NEW RELEASE ESPD55 Vol. 3: The Mckenna Academy’s 2022 Conference Proceedings

Exploring ESPD55: The Next Chapter in the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs

There are books that document a field… and then there are books that shape it.

ESPD55 is one of those rare, lineage-carrying works.
It arrives at a moment when psychedelic science, ecological awareness, and ancestral plant traditions are weaving together in ways we’ve never quite seen before—and this volume feels like both a continuation and a new beginning.

For more than fifty years, the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (ESPD) has been the gathering place for those exploring the meeting point between old-world plant wisdom and contemporary research. It has always been a space where scientists, healers, mycologists, anthropologists, and visionaries sit in full-spectrum dialogue.

ESPD55 carries that torch forward with the proceedings of the 2022 ESPD Conference, curated by Dennis McKenna, PhD and hosted by The McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. This edition brings together over thirty leading thinkers whose work spans continents, knowledge systems, and generations of inquiry.

This book is a journey through six interconnected spheres of understanding—the ethnosphere, phytosphere, mycosphere, faunasphere, archeosphere, and sonosphere—each one opening a doorway into deeper cultural, ecological, and visionary insight.

You’ll find research and stories from:

• Mark D. Merlin, PhD – Ancient Psychoactive Plant Use in Eurasia

• Wade Davis – Coca: The Divine Leaf of Immortality

• Andrew Weil – The Therapeutic Potential of Coca

• Jonathan Lu – Psychoactive Substances in Chinese Culture

• Laurel Sugden & Josip Orlovac Del Río – Biocultural Sustainability for the San Pedro Cactus

• Glenn H. Shepard – The Harpy’s Gift & the Jaguar’s Curse: Matsigenka Hunting Medicines

And that’s just a taste.

From the earliest ceremonial uses of Ephedra and San Pedro, to new ecological frameworks for ayahuasca sustainability, to the emerging conversations around cognitive evolution and sonic ethnomedicine, ESPD55 beautifully bridges the ancient and the emergent.

This isn’t just academic material—it’s the living, breathing story of how humans have learned from plants, fungi, animals, and the intelligence of the Earth itself.

Why This Book Matters Now

We stand at a threshold in history, and ESPD55 arrives as both a beacon and a blessing. Curated by Dennis McKenna, whose life’s work has shaped the very foundations of modern ethnopharmacology, this volume gathers an extraordinary constellation of thinkers, explorers, and friends who have walked this path beside him—Wade Davis, Paul Stamets, Merlin Sheldrake, Monica Gagliano, and many more. Their contributions form more than a collection of research—they weave together a living tapestry of devotion, curiosity, cultural respect, and scientific courage.

This book is a commemoration of decades of inquiry and relationship-building, the culmination of journeys that once required crossing invisible frontiers into Indigenous worlds at a time when such exchanges were rare, even misunderstood.

Today, as we enter a new psychedelic revolution—one grounded not in spectacle, but in ecological wisdom, cultural respect, and a return to Earth’s ancient teachings—ESPD55 stands as a guidepost. It speaks to ethnobotanists, therapists, students, plant stewards, historians, psychonauts, ecological thinkers, and anyone who feels called to understand how this movement has evolved and where it is headed. If you are drawn to the roots of psychedelic knowledge and inspired by its unfolding future, this book is an offering for you—a bridge between legacy and emergence, honoring the pioneers who dared to explore consciousness long before it became a renaissance.

Speakers and Participants in the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs Conference, hosted by the Mckenna Academy, May 2022