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A CHEMICAL LOVE STORY Alexander Ann Shulgin Shulgin INDIANA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES BLOOMINGTON TRANSFORM PRESS Copyright © 1991,1992,1995,1998, 2000,2003, 2007,2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,2014,2015 by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission. For information, contact: TRANSFORM PRESS BOX 13675 BERKELEY, CA 94712 VM: (925)-934-2675 FAX: (925)-934-5999 www.transformpress.com Additional copies may be purchased on our website. Orders from Europe: Please contact Turnaround Ltd. at www.tumaround-uk.com Edited by Dan Joy t. ■, . / • ; s * . ■ Cover by Pamela Engebretson ^ f First Edition, Thirteenth Printing * • ; ' '' ISBN: 0-9630096-0-5 ISBN 13:978-0-9630096-0-9 phen-ethyl-amine \ fen-feth-al-a-,men \ n. [phenyl fr. F. phene, fr. Gk. phainein, to show (from its occurrence in illuminating gas)+ ethyl (ether + yl) + amine fr. NL am monia] 1: A naturally occurring compound found in both the animal and plant kingdoms. It is an endogenous com ponent of the human brain. 2: Any of a series of com pounds containing the phenethylamine skeleton, and modified by chemical constituents at appropriate posi tions in the molecule. TABLE OF CONTENTS Definition V Table of Contents vii Foreword ix Note to Reader xi Search for a Title xii Preface xiii Introduction xiv BOOK I — The Love Story Part One: SHURA'S VOICE Thumb 1 1 2 Mescaline 15 3 Burt 18 4 TMA 22 5 Blackwood Arsenal 26 6 MMDA 31 7 The Captain 41 8 MEM 47 9 DOM 53 10 Peter Mille 57 11 Andrew 60 12 MDMA 66 13 Time Stop 75 14 Aleph-1 80 15 Tennessee 88 Part Two:: ALICE'S VOICE 16 Spiral 98 17 Cactus 104 18 The Beginning 132 19 Seduction 148 20 Door Closing 166 21 Door Opening 171 22 Window 181 23 The Group 205 24 2C-B 218 25 Dragons 223 26 Fungus 230 27 Siberia 240 28 A World of Light 249 29 The Letter 277 30 Ending 286 31 Volcano 300 32 Transition 307 33 Resolution 319 34 The Fourth 330 Part Three: BOTH VOICES 35 Aachen 335 36 5-TOM 345 37 Fugue 358 38 Crisis 365 39 Dante, Ginger and God 410 40 Mortality 419 41 2C-T-4 428 42 Lecture at the University 434 BOOK II — The Chemical Story Index 453 The Chemical Story 458 APPENDICES Appendix A: Long Index to Book II 925 Appendix B: Glossary 957 Appendix C: Acknowledgements 969 FOREWORD This book will be different things to different people. There has never been a work like it, and since recent legislative acts in this country have closed off the avenues of inquiry that made this one possible we may not soon, if ever, see another of its kind. Although it is doubtful that it will ever make the best seller list, no library of psychedelic literature will henceforth be complete without a copy of PIHKAL. For nearly thirty years one of the authors. Dr. Alexander Shulgin, affectionately known to his friends as Sasha, has been the only person in the world to synthesize, then evaluate in himself, his wife Ann, and in a dedicated group of close friends, nearly 200 never-before-known chemical structures, materials expected to have effects in man similar to those of the mind-altering psychedelic drugs, mescaline, psilocybin and LSD. On the west coast, Sasha has assumed almost folk-hero status. Others regard him variously as courageous, foolhardy, or downright dangerous, depending mostly on the political persuasion of the critic. However, all would have to agree that Sasha Shulgin is a most remarkable individual. This writing collaboration with his wife Ann will be enjoyed, not only by their friends, but also by those who have heard about "Sasha" but don't have a clue as to who he really is. More importantly, this is a tale of self-discovery, accom panied by the faint stirrings of a technology that is yet to be fully born, much less developed. The beginning of PIHKAL is autobiographical, detailing the lives of two fictional characters. Dr. Alexander Borodin, known to his friends by the Russian diminutive "Shura," and Alice, later his wife. In the first two parts, Shura and Alice describe the individual life paths which led each of them to a fascination with psychedelics and, ultimately, to their fascina tion with each other. In Part III, they chronicle more than a decade of their adventures together, journeys often catalyzed by the ingestion of one of Shura's new chemical compounds. One cannot be certain of the exact extent to which Shura and Alice mirror Sasha and Ann, but the richness of imagery, detail of thought, openly expressed emotions, and moments of intimacy clearly give insight into the personalities of the two people I know. These details serve to X show that Shura and Alice's research has been an honest search for meaning in life. Their pain in lost relationships, in failed marriages, and their love and caring for each other paint a picture of two extraordinary and very feeling human beings. The second half of the book is an almost encyclopedic compendium of synthetic methods, dosages, durations of action, and commentaries for 179 different chemical materials. These essentially represent transcriptions of Sasha's laboratory notebooks, with some additional material culled from the scientific literature. Some day in the future, when it may again be acceptable to use chemical tools to study the mind, this book will be a treasure-house, a sort of sorcerer's book of spells, to delight and enchant the psychiatrist/shaman of tomorrow. David E. Nichols, Ph. D. Professor of Medicinal Chemistry West Lafayette, Indiana NOTE TO THE READER With this book, PIHKAL, we are making available a body of informa