Please note that although we are happy to recommend reading materials, it is important to know that one can never truly grasp the profound benefits or “intellectualize” about the experience of ayahuasca. Ayahuasca works beyond the constraints of the mind and if you are new to the medicine, then it may even be advisable to not read anything before working with ayahuasca for your first time!

Although it can be difficult, it is best to not actually come to your first ayahuasca experience with too many preconceptions and expectations. Ultimately, however, the medicine will give you what you “need” which is not always what you “think you want”…

Books about / referring to Ayahuasca or Other Entheogens

  • The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge – Jeremy Narby
  • The Psychotropic Mind: The World according to Ayahuasca, Iboga, and Shamanism – Jeremy Narby, Jan Kounen and Vincent Ravalec
  • Supernatural : Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind – Graham Hancock
  • Food of the Gods: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution – Terence McKenna
  • Ayahuasca: Hallucinogens, Consciousness, and the Spirit of Nature – Ralph Metzner
  • Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca – Ralph Metzner
  • Human Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature – Ralph Metzner
  • The Yage Letters – William S Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg
  • The Green Labyrinth : Exploring the Mysteries of the Amazon – Sylvia Fraser
  • Three Halves of Ino Moxo : Teachings of the Wizard of the Upper Amazon – César Calvo
  • Rio Tigre and Beyond : The Amazon Jungle Medicine of Manuel Córdova – Bruce Lamb
  • Wizard of the Upper Amazon – Bruce Lamb.
  • Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World – J. P. Harpignies
  • Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon – Luis Eduardo Luna
  • Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of A Peruvian Shaman – Luis Eduardo Luna & Pablo Amaringo
  • Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine – Luis Eduardo Luna
  • Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangæan Entheogens – Jonathan Ott
  • The World Is As You Dream It: Shamanic Teachings from the Amazon and Andes – John Perkins
  • Forest of Visions: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Spirituality, and the Santo Daime Tradition- Alex Polari de Alverga
  • Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia – Richard Evans Schultes & Robert F. Raffauf
  • The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience – Benny Shannon
  • DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences – Rick Strassman
  • Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics – Rick Strassman
  • Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing – Michael Taussig
  • Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul – Joan Parisi Wilcox
  • Andrew Weil – The Marriage of the Sun and the Moon
  • Rational Mysticism – John Horgan
  • Heavenly Highs: Ayahuasca, Kava-Kava, DMT, and Other Plants of the Gods – Peter Stafford
  • Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy – Neal M. Goldsmith Ph.D.
  • A Book of Re-Membering: Lessons in Death and Rebirth with Ayahuasca – B. M. B.
  • Vanishing Amazon – Mirella Ricciardi
  • The Four Winds: A Shaman’s Odyssey into the Amazon – Alberto Villoldo
  • Jaguar that Roams the Mind: An Amazonian Plant Spirit Odyssey – Robert Tindall
  • Fishers of Men – Adam Elenbaas
  • Rainforest Medicine: Preserving Indigenous Science and Biodiversity in the Upper Amazon – Jonathon Miller Weisberger
  • Psychedelic Drug Treatments: Assisting the Therapeutic Process – Dr. Ben Sessa and Eileen Worthle
  • Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences – William A. Richards
  • Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development Paperback – Neal M. Goldsmith

Interesting Reading Material

  • Intelligence in Nature – Jeremy Narby
  • The Global Forest – Diana Beresford – Kroeger
  • Ringing Cedars Series – Vladmir Megre
  • Ancient Medicine for a New Millennium – Stephen Harrod Buhner
  • The Transformational Power of Fasting: The Way to Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional Rejuvenation – Stephen Harrod Buhner
  • Sacred Plant Medicine: Explorations in Indigenous Herbalism – Stephen Harrod Buhner
  • One Spirit Many Peoples: A Manifesto for Earth Spirituality – Stephen Harrod Buhner
  • The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth – Stephen Harrod Buhner
  • Secret Teachings Of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature – Stephen Harrod Buhner
  • Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness – Pam Montgomery
  • Partner Earth – Pam Montgomery
  • Plant Spirit Medicine: The Healing Power of Plants – Eliot Cowan
  • The Secret Life of Plants – Peter Tompkins
  • One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest – Wade Davis
  • The Wayfinders – Why ancient wisdom matters in the modern world – Wade Davis
  • Wild: An Elementary Journey – Jay Griffith
  • The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight – Thom Hartmann
  • The Prophets Way – Thom Hartmann
  • The Spell of the Sensuous – David Abram
  • Becoming Animal: An Earthy Cosmology – David Abram
  • The Winged Serpent: American Indian Prose and Poetry
  • God is Red: A Native View of Religion – Vine Deloria Jr.
  • The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization and Resistance – Edited by M. Anette Jaimes
  • Ghandi’s Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence – Erik H. Erikson
  • Book of The Hopi – Frank Waters
  • The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time – Marilyn Ferguson
  • The Way of The Earth: Native America and the Environment – John Bierhorst
  • The Spiritual Legacy of The American Indian – Joseph Epes Brown
  • The World We Used to Live In: Remembering The Powers of The Medicine Men – Vine Deloria, Jr.
  • Custer Died For Your Sins – Vine Deloria, Jr.
  • We Talk, You Listen – Vine Deloria, Jr.
  • The Sacred Pipe – Recorded and Edited by Joseph Epes Brown
  • Story Earth: Native Voices on The Environment – Compiled by InterPress Service
  • Sourcraft: Crossing into The Mysteries of Nature and Psyche – Bill Plotkin
  • Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace – Vandana Shiva
  • Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth – James Lovelock
  • Original Wisdom: Stories of An Ancient Way of Knowing – Robert Wolff
  • Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings – John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Flemming, Arne Naess
  • The Essential Ken Wilber
  • Pedagogy of The Oppressed – Paulo Freire
  • Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Elaborations of Right Livelihood – Edited by Claude Whitmyer
  • Indian Givers: How The Indians of The Americas Transformed the World – Jack Weatherford
  • Native Wisdom: Perceptions of the Natural Way – Ed McGaa
  • Nature and The Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World – Bill Plotkin
  • Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World – Alan Weisman
  • Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and the World – Ed McGaa
  • Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World’s Religions – Huston Smith
  • Straight With The Medicine: Narratives of Washoe Followers of the Tipi (Peyote) Way – Warren L. d’Azevedo
  • New World of Indigenous Resistance – Noam Chomsky, et al
  • All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life – Winona Laduke
  • Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich – Duane Elgin
  • Peace is Every Step – Thich Nhat Hahn
  • Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community – John A. Grim
  • The Way to Rainy Mountain – N. Scott Momaday
  • The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems – Fritjof Capra
  • My Name is Chellis & I’m in Recovery From Western Civilization – Chellis Glendinning
  • Animate Earth: Science and Gaia – Stephan Harding
  • Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation Building – Ronald Niezen
  • Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance to Globalization – Edited by Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
  • The Dream of The Earth — Thomas Berry
  • The Sacred Universe — Thomas Berry
  • Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the
  • Father of Environmentalism
  • The Earth Has a Soul — CG Jung
  • World as Lover, World as Self — Joana Macy
  • Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future — Melissa Nelson
  • Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and
  • Healing the World — Wangari Maathai
  • GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness — Marian McCain
  • Seeing God Everywhere arry McDonald
  • A New Harmony: The Spirit, The Earth, The Human Soul — John Phillip Newell
  • The World We Have — Thich Nhat Hahn