McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy

In almost every Iranian home, dried brown seeds are still cast onto glowing coals to ward off the evil eye – and almost no one realises they hold the same kind of visionary chemistry as the Amazonian brew ayahuasca. This is espand, or Peganum harmala, the plant that chemical engineer and VCENN...

mycology

ethnobotany

mycology

consciousness and spirituality

Imagine walking through a dense rainforest with an indigenous elder who can identify hundreds of plants by sight, smell, and touch—knowing precisely which leaf can cure a fever, which root can ease pain, and which bark can purify water. This profound relationship between people and plants lies at the heart of ethnobotany, a fascinating interdisciplinary field that studies...