Could psychedelics be the saviour of humanity? Is our evolution - at least in part - a result of our ancestors’ exposure to the mind-expanding compounds contained in “magic” mushrooms? And, if so, how does all of that square with the so-called “War on Drugs” that we’ve been fighting these last few decades?
My latest audiobook has just been published by Dreamscape Media, and its authors have some very interesting theories and arguments on all of the above.
An anthology of essays, curated by Graham Hancock (author of international bestsellers “The Sign and the Seal” and , “Fingerprints of the Gods”) “The Divine Spark” asks some very thought-provoking questions, and offers some very plausible answers in return.
The “Difficult” Third Book
You’ll probably be familiar with the concept of the “difficult second album”. Well, for me, this was the “difficult third book”…
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great book: 27 essays on hallucinogens and their relationship with mankind, written by no fewer than 24 authors. I learned a huge amount from narrating it, although I don’t mind admitting it was by far the most challenging piece of narration - audiobook or otherwise - I’ve done to date.
The challenge for the narrator is the 24 authors. If you read often, you’ll know that it takes somewhere from a few pages, to a chapter or two, before you begin to effortlessly follow the writer’s pattern of speech, their word order and so on: in other words, to get used to their “voice”. With a book like “The Divine Spark”, that voice changes every dozen or so pages, whereupon you have to “reset” everything you just got comfortable with and start again.
If I tell you that some of the writers are academics (writing in language that wouldn’t be out of place in a thesis); some are journalists; some are experienced “psychonauts” writing about their experiences; and some are Russell Brand, then you can begin to imagine the variety of writing styles and approaches the book contains. My hope is that a single “narrator voice” will lend a sense of coherence to the collection for the listener.
I found myself bringing in a researcher for a couple of the chapters (the wonderful Ken Schmidt, whom I’d highly recommend!) and also tracking down their author, somewhere in the depths of the Brazilian interior, to help with context and pronunciation issues. In short, this was quite a project!
A New Dawn for Psychedelics?
Since the backlash against psychedelics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, interest in them has never really gone away. Experimentation and research have continued - largely underground and in secret until fairly recently - and we’re now at a point where the medical community and science in general seem prepared to consider them seriously, separating out both the hype and the fear-mongering in order to do so.
With more than half of the United States now some way to decriminalising the use of substances like marijuana and THC, and Washington D.C.’s vote - during the 2020 Election - to legalise psilocybin, I think it’s a great time to revisit these fascinating compounds and their potential for humanity.
“The Divine Spark” is published by Dreamscape Media, and is available now from the usual audiobook outlets, including: