Ayahuasca – From Argentina to Australia, from Israel to Indonesia, a once-obscure Amazonian vine, admixed with a few other plants is now celebrated – and even venerated – as a plant of power knowledge and healing. Ayahuasca – also known as “the vine of the soul.” Native to the northwest Amazon and employed by indigenous shamans for therapeutic purposes, this plant has played a fundamental role in the ongoing mainstreaming of hallucinogenic plants into western therapeutic practices.  Sources: Luna, Luis Eduardo, and Steven F. White. Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine. Synergetic Press, 2016.  Plotkin, Mark J. Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press, 2020.   Plotkin, Mark J. Medicine Quest: in Search of Nature's Healing Secrets. Penguin Books, 2001. Schultes, Richard Evans, and Robert F. Raffauf. Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia. Synergetic Press, 2004. Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979.  

“Plants of the Gods” is a new and unique podcast focusing on the hallucinogenic plants and fungi whose impact on world culture and religion – and healing potential - is only now beginning to be appreciated as never before. Unlike other podcasts relating to these issues, “Plants of the Gods” is hosted by renowned ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin, a Harvard and Yale-trained scientist who has been studying the healing plants and shamans of the Amazon rainforest for almost four decades. An award-winning scientist and best selling author, Dr, Plotkin is a spellbinding storyteller who will be speaking from personal experience and will be joined by other leaders in the field.