Mescaline

A Global History of the First Psychedelic

By: Mike Jay

Narrated by: Paul Brion

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity

Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-20th century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word "psychedelic" was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: The earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples.

Mescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the 20th century, it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile, peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline's many lives.

©2019 Mike Jay (P)2019 Tantor

first rate

a work of both scholarship and great storytelling, with a smooth, warm, easy on the ear speaker.

All encompassing

Well rounded, general history of mescaline and its pioneers. Also a great description of its spiritual and therapeutic value.

Essential information on psychedelic history

An important book for anyone interested in psychedelics. The author did an excellent job of weaving the drugs many interactions with culture and society. It was a bit of a slog to get through it in some parts, but it is worth it in the end to more fully appreciate the narrative arc of the book.

could be shorter

a chronology of the story of mescaline which goes in to unnecessary details on when and why. this book should have been significantly shorter

Excellent history and review of literature.

Well written and engaging. The provides a full history of Mescaline as well as a review of published experiences.

SO CLOSE to being the book we needed...

...but falls just short. The half of the book dealing with centuries of sacred use of peyote by the native American tribes amidst the suffocating and cruel oppression of the US government is riveting. And the little known history of the doctors, collectors, artists, poets, priests, writers, socialites, philosophers, and pharmaceutical companies as they scrambled to profit in so many varied ways from the ingredient extracted from the peyote is fascinating and incredibly researched. Much mention is also rightly made of LSD as a rival to mescaline and the comparisons are fair. Unfortunately, the book loses its way and resorts to useless filler as it rambles through the escapades of William Burroughs, Carlos Castaneda, and Hunter Thompson. Even the addition of a few pages on the brilliant and brave Alexander Shulgin are besides the point as it drifts into off-topic drug selections. Egregiously, the author makes nearly no mention of the far older and much more popular source of mescaline steeped in hundreds of more years of conflict between colonials and natives, the San Pedro cactuses of South America. So promising a text with an ultimately disappointing finish yet still an important and great resource for the parts it succeeds in.

Very interesting content, bad recording

This is one of the dullest performances I have ever listened to. It’s a shame considering that the text of the book is EXTREMELY interesting. It sounds like they got Tim Russ to do his extremely deadpan Tuvok impression from Star Trek: Voyager for this book. It doesn’t help that the pitch and timbre of the reader’s voice vary widely from hour to hour—hard to believe that a producer just let that slide. This could really benefit from some extra quality control, maybe even a re-do.

The Grandfather of Psychedelic Books

💚💚💚💚🌵🌵🌵🌵a MUST read for anybody interested in psychedelics and/or botany. Filled with details that form a crisp image of mescaline's rich history