This could be the most important book you will read this year. Around the office at Chelsea Green it is referred to as the "pharmaceutical Silent Spring." Well-known author, teacher, lecturer, and herbalist Stephen Harrod Buhner has produced a book that is certain to generate controversy. It consists of three parts:
1. A critique of technological medicine, and especially the dangers to the environment posed by pharmaceuticals and other synthetic substances that people use in connection with health care and personal body care.
2. A new look at Gaia Theory, including an explanation that plants are the original chemistries of Gaia and those phytochemistries are the fundamental communications network for the Earth's ecosystems.
3. Extensive documentation of how plants communicate their healing qualities to humans and other animals. Western culture has obliterated most people's capacity to perceive these messages, but this book also contains valuable information on how we can restore our faculties of perception.
The book will affect readers on rational and emotional planes. It is grounded in both a New Age spiritual sensibility and hard science. While some of the author's claims may strike traditional thinkers as outlandish, Buhner presents his arguments with such authority and documentation that the scientific underpinnings, however unconventional, are completely credible.
The overall impact is a powerful, eye-opening expos' of the threat that our allopathic Western medical system, in combination with our unquestioning faith in science and technology, poses to the primary life-support systems of the planet. At a time when we are preoccupied with the terrorist attacks and the possibility of biological warfare, perhaps it is time to listen to the planet. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the environment, the state of health care, and our cultural sanity.

The author of Sacred Plant Medicine blends poetry, his and others' reflections on nature, alerts about the impact of the medicine of "fundamentalist Scientists," information on the chemistry of plants and their bond with humans, and exercises for raising environmental consciousness. Resources listed include Buhner's Foundation for Gaian Studies in Coeur d'Alene, ID.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Well-known author, teacher, lecturer, and herbalist Stephen Harrod Buhner has produced a book that is certain to generate controversy. It consists of three parts: <P>I. A critique of technological medicine and an expose of pharmaceutical pollution.<P>II. A new look at Gaia Theory.<P>III. Extensive documentation of how plants communicate their healing qualities to humans and other animals.<P>This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the environment, the state of health care, and our cultural sanity.

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an award-winning author of seven books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine (including Sacred Plant Medicine ). His work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe, including The New York Times, CNN, Good Morning America, Common Ground, HerbalGram and other herbal magazines, and many more.
He travels throughout the United States teaching about herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, and the intelligence of nature. The Lost Language of Plants is his most recent book.