So what is everyone reading?

[Babbler]

Cycles of Rock and Water at the Pacific Edge by Kenith A. Brown (1993): Great, but unknown, book about the geology of West Coast.

I recently read Boltzmann's Atom by David Lindsay. That some good pop science there.

[Tarantism]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I like the "Stoned Ape Theory" Do you want to start a thread on it?

i like it too. when i finish the book ill start a thread. i have been behind on my reading though, because i decided to start "the mind and the brain: neuroplacicity and the power of mental force" in the middle. but i think taht the stoned ape theory has many merits,

[orbsycli]

some kerouac, jim carroll
and his fear of dreaming.

umm,
A big book of Mandalas,
a cook book,
and ReReading the lorax for the 34th time.

[Michaelangelica]

QUOTE=El Es Tea]i like it too. when i finish the book ill start a thread. i have been behind on my reading though, because i decided to start "the mind and the brain: neuroplacicity and the power of mental force" in the middle. but i think taht the stoned ape theory has many merits,[/QUOTE]
Somewhere in my packed away library are some books by very famous American Banker( very proper, very succesful, very well-off) come mushroom hunter. Probably 1930-50's vintage
I can't remember his name. His books are collectors items now.
He started his interest in mushrooms when he married a Russian woman.
When walking in the Russian woods one day she took off and started to pick stacks of wild mushrooms. He was horrified and said all the normal things about poison etc
She just poo pooed such complaints and went on to collect and cook her many mushrooms (many varieties too).
He postulated from this that the West has a mushroom phobia.
His research led him to ethnogenic mushrooms.
I read him awhile ago but he makes a fascinating case for the emergence of religion via psychoactive mushrooms. (Which I also can't remember.)
And this from a very proper, upper-middle class banker !

Maybe we have not only opium and MJ receptors, but "mushroom" receptors too in the brain???
--

[orbsycli]

well,
the psychedelic alkaloids, like psilocybin, that ar ein shrooms, bind to receptors in the brain,
and get it working a lot faster . .
Go eat some, it's fantastic.
You get to actually see where our evolution of consciousness came from.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

well,
the psychedelic alkaloids, like psilocybin, that ar ein shrooms, bind to receptors in the brain,
and get it working a lot faster . .
Go eat some, it's fantastic.
You get to actually see where our evolution of consciousness came from.

That reminds me I think he talked alot about where "evolution of consciousness came from"

Are there special receptors designed for psychedelic alkaloids like opiates and MJ?

Love to try some one day- not a lot of them about where I live.
I tried LSD when I was at Uni. I just fell asleep!
Then I met a few people who had been turned into interesting vegetables by it.

[Tarantism]

i suggest, Michealangelica, that you do some research on the work of Dr. Rick Strassman and his studies on DMT and its presence in the human brain. DMT is the most powerful Tryptamine (and psychedelic drug period, a post that is thought of by most to be LSD), and it is present in our brain! nobody knows where it comes from or why its there, but Strassman makes some great nod towards ideas as to where it may come from. anyway, check it out.

[Buffy]

Summer vacation read #1: "The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes" by Lauren Kessler. A pioneer of aviation who could party like a rock star and hung out with some of the most amazing characters in aviation and pop culture history. Just getting started, but already she's my hero!

And its not just a chick book: you macho airplane guys will find it interesting too--although if you felt uncomfortable watching Fellini's "City of Women" it might not be your cup of tea...

Ah hell, we had more fun in a week than those weenies had in a lifetime!
Buffy

[Alluvia]

Blinded By The Right The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative by David Brock

The Elements of Mysticism by R A Gilbert

Living Wisdom with His Holiness The Dalai Lama- Study Guide

All selections interesting. I would imagine it depends on one's interest.

[Michaelangelica]

I am enjoying reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" very much.
He has a delightful 'light' style of writing.
He makes very complex ideas simple to follow.
He has a great sense of humor, 'poetic justice' and irony.
For a travel writer, to make sense of the world's knowledge of Physics and chemistry etc, is quite a clever feat.

It is full of 'quirky science facts' i will post some at that thread as I go