Bilsen, Bilz, Pilsenkraut, Pilsnerkraut, Tolle Bülsen, Saukraut, Zankkraut, Teufelskraut, Todtenkräutl, Wolffskraut. an die 200 mundartlichen Benennungen gibt es im Volksmund von dem bei uns vorkommenden Bilsenkraut (Hyoscyamus niger).
Für unsere heidnischen Vorfahren, für die weisen Frauen und Schamanen, war das Bilsenkraut ein Schlüssel zum Tor in die Anderswelt. Die, im richtigen Umgang Unterwiesenen, konnten damit das Totenreich besuchen, die Göttersphären oder auch die Elementarwelt. Es war die Zauberdroge, die es ermöglichte hinter der äusseren Erscheinungswelt im Bereich der Ursachen zu agieren, es war Flugkraut und Liebesmittel.
Heute weiss man kaum etwas mehr über die korrekte Dosis und Anwendung dieser Heilpflanze. Kirche und Staat haben seit Jahrhunderten versucht, das Wissen um den Gebrauch dieser Pflanzen auszurotten und zu verteufeln.
Das Aufklärungsbuch Götterpflanze Bilsenkraut räumt mit diesem Aberglauben und Unwissen auf.
Born in Saxony, Germany in 1942 with a green thumb and the gift of writing, and emigrating with his parents to the United States in 1954, cultural anthropologist and ethno-botanist Wolf Dieter Storl has had a special connection to nature since childhood. His specific area of research is shamanism and healing in traditional societies with a focus on the role of plants in all aspects of life, including sacred symbolism, magic, medicine, foods, and poisons. He has pursued this interest in many parts of the world.
After finishing his PhD in Anthropology (magna cum lauda) on a Fulbright scholarship in 1974 in Berne, Switzerland, he taught anthropology and sociology in Grants Pass, OR. During this time he also offered an organic gardening course that was extremely popular. He was one of the pioneers of the organic/biodynamic gardening movement. While preparing for his doctoral exams in Switzerland he also lived in an experimental community and helped tend a five-acre organic garden. There he had the good fortune to learn from master gardener, Manfred Stauffer who specialized in composting any organic matter.
Storl is also an avid traveler and has gathered much experience observing nature around the entire globe and spending time with people who are very connected to the nature that surrounds them. From1982 -83, he spent a year as an official visiting scholar at the Benares Hindu University, in Varanasi, India. After returning to the United States in 1984, he spent much time with traditional medicine persons of the Cheyenne and taught courses at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. He has traveled and conducted research in South Asia, India, Mexico, the Canary Islands, South Africa, and much of Europe, pursuing ehtnobotanical and ethnomedicinal interests. He has written some twenty-five books and many articles in German and English, which have been translated into various languages, such as English, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Danish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Czech. Storl is a frequent guest on German, Swiss and Austrian television and has also appeared on BBC.
After another visit in India and Nepal in 1986, he and his wife moved to Germany where he began to write books as a freelance writer and offer freelance lectures. He lives with his family on an old estate in the foothills of the Alps where he has a large garden.
Storl’s books are unique in that he does not treat nature only with cold objectivism. He is able to delve into nature's depths and supports his experience with ancient lore from all over the world that has been, for the most part, left on the wayside in the wake of objective science. He theorizes that science is not always as objective as it claims to be. He invites his readers on a journey into a world of nature that is completely alive and has its own rhyme and reason. Myths and lore from many cultures also have a prominent place in his writings, as he claims that the images portrayed in this way often tell us more about the true nature of things than dry facts can do. Credentials: MA from Kent State University, instructor there from 1967 – 1969 in anthropology and sociology. PhD in Anthropology (magna cum lauda) from University of Berne Switzerland, Fulbright scholarship, 1974. Organic, biodynamic gardener since 1970. First book, Culture and Horticulture from organic gardening course notes of three years on request of students. Since 1986 freelance author living in Germany with family.
Wolf D. Storl also writes in German as Wolf-Dieter Storl