tion concerning the conception, synthesis, definition, and appropriate use of certain consciousness-changing chemical compounds which we are convinced are valuable tools for the study of the human mind and psyche. At the present time, restrictive laws are in force in the United States and it is very difficult for researchers to abide by the regulations which govern efforts to obtain legal approval to do work with these compounds in human beings. Consequently there has been almost no clinical research conducted in this area for almost thirty years. However, animal studies can be done by the approved and qualified scientist who finds sources of research funding and who appeals to and obtains his supplies of drugs from an appropriate government agency such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Approximately half of the recipes in Book II of PIHKAL have already been published in a number of respected scientific journals. The rest will be submitted for publication in the near future. No one who is lacking legal authorization should attempt the synthe sis of any of the compounds described in the second half of this book, with intent to give them to man. To do so is to risk legal action which might lead to the tragic ruination of a life. It should also be noted that any person anywhere who experiments on himself, or on another human being, with any one of the drugs described herein, without being familiar with that drug's action and aware of the physical and/or mental disturbance or harm it might cause, is acting irresponsibly and immorally, whether or not he is doing so within the bounds of the law. We strongly urge that a continuing effort be made by those who care about freedom of inquiry and the search for knowledge, to work toward changes in the present drug laws, particularly in the United States. Open inquiry, and creative exploration of this important area of research, must be not only allowed but encouraged. It is essential that our present nega tive propaganda regarding psychedelic drugs be replaced with honesty and truthfulness about their effects, both good and bad. There is much that we need to understand about the human psyche, and this book is dedicated to the pursuit of that understanding. SEARCH FOR A TITLE In trying to settle on a title for his book, a writer aims for something which both author and reader will find appropriate and easy to remember. For this book, I had originally considered something more academic than autobiographical, like "Hallucinogenic Phenethylamines," (hard to pro nounce or remember, unless you're a chemist), but not only does that bear a close resemblance to 'The Hallucinogens," by Hoffer and Osmond, it makes use of a word neither Ann nor I feel is appropriate in describing the effects of these materials. "Hallucinogenic," is probably the most com monly misused word in this field, so why reinforce what we regard as an inaccuracy and a misconception? A title such as "The Psychedelic Phenethylamines," also very academic sounding, was too close to books like "The Psychedelics," by Osmond, or "Psychedelics Encyclopedia," by Stafford; besides, with the loaded word, "psychedelics," in its title, such a book might prove difficult to stock in the bookstores of the Mid-West, even less likely in those of Russia; in Canada, quite impossible. So when the words, "Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved," popped into my mind, and I realized that the acronym was PIHKAL — which looks and sounds manageable—I got up from my desk and went to find Ann. I asked her, "What comes to mind when you hear the word, Pihkal?" She repeated, "Pea-KAHL? An ancient Mayan city in Guatemala, of course. Why?" "No," I replied, 'That's Tikal. Pihkal was the ruling lord of Palenque. He was entombed with six human sacrifices and a pile of jade, as I'm sure you now recall." "Why do I have this funny feeling that you're not telling the absolutely precise truth?" asked Ann, who used to believe implicitly every word I uttered. "You're right," I said, "I got carried away there, for a moment." When I told her what P-I-H-K-A-L really did stand for, it took a while for her to stop laughing, leading me to the inevitable conclusion that my quest for a title was finally at an end. PREFACE The book should actually be titled 'Thenethylamines And Other Things I Have Known and Loved/' because, although Book II contains only infor mation on phenethylamines, the story includes some descriptions of the effects of other classes of psychedelic drugs, as well. Part I is told in the voice of Shura Borodin, a character based on myself, and traces the story of my life from childhood through the death of my first wife. Part II is told in the voice of Alice Parr, later Borodin, a character based on my wife, Ann, and tells the story of our relationship, and the develop ment of our love for each other. Part III takes both of us, our voices alternating, through the later years and certain experiences from which we, and members of our research group, continued to learn about ourselves, gaining insight and knowledge through changes of consciousness which were sometimes aided by the psychedelics and at other times catalyzed by no drug at all. Book II should be of interest to chemists and all who love chemistry, but the comments at the end of each recipe might also prove interesting to the reader who understands no chemistry whatsoever. Most of the names in this story have been changed to protect personal privacy and to allow us freedom in the telling of our tale. Certain charac ters are composites.