Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers Review

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(More customer reviews)Plants Of The Gods is a comprehensive reference work on psychoactive plants. It provides a definition of plant hallucinogens and information on phytochemical research on sacred plants, geography of usage and botanical range, the chemical structures of these substances and the use of hallucinogens in medicine.
The plant species discussed include the Amanita (Fly Agaric) mushroom, Atropa (Deadly Nightshade), Yellow and Black Henbane, Mandrake, Cannabis Ergot, Datura, Iboga, Yopo beans, Ayahuasca, Yage, Brugmansia, Peyote, the San Pedro cactus, the Morning Glory plus what the authors term "the little flowers of the gods" which include the various types of Psilocybe mushroom.
The text is enhanced by a wonderful variety of color and black & white photographs, illustrations and quite impressive paintings. The section Overview Of Plant Use consists of tables listing every plant's common name, botanical name, historical ethnography, context and purpose of usage, preparation and the chemical composition and effects.
Plants Of The Gods is a great and detailed investigation of entheogenic plants from around the world. This valuable reference book concludes with a bibliography and index.

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World-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Christian Ratsch provides the latest scientific updates to this classic work on psychoactive flora by two eminent researchers.
' Numerous new and rare color photographs complement the completely revised and updated text.

' Explores the uses of hallucinogenic plants in shamanic rituals throughout the world.

' Cross-referenced by plant, illness, preparation, season of collection, and chemical constituents.

' First edition sold 33,000 copies.

Three scientific titans join forces to completely revise the classic text on the ritual uses of psychoactive plants. They provide a fascinating testimony of these "plants of the gods," tracing their uses throughout the world and their significance in shaping culture and history. In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. The text is lavishly illustrated with 400 rare photographs of plants, people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactive flora.

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Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America Review

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(More customer reviews)I often read a book and then, once I've seen the author read from his own stuff, had to go back and read it again with a different tone of voice. That applies to this book. It's much funnier and rueful than I realize the first time.
It's also not recommended unless you have a dark sense of humor, and understand that it's not about Rent or Broadway really, but about some of the subtle ways that history gets revised by the winners. It's a brilliant book and I often had those moments of recognition where I got goose bumps reading a paragraph. Then I would laugh at the next paragraph.
I think that people who read this ONLY because they are fans of Rent will be mystified or offended. Rent is a moving show, but it IS sort of odd for urban gays - it's kind of like reading a Hitler biography devoted solely to his being a wonderful father and compassionate family man. . . It may be true, but you have to scratch your head and wonder how the author managed to completely avoid mentioning the holocaust even once in 1000 pages, and just what was his agenda in doing so.
It is clear that Ms. Schulman's book was completely stolen by Larson. However! As she points out, the theft of the plot is not really a problem, cause plot borrowing and character theft is common practice; what she regards as the sore spot is that, in stealing those elements, Larson inadvertently did the same thing that bigots and the media often deliberately do to gays and lesbians: in the same way that the winning side of a war gets to decide what version of the war goes down in history as the TRUE version, Jonathan Larson's made-up version of the AIDS epidemic will be written on most people's hearts as the true version, when in reality it is a powerful distortion of who and what actually happened - unfortunately wrapped in some excellent theater so it is more likely to burn into people's brains as the truth.
I didn't expect so much humor from a book that makes those sorts of points. I laughed repeatedly when reading this book, starting with the introduction.
Also, as I've come to expect with her books, Ms. Schulman manages to find the words to explain things I've always sensed but not been able to articulate. The section on marketing to gays (who, as she puts it, are still struggling with post-traumatic stress as a result of being raised in this society) was brilliant, and funny. An instance where she really stopped me in my tracks: when she compared gays and lesbians to a older relative of hers who was freed from a Nazi concentration camp and shortly afterwards had a small breakdown when trying to choose what color drinking glass to buy from a shelf of glassware that came in too many colors, sizes and shapes.
My advice to potential readers: Schulman is more like Sondheim than the Sound of Music. If you're a Broadway boy with a good heart and not much critical faculty, don't read it and you'll live happy. If you're a Broadway fan with a brain, you'll find it's not really about Broadway but rather an interesting tap dance on the subject of how things get twisted around. If you've got a political sensibility of any type, and maybe you're much older and wiser -- and you read the book with a tone of voice that's rueful and ironic much more than just angry, you'll love it. It brings out all the humor, which appears on every page, and makes me laugh even in public places.
People in Trouble were not one of my favorite novels of hers, but having read stage-struck, I now enjoyed it much more. Empathy is her funniest novel, but most experimental, and Rat Bohemia a truly angry ranting novel (and I mean it in the best Victor Hugo-if-he-were-a women sense of the word).
I'd recommend Shimmer as a more 'traditional' linear story line sort of novel - it's quite beautiful. I give this book 4 stars not because it's not wonderful, but because I liked Empathy better and so needed to keep one star extra if I ever review that book online. :-)

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The Eye and Visual Optical Instruments Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a researcher in the field of visual optics. I first obtained a copy of this book nearly 5 years ago, when I was a lecturer at the University of Auckland. I thought the book was excellent then and the subsequent passage of time has reinforced my view.
I refer to my copy constantly. When I am dealing with a new and complicated topic as part of my work my first instinct is to check if Smith and Atchison have anything to say on the topic, and I'm usually rewarded. They nearly always provide good introductory material and analytical tools. The book contains very basic level material which is suitable for undergraduates in the area of clinical optics and develops these concepts to postgrad and research levels.
The section on aberrations is extremely useful, although it does not use the Zernike polynomials that have become popular in the last few years, it has still allowed me to do useful analysis of my data. I have also found the sections on optical quality calculations extremely useful, and the appendices on schematic eyes are the most complete I've come across in the literature.
I look forward to many subsequent editions of this text. An excellent book for researchers and students.

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A wide variety of optical instruments exists in which the human eye forms an integral part of the system. This book provides a detailed description of the visual ergonomics of such instruments. The book begins with a section on image formation and basic optical components. The authors then discuss various optical instruments that can be adequately described using geometrical optics, and follow this with a section on diffraction and interference, and the instruments based on these effects. There are separate sections devoted to ophthalmic instruments and aberration theory, with a final section covering visual ergonomics in depth. Containing many problems and solutions, this book will be of great use to undergraduate and graduate students of optometry, optical design, optical engineering, and visual science, and to professionals working in these and related fields.

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Cognitive Behaviour Therapy For People With Cancer Review

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(More customer reviews)The book has been well written, particularly a clear presentation upon essential concepts about CBT. The application to cancer is also well discussed. This book can serve a very good start for any therapist hoping to apply CBT to cancer, and also give some insights about pondering how we can help people in terminal illness. Please don't miss it !

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Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) has established itself as the psychological treatment of choice for many conditions. It offers a brief, convincing, commonsense approach to the emotional problems faced by people with cancer, and there is considerable evidence for its effectiveness. Since the first edition of this book in 1989 (published as Psychological Therapy for Patients with Cancer) there have been many developments in cognitive therapy and psycho-oncology which have been incorporated in the new edition.The current evidence for the effect of psychological state on survival and the efficacy of CBT in cancer is reviewed.Using a cognitive behavioural model to understand reactions to cancer, the authors present cognitive, behavioural, emotional and interpersonal interventions to help people adjust to the threat to their life and their view of themselves.Case examles illustrate how these techniques are used to reduce anxiety and depression, induce a fighting spirit, teach effective coping skills and develop open communication between patients and their partners. Mental health professionals working in oncologu and health care professionals interested in psychological management will find this a useful source for psychological techniques that can be applied in a busy clinical setting.

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Language in the Brain Review

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(More customer reviews)Language and the Brain demonstrates that locating the organization of language in narrow areas of the brain's cortex is wrong. Language isn't merely articulation and hearing of sounds. Organization of meaning, understanding, cognition, feeling and reasonable action are particularly important especially concerning the understanding of other people's feeling and knowledge.
The book emphasizes the contrast of neural and formal structure analysis. According to Helmut Schnelle as a consequence, interdisciplinary research cannot be avoided.

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Linguistics, neurocognition, and phenomenological psychology are fundamentally different fields of research. Helmut Schnelle provides an interdisciplinary understanding of a new integrated field in which linguists can be competent in neurocognition and neuroscientists in structure linguistics. Consequently the first part of the book is a systematic introduction to the function of the form and meaning-organising brain component - with the essential core elements being perceptions, actions, attention, emotion and feeling. Their descriptions provide foundations for experiences based on semantics and pragmatics. The second part is addressed to non-linguists and presents the structural foundations of currently established linguistic frameworks. This book should be serious reading for anyone interested in a comprehensive understanding of language, in which evolution, functional organisation and hierarchies are explained by reference to brain architecture and dynamics.

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Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children Review

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(More customer reviews)I am pleased with the book in that it is thorough in it's discussion of trauma and the artistic interventions that can benefit those who suffer from it. I was hoping that the book would be more of an overview of creative ideas and how to apply them, rather than a discussion of why to use interventions involving creativity. However, it is still a valuable resource.

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Rich with case material and artwork samples, this volume demonstrates a range of creative approaches for facilitating children's emotional reparation and recovery from trauma. Contributors include experienced practitioners of play, art, music, movement and drama therapies, bibliotherapy, and integrative therapies, who describe step-by-step strategies for working with individual children, families, and groups. The case-based format makes the book especially practical and user-friendly. Specific types of stressful experiences addressed include parental loss, child abuse, accidents, family violence, bullying, and mass trauma. Broader approaches to promoting resilience and preventing posttraumatic problems in children at risk are also presented.

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Handbook of Art Therapy Review

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(More customer reviews)As a recent counseling graduate (PhD), I was always put off by the art therapy books on the market. They were all so poorly written and talked about antiquated theories of counseling and therapy. Now, finally there is a wonderfully readable text and I am glad to have found it as I begin work with clients. This book is for anyone who is interested in using art in their work with adults, children, adolescents, and groups-- there are helpful chapters on trauma, medical issues, autism, ADHD, etc. There are also sections on art therapy assessments that are very well written and concise.
This is the state-of-the-art art therapy book for your counseling, psychology, or art therapy library. Also, if you are a beginner, see Malchiodi's Art Therapy Sourcebook, another readable volume.

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This essential handbook provides a complete and practical overview of art therapy: how it works, how it can be used, and with whom. Demonstrated are interventions for children, adolescents, and adults facing a variety of clinical problems and life challenges. Case-based chapters from leading practitioners illuminate major theoretical perspectives, including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, developmental, and other approaches. Also examined is what current research in psychology and neuroscience can tell us about the scientific basis for art therapy. Discussing applications in individual psychotherapy, couple and family treatment, and group work, the Handbook includes over 100 samples of drawings and other artwork. The process of art therapy is illustrated in helping clients manage and cope with such problems as trauma, sexual abuse, developmental and learning disabilities, drug and alcohol misuse, serious mental illness, and medical illness. Appendices include descriptions of empirically supported approaches to art-based assessment, some of which are written by the instrument developers themselves.

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