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New Year’s Reflections from the Publisher

New Year’s Reflections from the Publisher

Dear Readers,

Thank you for making 2022 one of the best years we can remember, filled with inspirational and educational events with our authors. We would like to extend our gratitude to the iconic City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco for hosting so many of our virtual book releases with one and two day symposiums to dive deeper into the topics of our books.

I started as publisher of Synergetic Press in 1984 and have witnessed an emerging market for the books we publish. The past five years have been uplifting seeing our readers find our books all around the world. We have achieved an international audience thanks to the thoughtful leadership of our Managing Director, Doug Reil, who joined the Press in 2019, and a small team of people growing in size and experience.

As we learn about medical breakthroughs in treatment for depression and traumatic stress with plant medicines, we are also learning about breakthroughs in ecological restoration and regeneration techniques, about agroecology and risks of philanthrocaptialism. Our mission at Synergetic Press is to bring you some of the most innovative ideas from writers at the forefront of evolutionary change, exploring the world we live in and sharing the wonders of our human experience.

In 2023 we have some special treats in store, starting with Social Forestry: Tending the Land by People of Place by Tomi Hazel Vaarde, The Regenerative Landscaper by Erik Olhsen, How to Change your Body by Saga Briggs and the first english translation of the classic book Ergot Alkaloids by Albert Hofmann. Needless to say, we have an incredibly exciting year ahead!

While our events of the past few years have been largely virtual, we still feel as though we are seeing groundswell of community engagement emerging in talks about visions for a more just society, healthy planet, and our human integrity.

We would like to remember the two great lives we lost this year, our friend and publishing colleague, Michael Gosney; and the matriarch of the psychedelic movement, Ann Shulgin. Ann’s daughter, Wendy, continues to develop books from the Shulgin archive and are looking forward to the release of The Nature of Drugs Vol 2. coming out this summer on June 28th, 2023.

Last but definitely not least, we are grateful for our co-publishing partners, Transform Press and MAPS. We will be at the MAPS conference this year with some of our greatest titles and hope to meet some of you there!

We look forward to future gatherings in the new year both virtual and in physical space.

Thank you for your kind support to all independent publishers.

Sincerely,

Deborah Parrish Snyder
Publisher & CEO

A Year of Transformation

A Year of Transformation

A Year of Challenge and Transformation

As we welcome in a new year, we look back on 2020 with a desire to digest and transform challenges we faced as a species. We have seen people come together to support those in need, voices for justice raised, and calls to act in ways that are for the common good. We hope you will find the landscape of ideas presented by our authors books will nourish your minds and inspire you in your pursuit of happiness and wholeness.

A Look at the Books Ahead

Last July, we signed a co-publishing agreement with the pioneering publishing company, Transform Press,  founded in 1991 by the renowned biochemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin with his wife, Ann Shulgin, to publish books that focus on pharmacology, psychedelic medicine, and states of consciousness. The Shulgin classics, PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story and TiHKAL: The Continuation, are cornerstone books in these fields. 

Our first co-published title with Transform Press is The Nature of Drugs: History, Pharmacology, and Social Impact. Volume One (of three) is transcribed from the course Dr. Shulgin taught at San Francisco State University in the mid-eighties. Forthcoming in May, it will be the first Shulgin book released since 2011.

In June, we are proud to introduce the wise work of Dr. Kile Ortigo in Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration. Ortigo’s book presents a framework for understanding and experiencing psychedelic-assisted therapy including foundational therapeutic approaches, the psychospiritual aspects of the psychedelic journey, and integration of the insights gained. He answers questions regarding legal access to care, ongoing criminalization, and medical restrictions which limit the therapies available.

In August we have Psychedelic Justice, an anthology of writings from the Chacruna Institute, highlighting the Institutes’ ongoing work promoting diversity and inclusion by prominently featuring voices that have been long marginalized in Western psychedelic culture: women, queer people, people of color, and indigenous people. The essays examine both historical and current issues within psychedelics that are not well known, and orient around policy, reciprocity, diversity and inclusion, sex and power, colonialism, and indigenous concerns. 

