This fascinating book discusses the role played by psychoactive mushrooms in the religious rituals of ancient Greece, Eurasia, and Mesoamerica. R. Gordon Wasson, an internationally known ethnomycologist who was one of the first to investigate how these mushrooms were venerated and employed by different native peoples, here joins with three other scholars to discuss the evidence for his discoveries about these fungi, which he has called entheogens, or "god generated within."

Persephone’s Quest for a Green Thumb is the story of a girl who discovers what it takes to grow healthy plants as she tries to develop her green thumb. She tours a plant laboratory where she learns about the cardinal growth parameters of plants. The students get to see how plants are grown in vertical farms, greenhouses and more. The book is written for middle graders to enjoy, but adults love it too. Really, this book is for ALL gardeners and plant lovers! You can expect to enjoy a steady supply of vibrant illustrations. They set the scene, convey emotion, and accurately depict the world of horticulture. Persephone's story covers 5 easily digestible chapters. For a deeper dive into the science, the appendix has more technical details, along with useful diagrams. It dovetails into the story, creating an engaging experience. Lexile Measure Estimate: • 610L-800L (Story) • 810L-1000L (Appendix) It's compelling enough for younger readers. And the content is complex enough to keep kids coming back, even as they get older. If you pair this up with the audiobook, your kids will enjoy a truly immersive journey into the world of plant science. This is the perfect gift for kids who love plants or gardening. If they enjoy science, or if you're trying to inspire them, then this is the book for them!

The deep space battleship Persephone Quest crashed on Paulding's surface centuries back. The history books closed long ago. Leaving behind a monument and nothing much else. When people start asking the wrong questions, Flis and Grae find themselves tangled in a tangled and tightening web of deception and corruption. Only one person has the answers. The pilot of Persephone Quest herself. Big problem. The pilot died in the wreck. Three hundred years ago. A standalone novel in the thrilling Karnish River Navigations series.

Persephone learns that it’s ok to stand up for herself in the second book in the Goddess Girls series! Persephone usually goes along with whatever everyone else wants instead of doing what makes her happy. So when she meets Mount Olympus Academy bad-boy Hades, she finally feels like she has found someone with whom she can be herself. But her mom (Ceres) and her friends don’t exactly approve. If Hades can make her feel so special, is he really that bad, or just misunderstood?

Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture, and Identity in Ancient Athens examines the emerging concern for controlling states of psychological ecstasy in the history of western thought, focusing on ancient Greece (c. 750-146 BCE), particularly the Classical Period (c. 500-336 BCE) and especially the dialogues of the Athenian philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE). Employing a diverse array of materials ranging from literature, philosophy, medicine, botany, pharmacology, religion, magic, and law, Pharmakon fundamentally reframes the conceptual context of how we read and interpret Plato's dialogues. Michael A. Rinella demonstrates how the power and truth claims of philosophy, repeatedly likened to a pharmakon, opposes itself to the cultural authority of a host of other occupations in ancient Greek society who derived their powers from, or likened their authority to, some pharmakon. These included Dionysian and Eleusinian religion, physicians and other healers, magicians and other magic workers, poets, sophists, rhetoricians, as well as others. Accessible to the general reader, yet challenging to the specialist, Pharmakon is a comprehensive examination of the place of drugs in ancient thought that will compel the reader to understand Plato in a new way.

A guide to worldwide shamanism and shamanistic practices, emphasizing historical and current cultural adaptations. This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices. What is it like to be a shaman? Entries describe, region by region, the traits, such as sicknesses and dreams, that mark a person as a shaman, as well as the training undertaken by initiates. They detail the costumes, music, rituals, artifacts, and drugs that shamans use to achieve altered states of consciousness, communicate with spirits, travel in the spirit world, and retrieve souls. Unlike most Western books on shamanism, which focus narrowly on the individual's experience of healing and trance, Shamanism also examines the function of shamanism in society from social, political, and historical perspectives and identifies the ancient, continuous thread that connects shamanistic beliefs and rituals across cultures and millennia.