PIHKAL pp 142-143:
I said, "I would love to hear about your work."
He began, "Do you know what psychopharmacology is?"
"Not really."
"I think I told you, the last time we talked, that I am a chemist and a psychopharmacologist. Actually, what I do is somewhat different that what is
done by most of the other people who call themselves psychopharmacologists. Everyone in this particular discipline studies the effect of drugs on the
central nervous system, which is what I also do. But most of them study those effects in animals, and I study them in humans. I don't investigate all
kinds of drugs, just a certain kind in particular."
"What certain kind in particular?"
"The drugs that I work with are called psychedelics or psychotomimetics. I assume you've heard something about them?"
"You mean, things like mescaline and LSD?"
"Exactly"
"Well, I've never had LSD, but one of the most extraordinary and important days of my life was the day I took peyote."
Shura leaned forward, "Really! When was that?"
"Oh, good grief, I think it was - I have to count backwards for a moment - I think about 15 years - no, more than that - maybe 20 years ago. A very
interesting man who has since become a psychiatrist took me on the journey; his name is Sam Golding. Do you know him?"
Shura laughed, "Yes, I know Sam very well. We did a lot of work together in the 60's; in fact, he co-authored a couple of papers with me. That was a
long time ago, though. I haven't seen him for at least a year."
"Sam's an unusual man, and he was a good guide for me. I haven't seen him in years, either. Anyway - go on."
"About 20 years ago, I left a very good job with a large company I'm sure you've heard of, Dole Chemical?"
I nodded.
"I went back to school, to learn everything I could about the central nervous system. It was a somewhat risky thing to do, since I had a wife and
child to support, but Helen went to work as a librarian at the university, without even a hint of protest - she was totally supportive, bless her -
then, after I'd done two years of medical school, I set to work creating a private laboratory in a large room about a hundred yards behind my house.
It had been the basement of my family's first home on this property. The house burned down one summer and everything was lost except that perfectly
good basement. Then I went through the long process of finding out how to deal with the red tape and the authorities, in order to get the kind of
license I needed for what I wanted to do, which is an interesting story for another time. And become a consultant."
I was still tasting the promising words, "... an interesting story for another time," and had to replay the mental voice tape quickly to catch up.
"What kind of consultant?"
"In the field of the effects of psychoactive drugs on the human sensorium, particularly those kinds called psychedelic. I begun publishing everything
I was doing and discovering. And I continued to find new ones - new drugs."
I shifted in my chair, my knee bumping his, not sure I understood. "You found new psychedelics?"
"I invented new ones. I still invent them. I try each new drug out on myself, starting at extremely low levels and gradually increasing the amount
until I get activity. I saves a lot of mice and dogs, believe me. If I like what I'm seeing with the new compound, I run it through my research group.
After that, I write up the results and publish them in a journal, usually a very respected one called the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry."
Jesus Aitch! I can't believe this! He INVENTS psychedelics!
PIHKAL pp 271:
"The first time I took mescaline," he said, "I was astonished to discover that the world I found myself in - this world - was what I had been
surrounded by, as a child. I spent my childhood in a reality that looked and felt like this. Of course I thought everyone else saw and felt things the
same way I did, until it gradually dawned on me that maybe it wasn't the same for other people. Other boys my age didn't seem to want to spend time
looking closely into flowers or merging with beetles, as I loved doing when I was alone. Eventually, I began getting the idea that I was different in
some way, and I learned not to talk about that kind of thing, and to imitate the behavior of the other boys at school, so I wouldn't draw attention -"
Shura leaned against the wall of the house, his eyes off in the distance.
"- because I knew instinctively that if others my age sensed any kind of difference, they would attack. So I behaved like everyone else until school
was over and I could go home and have a couple of hours by myself doing what I liked to do." |