In the Fall, we look forward to The Mind of Plants, a collection of essays, narratives, and poetry on plants and their interaction with humans edited by Monica Gagliano, John Charles Ryan, and Patricia Viera. Contributors include Alex Gearin, Luis Eduardo Luna, Jeremy Narby, Robin Wall Kimmerer, to name a few. From the ubiquitous rose to the ugly hornwort, from the Amazonian ayahuasca to tobacco, the texts reflect the multifarious interactions between humans and flora. These personal narratives, filled with anecdotes, experiences, and musings, offer cutting-edge insights into the different meanings and dimensions of “the mind of plants.”

Learning How to Live-In in 2020 

While the world stayed-at-home last year, we have also been working from home to bring out thought provoking books on human evolution, the rights of Nature and how to live sealed up with seven other people for two years in a glass house! The last one came out by coincidence as we all learned how to live in our own bubbles and pods. These titles continue to be highly relevant to the heart of the challenges facing people and planet.  

Claudio Naranjo was a Chilean-born psychotherapist, medical doctor, and pioneer in the areas of transpersonal psychology, psychedelic therapy, and hThe Revolution We Expected book coveruman development. The Revolution We Expected, his last written work before he died, speaks to the issues of our age in a penetrating way, suggesting that the current crisis of humanity is a crisis of awareness. 

At present, we seek superficial remedies for the problems of our world. However, Naranjo warns us that “even the most complete treatment of the symptoms of an illness will fail if not enough attention is paid to the root.” 

And that is precisely what Vandana’s Shiva book Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Rights of Mother Earth encourages us to do, looking at one of the multiple roots of our human crisis. Namely, Reclaiming the Commons presents details on the specific attempts made by corporations to secure patents on nature, and the legal action taken against them. It is the first detailed legal history of the international and national laws related to biodiversity and Intellectual Property Rights. 

Arguing in favor of nature as common property, Shiva emphasizes the importance of gradually tracing our way back into a future that embraces the “liminality and inseparability between the communities and their common resources. Between us and our environment.”

Similarly, Life Under Glass: Crucial Lessons in Planetary Stewardship Learned from Two Years in Biosphere 2  hones in on the imperative need to see the Earth as a closed ecological system where everything must be recycled. Crew members, Abigail Alling, Mark Nelson, and Sally Silverstone tell the story of their two remarkable years living inside the structure. From the struggles of growing their own food, to learning how to help sustain their life-giving atmosphere, we are 

offered a rare glimpse into how a group of dedicated researchers managed to surprise the world and fulfill their dream. As well, a feature-length documentary, Spaceship Earth, was released unravelling the compelling tale behind the Biosphere 2 experiment. 

Thanks to You, Our Readers, We are Growing!

In a climate of collective hardship, we feel so grateful for our vibrant community of allies and readers that have enabled us to expand our publishing operations. We’ve gone from publishing a single book a year to being able to publish several thanks to your continued support! This growth has enabled us to expand our team over the past couple of years. Meet the people who form our synergetic whole.  

Thanksgiving 2020: Cultivating Gratitude and Resilience in Times of Hardship

Thanksgiving 2020: Cultivating Gratitude and Resilience in Times of Hardship

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the close of a year that continues to test our resilience. As the common adage says, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Being limited in our ability to travel and many of us working from home, this time has been ripe with opportunities for personal insight, time to cultivate our gardens, care for our family and homes, and reflect more deeply on the meaning that we want to engender within our lives. For this, we are grateful.

We are honored to work with authors and editors producing some of the most pioneering works in the fields of consciousness and biospherics. Our aim at Synergetic Press is to provoke critical, independent thought. However, it is up to us as individuals to integrate ideas from the books and articles we read, turning inspiration into real-world action, and ultimately change.

Over the past several years, the slogan “Be the change you want to see in the world” has guided our selection of books to publish and the events to produce. We aim to uplift and fuel the new generation of thought leaders and planetary stewards putting forward new models with the intention of making the ways that are no longer serving our planet obsolete.

