Books

Showing 76 Books
Sort by:
  • Kosmos - A Theory of Psychedelic Experience

    Kosmos - A Theory of Psychedelic Experience

    2018 Peter Webster

    Kosmos – A Theory of Psychedelic Experience by Peter Webster puts forth a theory that the the amplification of salience (that things stand out/be noticed) is the most important neurocognitive effect of psychedelics.
  • Acid Drops

    Acid Drops

    2018 Andy Roberts

    LSD

    Acid Drops is a collection of essays, interviews, and fiction by renowned historian Andy Roberts, author of Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain. Historical articles on the banning of LSD in Britain and Welsh Psilocybin festivals, are coupled with intimate interviews with such figures as LSD chemist Casey Harrison, Jeff Dexter, Andy Munro, and Liz Elliot. As well as being an extraordinary record of British psychedelic culture over the last sixty years, the book is a very frank account of the author's personal experiences of LSD and the world of the counterculture. It includes a Foreword by MDMA researcher Dr Ben Sessa, and an Afterword by the occultist Julian Vayne.
  • Getting Higher

    Getting Higher

    2018 Julian Vayne

    Getting Higher is a manual for exploring the use of psychedelic substances in the contexts of spirituality, self-transformation and magic. This is the psychonaut s essential guide. The techniques presented here work whether you're a scientist or a shaman; there's no requirement to believe in anything other than the wonder of your own neurochemistry and the value of the psychedelic experience. Getting Higher describes the psychedelic triangle of Set, Setting and Substance. It suggests strategies to hold and enhance the psychedelic experience; from games to play when you are high, through to complete entheogenic ceremonies. It will help you to intelligently explore the territory of both traditional sacred plants and modern magical molecules. Getting Higher is a toolbox for technicians of the sacred; ideal for both novices and experienced psychonauts. Inspired by the wisdom of ancient cultures, and informed by the latest advances in psychedelic science, this book is a powerful ally for all those following the Medicine Path.
  • Magic Medicine

    Magic Medicine

    2018 Cody Johnson

    LSD / MDMA / Ketamine / Ayahuasca

    “Cody Johnson beautifully balances historical knowledge with cutting-edge science to produce a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read which paints a holistic picture of the risks and benefits of psychedelic use in modern day medicine and culture.” —Rick Doblin, PhD, Founder and Executive Director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).Magic Medicine explores the fascinating history of psychedelic substances and provides a contemporary update about their growing inclusion in modern medicine, science, and culture. Each chapter dives into the rich history of a single plant or compound and explores its therapeutic and spiritual uses in cultures near and far. Firsthand quotes allow glimmers of psychedelic light throughout. Learn all about: Classical psychedelics, including 2C-B, ayahuasca, LSD, and peyoteThe empathogenic psychedelics MDA and MDMADissociative psychedelics, including DXM, ketamine, and salviaUnique psychedelics, including cannabis, DiPT, and even fish and sea spongesThe history of psychedelic plants and substances is full of colorful facts and stories, and intriguing questions. Did US Army Intelligence really use LSD as an enhanced military interrogation technique? How is DiPT able to make a familiar tune sound utterly foreign? Can MDMA (Ecstasy) help people overcome traumatic experiences?   Many psychedelic plants and substances have a long history of being incorporated into various healing traditions—such as cannabis and opium in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Science is beginning to research what traditional cultures have told us for years: psychedelics have transformative healing properties. Anyone who has ever wondered about psychedelics—from complete neophytes to veteran trippers, seekers and sages to skeptics and scientists, therapists and patients to green thumbs and armchair anthropologists—will find something in this engrossing and beautifully designed book.
  • The Most Dangerous Man in America

