Mushrooms and Mankind: The Impact of Mushrooms on Human Consciousness and Religion

It was appreciated.

Well... this book is a decent read. It's short and to the point, easy to read for the most part. It's organized pretty well. The information content is "so-so". I say this because Arthur keeps it simple, and he keeps it biased.When learning about "mushrooms and religion", I feel it's best to originate your viewpoint from a secular/unbiased platform. James Arthur does not take this approach. A semi-accurate way to describe the style of this literature would be that James Arthur takes what would sound like wild speculation or common coincidence and presents it as fact that is less open to interpretation. Of course, this book touches on some pretty "out there" concepts, (and he does a good job of not sounding too looney) but they are concepts that do not sound right when stated as facts. An example of such: As written in the Bible, we all know the Ark of The Covenant was used to carry the 10 Commandments, right? I have no problem with challenging/expanding upon this statement, but Arthur blatantly claims, "Manna (mushrooms) was carried in the Ark of The Covenant." He states this without providing any explanation or challenge to Biblical text. Basically, this guy's writing style is more or less telling you how it is, rather than telling how it could be. I'd prefer a read that is more objective. This, of course, is James Arthur's research/thoughts/experiences, but the diction used is almost ironic. An example of this irony(IMO), would be how Arthur describes religious authorities as "stumbling religious block throwers" or something similar to that nature. Ironic because if Arthur wants to be taken seriously, he should sound more mature and not use name calling to discount people with whom he disagrees. Anyone could easily (and immaturely) call out James Arthur due to his lack of credibility and his line of work, just as he calls out religious leaders/authorities for deceiving people with prescribed dogmas.This book is a great starter read for anyone interested in ancient religions and their associations with psychedelic mushrooms. It's brief, but leaves you with good questions for further exploration. Towards the end I felt like we could be friends, but the disposition carried by James Arthur throughout the text left me slightly frustrated. Another disappointment would be the lack of information presented regarding the religions of Native South American Peoples. These groups are ancient and known for their use of psychedelics in their religious ceremonies.Overall a good read, I'd recommend it but with caution that the disposition of the author may be annoying.

The visionary James Arthur is the opposite of the careful and straightlaced Dan Merkur in the field of the entheogen theory of the origins of religion. This book is so wide-ranging, it's hard to form a clear mental picture of its scope. Arthur has innovative coverage speculating about entheogens in Egyptian and Asian as well as Christian religion.This subject is just getting started so there are few books and what few there are are speculative. The entheogen theory of the origin of religions *makes sense*, particularly when focusing on the specifically religious aspect of religion rather than other aspects such as political, ethical, or sociological aspects.Scholars, including esoteric and Literalist Christian scholars, agree that entheogenic plants are basically reliable triggers for religious experiencing. Historians of religion are trying to use "psychology", "anthropology", and "sociology" to explain the origin of religions. These explanatory threads point to entheogens at the fountainhead of religion, religious experiencing, and religious myth.This book provides some evidence but most of all provides the all-important *perspective* from which we can see how well it makes good sense to look to entheogens for the origin of mystic experiencing at the root of religion. There's really no reasonable argument against the entheogen theory of the origin of religion -- it enables a full-spectrum, integral-theory explanation of religion to finally come together.

Very informative EXCEPT THAT all the mushroom images are BLACK AND WHITE

Sadly James Arthur is dead and his work will not be completed. I really enjoy this little book. While I love to visit with this book the photographs are black and white small and poorly resolved. Too bad because the website I learned about the book from said the book was better. The book says see the website. The color pictures on the website are also small so I lament that I may never see the evidence realistically presented.Mr. Arthur's thesis is very convincing and it makes you wonder why his ideas are not more mainstream.

This book covers a lot of ground. It doesn't go into very much detail but it does state some interesting beliefs. Its a good read and will have you researching further some of the ideas, theories, and statements. Worth a read!

I absolutely enjoyed this, I wish it was longer!

This is a most interesting book, it explains the basic global presence and use of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom throughout history. It is almost hard to accept that such a seemingly insignificant thing has had so much and can have so much influence on life, however this book reveals that this is clearly the case. I strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand so called reality !

Full of the authors own personal prejudices. I much preferred James W. Jesso's 'Decomposing The Shadow: Lessons From The Psilocybin Mushroom'. I would suggest that the author of this book read Jesso's book. I found this book to be second-grade at best. No hard feelings towards the author whatsoever, but just did not connect with this book at all.

Wow I never thought mushrooms had so much to do in the way we see things and also the way things are shaped, great read.

Very pleased

Die Auslieferung dieses einen Buches hat jetzt zwei Tage länger gedauert, war dafür aber umsonst - obwohl ich noch kein Prime-Kunde bin. Perfekt :)

Dieses Buch ist eine tolle Einführung in das Thema - Menschheit und Pilze. U.a. Weihnachten, Christentum, Ägypten, Soma wird hier überzeugend mit entheogenen Pilzen in Verbindung gebracht. Ein Klassiker, den jeder, den das Thema interessiert lesen sollte. Wer kein Englisch lesen will kann aber auch mit Wolgang Bauer's der Fliegenpilz vorlieb nehmen.