Drugs Books

The complete story of a legend: Canned Heat. When you read this book, you are with the band year after year. Great itme for anyboby like the music.

I thought this book was really well written and all the stories told throughout were very interesting. Love Canned Heat and it is kind of sad in a way, but it's good to know what happened. Fito rocks!

I usually don't like biographies too much, but with Fito De La Para, it's different! It's about one third biography, and two thirds the saga of Canned Heat and it's members, and their ill fates. It tells about the life and death of Alan Willson, one THE greatest harmonica players of his time, and fleshes him out in a way that just listening to the old albums can't do. The same thing happens with "the Bear," Bob Hite, and Harvey Mandel, and each of the later members that replace them. Many, Many great pictures! It's drugs and chicks and death, just like the title says, but Fito retains hope throughout, and is a bouyant narator who takes you on his personal ride from illegal alien to superstar to heir to the "World's Premeir Boogie Band!" I read it all, then handed it off to my Dad, with my brother waiting in the wings to grab it next! Get it while you can!

Being a serious blues player and fan I've never been partial to Canned Heat's music though I'm pretty familiar with it. I did buy the LP Hooker and Heat, which I like. Alan Wilson was a fine harp player for sure and John Lee Hooker was in good form. I'm not going to run out to buy any Canned Heat CDs now, but after having read this book I'm sorry that I never heard Canned Heat live. I once read a comment about Son House to the effect that he doesn't play the blues, he IS the blues. Canned Heat, more than any act in history, based on Fito's account, lived the blues. These poor devils went through a seemingly never ending litany of tragedy, death, injustice and suffering in their incredibly long existence (which continues to this day) and yet they survived. That, after all, is what the blues is all about. Surviving tragedy with strength, humor, love, and often drugs and/or alcohol IS the blues. Few blues performers (and no bands) have paid the dues that Canned Heat has paid. This makes Canned Heat pretty special in my opinion.
Fito's account of the band's journey through the ups and downs of life and show biz is heartfelt, wise, funny and very well written. The book is the best rock biography I've read in a long time, maybe ever. I found myself really caring about the members of the band including the many who only briefly joined and left. The accounts of self-destructive core members Bob Hite, Alan Wilson and Henry Vestine are tragic and inspiring at the same time. Fito doesn't pull any punches when discussing any aspect of the band, it's members or the many managers, wives, girlfriends, bar owners and fans that the band came in contact with. He's a wise soul who understands human nature very well and it comes out in every page of this informative and entertaining book.

Written by Canned Heat drummer Fito De La Parra, this book is a tell-all tale of rock and roll excess. Only a Latino could pour his heart out the way Fito does here. His love of the blues, love of his fellow band members, his anguish at the deaths of Hite, Wilson and Vestine are expressed here vividly and emotionally. Of particular interest are some great stories about their most loyal fans; bikers, as well as the usual alcohol abuse, over-the-top drug use, and dalliances with females, some of them groupies, including the Plastercasters, The Butter Queen and sweet, sweet Connie. A must-read for all fans of rock and roll, blues and " the road ".

I have not even finished this book yet, but already I feel like I'm healing. My mother was an alcoholic (now dry), her mother was an alcoholic, and I used to drink heavily myself. It's shedding light on some of my tendencies (trying to bend over backwards to please everyone, feeling abandoned by my mom at times, and so on). It also explains to me some of her behaviors and why she has anger lingering in her life and how it affects her still. Very insightful.

It WAS Real. The things you experienced with your alcoholic mother WERE real.

Other people have been through the same horror, guilt, and despair. I found this book very comforting.

As an adult daughter of an alcoholic mother, I have read several ACoA books but never really found anything that spoke to me like My Mama's Waltz did. I was amazed at how many issues stem from growing up with an alcoholic mother. It was so comforting to read others' experiences and know that I'm not crazy and other women are going thru the same things. This book is a gem and I have recommended it to my three sisters and a girlfriend. So far, everyone has loved it as much as I did. If you are an adult daughter of an alcoholic mother you have to read this book!!!

I really enjoyed hearing other stories of daughters of alcoholic mothers. It aided in my therapy because it helped me remember events that I was having a hard time remembering. I found that my situation was much like others. Therefore, I didn't feel so alone. I highly recommend this book.

My mother was not an alcoholic, but her mother was. I helped me to understand my mother so much better and how being raised by an alcoholic effected her life. As a person in recovery 7 yrs and now a mom, this book solidified my sobriety to see what a burden an alcoholic mother can be to a child. Thank You.

I loved the candid views of the author. What his childhood led to -I certainly do not envy. The energy & intensity really starts to flow toward the middle of the book. There is a message here.

This was an incredible first-write author, Job well done! When the division between narration and plot took over, I was unable to keep my heart out of the story. I'm driven to be more aware of the disabled and disadvantaged because of this book. Bless you, you have a talent and a gift that is clearly visible in this book. -Allison

I thought the conditions for this family were tough but they did it to themselves. For every action, there is a reaction, and that's what they got. You struggle with the word deserve because you do deserve what you get. Incest is not acceptable, no matter what Darwin and his perverted view of the world says.

As a professional in the health-care field, I meet people like this everyday. I was so involved with this book -I could'nt put it down until I finished it. It seems that we do forget and overlook the parallels of our lives. I've certainly begun looking at my own surroundings differently as a result.

As a random excerpt, the following inspired me to share with my fans as they review the postings.

It seemed it was the pretty peoples turn to celebrate this year as this bunch gladly took part in. It was time for good days, better nights! Life was fun and to be the focus of attention or make your own mark in the world only empowered the group even more. Considering that they were at the forefront of the baby boomer generation, everything was plenty for the taking.

The days evolved into cool winter nights since the union of so many. Weekly card parties or gatherings cemented further the bond between friends. Not much was wrong or troublesome among them till one day;

This book is one complete great book on knowing about what all Peripheral Neuropathy is and whatever you need to know. Thanks to the author I can really appreciate useful and correct knowledge about it.

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is not only physically painful, it is emotionally very painful. I can no longer work at my life's profession, I cannot turn a doorknob, open my mail,even typing this hurts like the dickens. I no longer go many places...I fall a lot. I recently have felt like I am going nuts.
But then this book was recommended to me. I read it immediately upon arrival and had this WOW feeling. I still feel all the pain and isolation, but now I understand more about this disease, especially that I am probably sane because a whole bunch of folks feel exactly like I
do.
This nice book has many useful references and explains PN so I understand it. It gave me some ideas to ask my neurologist
. He had read the book, liked it and was quite open to trying one of the described treatments.
PN patients-this is a good book for you to read. PN caregivers-read it; it will give you some idea of what we are going through.
Thank you for listening.

Most of the information is available over the internet. It is good to have a lot of it in one book, but I would not re-read or recommend for purchase.

Book was purchased to better understand neuropathy which my mother has. The book helped alot.

I bought this book for someone else who is suffering from diabetic neuropathy that is not responding well to treatment. This person said that the book is "excellent" and that it provided clear, comprehensive information that s/he wasn't able to find anywhere else (including internet sites). Highly recommended!