    The Most Dangerous Man in America

    2018 Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis

    LSD

    From Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, authors of the PEN Center USA award-winning Dallas 1963, comes a madcap narrative about Timothy Leary's daring prison escape and run from the law. On the moonlit evening of September 12, 1970, an ex-Harvard professor with a genius I.Q. studies a twelve-foot high fence topped with barbed wire. A few months earlier, Dr. Timothy Leary, the High Priest of LSD, had been running a gleeful campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Now, Leary is six months into a ten-year prison sentence for the crime of possessing two marijuana cigarettes. Aided by the radical Weather Underground, Leary's escape from prison is the counterculture's union of "dope and dynamite," aimed at sparking a revolution and overthrowing the government. Inside the Oval Office, President Richard Nixon drinks his way through sleepless nights as he expands the war in Vietnam and plots to unleash the United States government against his ever-expanding list of domestic enemies. Antiwar demonstrators are massing by the tens of thousands; homemade bombs are exploding everywhere; Black Panther leaders are threatening to burn down the White House; and all the while Nixon obsesses over tracking down Timothy Leary, whom he has branded "the most dangerous man in America." Based on freshly uncovered primary sources and new firsthand interviews, The Most Dangerous Man in America is an American thriller that takes readers along for the gonzo ride of a lifetime. Spanning twenty-eight months, President Nixon's careening, global manhunt for Dr. Timothy Leary winds its way among homegrown radicals, European aristocrats, a Black Panther outpost in Algeria, an international arms dealer, hash-smuggling hippies from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and secret agents on four continents, culminating in one of the trippiest journeys through the American counterculture.
  • Mystic Chemist

    Mystic Chemist

    2018 Dieter A. Hagenbach, Lucius Werthmüller

    Psilocybin / LSD / Mescaline

    Mystic Chemist begins at the start of the twentieth century, in the Swiss town of Basel which is evolving from a popular health spa into a major industrial city. The story concludes more than a century later, after celebrating Albert Hofmann's 100th birthday. It tells the unique story of a soon to be famous scientist, highlighting his academic journey, his research at Sandoz and then, as the discoverer of LSD, his meetings and interactions with illustrious writers, artists and thinkers, from all over the world, whose common interest is a fascination with the new wonder-drug. Luminaries like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert appear on the scene and Hofmann begins a prolific correspondence with them and other interested parties. Sometimes he sends a sample, other times he hears of their "trips" on LSD or other psychedelic substances, like mescaline or psilocybin. From the beginning he takes a positive view towards efforts by physicians and psychotherapists to include LSD in new approaches to the treatment of illnesses. He sees the psychedelic potential of this wonder drug as beneficial to all. And he expresses his conviction that mystical experiences and trips to other worlds of consciousness are the best preparation for the very last journey he and every one of us well must eventually make. At the age of 102, Albert Hofmann dies at home. His vitality and open mindedness stay with him until his last breath. The life of Albert Hofmann, the Mystic Chemist, is a testimony to how one can reach a great age all the while remaining physically and mentally fit and spiritually aware. Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD tells the story of Albert Hofmann's life and the parallel story of the wonder-drug, LSD. The book runs to 408 pages and contains over 500 color and black and white photographs, illustrations and drawings; some of them never published before. With a foreword by world renowned Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, Mystic Chemist will be published in May 2013, and is available in hardcover and softcover editions.
  • Psychedelic Medicine

    Psychedelic Medicine

    2017 Richard Louis Miller

    Psilocybin / LSD / MDMA / Ayahuasca

    Embracing the revival of psychedelic research and the discovery of new therapeutic uses, clinical psychologist Dr. Richard Louis Miller discusses what is happening today in psychedelic medicine - and what will happen in the future - with top researchers and thinkers in this field, including Rick Doblin, Stanislav Grof, James Fadiman, Julie Holland, Dennis McKenna, David Nichols, Charles Grob, Phil Wolfson, Michael and Annie Mithoefer, Roland Griffiths, Katherine MacLean, and Robert Whitaker. Dr. Miller and his contributors cover the tumultuous history of early psychedelic research brought to a halt 50 years ago by the US government as well as offering non-technical summaries of the most recent studies with MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca. They explore the biochemistry of consciousness and the use of psychedelics for self-discovery and healing. They discuss the use of psilocybin for releasing fear in the terminally ill and the potential for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD. They examine Dr. Charles Grob’s research on the indigenous use and therapeutic properties of ayahuasca and Dr. Gabor Mate’s attempt to transport this plant medicine to a clinical setting with the help of Canada’s Department of National Health. Dr. Miller and his contributors explore the ongoing efforts to restore psychedelic therapies to the health field, the growing threat of overmedication by the pharmaceutical industry, and the links between psychiatric drugs and mental illness. They also discuss the newly shifting political climate and the push for new research, offering hope for an end to the War on Drugs and a potential renaissance of research into psychedelic medicines around the world.
  • Neuropsychedelia

