Stephen Harrod Buhner

 author of 23 books, primarily nonfiction on ecological topics; Fellow of Schumacher College UK; head researcher for the Foundation for Gaian Studies; received Nautilus and BBC environmental book of the year awards

All ancient and indigenous peoples said that they learned the uses of plants as medicines from the plants themselves. For, they insisted, the plants can speak to human beings if only human beings will listen and respond to them in the proper state of mind. Gathering of knowledge directly from the wildness of the world is called biognosis--meaning “knowledge from life”--and, because it is inherent in our very physical bodies, it is something that everyone has the capacity to develop. It is something, in fact, that all of us use (at least minimally) without awareness in our day-to-day lives. It is a way of being that is concerned with our interconnection to the web of life that surrounds us, with wholeness rather than parts, with the very human journey in which we are all engaged.

from The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner (Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.)