Review: The Age of Entheogens / The Angel's Dictionary by Jonothan Ott (reviewed by Rendi)

As indicated by the title, what we have here is really two books under one cover. Together they add up to a mere160 pages but as with all of Ott's books that I have read, it is densely packed with knowledge.

The Age of Entheogens is a call to draw us out of the Dark Ages in which we live into a brighter future where people can reconnect with the spirit through the immediate experience of the sacred with entheogens (sacred plants, hallucinogens, psychedelics or what have you) as our distant ancestors did before the world tree of knowledge and life was cut down to build the church of artifice, dominion and repression of the sacred within all of us.

The basic message is in essence the same as Terence McKenna's concept and book The Archaic Revival; that in the distant past humanity lived in harmony with Nature and in connection with the sacred through the shamanic use of vision plants; that history has been the story of the repression of this practice and thus the banishment from Eden; that religion, as an institution, is the flaming sword that bars us from reconnecting with the sacred and that as a society we would do well to now reconvene with that natural harmonious connection through the use of these sacred plants. This is the "Archaic Revival" that McKenna speaks of or the "Entheogenic Reformation" that Ott speaks of.

That having now been said, allow me to state that the way in which Ott and McKenna present this message are significantly different yet complimentary. McKenna's presentation is perhaps better suited to wider audiences and/or as an introduction to this quintessential important idea. Ott's presentation, on the other hand, seems to me to be much more suited for scholarly readers - people who require academic-style citations and references to foundational works already established and well respected or for people who have gotten McKenna's message and would now like to delve into the sober and scholarly knowledge that support it. Whereas skeptics may understandably dismiss McKenna's Archaic Revival as lacking in supporting evidence and pay the idea no further attention, Ott's Age of Entheogens would likely convince them - if they are at all reasonable - that this idea is at the very least very plausible and very important. On the other hand, the more general reader interested in entheogens may find Ott's Age of Entheogens too difficult, too bogged down by notes and details whereas these same people may be immediately swept up in McKenna's more fluid and easy-to-read Archaic Revival. Personally I find The Archaic Revival and the Age of Entheogens to be complimentary.

I will now turn from this comparative exercise and give Ott's book a much-deserved direct look.

The Age of Entheogens opens with Ott's Exordium, a tour de force. Here, in something like a manifesto, Ott shatters the empty hypocrisy of organized (non-experiential and non-vital) religions and the so-called "war on drugs". Here Ott triumphantly wins back the high ground for that real "old time religion"; the original, organic religion of direct experience of the spirit through entheogens.

The first chapter is entitled The Age of Entheogens. In recent history it has been the widely held position of orthodox anthropology that although what is called shamanism is the universal root of all religions, the shamanic use of psychoactive plants is a "decadent" form of shamanism as compared to shamanism that relies on what are classified as ordeals to alter consciousness (i.e. fasting, isolation, prolonged pain, marathon drumming and so-on). But, as Ott demonstrates, Wasson and other scholars have since shown that quite the opposite is the case; entheogen-based shamanism is indeed the original shamanism and it is only when no entheogens are available that shamans turn to other less effective techniques.

In the next chapter, The Pharmacratic Inquisition, Ott argues convincingly that the rise of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman empire meant the downfall of Western civilization into the Dark Ages in which all effort was made to eradicate science, independent thought and any practice involving entheogens and knowledge thereof. Central to this plunge into ignorance was the deliberate substitution of the ages old entheogenic sacrament provided to seekers in the Eleusinian mystery rites - the sacrament that gave one an undeniably profound experience - with the innate Christian Eucharist that gave no experience but which required faith in order to have any meaning at all. As Ott puts forth, it is no coincidence but rather a direct consequence that, "the forced imposition of Christianity as state religion in the reign of Constantine, far from being a progressive change, as Christians would have us think, plunged Europe into a millennium of atavism and book burning, of barbarous destruction and desecration of classical art and literature, in which the torch of science and learning, lit in such a promising fashion by the Greek philosophers, was all but extinguished, and during which the hard-won pharmacognistical and other scientific knowledge of the ancients was forgotten, if not lost completely." In this chapter Ott also discusses the centuries of repression, persecution and eradication of any folk-knowledge of medicinal and entheogenic plants in Europe. Witch hunts and inquisitions abounded. Grab your torches, Bibles and pitchforks! Onward Christian soldiers! As Ott says, "I suggest that, as far as religion goes, we are still in the Dark Ages, and that the Entheogenic Reformation at last heralds the dawning of the Entheogenic Renaissance, a spiritual Renaissance which hopefully will do for religions what the mediaeval Renaissance did for art and science a half-millennium ago."

