Jonathan Ott Books
With over a half century of ethnobotanical labors under his belt, Jonathan Ott holds a deserved reputation as one of the world’s most brilliant, prolific, and provocative scholar-practitioners of drugs and ‘psychedelics’. Ott himself employs the word entheogen for use in a shamanic or spiritual context1, as he helped coin the term and spread it through the 1980s & ’90s (most recently, he has argued for a resurrection of the scientific term psychoptic as generic for visionary drugs2, “producing vision of the mind or soul”). Fiercely independent and self-directed in his research, Ott has also been blessed with some extraordinary mentors — including R. Gordon Wasson, the father of ethnomycology; Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD; and Richard Evans Schultes, the famed Harvard ethnobotanist. In addition to his own prodigious nonfiction writings, Ott has served as a translator, a publisher, a natural products chemist, a conservationist, and a conference organizer. With ethnobotanist Rob Montgomery, he co-founded the legendary Entheobotany Seminars, the most famous of which took place in Palenque, Mexico from 1994 to 2001. These featured a colorful coterie of ethnobotanists, anthropologists, biochemists, doctors, artists, poets, and psychonauts, including Terence McKenna, Paul Stamets, Sasha and Ann Shulgin, Wade Davis, Kat Harrison, Ralph Metzner, Dale Pendell, Nobel laureate Kary Mullis, and many more. Between these fringe gatherings and his copious writings, Ott served as a crucial node in the once largely underground network that produced and shared knowledge about entheogenic botany, history, pharmacology, culture, and practice. Ott lives in southeastern Mexico, where he has managed a biological preserve for decades.
Ott has been publishing since the mid 70s, including numerous scientific papers, underground journalism, and has written twelve monographs, including three pending in this series; bringing his self-publications to nine. Currently, only three of his books remain in print, and even paperback copies of the others go for hundreds to thousands of dollars. Given the interest in high-quality research into shamanic plants, the extraordinary value of Ott’s research, and the endless delights of his unique prose styles, Jonathan Ott Books is embarking on the publication of a deluxe series of eleven volumes, including four new titles and three new Editions of long-out-of-print books3. These signed & numbered collector’s volumes are being printed in Mexico, and hand-bound by expert bookbinder Leonardo Cruz, and all are limited to 300 slipcased, full leather-bound copies for sale. These are one-time Editions which will not be reprinted! We are elated to report that renowned ethnobotanical painter Donna Torres is producing original art for the full-color frontispieces. We’ll endeavor to release two titles a year as part of a collectible set in this exceptional series. Make haste to secure your set of what is sure to become an historical phenomenon!
The first in the series will be a doubled edition of Ayahuasca Analogues and Shamanic Snuffs:
Albeit separated by seven years, these really represent two volumes of the same psychonautic modelling, of South American Shamanic Inebriants based on Psychoptic Tryptamines; accordingly, are being released as a boxed set.
Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangæan Entheogens [Natural Products Co., Kennewick, WA, 1994] details the history, botany, chemistry, and human pharmacology of the famed Amazonian ayahuasca potion, which Ott describes as “one of the most sophisticated pharmacognostical discoveries of all antiquity.” This legendary book, which includes Ott’s colorful trip reports, also explains how dozens of non-traditional source plants from around the world can be used by intrepid explorers to brew analogues of ayahuasca. This was revolutionary research when Ayahuasca Analogues was first published, and remains highly relevant for kitchen witches everywhere. All editions have been out of print for over 25 years and are highly valued by collectors. This will be the first English publication of the 2nd edition of Ayahuasca Analogues, which previously appeared only in Spanish, and has been actualized. Only 5,000 copies of the English 1st Edition were printed (4,700 in softcover; 300 slipcased hardcovers).
To sample the book, read the introduction here: AA Exordium PDF
Shamanic Snuffs or Entheogenic Errhines [Entheobotanica, Solothurn, Switzerland, 2001] is an unparalleled review of snuffed plant preparations used as shamanic inebriants for millennia. Shamanic snuffs have been drawing more attention with the growing popularity of rapé formulations, but tobacco is only part of a remarkable story. This unique book covers the history, ethnobotany, and phytochemistry of the major classes of snuffs —Anadenanthera, Virola, Nicotiana — and features accounts of an additional 58 snuffs, including ill-studied African errhines alongside a variety of more obscure and unusual ethnomedicinal insufflatus (hunting snuffs for hounds and horses anyone?). To round this all off, in his ever entertaining style, Ott reports on dozens of his psychonautical bioassays. The pages for this near mythical book were printed in 2001, but due to unforeseen circumstances only 250 books were ever bound and distributed (these volumes are now highly valuable collector’s items). The interior of our version utilizes these original pages, but features new frontispiece art and binding. Destined to remain a coveted rarity, merely 550 copies of Shamanic Snuffs will ever be sold (250 from the original release; plus the 300 presently offered).
To sample the book, read the introduction here: SS Inspiration PDF
Notes:
1. See “Entheogens” Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(1-2): 145–146, 1979; “Entheogens II” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 28(2): 205–209, 1996.
2. See “Obsequies for the Psychodelic Renaissance: non–oblivious semantics for the Psychoptic Resurgence”, in A. Tollan (Ed.), Breaking Convention VI, London: Strange Attractor Press.
3. But excluding his first book Hallucinogenic Plants of North America and Persephone’s Quest, coauthored with R. Gordon Wasson, Stella Kramrisch and Carl P. Ruck.
Paintings by Donna Torres, © 2024
__
Coming Soon:
Our email sign up list.
♦
Information about pre-ordering.
♦
A full descriptive list of the eleven titles in the Jonathan Ott Book series.
♦
Additional articles by Jonathan Ott.
♦
Interviews with the author.
♦