Tripping the trail of ghosts

by P. D. Newman

ISBN: 9798888500415

Published: 2025-03-04

Exploring psychedelic spiritual practices and afterlife beliefs among the Mississippi mound cultures • Examines the Path of Souls or Trail of Ghosts, a Native American model for the after-death journey • Demonstrates how psychoactive plants were used to evoke the liminal state between life and death in initiatory rites and spirit journeys • Explores the symbology of the large earthwork mounds erected by the Indigenous people of the Mississippi Valley and how they connect to the Path of Souls The use of hallucinogenic substances like peyote and desert tobacco has long played a significant role in the spiritual practices and traditions of Native Americans. While the majority of those practices are well documented, the relationship between entheogens and Native Americans of the Southeast—whose psychedelic use was just as sophisticated—has gone largely unexplored. Examining the role of psychoactive plants in afterlife traditions, sacred rituals, and spirit journeying by shamans of the...