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Psychedelia - An Ancient Culture, A Modern Lifestyle
Psychedelia-An Ancient Culture, A Modern Way Of Life is Patrick Lundborg's and Lysergia's greatest achievement so far. The product of 20 years of research, the 500-page work is likely to prove as pioneering as the preceding Acid Archives, which went through five reprintings and received favorable reviews in leading magazines such as Mojo and The Wire.
A larger number of people are exploring psychedelic states of mind in the world today than at any other point in history. Their shared experiences form the outline of a vast underground culture, whose steady influence upon society can be traced across thousands of years, back to Amerindian plant drug cults and the psychedelic celebrations in ancient Greece that gave birth to our Western society.
But the full scope of this psychedelic culture, and its many expressions in the past, have remained poorly understood or even unknown. Psychedelia has usually been taken as a metaphor, or a symptom of something else, even though its true nature is singular and unparalleled.
Psychedelia by Patrick Lundborg is the first ever book to present psychedelic culture in its full complexity and range. Out of a colorful history that spans 3500 years emerges a philosophy and way of life that is as dazzling and rich as the psychedelic experience itself.
A larger number of people are exploring psychedelic states of mind in the world today than at any other point in history. Their shared experiences form the outline of a vast underground culture, whose steady influence upon society can be traced across thousands of years, back to Amerindian plant drug cults and the psychedelic celebrations in ancient Greece that gave birth to our Western society.
But the full scope of this psychedelic culture, and its many expressions in the past, have remained poorly understood or even unknown. Psychedelia has usually been taken as a metaphor, or a symptom of something else, even though its true nature is singular and unparalleled.
Psychedelia by Patrick Lundborg is the first ever book to present psychedelic culture in its full complexity and range. Out of a colorful history that spans 3500 years emerges a philosophy and way of life that is as dazzling and rich as the psychedelic experience itself.
520 pages, Paperback
First published December 4, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 11, 2021
This book is massive and dense. Covering such a broad, overarching topic like the history of psychedelia, even in a large book like this, means that there really isn’t a great depth of detail in here. Where Lundborg’s study makes up for this lack is in the sheer scope of material covered; from his theories on a psychedelic Shakespeare, to the numerous treatments of psychedelic themes in music, the broad strokes this book paints in make for a sweeping portrait of psychedelia as a vast human culture. Absolutely fantastic, and well worth reading.
June 30, 2015
Messy and rambling but an enjoyable and admirable text
April 30, 2022
An incredibly detailed writing on psychedelics, and the history of their cultural effect.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews