hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience

"A groundbreaking, controversial dive into the role psychedelics have played in the human experience of the Divine throughout Western history, and the answer to a 2,000 year old mystery that could shake the Church to its foundations"--Provided by publisher.

"Explores the discovery, invention, science, and people behind today's major psychotropic drugs, from the earliest, Thorazine and Lithium, through Prozac and Ecstasy, to today's most cutting-edge memory drugs and neural implants"--OCLC.

Discusses the medicinal uses of various plants and the practices of primitive and contemporary societies such as initiation rites, witchcraft, and medicine men.

Presents an examination of the Mayan prophecy of the year 2012 and its anticipation of a unprecedented global shift, providing information on indigenous cosmology, shamanism, crop circles, and more.

Presents the lessons of Yaqui Indian sorcerer Don Juan Matus on how to "stop the world, " his term for achieving certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered.

The author discusses his experiences as an apprentice to Yaqui sorcerer don Juan, during which he sometimes used hallucinogenic drugs in an attempt to learn to see, or perceive the essence of the things of the world.

Don Juan concludes Castaneda's leesons in the sorcerer's art with a dazzling series of visions.