When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance Paperback – 12 Oct. 2021

I was given this book and to be honest i had no real idea what it was about from the cover and title. Nice hardback, strange colour or pattern behind the font, but that is just personal taste. Well put together, the story of a plant, similar to the book of Tea from Japan.

The delivery was fast! Unfortunately it came with some damages.

Given I find studies on how different medicines impact the body and/or mind I knew I just had to pick this up. Ayahuasca is a naturally occurring, potent substance and has been used for centuries by tribes in the Amazon rainforest. What I particularly enjoyed was that the book is thorough and it's easy to see just how much work went into structuring their knowledge into this enlightening and fascinating read. It's well written and formatted in a very straightforward, linear fashion; it seems every last detail has been thought out carefully which is refreshing and impressive. If you are looking for a book that will tell you everything you need to know about this powerful drug then you have undoubtedly come to the right place.Daniel Pinchbeck is a writer and journalist with a long-time deep interest in entheogens, shamanism and the way psychedelics were used centuries ago. Sophia Rokhlin is an advocate for sustainable production of ayahuasca, has a special interest in psychedelic plant medicines and runs a retreat in the Peruvian Amazon. When Plants Dream documents the uses of ayahuasca from the beginning of time up to modern-day and the timeline it presents is so interesting. It relates ayahuasca back to shamanism and explains how its use is evolving in the Western world. Divided into sections we are fed tidbits of information for the entirety and felt I learned a lot. Many thanks to Watkins Publishing for an ARC.

The enthusiasm for the subject from the authors is undeniable, and really comes across; however the writing lets this book down. There are typos and repeated sections and the book cross-references itself quite clumsily, giving it the feel of a draft; like it needs a good edit. As the reader there's no real flow in the writing to draw you in. The format gives it the feel of a reference book but there's no index, and the absence of citations throughout adds to the sense of a lack of rigour.