Works by
Luis Eduardo Luna, Ph.D.
(Writer)
[1947 - ]

Books

• Inner Paths to Outer Space Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (2008) by Ede Frecska, Luis Eduardo Luna, Rick J. Strassman, and Slawek Wojtowicz
  An investigation into experiences of other realms of existence and contact with otherworldly beings

  • Examines how contact with alien life-forms can be obtained through the “inner space” dimensions of our minds

  • Presents evidence that other worlds experienced through consciousness-altering technologies are often as real as those perceived with our five senses

  • Correlates science fiction’s imaginal realms with psychedelic research

  For thousands of years, voyagers of inner space--spiritual seekers, shamans, and psychoactive drug users--have returned from their inner imaginal travels reporting encounters with alien intelligences. Inner Paths to Outer Space presents an innovative examination of how we can reach these other dimensions of existence and contact otherworldly beings. Based on their more than 60 combined years of research into the function of the brain, the authors reveal how psychoactive substances such as DMT allow the brain to bypass our five basic senses to unlock a multidimensional realm of existence where otherworldly communication occurs. They contend that our centuries-old search for alien life-forms has been misdirected and that the alien worlds reflected in visionary science fiction actually mirror the inner space world of our minds. The authors show that these “alien” worlds encountered through altered states of human awareness, either through the use of psychedelics or other methods, possess a sense of reality as great as, or greater than, those of the ordinary awareness perceived by our five senses.

• Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine (2000), Luis Eduardo Luna and Steven F. White, eds.
  The Ayahuasca Reader is a four-part celebration of a sacred plant which grows in the Amazon rainforest and which, throughout the rainforest history, has been instrumental in allowing medicine men (and others) to leave their bodies behind and travel with their souls. Their experiences and the invaluable information they return with are so impressive that many anthropologists have felt the inclination to question them about these trips and the mythologies of their ancestors regarding them. Hence,

  • Part one of the Ayahuasca Reader  consists of information divulged in such interviews.

  • Part two consists of essays by (or about) the scientists themselves upon experiencing Ayahuasca in ceremonial settings.

  • Part three discusses the use of Ayahuasca as a present day religious sacrament, and finally,

  • In part four, well known celebrities from the literary world discuss their experience of Ayahuasca.

All of this renders the Ayahuasca Reader the most comprehensive collection ever written on the subject, with essays translated from nearly a dozen languages. The many contributors include Allen Ginsberg, Dennis McKenna, Françoise Barbira Freedman, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, Jean Langdon, Mario Vargas Llosa, Peter Matthiessen, Philippe Descola, Richard Spruce, W.S. Merwin, Wade Davis, and more.

As the myths within confirm, Ayahuasca has been a means of reconnecting with the invisible layers of the cosmos for millennia. Not surprisingly, the myths make for very fascinating reading in and of themselves, and certainly no study of world mythology is complete with them. The additional scientific, religious and literary points of view, then, are all wonderful bonuses.

There is a lot at work here: As if the various stories from these disparate groups were not enough, there are depictions of the artwork of the indigenous peoples, photographs of a few of the Ayahuasca practitioners (including Ginsberg), a copy of a Brazilian watercolor depicting Ayahuasca, a copy of an oil painting depicting visions induced by the plant, and much more. From the religion section there are hymns a plenty, and from the literary section, as much eloquent prose and spirited poetry as a reader is likely to find in any literary anthology. Only a sacred vine (and perhaps a universal craving for a narcotic that promises at the end, you see God ) could so beautifully tie all these riches together.

• Ayahuasca VisionsThe Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman with Pablo Amaringo (1993) by Luis Eduardo Luna and Pablo Amaringo
  The mythologies and cosmology of Amazonian shamanism materialize in fantastic color and style in this unique, large-format volume, representing the fruit of several years of collaboration between a Peruvian folk artist/shaman and a Colombian anthropologist/filmmaker.

• Vegetalismo: Shamanism Among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon (1986)

See also:

• Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World (2007), J. P. Harpignies, ed.
  23 leading experts reveal the ways that psychoactive plants allow nature’s “voice” to speak to humans and what this communication means for our future
   

  • Presents the specific “human-plant interconnection” revealed by visionary plants

  • Explores the relevance of plant-induced visions and shamanic teachings to humanity’s environmental crisis

  • With contributions from Alex Grey, Andrew Weil, Charles S. Grob, Dale Pendell, Dennis McKenna, Edison Saraiva, M.D., Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D., Florencio Siquera de Caralho, Francis Huxley, Jeffrey Bronfman, Jeremy Narby, John Mohawk, Kat Harrison, Katsi Cook, Luis Eduardo Luna, Ph.D., Marcellus Bear Heart Williams, Michael Pollan, Michael Stewartt, Paul Stamets, Terence McKenna, and Wade Davis.

  Visionary plants have long served indigenous peoples and their shamans as enhancers of perception, thinking, and healing. These plants can also be important guides to the reality of the natural world and how we can live harmoniously in it.
  
  In Visionary Plant Consciousness, editor J. P. Harpignies has gathered presentations from the Bioneers annual conference of environmental and social visionaries that explore how plant consciousness affects the human condition. Twenty-three leading ethnobotanists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and cultural and religious figures present their understandings of the nature of psychoactive plants and their significant connection to humans. What they reveal is that these plants may help us access the profound intelligence in nature--the “mind of nature”--that we must learn to understand in order to survive our ecologically destructive way of life.