Mind Manifestation

- Posted: 01.Oct.2007.


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Did you know 'Psychedelic' is Greek for Mind Manifesting? Alexander Shulgin is the inventor/discoverer of many psychedelic drugs, working from home, like an alchemist. And this makes him a legend. This piece on him is a good introduction. The most interesting thing about the online part of his "PIHKAL, Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved: A Chemical Love Story By Alexander and Ann Shulgin" are not the detailed chemical instructions on how to synthesize 127 (!) different mind-altering drugs (some if not most of them illegal), but the commentary about what they do and how they work. Shulgin was his own lab-rat and between large segments of objective banter about metabolites and neurotoxicity you will find all sorts of observations and confessions you would not expect to find in a proper science text. To my knowledge this is one of the best published accounts that shows, between the lines, the day-to-day reality of the scientist. How he proceeds by navigating both on past results and experience as well as by 'inspiration' and gut-feeling.

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