This takes us to the next chapter entitled The Entheogenic Reformation. Here we look at the various entheogen-based forms of spirituality that live on outside of the empire of church and state.

Finally in Agape: Vac or Logos, Ott looks forward to a possible future, the dawning of the Age of Entheogens. "Christianity and suchlike symbolic, dogmatic religions," he writes, "will prosper only by forsaking the Pharmacratic Inquisition and embracing the Entheogenic Reformation with open arms." Indeed.

Now then for the second book within this book. In the actual text this second half is more descriptively entitled The Angels' Dictionary: Toward a Vocabulary for Sacred Inebriants, Ecstatic States and Kindred Topics. As anyone who has experienced entheogens as such or who has carefully studied the way in which these plants and fungi are traditionally used, such words as "intoxication" and "hallucination" can be dreadfully inadequate. It is rather like trying to describe the colors of the rainbow with only the words "black" and "white" to describe them. As R. Gordon Wasson wrote in 1961, a few years after he rediscovered (for the modern Western world) the traditional use of psilocybian mushrooms in Southern Mexico, "What we need is a vocabulary to describe all the modalities of a Divine Inebriant".

Here then we have Ott's answer to Wasson's call. The Angels' Dictionary is a dictionary of terms related to divine inebriants, shamanism, psychonautica and the like. The entheogenic experience of the ineffable is still beyond language, but this dictionary is at least a good start.

Overall I found this book to be excellent like all of Ott's books. It deserves a spot on the shelves of all serious students of entheogens. It would be quite at home beside the works of R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, Carl Ruck and other masters in this field. As this book is out of print, interested readers are urged to acquire a copy before they are gone. Despite the fact that Ott's books are undeniably amongst the very best that deal with entheogens they all seem to be printed in limited numbers and they all go out of print. After that used book sellers tend to charge a good deal of money for Ott's books because those who know how well he writes are willing to pay a good deal of money for them. Some of his books are being sold for hundreds of dollars but for the time being, one can find this particular book for a reasonable price. I would imagine that this will not last.

Review - Cannabis - A History by Martin Booth (reviewed by Rendi)


   I found this to be an excellent book. It is informative, well researched and well presented. This is not a coffee table book, nor is it light reading. Rather it is an in-depth look at the cultural history of the cannabis plant that, in my opinion, is both readable and educating.

   Booth starts off with a brief but detailed botanical description of the plant and of the pharmacology of its active constituents before exploring the history of the relationship between cannabis and humankind from ancient times to modernity.

   Booth covers the sociology of cannabis as an intoxicant, the role of hemp in industry and agriculture, the politics of cannabis prohibition and the legal history thereof, the legalization movements, and the role of cannabis in various cultures.

   I have read a few books that discuss the semi-legendary Hassan I Sabbah and his fanatic hashish-eating mystics and assassins (or hashishans) with varying degrees of sober historical evidence and far-fetched speculation but Booth’s treatment of this subject is by far the best I have read so far because rather than repeating or embellishing legends he lays out the evidence from the various sources from which legends have been manufactured and then makes some reasonable criticisms of those sources. We learn that we cannot take for granted that these assassins smoked hashish and suddenly became fanatic murderers.

   Besides this fascinating group, we learn a good deal on the varying role cannabis played and continues to play in the Middle East. 

   There is a good amount of information on Le Club des Hachichins, a groundbreaking group of writers and artists who met in the late 1800’s in France to eat hashish for inspiration and exploration. He devotes an entire chapter to this era and the subsequent chapter on America’s Fitz Hugh Ludlow, an other groundbreaking writer on cannabis. I have learned more on the literature concerning cannabis from these two chapters in Booth’s book than I have from Sadie Plants entire book “Writing on Drugs”.

   The book also touches upon the integral role cannabis played in the early jazz scene, in the lives of the beats (or beat-poets), the hippies, the anti-war movement, the Rastafarian religion and the reggae scene, the Ethiopian Coptic Church, in magazines, the home-grow proliferation and so on. The book does not go into the rap culture or cannabis on the Internet.

