To pay homage to sacred plants revered by Indigenous groups throughout the Americas is a way of honouring the entire world in a time of environmental emergency. The visual contents of this book magnify life in ways that may alter how humans perceive other living entities from our shared and threatened biosphere. Some of these plants contain the most potent psychoactive agents on the planet and serve as intermediaries that have enabled Native communities to communicate with their ancestors, wage war on the enemies of their land and their traditions, conceptualise entire cosmogonies, and maintain a nearly impossible ecological equilibrium. Each exquisite detail in these vital portraits is not only a way into previously unseen vegetal realms, but also a potential way out of our collective crisis. AUTHORS: Jill Pflugheber is a Microscopy Specialist who taught Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Research Methods in Fluorescence and Confocal Microscopy, and Research Methods in Cell Biology at her alma mater St. Lawrence University for almost twenty years. She has also worked in biomedical research at Harvard University, University of Kentucky, and the University of Texas SW Medical Center. In the summer of 2023, she relocated to Kentucky, and resumed her research career in a lab at the University of Kentucky that studies immune responses to RNA virus infection and vaccination. Steven F White is an independent historian residing in Frederick Maryland, USA. The recipient of two Fulbright awards and a research fellowship at European University Institute, he has taught at the University of Virginia, Averett University, the University of Perugia, Mount St. Mary's University and the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute. Educated at Williams College and the University of Oregon, White is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation residency and two Fulbright grants for a literary project in Chile and curricular development as a Senior Specialist in Nicaragua. When he was 22, his interest in sacred plants motivated him to visit a Cofan community in the Ecuadorean Amazon in 1977. During a transformative sabbatical year in 1993-94, he actively participated in the Santo Daime Church on the island of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. His research with Microscopy Specialist Jill Pflugheber Microcosms: A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas was presented as an exhibit at the Brush Art Gallery in 2020 at St. Lawrence University, where White was a founder of the Caribbean and Latin American Studies program. SELLING POINTS: . Exploration of psychoactive plants aligns with the rapidly growing interest in and audience for work on the nature and functions of psychedelics . Highlights the sacred role of plants in indigenous traditions, appealing to readers interested in ethnobotany, spirituality, and indigenous knowledge . Touches on ideas of deep cultural and spiritual significance, appealing to a diverse public interested in anthropology, religious and spiritual studies, and Native American studies . Presents stunning, never-seen-before confocal microscopy images of plants which are visually captivating and scientifically insightful . Strong eco-activism message, aligning with current environmental concerns and trends toward sustainability and biodiversity 350 colour illustrations
