-

The Psychedelic Experience:
A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert, Karma-Glin-Pa
Easily one of the most comprehensive and detailed set of rules that accounts for organized chaos in situations where you may or may not expect order. Written by brilliant minds, with passages from ancient phylosophies, this book will give you direction in times of despair or insecure feelings. All of this due to the expansion of the mind through whatever means you decide, it will apease the anxious mind that rests or is restless within you.

The brilliant reinterpretation of the Bardo Thodol as a guide for premortem ego death and the interpretation of numerous aspects of eastern mysticism in general in the light of Leary's "Game of Life" theory (e.g. "heavy world game playing" interpretations of "karma") makes the meaning of these ancient mystic teachings readily accessible to the mind of the western psychonaut.

If you're a psychonaut and want to better understand your experiences, read this book. If everybody who wanted to try a psychoactive substance would first read this book, there would probably never again be anybody who would have what s/he would call a "horror trip" (unless the heavy game players don't understand what they're reading and insist on taking the substances anyway.)
Read it and weep.
Wishing you Good Journeys,
-erasurehead-

Your Brain Is God
by Timothy Leary
This collection of essays describes the psychological journey Timothy Leary made in the years following his dismissal from Harvard, as his psychedelic research moved from the scientific to the religious arena. He discusses the nature of religious experience and eight crafts of God, including God as hedonic artist. Leary also examines the Tibetan, Buddhist, and Taoist experiences. In the final chapters, he explores man as god and LSD as sacrament.

Change Your Brain
by Timothy Leary
This book tells the inside story of Leary's early LSD research at Harvard. Known throughout the world as the guru who encouraged an entire generation to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," he draws on wit, humor, and skepticism to debunk the power of psychotherapy and to advocate reprogramming the brain with psychedelics. Discussing how various drugs affect the brain, how to change behavior, and how to develop creativity, he also delves into psychopharmacological catalyzing, fear of potential, symbol and language imprinting, and brain reimprinting with Hinduism, Buddhism, and LSD.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
by Timothy Leary
"That intermediate manifestation of the divine process which we call the DNA code has spent the last 2 billion years making this planet a Garden of Eden."
Touching on topics ranging from religion, education, and politics to Aldous Huxley, neurology, and psychedelic drugs, the poem and ten vintage essays collected here articulate Timothy Leary's freewheeling, freedom-loving philosophy of life.

High Priest
by Timothy Leary
There is far too much information to relate here, the book is enlightening.
All together 16 trips or stories along with various quotes from magazine articles, short thoughts, to excerpts from other books from Ginsberg, Hollingshead, Wasson, Walter Houston Clark, Huxley and others make this book not only informative, but really do capture what is intended to be conveyed - the mystical- religious - subjective - internal - experiential - magical/irrational experience of psychedelics and most importantly, their beneficial use in social, psychological, ontological, neurological, rehabilitative, and spiritual uses. There is no doubt in my mind as to the benefits of psychedelics for the human race. His style is very unique in that especially in a series of short stories, he can in essence connect them, just as he does in his life with situations. He uses a very intense tone, and style becomes rapid as he submerges into a hallucinogenic state, almost as if you where there with him.

The Politics of Ecstasy
by Timothy Leary
Read Timothy Leary. Marvel at his excitement for life, join him in the mind & soul rebellion against flaccid governments and soul controlling religions and their warped politics and dissapointing creeds both of which are more than happy to think and decide for you, laugh in joyful relief that you are not a body with a soul, but you are a soul with a body,and be willing to stray from the pack of lemmings that's headed for the edge of the cliff only to drown in the shallow seas of mediocrity.
Open your eyes.
Open your mind.
Open your soul.
Open your heart.
Open this book and let the tingling in each of your 40 trillion cells remind you are here to do more than exist,
you are here to LIVE and to LIVE WELL.
Peace & Blessings to this this place we call the world.
-John Morgan-

Psychedelic Prayers & Other Meditations
by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner (Introduction)
Translated "from English to psychedelese" in 1965, these 56 poems were inspired by the Tao Te Ching (Way of Life), ancient spiritual writings of Taoist philosopher Lao Tsu. Leary believed Tsu's writings would serve as an excellent guidebook for psychedelic sessions, so--armed with nine English translations--he sat under a tree in India and attempted to distill the works' essential meanings (from a drug-induced perspective, of course).
As meditation is to Eastern spiritual traditions, psychedelic drugs were to Timothy Leary. The counterculture guru encouraged people to transcend ego-centered perspectives of ordinary human consciousness, go beyond the dualities of right and wrong, and liberate themselves from their limitations. The Tao Te Ching fit these purposes quite well, he thought, and Ralph Metzner, who wrote the book's introduction, agrees: "These meditations on the art and science of consciousness expansion are serene, sensuous, funny and wise. They are among the most inspired writings by one of the outstanding visionary geniuses of the 20th century."

