Product Description
When James Arthur decided to experiment with Salvia divinorum, a Mexican visionary plant sacred to the Mazatecs, he was expecting a hallucinogenic experience-but not the transformation of his entire view of the world. With repeated sessions over the course of several years, he began returning to the same inner landscape, where he found himself entering a unique state of "thoughtless awareness" and accessing a mode of language that articulated a distinctive form of understanding and communication.

The repeated immersion in these states of trance, as well as the analysis of their approach and withdrawal, led to a profound re-assessment of the nature of our normal perception, and a re-evaluation of our habitual sensory bias in defining what we normally refer to as the real world.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 4 reviews)

Wonderful! Best Book yet on a Neglected Topic

Readers or collectors of books on entheogens (a.k.a. psychedelics or 'hallucinogens') have reason to celebrate this year (2008) due to the publication of J. D. Arthur's magnificent book. "Peopled Darkness" is a beautifully written, penetrating, and haunting account/analysis of Arthur's personal salvia divinorum experiences. It ranks way up there among classics of its genre such as Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception" and D. M. Turner's "Salvinorin"; arguably, it's the finest piece of writing on salvia yet published. This is a book to be read, savored slowly, and reread.

Arthur is at first turned off by the arbitrariness of his salvia visions, but is also fascinated, and then slowly but surely finds himself drawn to a strange and compelling world that follows an elusive yet unmistakable dream logic. Not quite the hallucinogen he expected it to be, salvia for Arthur becomes a portal to an inner universe - "totally alien yet utterly familiar" - peopled by mysterious `presences' (spirits?) and held together by its own peculiar consistency and modes of communication.

Is this universe `real'? Western culture tends to focus on external, repeatable and measurable `reality' and be dismissive of fluid internal states. But, as Arthur notes, the salviaic experience throws this apparently rock-solid reality into question by exposing its ultimate dependence on the observer, an internal entity (shades of quantum physics here). Furthermore, the reality opened to us by salvia has its own validity, and perhaps, even its intimate connections to our everyday consensual one. It's as valid as our own thoughts, dreams and highest aspirations, which are certainly not 'hallucinations' even though they may lack spatio-temporality.

Arthur's writing is engaging, yet sober and free of the unbridled speculation that often mars writing in this genre. It leads one to think deeply about the salviaic state and realize that there is much more to it than first meets even the `third eye'.

"Peopled Darkness" is destined to be a classic of entheogenic literature.

August 07, 2008

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

In Peopled Darkness, J.D. Arthur explores his previous journeys into the Salvaic Realm. He recalls many of his experiences having his consciousness swept away and being taken to places nothing like what we have become accustomed to view as reality. It is an absolutely wonderful read, both fascinating and well written. I cannot recommend it strongly enough to anyone interested in the subject!
July 05, 2008

A Fascinating Account

Arthur's accounts of his experiences while using Salvia divinorum offer the reader an intimate glimpse at a state of awareness that transcends waking perception and even goes beyond our familiarity with the act of dreaming. Despite not having had similar experiences, I was able to gain a palpable sense of the experiences through Arthur's well thought out descriptions, which I found to be intrinsically understandable. These accounts are intensely personal without the burden of being overly subjective. Arthur does an excellent job of recounting events in a clear and honest manner that does not restrict the reader. I recommend this book as a great read for people who are interested in the question of what constitutes "real" perception and why we should limit our understanding of the world to our waking reality.
May 11, 2008

An Intriguing Inner Voyage

J.D. Arthur's Peopled Darkness is a milestone in the literature of experimentation with naturally-occuring psychoactive substances.

The term "experiment," used in connection with anything mind-altering, often seems a rather high-flown euphemism for an idle and shallow adventure; the media even reports on adolescents "experimenting with alcohol," as if they were wearing lab coats and drinking beer out of test tubes. In light of such bloated imprecision of language, it's refreshing -- no, profoundly illuminating -- to read an account of serious experimentation with a substance as intriguing as salvia divinorum. Over the course of five years, J.D. Arthur meticulously recorded his experiences with the little-known Mexican psychoactive plant, bringing an acute intelligence to his analysis of the meaning of the visions, profoundly altered perceptions, and "thoughtless awareness" those experiences afforded.

The result is a book in the tradition of Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception and the serious, less sensationalized accounts of the synthetic hallucinogens. I hesitate to use the term "hallucinogen" in connection with salvia, though, as Arthur makes clear that the quality and meaning of his entry into the visionary state made accessible by the plant far exceeds that of any mere hallucinatory experience. "Hallucination" implies the false perception of things that aren't really there; the salviaic state, as Arthur makes convincingly clear, is a profoundly instructive and insightful realm. Not having used salvia myself, I can't say whether I would receive the same education; in the meantime, though, Peopled Darkness -- the title refers to the guiding "presences" that Arthur encountered -- is certainly an eye-opening education in itself.
April 26, 2008

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