Dale Pendell is a contemporary author who combines science and poetry in his explications of the relationship between psychoactive compounds and human beings. A long time student of ethnobotany, Pendell discusses historical and cultural uses of "power plants" in his works. He reads and distills the literature of pharmacology and neuroscience, of ethnobotany and anthropology, of mythology and political economics as they intersect with the direct experience of human psychoactive use.
His publications include the Pharmako Trilogy: Pharmako/Poeia (1994), Pharmako/Dynamis (2002), and Pharmako/Gnosis (2005), all published by Mercury House. He covers all the major categories of psychoactives and details the use, the pharmacology, the chemistry, the political and social historical implications and effects of the use of psychoactives.
He is also a myth critic. Certain of his works comment on the origins of cultural myths.
Pendell has also delved into politics, introducing the concept of "Horizon anarchism" at his Burning Man 2006 Palenque Norte lecture.
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