   I usually cannot maintain interest in the complicated legal and political precedents involving drugs but somehow I found this book to present this topic in an easy-to-read fashion. Without tedious detail, Booth shows us how the social and political attitudes towards cannabis have varied greatly in both Europe and the United States and how the policies concerning cannabis are based on social bias rather than on medical findings.
Booth also shows us that clearly governments will simply ignore scientific studies that have repeatedly suggested that cannabis is relatively harmless. This trend continues today.

   Another topic that I usually find a bit boring is the changing trends in the black market; where does cannabis come from? But once again Booth held my interest. We learn who grew it, who sells it, how it was transported, how much was moved, how much is simply homegrown and how this has changed over the years. Despite what recent anti-marijuana commercials claim, there is very little chance that if you buy cannabis you are supporting terrorism as Booth clearly shows.

   I find it refreshing that Booth seems to be well balanced in his research and presentation. He does not seem to be a pot-smoking defender of cannabis nor does he seem to have an agenda against it. Rather, it seems to me, he is fair and balanced in his presentation. Overall, the book seems to make a good case that people should be allowed to grow hemp for various industries, and that people should be allowed to use cannabis medicinally and recreationally. However, it is the already existing studies and information that Booth presents that makes the implicit argument, not Booth himself. He asserts and claims very little himself and the evidence speaks for itself.     

   Personally I would have enjoyed more on the role of cannabis in ancient civilizations (especially in myth and religion) but perhaps there is not much source material to draw on. I also think that at least a few pictures would have improved the book. Oddly, there is almost nothing on the actual experience of cannabis intoxication. However, to be fair, this is a book of history, not phenomenology. There are also a few minor mistakes and speculations that could have been left out or corrected but these are just superficial criticisms.

   Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in an in-depth look at the role of cannabis in civilization.

Review - Do What Thou Wilt – A Life of Aleister Crowley
By Lawrence Sutin (reviewed by Rendi)

(originally posted by Erowid.org)

   Why, it is fair to ask, is it appropriate to review an Aleister Crowley biography at Erowid? Crowley (1875-1947) is featured in the Erowid character vaults, and for good reason. Not only was he a pioneer in the exploration of consciousness by employing Eastern mysticism (yoga, meditation, etc.) and Western occult practices and the synergistic combination of these techniques, but also (and more appropriately for Erowid) he was a pioneer in the use of certain psychoactive substances. He used these substances to intensify his occult and mystical practices and he used mystical and occult practices to direct his experiences with psychoactive substances and he was doing this in the beginning of the 20th century, blazing his own trail into territories that had not been visited in Western civilization since the renaissance. As Gerald Suster has written in his much shorter biography The Legacy of the Beast, “Crowley was advocating the method of psychological introspection and he appealed to men of science to become pioneers in the exploration of consciousness, gathering their data from experimentation on themselves with the techniques of Magick and Yoga and also through the carefully observed use of drugs. This appeal was largely ignored until the 1960s when Doctors Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Robert S.De Ropp, John Lilly, Robert Anton Wilson and others proceeded to experiment fearlessly and record their results and hypotheses to the lasting benefit of all concerned with the expansion of human knowledge.”

   Having, I hope, established that Crowley is worthy of study as part of the greater history of the use of psychoactives to explore consciousness,  let us now turn to the Lawrence Sutin’s biography of Crowley, Do What Thou Wilt.

  This book is certainly not for those who are merely curious or casually interested in Crowley. Let’s be frank, Sutin’s biography is not light reading by any means. He gives us nearly 500 pages of details; no fluff, no sensationalism, and very little speculation beyond that which is evident by actual facts. Because of this, Do What Thou Wilt will surely disappoint those who prefer to think that Crowley was a Satan-worshipping black magician, those who place him on a pedestal as a perfected spiritual master and those who are looking for juicy tales of sex, drugs, and blasphemy. But anyone who has read Crowley’s autobiographical Confessions of Aleister Crowley should read Do What Thou Wilt to balance out Crowley’s own one-sided version of his life. Also, those who are already familiar with Crowley’s contributions to the study and practice of the occult and who are hungry for a thorough, detail-oriented study of his life would appreciate this book. At any rate, I would not recommend this as a Crowley bio for beginners.
 
