Pihkal

Alexander Shulgin is a chemist living in northern California. He'd worked as a consultant for a number of Fortune 500 companies, but is most well-known for rediscovering MDMA, aka Ecstasy.

In his home laboratory, Shulgin likes to design mind altering drugs and take them with his wife and close circle of friends. This book, Pihkal (which stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved, and which was co-written with his wife, Ann Shulgin), is about his research and drug trips.

The first half of his 978-page book is autobiographical. The second half has the molecular structure and lab instructions for making 179 different mind-altering drugs. (I have not tried to make any of these drugs, and I don't have any desire to. One reason is that they require hard-to-find precursors. Another reason is that the recipes look very difficult. The third reason is that I'd be way too scared to take the drugs.) For each of the drugs listed, Ann and Alexander describe the effects the experienced from taking them at different doses.

For example, here's Shulgin's experience with a compound called 4-ALLYLOXY-3,5-DIMETHOXYPHENETHYLAMINE

QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 24 mg) I first became aware of something in about 10 minutes, a pleasant increase in energy. By 20 minutes it was getting pronounced and was a nice, smooth development. During the next hour positive and negative feelings developed simultaneously. Following a suggestion, I ate a bit of food even though I had not been hungry, and to my surprise all the negative feelings dropped away. I felt free to join the others wherever they were at. I moved into the creative, free-flowing kind of repertoire which I dearly love, and found everything enormously funny. Much of the laughter was so deep that I felt it working through buried depressions inside me and freeing me. From this point on, the experience was most enjoyable. The experience was characterized by clear-headedness and an abundance of energy which kept on throughout the day and evening. At one point I went out back and strolled along to find a place to worship. I had a profound sense of the Presence and great love and gratitude for the place, the people, and the activities taking place. The come-down from the experience was very gradual and smooth. Food tasted wonderful. I went to bed late, and quite ready for bed, although the energy was still running. However, sleep was not long in coming.

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