Posts tagged "books"
The 5 Best Books for Exploring Psychedelics (Without Actually Taking Any)
Recently I discovered Shepherd, a neat website where authors recommend their favorite books on a particular topic, theme, or mood. The Shepherd folks asked me to provide a list of psychedelic book recommendations — how could I say no to that? As an avid reader, it was difficult to pick just 5! I wanted to list books that I really loved, and which would appeal both to veteran trippers and stone-cold sober readers alike. Without further ado, here are my selections for your psychedelic bookshelf. If you’re interested in exploring more, check out Shepherd’s Best Psychedelic Books list,...
Michael Pollan Opens Up About His Powerful Psilocybin Trip on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Pollan tried LSD, Psilocybin, and 5-MeO-DMT for his New Book
It sure seems like psychedelics are finally going mainstream. Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, turns his attention to psychedelic science and medicine in his latest book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Pollan went on The Late Show to talk about tripping and the ego with Stephen Colbert. As an “immersion journalist,” Pollan decided to try LSD, psilocybin, and 5-MeO-DMT — a compound from the venom of the Sonoran desert toad — as research for his book. About his psilocybin trip, Pollan says:...
First Peek at My New Book ‘Magic Medicine’
It’s finally here! Two years ago I started researching and writing Magic Medicine: A Trip Through the Intoxicating History and Modern-Day Use of Psychedelic Plants & Substances. After much tweaking and editing, the first printed copy is here! (The public release date is June 5th.) From the very beginning, I wanted the book to more than just fascinating in its subject matter — I wanted it to be a beautiful object, something you would be proud to have on your nightstand or bookshelf. I wanted a book that would demand your attention and spark conversations, a book you could not help but...
Acid Drops: An Interview with Andy Roberts Author, Speaker, and Historian of British LSD Culture
Andy Roberts is an historian of Britain’s LSD psychedelic culture and author of Acid Drops: Adventures in Psychedelia, as well as Albion Dreaming: A Social History of LSD in Britain. He first fell down the rabbit hole in 1972 and has been exploring the labyrinth of passages ever since. His views on the psychedelic experience are (basically) – You take a psychedelic and you get high. What happens after that is largely the result of dosage, set and setting. Andy, thanks very much for joining me, I’m looking forward to hearing more about your book. Acid Drops is...
Moksha Medicine: Powerful Excerpts from Huxley’s “Island”
One of my favorite books is Island by Aldous Huxley, a book often prized by psychonauts and others who enjoy looking at society from the outside in. In Island, Huxley lays out the structure for an ideal society while making piercing criticisms of modern Western culture. As the title indicates, Huxley’s utopia is set on a small island, far removed from modern technology and divisive global politics. Some have criticized the book’s characterization and plot, but in Island these are secondary. This book’s main strength is in elaborating a great thinker’s vision of a truly civilized society. I want to share a couple excerpts...
Free Book: The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass) literally wrote the book on tripping. In 1964, they published The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which captured the imagination of psychonauts everywhere and laid the groundwork for all psychedelic literature to come. As the title indicates, this guide was inspired by the Bardo Thodol, re-interpreting the classic Tibetan text as a guide for ego death. As the first spiritual guide to using psychedelics, The Psychedelic Experience was revolutionary, and continues to influence all aspects of psychedelic culture. It’s hard to imagine the wide variety of...
Free Book: The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley became a pioneer in the (practically nonexistent) field of modern psychedelic literature in 1954 when he published The Doors of Perception, a short but detailed book about his experience with mescaline. Many people would hesitate to publish a book about such a controversial and personal topic even today, half a century later, but Huxley staked his claim smack dab in the middle of the 1950s. The term “psychedelic” hadn’t even been coined yet (though Huxley would contribute to its creation a few years later). This book represents one of the first and best-known “trip reports”, at...