I enjoyed reading this book which is an introduction to plant shamanism, but I found its rather sweeping generalisations about “science” and “Western Rationality” rather problematic. The authors seem to see science as a monolithic form of knowledge rather than a competing and conflicting set of theories in flux. This undermined some of the claims in the book and also allowed wooly notions of “faith” and “creation” to seep into the text. The idea argued by the authors that string theory suggests the universe is an instrument and therefore “someone or something” must be playing it, really got my goat especially as some of the interesting work in physics and biology looking at theories of emergence can explain how and why complex systems maintain and power themselves without the need for an external creator. I wish the authors had read “A Thousand Plateaus” by Deleuze and Guattari as their elegant philosophical arguments allow for the wonders of the universe to coexist with scientific endeavour.

Having said that though, the book itself is fascinating and puts forward some engaging ideas about our relationship with plants, the universe and how to co-work with them to heal ourselves and make the world a better place. Worth a read even if you don’t necessarily buy all the associated conclusions…