Flashbacks
by Timothy Leary
This work is my favorite autobiography. Leary really starts at the very beginning (exceptionally humorously) with his conception in his mother's womb and takes you through his early years as a student, his time at Harvard as an esteemed academic and then up through his "retirement" years as a stand up comedian/raconteur and lecturer.
Each chapter is nicely designed with a mini bio of someone who had impressed Leary and then continues with Leary's take on the various events in his life. There is much self-disclosure here in the form of admitting mistakes, something you certainly do not find a lot of in many autobiographies of conservatives!

Leary's writing is lively, intelligent and hopeful -
a friendly warning to all drug warriors
that it is possible to live a productive, intellectually fruitful life
while participating in moderate psychedelic "research" and consumption. -Brian Wallace-

Start Your Own Religion
by Timothy Leary
The articles in Start Your Own Religion, written at the height of the psychedelic era, embody Timothy Leary's core philosophy - unlimited personal freedom. Encouraging the youth of the 1960s to return to the temple of God - their own bodies - and live consciously in the here-and-now, Leary's ideas, including urging people to turn on, tune in, drop out, brought him legions of devoted followers and a host of enemies in the American government. Irreverent yet thought provoking, the ideas that revolutionized an earlier generation remain motivational principles.

Politics of Self-Determination
by Timothy Leary
Visionary Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary became the charismatic leader of the '60s counterculture. Remembered as a pioneer of research and experimentation with psychedelic substances, he was also an author, lecturer, political dissident, and media magnet whose wit and charm captured the world's attention. In this collection of essays from Leary's early career, he presents his concept of personal responsibility for the effects of one's behavior.

According to Leary, self-determining people don't blame their parents, their race, or their society; they accept responsibility for their actions, which in turn determines the responses they get from the world. These writings had an enormous impact on the humanistic psychology movement and libertarian redefinition of the doctor-patient relationship. Ronin's new offering gives readers a fascinating glimpse into Leary's ground-breaking work in this area.

Intelligence Agents
by Timothy Leary
A work of social, moral, religious and scientific satire, including articles by and about people who are changing the meaning of freedom all over the world. The fifth and final volume of Dr. Leary's 'Future History Series.' Lots of fun pictures and ideas for your brain.

Chaos & Cyber Culture
by Timothy Leary, Michael Horowitz, Vicki Marshall
The great visionary and psychedelic guru of the 1960s is back. Leary's "cyberpunk manifesto" explores the relationship between the eternal philosophy of chaos and the future of cutting-edge technology. Here, he focuses his attention less on psychedelic excursions and more on "cyberdelic" trips into the uncharted reaches of "Cyberia," extolling the PC as the LSD of the 1990s. This is a fascinating collection of mostly previously published material from a variety of sources, printed and electronic. In one essay, Leary discusses the rapid acceleration of knowledge in our new, technology-based information society.

He says the only way to understand and keep up is to accelerate brain function and suggests three possible solutions based on religion (since the apocalypse is inevitable, the only thing to do is pray), politics (grab what you can and protect what you've got), and science (increase intelligence, expand your consciousness, and surf the waves of chaotic change). The message here is that the future continues to spin faster and wilder and that we must therefore position our thinking toward multiplicity, complexity, relativity, and change. An important purchase for most libraries.
Joe Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib.

Musings on Human Metamorphoses
by Timothy Leary
In these collected essays, Timothy Leary explains his belief that humans are morphing into space beings. He describes eight circuits of human metamorphosis, analyzing in depth the consciousness — and its purpose — manifested by each change. Fifteen chapters cover a range of topics from "Spinning Up the Genetic Highway" to "Neurogeography of Terrestrial Politics" to "Twelve Stages of Post-Cultural Evolution." In each of these insightful pieces the author describes the complicated psychological metamorphosis that precedes the launch of humans into space beings. This collection of Leary’s early work at his imaginative and provocative best had an enormous impact on psychology and the humanist movement.