This thriller is sort of like a cross between the movie "under seige" and an enviromental disaster movie.

It has excellent characters and the action never stops. I think the cover of this book does it a dis-service, in that it looks like one of those WW2 naval novels or a techno-thriller, when really this book is neither of those. Instead it relies on well drawn characters (who are not invincible) who use their intelligence and common sense to get out of a tight situation.

An above average thriller, even for those who aren't ship buffs. (I'm not and it held my interest)

This is a book that all should read who loves adventure, much action and an awful lot of suspence. Even the most avid reader will not be able to anticipate what's comming next. This is a well written book, story line and character relationship. This book has more than the average number of characters, sub plots and sub-sub plots. This is a book that should be read more than once. Move over Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy your replacement is in the building!!! If you have a reader on your Christmas list this is the gift to get them.

Maurice Medland's first book, and what a first book. A sea story with lots of twists. South American drug lords, a silent killer loose on a wounded ship sailing into a cyclone, intrigue, romance, and some extraordinary seamanship. A book that is hard to put down until the last page has been read.

Once I started reading Point of Honor, I couldn't put it down. It's a thriller that has everything: adventure, intrigue, romance, and a very tight story line that keeps you guessing until the end. I can't wait for Medland's next book!

A good, fun read. Scary parts, tense parts. Characters about as well drawn as could be expected in work of this genre. Author seems to know what he's talking about with naval and air equipment, but I don't even consider this a "techno-thriller" of the Clancy/James H. Cobb variety. Concept of the El Callado character was nicely chilling. Great storm-at-sea sequence.

Everybody's got a million things to do and a big stack of books, but this one grabs you right away with a fantastic opening scene, and doesn't let down the rest of the ride. There are vivid portrayals of Latin America's best and worst, and the best and worst in the Americans who travel there. Great scenes in a quick read.

Alan Gottlieb's debut provocative and intense novel, Ultimate Excursions examines the anguish and guilt of Tim Lake, a Peace Corps volunteer following the [...].

After completing college, Tim joined the Peace Corps and he was assigned to the agricultural extension program in Ecuador, which was preceded by a three- month training period in Costa Rica. It was during these training sessions that Tim befriended Mark Miles and immediately became attracted to him. It was also during these sessions that Tim became part of a six- member group that formed a nucleus around which the rest of the volunteers bonded.

Tim describes Mark as a runaway train due to his frequent erratic behavior; nonetheless, it didn't take a great deal of convincing for Tim to follow Mark around no matter what would be the repercussions. During one of their jaunts the couple decided to take off to Machu Picchu, Peru for a few days where as Mark assures Tim, "it is going to be awesome and a month of wine, women, song and who knows what else." Little did Tim know that it certainly would be awesome but not in any way he could imagine.

One evening Mark and Tim are having a grand time boozing and inhaling cocaine when they heard a loud rap on the door of their "buck-a-night room." Knowing full well what the ramifications would be if they were found in possession of narcotics, Tim hurriedly throws some of the cocaine in the toilet. However, Mark decides to gulp down his portion along with some alcohol. The combination proves to be lethal and as he tries to vomit, he gags and nothing comes up. In his psychotic exploding and panic, Mark begs for Tim's assistance, however, Tim seems to be paralysed as he watches Mark's arms "flailing around, like they were spiking a series of volleyballs."

As Tim recounts: "finally I was moving. I flung myself on top of Mark, but it was like jumping on a bucking bronco...Mark had stopped moving. His face was purple and his tongue was hanging out. Only the white of his eyes showed, and there was foam all around his mouth."
Running out of the room and to a nearby restaurant, Tim seeks help shouting that his friend has killed himself and that they are Peace Corps volunteers.

After being questioned by the local law authorities, who believe that there may have been some foul play including trafficking in narcotics, Miguel Hernandez, director of the Peace Corps agricultural programs in Ecuador, comes to Tim's rescue. However, there is a price to be paid as Miguel orders Tim never to tell anyone the truth as to what exactly happened to Mark. If asked, Tim must state, as he initially informed Miguel, that Mark had been ill and this led to his death. Tim becomes quite upset as to what he has been ordered to do and his immediate response is: "Miguel, are you asking me to cover your ass with a lie?"

Nonetheless, Tim consents to go along with the lie and cover up not fully realizing that his cowardice, inaction and collusion will haunt him for the next ten years that will affect him with profound personality and psychological implications.

What makes this novel vital and alive is that Gottlieb is very passionately involved and engaged in human suffering as he depicts his protagonist working through his shocking anguish and pain. Moreover, he doesn't omit the circumstances of everyday life, vividly crafting them without concealing their reality. On another level, Gottlieb shows compassion, as readers are exposed to the just and unjust, reminding us that we should not to be too hasty in passing judgement for we never know how any of us would have reacted if placed in the same situation as Tim.

Gottlieb's haunting debut novel is an excellent beginning and inarguably thought-provoking and I do hope to read more from this very promising author.

Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures

Ultimate Excursions is the ultimate Boomer adventure: a novel about an internal journey toward redemption, set against a gorgous but ravaged backdrop that the narrator's self-absorption doesn't allow him to see or truly be in.

Gottlieb knows the terrain, both interior and exterior. He apparently also knows hallucinogens, weed and scotch. The result is a tortured but still somehow fast-paced gallop toward a reckoning both dark and redemptive.

This book is not for the faint of heart. You can't really envision a womens' book group in Westchester County digging the cock-fighting scenes or the other violence that, while never gratuitous, also isn't delivered lightly.

Even though the narrator's haughty self-absorption wears on you after awhile, you can see that narrator is disgusted with it himself, and that it's the shell he's built over his life to protect himself from an awful truth. Gottlieb is very adept at both dwelling in and commenting upon the flawed and wounded character who narrates Ultimate Excursions.

The book has an unexpected but not implausible ending. It concludes a fine look at late-Boomer disillusion with selfless service, self-indulgence and selfish ambition.

And, yeah, the author is my brother. Believe me, I wanted to be spiteful and petty in this review, but damn it, the book wouldn't let me.

This is a hell of a story that I could not put down: gripping and appalling, cosmically funny and deeply painful. Gottlieb's sharp-edged observation and brilliant writing unleash a roller-coaster ride of the soul starting at the bottom in darkest night, rocketing through twists and turns, ups and downs, tropical sun, grimy alleys. It's disorienting, disturbing and spiked with unexpected laugh-aloud humor. Gottlieb is a an acute observer of human frailty and vanity. Protagonist Tim Lake, no hero, is initially a pathetic and shame-filled loser who claws his way back to survival, growth, and even nobility. A must-read!

Timothy Lake is talented and flawed, charming and self-destructive. One event in his life set the stage for his dramatic undoing, a years-long odyssey of loneliness and despair that takes him across two continents in search of reconciliation with his fears and his dark, haunting nightmares. Once you start this book, you can't put it down.

