Alexander Shulgin

=Mac= · 23 Nov 2008 at 20:01

(apologies in advance if this breaks any forum rules, hopefully it shouldnt)

Hi,

has anyone here read PIHKAL or TIHKAL by this chap? I'm very tempted to pick up a copy of the former but am slightly worried about it being some 'arachists cookbook' style effort.

If you have, was it good?

Grrrrr · 23 Nov 2008 at 20:06

Sorry although i'm familiar with PIHKAL i haven't actually read it.

I do however find it mildly amusing that someone who has taken so many supposedly killer drugs is still going strong aged 82

=Mac= · 23 Nov 2008 at 20:15

True, but he did them in a 'i'll take a bit of this and see what happens' manner instead of staying up all weekend and running around nightclubs that's the norm now.

can't fault the man though, changed the lives of quite a lot of folk.

Hedge · 23 Nov 2008 at 20:17

Id be interested to hear about some of his literature too. Ive read about him in the past but never actually read any of his findings etc

Meridian · 23 Nov 2008 at 23:24

The man is stark staring mad, and the autobiography part is just plain weird. That's because his answer to everything is: take some drugs? Friend died? Take some drugs. Passed your exams? Take some drugs. Etc. That said, he is the acknowledged world expert on phenethylamines (he helps out the FBI on occasion) and probably on the tryptamines as well. He's probably taken more weird drugs than any man alive (and he is still alive, surprisingly) so it's not really surprising that that he's a little odd.

Oh and yes, his books contain a lot of recipes (about 190 in PIKHAL and 40-odd in TIHKAL) for drugs that are nearly all illegal in the UK - all of them class A. Free interview with Special Branch with every copy...

M