Animals and Psychedelics: The Natural World and the ... (ISBN 0892819863)

Evolution by inebriation!:
This humorous and entertaining book deals with the use of psychedelic substances by our 4-footed and 6-legged friends. The author, an ethnobotanist, provides amazing examples of animals and insects seeking out and consuming psycho-active substances in their environments. Samorini suggests that the desire to experience altered states of consciousness is a natural drive shared by all living beings. This urge is not confined to humans because animals/insects deliberately engage in these behaviors. His theory is that beings that consume these substances contribute to the evolution of their species by creating new patterns of behavior that are eventually adopted by the other members of the species, in what he humorously terms "evolution by inebriation." He deals with crazed cows who love locoweed (Astralagus), elephants, slugs and snails, felines and catnip, reindeer and caribou tripping on the Amanita mushroom, goats that have a liking for coffee and khat (Catha Edulis), birds that binge (robins and the pink pigeon of the Mauritian islands), koalas, baboons and rats, plus insects like the house fly (Amanita again), moths, bees and butterflies. Samorini concludes with the observation that a distinction must be made between a drug phenomenon that is natural and a drug problem that is a cultural problem. This insightful book concludes with a bibliography and index. Other interesting titles on this topic includes DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman, Moksha by Aldous Huxley, Magic Mushrooms In Religion And Alchemy by Clark Heinrich and Persephone's Quest by R. Gordon Wasson.

Lucy in the sky with felines:
a powerful, dazzling display of authority on subject matter that gives "animals" their rightful place among "humans" as proud and adept explorers of the more interesting entheogenic realms. This work, without over doing it on the anthropomorphic side, renders our fellow animals in a positive light that suggests they, too, have their very own forms of consciousness. Very enlightening, heady stuff!

this book rocks:
please, this book is one of a kind, because where else are you going to find out exactly which animals get high on exactly which plant, shrooms, or berries. Not only does this make for cool conversation but it is golden information in terms of shamanism and zoology. I guess you have to be a certain kind of person to appreciate it.An animal lover, shaman, tripper, drug user or a combo of the above.

Rehashed mishmash:
The author admits that this is largely a recap of Siegel's 1989 Intoxication. Like a skipping stone, Samorini only knicks the tops off of profound ideas. There's no depth of natural history or chemistry to be found in this short book. To make matters worse, the translation is horrid: the book abounds with typos and other errors that leave me wondering what the heck Samorini really meant.

Understanding our Inner Beast:
Your appreciation of this book will depend on how deep your understanding of drugs and the psyche is. If you have a respectable grasp of the chemistries and behaviors of psychoactive drugs, very little of this book will surprise you though you will find it interesting. Unfortunately, Samorini does little in this book other than mention various uses of plant-based psychoactive by animals. There is almost no detailed analysis or speculation of what this use might mean to human self-understanding except to add support the premise that psychoactive drug use pre-dates human existence. On the other hand, if you are novice in this area, then you will appreciate the broad spectrum of animals that Samorini discusses and the quick, easy read it is to get through the information. This is a great starting place from which to launch a high school through college paper or a light evening's reading. One point that irks me about this book is that Samorini based much of it off information in Ronald Siegel's "Intoxication". Although I enjoyed "Animals and Psychedelics" and plan to keep it in my library, part of me think that I should have read Siegel's book instead.