Pharmacophilia o los paraísos naturales

A complex book; on the one hand, it is a showcase of erudition and the convergence of a thousand sciences in the study of psychopharmacology. On the other hand, it is a book of great amenity, precisely because of the large amount of information it presents.

Hailed by some as the book of the century, this essay by Jonathan Ott on the use of psychoactive substances will set the standard.

Both entertaining and erudite, Jonathan Ott begins his exposition by demolishing the idea that drug-induced mental states are artificial, while clearly stating that the use of consciousness-modifying substances is as natural as eating, sleeping, loving or working.

Although this essay does not deal with any particular plant, nor does it discuss its cultivation, or its archaic use, it does represent a contemporary 'anthropology' of drug use, or rather, a future anthropology of a suggestive and sensible way of using drugs . What is most remarkable is that to get to this point Ott draws on his encyclopedic knowledge of plants, pharmacology, literature, anthropology, chemistry, and so on - interweaving it all to result in a mosaic of the highest literary style, as well as a small classic of pharmacognostic thought.

As one of its readers says, this book should be owned by everyone who uses one form of drug or another: from coffee, to tobacco, to drugs dispensed at the pharmacy. Of course, candidates also include those interested in entheogens, altered consciousness, and the pragmatic and intelligent use of substances.

PHARMACOPHILIA begins by demolishing the fallacious disdain expounded by Charles P. Baudelaire in 1860, when he characterized drug-induced states as artificial paradises, to show that they are, in fact ,natural paradises, unlike the truly artificial paradises of poetry and related arts, philosophy and theology . He then maps the brave new world of pharmacohedonology, or the science of pleasure-producing drugs, ranging from research on the biochemistry of enjoyment to the genetic basis of idiosyncrasies and divergent tastes - and sensitivities - to the intoxicating caresses of various euphoriants . Finally, the book offers specific proposals for a psychopharmacological engineering based on more euphoric and less toxic intoxicants, and for a psychonautical dosage, optimizing the means to ingest optimized euphoriants. He thus presents, in a poetic and translucent way, the surprising solution to the so-called "drug problem", to the delight of all consciouspharmacophiles , and to the dismay of all unconscious ones... whatever their particular pharmacological criteria and prejudices may be.In fact, the author offers the first - and so far the only - general theory on drunkenness and the drug habit, free of logical inconsistencies and political patches, largely supported by plethoric new discoveries in the fields of history, linguistics, archeology, ethnobotany, chemistry, pharmacology and neurosciences.