Aldous Huxley
(1894-1963)

Aldous Huxley was a novelist and essayist, born in Godalming, Surrey, England, the grandson of T.H. Huxley. He studied at Oxford, where he published two volumes of poetry. He lived mainly in Italy in the 1920s, (where he met and befriended D.H. Lawrence) and moved to California in 1937. His early writing included poetry, short stories, and literary journalism, but his reputation was made with his novels Crome Yellow, Antic Hay, and Brave New World. He was a philosopher and non-conformist who used writing as a vehicle for his ideas. His later writing became more mystical in character, culminating in Island, the story of an optimistic utopia.

In May 1953, Huxley was introduced to mescaline by Humphry Osmond, an experience he described in his book The Doors of Perception. Two years later, in 1955, he was introduced to LSD by Al Hubbard. Huxley had a great interest in the process of death and dying as well as in the mental states achieved through psychedelic drugs. When his first wife Maria was dying of cancer in 1955, he used hypnotic techniques to talk her through the memory of ecstatic experiences she had earlier in life. Then in 1963, at his request, his second wife and partner Laura Huxley administer LSD to him hours before his own death.

The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell
by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley took some mescaline and wrote about it some 10 or 12 years earlier than those others. The book he came up with is part bemused essay and part mystical treatise--"suchness" is everywhere to be found while under the influence. This is a good example of essay writing, journal keeping, and the value of controversy--always--in one's work.

Two classic complete books -- The Doors of Perception (originally published in 1954) and Heaven and Hell (originally published in 1956) -- in which Aldous Huxley, author of the bestselling Brave New World, explores, as only he can, the mind's remote frontiers and the unmapped areas of human consciousness. These two astounding essays are among the most profound studies of the effects of mind-expanding drugs written in the twentieth century. These two books became essential for the counterculture during the 1960s and influenced a generation's perception of life.

Moksha:
Aldous Huxley's Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience
by Aldous Huxley, Michael Horowitz (Editor), Cynthia Palmer (Editor)
Aldous Huxley was clearly a man ahead of his time: imagine an English intellectual in the 1940's writing about mecaline and LSD, how they relate to psychology, sociology and religion in modern times.

This was not a cult leader or an Edgar Cayce/Aleister Crowley sort of philosopher: his essays were published in periodicals as varied as the Saturday Evening Post and Playboy Magazine (!). He was one of the ultimate explorers of the mind. Many of his thoughts from the 40's and the 50's still sound as relevant today as the day they were written.
His timeless thoughts are his genius. I recommend this book highly.-Andy7-

This volume brings together selections from Huxley's Brave New World, Doors Of Perception, Heaven And Hell and Island, as well as magazine articles, letters, lectures and scientific papers. It also includes writings by Timothy Leary, Laura Huxley and Dr. Humphry Osmond. Leary's interesting account of a 1960 meeting with Huxley at Cambridge is titled Mushrooms For Lunch, whilst the same year's Harvard Sessions is a report of a psylocybin session where Huxley took part in a group experiment. Other very thought provoking chapters include Dr. Humphry Osmond's May Morning In Hollywood and Huxley's own Disregarded In The Darkness, Doors, Mescalin, Heaven And Hell and Brave New World Revisited. But the highlights of the book are Laura Huxley's 1962 account of her husband in a psychedelic state and especially her moving account of his illness and death, titled Nobly Born.

Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the practices and gadgets we take for granted today--let's hope the sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren't yet to come.

Island
by Aldous Huxley
...Huxley was a man of depth. I would recommend this book to spiritual seekers and open-minded intellectuals who would like to consider the ways in which our social structure could be improved.
Huxley gives us a lot to ponder in his "utopian" schemata. His satirical and humorous protagonist, Farnaby, was hilarious. His snide comments and thoughts made me laugh out loud at times. I felt Huxley's writing style was much clearer and more accessible than A Brave New World and as a result I liked Island much better. Island reflects a great deal of cynicism about America and the world. Huxley attacks, among other things (1) consumerism; (2) the cold war ideology of both the capitalistic west and the socialist east; (3) religious suppression of the right of others to develop and practice their own sexual and other "private" mores and the use of the state to further this suppression; (4) violence and militarism clothed in religion, progress (technological and moral), and so called freedom; (5) political and social corruption of corporatism and the power of corporations and those that control them to use their resources for political power.

