Review: 'PiHKAL' by Alexander and Ann Shulgin

Originally published in 1991 "PiHKAL - A Chemical Love Story" by Alexander and Ann Shulgin is one of the finest examples of psychedelic literature to have graced the printers. A combination of science, romance, insight, history and travel; of trip reports, biography, friendship and culture. The book is an exemplary blend of both authority and personality and pushes out the boundaries of psychedelic literature.
At 978 pages (2007 edition) PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved) contains a huge amount of information. It is split into two books. Book one is composed of three sections; the first is the narrative voice of Shura, the second is the voice of Alice and the third is a combination of the two. The second book is an index of 179 phenethylamines, which includes formula, synthesis, dosage, duration, qualitative comments and some extra commentary. One is immediately presented by the two key elements in the human-drug relationship -- objective chemistry and subjective experience...

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Posted By psypressuk at 2010-05-02 16:15:57 permalink | comments

Tags: phenethylamines psychedelic literature

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Avid. : 2010-06-01 03:54:53

i know you mean well, slay, but shulgin most certainly want to criminalize any person for taking a drug. but i know not all people think that way. to each his own haha... but i think shulgin has the right idea.

and it's kind of obvious that they're not all shulgin (the trip reports). a lot of them are clearly from women, some men, some christian, some from apparent pantheists, many trip reports contradictory on effects, etc etc.

pihkal is just amazing. i read it almost everyday haha.

thenightwatch. : 2010-05-04 15:01:07

there is only one instance in pihkal that i can recall where shulgin states that he is not the author of all of the qualitative comments. its in the discussion under 2c-i, concerning the 0mg "contact high" entry.

Hippie Porn Star. : 2010-05-04 08:22:40

Pihkal is pretty cool and I will have to get a copy on an e-reader because it is too damn unwieldy to carry around. The first part, the story, is kind of overly sentimental and touchy-feely in parts, it was written during the height of the New Age movement and seems to have picked up that ethos. The chemistry section is overwhelming to lay persons, and the reader is a little misled into believing that Shulgin himself wrote all those trip reports---well, maybe misled is the wrong word. The authors simply never thought that people would think Shulgin was the sole author of those trip reports (is there a disclaimer somewhere in the book?) In fact, Shulgin asked a bunch of different people, mostly cognoscenti of his acquaintance, to dose themselves right good with all those odd drugs he came up with. Not exactly a land mark but a definite curiosity.

slay. : 2010-05-02 20:27:41

well said, joshua. now if only we could stop supporting the backward system of drug abuse by legalizing research chemicals and psychedelics, and criminalizing animal tranquilizers and synthetic chemicals that promote overdose potential and dangerous side effect..

Joshua. : 2010-05-02 20:00:24

Pihkal is an extraordinary work. The encyclopedic body of knowledge contained in the second half is incalculably valuable. For any phenethylamine you are likely to encounter, it contains recommended dosage and subjective experience logs, as well as synthesis instructions if you're the sort of person who can take advantage of those. The first time a person encounters a previously-unknown chemical in this family, it's reassuring to be able to get information about the drug from "the horse's mouth" so to speak. If only such a catalog was available from the Chinese labs producing chemicals like MCAT, and whatever will come after it.

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Review: 'PiHKAL' by Alexander and Ann Shulgin

Posted By psypressuk at 2010-05-02 16:15:57 permalink | comments

Tags: phenethylamines psychedelic literature

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