This is an adventure in science and imagination which tracks a young French anthropologist through the Amazonian rain forests, the libraries of Europe and the world's most arcane scientific journals, following strange clues, intuitions and extraordinary coincidences, to reveal scientific data. The beginning of Narby's exploration lay with the Peruvian Indians, who claim that their knowledge of chemistry has its origins in plant-induced hallucinations. He also demonstrates that indigenous and ancient peoples have known for millennia, and have even drawn, the double-helix structure, something conventional science discovered only in 1953. The book opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology and the limits of rationalism.
An interesting dive into the shamanistic traditions of indigenous tribes, and how they use psychedelics to access information about their surroundings. Though I loved the first half, I felt that the second half strayed a little too much into paranormal / alt-science presuppositions. Regardless, a fascinating read.