  Sutin gives us a carefully researched book. He makes no claims without verifiable sources. Unlike any other bio (or auto-bio) I have encountered concerning Crowley, Sutin seems to have no agenda beyond telling us the story of his subjects life as well as can be gathered from the source material available (which he seems to have studied well). He also does a fine job of carefully and fairly pointing out inconsistencies and differing accounts from different sources (or sometimes from different works by Crowley himself). This is refreshing, as most writers on Crowley seem to want to condemn, apologize or praise Crowley.
 
  Sutin displays considerable insight when he makes his case for the subconscious motives behind Crowley’s strong need to promulgate his new creed and religion, Thelema, how he sought all his life to transcend his deeply ingrained puritan sense of sin and guilt with regards to sex, and a few other aspects of his life. But Sutin does this with a cool, detached, non-judgmental and elegantly minimalist fashion. He tastefully points out a few connections between what must have been strong psychological imprints in Crowley’s childhood and strong tendencies in his adult life and then lets readers think these out for themselves.

    Sutin makes it exhaustively clear that Crowley could often be petty, cruel, dishonest, egotistical to the point of megalomania, bigoted, sexist, boastful, obscene, conniving, and – in the latter half of his life – hopelessly addicted to cocaine and heroin and dependent on the generosity or gullibility others for money. Since Crowley himself downplayed these traits and because his auto-bio Confessions was written about halfway through his life, I again strongly suggest that one does not read Confessions without reading Do What Thou Wilt. Having reiterated that, I also suggest that one does not read Do What Thou Wilt without reading Crowley’s Confessions, Isreal Regardies’s Eye in the Triangle, or some other book that explains Crowley’s magical practice, philosophy and Thelema because – and this is the main fault of Do What Thou Wilt – Sutin gives us almost no understanding of this.
 
  Because his magical philosophy and Thelema was central to his life, Sutin’s book tells us only about half of what one needs to know in order to get a good understanding of Crowley. It is somewhat like telling the story of Einstein without telling us about the physics that occupied his genius or his revolutionary discoveries. Beyond a sentence here and there, the only passage in which Sutin does Crowley’s life work justice is short enough to quote here. While mentioning that the famous occultist Dion Fortune acknowledged Crowley’s great work, Sutin says that, “Fortune is correct in her judgment of Crowley’s ‘contribution to occult literature.’ Magick is a watershed in the history of that literature – the first work to strip the subject of its gothic trappings and bring it fully into the modern world. Its arguments are ruthlessly practical – assuming, of courses, that the reader will allow that there is such a thing as the ‘Great Work’ that is attainable by human consciousness. There is, indeed, a religious belief at the heart of the book: a conviction that the life of fulfillment of the inmost spirit – the Will – is the highest form of life. Scoff at this and you not only scoff at Magick but at religion itself. Grant it as a nondenominational goal and Magick may have something to teach you. After all, the definition of ‘Magick’ offered in the Introduction is catholic enough: ‘MAGICK is the Science and Art of Causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.’ “
 
  Oddly, this passage displays one of the few places where Sutin directly gives us his own opinion when he could have discussed this more objectively in terms of the impact that this work had on students of the occult. Still, Sutin barely gives us an understanding of Crowley’s work and how he is almost undeniably the single most important writer on occultism. Let’s face it, if Crowley was merely a promising Cambridge chess champion, a minor poet and a man who came close to being the first to reach the peak of the world’s third highest mountain (which would have made him placed him in the position of being the climber to have reached the highest peak ever before climbed) he would likely have been merely a footnote in the history of mountaineering and Sutin would almost surely not have written a book about him.
 
  But, to be fair, Sutin has given me what I was seeking when I bought this book; a more objective view of Crowley’s life and (more importantly for me) details on his experimentation with drugs. Although, Sutin gives us very little understanding of what Crowley experienced with these substances (as he does with Crowley’s experiences with magical and mystical practices) he does tell us what substances he experimented with, when, and in combination with what magical and mystical practices.

   Sutin gives us no real sense of Crowley’s role as a pioneer in the re-emergence of psychedelics Western civilization. The short passage by Suster quoted above gives us a greater sense of Crowley’s place in this re-emergence than Sutin does in his entire book. But then again, Suster does not tell us the details that Sutin does. Also, Sutin adequately shows us (through evidence, not opinion) Crowley’s struggle over whether the use of consciousness-altering substances are legitimate or counterfeit aids in the exploration of the mind and spirit. He also shows us how in one account of a given event Crowley frankly admits the use of a particular drug in addition to a particular magical operation to gain entry into a particular “plane” or state of mind whereas in another account of the same event Crowley omits the fact that he used a drug without which the result would likely not have occurred at all.

   Sutin also gives us what little there is to know regarding the legend that Crowley turned Aldous Huxley on to mescaline, resulting in Huxley’s monumentally influential Doors of Perception. Sutin shows us how although it is possible that this could be so, there really is no evidence that this is the case. Crowley was experienced with peyote years before Huxley, the two men met once through a mutual acquaintance and that is about all we know for sure beyond the fact that if Crowley had turned Huxley on to peyote, both men would very likely have written about it at length. As Sutin shows in his book, Crowley merely noted in his diary that, “Huxley improves on acquaintance.”

   Over the course of the book, we see that Crowley devolved from a young man with seemingly boundless enthusiasm to find truth and to gain new ground in consciousness, to build a sound body of knowledge Crowley called Scientific Illuminism (“The method of science, the aim of religion”) with determination and perseverance (mirrored in his considerable achievements in the field of mountaineering and rugged hiking across thousands of miles in various parts of the world) to a derailed and self-deluded older man who spent the later half of his life preoccupied with sex and self-promotion and hampered by hard drug addiction and by poverty all the while attempting and failing to establish his new religion and to gain a large body of disciples. But then again, many of Crowley’s best works were written during this period – perhaps this was a time when he was able to reflect upon and write about what he discovered earlier in life – and Sutin barely gives us any sense of this.

   In summary, Sutin’s book is valuable in that it provides a good detailed and well researched biography of Crowley’s mundane life but it tells us far too little about Crowley’s spiritual, creative and intellectual pursuits. I would only recommend this book to those who are already well acquainted with Crowley’s work and who are ready to tackle a long, dry, detailed biography on his all-too-human side.   

Review - The Mushroom Cultivator
by J.S. Chilton and Paul Stamets (reviewed by Rendi)


If you were to buy only one book on mushroom cultivation, this would be the best choice. It can certainly stand-alone in that it provides all the info the reader needs to cultivate mushrooms. Although psilocybian mushrooms are included these are by no means the exclusive or main focus of this book. For the most part, the book is concerned with legal edible mushrooms that can be grown in the home or yard. Absolute beginners can certainly start with this book and no other book will be necessary to provide all that the reader needs to know from beginning to end of the mushroom growing process.

It must be mentioned that this book does not cover the popular "PF tek" (the "Psilocybe Fanaticus technique" also known as the "jar tek"), the simple technique utilizing canning jars full of substrate and inoculating them with syringes of spores suspended in water. Readers interested in this technique (which, after all seems the easiest and most practical) would find all they need to know on this technique at the Shroomery.org web site and others like it. This book was originally published in 1983, years before the "PF tek" was innovated.

Among the technique that this book does cover are the use of agar petri dish culture, culture slants, casing, grain spawn, composting, log-plugging and more. There is also a wealth of info on mushroom contaminants - how to spot them and how to deal with them. Therefore we can say that while this book does not cover the most simple of techniques, it certainly covers all other techniques suitable for absolute beginners and for those looking to expand their hobby beyond the beginners' methods.

The authors are obviously sincerely interested in mushrooms in general and in the cultivation of edible mushrooms. The info on these edible mushrooms is not included as an excuse to also include info on the cultivation of psylocybian mushrooms, nor are psilocybian mushrooms cryptically referred to. Rather, psilocybian mushrooms are merely presented as one of many types of mushrooms that can be grown with simple techniques at home. This is by no means a drug manufacturing guidebook disguised as a book on edible mushroom cultivation nor is it one that distances itself from the cultivation of psilocybian mushrooms.

If the reader is interested in the cultivation of mushrooms at home, this book gets a high recommendation. These two authors have also written Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms which is similar in scope but probably a better second choice rather than first choice for this topic. Paul Stamets has also authored Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide, MycoMedicinals: an Informational Treatise of Mushrooms, Psilocybe Mushrooms and Their Allies and also runs the company Fungi Perfecti which offers kits for growing mushrooms at home, a variety of mushroom related books, technical supplies and which also offers educational seminars.