Excellent Book, which address the key to recovery. It seems alcoholics/addicts have to hit bottom before they are motivated to act, raising the bottom is key. This book offers great tools. Also, Raise the Bottom: How to Keep Secret Alcoholics from Damaging Your Business is similar, with a focus on the workplace.

Arthur M. Jackson, author
Raise the Bottom: How to Keep Secret Alcoholics from Damaging your Business
www.raisethebottom.com

This book is a great overview for anyone dealing with an alcoholic or drug addict in the family. It gives you information on everything from treatment options to dealing with the impact on other family members. It is written clearly and concisely, and it's very easy to read. The author uses tidbits of his own story to illustrate his points. Add this book to your collection - you'll be glad you did!

I bought this book when it was first published, I have people in my life who are actively using!! I actually bought 3 and gave them out to friends as well. I absolutely could not put the book down!!!! It was amazing to me that someone could write something that I had lived with almost to the T. It gave me understanding from a different perspective and enlightened me on different ways of seeing the disease. I would highly recommend this book. If you know or have anyone in your life with addiction this book is a MUST HAVE!!!!!!! It will help you understand things you never would have thought, AND will help you deal with and know what is helping the addict, and what is hurting them!!!!! You need to get this book TODAY!!! It saved my sanity!!!

Joe Herzanek, former drug and alcohol abuser, has done more than get treatment for his addictions. Herzanek conquered his demons and has spent his sober life serving others suffering from addiction. He founded the Changing Lives Foundation [...] and has served as a chaplain and counselor at jails and prisons for fifteen years. Herzanek is currently the Chaplain at the Boulder County Jail in Boulder, Colorado. Why Don't They Just Quit? is more than the typical self-help book. The winner of a Next Generation Indie Book Award, this book is gritty, honest, and full of practical tips, resources, and an Alcohol and Drug Addiction Self Test. I loved the myriad quotes sprinkled throughout from such diverse individuals as Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and Herzanek's own family members. In the foreword, Joe's wife, Judy, the Creative Manager for the Changing Lives Foundation says, "Joe speaks from firsthand experience, having survived shattered relationships, a life-threatening disease, physical and mental withdrawal, police problems, and raising two teenagers." It is the intimate way in which the author shares himself that lends what could be "just another addiction recovery book" a fresh and hopeful voice. I would recommend this for anyone who has been impacted by the effects of addiction. (Recommended by Julie McGuire, Associate Editor, The Internet Review of Books - [...]

Family members often have nowhere to go with their concerns about their addicted loved one. What do I do? How do I help? How do I balance my love for my child (husband, wife, friend) and my desire to protect them from harmful consequences with the need to do everything within my power to get them help? "Help" almost always means bringing the problem into the open -- asking friends and family for support, emergency room visits, legal interventions, admitting openly and honestly what drug use and addiction have done to your family -- and most of us hide away, hoping the problem will resolve itself over time. But addiction is a progressive disease and over time, things will get worse. Joe Herzanek's factual, fascinating book offers compassion for family members, solid evidence-based information about the disease, answers to commonly asked questions, and most important of all, a sense that you are not alone. As the author of several books on addiction and recovery, I know how important it is to have solid, effective, caring, experience-based information about drug use and addiction -- especially for the scared, tired, shamed, blamed family members. This book is an invaluable addition to the literature on addiction. If you or someone you know needs help, buy this book and pass it around to your friends and family members. Almost every family in this country is affected directly or indirectly by drug use. We have to do everything we can to help people understand what they are facing, using facts support by scientific research, and fighting the stigma that keeps so many hurting people hiding away in silence and shame. This book is an important and essential resource for family members, teachers, court services personnel, counselors, treatment personnel, ministers, doctors, and anyone whose life is affected by alcohol and other drug use/addiction.

Kathy Ketcham, coauthor, Teens Under the Influence: The Truth About Kids, Alcohol, and Other Drugs- How to Recognize the Problem and What to Do About It; Broken; Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism; Beyond the Influence: Understanding and Defeating Alcoholism; The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning

Antipodes is a major milestone in the scholarly and scientific theory and methodology of visionary plants, entheogens, and the phenomena of the dissociative cognitive state, in the tradition of William James. Nitrous showed James the ordinary state of consciousness isn't enough for a full account of the mind.

Shanon critiques previous approaches to cognitive psychology, entheogens, and the mystic state and surpasses previous coverage of drug-induced mysticism. He presents and calls for a sophisticated, well-informed phenomenological Cognitive Psychology approach to the mind and to the dissociative cognitive state and primary religious experiencing.

He presents a research methodology, framework, and paradigm of extensive first-hand experience and training in the dissociative visionary cognitive state, with extensive comparison of experiential observations with many other experienced observers or trained practitioners, per Ken Wilber's Eye to Eye. He demonstrates how the altered, dissociative cognitive state informs the scientific study of the mind, and how a phenomenological cognitive psychology perspective informs the scientific, systematic study of the states induced by visionary plants.

He approaches cognitive psychology as a concern with overall dynamic mental activity and phenomena, rather than underlying-level mental representation. He critiques the established Psychology models of mystic-state experiencing, emphasizing that the visionary altered state affects and works comprehensively and non-specifically upon the entirety of experiencing and cognitive activity, including movement and performance, neither centered in uncovering hidden layer of already-ongoing sub-cognitive activity nor being restricted to merely the isolated faculty of imagination.

Antipodes opens a new era in research and theory on visionary plants and mythic metaphor. Myths were discovered through the use of substance-induced altered states of consciousness; the world of myth is the world of entheogens. Ayahuasca drinkers tend toward the universal metaphysical conclusion, of idealist monism: only interconnected thoughts exist.

Although noting Ancient Jewish mysticism used a Ayahuasca mixture such as Rue and Acacia or Mimosa, he emphasizes myths as metaphorical description of dissociative cognitive experiencing induced by visionary plants, not of the plants themselves like previous entheogen scholars. Myth describes dissociative experiencing through small-scale mythemes and larger-scale structures, and represents mental transformation over multiple sessions.

Shanon's coverage of mystical phenomena is less developed and coherent than of imagery. His categories of experiential phenomena and visionary metaphor don't cover the specifically religious-experiencing realm such as a willing sacrificing of kingship; he covers temples as merely a visual object, not really explaining why kings and temples are seen. He covers control-instability, personal autonomy issues, and fear as though separate from religious/spiritual divine-encounter aspects.

Practitioners fearfully cross themselves and pray for mercy before taking the Eucharistic potion. Cognitive dissociation brings thought-control crisis in which reliance on one's own powers and resources is of no avail; to combat fear and restabilize mental control, trust is needed in something beyond one's local autonomous self.

He advises mastering fearful thoughts and remembering you're an autonomous self who can influence thoughts -- yet asserts Ayahuasca drinkers feel the source and master of which thoughts happen isn't themselves, but external forces; it's scientifically unknown how thoughts originate; and the source of thoughts, control, and what happens in one's mind is not oneself, but a hidden, transcendent source.

