Jonathan Ott is an ethnobotanist, writer, translator, publisher, natural products chemist and botanical researcher in the area of entheogens and their cultural and historical uses, and helped coin the term "entheogen".
Ott has written eight books, co-wrote five, and contributed to four others, and published many articles in the field of entheogens. He has collaborated with other researchers like Christian Rätsch, Jochen Gartz, and the late ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson. He translated Albert Hoffman's 1979 book LSD: My Problem Child (LSD: Mein Sorgekind), and On Aztec Botanical Names by Blas Pablo Reko, into English. His articles have appeared in many publications, including The Entheogen Review, The Entheogen Law Reporter, the Journal of Cognitive Liberties, the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (AKA the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs), the MAPS Bulletin, Head, High Times, Curare, Eleusis, Integration, Lloydia, The Sacred Mushroom Seeker, and several Harvard Botanical Museum pamphlets. He is a co-editor of Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants & Compounds, along with Giorgio Samorini.
Ott has experience of field collecting in Mexico, where he lives and manages a small natural-products laboratory and botanical garden of medicinal herbs. A number of his ethno-botanical products have been studied to determine their possible benefits to individuals suffering various mental aberrations. In his book Ayahuasca Analogues, he identifies numerous plants around the globe containing the harmala alkaloids of Banisteriopsis caapi, which are MAOIs, and plants containing dimethyltryptamine, which together are the chemical base of the South American Ayahuasca brew.
In March 2010, Ott's home in Mexico was destroyed by arson. While most of his books survived the fire, Ott's laboratory and personal effects perished in the blaze. Books given to Ott by Albert Hoffman were reportedly used as fuel. Details on the suspect(s) are scarce, but it is speculated that the arsonist specifically targeted Ott because of his research.
A Conscientious Guide to Hallucinogens: A Comprehensive Guide to Hallucinogens, Natural and Synthetic, Found in North American and the World with Joe E Axton and Jeremy Bigwood (1975) Do It Now Foundation, Institute for Chemical Survival
Hallucinogenic Plants of North America (1976), ISBN 0-914728-16-4
Teonanacatl: Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of North America (Co-edited by Jeremy Bigwood) (1978), ISBN 0-914842-32-3
LSD: My Problem Child (1980) McGraw-Hill Book Company ISBN 0-07-029325-2 (translation only)
The Cacahuatl Eater: Ruminations of an Unabashed Chocolate Addict (Natural Products Company) (1985) ISBN 0-9614234-1-2
Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion with R. Gordon Wasson, Stella Kramrisch, and Carl A. P. Ruck (1986) ISBN 0-300-05266-9
The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Essays for R. Gordon Wasson? by Robert Gordon Wasson, Thomas J. Riedlinger (1990) contributor
Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History (1993), ISBN 0-9614234-2-0
Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangaean Entheogens (1995), ISBN 0-9614234-4-7
Plant Intoxicants: a Classic Text on the Use of Mind-Altering Plants? by Ernst Bibra and Jonathan Ott (1995) Nature
Age of Entheogens & the Angels' Dictionary (1995), ISBN 0-9614234-6-3
Pharmacophilia: The Natural Paradise (1997), ISBN 1-888755-00-8
Shamanic Snuffs or Entheogenic Errhines (2001), ISBN 1-888755-02-4
Ometochtzin: Las Muertes de Dos Conejos (2001)
Drugs of the Dreaming: Oneirogens: Salvia Divinorum and Other Dream-Enhancing Plants with Gianluca Toro and Benjamin Thomas (2007) Body, Mind & Spirit
The Road to Eleusis (2008) By R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, Carl A. P. Ruck, Huston Smith (contributor)
Articles
hux to Dr. Alexander H. Smith by Jonathan Ott and Alexander Hanchett Smith (1978) Botanical Museum of Harvard University
Ethnopharmacognosy and Human Pharmacology of Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A (1995)
Pharmahuasca: On Phenethylamines and Potentiation (1996)
Pharmahuasca, Anahuasca and Vinho da Jurema: Human Pharmacology of Oral DMT Plus Harmine (1997)
The Delphic Bee: Bees and Toxic Honeys as Pointers to Psychoactive and Other Medicinal Plants - Economic Botany (1998)
Applied Psychonautics: Ayahuasca to Pharmahuasca to Anahuasca (2001)
Pharmanopo-Psychonautics: Human Intranasal, Sublingual, Intrarectal, Pulmonary and Oral Pharmacology of Bufotenine (2001)
Jonathan Ott's victim of arson, signed copies of Albert Hofmann books used to start fire (2010)