If you want to grow mushrooms at home and the "PF - Tek" is good enough for you, this book would be unnecessary for you. If you have got the hang of the "PF - Tek" but you are interested in trying other techniques and approaches this book is highly recommended for you.

Review - Roll Away the Stone : An Introduction to Aleister Crowley’s Psychology of Hashish
by Israel Regardie
Reviewed by Rendi Case


   The main body of this book is a series called The Herb Dangerous which originally appeared in the highly acclaimed book-form biannual The Equinox in four installments from 1909 to1910.  The Equinox was subtitled The Review of Scientific Illuminism and its motto  – “the method of science, the aim of religion” – sums up its central concern. The famous occultist Aleister Crowley funded and edited The Equinox and wrote many of the works published therein. The Herb Dangerous series is comprised of four distinct works of literature by four different authors and we will look at each of these in turn. They are collected here under one cover with a 65-page introduction itself entitled Roll Away the Stone by Israel Regardie who was one of Crowley’s best students and considered to be one of the 20th century’s most important occult authors. The book was first printed as such in 1968 and it was again reprinted in 1994.
    The lengthy introduction Roll Away the Stone is an excellent read in its own right. It attempts to familiarize the reader with Crowley’s life work insofar as it pertains to his essay The Psychology of Hashish (the centerpiece of this book) so that he or she may appreciate both its content and its historical context. Regardie also gives a certain perspective on the subject of psychedelics and mysticism that is not commonly encountered. Often he compares and contrasts Crowley’s discoveries and views with those of Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (AKA Ram Das), Alan Watts and others to put the whole topic into a wider perspective. Speaking of the 1960’s, Regardie says that “recent years have evolved a roster of new and eloquent voices to corroborate and confirm many of Crowley’s once outrageous views relative to psychedelic agents: Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert – to name but a few… are directing attention to the dramatic fact that there is now a chemical door which gives promise to open to higher and mystical states of consciousness. This is what Crowley, amongst other things, had been trying to state more than a half a century ago.”     
   With regard to the possible use of hashish and stronger psychedelics in a mystical practice, Regardie’s opinion is essentially the same as Crowley’s; that a sincere aspirant towards enlightenment, who is well grounded, well trained, psychologically balanced and stable, careful, methodical and resolute, may under certain circumstances gain benefit from the use of certain psychoactive substances. Both men found that hashish and similar substances may give the aspirant something of a preview to states of mind that can be achieved if he or she persists in their discipline. Neither wrote that psychoactive substances could or should be used as a substitute for disciplined mystical practice. 
   It should be mentioned that Crowley wrote mainly about hashish but Regardie discusses the use of substances that were discovered after Crowley had died, especially LSD. The principle, however, is the same.
  Understandably, Regardie takes pains to assert repeatedly that he recommends against the use of psychedelics by all but the most disciplined of students. Clearly he is not advocating the irresponsible use of psychedelics. “Furthermore,” he writes, “and this is far and away the most important consideration here, Crowley was an experimental mystic of the highest magnitude. He had practices yoga and magical techniques assiduously for many years until he had achieved a thorough-going mastery over both Eastern and Western methods. All of these rare skills were brought to bear on his experimentation with a variety of drugs."
  Regardie quotes extensively from Crowley, Leary, Watts and others in order to make his point, and he makes it quite well. With a perspective not available to Crowley over a half-century earlier, Regardie addresses the criticism that altering the perception with drugs makes the perception invalid by, among other approaches, quoting from Alan Watts who, in the 19560’s wrote, “There is no difference in principle between sharpening perception with an external instrument, such as a microscope and sharpening it with an internal instrument, such as one of these… drugs. If they are an affront of the dignity of the mind, then the microscope is an affront to the dignity of the eye and a telephone to the dignity of the ear…”.
   But then again, this is a reiteration of the brilliant analogy Crowley made in the first place. In the Psychology of Hashish he writes, “My dear professor, how can you expect me to believe this nonsense about bacteria? Come, saith he, to the microscope; and behold them… Is it fair observation to use lenses, which admittedly refract light and distort vision? How do I know those specks are not dust?   …suppose he retorts, ‘You have deliberately trained yourself to hallucination!’ What answer have I? None that I know of save that microscopy has revolutionized surgery…  Then my friend the physiologist remarks: ‘But if you disturb the observing faculty with drugs and a special mental training, your results will be invalid.’ And I reply : ‘But if you disturb the observing faculty with lenses and a special training, your results will be invalid.’   …So there we are.”
