Director of Photography BILL MILLS. Producer/Director
PETER VON PUTTKAMER, and host Dr. WADE DAVIS spent several weeks with the COFAN INDIANS in the rain forests
of Equador and the mountains of Oxacca, Mexico during the production of the HISTORY CHANNEL SPECIAL - PEYOTE TO
LSD: A PSYCHEDELIC ODYSSEY.
In the 40s and 50s, when the Amazon was still a deeply mysterious,
untracked region, Richard Evans Schulte followed the guidance of native experts — tribal healers, shamans, mystics —
to find botanical treasure. For months at a time he combed the jungle, collecting thousands of samples and discovering plants
unknown to the modern world, many of which produced fantastic chemical compounds with strong effects on our bodies... and
our minds.
In this ambitious feature-length documentary, renowned botanist, explorer and author
Wade Davis ("The Serpent and the Rainbow") reconstructs the travels and discoveries of his great mentor Schulte,
the Father of Ethnobotany.
Botanist and explorer Richard Evans Schultes was a real
life Indiana Jones whose discoveries of hallucinogenic plants laid the foundation for the psychedelic sixties. Now in this
two hour History Channel TV Special, his former student Wade Davis, follows in his footsteps to experience the discoveries
that Schultes brought to the western world. Shot around the planet, from Canada to the Amazon, we experience rarely seen native
hallucinogenic ceremonies and find out the true events leading up to the Psychedelic Sixties. Featuring author/adventurer
Wade Davis ("Serpent and the Rainbow"), Dr. Andrew Weil, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and many others, this
program tells the story of the discovery of peyote, magic mushrooms and beyond: one man's little known quest to classify
the Plants of the Gods. Richard Evans Schultes revolutionized science and spawned another revolution he never imagined.
Photographed in HD with the Panasonic Varicam the production team lived for several weeks with
the Cofan Indians along the Ecuadorian/Colombian border,working closely with Cofan Chief Randy Borman in the village of Zabalo.
Their visit to Oxacco to document a sacred mushroom ceremony is a revealing look into the past and present.
The two hour program was originaly broadcast in 2008 on the HISTORY CHANNEL.
