The book offers an exciting mix of genres: Philosophy, journalism, autobiography, and cultural criticism alternate in a surprising composition. "Philosophers have called our mind an island in the middle of an incomprehensible ocean. Those who try to leave the island get entangled in paradoxes, stray into areas better left silent, or run the risk of losing their minds when confronted with the reflection of their own irrationality. This book is under the sign of caution. We will travel a territory outside the mind, not only to make sense of paradoxes and mysteries, but above all to draw from it benefits for daily life. The theme is the tea Ayahuasca and the Brazilian religion União do Vegetal, in which Ayahuasca plays a central role. As we proceed, however, the perspective will also open to a more comprehensive understanding of the human situation, a situation that, formulated the other way around, we cannot fully comprehend unless we take into account the possibility of the ayahuasca experience." (Derix, Ayahuasca, A Critique of Psychedelic Reason, Ch. 1.)

Two centuries after Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and twenty years after Peter Sloterdijk's Critique of Cynical Reason, a work appears that addresses the great philosophical questions about man's place in the cosmos (What can I know? What should I do? What may I hope?) from an entirely new perspective.

Govert Derix is a philosopher, entrepreneur and writer. Ayahuasca, a Critique of Psychedelic Reason is the result of years of research and a plea for the ayahuasca experience as a mostly whimsical and essential possibility of the human spirit. His descriptions, analyses, and conversations with many ayahuasqueiros (drinkers of ayahuasca) make convincingly insightful how a journey into the world of ayahuasca can proceed. They form a fascinating introduction for those who have never drunk the drink. And a guide for those who already know ayahuasca.

Ayahuasca, a Critique of Psychedelic Reason is a surprising combination of philosophy, journalism, autobiography, and cultural criticism.

Publisher Nachtschatten Verlag
Edition 1st ed. 2004

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