   The first part of The Herb Dangerous is A Pharmeceutical Study of Cannabis Sativa (Being a Collection of Facts as Known at the Present Date) by E. Whineray M.P.S. It is almost a century out of date but some readers may find it of historical interest.
   The second part of The Herb Dangerous is Aleister Crowley’s Psychology of Hashish. As stated, this largely concerns the relationship between mystical states achieved with psychoactive substances and mystical states achieved without them. Crowley’s essay here is particularly relevant now that we are at a point in history where the scientific community has only recently overcome the witch-hunt mentality and intimidation that began in the 1960’s as a backlash against Leary, free love, the anti-war movement (etc.) and that had effectively stopped all research into the area. In the 1960’s certain experiments suggested that psychedelics could give one a genuine mystical experience (see the studies Pahnke, Leary, Alpert and others conducted in the 1960’s). Huston Smith, considered to be one of – if not the – foremost authority on comparative religion has demonstrated that there is essentially no difference between mystical states achieved through entheogens (psychedelics) and mystical states achieved through meditation or other practices. Newer research into this area seems to be growing; we have Dr. Strassman’s DMT – The Spirit Molecule, studies conducted by MAPS.org and others. In 2006, Hopkins Medicine announced in a press release (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html ) that new research indicates psilocybin can not only give one a spiritual experience but that it can also have long-lasting positive effects upon one’s life – something that experts such as Huston Smith stress is more important than the experience itself; positive “altered traits” are more important than “altered states”. This new research merely validates – albeit with more scientific rigor – the Good Friday experiment conducted way back in 1962. It has taken 44 years for science to pick up where this experiment left off largely due to the establishment’s taboo against the use of psychedelics.
   But almost a century ago, Crowley wrote that, “I can find no essential difference between the experiences induced, under favorable conditions, by these chemicals and the states of ‘cosmic consciousness’ recorded by R. M. Bucke, William James, Evelyn Underhill, Raunor Johnson and other investigators of mysticism…”
   It is for this reason that I feel that a full study of the relationship between psychoactives and mystical discipline should start with – or at least include - Crowley’s Psychology of Hashish. Crowley also writes that with the judicious application of hashish “I could persuade other people that mysticism was not all folly without insisting on their devoting a lifetime to studying under me; and if only I could convince a few competent observers – in such a matter I distrust even myself – Science would be bound to follow and to investigate, clear up the matter once and for all, and, as I believed, and believe, armed with a new weapon ten thousand times more potent than the balance and the microscope.”
   In his Psychology of Hashish Crowley not only tells that hashish may be helpful to some students at he beginning of their mystical training but also at a certain dry spell they may encounter later on. After considerable progress there often comes a period where things seem to slow to a halt. The feeling of enthusiasm dissipates. One feels that the entire thing is pointless and falls into a depressed state. At this point most people give up. Crowley knew that this is the crucial darkness before the dawn. In such a case, he found, some people would benefit from a judicious dose of hashish. Due to their hard-earned discipline and training their experience with hashish would almost certainly be a profoundly mystical one. The aspirant is assured that there is indeed incredible potential in their quest. This would breath new life into the fire and once again the aspirant is impassioned to press on.
   Overall Crowley makes an argument and a plea for science to look into the psychology of meditative states and the methodical cultivation of mystical states through a variety of approaches – the use of hashish being one. It would take half a century before such research was conducted at Harvard. This of course resulted in mass hysteria in those who did not use psychedelics and it would be another half century before scientists were able to revisit the study. 
   Now, then, for some criticism. Whereas Regardie’s section is quite clear, Crowley’s section may try the patience of today’s readers. Like much that was written at that time, Crowley’s essay seems to wander whilst encumbered by fanciful language. If Regardie is straight forward than Crowley spirals about, though with intention. Both writers make the same points and arrive at the same destination. It is just that Crowley dances to and fro and twirls along the way. He also makes use of a lot of tongue-in-cheek wit that may be missed on some readers.
