In these wide-ranging essays, cult author Erik Davis explores the codes - spiritual, cultural and embodied - that people use to escape the limitations of their lives and enrich their experience of the world, from Asian religious traditions and West African trickster gods to Western occult and esoteric lore, media technology and psychedelic science. Covering subjects ranging from transvestite Burmese spirit mediums to Ufology, tripster kid Terence McKenna or dub maestro Lee Perry, Davis writes with keen yet sceptical sympathy, intellectual subtlety and wit.