Vol.1: The first three texts in the collected works span the world’s literature. The epic of Gilgamesh ― created in the Sumerian cradle of civilization ― is the earliest story we know, yet contains the deepest question man can ask: `How can I transcend death?’ The story of Marouf the Cobbler is an oriental tale taken from the works of Sir Richard Burton, the great Victorian explorer, and is dedicated to the genius of that world-renowned story-teller, Scheherzade. Goethe’s `Faust’ needs no introduction. The translation of Part One in this collection is pungent and unusual. The Caravan of Dreams Touring Theater – also known as the “Theater of All Possibilities” – was founded in 1967 by director Kathelin Gray, and dramaturge Johnny Dolphin.

Caravan of Dreams Theater Collected Works, Volume One: Gilgamesh, Marouf the Cobbler, Faust

Literature & Fiction

Dolphin, Johnny

Dramas & Plays

Synergetic Press

Vol.2: In contrast with the first volume, the second is devoted to new mythologies and social forces. The included plays explore three American archetypal pursuits of happiness: the glory of the lone individual, the glamour of Hollywood and the magic lure of Space. Billy the Kid Metal Woman Tin Can Man The folk hero BILLY THE KID defies the controls of a stagnant order- and the system strikes back, predictably, until a modern day ‘Billy’ cuts up and renews the myth so the hero can live to fight another day. The America of Hollywood and glamour, illusion and image runs head-on into the America of idealist seekers after freedom and significance in the comedy of METAL WOMAN. Can everyone get what they want? In America–maybe! The TIN CAN MAN shakes, rattles and rolls searching every dead-end alley and winds up on the threshold of the post-nihilist space age, disillusioned with every tried prescription for meaning, looking for the new frontier in which to “build a world closer to our hearts’ desire”.

Caravan of Dreams Theater Collected Works, Volume 2: Billy the Kid, Metal Woman, Tin Can Man

Where the Gods Reign is a complete anthropological overview of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem, containing chapters on rivers, ethnic groups, cultural activities, rubber and coca plants, drugs and medicines, and others. Beautiful photographs taken by Dr. Schultes during the ‘40s and ‘50s are accompanied by explanatory text, providing a vivid illustration of the evolutionary relationship between mankind and the biomes within which we live. Richard Evans Schultes is considered the father of modern ethnobotany and this text, a companion to Vine of the Soul, is a classic in the field.

Where the Gods Reign: Plants and Peoples of the Colombian Amazon

Arts & Photography

Schultes PhD, Richard Evans

History & Criticism

White Gold tells the story of a young American, John Hungjohann, who struggled for survival as a rubber cutter at the height of the rubber boom in the early years of this century. Editor Sir Ghillean prance, a leading expert on the rainforest, enhances the text with his own contemporary photographs and identifies the fungi, plants and animals mentioned in the pages of the diary. The diaries are especially poignant now since the rubber cutters are fighting to preserve something of the original forest against the ravages of the indiscriminate destruction which still ignores the true wealth of the region – its almost incomprehensible variety of species. It is a tale of humanity and the natural order working together in the midst of greed and ignorance. Ghillean Prance enhances the text with his own contemporary photographs and identifies the fungi, plants and animals which are mentioned in the pages of the diaries.

White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1906 - 1916

Biographies & Memoirs

Yungjohann, John C.

Community & Culture

The traditional Chinese science and practice of FengShui works with vital currents that are influenced by heavenly bodies and which permeate the earth’s surface and regulate its cycles of fertility. Modern concern about the threat to the earth’s continued life and fertility has brought about a revival of interest in this science which was based on principles of cooperation between mankind and nature. First published in 1873, Ernest J. Eitel’s Feng-Shui remains the best classical treatise on the subject ever written. As such, it offers a unique perspective on a subject that has since been heavily commercialized in the West. This edition includes nine engravings of Chinese landscapes by nineteenth century artist Thomas Allom.

Feng-Shui: The Science of Sacred Landscape in Old China

Eitel, Ernest

John Michell

The young ruler of Tibet donned the traditional garb of a Tibetan tribesman and fled on horesback to India to escape the Chinese occupation of his homeland. The 14th Dalai Lama arrived in Indiain the spring of 1959, the first and most illustrious refugee of the waves soon to pour out from the ancient ‘Forbidden Kingdom’. “The Renaissance of Tibetan Civilization” is an inspiring story of the power of courage and hope ― the story of refugees who arrived destitute at the frontiers of India and Nepal, yet a mere forty years later have managed to rebuild the essential patterns of Tibetan culture in exile as a legacy for the future. The book documents the struggle for survival and the emerging way of life of individual refugees and families, as well as there construction of religious and artistic traditions. Per Kvaerne appends an essay on the Bon religion which augments the background material necessary for understanding the ingredients of the diaspora. The forced exodus of Tibetan culture is one of the most remarkable stories of our time: how an enclosed and highly conservative community assumed global significance, in the realm of politics as well as in the realm of culture. The tragedy of Tibet has enriched the world by giving it access to the high intellectual and artistic values which gave Tibetans their sense of meaning.

