Plant 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.
Production
Genuine Amazon footage that feels illegally obtained
Writing
Wade Davis narrates like your coolest professor
Editing
Jarring cuts between tribal ceremony and Deadhead interviews
Director
Peter von Puttkamer
Wade Davis
Self / Presenter
Timothy Leary
Self (archive footage)
Andrew Weil
Self
Jeremy Narby
Self
Randy Borman
Self
Aldous Huxley
Self (archive footage)
Martin A. Lee
Self
Ralph Metzner
Self
Bob Weir
Self
Jonathan Ott
Self
Richard Evans Schultes
Self (archive footage)
Albert Hofmann
Self (archive footage)
Ken Kesey
Self (archive footage)
Robert Forte
Self
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Schultes's 1941 field notes were so classified that even other botanists couldn't access them for decades — the government feared enemy powers weaponizing his plant discoveries.
Wade Davis's 1985 book 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' was later butchered into a Wes Craven horror film — this doc is his attempt to reclaim the serious anthropology.
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