Whole Earth Review

For those with an interest in sacred plants, the Fall 1989 issue of the Whole Earth Review holds a special place in our hearts. The issue is subtitled The Alien Intelligence of Plants, and it contains any number of delights — articles by Terence and Dennis McKenna; reviews of classic books on South American shamanism by Michael Taussig and Johannes Wilbert; articles on ethnobotany, plant intelligence, and the political economy of deforestation; and all of the small intriguing sidebar reviews and discussions that are characteristic of the Whole Earth style.

The entire issue — all 148 pages — is now on online at the Whole Earth website. The magazine is set up in a format that is, for a while, fun to play with — for example, it appears as if you are flipping the pages — but which, alas, makes the text hard to read. Still, the content is fascinating, and there is a lot to browse through.