Download or read book Birth of a Psychedelic Culture written by Ram Dass and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No understanding of the history of the sixties could be complete without a grasp of the work of Leary, Alpert, and Metzner, the cultural resistance to their experiments, and the way in which psychoactive drug use became a part of contemporary society. Next Generation Independent Book Awards Finalist,Birth of a Psychedelic Culture explores these experiments and their cultural milieu through never before seen photographs, personal accounts of authors Ralph Metzner and Ram Dass, and conversations with luminaries such as Aldous Huxley, Charles Mingus, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others that appeared on the scene.
Download or read book Psychedelic Justice written by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CULTIVATING A PSYCHEDELIC RENAISSANCE THAT INCLUDES EVERYONE Radical, cultural transformation is the guiding force behind this socially visionary anthology. Its unifying value is social justice. It guides us in cultivating a psychedelic renaissance that represents everyone, honors voices that have been suppressed for too long, and envisions a more beautiful tomorrow through a psychedelic lens. Psychedelic culture is at an inflection point. Within the last decade, psychedelics have assimilated into the mainstream, even becoming a multimillion-dollar industry. As they integrate into the dominant culture, a lot of longtime participants in psychedelic communities are wondering: will psychedelics help us revolutionize society, or will they merely reinforce old narratives? As psychedelic medicine integrates into mainstream, capitalist culture, the question of what forces will gain control and shape the direction of the psychedelic renaissance is front and center. In this pivotal time, with so many new players emerging, those of us who believe that psychedelics can help us transform society are being challenged to define, and embody, the values that will shape this growing movement. To do this, we must first acknowledge the shadow side of the psychedelic movement and challenge its longstanding injustices. If the psychedelic renaissance is going to expand and revolutionize society, it must include and serve everybody. The anthology highlights Chacruna's ongoing work promoting diversity and inclusion by prominently featuring voices that have been long marginalized in Western psychedelic culture: women, queer people, people of color, and indigenous people. The essays examine both historical and current issues within psychedelics that many may not know about, and orient around policy, reciprocity, diversity and inclusion, sex and power, colonialism, and indigenous concerns.
Download or read book American Trip written by Ido Hartogsohn and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How historical, social, and cultural forces shaped the psychedelic experience in midcentury America, from CIA experiments with LSD to Timothy Leary's Harvard Psilocybin Project. Are psychedelics invaluable therapeutic medicines, or dangerously unpredictable drugs that precipitate psychosis? Tools for spiritual communion or cognitive enhancers that spark innovation? Activators for one's private muse or part of a political movement? In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers studied psychedelics in all these incarnations, often arriving at contradictory results. In American Trip, Ido Hartogsohn examines how the psychedelic experience in midcentury America was shaped by historical, social, and cultural forces--by set (the mindset of the user) and setting (the environments in which the experience takes place).
Download or read book The Harvard Psychedelic Club written by Don Lattin and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the story of how three brilliant scholars and one ambitious freshman crossed paths in the early sixties at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project, transforming their lives and American culture and launching the mind/body/spirit movement that inspired the explosion of yoga classes, organic produce, and alternative medicine. The four men came together in a time of upheaval and experimentation, and their exploration of an expanded consciousness set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of the 1960s. Timothy Leary would be the rebellious trickster, the premier proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD, advising a generation to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Richard Alpert would be the seeker, traveling to India and returning to America as Ram Dass, reborn as a spiritual leader with his "Be Here Now" mantra, inspiring a restless army of spiritual pilgrims. Huston Smith would be the teacher, practicing every world religion, introducing the Dalai Lama to the West, and educating generations of Americans to adopt a more tolerant, inclusive attitude toward other cultures' beliefs. And young Andrew Weil would be the healer, becoming the undisputed leader of alternative medicine, devoting his life to the holistic reformation of the American health care system. It was meant to be a time of joy, of peace, and of love, but behind the scenes lurked backstabbing, jealousy, and outright betrayal. In spite of their personal conflicts, the members of the Harvard Psychedelic Club would forever change the way Americans view religion and practice medicine, and the very way we look at body and soul.
