"A work of love, an obsessive, detailed and definitive reference work, addictive for its insights, broad in its ambition" Rory MacLean
Hi, this is the official myspace site for Andy Letcher's tome, 'Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom'.
Is it true that Siberian shamans drink mushroom-infused reindeer piss? Did the Druids munch magic mushrooms? Will the world come to a shuddering end in 2012?
All these questions and more are answered in Andy Letcher's 'Shroom'. Readable, witty and thoroughly researched, Shroom presents the true and definitive story of how magic mushrooms became the global psychedelic drug of choice.
Having received rave reviews in the UK, Shroom is now published in the US by Ecco.
'Even if read while sober, Andy Letcher’s “Shrooms: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom,” is a near-transcendent experience. Well written and thoughtfully researched, the book works on the limbic system too: after reading it, one is tempted to hit the streets in search of a religious-experience-in-a-fungus. Letcher has contributed a delightful, journalistic addition to the genre known as trip lit.' Dick Teresi, New York Times Review of Books
'This man loves his mushrooms, and by the end of this book you too will be as spellbound as Alice is in Wonderland...Letcher is both historian and hippie, and he sees so much in mushrooms to examine, question and celebrate that it becomes a thrilling trip that is both erudite and greatly entertaining. Mind-bending stuff.'Scotland on Sunday
Who I'd like to meet:
Shroomers, McKenna fans, psychonauts, myconauts, ontologists, phenomenologists, psychedelic sceptics, and, obviously, fans of the book.
DO TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THE BOOK!!
Andy Letcher was born in Devon, educated at Marlborough College and initially read Physics and Astronomy at Sheffield University. After a year he switched to Pure and Applied Ecology, and graduated three years later. He went to Merton College, Oxford, to do his D.Phil, researching patterns in the distribution of mammals across continents.
Frustrated with the lack of engagement with environmental issues, he left academia in search of paganism, alterity, and to become a road-protester. He spent six extraordinary months living in a tree-house and blowing kisses at security guards during the Newbury Bypass campaign.
Thereafter he travelled around England and France playing a variety of pagan-psychedelic festival bands, including Celtarabia, Space Goats, and the medieval-inflected Jabberwocky.
He was lured back into academia to do a second PhD, this time in Religious/Cultural Studies - a subject about which he knew next to nothing - researching 'Bardic performance' in contemporary Pagan movements. Engaged by this new discipline, he was awarded his PhD in 2001.
Since then he has attempted to draw on both trainings - in science and the humanities - and has conducted research into issues surrounding the contemporary use of Stonehenge, and the feasibility of using census data to generate statistics on alternative spiritualities. He currently lectures on 'Theory and Method in Religious Studies', 'Environmental Ethics' and 'The History and Development of Modern Paganism'.
He began researching the history of the magic mushroom in 2003. What was meant to be a short paper mushroomed into a 100,000 word book, Shroom, taking two years to complete.
He is currently reading a lot of philosophy, puzzling over the riddle of existence, planning his next book and playing in Acid Folk band, Telling the Bees.
September 1:st our 1:st single, Dare To Lick (Hunter's Red Sleeve), from our upcoming album SILENT REVOLUTION,was released and is available on iTunes but also on our MySpace of course!
The album will be released October 1:st and later that month we go on tour in Germany with The Movements.
DEADHEADS GET READY TO PARTY HEARTY WITH FAMILY GROOVE COMPANY~ROOTSTAND~IFDAKAR,AND MORE! Hey now! The 3Gs ('aka Grateful Garcia Gathering), is returning back to the Camp NCN Venue in beautiful Black River Falls Wisconsin July 30th though August 2nd 2009 where it all began over 6 years ago! A grateful place where Garcia fans will be gathering! It also marks the celebration of Jerry Garcia's 67th Birthday, plus the 14th Anniversary of Jerry's untimely passing. We have leased the campground venue for July 30th though August 3rd 2009 for our 6th annual music festival.
Other great music festivals have hosted at this venue such as Weedstock, Farmapalooza, Big Wu Family Reunion, Campout Roots Festival,just to name a few!
Artists included: Family Groove Company, Rootstand, Ifdakar, Boney Fingers, Baghdad SCUBA Review, Fungus Garden Reverb, Jam and the Playground Kids, In the Dark, MMC Trio, Elf Lettuce, Vinny Weible & Soul Logic, Groovitational Pull, The Reggie, Grateful Beth and the Volunteers, The Bar Tab Band, John Statz, Mr. Cab Driver, Brok'n Arrow, Greyleaf, and more Jambands to be added soon!
Our friends at Mystix Toyz will be on board at the 3G's for tons of family fun with juggling demonstrations, including juggling workshops, face painting, kids parades, plus drum circles and fire dance jams every night
Thank you for being our friend and being connected to us. As we told you, we are an electro-pop-rock band from Lausanne, Switzerland.
Our promo EP with four 320Kbs MP3s and the biography of the band, together with a few pictures are available now as free download (as a .zip file) at the following link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/hsn3ng
So listen to it and pass it on :)
The Blue Tape
°o°
Notre EP promo contenant 4 titres en MP3's 320Kbs ainsi que la bio du groupe et quelques photos est disponible en libre téléchargement sous le lien suivant (archive .zip): http://www.sendspace.com/file/r9fkjv
Alors écoutez-le et passez le à vos voisins :)
On sera aussi en concert le 21 juin 2009 à 20:00 au Bleu Lézard, Lausanne.
I just finished the book. It far exceeded my expectations. As the first book I've read in the psychedelic literary canon, it's already set the bar pretty high. At this point, I'm not too excited about reading the more "I had a good trip and now I'm religious" books. Thank you for the illuminating read! -Michael
This comment was sent by your friend via the Rockstars app. To block this app and all communications from it, click Here.
-------------------------------------------
deliciously down wants you to join their band in Rockstars, a game where you can form bands with your friends and play gigs, battle rival bands, and become famous on MySpace!
Online Now!
