The word «drugs» these days is commonly used to refer to just about any substance recognized by the state as illegal — it doesn't even have to be addictive.
However, before being included in the lists of banned substances, these interesting substances had already been taken up by scientists, and therefore were understood a little wider and deeper than the controlling authorities would have liked.
Aldous Huxley: Drugs that Shape Men's Minds
Personally, I believe that while these new mind transformers may cause some confusion at first, they will eventually deepen the spiritual life of the communities in which they will be available. This famous «revival of religion» that so many people have been talking about for so long will not happen as the result of evangelistic mass gatherings or the appearance of photogenic clergy on television.
However, before being included in the lists of banned substances, these interesting substances had already been taken up by scientists, and therefore were understood a little wider and deeper than the controlling authorities would have liked.
Aldous Huxley: Drugs that Shape Men's Minds
Personally, I believe that while these new mind transformers may cause some confusion at first, they will eventually deepen the spiritual life of the communities in which they will be available. This famous «revival of religion» that so many people have been talking about for so long will not happen as the result of evangelistic mass gatherings or the appearance of photogenic clergy on television.
It will come as the result of biochemical discoveries that will make it possible for more men and women to achieve radical self-transcendence and a deeper understanding of the nature of things. And this revival of religion will be a revolution at the same time.
In «Brave New World», which appeared more than a quarter century before «Drugs…», the synthetic drug soma was both a mind-expander and a kind of social cement, and described in a decidedly negative way.
In this book, Huxley's attitude toward such substances is already clearly far from unequivocal: the functions of self-transcendence and interpersonal empathy that these remedies perform should lead not to the totalitarian confinement of people trapped in their own rational, sleepy bestiality, but to spiritual rebirth.
The very concept of «drugs» for Huxley is also not as unambiguous as for the law prohibiting them: tranquilizers, a kind of element of «chicness» in the affluent strata of society (to which, apparently, we can include Soma from «Brave New World»), are not the same as, for example, LSD.
Huxley believed that pharmacy should invent something that would maximize the «psychic energy of the average individual» at the lowest «cost» to the human body (i.e., the number and power of side effects).
Ideally, this should have backfired on the regime, which banned substances that enable the expansion of the boundaries of the self: «Generalized rationality and liveliness of mind are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and, at the same time, the basic conditions for effective democracy».
In «Brave New World», which appeared more than a quarter century before «Drugs…», the synthetic drug soma was both a mind-expander and a kind of social cement, and described in a decidedly negative way.
In this book, Huxley's attitude toward such substances is already clearly far from unequivocal: the functions of self-transcendence and interpersonal empathy that these remedies perform should lead not to the totalitarian confinement of people trapped in their own rational, sleepy bestiality, but to spiritual rebirth.
The very concept of «drugs» for Huxley is also not as unambiguous as for the law prohibiting them: tranquilizers, a kind of element of «chicness» in the affluent strata of society (to which, apparently, we can include Soma from «Brave New World»), are not the same as, for example, LSD.
Huxley believed that pharmacy should invent something that would maximize the «psychic energy of the average individual» at the lowest «cost» to the human body (i.e., the number and power of side effects).
Ideally, this should have backfired on the regime, which banned substances that enable the expansion of the boundaries of the self: «Generalized rationality and liveliness of mind are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and, at the same time, the basic conditions for effective democracy».
Admittedly, optimism about pharmaceutical progress in the difficult task of opening the doors of human perception was more than offset by «Return to a Wonderful New World», a nonfiction sequel to the 27-year-old novel released the same year.
The realities of a sweet caste utopia, Huxley assures us, are becoming our everyday realities with astonishing speed (late 50s, American boom of wild consumerism). The alternative — with the same slightly exalted hope for a bright future as in «Drugs» — is described in detail in the novel «The Island».