Metaphorical descriptions of dissociative phenomena are also covered in Metzner's Unfolding Self; Culiano's Out of this World; Collins' Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys; Arbel's Beholders of Divine Secrets; and Thorne's Marihuana: Mysticism & Cannabis Experience. Antipodes is a must-have for consciousness and entheogen researchers.

To this date this book is the best analytical physiological examination and charting of the ayahusca experience that I have ever before seen. It is an exceptional book and a must read for any one interested in Psychology, Visionary substances, Ayahusca, spirituality, religion or the mind. Benny is going through the book charting cataloging and grouping the various Ayahuasca phenomena and experiences into the first ever-scientific exploration into the visionary state. He is very loyal to the scientific western model and I respect this as well as many of his ideas and personal views on the visionary experience as well as his deep admiration for Platonic thought. Although I would like to say that I feel it is quite a shame on his part that he discounts the Spiritual dimension so. I feel that in his attempt to categorize the ayahusca phenomena has allowed him to miss the Forest through the trees if you will. I think it is very presumptuous to assume the entire shamanism history of the world as well as the entire visionary and Ayahusca community is largely in fault to believe in the reality, how ever large or small it may be, to the spiritual dimension. But then again he is not a Physicist and the idea of Other physical realitys as noted in quontom theory is not something he belives in at all, I know I have talked with him personaly on this matter in Peru. But in benny's own words from the book " Ayahusca brings us to the very limits of what rational western psychology can comfortably know or answer he then delvs with the conclusions of his book with a examination of Platonic thought wich I fing beutiful and a perfect intalectial match to the tone of this amazing work. I give this astounding book 5 stars, and a must have for any personal Library.

INTRODUCTION
What happens when a worldly Israeli cognitive psychologist goes to the Amazon Basin where he ingests the famed psychotropic concoction Ayahuasca (the `vine of the dead') again and again and again? Our intrepid philosophical psychologist is no longer a sprightly youth, maddened for adventure. He is instead an accomplished theoretician with widely published articles (several in this journal) and a noted book (*The Representational and the Presentational*, 1993) that speak the from the perspective of cognitive (or phenomenological, for Shanon) psychology against the reductive tendency to view the mind's activities as created by the the brain's activities. Even before his Amazonian quest, he placed himself in the Gibsonian camp seeing the mind as dynamic intermediary between organism and environment and active participant in both. What did happen is this extraordinary book, a scientific analysis of his own visions and the education of both Shanon's views and, perhaps, his soul.

Benny Shanon's accomplishment in this unique and carefully written treatise is nonpareil. In his landmark attempt to chart and classify the experiences that follow ingesting the Amazonian brew, Ayahuasca (always capitalized by Shanon), he demonstrates a will to observe and explain as relentless as carbon steel, but his seeing and experiencing also require him to be as flexible as tungsten when he must shape his interpretations within experiences that have all but overthrown the pretense of objective observation. Indeed, as he becomes `educated' through his journeys with this brewed plant compound, apparently beginning his own shamanic initiation, his will, his very self must capitulate to experiences beyond words. Later, back at his desk, Shanon will use his notes and memory to go discover the order of things. This breakthrough study will achieve the respect and renown it deserves, but it is currently causing a stir in certain circles and amongst the openminded international intelligentsia.

Shanon has written a slow-rising classic that should stay aloft for the duration of our era, not just as cognitive psychology or even as another narrative of the psychedelic experience, but as the revelation of the boundless potentials within the human journey itself. Since its release, it appears to have received universal praise from other critics and readers. However, word has not filtered out into the hungry minds of the general public or surely *Antipodes*(1) would be on a bestseller list. Either its subject matter - pharmaceutically induced altered states of consciousness - is still considered too politically threatening or Benny Shanon needs to hit the talk show circuit. His book enters deep waters yet never loses its way. It may be a challenge for some to wade through his classifications but in doing so may find their thinking clarified. Shanon's writing is clear as a mountain brook. He wastes no words for grand effect but always goes straight and true for the point of the topic he had begun. This makes for a very satisfying read, which is helped immensely by the greater story lurking within it to do with one man's awakening from the sleep from self consciousness. *Antipodes* is neither obscure nor excessive, so it might make a good selection for a book-of-the-month for educated readers. Oprah, are you listening?

Nothing exactly like this has ever been written before(2), beautifully rendered and incisively analysed yet finally superseding its own analytic. The reader joins a dedicated scientist on a journey that most would consider well beyond the possibility of scientific data gathering, except in terms of chemistry or anthropology. This journey is a phenomenological analysis, Shanon's close observation his own experience. He wastes no pages speculating on what the neural correlates of his visionary experiences might be, not even taking much time to explain the active ingredients of the `brew' or how it changes the brain. Within this work (but not always within his own experience), the phenomenological-analytical approach seldom wavers. Such an approach still requires a certain distance, so when the object of study is his own earthshaking visions or emotional tsunamis rising up to lay bare every suppressed anxiety, guilt, or self delusion - not even to mention the digestive trauma often encountered(3), one finds oneself in mute admiration for this stalwart scholar who steadily perseveres, refusing to be swept away from his purpose. He admits to making wrong choices in his early Ayahuasca journeys, lingering at banquet or resisting the lure of jaguar metamorphosis when he should have continued his quest, but he learns and begins again. As new worlds open before him, sometimes terrifying, he never retreats in a desperate attempt to turn the experience off. But he also learns when to surrender. Song pours from him amongst strangers, but he knew he must allow the joy to have voice. Though only briefly alluded to, it seems his perseverance and purity of purpose allowed him to finally transcend the limits of knowledge altogether by surrendering his cognition and his very self in a metanoia beyond the realm of words, memory, or interpretation. Needless to say, this experience is not described.

It is in this sense that *Antipodes* may find itself attacked (or ignored) from two opposed positions at once. Most hard science does not consider phenomenology a respectable undertaking since one's subjective experiences can neither be observed by anyone else nor shown to produce repeatable effects. One attempting to draw up analytical structures for drug-induced visions is likely to be dismissed out of hand as delusional, taking hallucinations for reality(4). On the other hand, true believers - religious followers, mystic esotericists, New Agers - will be annoyed for though Shanon puts the stamp of `reality' upon his altered-state journeys, he continues to be skeptical about the existence of supernatural deities behind the metaphysical curtain. In his captivating Prologue he states: `For years I characterized myself as a "devout atheist". When I left South America I was no longer one' (p. 9), but he later explains that his `theism' is more related to a Spinozan pantheism grounded in creative dynamics than to anybody's pantheon or hierarchy of static divinities. He also rejects as unlikely the many reports of enhanced psi powers during the Ayahuasca intoxication (noting that increased perceptual sensitivity and interpersonal attunement can explain the `mind reading' he has experienced and heard reported). He remains open, however, expressing the wish that reports like that involving the remote viewing of an actual European city by an Amazonian native who had neither seen pictures nor heard stories of such a place should be objectively investigated.

