The Psychotropic Mind: The World according to Ayahuasca, Iboga, and Shamanism

I thoroughly enjoyed this freewheeling exchange of ideas around the ideas of Shamanism, Ayahuasca and Iboga. The nature of the book was meant to have a conversational tone, and occassionally does wander into tangentalism, but this is part of the nature of any conversation.For those seeking real nitty-gritty info about the different aspects of how to take these substances, the effects of them and the integration of such, the conversations are extremely enlightening, as each of the authors comes at the subjects and experiences with a different POV.Highly recommended.

Having pre-ordered this book back in July, I was unaware that it was a trialogue; the edited transcript of conversations between the three co-authors rather than an extension of Jeremy Narby's fine work in THE COSMIC SERPENT. Thus, it started out as a bit of a disappointment for me, but i never-the-less found much to enjoy, particularly in exchanges between Narby and Jan Kounen. Indeed, i liked Kounen's contributions quite a lot. What made the book tedious for me was Vincent Ravalec's egotism and constant attempts at one-upmanship.Throughout the book Ravalec seems to regard the experiences of the others with ayahuasca as inferior to his own experience with iboga. On occasion he'll make a big deal about raising a point and then later dismiss it as irrelevant when the others take it up. In short, it would have been a much better book if he'd been left out of the mix, not because of his disagreements but because of his disagreeable nature which left me with the impression that he was being disagreeable for it's own sake. Unfortunately, one pretty much needs to read the whole book to realize this, though now that I've told you, you'll likely pick up on it very (VERY!) early. He has his moments where he contributes positively to the discussion, but these moments do not compensate for what he detracts from the overall intent of the project. From time to time, both Narby and Kounen take Ravalec to task on either something he's said or the way he's said it and when they do he generally backs down. But this also distracted me from the discussion and I didn't need to waste my reading time dealing with his ego (I'm thinking maybe he needs a couple more of those ego-busting ayahuasca sessions). Let's just hope there's not a video of these conversations in the works.Yet overall,it is worth the read, especially if you are contemplating an ayahuasca experience of your own. As for iboga, there's not much in here about it because Ravalec is the only one of the three who claims to have had the experience. He has his own book out on iboga which I wanted to read before i wrote this review, but because of the trialogue format of PSYCHOTORPIC MIND i wanted to get that info out there and clear to potential buyers and readers.

Like some other reviewers, I found the conversation taking far too much of an ego one-upsmanship turn throughout this book. I kept looking forward to the next time Jeremy Narby was to speak and wishing the others would just be quiet and listen to him. I think the English translation from French impacts the way it comes off to an English speaker a bit, too.That said, there were some interesting thoughts and observations in the book, which is not an actual, well-organized book - just a printed conversation that does tend to skew off track from time to time.Another review was correct in pointing out the lack of any real discussion of Iboga here. I'd have been interested in some comparing and contrasting with the Male energy/spirit of Iboga vs. the Female one of Ayahuasca, etc. from some who have encountered both.This would not be the best introductory book to someone wanting to learn about or preparing to work with these Teachers. There are many others that would be superior, but it is worth a look for those who are drawn to read what they can about these great plant medicines.

I have been studying plant medicine and journeying intensively for the past 4 years and found this book to be very helpful.I disagree with the review that suggested that Vincent Ravalec was at odds with Kounen and Narby. Ravalec seemed to beright there with them, often asking them for their views on a particular topic. There were a few moments, certainly, where Ravalecseemed to be going off, but I felt it was just that he wanted to address certain things that weren't being addressed. If anything,I feel this discussion would have been that much stronger had Kounen and Narby participated in an Iboga ceremony prior to their meeting.From what I understand, Iboga is truly the mother of all plant medicines, more powerful than ayahuasca. I feel that a deeperexploration of it was missing from the discussion, and perhaps that may have been from whence the slight tension was arising.I say "yea" to more dialogues/trialogues such as this!

I consider Jeremy Narby's previous books to have been excellent contributions to our understanding of the connections between 'science' as we understand it, particulary the 'social sciences', and the profundities of the 'science' or wisdom obtained by means of the ceremonial taking of the ayahuasca plant(s) for example, that native peoples have long practiced.This book is simply a transcription of two conversations in which Mr. Narby participates, along with two other no doubt interesting, but unknown to me, guys on the general topic of their experiences using ayahuasca and other hallucinogens.These two conversations may be welcome memories for the participants, but they are not fit for a general audience. The nuggets of insight that may be somewhere buried in the discussions, will in my view forever be buried behind the boring format of people talking, with no framing into a focused subject of general interest.For 'conversation' to be newsworthy, it must be carefully edited and framed. Unless the participants themselves are newsworthy, like Einstein and Freud talking for example. This book is NEITHER!

Das Buch ist eine schriftliche Aufzeichnung eines Trialogues von drei Schriftstellern, Filmemachener, Reisenden mit Erfahrung von Ayahuasca und Iboga Zeremonien. Die Aufzeichnung zeigt Ayahuasca und Iboga in ihrer guten und dunklen Seite, geistliches ohne spirituelle Verwässerung aber Subjektiv genug um Einblicke in die Erfahrung mit diesen beiden Shamanischen Pflanzen zu geben.Keine wissenschaftliche Abhandlung, kein spiritueller Leitfaden, sondern eine meneschliches Gespräch über Erfahrungen so wie man sie mit Freunden hat.

Excellent

good