We cultivate harmony with nature through educational programs, ethnobiological exploration and engagement with indigenous wisdom

Our vision is to be a catalyst in creating an awakened world where all species thrive in symbiotic harmony.

We offer symposia, courses and retreats where people share, learn and inspire positive change on our planet and in their own lives.

programs

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“The entire biospheric community of species is conscious, and seeks to advance the evolution of consciousness through collaboration and symbiosis.”

Dennis McKenna Ph.D.

President and Principal Founder

Dennis Mckenna

Videos

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Cooking

The art of coca preparation

Podcast

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Season 1 Episode 1100:51:13

Synergetic Press: Publishing for Consciousness Change and Environmental Awareness

Deborah has published over 40 books through her publishing house Synergetic Press, Ltd. in global ecology, regenerative agriculture, ethnobotany, psychedelics, and social justice, since establishing it in 1984. In 1986, she was on the team that designed and built a large-scale closed ecological system, Biosphere 2, developing the publications and educational programs for the complex. In 1990, she started The Biosphere Press, an imprint of the Biosphere 2 project, producing a dozen books and a classroom curriculum for children on biospheres and biomes. While at Biosphere 2, Deborah met Richard Evans Schultes, the grandfather of contemporary ethnobotany. She went on to publish his two books of photographs he made documenting people’s use of plant medicine in the NW Colombian Amazonia. Deborah is a director and VP of the U.S. non-profit, the Institute of Ecotechnics, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico at Synergia Ranch. The Institute owns the RV Heraclitus, an 84-foot ferrocement Chinese Junk design that sailed 270,000 miles around Planet Ocean, with two years up the Amazon on an ethnobotanical expedition inspired by Schultes (1980-1982). Deborah currently lives at Synergia Ranch organic farm and retreat center where she lives, contributes to the farm operations when she can, and continues publishing books.

Blog

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The Heraclitus Odyssey

RESEARCH VESSEL HERACLITUS, the Chinese-junk research ship built by the Institute of Ecotechnics in 1975, has sailed the world’s oceans for over forty years, traveling more than 270,000 nautical miles in every sea except the Arctic. Over the course of its twelve epic expeditions, the ship has been a nautical home to hundreds of seafarers […]