Others will argue, and have done so, that immersion in the vision quest involves the suspension of the judgmental, cognitive faculty. Shanon seems to have learned the right steps to his dance between reception and cognition. When the moment presents itself, he allows the imagery or ambiance to take over; but when he returns he makes note of all that can circumscribed. Such imagistic encouragement is similar to Spinoza's intuitive mode of knowing, as Shanon notes (p. 205), but he also stands by the need for subsequent careful analysis in the same way elucidated by Whitehead (1978): `The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It starts from the ground of particular observation; it makes a flight in the thin air of imaginative generalization; and it again lands for renewed observation rendered acute by rational interpretation' (p. 5). Whether this `rational interpretation' infects that which is so interpreted, thus standing on the primary ontological ground beyond that of visionary experience remains an open question, to be asked again below.

In what follows, I will attempt the briefest of summaries though such is an injustice to this groundbreaking psychological cartography of what is terra incognita to most of us. I will then share my perplexities and a personal response, before concluding.

SUMMARY
As a reader, I was hooked immediately by the dramatic Prologue as well as the few selected illustrations, all details from the artwork Planos by Brazilian `shaman-turned-artist' Céu. Each detail is a picture unto itself - a `frame of reference' - yet `the big picture' reveals them all as aspects of a greater dynamic spiralling out from or in towards a core of light that no doubt `passeth all understanding'. The plates seemed to be metaphor for *The Antipodes of the Mind*, frame of reference within frames of reference, each part structured by the whole, while the whole is changed by the activity of the parts.

In the Prologue, Shanon tells the story of his first encounters with the Ayahuasca brew and the questions that brought him to begin his mammoth research project. In his first experience of any consequence he had visions that included jaguars and snakes. He learned later that this was commonplace for Ayahuasca drinkers and his professional curiosity as a cognitive psychologist was roused: `Snakes and jaguars seem to be just too specific to define cognitive universals' (p. 7). But he also underwent horrible visions of human cruelty throughout history, including what must have been especially wrenching, the Jewish Holocaust. But rather than back away or fall into bitter cynicism, he countered it with contemplation of the beauty that humans had brought into the world: `However evil and petty human beings are, I thought, they are also the creators of some of the most beautiful things that exist in the universe. With culture and art, as well as with religion and spirituality, humankind can be redeemed' (p. 5). The anguish or fear evoked by unexpected and shocking presentations of evil must be the gate that has turned away many other first time drinkers from further pursuing this course. Through his faith in life and the human journey, Shanon himself emerged beyond the gates in a centre of serenity within which it seemed the world and himself was born anew: `It seemed this was the first day of creation' (p. 6).

After these first world-changing experiences with the Santo Daime Church (daime=Ayahuasca), he was thrown into a period of critical self-analysis. He knew he had to further study this vine and its power, but how? It seems he first had to accept who he already was, an accomplished cognitive psychologist; he confirmed this identity by ending his self-analysis and beginning his journey to other realities found through Ayahuasca and then a long critical, objective, and categorical analysis of the Ayahuasca experience. This book is the fruit of his labours. It is clear, however, that he had also personal motivations to discover a way to confront the human dilemma of good and evil, as well as facing (or `being faced by') the everpresent questions of a spiritual nature.

Shanon set the time aside, returned to the Amazon, underwent prescribed purifications, and became a dedicated student of the School of Ayahuasca, a mystes into its mysteries. He knew from the first he would never `graduate' as the result of a handful of Ayahuasca sessions, so he took his work seriously indeed. He travelled to gatherings among the three churches (two Christian inspired, one an offshoot of the Umbanda movement) in Brazil that use Ayahuasca as their sacrament and participated in their organized sessions. He sat with Amazonian tribespeople under the jungle canopy, often with the guidance of a ayahuasquero, the `specialist of the sacred', a shaman. Later, as he began to master his visions, he journeyed with few others among accomplished shaman-healers. He shared the brew with experienced users in urban settings, and, when he felt ready, flew solo. At the time of publication, he had gone on over 130 Ayahuasca journeys, though the `core corpus' of his phenomenological research work is his first 67 sessions. Each session was summarized at its conclusion. Beyond that, he read everything he could find on the brew, from early reports of missionaries or explorers to current extended scientific analyses. None combined scholarly analysis with extended personal experience. Finally, he set out in good cognitive psychological fashion and interviewed others who had just concluded their own sessions or anyone in general who also had extensive experience with the brew: `My estimate is that, all told, the data discussed here are based on about 2,500 Ayahuasca sessions' (p. 410).

Then Shanon got back to his desk to reveal the structure of the world (perhaps that should be `worlds'). The bulk of the book consists of prolonged exegeses, enumeration and elaboration of steps, systems and subsystems, categories of subcategories within supercategories, and lists of effects and affects. His point of departure is the phenomenology of his `core corpus'. I will not summarize here his structural program, central to his topic as he deems it to be. Strange to say, I rarely found this approach tedious. For one thing, as noted above, the objects of his classifications are confrontations and participation with other realities, so there is a veritable tale of wonders interwoven within the data. Running through the exposition like an unruly stream upon well-manicured fields is the underlying narrative of the paradigmatic hero's journey into meaning. Furthermore, Shanon's mind, as expressed in his writing, is so refreshingly clear and organized that one feels perfectly secure in boarding his `aeroplane' to survey mysteries of terror and delight well beyond most of our experience or comprehension. It may be, however, that Shanon needed this comprehensive organization as a grounding for his more ultimate revelations. Perhaps it was necessary for him `systematically to chart the various phenomena that Ayahuasca may induce and *to establish order in them*' (p. 48, my italics), so he could at least recall the pathway back toward the Source, the `still point of the turning world'.

Shanon learns there are stages of advancement into these mysteries: The novitiate begins passively watching wonders unfold as on a screen, but with experience and courage, learns to enter the vision and explore its reality from within. Then there comes a stage where a certain degree of control over the unfolding reality is possible, though such `control' is always partial and participatory - Shanon often uses the metaphor of playing an instrument or being played as such: `Thus, I say that the Ayahuasca experience is like music played on an instrument which is the soul and that this music is a perfect mirroring of one's entire being' (p. 380). Indeed, the final stage seems to involve gaining the power to engage many worlds (or realities) simultaneously, but also the power to act in this world in ways never previously attained or attempted, such as the expressive arts or guidance and healing. The `grades' of the School of Ayahuasca are summarized thus:

`First there was an exposition. ...the second course was discipline. ... The third course of my schooling was primarily concerned with healing and disease. ... The grades that followed focused on the sacred and involved powerful spiritual experiences. Then I had a long period-coupled with my partaking of Ayahuasca with traditional Amazonian healers-that focused on shamanism. ... The subsequent course ... focused on a variety of more specific issues' (pp. 302-3).

To get this far, the novitiate or mystes has endured many trials and temptations, yet s/he must be bold enough to know when to surrender to the reality that presents itself and wise enough to know when to actively alter it. One must have overcome the narcissistic limitations of one's fears while not inflating vanity over one's piloting control or expanding knowledge. Such hubris, as myths have taught us, may lead to the pride that goes before a fall.