    Neuropsychedelia

    2017 Nicolas Langlitz

    LSD

    Neuropsychedelia examines the revival of psychedelic science since the "Decade of the Brain." After the breakdown of this previously prospering area of psychopharmacology, and in the wake of clashes between counterculture and establishment in the late 1960s, a new generation of hallucinogen researchers used the hype around the neurosciences in the 1990s to bring psychedelics back into the mainstream of science and society. This book is based on anthropological fieldwork and philosophical reflections on life and work in two laboratories that have played key roles in this development: a human lab in Switzerland and an animal lab in California. It sheds light on the central transnational axis of the resurgence connecting American psychedelic culture with the home country of LSD. In the borderland of science and religion, Neuropsychedelia explores the tensions between the use of hallucinogens to model psychoses and to evoke spiritual experiences in laboratory settings. Its protagonists, including the anthropologist himself, struggle to find a place for the mystical under conditions of late-modern materialism.
  • The Psychedelic Experience

    The Psychedelic Experience

    2017 Ralph Metzner, Ram Dass, Timothy Leary

    LSD

    Created by the prophetic shaman-professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), this foundational text serves as a model and a guide for all mind-expanding inquiries. Based on a unique interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Psychedelic Experience remains a vital testament to broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan meditation techniques and psychotropic substances. More than fifty years after the Summer of Love, the promise of the psychoactive ’60s—that deeper self-awareness and greater harmony can be achieved through reality-bending substances and practices—is close to becoming a mainstream phenomenon. The signs are everywhere, from a renewed interest in the therapeutic effects of LSD and micro-dosing, to the popularity of the ayahuasca trips and the annual spectacle of Burning Man. Now, for a new generation seeking the trip of a lifetime, The Psychedelic Experience is the essential guidebook to getting there. The updated edition includes a dedication to Aldous Huxley with a short introductory citation from Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, which was used by the Beatles in the song Tomorrow Never Knows and a brand-new introduction by Daniel Pinchbeck, author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism.
  • Sacred Knowledge

    Sacred Knowledge

    2015 William A. Richards

    Sacred Knowledge is the first well-documented, sophisticated account of the effect of psychedelics on biological processes, human consciousness, and revelatory religious experiences. Based on nearly three decades of legal research with volunteers, William A. Richards argues that, if used responsibly and legally, psychedelics have the potential to assuage suffering and constructively affect the quality of human life.Richards's analysis contributes to social and political debates over the responsible integration of psychedelic substances into modern society. His book serves as an invaluable resource for readers who, whether spontaneously or with the facilitation of psychedelics, have encountered meaningful, inspiring, or even disturbing states of consciousness and seek clarity about their experiences. Testing the limits of language and conceptual frameworks, Richards makes the most of experiential phenomena that stretch our understanding of reality, advancing new frontiers in the study of belief, spiritual awakening, psychiatric treatment, and social well-being. His findings enrich humanities and scientific scholarship, expanding work in philosophy, anthropology, theology, and religious studies and bringing depth to research in mental health, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology.
  • Noumenautics

    Noumenautics

    2015 Peter Sjösted-H

    LSD

    Noumenautics traverses the mindscape of metaphysics, nihilism and psychedelic phenomenology. It navigates through subjects such as the sentience of cells, the constrictions of consciousness, the metaphysics of might, the magic of mushrooms, the narcotics of Nietzsche, and the neologism of net-nihilism - the last of which may itself cause flashbacks. Tracing the fall of western morality through Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the book descends deeper still into a metaphysics further upheld by Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead. This collection of essays and notes provides a most idea-provoking, educational, and original piece of literature for the thoughtful lay-reader and specialist alike.
  • To Fathom Hell Or Soar Angelic

