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Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
The Peyote Book: A Study of Native Medicine.
Mount, Guy. (Editor). (1993).
Cottonwood, CA: Sweetlight Books.
ISBN: 0-9604462-3-0
Description: Paperback,
third edition, 144 pages.
Contents: List of illustrations,
introduction, meditation, 51 chapters (readings) divided into
8 parts: 1. Peyote Legends
and Origin Stories, 2. Testimonials
for Healing and Childbirth, 3. The Native
American Church, 4. Gathering Peyote, 5.
Scientific and
Medical Reports, 6. Ecology
and Cultivation of Peyote, 7. Peyote
and the Law, 8. Conclusion and Testimonials, bibliography.
Contributors: Edward
F. Sun
Bear, Hal Zina Bergman,
Deloria,
Leonard Federal
Court Finding, Gaskin,
Carl Herring,
Huichol, Isabel Kelly, Karl Menninger, M. Scott
Momaday, Jeannette Mount, Mountain Wolf Woman, Navaho,
Schultes,
Slotkin,
Paul Stewart,
Rolling
Thunder, Monroe Tsa U.
S. Supreme Court Decision 1988, Virginia Trenholm,
Virgil J. Walkington,
Yaqui,
Anne Zapf.
Note: The Peyote Book
is an ongoing, ever-growing publication. Readers are invited to
submit stories, personal testimonials, research and illustrations
for future editions. (page 5).
Excerpt(s): It Will Replace
Christianity. The Native American Church, famed for its use of
the peyote button in its sacramental worship life, has doubled
its membership in the last few years. It appears to be the religion
of the future among Indian people. At first a southwestern-based
religion, it has spread since the last world war into a great
number of northern tribes. Eventually it will replace Christianity
among the Indian people.
The largest difference I can see between Indian
religion and Christian religion is in interpersonal relationships.
Indian society had a religion that taught respect for all members
of the society ... there were no locks on doors, no orphanages,
no need for oaths, and no hungry people. Indian religion taught
that sharing of one's goods with another human being was the highest
form of behavior.
Christianity came along and tried to substitute
"giving" for sharing. There was only one catch; giving
meant giving to the church, not to other people. (Vine Deloria,
,
page 47)
The most spiritual place I know is the tipi of the
Peyote Church. I used to go to synagogue on the high Jewish holidays,
but I can no longer feel the presence of the spirit in a group
larger than forty.
I sing my Jewish songs in the tipi, and I wear my
father's prayer shawl, the one he wore at his bar mitzvah in Germany.
My Indian friends say that it does not matter in what language
you sing; there are always at least two people who understand-you
and the Creator. (Carl A. Hammerschlag, The Dancing
Healers, page 59)
Compilation copyright © 1995 – 2001 CSP
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