Psychedelics Encyclopedia - Softcover

Stafford, Peter G.

4.3

183 ratings by Goodreads

9780915904211: Psychedelics Encyclopedia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0915904217 ISBN 13: 9780915904211

Publisher: And/or Pr, 1977

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Traces the history of the use of hallucinogenic drugs and discusses the psychological and physical effects of LSD, marijuana, mescaline, and other drugs.

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Origin of the word Psychedelic: In the early 1950s, researchers Humphry Osmond and John Smythies wrote a paper about the mental effects of mescaline that came to the attention of Aldous Huxley, who invited Osmond to visit him if he should be in the Los Angeles area.

In the literature then available about what we now call psychedelic drugs, the term most commonly used to describe the effects was psychotomimetic (meaning psychosis-mimicking). Yet it is evident from Huxleys description in The Doors of Perception that when he tried mescaline sulfate he was not going through some kind of imitation psychosis. Huxley believed he had experienced something akin to mystical experience.

Review:

Offers the most thorough history to date of the modern-day use of psychedelic drugs. LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, cannabis, and a host of lesser-known and exotic psychotropic agents are discussed in this entertaining survey. -- New Age Journal

Peter Staffords encyclopedic guide to psychedelics is a gas to read. It is scholarly, hip scientific, witty, well-written, hopeful, and a treasure chest of weird and wonderful information. -- Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Illuminatus books

Psychedelics Encyclopedia draws from scientific research, personal accounts, and popular literature to document the properties attributed to psychedelic substances, their preparation and use, and the shifting social attitudes toward them over the past half-century. Psychedelics Encyclopedia is a remarkable sourcebook for anyone interested in the psychological, biological, physiological and cultural aspects of psychedelic drugs. A fascinating historical reference on psychedelia, from the LSD-25 of the sixties, to the memory and cognitive enhancers of today are compiled with over 200 illustrations. Featured are the LSD family, marijuana and its botanical relatives, peyote, mescaline and san pedro, psychoactive mushrooms, the MDA cluster, yage and harmaline, ibogaine, short-acting tryptamines (DMT, DET, DPT), nootropics, and other psychoactive substances. Each is treated with respect to its history, botany, pharmacology, physical effects, mental effects, forms, sources, purity tests,. Included are biographies, updates, and bibliographies for further research and studies. Psychedelics Encyclopedia is the seminal reference work. -- Midwest Book Review

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