Contemporary Voices from Anima Mundi

“Parallel to the extraordinary picture science is giving us, from the birth of the universe to an understanding of life processes in our planet, there has been also a continuous de-sacralization of nature by a reductionistic materialist view which is taking us to the brink of self-destruction. This book brings forth an array of multicultural and 21st century post-materialistic science perspectives, which reveal that spirit is indeed embedded in matter, and that we are surrounded by and in attainable relationship with visible and invisible non-human subjects. In accordance with mystical traditions and traditional societies from all over the world, we need—more than ever—to listen to the many voices of nature and spirit, enriching our lives and giving them meaning and a wider perspective. The recuperation of animistic worldviews—hand in hand with the development of non-reductionistic science—is not mere discursive speculation, but a conviction to be derived from direct attentive experience of the sentient interrelatedness of the natural world. In this regard, this book represents an important and timely contribution.”—Luis Eduardo Luna, PhD, anthropologist, author of Vegetalismo: Shamanism Among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon, co-author with Pablo Amaringo of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, co-author of Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics, Director of Wasiwaska, Research Center for the Study of Psychointegrator Plants, Visionary Art and Consciousness, Florianópolis, Brazil