Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The Future of Psychedelics - an Interview with Alexander T. "Sasha" Shulgin

The Future of Psychedelics - an Interview with Alexander T. "Sasha" Shulgin by Dee
"...Sasha claims to be inspired partly by the history of Wilhelm Reich and considers Castanada to be his model and hero, not only seeing psychedelics as a potential enrichment to everyday life, but also as a means to increasing personal insight and expansion of one's mental and emotional horizons.

Psychedelics may be best defined as physically non-addictive compounds which temporarily alter the state of one's consciousness. Sasha believes that the use of psychedelic drugs, including the minor risks involved (an occasional difficult experience or perhaps some body malaise) are more than balanced by the potential for learning. He has a strong preference for psychedelics over heroin or cocaine (especially crack), both of which he has tried, because he feels both tend to allow the user to escape from who he or she really is, even to the point, from who you are not. Heroin, in particular, he feels, creates a loss of motivation and alertness and under its influence, nothing seems important to him. Cocaine, on the other hand stimulates a sense of power, but also the inescapable knowledge that it is not true power.

There is a healthy dose of humour in Sasha's writings and I was looking forward to talking with him about the future of psychedelics and the likely highs for the 21st C."
Read on (source: Fringecore)

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