Download or read book Heads written by Jesse Jarnow and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America uncovers a hidden history of the biggest psychedelic distribution and belief system the world has ever known. Through a collection of fast-paced interlocking narratives, it animates the tale of an alternate America and its wide-eyed citizens: the LSD-slinging graffiti writers of Central Park, the Dead-loving AI scientists of Stanford, utopian Whole Earth homesteaders, black market chemists, government-wanted Anonymous hackers, rogue explorers, East Village bluegrass pickers, spiritual seekers, Internet pioneers, entrepreneurs, pranksters, pioneering DJs, and a nation of Deadheads. WFMU DJ and veteran music writer Jesse Jarnow draws on extensive new firsthand accounts from many never-before-interviewed subjects and a wealth of deep archival research to create a comic-book-colored and panoramic American landscape, taking readers for a guided tour of the hippie highway filled with lit-up explorers, peak trips, big busts, and scenic vistas, from Vermont to the Pacific Northwest, from the old world head capitals of San Francisco and New York to the geodesic dome-dotted valleys of Colorado and New Mexico. And with the psychedelic research moving into the mainstream for the first time in decades, Heads also recounts the story of the quiet entheogenic revolution that for years has been brewing resiliently in the Dead's Technicolor shadow. Featuring over four dozen images, many never before seen-including pop artist Keith Haring's first publicly sold work-Heads weaves one of the 20th and 21st centuries' most misunderstood subcultures into the fabric of the nation's history. Written for anyone who wondered what happened to the heads after the Acid Tests, through the '70s, during the Drug War, and on to the psychedelic present, Heads collects the essential history of how LSD, Deadheads, tie-dye, and the occasional bad trip have become familiar features of the American experience.
Download or read book Psychedelia written by Patrick Lundborg and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a pioneering effort that presents psychedelia as a culture and lifestyle with its own history, philosophy, art, visions, and traditions -- Back cover.
Download or read book White Hand Society written by Peter Conners and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1960 Timothy Leary was not yet famous — or infamous — and Allen Ginsberg was both. Leary, eager to expand his experiments at the Harvard Psilocybin Project to include accomplished artists and writers, knew that Ginsberg held the key to bohemia's elite. Ginsberg, fresh from his first experience with hallucinogenic mushrooms in Mexico, was eager to promote the spiritual possibilities of psychedelic use. Thus, "America's most conspicuous beatnik" was recruited as Ambassador of Psilocybin under the auspices of an Ivy League professor, and together they launched the psychedelic revolution and turned on the hippie generation. White Hand Society weaves a fascinating and entertaining tale of the life, times and friendship of these two larger-than-life figures and the incredible impact their relationship had on America. Peter Conners has gathered hundreds of pages of letters, documents, studies, FBI files, and other primary resources that shed new light on their relationship, and a veritable who's who of artists and cultural figures appear along the way, including Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Thelonious Monk, Willem de Kooning, and Barney Rosset. The story of the "psychedelic partnership" of two of the most famous, charismatic and controversial members of America's counterculture brings together a multitude of major figures from politics, the arts, and the intersection of intellectual life and outlaw culture in a way that sheds new light on the dawn of the 1960s. "Through the years City Lights has brought us seminal work by Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and now, this detail-rich double bio of Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary. I knew both these men pretty well, and the times intimately, and Peter Conners has been true to it all. I don't know how he amassed the trunks of data he must have used to find the jillions of details which were new to me, but I'm certainly glad that he did. This book wins a well deserved spot on my shelf, and belongs with anyone who wants an intimate view of the Sixties-Seventies spinning of the Great Wheel of the Dharma." —Peter Coyote, actor/author, Sleeping Where I Fall "Peter Conners has given us a wondrous tale of picaresque adventure and authentic friendship – between Leary the trickster-explorer-scientist and Ginsberg the activist-bard-philosopher, two seminal figures who pioneered new pathways through the cultural maelstrom of the sixties."