Shanon found the pure heart and `empty centre' to be accepted amongst the healers of the Amazon rain forest. He mentions that now he feels his role has become more performative than explorative as guide, hierophant, and something of an ayahuasquero himself. In terms of powers, Benny Shanon emerges as `Benny Shaman' (though I doubt he would admit this or appreciate the wordplay). In terms of wisdom, he states his conviction that the most expressive gesture of ontological truth is found simply in songs of praise for all creation, in the 'Hallelujah' of his ancestors. As to the ontological question of what exactly is being so praised, Shanon avers it is not anything at all but the joy of the eternal dynamic process - neither God as an entity (or any other form of the supernatural), nor is it humanity or nature, as such. Creation is what the name implies, an ongoing unfolding of the infinitely potent creative core of all things, including ourselves.

Obviously, such `knowledge' cannot be attained either through phenomenological or analytic reduction. It is everpresent beyond the edge of the `known world', that is, beyond the conscious mind `Wherefrom words turn back,/Together with the mind not having attained...' (*Tattirïya Upanishad* 2.9). It is at this point that Shanon the scientist must give up on science and even knowledge in any usual sense and admit that such direct communion exceeds communication: `Yet, there were occasions that it was clear to me that I had to make a choice-if I really wished to undergo the experience presenting itself to me, I would have to forgo my future recollection of it and give up any thought of ever talking about it' (p. 355). Furthermore, even the path to the edge of this unspeakable awakening is one not of ordered signposts and structured roads but of intuitive knowledge, well beyond categorical reasoning. After all his phenomenological analysis, Shanon at last confesses that

`very poignantly, I realized how limited the scientific approach is. It was evident to me that [in] pursuing this stance, there are realms of knowledge that can never be attained. I further comprehended that there are levels of knowledge that demand one to let go and relinquish all critical, distanced analysis. ... In this respect, despite all its limitations in terms of sociological power and cultural permanence, the indigenous stance has the upper hand' (p. 356).

PERPLEXITIES
I continue to be perplexed about several things hinted at in this tome but not fully explained and I outline them here. These mainly result from my own application of traditional reasoning to that which eludes it or from Shanon's expressed reticence to reveal more personal detail or delve into metaphysics. My perplexities are mainly to do with the world of light and truth revealed to the author and apparently to other experienced Ayahuasca drinkers. Either the dark side is less real or it plays a smaller role than I had imagined.

Unlike with LSD, there are said to be no `bad trips' with Ayahuasca. Shanon admits he interviewed no one who drank the turbid brew but once, which would surely be the result if anyone `freaked out' or was just turned off by the whole experience. The nausea, gastritis, and vomiting, emphasized in other first person accounts, may be enough to cause one to avoid the substance next time, but actual `mind-blowing' has not been reported, to my knowledge. Shanon makes it clear that when faced with a personal crisis under the intoxication one must soldier on, dealing with fear and related negative emotions in as grounded and unperturbed manner as possible. Still, crises occur: `Quite commonly,' he states matter-of-factly, `people feel that they are about to die' (p. 57). Elsewhere he notes that a mental breakdown is real possibility. Yet not in Antipodes or anything else I have read to do with Ayahuasca experiences is such a breakdown recorded. Is it bad-trip free?

Along these same lines, my all-too-human binary thinking gets skewed in Shanon's brief discussion of the ontological status of good and evil. On the same page he reports that `Ayahuasca leads people to the conclusion that the world contains both good and evil, that the two are intertwined, and that the ultimate reality is beyond good and evil', but that, `Finally, there are visions in which one feels one is encountering the Supreme Good' (p. 174). I realize I'm probably not getting the mystical paradox here, but elsewhere it's said that Ayahuasca has a cosmic sense of humor (not always benign), that it lies or hides as much as it reveals. Is the Supreme Light without shadow, or what?

I wonder also about the dark side of the initiatory process, especially shamanic initiation. In the pattern of the ritual death-rebirth cycle, there must be a dark night of the soul before the dawn of revelation. Shamanic lore especially emphasizes the almost universal experience of death and dismemberment(5) - apparently the death of the everyday self - before the shaman returns, being one with death yet remaining alive. Shanon modestly and perhaps wisely downplays the significance, but he acted as shamanic healer and guide for others and was accepted at least among one ayahuasquero guild. The fact of this exceptional book's existence is enough to convince me of Shanon's shamanic metamorphosis. No ordinary insight could have carried it through to the end. What I want to know is what sort of ritual or visionary death did our author have to endure? Or did he achieve his dawn without a dusk? Admittedly, he states such an autobiographical confessional was not his purpose here and may have to await a future literary venture.

And one wonders about the whole question of the existence or creation of orderly categories from the data resulting from his phenomenological and statistical analysis. What sort of lists, tables, categories, and structures are being brought forth here, and why? On the one hand he notes commonalities in his visions and those of many others as well as intriguing parallel reactions to these visions, especially amongst the Ayahuasca cognoscenti. As noted, it was in fact these inexplicable similarities that set him on his quest in the first place, professionally speaking at least. Does he then think his structural analyses is revealing the universal latticework of creation, or at least of the Ayahuasca experience? Or is he himself creating such a latticework to place over the chaos of creation? Neither, it seems, or both. Shanon is well aware of the ambiguities of his project and how boundaries in the realms of visionary experience seem to shift or even, with a wink and smile, disappear altogether. In a universe in which the only constant is creative dynamism itself, it is impossible to distinguish between that which one discovers and that which one projects. He states that `there is no clear-cut differentiation between interpretation and creation. ... In essence, all is interpretive, all is creative' (p. 351). If it is so that all phenomena are simultaneously the product of interpretation and creation then - aside from the author's need, personal or professional, `to establish order in them' (p. 48) - it feels like such cartographic detail is mapped onto shifting tides that will change with the phases of the moon.

This is a slippery metaphysics with which we are left. Shanon lays his detailed phenomenological analysis upon the creative essence with some ambiguity, it seems to me, like placing the picnic blanket on the lake. If our acts participate in the unfolding of reality then categories, maps, structures, laws of science, and what have you achieve their substance over millennia of cultural or even transcultural `use', which results in the reality of habitual consensus. They are as real as anything else that seems to just be there, in one place, here and now. Does this leave his categories and structures and patterns with a ground on which to stand? Probably - at least temporarily. In fact, his studies prove beyond much question that certain visionary and experiential patterns reoccur across cultures and in times far apart.

Several times Shanon asserts that his purpose is not to explore ontological questions, but he takes enough steps in that direction that the reader understands that when Shanon finally states that `the view put forth here is that the Ayahuasca experience is one of generation and creation' (p. 383), he is tantalizingly close to claiming this for our usual experience too.

He even briefly discusses the source of these patterns of creation, which brings me to my last perplexity, the uncertainty over the terms `creativity' and `imagination'. Early on, Shanon assures us that `Ayahuasca visions [exhibit] a beauty that is beyond imagination' (p. 17)', referring to our usual notion of the imagination as a post-language faculty activated by the self from other images already stored in memory. In speculating on the source of such beauty, he denies that such creative imagining comes either from a `world of forms', already `out there' in their own ultimate reality or from psychology, that is, the unconscious `in here'. So, in his interpretation, neither Platonic ideas nor Jungian archetypes will do.