    To Fathom Hell Or Soar Angelic

    2015 Ben Sessa

    To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic follows the journey of conservative NHS psychiatrist Dr Robert Austell, as he breaks free of tradition and learns to challenge the failure of psychiatric medicine. The transformation begins when he stumbles upon the field of psychedelic therapy and meets the enigmatic Californian maverick Dr Joseph Langley. Soon a small farm in Somerset is transformed into a hotbed of psychedelic research: Traumatic memories and personal awakenings emerge amongst a plethora of damaged and colourful characters and their uniquely therapeutic psychedelic experiences. Bringing the culture and the science of psychedelia together as a single potent narrative, To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic gives us a glimpse of what might be achieved with psychedelic medicines.
  • Therapy with Substance

    Therapy with Substance

    2015 Friederike Meckel Fischer

    Psychedelic drugs were routinely used in clinical research and psychotherapy until the 1960s. Since then they have been illegal except for a short period in the 1990s in Switzerland. During this window of opportunity, Dr. Fischer began using psychedelics to assist the progress of those of her patients who were "stuck." This book is a description of her use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: the group work, the technical approach, the substances themselves and how to work with them. There is a special focus on the preparation of the mindset, the setting and the integration as these are the most important determinants of good outcomes. This is a unique account and the definitive guide for the new generation of psychedelic psychotherapists.
  • Acid Hype

    Acid Hype

    2015 Stephen Siff

    LSD

    Now synonymous with Sixties counterculture, LSD actually entered the American consciousness via the mainstream. <i>Time</i> and <i>Life</i>, messengers of lumpen-American respectability, trumpeted its grand arrival in a postwar landscape scoured of alluring descriptions of drug use while lesser outlets piggybacked on their coverage with stories by turns sensationalized and glowing. <p><i>Acid Hype</i> offers the untold tale of LSD's wild journey from Brylcreem and Ivory soap to incense and peppermints. As Stephen Siff shows, the early attention lavished on the drug by the news media glorified its use in treatments for mental illness but also its status as a mystical--yet legitimate--gateway to exploring the unconscious mind. Siff's history takes readers to the center of how popular media hyped psychedelic drugs in a constantly shifting legal and social environment, producing an intricate relationship between drugs and media experience that came to define contemporary pop culture. It also traces how the breathless coverage of LSD gave way to a textbook moral panic, transforming yesterday's refined seeker of truths into an acid casualty splayed out beyond the fringe of polite society.</p>
  • Xenolinguistics

    Xenolinguistics

    2015 Diana Slattery

    Psilocybin / LSD / Ayahuasca

    Are language and consciousness co-evolving? Can psychedelic experience cast light on this topic? In the Western world, we stand at the dawn of the psychedelic age with advances in neuroscience; a proliferation of new psychoactive substances, both legal and illegal; the anthropology of ayahuasca use; and new discoveries in ethnobotany. From scientific papers to the individual trip reports on the Vaults of Erowid and the life work of Terence McKenna, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, and Stanislav Grof, we are converging on new knowledge of the mind and how to shift its functioning for therapeutic, spiritual, problem-solving, artistic and/or recreational purposes. In our culture, pychonautics, the practices of individuals and small groups using techniques such as meditation, shamanic ritual, ecstatic dance and substances such as LSD and psilocybin for personal exploration, is a field of action and thought in its infancy. The use of psychonautic practice as a site of research and a method of knowledge production is central to this work, the first in-depth book focusing on psychedelics, consciousness, and language. Xenolinguistics documents the author's eleven-year adventure of psychonautic exploration and scholarly research; her original intent was to understand a symbolic language system, Glide, she acquired in an altered state of consciousness. What began as a deeply personal search, led to the discovery of others, dubbed xenolinguists, with their own unique linguistic objects and ideas about language from the psychedelic sphere. The search expanded, sifting through fields of knowledge such as anthropology and neurophenomenology to build maps and models to contextualize these experiences. The book presents a collection of these linguistic artifacts, from glossolalia to alien scripts, washed ashore like messages in bottles, signals from Psyche and the alien Others who populate her hyperdimensional landscapes. With an entire chapter dedicated to Terence and Dennis McKenna and sections dedicated to numerous other xenolinguists, this book will appeal to those interested in language/linguistics and the benefits of psychedelic self-exploration, and to readers of science fiction.