Ralph Metzner

Ralph Metzner has been exploring states of consciousness for more than fourty years. He earned his B.A. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard in 1962. In 1964 he co-authored The Psychedelic Experience with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert.

He served as the academic dean of the California Institute of Integral Studies from 1979-1988. He is now a psychotherapist and professor at CIIS, where he teaches courses on altered states of consciousness and green or eco-psychology. He is co-founder and president of the Green Earth Foundation, an educational organization devoted to the healing and harmonizing of the relations between humanity and the Earth.

The Unfolding Self:
Varieties of Transformative Experience
by Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner, psychotherapist, academic, seeker and author of six books, shares his lifetime of research and experienced realizations in The Unfolding Self. The title says it all; the transformational aspects from various cultures is explained and brought alive with Metzner's even handed and thoughtful writing. He describes the unfolding of the self from the symbolic to the real. Myths, legends and magic sparkle in this coherent work that describes the various avenues of the heroic journey to awareness. In the chapter "Captivity to Liberation" he writes, "We must realize that we are in a trap or a labyrinth; that our character and body are armored and constricted; that there are knots and nets in various areas of our consciousness and our life. If I don't perceive my imprisonment, my boundedness and limitation, there is really no motivation for change." He writes of the reward waiting, when we are motivated to change, "When, through the process and practice of transformation, we no longer experience ourselves as victims of our fate, we can become masters of our destiny." In the end, Metzner reveals the unity of myths, beliefs and traditions characteristic of the ultimate transformation, which is wholeness and connectedness to all things. He has explained the journey and shown us the signposts. All we have to do is pack!

Sacred Mushroom of Visions:
Teonanácatl: A Sourcebook on the Psilocybin Mushroom
by Ralph Metzner
"A compilation of scientific information, historical lore, and experiential reports about the magical psilocybe mushrooms. . . . It is sure to be treasured for years to come."
"An outstanding comprehensive gathering of vital information from the psychedelic world."
Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanácatl describes the experiences of psychoactive mushroom users and how the use of the psilocybe mushroom spread from Mexico to North America, Asia, and Europe. Firsthand accounts of the controversial Harvard Psilocybin Project, the use of psilocybin in psychotherapy, and current studies on the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are provided.

Green Psychology:
Transforming our Relationship to the Earth
by Ralph Metzner, Ralph, Ph.D. Metzner
If we could name the greatest environmental threat that we face, it wouldn't be the depletion of the ozone or even of the world's natural resources. In fact, it would be the depletion of the human spirit, according to ecopsychologist Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. And how did this catastrophe come about? It all happened when the religions of Western civilization were no longer based on living harmoniously with the earth. Once Western religions began to seek dominance instead of partnership with nature, we created a pathology that led to a massive destruction of the human spirit and a frightening worship of consumerism to fill the void. Simply put, by disrespecting and destroying the earth, we are disrespecting and destroying what sustains the human spirit, explains Metzner.
Although the perils of disconnecting from nature are well written and researched, this is not a book of doom and gloom. In fact, Metzner has accomplished an extremely well-written and thoroughly hopeful book. The final chapters suggest numerous solutions. Metzner also points to encouraging signs, such as the new wave of ecofeminism, as evidence of our ability to return to the earth--once again bonding spirit with nature. --Gail Hudson--

Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca
by Ralph Metzner
Many physicians and psychologists have acknowledged that Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic Amazonian plant mixture, can allow access to spiritual dimensions of consciousness.  In Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca, Ralph Metzner provides an exploration by leading scholars in the field of psychoactive research, of the chemical, biological, psychological, and experiential dimensions of ayahuasca. 

Ayahuasca: Human Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature
by Ralph, Ph.D. Metzner (Editor), J. C., Ph.D. Callaway (Editor),
Charles S., M.D. Grob (Editor), Dennis J., Ph.D. McKenna
Ayahuasca is a tea made from two plants found, until recently, only in the Amazon basin. Indigenous people of the region have used it for medicinal and shamanic purposes since time immemorial. In the last century, it has been ceremonially incorporated by polyglot Christian/goddess religions springing up in Brazil and by seekers on the margins of consciousness exploration. In this book, Metzner, a hallucinogenic and mystical experience researcher for over 35 years, has compiled essays and journal-type writings from a wide assortment of people who have experienced its divinity-evoking effects--28 scientists, psychologists, chemists, curious laypeople, and practitioners of these religions. While uneven in literary ability, each contributor provides an insightful peek behind the curtain of an experience that until now has been shrouded in tribal secrecy and cult ritual--truly an adventure into the Amazon of the mind. --Randall Cohan
Ever since the "consciousness revolution" in the 1960s, dedicated spiritual seekers and scientific researchers from all continents have explored the world of psychoactive and hallucinogenic plants. In Ayahuasca, objective scientific information and the narratives of ayahuasca users -- shamans and others -- are presented together. Readers will also learn the pharmacology of this Amazonian plant.