Albert Hofmann, PhD: LSD — My Problem Child
«A group of caged chimpanzees reacts very sensitively to one of the pack being given LSD. Even if there is no noticeable change in the individual animal, everyone in the cage begins to make noise because the chimpanzee under the influence of LSD no longer obeys the clearly agreed-upon hierarchical order of the pack».
The story of how LSD accidentally ended up in the body of his father, Albert Hofmann, is already a canon in the history of psychoactive substances. The events that followed (both the scientific research of the substance by chemists and psychotherapists, and the private trips that were not quite scientific) are now difficult to take soberly without the romantic flavor of new age, the musical context, and some general acquiescence in the Belle Époque of the acid movement.
The realities of a sweet caste utopia, Huxley assures us, are becoming our everyday realities with astonishing speed (late 50s, American boom of wild consumerism). The alternative — with the same slightly exalted hope for a bright future as in «Drugs» — is described in detail in the novel «The Island».
Albert Hofmann, PhD: LSD — My Problem Child
«A group of caged chimpanzees reacts very sensitively to one of the pack being given LSD. Even if there is no noticeable change in the individual animal, everyone in the cage begins to make noise because the chimpanzee under the influence of LSD no longer obeys the clearly agreed-upon hierarchical order of the pack».
The story of how LSD accidentally ended up in the body of his father, Albert Hofmann, is already a canon in the history of psychoactive substances. The events that followed (both the scientific research of the substance by chemists and psychotherapists, and the private trips that were not quite scientific) are now difficult to take soberly without the romantic flavor of new age, the musical context, and some general acquiescence in the Belle Époque of the acid movement.
«LSD — My Problem Child» — is an endlessly entertaining story told by Hofmann, whose invention has had tons of curses and blessings heaped on it at the same time.
Whether trying to adhere to the scientific framework or really finding it interesting, Hofmann explains with German meticulousness how exactly the work in the laboratory took place: more than a third of the book is devoted to carrying a difficult test-tube (in vitro) baby.
As LSD made its way into the scientific and later non-scientific world, its effects amazed a lot of people — but most of all, it seems, Hofmann himself, who was frankly bewildered by its popularity: «I expected curiosity and interest from people in the arts — actors, artists, writers — but not people in general».
Lamenting the detractors of LSD, with undisguised pleasure in nostalgia for the past and lastly quoting a couple of gospels, Hofmann almost 30 years later, at the World Acid Congress, finally certified his «problem child».
«I see the true significance of LSD in its ability to provide essential aid to meditation directed toward mystical perception of a profound, absolute reality. Such an application is entirely consistent with the essence and nature of LSD's action as a sacred potion».
Whether trying to adhere to the scientific framework or really finding it interesting, Hofmann explains with German meticulousness how exactly the work in the laboratory took place: more than a third of the book is devoted to carrying a difficult test-tube (in vitro) baby.
As LSD made its way into the scientific and later non-scientific world, its effects amazed a lot of people — but most of all, it seems, Hofmann himself, who was frankly bewildered by its popularity: «I expected curiosity and interest from people in the arts — actors, artists, writers — but not people in general».
Lamenting the detractors of LSD, with undisguised pleasure in nostalgia for the past and lastly quoting a couple of gospels, Hofmann almost 30 years later, at the World Acid Congress, finally certified his «problem child».
«I see the true significance of LSD in its ability to provide essential aid to meditation directed toward mystical perception of a profound, absolute reality. Such an application is entirely consistent with the essence and nature of LSD's action as a sacred potion».
Terence McKenna: The Food of the Gods
Marshall McLuhan was correct in his belief that planetary human culture — the planetary village — would be tribal in character. The next significant step toward planetary holism is the partial merging of the technologically transformed human world with the Archaic matrix of plant mind, i.e., the Transcendent Other. I hesitate to characterize this awakening consciousness as religious; nevertheless, it is.