To account for the reality of Ayahuasca experiences (and by implication, all experience), he posits a creational reality in which our own creativity participates but which ultimately exceeds our personhood or existence. So, `the notions of "human creativity" or "power of imagination" turn out to be much more fantastic then they are usually thought to be" (p. 396). Yes, indeed, but the originality of this position is where perplexity arises. In the first place, isn't this the core of the Romantics' apotheosis of the transpersonal imagination? Creativity as the core can also be found in some form in both Bergson and Whitehead.

In the second place, I think Shanon is too dismissive of Jung's concept of the collective unconscious by reducing it to residing `in here', but this may be mistaken assumption based on Jung's misuse of Freud's original term, the unconscious. In his later years, Jung wrote a good deal about the *objective psyche*, meaning that the collective or transpersonal unconscious is the very world with which we engage and which is our source. Shanon refers approvingly several times to the somewhat similar notion of the *anima mundi* (`world-soul') as source of the real, both subjective and objective. Then again, as a result of his experiences of communion he would likely disagree that the world or world-soul should be understood as `unconscious' (even if Jung meant `unconscious from the perspective of our self-contained conscious').

The Jung-inspired archetypal psychologist James Hillman (1975) brings us to the point where Jung meets Shanon when he proclaims that every perception, cognition, or memory is fantasy-laden and not possible without such imaginative elaboration. Fantasies, in this sense, are not individual: `The revelation of fantasies exposes the divine, which implies that our fantasies are alien because they are not ours' (p. 184). This may add some flesh to the ontological skeletal frame of Shanon's `generation and creation' pantheism, though he adds the last note that in the `dance' of creator and created it is impossible to tell who is leading.

Allow me to reemphasize that my above `perplexities' are not in the way of criticism. These are questions I would love to sit and discuss with the author; no doubt the inadequacy of my understanding would soon be made plain. I should even apologize for critiquing the few hints of ultimate matters which he deigned to mention, for he himself admits they have not yet been fully thought through. However, feeling perplexed by Shanon's extraordinary encounters and the great work of his phenomenological analysis, I couldn't help but wonder, `What does it all mean?' Perhaps in his next book Shanon will explore an answer to that question.

PERSONAL REACTION
After reading Antipodes with great pleasure and new discovery each time over several careful readings, I retain two reactions that are probably mine alone. One is that I am now sure I will never seek an opportunity to drink the brew of the `vine of the dead'. Put simply, I doubt that I have the strength of character it took for Shanon to advance from audience member to conductor of the orchestra. In part, my reticence arises from my tendency to wander off and become thoroughly lost in the aforementioned psychedelic era, sidetrack to sidetracks. It is my understanding - faith, if you will - that cognition, rationality, and analysis are themselves particular cultural fantasies. When one give intuition primacy, one tends to wander as way leads on to way. Shanon could absorb his incredible experiences and then later at his desk, `establish order in them'. In fact, to the extent that it is possible, he has done just that. However, I fear I would become an Ayahuasca drifter, lost in other realities, but with no wish to return and nothing in order at all.

The second reaction was not one I had expected. *The Antipodes of the Mind* gave me, first dimly then with increasing illumination, *hope*, suffusing me generously with that unfamiliar but uplifting emotion. By reminding me, `There is more here than meets the eye and you know it!', a flood channel of forgotten memories opened and I was able to recall the moments I had found myself elsewhen or elsewhere (and not always as the result of substance ingestion). In the need to `get real' as I grew older, I had simply suppressed such experiences of wonder and awe because they were not `useful'. I had pushed aside visions or encounters that threw into doubt the solid finality of day-to-day reality so I could join the grim march through the lifespan toward dusty death. I'm no fatalist, but I felt as though this book fell into my hands at just the right time. It is not just poetic license but a fact of consciousness-limited awareness that we walk about in worlds unrealized. So I wish to end this book review with appreciation rather than criticism: Thanks, Benny. You've done wonders. Hallelujah to you and your important book.

NOTES
1. There is no singular form of `antipodes'. From my 1938 Funk 'n Wagnalls *New Standard Dictionary*: `antipodes, n. sing. & pl. 1. A place or region on the opposite side of the earth; also, any two places or regions so opposed; as, australia is the antipodes (or at the antipodes) of England. 2. Those who live on the diametrically opposite sides of the earth; as, our antipodes sleep while we wake; the two nations are antipodes.'

2. The only comparable work I know of may be John Horgan's (2003) recent study. Former senior writer at *Scientific American* and noted science writer, Horgan takes a similarly skeptical show-me approach, even to his own ayahuasca experience. In Horgan's Amazon.com review, he puts *Antipodes* on a par with classics on the further reaches of conscious experience by such as William James and Aldous Huxley. He errs, however, when he states that, after his journeys, Shanon remained an atheist, except in the most narrow definition of the term.

3. Shanon downplays the extreme digestive tract disturbances that have been widely reported, occasionally resulting in projectile vomiting. With experience, Shanon found he could avoid bringing forth such unpleasantness by bringing forth spontaneous song instead!

4. Benny cogently argues that such visions are more `other realities' than fictional hallucinations (also see Shanon, 2003).

5. `The shaman learns to know death in the course of his initiation, when he goes for the first time into the underworld and is tortured by spirits and demons,' declares Mircea Eliade (1990, undated entry 1952). Such universality (all universality for that matter!) remains highly controversial in academic circles.

6. It would be most intriguing for Shanon write a phenomenological cartography after experimentation on LSD trips. Knowing the differences and similarities would tell us much about the status of visions. Do they arise from specific drug, personal idiosyncrasy, or have they a transpersonal status?

Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience by Dr. Benny Shanon, Oxford University Press, 2002

This is a difficult review for me to write. There is only one word I can think of to describe how I feel regarding the level of scholarship Dr. Shanon has put forth in this book - flabbergasted.

I have read many books regarding ethnopharmacology and I can honestly say, without solicitation or hesitation, that this book stands out on its own as hands down the best book I have ever read in the field.

For starters, the unbiased presentation. Prof. Shanon not only studied Ayahuasca, but took it himself 120 times (160 to date) for his study, something that is rare in most clinical investigations.

Unlike many other publications on Ayahuasca this book is thankfully not 'new agey,' nor does it outright attack the use of ayahuasca or ayahuasca tourism.

Shanon provides more than 200 reports - including reports from people from all walks of life who've partaken in the Ayahuasca ceremony.
As someone who has many years of my own exploration in this area, including with Ayahuasca, I was awestruck at the literary composition and presentation of the Ayahuasca experiences that Shanon has provided his readers - so many of which I've experienced myself. I never thought that this level of literary description of the experience was possible. And I've read Huxley's Doors of Perception, from which Shanon's book is aptly named, but Huxley did not deliver near the level of understanding and clarity that Shanon has here.

