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Alexander Shulgin

PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story Kindle Edition

by Alexander Shulgin (Author), Ann Shulgin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.8 1,387 ratings

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Alexander (better known as “Sasha”) and Ann Shulgin’s PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story has become a foundational work in the genre and was the first book to fully impart the how-to chemistry, and convey the effects, of many of the entheogenic drugs that are currently being studied and used to heal trauma and deal with death. An acronym for “Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved”, the book spans autobiography, organic chemistry, politics, ethnobotany, and psychopharmacology, and the cultural impact is likely to be profound for decades to come, as it has already. PiHKAL is divided into two parts, the first of which is a fictionalized autobiographical 'novel' - the main fiction is that it is fiction. This first half of the book is The Love Story, about two people named Shura and Alice who fall in love, though one of them is already in love with someone else. This love triangle is a painful ordeal they must go through, and that process unfolds before the reader with grace and great insight into human nature. Shura is a brilliant chemist who has dedicated his career to making psychoactive drugs, in the story they go through many experiences with the psychedelic compounds that Shura has discovered and has made in his lab, all of which have been bioassayed himself. The reader will find themselves going on this journey with them, experiencing what they experienced, both in their hearts and in the psychedelic journeys they have. The second half of PiHKAL is called The Chemical Story, and it contains detailed instructions for, and effects of, the synthesis of 179 psychedelic phenethylamines which were mostly discovered by Shulgin himself. For each substance there is information on its synthesis, suggested effective dosage, duration, and detailed commentary on the subjective effects that were experienced. This book appeals to adults of all ages and cultures, and to the psychedelically experienced and inexperienced alike.

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1003 pages
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English
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Publisher

Transform Press
Publication date

19 July 2016
File size

5470 KB
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Product description

About the Author

Alexander Sasha Shulgin (June 17, 1925 - June 2, 2014) was an American medicinal chemist, biochemist, organic chemist, pharmacologist, psychopharmacologist, and author. He is credited with introducing MDMA (ecstasy, mandy or molly) to psychologists in the late 1970s for psychopharmaceutical use, and for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds for their psychedelic and entactogenic potential.

Ann Shulgin co-founded Transform Press in 1991 with her husband, Sasha Shulgin, out of their shared passion and commitment to an uncensored examination of psychoactive compounds. Through the Press they co-authored and published PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story (1991) and TiHKAL: The Continuation (1997), the two cult classics based on their psychedelic experiences. They also contributed jointly to several other publications including, The Secret Chief, The Secret Chief Revealed, Entheogens and the Future of Religion, and Ecstasy: The Complete Guide. Ann has served as a lay therapist facilitating the use of MDMA and 2CB in therapeutic settings while those substances were still legal. She brings a Jungian orientation to her examination of psychedelic experiences, with a particular emphasis on the integration of the Shadow and an overarching theme of spirituality and unification with the divine in all things. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08CL543ST
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Transform Press; 1st edition (19 July 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5470 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 1003 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 134,268 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 17 in Chemistry Reference
- 78 in Biographies & Memoirs of Scientists
- 139 in Sexual Abuse Biographies

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4.8 1,387 ratings

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Gordon Campbell

fantastic read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 February 2022

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Page turner. Well written, chemicals and the craziness of love!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2019

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All readers will find the first two parts fascinating. The full spectrum of human emotion. Detailed descriptions of the effects of the many hallucinogens this remarkable chemist made.
The 3rd part gives further descriptions of the effects - also of interest to all readers. The chemistry used to synthesise the drugs is also given in the 3rd part. Some knowledge of chemistry is needed to fully understand the syntheses.

3 people found this helpful

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Paul

Hit and miss

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 June 2010

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Well, there are really good bits and some bits that the book could easily do without.
Shura's own parts are pretty good, albeit not a literary gem. Quite frankly, for me as a physicist the most entertaining part was to see glimpses of how organic chemists work, the thought process itself. Trip reports and that sort of stuff, I've had better, but still OK, especially given the variety he's been going through... The cookbook can be fascinating if you have no idea how organic synthesis works in general - just reading through the methodology can be a page-turner.
Now, Alice's parts (half the first part of the book, give or take) - wow. Not in a good sense. Self-obsessed, centered pointlessly around Shura's affair with another woman to start with and later on drifting towards strikingly shallow para-philosophy, it would be more at home among Danielle Steele's paperbacks with so little attention given to the book's subject matter. Perhaps it's me who's missing the point and there's a good reason why a couple of hundred pages in the book are more or less dedicated to what Alice thought about Ursula, that other woman. I just don't see what phenethylamines have got to do with it.
So overall if you're looking for something along Castaneda's lines with more scientific slant on it, I don't know, I would say keep looking. Shulgin is Shulgin, a genius of a chemist, but his wife ain't one and it's her contribution that spoiled it for me.

11 people found this helpful

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Ian

Excellent book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2021

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Such an excellent book, so much fascinating research and an emotional rollercoaster.
Thanks for all your hard work,
R.I.P. Sacha

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Magicshoes

Great love story,whether you are a chemist or not

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2020

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I love this book because it is a journey into love. It is so informative an groundbreaking for its time that I think Shulgin must have been an alien!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2013

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A brilliant read for anyone who is interested in pharmacology, the Shulgins or the drugs that Alexander has synthesized. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole book, cover to cover.

The first 'book' is all about Alexander's life, and the experiences that got him to where he is today. Second 'book' is about Ann, up until they meet, where in 'book' three they carry on together.

The fourth book is a breakdown, including full synthesis details, trip notes and other information such as duration of effects and dosages taken.

2 people found this helpful

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Tony

Phikal

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 August 2011

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Phikal one and two are both an interesting read - I was under the impression that most 'drugs' were made from some sort of organic biomass (at least as a starting matearial), not so according to this publication - lots of detailed instructions to make various substances but the required chemicals are at least very difficult to obtain or are controlled substances.

If you are looking for a way to make an 'air' from a Baby Hawaiian Woodrose seed it is NOT here.

One person found this helpful

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Dave

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 June 2018

Verified Purchase

an interesting story on subject many would find informative. The lab notes went over my head

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