—Ralph Metzner, co-author, with Ram Dass & Gary Bravo, of Birth of a Psychedelic Culture "The Psychedelic Revolution of the Sixties began with the meeting of two visionary explorers into the unmapped regions of inner consciousness — Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg. In the White Hand Society Peter Conners charts the course from the earliest dirt roads of laughing gas to the superhighways of LSD in one compelling story. It is a thrilling ride on what Ginsberg called the Trackless Transit System, going where no one else had dared venture. Take this as a new kind of guidebook into the mystery of the mind." —Bill Morgan, author of Beat Atlas: A State by State Guide to the Beat Generation in America and The Typewriter Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation "Peter Conners' White Hand Society is a gripping account of a key event in 20th Century history, the decision to actively promote strong psychedelics to the population at large. Conners tells the Timothy Leary story from the traditional perspective of the West Coast counterculture, but he emphasizes the egalitarian influence that the Beat movement had on him and, in particular, the huge Blakean personality of Allen Ginsberg. The result is a portrait of two remarkable figures who came together and changed our culture forever." —John Higgs
Download or read book The New Psychedelic Revolution written by James Oroc and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold exploration of modern psychedelic culture, its history, and future • Examines 3 modern psy-culture architects: chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, mycologist-philosopher Terence McKenna, and visionary artist Alex Grey • Investigates the use of microdosing in extreme sports, the psy-trance festival experience, and the relationship between the ego, entheogens, and toxicity • Presents a “History of Visionary Art,” from its roots in prehistory, to Ernst Fuchs and the Vienna School of the Fantastic, to contemporary psychedelic art After the dismantling of a major acid laboratory in 2001 dramatically reduced the world supply of LSD, the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s appeared to have finally run its course. But the opposite has actually proven to be true, and a psychedelic renaissance is rapidly emerging with the rise in popularity of transformational festivals like Burning Man and BOOM!, the return to positive media coverage of the potential benefits of entheogens, and the growing number of celebrities willing to admit the benefits of their own personal use. Along with the return of university research, the revival of psychedelic philosophy, and the increasing popularity of visionary art, these new developments signify the beginning of a worldwide psychedelic cultural revolution more integrated into the mainstream than the counterculture uprising of the 1960s. In his latest book, James Oroc defines the borders of 21st-century psychedelic culture through the influence of its three main architects-- chemist Alexander Shulgin, mycologist Terence McKenna, and visionary artist Alex Grey--before illustrating a number of facets of this “Second Psychedelic Revolution,” including the use of microdosing in extreme sports, the tech-savvy psychedelic community that has arisen around transformational festivals, and the relationship between the ego, entheogens, and toxicity. This volume also presents for the first time a “History of Visionary Art” that explains its importance to the emergence of visionary culture. Exploring the practical role of entheogens in our selfish and fast-paced modern world, the author explains how psychedelics are powerful tools to examine the ego and the shadow via the transpersonal experience. Asserting that a cultural adoption of the entheogenic perspective is the best chance that our society has to survive, he then proposes that our ongoing psychedelic revolution--now a century old since the first synthesis of a psychedelic in 1918--offers the potential for the birth of a new Visionary Age.