   But what may be the biggest obstacle in Crowley’s section is the use of many terms of eastern mysticism. Words like samadhi, nibbana, and vedana are used with little or no explanation. Unfortunately Regardie’s section is not sufficient to clarify Crowley’s section in this regard. Therefore, I would highly recommend that one read the section on meditation in Crowley’s Book 4 ( http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/aba/aba1.html ) as it is the most concise, complete and straight forward treatise on meditation I have yet encountered and would certainly provide the necessary back ground knowledge of the obscure terms used in the Psychology of Hashish.
   The third part of The Herb Dangerous is Charles Baudelaire’s Poem of Hashish translated from French by Crowley. This is not a poem at all but rather a treatise on the effects of hashish. This work is historically important, as it is one of the earliest pieces of non-medical literature on cannabis intoxication by an important writer. However, in my opinion, it is not very well written. To his credit, Baudelaire stresses the importance of set and setting and makes some interesting observations about the interpersonal relations between people who are on hashish and the relations between those on hashish and those who are not. Here it seems Baudelaire is drawing upon his sober observations of his associates in the seminal Hashish Club of Paris in the mid 1800’s.
   Overall I found the Poem of Hashish to be excruciatingly boring and largely incomprehensible due to its pretentiously superfluous style. I also found it to be bigoted towards women and the working class; women, according to Baudelaire, are unable to truly analyze their minds and the working class are unable to think beyond their mud, cattle, shovels and what not. But most tiresome of all, Baudelaire is ultimately against pleasure. To sum up his position, hashish can allow one to experience heavenly states of mind with ease and without years of toil and struggle; therefore it must be bad. I concede that there is some merit to his assertion that hashish compromises ones will but there seems to be no rational basis to his aversion to pleasure. It is interesting that Crowley included this treatise in The Herb Dangerous because – unlike Baudelaire – Crowley had consciously overcome the irrational aversion to pleasure and would certainly disagree with Baudelaire’s verdict.
   The fourth part of The Herb Dangerous is “A Few Extracts from H.G. Ludlow, The Hashish Eater which bear upon the peculiar characteristics of the drug’s action”. This work may be somewhat archaic in style to the modern reader. It is certainly flowery and romantic. The excerpts are descriptive of the effects of hashish as Ludlow experienced them. Speaking for myself, it seems that Ludlow greatly exaggerated his experiences so as to make the Hashish Eater more interesting to readers, though I could be wrong. Often it seems like he is describing the effects of heroic doses of strong hallucinogens rather than hashish. Whatever the case I found this section of the book a delight to read though my eyebrow was often raised in bemused suspicion.     
   Though I found Ludlow’s Hashish Eater interesting, it seems to me that it is really Regardie’s Roll Away the Stone and Crowley’s Psychology of Hashish that are important insofar as the book addresses the subject of psychedelics in mystical practices. So although I would think that readers interested in historical works of literature concerning psychoactives would enjoy this book I think its real value lies in its profound insight into the relationship between the states of mind that the mystically inclined may experience with psychedelics and the states of mind induced through spiritual, occult, meditative and mystical disciplines.
   At the beginning of the 21st century the new field of neurotheology – the study of the relationship between the human brain and religious or mystical experiences – is just getting underway. With Crowley’s Psychology of Hashish we see him anticipating this field without technology but with personal experience, careful note taking and intelligent reflection.
   I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the relationship between psychoactives and the mystical or religious experience as long as they read, understand and appreciate the aforementioned section on meditation in Crowley’s Book 4 ( http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/aba/aba1.html ). Even then, I recommend it only for Regardie’s and Crowley’s sections. Unfortunately, however, one would really be paying for Regardie’s introduction alone because the remainder of this book is easy enough to find on the net (http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/Texts/Rats/index.html ). I do not recommend it to readers who are interested in the writings of Baudelaire and Ludlow. One can find other and better books devoted to their writings and, as mentioned, these sections are readily available on the net. Furthermore, in this book one will find only excerpts of Ludlow’s Hasheesh Eater whereas the entirety can be found on the net.
   If, rather than the works of Baudelaire, Ludlow and Whineray, it contained more material by Regardie and Crowley, I would probably give this book a higher rating. But since Regardie’s section is the only part of this book that one cannot easily get from the net, I must give this book a 2 star rating. Add more stars if you are particularly interested in Regardie’s section; it is, after all, insightful, well written, and definitely worth reading.