november 2019 – good to read

Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind

Stephen Kinzer
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentle-hearted torturer ― the agency’s «poisoner in chief.» He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace ― including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world. Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about US clandestine operations, brings to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the twentieth century. Gottlieb’s reckless experiments on «expendable» human subjects destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual.
NG Media, September 2019

Out of My Head. On the Trail of Consciousness

Tim Parks 
Hardly a day goes by without some discussion about whether computers can be conscious, whether our universe is some kind of simulation, whether mind is a unique quality of human beings or spread out across the universe like butter on bread. Most philosophers believe that our experience is locked inside our skulls, an unreliable representation of a quite different reality outside. Colour, smell and sound, they tell us, occur only in our heads. Yet when neuroscientists look inside our brains to see what’s going on, they find only billions of neurons exchanging electrical impulses and releasing chemical substances. Out of My Head tells the gripping, highly personal, often surprisingly funny, story of Tim Parks’ quest to discover more about this fascinating topic.
Random House, October 2019 

LSD and the Mind of the Universe. Diamonds From Heaven

Christopher M. Bache, Ph.D.
Journey alongside professor Bache as he touches the living intelligence of our universe – an intelligence that both embraced and crushed him – and demonstrates how direct experience of the divine can change your perspective on core issues in philosophy and religion. Chronicling his 73 sessions, the author reveals the spiral of death and rebirth that took him through the collective unconscious into the creative intelligence of the universe. Making a powerful case for the value of psychedelically induced spiritual experience, Bache shares his immersion in the fierce love and creative intent of the unified field of consciousness that underlies all physical existence. He describes the incalculable value of embracing the pain and suffering he encountered in his sessions and the challenges he faced integrating his experiences into his everyday life.
Park Street Press, October 2019

Hell Is Around the Corner

Tricky 
This unique, no-holds barred autobiography is not only a portrait of an incredible artist — it is also a gripping slice of social history packed with extraordinary anecdotes and voices from the margins of society. Tricky examines how his creativity has helped him find a different path to that of his relatives, some of whom were bare-knuckle fighters and gangsters, and how his mother’s suicide has had a lifelong effect on him, both creatively and psychologically. With his unique heritage and experience, his story will be one of the most talked-about music autobiographies of the decade. «Although it is bookended by tragedy, and shot through with the violence and abuse of his early life, Hell Is Round the Corner proves an ultimately uplifting read, the testament of a fierce, funny and seemingly indomitable spirit.» (The Guardian)
Blink, October 2019

BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams Michael Allred, Steve Horton & Laura Allred

Michael Allred, Steve Horton & Laura Allred
In life, David Bowie was one of the most magnetic icons of modern pop culture, seducing generations of fans with both his music and his counterculture persona. In death, the cult of Bowie has only intensified. As a musician alone, Bowie’s legacy is remarkable, but his place in the popular imagination is due to so much more than his music. As a visual performer, he defied classification with his psychedelic aesthetics, his larger-than-life image, and his way of hovering on the border of the surreal. BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams chronicles the rise of Bowie’s career from obscurity to fame; and paralleled by the rise and fall of his alter ego as well as the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust. As the Spiders from Mars slowly implode, Bowie wrestles with his Ziggy persona. The outcome of this internal conflict will change not only David Bowie, but also, the world.
Insight Comics, January 2020

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