Robert Anton Wilson
1932-NEVER

One of the most profound and important scientific philosophers of this century, Wilson has written many important works of fiction and non-fiction. His vast intelligence and sharp wit are sufficient to shock and enlighten the most heavily imprinted domesticated primate nervous system.

Ironically, considering Wilson has long lampooned and criticized new age beliefs, his books can often be found in bookstores specializing in new age material.

In a 2003 interview with High Times magazine, RAW described himself as a "Model Agnostic" which he says "consists of never regarding any model or map of Universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial. Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory."

RAW holds the post of American director of the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal (CSICON).

Prometheus Rising
by Robert Anton Wilson
In Promethues Rising, Robert Anton Wilson tells you how to alter your brain in a positive fashion. He teaches you to see the world differently, though not neccasarily his way. What he has done is written a book which demonstrates how the human mind can be either used for freedom or slavery. The choice is up to us.
Using Leary's model of the Eight Circuit nervous system Wilson explain such things as patriotism, brainwashing, and morality. He then systematically shows you how to brainwash yourself for fun and profit. The exercises are the main benefit of the book. This is taking into account all the uselful information he provides on each circuit, along with corespondences to the Tarot and James Joyce.
Wilson's hopeful outlook and crazy sense of humor keep the book moving through material that could, in the hands of a less skillfull writer, be hard to wade through. The only danger is that some readers might mistake his light hearted approach as a sign that he can't be taken seriously.
Really, the world has gone through enough blunders and attempt to change it "for the better". The answer is to change yourself first, then reach out to others. This book is one way of beginning that process.

Reality Is What You Can Get Away With
by Robert Anton Wilson
Here are images of our culture's absurdities, injustices, violence and desires, shot at you in a machine-gun-like assault on your senses and intellect. The result is hilarious, chilling and irrevocably mind-altering --- a left-brain/right-brain challenge ... a consciousness-raising experience filled with laughter, rage --- and truth.

Sex and Drugs:
A Journey Beyond Limits
by Robert Anton, Wilson
R. A. Wilson's early book on secret orders of the old and drugs of today. Mystics and psychedelics, cops and addicts. Promiscuity and frigidity. All of these are taken into account, which is definately a scholarly look into the world of drugs and whether or not they are dangerous as well as the uses for them and their user intentions. Each chapter looks in depth into a different drug, there are 5 main drugs: LSD, Cocaine, Alcohol, Marijuana, and Heroin. After each chapter there is a story that gives a personal account of someone RAW met whom had troubles with dugs, either of addiction or some other problem that drugs helped or caused damage. Overall its an objective look into drugs, although Wilson gives some hints that he is pro-drugs (by the fact that he himslef clearly states his use of drugs). However, like Leary and Crowley, the use of drugs should be used moderately, intelligently and with a guide.
In Sex and Drugs, Wilson shows how drugs have been used along with sex through the ages as paths to mystical experience. He then demonstrates how the current "war on drugs", is really a holy war between different factions of drug users. He details many experiences of people whose lifes have been changed, for good and bad, by the use of drugs.

Quantum Psychology:
How Brain Software Programs You and Your World
by Robert Anton Wilson
this book is a MUST read for anyone wanting to start getting rid of the semantic spooks in their psyche. This undefinable book of wisdom that weaves a coherent thesis out of such diverse topics as semantics, psychology, physics, model agnosticism and subtle humor makes clear better than anything out there just how much our perceptions and behavior are controlled/influenced by embedded language biases. Just learning to write in e-prime (english without the word "is") makes the book a worthwhile experience. Quantum Psychology opened me to a whole new way of thinking and perceiving, and that is something I can say but very few other books. I truly had no idea the robotizing effect language has on our behavior and perceptions--its not a discovery you can be "told"--you must experience it through the exercises in this book.