The Renaissance of Tibetan Civilization

von Furer-Haimendorf PhD, Professor Christoph

Wild, as the title suggests, is a celebration of all that is wild and free. The tree root that overturns the sidewalk (even though it destroys a kitchen drain); the crane that fishes what would have been a good catch for someone out of the pond, the alert coyote, the ready owl, the artist who can only be moved by passion and the scientist who writes only when there is something to say―all of these and more are exalted. The first section of WILD features poems that tell stories about animals that are wild, poems that reveal the ingredients necessary to be wild―“Nobody gonna attain wild / who didn’t make it free, / nobody gonna get free / without a fight…”―and even poems that offer information about what might be construed as being wild (rage, screaming) but is not really wild at all. In one poem (entitled “April 1991”), Dolphin compares himself to a coyote, saying that just as a coyote slinks into a hole when he is wounded, so too he slinks into poetry, which turns out to be the place where he is able to heal. The work here is healing for readers as well―for even most complaisant readers will be reawakened to the chilling potential for their own wildness. The second section of the book, Aphorisms, lists more than seven pages of small gems that guarantee to send any inquisitive mind off on a short (or possibly long) journey. Dolphin looks at life, death, society, emotion, luck, truth, freedom, humility, humiliation and more. These are the seductive thoughts of a very clear mind and it is almost impossible not to be lured by them to seek clarity as well. There are several short stories here as well, in the final section of the book, and they examine wildness through characterization. A seven-year old boy, for instance, must decide whether to risk a jump that could send him to his death so as to experience the emotional rush that he already understands to be a necessary part of a full life. These are stories of characters looking around them, at the physical and spiritual worlds, to see what is of value and what is not, often finding answers in surprising places.

Wild: Poems Aphorisms and Short Stories

Johnny Dolphin

United States

MY MANY KISSES AND OTHER SHORT STORIES features 20 highly entertaining vignettes of people who have decided to change their lives and then go out do so. Dolphin, whose body of work is always about potential, gives us characters who, for the most part, understand that wisdom opens many doors. We meet a miner who has decided to become a mystic, a man who understands that his constant failures are really successes when the bigger picture is observed, a wandering poet whose goal is to have enough money to pay for his meals and enough talent to entertain his friends and others. These are characters who are “ready,” who expect things to happen and so they do. There are great life lessons in these pages, but they never overwhelm the stories themselves. Dolphin proves himself a true master of the craft of short-story writing, giving us real characters and pacing their plots so that they tell us precisely what we need to know and no more. In this way the stories are swift and compelling, meaningful and memorable…and, ultimately, universal.

My Many Kisses & Other Short Stories

Contemporary

Vine of the Soul is an exceptional photographic essay accompanied by detailed descriptions of the Amazonians’ use of medicinal and other sacred plant substances. Over 160 documentary photos, some of the most signifi cant ever taken on the subject, bring the reader along a journey to a world in which healing with plants, ritual and magic play an essential role in everyday life. Richard Evans Schultes, former Director of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University, led an extraordinary life that bridged the worlds of academia and tribal cultures. Carrying out extensive fi eld studies since 1939 as an ethnobotanist and conservationist, Schultes has received acclaim from many sources, including the Cross of Boyacá― Colombia’s highest honor, the Tyler Prize for environmental achievement, the Linnean Gold Medal, the highest prize a botanist can receive, and many more.

Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia

Raffauf PhD, Robert F.

The AYAHUASCA READER is a four-part celebration of a sacred plant which grows in the Amazon rainforest and which, throughout the rainforest history, has been instrumental in allowing medicine men (and others) to leave their bodies behind and travel with their souls. Their experiences and the invaluable information they return with are so impressive that many anthropologists have felt the inclination to question them about these "trips” and the mythologies of their ancestors regarding them. Hence, part one of the AYAHUASCA READER consists of information divulged in such interviews. Part two consists of essays by (or about) the scientists themselves upon experiencing Ayahuasca in ceremonial settings. Part three discusses the use of Ayahuasca as a present day religious sacrament, and finally, in part four, well known celebrities from the literary world discuss their experience of Ayahuasca. All of this renders the AYAHUASCA READER the most comprehensive collection ever written on the subject, with essays translated from nearly a dozen languages. The many contributors include FranÃ§oise Barbira Freedman, Wade Davis, Philippe Descola, Allen Ginsberg, Jean Langdon, Peter Matthiessen, Dennis McKenna, W.S.Merwin, Richard Spruce, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, Mario Vargas Llosa, and more. As the myths within confirm, Ayahuasca has been a means "of reconnecting with the invisible layers of the cosmos” for millennia. Not surprisingly, the myths make for very fascinating reading in and of themselves, and certainly no study of world mythology is complete with them. The additional scientific, religious and literary points of view, then, are all wonderful bonuses. There is a lot at work here: As if the various stories from these disparate groups were not enough, there are depictions of the artwork of the indigenous peoples, photographs of a few of the Ayahuasca practitioners (including Ginsberg), a copy of a Brazilian watercolor depicting Ayahuasca, a copy of an oil painting depicting visions induced by the plant, and much more. From the religion section there are hymns a plenty, and from the literary section, as much eloquent prose and spirited poetry as a reader is likely to find in any literary anthology.

Ayahuasca Reader : Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

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