Download or read book Ecology of Consciousness written by Ralph Metzner and published by New Harbinger Publications. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who are we, really? In The Ecology of Consciousness, a Harvard scholar and pioneer in the field of consciousness studies—well known for his groundbreaking psychedelic research with Ram Dass and Timothy Leary—presents an expansive work culminating decades of research in Eastern philosophy, shamanism, and more to guide you along the path of true consciousness and transformation. Questions surrounding consciousness have intrigued humankind throughout time, and have been addressed through a wide range of perspectives and traditions. From age-old philosophies to New Age spirituality, consciousness—and its various forms—has been the topic of much contemplation. This unique book is a comprehensive exploration that covers a wide range of disciplines and subjects within the framework of psychospiritual and consciousness studies. The Ecology of Consciousness revives ancient alchemical knowledge, spiritual traditions, and thoughtful theories about consciousness—drawing on ancient Eastern philosophy, shamanism, mythology, and others sources, and covering topics such as personal growth and reincarnation—to give you an expansive foundation for self-inquiry and transformation. Written by a leading authority, this book will give you a deeper understanding of consciousness, show you how to access your own spiritual intelligence, teach you about shamanic and alchemical traditions and connect them to healing practices of today. With this consciousness-expanding book, you’ll explore the human life cycle from a spiritual perspective, reflect on your own personal journey, and discover which pathway guides your life purpose for your ultimate fulfillment, growth, and well-being.
Download or read book Psychedelic Refugee written by Rosemary Woodruff Leary and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir by one of the original female psychedelic pioneers of the 1960s • Shares Rosemary’s early experimentation with psychedelics in the 1950s, her development through the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, and her involvement, at first exciting but then heartbreaking, with Dr. Timothy Leary • Describes her LSD trips with Leary, their time at the famous Millbrook estate, their experiences as fugitives abroad, including their captivity by the Black Panthers in Algeria, and Rosemary’s years on the run after she and Timothy separated One of the original female psychedelic pioneers, Rosemary Woodruff Leary (1935-2002) began her psychedelic journey long before her relationship with Dr. Timothy Leary. In the 1950s, she moved to New York City where she became part of the city’s most advanced music, art, and literary circles and expanded her consciousness with psilocybin mushrooms and peyote. In 1964 she met two former Harvard professors who were experimenting with LSD, Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner, who invited her to join them at the Millbrook estate in upstate New York. Once at Millbrook, Rosemary went on to become the wife--and accomplice--of the man Richard Nixon called “the most dangerous man in America.” In this intimate memoir, Rosemary describes her LSD experiences and insights, her decades as a fugitive hiding both abroad and underground in America, and her encounters with many leaders of the cultural and psychedelic milieu of the 1960s. Compiled from Rosemary’s own letters and autobiographical writings archived among her papers at the New York Public Library, the memoir details Rosemary’s imprisonment for contempt of court, the Millbrook raid by G. Gordon Liddy, the tours with Timothy before his own arrest and imprisonment, and their time in exile following his sensational escape from a California prison. She describes their surreal and frightening captivity by the Black Panther Party in Algeria and their experiences as fugitives in Switzerland. She recounts her adventures and fears as a fugitive on five continents after her separation from Timothy in 1971. While most accounts of the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s have been told by men, with this memoir we can now experience these events from the perspective of a woman who was at the center of the seismic cultural changes of that time.
Download or read book The Acid Archives the Second Edition written by Mike Ascherman and published by . This book was released on 2010-08-17 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate guide to underground sounds 1965-1982. The book features release details and in-depth reviews for more than 5,000 obscure LPs from the USA and Canada, 1965-1982, including reissue data and value ratings. The main genres are psychedelia, garage, folk & folkrock, hippie rock, progressive rock, and hard-rock. There is also a wide selection of interesting and rare singer-songwriter, harmony pop, soft rock, lounge-rock, avant-garde, vanity-pressings and "outsider" albums. This is the first ever comprehensive guide to the vintage musical underground of North America, and opens up a gigantic field of outstanding music that has earlier been exclusive and hard to grasp. There's also a buyer's guide, a glossary, a historical background, fun Top 10 lists, and much more. The massive book is loaded with color images of obscure and trippy album sleeves, posters and band photos, many of which have never been published before, and a foreword by Mike Stax of Ugly Things magazine. Highlights:- The largest selection ever presented of underground albums from North America 1965-1982.- Original release data and in-depth commentary from world-leading rare record experts.- Ratings of LP market value, detailed reissue data, and full color images of rare and trippy albums sleeves.- Special feature essays about rare Exotica, Lounge, '70s Funk & Soul, Southern Rock and New Age albums, written by leading field collectors.- A brand new round of informative and hilarious Top 10 Lists that were a popular part in the first book.
