He holds a doctorate from the University of British Columbia, where his research focused on ayahuasca and oo-koo-hé, two hallucinogens used by indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. He received post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health, and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dennis has been an adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota since 2001, where he teaches courses in ethnopharmacology and botanical medicine. He has taught summer field courses in Peru and Ecuador, and has conducted fieldwork throughout the upper Amazon.

He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit organization focused on the investigation of the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines.

Dennis McKenna is the editor of Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (Vol. 1 & 2): 50 Years of Research, published by Synergetic Press in 2018.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword to the 2023 Edition

Foreword to the First Edition

Preface to the 2023 Edition

Preface to the First Edition

Part One: Beginnings

1 Beginnings

2 Three Sisters

3 Roots and Wars

4 Terry and Denny

5 Happy Day Rides

6 The Nobody People

7 The Collector

8 Flying, Fishing, and Hunting

9 Goodbye to All That

10 The Big Picture

11 First Loves: 1962

12 The California Crusade

13 The Experimental College: 1965

14 Cannabis: 1966

15 The Tutor

16 A Psychedelic Education

17 Mapping Inner Space: Carl Jung

18 The Ladders of Ecstasy: Mircea Eliade

19 Summer of Love: 1967

20 The Secret Encountered

21 The Stoners’ Revenge

22 My Datura Misadventure

23 Escape from Mordor: 1968

24 The Church Lawn Bunch

25 Busted Again: 1969

26 Girl with a Gun: 1970

Part Two: Into the Abyss

27 The Brotherhood Forms

28 Our Mother’s Death

29 A Narrow Passage: 1971

30 On the Edge of the Abyss

31 The Experiment at La Chorrera

32 Waiting for the Stone

33 The Bell Tower and a UFO

34 Reflections on La Chorrera

Part Three: Invisible Landscapes

35 Invisible Landscapes

36 The Timewave

37 To See the Great Man

38 Fun with Fungi: 1975

39 A Lab in Paradise

40 In the Trenches

41 An Encounter with Ayahuasca

42 The River of Poisons

43 Adulthood and Its Victims

44 The Plant Teachers: 1985

45 The Perpetual Postdoc

46 Climbing the Vine: 1991

47 New in Town

48 The Bard in Light and Shadow

49 A Desperate Situation

50 Into the Fire

Epilogue

The Rearview Mirror

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Appendix

Index