As we learn to live in an economy that competes for our attention with a constant stream of things to occupy it, how do we resist losing sight of what is important? In our latest book, The Revolution We Expected, Claudio Naranjo writes “If we wish to intervene collectively to achieve a better world, then, self-awareness is very important.” Achieving a better world relies on our present trajectory and our capacity to increase our awareness, return to our wilderness selves, reconnect to our love for nature, relish the sounds of silence that we have lost contact with in our commodified age. 

To some degree, this year has pushed us ever closer to the precipice; the critical juncture at which we are impelled to take action. Collectively at a tipping point, the converging crises of our planet have become unavoidable as we are forced to acknowledge and work through the hard reality of climate change, living through a global pandemic, and the socio-economic chaos it has activated.

Even so, at Synergetic Press we remain optimists, maintaining faith in the power of human connection and creativity, and their ability to redefine topographies. The winds of change fill our sails, and even in this time of difficulty, we are embracing them as opportunities to chart the important conversations of our time together with our authors and readers.

As Stanislav and Christina Grof highlight in their timeless classic Spiritual Emergency, crisis contains within it an inherent danger, as well as the seeds of transformation. It is our hope that in this liminal space that we build resilience, and share tools and insights to evolve a balanced, healthy future. 

We have a growing team of dedicated people working at Synergetic Press to help us do that. You can meet us all at  https://www.synergeticpress.com/our-team/

Giving Thanks to Our Readers

Finally, we are grateful to our readers. Thank you for your curious minds and for sharing our books with others. We are offering a 40% discount on all titles through January 4th. Use the coupon code “GIVETHANKS40” when you check out.

Remembering Sally Silverstone – Biospherian, Author and Friend

Remembering Sally Silverstone – Biospherian, Author and Friend

It is with heavy hearts that we write this tribute to our long-time friend, Sally Silverstone, biospherian, author and educator. Sally died suddenly and unexpectedly at her home in Bali. The world has lost another treasure as her unique life and inquisitive spirit led her on innumerable adventures few have encountered, with perhaps one of the most well-known being her participation in the Biosphere 2 experiment, living sealed within the world’s largest laboratory for global ecology for two whole years.

We at Synergetic Press, alongside Sally’s friends and colleagues at the Biosphere Foundation, are all mourning her loss. We have been working together the past months promoting her new book, and she was preparing to start teaching Biosphere Stewardship programs at the Center they build in Bali starting in October.  As we absorb this shock, her close friend, fellow biospherian, and co-author with Sally and Abigail Alling of their newly published book, Life Under Glass: Lessons from Two Years Inside Biosphere 2, Dr. Mark Nelson shares these memories on her life and legacy.

Sally Silverstone: A Remarkable Life Well Lived 

by Mark Nelson

Sally Silverstone lived a full and rich life which defies a simple, linear account. It was, for a woman so deeply connected with the Earth and the earth (soil) in which she created gardens wherever she went, a magical mystery tour.

She was always open to adventure, especially if it fell into that wonderful category of a necessary adventure. That’s one which enhances the world, the people it touches and stretches her own potentialities.

How else to explain her “yes, I will!” reaction at the October Gallery in London which she was casually visiting when Chili Hawes, in need of more actors for a stage production, invited her to join that studio ensemble of the Theater of All Possibilities. Sally wound up playing Metal Woman in sublime gold make-up and joining whole-heartedly the far-flung endeavors of the Institute of Ecotechnics.

She played a key role in the early 1980s years establishing our sustainable tropical forestry project, Las Casas de la Selva, in Puerto Rico. Falling in love with the cutting-edge project and its mountain forest location, she gained the name we knew her by “Sierra”. A mountain range indeed for her vision and unflappable ability to manage even in the midst of stress, drama, and chaos!

When she heard about the ground-breaking Biosphere 2 project from John Allen, even in simple sketches on the back of a napkin, she immediately said: “yes, that’s for me!” At Biosphere 2 she helped manage the office with dozens of architects/draftsmen and engineers racing to produce blueprints ahead of the breakneck and mammoth construction of the world’s first human-built mini-world while also training as a biospherian candidate.