And «it» will include a full investigation of the dimensions revealed by plant hallucinogens, especially those structurally related to neurotransmitters already present in the human brain. A thorough investigation of plant hallucinogens will reveal the most Archaic level of the drama of the emergence of consciousness: the quasi-symbiotic plant-human bond that characterized Archaic society and its religion, and through which this divine mystery was originally perceived.
Marshall McLuhan was correct in his belief that planetary human culture — the planetary village — would be tribal in character. The next significant step toward planetary holism is the partial merging of the technologically transformed human world with the Archaic matrix of plant mind, i.e., the Transcendent Other. I hesitate to characterize this awakening consciousness as religious; nevertheless, it is.
And «it» will include a full investigation of the dimensions revealed by plant hallucinogens, especially those structurally related to neurotransmitters already present in the human brain. A thorough investigation of plant hallucinogens will reveal the most Archaic level of the drama of the emergence of consciousness: the quasi-symbiotic plant-human bond that characterized Archaic society and its religion, and through which this divine mystery was originally perceived.
At first glance, «Food of the Gods» seems to be something between an amateur conspiracy theorist's entertaining speculations and a very nice near-scientific hoax. However, having «proved» in the first part of the book the lightning-fast evolution of the brain of an unintelligent mammal to current standards through the use of psychedelics (mushrooms, ergot, vetch and so on), McKenna switches to the problem of drugs in the «modern» sense.
Having lost their deep primal connection to the Great Goddess, McKenna writes, humans moved away from psychedelic communion with mushrooms and gradually, replacing the key ritual substance, came to the use of alcohol — and the consequent establishment of a culture of domination with its patriarchy, violence, division and other unpleasant things.
McKenna's merit lies in one of the most detailed descriptions to date of the history of human addictions, as well as in the expansion of the concept of «drug».
Refusing to see drugs in «traditional» psilocybin mushrooms and the like, McKenna turns his closest attention to the sugar, coffee, tea and chocolate on which the entire urbanized world now sits, without much thought to the causes and consequences of their addiction.
Having lost their deep primal connection to the Great Goddess, McKenna writes, humans moved away from psychedelic communion with mushrooms and gradually, replacing the key ritual substance, came to the use of alcohol — and the consequent establishment of a culture of domination with its patriarchy, violence, division and other unpleasant things.
McKenna's merit lies in one of the most detailed descriptions to date of the history of human addictions, as well as in the expansion of the concept of «drug».
Refusing to see drugs in «traditional» psilocybin mushrooms and the like, McKenna turns his closest attention to the sugar, coffee, tea and chocolate on which the entire urbanized world now sits, without much thought to the causes and consequences of their addiction.
Denouncing the bourgeois vigor that is stimulated by sins like a cup of coffee, McKenna contrasts it with the infinite universe that presents itself to the transcending consciousness when encountering mushrooms in a shamanic ritual.
By exposing the tobacco corporations, and with them the governments, which are under the needs of drug traffickers in the broadest sense of the word, he manages to turn all 400 pages of «Food of the Gods» into one long howl for the lost paradise of the unconscious. It is morally very difficult to drink tea, as well as coffee, after such an injection.
Timothy Leary: The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
Legally excommunicated from the possibility of psychedelic experience, we are allowed to read the Handbook in two ways: either as a culinary recipe for an intricate dish whose ingredients are officially taboo, or as a monument to an era that prioritized spiritual development.
By exposing the tobacco corporations, and with them the governments, which are under the needs of drug traffickers in the broadest sense of the word, he manages to turn all 400 pages of «Food of the Gods» into one long howl for the lost paradise of the unconscious. It is morally very difficult to drink tea, as well as coffee, after such an injection.
Timothy Leary: The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
Legally excommunicated from the possibility of psychedelic experience, we are allowed to read the Handbook in two ways: either as a culinary recipe for an intricate dish whose ingredients are officially taboo, or as a monument to an era that prioritized spiritual development.
