This is a memoir of the life and times of Jacques Olivier aka Poloka Lele, his friendship and interactions with Terence McKenna, and Poloka’s life, death, and resurrection after literally dying on stage at the Imagine Festival on Orcas Island on Friday the 13th 2019.
Reviews
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”This autobiographical account of Jacques Olivier’s transformation from his middle-class childhood in Los Angeles to his becoming a leader in the field of sacred plant medicine and psychedelic exploration, carries an important message.
“Reading Nature Loves Courage brings to mind many such journeys, the Merry Pranksters in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the Beat Generation, Tune In and Drop Out, Be Here Now, and Deep Ecology to name a few. Mystics like Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, and Yogananda, and Krishnamurti have all taught us that there is more than meets the eye, more to life than working to buy more stuff. DMT revolutionaries have taught us that certain elements in nature are there for our exploration and our personal transformation, provided for us by nature, not to avoid life, not to merely get high, to escape and deaden ourselves to reality, but to embrace its awesome beauty and the mind’s ability to take us far beyond what is seen into realms unseeable and unknowable in ordinary mental states.
“Fearlessness, the author teaches us, and respect for the medicine. Love, humility, truth, honesty, and to honor the creative muse that listens with the heart, taking us where we need to go and to the people we need to meet. Jacques Olivier’s story of life, death, and rebirth is an example of going beyond the limitations of the safe suburbs and the compelling pace of city dwelling. He teaches us that materialism keeps us tied to fear and the plant medicines and psychoactive substances, like Ayahuasca and DMT, can open us up to an expansive view of the universe and where we, each of us, fits in to the whole.” – Corrine Ardoin
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”First of all, I, like i imagine many others would be too, am glad poloka survived his heart attack so we get to read this amazing memoir! A quick, easy, and highly digestable read, this book made me feel sentiments of appreciation for life while reading about all of poloka’s struggles losing loved ones as well as his high points living life in paradise working with medicine that simulates the afterlife and all his beautiful relationships hes made by living through the heart.
In some of the vignettes describing medicine rituals i almost felt like i was reading about a modern don-juan in a carlos casteneda book. I only wish the book was longer with more detail in those particular scenes.” – Eric J Swanson
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”As soon as I received it and started reading it… it is really very interesting…thank you for this sheared experience. ” – Ntenis Merkouris