Of course, she wound up in Biosphere 2, as our captain (along with emergency co-captain, Mark Van Thillo) and manager of the Food Systems. Reflecting on the achievements of Biosphere 2, I think that Sierra was our super-glue. She joked that having run a mental hospital in India earlier in her life was perfect preparation for managing seven other biospherians!! And no matter what was happening – and all hell was often breaking loose, with the steep learning curve we were all on figuring out how to be biospherians and manage a mini-biosphere, the media frenzy and power struggles outside, and the historic role that Biosphere 2 was to play in bringing the idea of what a biosphere is to hundreds of millions worldwide.

Among her strongest passions were growing food and feeding people. Biosphere 2 was the perfect place then. She led the team turning a half-acre farm into one of the most productive agricultures ever – and without using chemical fertilizers or poisons. How could we have lived in Biosphere 2 without the special treats and food and drink for our feasts which Sierra took such pleasure in concocting: from banana wine to cheeses and sausages and a million ways to make our meals memorable and distinctive even while using the same ingredients.

I was delighted when she started calling me her “Bio Buddy.” Our desks in the Command Room faced each other, and we often ended our nights there; Sierra writing reports and planning our work, while listening to the BBC, me writing in my journal, or preparing our weekly news updates.

After Biosphere 2, Sierra returned to the rainforest she loved, helping manage Las Casas de la Selva for over a decade, helping turn it into a very important project for the island and the world of tropical forestry. She was also a key member of Synergia Ranch in New Mexico during those years, alternating her time. Of course, there she restarted a dormant vegetable garden, producing food for our community kitchen.  I also was excited to work with her for years as a fellow director of the Institute of Ecotechnics and at our annual Ecotechnic conferences.

I helped Sierra with the forestry and ecological research program in Puerto Rico which brought teams of Earthwatch volunteers to the project for many years, measuring and remeasuring thousands of the 40,000 hardwoods that had been planted decades earlier. Sierra was inventive and unflappable. One example: she borrowed from the Institute of Tropical Forestry a heavy satellite phone so we could pick up GPS satellite coordinates as we laid out the random plots required for the research. Taking turns schlepping that beast of a device through rugged mountain terrain, we would sometimes stop and look at each other in dismay. The coordinates meant our plot plunged off the side of abrupt drop-offs, cliffs, and landslides. Sierra and I would stare at what lay ahead and laughing prepare to continue on all fours, carrying our precious equipment down implausible muddy slopes!

In these sad days following her unexpected death, I am struck that many have mentioned that they can’t recall Sierra saying or doing anything negative. She had a disposition ready to be a friend to all the world, like the laughing Buddha she loved. Sierra was a natural teacher and educator, always ready to work with young people and share her deep knowledge and curiosity.

She followed her heart and spent the last period of her life working with her biospherian friends, Gaie and Laser, and the Biosphere Foundation, in Bali, a place she loved, doing what she always loved: forestry, regenerative agriculture, and sharing with and teaching young people.

I’m thankful that Sierra wasn’t taken from us before completing with Gaie and I the new edition of Life Under Glass and our interview with the BBC World Service, which aired just a day before she passed. And that she was able to be part of the Spaceship Earth film, sharing the excitement and legacy of her work with Biosphere 2.

She was one-of-a-kind. She enriched the lives of everyone lucky enough to work with her. I’ll always treasure our friendship. We were part of making history.

Wherever her cosmic journey takes her, I know she’s still planting seeds, growing life, and producing feasts to share.


A Word from Matt Wolf, Director and Stacey Reiss, Producer of “Spaceship Earth”

“We were so fortunate to be able to interview Sally for Spaceship Earth when she was passing through Los Angeles on her way back to Bali. Both producer Stacey Reiss and I were immediately inspired by her contagious laughter and effervescence. She really helped us to understand the joy of being inside Biosphere 2, and the satisfaction of finding creative solutions with a group of like-minded collaborators. It’s inspiring that she brought that love for the biosphere to people around the world, especially youth, and we hope that her spirit moves others through her special presence in our film.”