Leary is one of those faces that would be among the first to be printed on collector stamps commemorating the '60s. A Harvard professor, he tried acids for the first time on the verge of his 40th birthday and, claiming to have learned more during the trip than he had learned in decades of psychotherapy practice, went on a spree, conducting numerous experiments on lysergine in a university setting.
The innovation of the apostle of LSD, as Leary is often called, caused a loud fuss, which ended with the dismissal of the professor, which, however, had no effect on his further experiments, which only increased the turnover.
In The Manual, Leary refers to commentaries written on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Jung, Lama Govinda, and Dr. Evans-Wents, «a great expert on Tibetan mysticism». From these commentaries unfolds a sweeping exploration of all the facets revealed to a mind «clouded» by LSD, mescaline and psilocybin. Leary, with the meticulousness of a fanatic, describes the doses required for a trip, and every moment, every feeling and sensation that arises in it, explaining everything he sees through the prism of the experience of Tibetan mystics.
The innovation of the apostle of LSD, as Leary is often called, caused a loud fuss, which ended with the dismissal of the professor, which, however, had no effect on his further experiments, which only increased the turnover.
In The Manual, Leary refers to commentaries written on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Jung, Lama Govinda, and Dr. Evans-Wents, «a great expert on Tibetan mysticism». From these commentaries unfolds a sweeping exploration of all the facets revealed to a mind «clouded» by LSD, mescaline and psilocybin. Leary, with the meticulousness of a fanatic, describes the doses required for a trip, and every moment, every feeling and sensation that arises in it, explaining everything he sees through the prism of the experience of Tibetan mystics.
Perfect reading for atheists and agnostics: scrupulously collected evidence of how a microscopic particle of matter can cause the body to feel the presence of the divine. Which, if you will, can be imagined as a mere chemical effect, but cannot be denied.
Dr. Alexander Shulgin: PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story
«I am fully convinced that we have a treasure trove of information built into us. We contain vast stores of intuitive knowledge hidden in the genetic material of each of our cells. It's like a library that holds countless reference books, only it's unclear how to enter it. And without some means of access, there is no way to even approximate the extent and quality of the contents of this library.
Psychedelics allow us to explore this inner world and comprehend its nature. Our generation has for the first time made self-discovery a crime if it is done using plants or chemical compounds that help open the doors to the psyche. But the desire for knowledge is always alive in human beings and only grows stronger as we mature»
«I am a pharmacologist and chemist, my interests lie somewhat apart from the prevailing field of pharmacology, namely in the field of psychedelics, which I have found most fascinating and useful» — writes Shulgin in the first sentence of the introduction.
Dr. Alexander Shulgin: PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story
«I am fully convinced that we have a treasure trove of information built into us. We contain vast stores of intuitive knowledge hidden in the genetic material of each of our cells. It's like a library that holds countless reference books, only it's unclear how to enter it. And without some means of access, there is no way to even approximate the extent and quality of the contents of this library.
Psychedelics allow us to explore this inner world and comprehend its nature. Our generation has for the first time made self-discovery a crime if it is done using plants or chemical compounds that help open the doors to the psyche. But the desire for knowledge is always alive in human beings and only grows stronger as we mature»
«I am a pharmacologist and chemist, my interests lie somewhat apart from the prevailing field of pharmacology, namely in the field of psychedelics, which I have found most fascinating and useful» — writes Shulgin in the first sentence of the introduction.
With proper patience, «Phenethylamines» becomes a rather fascinating and almost even artistic read. Shulgin, without trying too hard, covers himself and his wife with pseudonyms, after which he paints a life filled with experiments with all sorts of hallucinogens, which his prototype, apparently, had a chance to try.
Having completed the «soapy» first part of the book, Shulgin gave the second part of the book entirely to scientific descriptions of the synthesis of a couple of hundred psychedelics, and their dosages and effects.
Having completed the «soapy» first part of the book, Shulgin gave the second part of the book entirely to scientific descriptions of the synthesis of a couple of hundred psychedelics, and their dosages and effects.