During Shanon's investigation of the Ayahuasca experience, he destroys old prejudiced paradigms of psychological beliefs systems and creates new standards by which researchers may continue further study.

Shanon brings the metaphysical toe to toe with science - staring each other eye to eye into the great dance of wisdom - of opposites. I cannot think of another book (at least that I've read) where this has ever been accomplished to this clear a perspective.

As for my negative contentions regarding this book? I have none. Shanon has raised the bar. he's written one of the strongest arguments regarding any topic I've yet come across - much less the entheogenic experience.

This is THE BOOK to refer to when people ask about or question the authenticity of the entheogenic experience or want to learn more about ayahuasca.

Far and above the best book on the subject. 5 Stars!

Dr. Shannon has made an exceptional study of the ayahuasca experience. After reading such a very well written text,it was hard for me to immediately read other studies of entheogens currently in print, his thinking, use of vocabulary and general quality of argument were that muscular in a print world of terribly sophmoric writers, one-time experience experts, their oohs and ahhs fleshed out by flabby 1 and 2 syllable words in pages and pages of loose whipped-cream text.
He treats his subject with respect and breaks certain idea associations as "psychosis" as defining the ayahuasca state (bravo)and argues with evidence that indigenous cultural exposure alone does not necessarily condition visualizations content during the ayahuasca experience. For any individual looking for a serious, highly disciplined, ga-ga-lite approach to what could be a pretty slippery, "feeelings" driven topic, you must read this honest, unpretentious text.
Not easy, bouncy and full of New Age PC spirit-jargon. Despite this relieving manque, it is nevertheless a most inspiring read, personal enough at the right times to keep the mortal odour of subject clinician or pedantic social-anthropologist out of the air. Really a "right on" experiential read, built upon years of studied personal experience with the brew within and outside of the associated cultural settings and hence, rare indeed.
It is an award winning piece of work on an international scale.
Dr. Shannon is Professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

The MC, Martha, is sincere and complicated. So much happens in the book, but it flows well.

Bad Girls Club

Poor Martha. I don't think I've ready about many girls who have as many battles to fight as this poor girl, but fight she does! Even when all the odds are against her, she keeps trying to move forward, which is no easy thing. A girl at school wants to kill her, her mother is drunk or stoned or gone for days at a time, her neighborhood is about as scuzzy as it gets, and yet Martha survives. With the help of a friend of a friend, Martha gets a second chance and even when that falls apart, she manages to keep going. I recommend this book to all teens who are struggling with abuse, family alcoholism, poverty, bullying, problems at school, or just surviving in a modern world where so many fall through the cracks.

I loved this book, mainly for the character's rich voice, but also because the plot kept moving me along so that I could not wait to find out what happened next. It did tackle a lot of hard subjects right away, and unflinchingly--racism, abandonment, abuse, neglect, alcohol and drug use, drug dealing, poverty, a near-lethal bully, friendships, drifting, a tragic death, guilt, seeking a "normal" life that maybe isn't so normal, and perhaps most frighteningly of all, being pushed to the edge where at last you become violent yourself in order to react to the madness around you. But it's all done with such charm, so intriguingly, and with an odd spark of humor, that you get Martha's voice stuck in your head and you just want to keep reading till you find out what happens next. Despite being not fully satisfied by the ending, I haven't read anything this avidly in a long time.

This book was fantastic. It's a shame young adults get put into situations because of parental flaws. Martha is a perfect example of this and I would recommend this book to young adults as well as adults.

YOUNG ADULT-A book on "Writing for Young Adults" urged me to read books from the genre that I plan to write for-so here I am.

I was completely intrigued by this book. It was so good that I couldn't put it down. This story is presented in a straight-forward manner. It was so refreshing to see such a realistic story.

This is the story of Martha. She has to deal with her mother's alcohol/drug use, physical abuse, verbal abuse, as well as her own personal issues. In her struggle to become an adult, she has to interact with three major antagonists: Chardonay, Nikki, and her own "Momma".

In Cleveland, Ohio the major anttagonist is Chardonay. Chardonay picks on Martha just because she is different. (The abuse is pushing, kicking, verbal abuse, and with a knife.) Martha tries to reason with Chardonay, but after an almost deadly altercation, the two are separated. The resolution (the parting) is permanent, but the anger and venom was still there.

When Martha goes to live with the Brinkmans, Nikki becomes the antagonist. At first, Martha and Nikki are friends: Nikki gives Martha the nickname "Gina". Nikki becomes jealous and conniving which leads to bad interactions. Martha becomes secretive and defensive. Both delve into drugs to temporarily relieve their pain, but the verbal abuse escalates. Finally, Nikki says that Martha has to leave and Martha''s "Momma" demands her return.

Martha's mother is a constant negative influence on her child's life and future. Her mother is self-absorbed and lives in the past. The mother can not reconcile herself with the bad relationship that she had with Martha's father. The mother takes up with Wayne and turns her back on his physical abuse of Martha. The mother also tries to end Martha's opportunity to be a successful cello player. To be like her mother; Martha temporariily falls into alcohol, drug, and sexual promiscuity, but Nikki, who is a recovering alcoholic by now, reminds Martha that she can be better.

Luckily, Martha does persevere and make her life better. She overcomes antagonists and peronal demons on her voyage to becoming an adult.

My book is Dreams in August: Life, Love, and Cerebellar Ataxia

this book tells you how it is. no punches pulled. full and compleat he also has real life examples too. cops do lie all of them. judges will let almost anything slip by to put the pain on you. as for the written law thay don't follow it. get this book so you can get street smart so you don't become a prisoner of the drug war.

I received the "Busted" book in great condition and in a timely manner
and it was cost efficient as well. Many thanks.

On page 88 of the book, he has a police chasing 2 white guys and another guy with the look of the old blackface almost looking like monkey saying he's been running from authorities for over hundred years...interesting drawing

I consider Busted!: Drug War Survival Skills the most useful and informative book in my library. Being a libertarian, I've never been a fan of authority and arbitrary authority at that. That's all the War on Drugs is - an arbitrary group of people (the government) telling us plebs what we can and cannot put into our own bodies. Anyone that has half a brain realizes that this sort of behavior is antithetical to freedom, and certainly fascist in nature.

Busted! has over 300 pages of drug war survival skills, from not getting busted (the first half of the book) to what you'll need to do and go through in the criminal justice system (the second half of the book) if you do get busted. Every page is filled with witty humor, and various 'dope ditties' that tell about different cases of people getting busted and what they went through...most of them completely outrageous. You want to avoid ending up like those people, because the drug war is very real and very serious.

Even if you don't use drugs, you probably have some friends and family or know someone that does drugs. I would recommend this book for you as well. The WOD affects everyone, so it's good to be on your toes and know your rights fully. A lot of people have been put through the shredder because they were ignorant of their rights...don't be like them. Get with the program.

Get Busted!: Drug War Survival Skills.

I have yet to complete this book, but its great so far. Entertaining, and educational. hard to mix the two and keep my interests. I hope this helps sway you to purchase. HAPPY SHOPPING