Learn more about Spaceship Earth

Reflections on 2019 World Ayahuasca Conference

Reflections on 2019 World Ayahuasca Conference


Reflections of the 2019 World Ayahuasca Conference

This was the third World Ayahuasca Conference held in Girona, Spain last June, which brought together 1400 people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, disciplines, and traditions. Three days of fascinating, moving presentations, invocations, conversations, and declarations towards a common vision of a sustainable future for plants, people and the planet.

The gathering was organized by the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education Research and Service (ICEERS) a small group of highly intelligent and dedicated individuals based in Barcelona who I cannot say enough good things about. Founder and director, Benjamin De Loenen, and his colleagues have vision and commitment. Since 2008, they have been working to change society’s relationship with psychoactive plants. Their work ranges from research, advocacy, legal defense fund, and community building. They are having an impact.

Synergetic Press had a booth along with many wonderful organizations and showcased several of our authors who participated in the event including Allan Badiner, Wade Davis, Dennis McKenna, John Allen, Luis Eduardo Luna, and Sir Ghillean Prance

European Debut of ESPD50 

The Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (ESPD50) book collaboration was featured in the program where Dennis McKenna shared the history how the publication came to be and we had all four editors present for a book signing with Luis Eduardo Luna, one of the contributors, as well. Read more about the vision behind ESPD50.  

Visit to the Reseach Ship Heraclitus

Group visit to the research ship Heraclitus in Roses, Spain. Photo by Thirty Vakil.

We exhibited together with our ecological affiliate the Institute of Ecotechnics to introduce the research vessel Heraclitus currently being rebuilt nearby in Roses, Spain. The Heraclitus is dedicated to studying our oceans and rivers. Wade, Dennis, and Ghillean had all been on that ship in the early eighties when it was on an ethnobotanical expedition up the Amazon River. A busload of participants came along for a day trip to see the legendary vessel in drydock. The ship plans to return to the Amazon in a few years. We would like to thank the crew of the Heraclitus for their help setting up and manning our booth during the conference.

 

Amazonian explorers Sir Ghillean Prance, Wade Davis, Dennis McKenna with Heraclitus founders and directors John Allen, Robert Hahn, Christine Handte and Claus Tober.

Find out how you can donate and support the reconstruction of the RV Heraclitus.

Ayahuasca & Healing Our Society Through Plant Wisdom

Alchimia Soldaría interview Dennis McKenna about his research and personal perspective on the plant medicine ayahuasca, and how symbiosis with it could heal our relationship with the Earth.

Declaration by the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin

This conference aspired to form new understandings, new friendships, and new commitments. I left the conference with the unmistakable sense that many movements are gathering, stepping up to the front lines of action. And what is the action? The Indigenous peoples and nations of the Amazon basin who attended the closing ceremony called for the creation of a global alliance of all movements and peoples to stop climate change and to protect the rights of Mother Earth and all living beings. Read their full Declaration Here.

 

Technical Reports by PsychēPlants

PsychēPlants is an information hub and e-health platform created by ICEERS for people interested in traditionally used psychoactive plants and fungi, those who use them, and health care professionals.

PsychēPlants has generated a series of technical reports including anthropological, botanical, chemical and risk reduction information on traditionally used psychoactive plants, fungi, and venoms. These reports are all open source and available for free online.

View and download the reports here. 

 

More About ICEERS

International Centre for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS)  is a non-profit organization committed to integrating traditional medicinal plants such as ayahuasca, and iboga as therapeutic tools in contemporary society. Further, dedicated to preserving the integrity and traditions of indigenous cultures that have been using such plants medicinally for time immemorial, aiming to safeguard and harness ethnobotanical knowledge in response to the urgent need for better tools for personal and social development.

 

Stay tuned with their latest developments and events

@NGO_ICEERS or ICEERS on FB

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