The Psilocybin Solution: The Role of Sacred Mushrooms in the Quest for Meaning
“Simon G. Powell has crafted a magnificent, multifaceted argument for the reintegration of psychedelics into science, culture, psychotherapy, and religion to inspire our unbalanced species before we ‘push the biosphere into total decline.’The Psilocybin Solutionpersuasively illuminates the profound social value of large numbers of people experiencing communion with and direct personal perception of Nature as a single system of self-organizing intelligence. A massive accomplishment!” (Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studi)“This book provides a clear and up-to-date picture of what goes on in the brain during the visionary psilocybin experience. The author’s intrepid speculations, centering on information as the fundamental stuff of the universe, are clearly signposted. The writing is lucid and a joy to behold, an important contribution.” (Jeremy Narby, anthropologist and author of The Cosmic Serpent, Intelligence in Nature, and The Psych)“The profound experiences unlocked by the visionary psilocybin-containing mushrooms are more than a recreational holiday for the mind. They are, in fact, the key to understanding that consciousness is not an aspect of reality, it is reality itself.” (Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., ethnopharmacologist and coauthor of The Invisible Landscape)“A worthy successor to Aldous Huxley’sThe Doors of Perception,The Psilocybin Solutiontakes the reader behind the grand curtain of reality with a compelling hypothesis that approaches a unified field theory of human consciousness in an intelligent and interconnected universe.” (Bill Linton, CEO of Promega)“In this fascinating and provocative book, Simon G. Powell speculates on the nature of reality. He posits that Nature is a deliberate and intelligently behaving system, and he proposes that psilocybin, by altering the neurochemistry of the brain in specific ways, enables novel patterns of information to emerge, allowing the psyche to become a sort of conduit to the Other. If in fact that is what actually happens, then entheogens (psychedelics) are much more important to the human species than has been realized.” (David E. Nichols, Ph.D.,  president and cofounder of the  Heffter Research Institute)“It’s as if these fungi, which grow wild on most of the Earth’s land surface, beckon us to commune with them, Powell hints. And if we do have the chance, we’d do well to heed his advice on the “retuning” process. This communion offers a link with the intelligence of Nature. Opening the doors of perception and returning to entheogenic wisdom could ultimately create a more mystical, meaningful society.” (Nexus Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 6, October 2011)“Read this book. Follow directions in the last chapter closely. Confirm or deny.” (Diana Reed Slattery, Reality Sandwich, October 2011)“Overall, another adequate introduction to entheogenic thought but one that, interestingly, broaches questions about neurology more explicitly than others, in attempting to locate entheogenic thought in a wider metaphysics.” (Psychedelic Press, November 2011)“All in all, this is a stimulating and revolutionary volume, whatever your take on “chemically induced theophany.”” (Mac Graham, Whole Life Times, December 2011)