Download or read book The Immortality Key written by Brian C. Muraresku and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations. The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age? There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist – the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And after centuries of debate, to solve history’s greatest puzzle. Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the reader on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at UPenn and MIT, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity. The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is in crisis. Unless it returns to its roots. Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the NYT bestselling author of America Before.
Download or read book Acid Dreams written by Martin A. Lee and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a social history of how the CIA used the psychedelic drug LSD as a tool of espionage during the early 1950s and tested it on U.S. citizens before it spread into popular culture, in particular the counterculture as represented by Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and others who helped spawn political and social upheaval.
Download or read book The Psychedelic Reader written by Timothy Leary and published by Citadel. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1965. New introduction by Erik Davis, 2007.
Download or read book Psychedelia written by Patrick Lundborg and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking book from the author of the highly-acclaimed Acid Archives: Psychedelia: An Ancient Culture, A Modern Way of Life is a product of 20 years research and Patrick Lundborg's greatest achievement. A larger number of people are exploring psychedelic states of mind in the world today than at any other point in history. Their shared experiences form the outline of a vast underground culture, whose steady influence upon society can be traced across thousands of years, back to Amerindian plant drug cults and the psychedelic celebrations in ancient Greece that gave birth to our Western society. But the full scope of this psychedelic culture, and its many expressions in the past, has remained poorly understood or even unknown. Psychedelia has usually been taken as a metaphor, or a symptom of something else, even though its true nature is singular and unparalleled. Psychedelia by Patrick Lundborg is the first-ever book to present psychedelic culture in its full complexity and range. Out of a colorful history that spans 3,500 years, emerges a philosophy and way of life that is as dazzling and rich as the psychedelic experience itself. As this book shows, psychedelia is a living underground culture, engaged in constant dialogue with its mainstream counterpart. Psychedelia's creative, visionary presence in art, rock music and pop culture is thoroughly examined, highlighting many unique and at times unknown works and traditions, from William Blake to Philip K. Dick, from Eden Ahbez to Shpongle, from Haight-Ashbury to the beaches of Goa. The 20th century's misguided attempts to reduce psychedelia into a branch of psychology or religion are given a critical, sometimes controversial look. A case is made for psychedelic philosophy, a fresh, unprejudiced model to replace the failed interpretations of the past. In the third millennium, psychedelic culture may be standing on the brink of a mystery greater than anything encountered in the past. This mystery comes forth in chapters on ayahuasca and DMT, and has reverberations far outside the realms of psychedelia, cutting into vital questions of consciousness and evolution. Most of all, psychedelia is a celebration of life, in the here and now and in the deep realms of inner-space. The final chapters of Psychedelia discuss the challenges and rewards of the psychedelic experience, as mastered by shamans and teachers from various entheogenic cultures.
Download or read book Mescaline written by Mike Jay and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word "psychedelic" was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples. Mescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline's many lives.
Download or read book LSD My Problem Child written by Albert Hofmann and published by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of LSD told by a concerned yet hopeful father, organic chemist Albert Hofmann, Ph.D. He traces LSD's path from a promising psychiatric research medicine to a recreational drug sparking hysteria and prohibition. In LSD: My Problem Child, we follow Dr. Hofmann's trek across Mexico to discover sacred plants related to LSD, and listen in as he corresponds with other notable figures about his remarkable discovery. Underlying it all is Dr. Hofmann's powerful conclusion that mystical experiences may be our planet's best hope for survival. Whether induced by LSD, meditation, or arising spontaneously, such experiences help us to comprehend "the wonder, the mystery of the divine, in the microcosm of the atom, in the macrocosm of the spiral nebula, in the seeds of plants, in the body and soul of people." More than sixty years after the birth of Albert Hofmann's problem child, his vision of its true potential is more relevant, and more needed, than ever.
