Well, after some years of writing and polishing the manuscript, incorporating feedback and observations for innumerable friends and allies, and spending long hours at the computer my, ahem, magnum opus, is ready for publication!

Phew!

Check out the cool mandala on the cover!

While my name is on the cover, this work is another collaborative venture. It includes a range of strategies to hold and direct the psychedelic experience and many of these have been things I’ve learnt from shamans, witches, magicians and many others. I’ve been honoured to take part in ceremony with people who hold lineages in the use of psychedelic medicines going back thousands of years. I’ve also learnt methods from some fabulous people in the more modern esoteric schools of Thelema, Wicca, Druidry and Chaos Magic. What I offer in Getting Higher is my understanding of the wisdom of these various practitioners.

I’m also very pleased to have my practice and understanding informed by people working in the fields of medical and scientific research on psychedelics. I’m especially grateful to the organizers of Breaking Convention which biennially provides a conference of three days of glorious intellectual and cultural reflection on psychedelic consciousness. If you want to understand and connect with the emerging psychedelic renaissance then you need a ticket now.

I’m very pleased to have had the support of the wonderful Psychedelic Press UK, and their arch editor Nikki Wyrd. I’m also honoured to have the legendary Pete Loveday as the illustrator for the book. Pete is a wonderful chap and frankly something of childhood hero. His Plain Rapper and Big Bang comics in the latter part of the 20th century cast a wry psychoactive eye over the culture of festival scene, The Peace Convoy, drugs, and authoritarian Tory rule (plus ça change). All Pete’s work is hand painted and the detail of the design is amazing. If people are interested I’ll see if I can get prints (or even perhaps blotter art) sorted out.

We’re having a book launch at The October Gallery in London on the 25th of April and you are warmly invited. The evening will be convened by the phenomenal Dr David Luke who graciously provided the foreword for this book.

Advanced orders for Getting Higher are being taken now for a May 1st publication date. Kindle and all that jazz will follow in due course.

Eagle eyed visitors to this blog (and thank you gentle reader, we’ve had over quarter of a million views to date) will have spotted the Getting Higher link. This is where I’m hoping to post resources for people who are engaged in entheogenic ceremony. As it says on the page, if you want to contribute to these resources in any way please get in touch.

Finally another thank you. To all the medicine carriers, all the spirits, all the magic that surrounds us everyday. Whether we use entheogens to notice this magic, or breathwork, or silence, or gardening, or a thousand other ways, may we all wake to remember the wonder of the world. Thank you Great Mystery for this.

Ahoy!

JV

PS – here’s a video trailer for the book. Enjoy your marketing experience, and thank you 🙂