A cult book, translated into ten languages, and finally published in our country. From molecular biology, biochemistry and neurology to shamanism and mythology.

In one of his stays in the most remote part of the Peruvian jungle, the anthropologist Jeremy Narby became aware of the extraordinary knowledge that shamans have not only about plants, but also about the details of their biochemical and molecular interactions. And he wanted to find out how these men, oblivious to any scientific tool and to the very paradigm of Western science, could have accessed this type of information. The answer he received from the shamans was as simple as it was unexpected: it was the ayahuasca itself, master and visionary plant, who transmitted it to him. But was it possible, thanks to the altered state of consciousness that certain plants facilitate, to access the knowledge stored in the DNA itself? His investigation had only just begun.

(1959) is a Canadian anthropologist and writer. He grew up in Montreal and Switzerland, and later studied History at the University of Kent and received his PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University. Narby has lived for years with the Asháninca indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, studying their relationship with the jungle and supporting their fight against the ongoing ecological massacre. Since 1989, Narby has also worked as director of Amazonian projects for the Swiss NGO Nouvelle Planète.

21.5 x 14cm

309 pages