I read Doors of Perception and I found Huxley's scattergun blend of esoterism and spiritual reading mixed with the trip report pretty interesting, despite my scepticism.
I strongly dislike McKenna's obnoxious fanboys, and I dislike his love of bullshit and pseudointellectual sweet nothings that his fanboys take for gospel, but I thought True Hallucinations sounded intriguing and I might pick it up. Thoughts?
Also what are some other recommendations?
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I reccomend 6 grams of mushrooms
Currently reading this
What's your opinion so far?
you are so above the rank of fanboy in this world, art thou user?
It's not hard to acquire some psychedelics and come to your own conclusions. You can compare notes with the other writers too.
McKenna is the text book definition of a pseud, agreed
This, start off with acid though. It's easier to dose. Don't trip alone the first few times.
acid for retards dont listen to him shrooms are better
Ernst Jünger wrote about psychedelics I think
It's an academic, theory laden text for better or worse. Copious amounts of footnotes, frequent reference to Bruno Latour, D&G etc. Yet another attempt to scramble high and low culture (mixing "high scholarship and hipness" cringe) which some may find tiresome.
That said, Davis is an engaging writer—clear even when discussing complex PoMo concepts. He usually explains exactly why he is mentioning so-and-so rather than just gratuitously name drop. The 3 case studies are the meat of the book (Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson and PDK); I think I'll find them more interesting than the intro.
The physical book is almost an aesthetic object itself and I unironically like the pictures.
Acid is for edge and introspection, mushrooms are for becoming smart and exploring tough concepts.
You can have good experiences with psychedelics but don’t expect them to change your life. Insights are only as useful as your ability to integrate them to your life. The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide shows you how to reliably induce a ‘meaningful’ experience.
drugs don’t make you smart, brainlet. drugs wear off.
Beginner psychedelic books:
Huxley - Perennial Philosophy, BNW, The Island, Doors of Perception, Heaven and Hell
Leary - The Psychedelic Experience, Psychedelic Prayers, Politics of Ecstasy
Laing - Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise
Baba Ram Dass - Be Here Now
History of (mostly psychedelic) drugs in America:
Stevens - Storming Heaven
Lee - LSD Dreams
Torgoff - Can't Find My Way Home
Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
HST - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Science of psychedelics:
Psychedelic Information Theory (psychedelic-information-theory.com/pdf/PIT-Print-Web.pdf)
William Richards - Sacred Knowledge
Michael Pollan - How to Change Your Mind
Albert Hoffman - LSD: My Problem Child
Otto Snow - LSD
Uncle Fester's Practical LSD Manufacturing
Strassman - DMT: The Spirit Molecule
Sasha Shulgin - PIHKAL and TIHKAL (recommended for newbs) or Shulgin Index (if you want hardcore chemistry)
Grof - LSD Psychotherapy
Lilly - Programming and Metaprogramming the Human Biocomputer
Frances - Drawing it Out
Plant Medicine / Shamanism:
Pendell - Pharmako Trilogy
T. McKenna - Food of the Gods, True Hallucinations, The Archaic Revival
D. McKenna - Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss
Eliade - Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Harner - Way of the Shaman
Pinchbeck - Breaking Open the Head
Narby - Cosmic Serpent
Mystical / Occult:
Castaneda - Don Juan Series
Bergier - In The Morning Of The Magicians
Jodorowski - Psychomagic, Way of the Tarot
Crowley - Book Four: Liber ABA, Magick Without Tears, Book of Thoth, Book of Lies
AOS - Book of Pleasure
Grant - The Magickal Revival, Zos Speaks!
Caroll - Liber Null & Psychonaut
Dukes - Thundersqueak
White - Chaos Protocols
Ancient Mysteries:
Wasson - The Road To Eleusis
Allegro - The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Uzdavinys - Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism
Graves - The White Goddess
Schizo-core:
PKD - VALIS Trilogy
D & G - Capitalism and Schizophrenia
D - Difference and Repetition, Logic of Sense
G - Chaosmosis, Schizoanalytic Cartographies
Laing - The Divided Self
Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
RAW - Illuminatus! (Fiction) and Cosmic Trigger (Non-Fiction)
Land - Fanged Noumena
Schreber - Memoirs of my Nervous Illness
Psychedelic "literature":
Baudelaire - Artificial Paradises
Michaux - Miserable Miracle
Benjamin - On Hashish
Pickard - The Rose of Paracelsus
Eight-Circuit Model:
Leary - Info(/Exo)-Psychology, Game of Life
RAW - Quantum Psychology, Prometheus Rising
Antero Ali - Angel Tech
(Psychedelic) Philosophy:
Eliade - The Sacred and the Profane
James - The Varieties of Religious Experiences
Wilson - The Outsider, The Occult
Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Debord - Society of the Spectacle, Commentary on Society of the Spectacle
Vaneigem - Revolution of Everyday Life, Movement of the Free Spirit
Baudrillard - Simulacra and Simulation, System of Objects, America
Fisher - Capitalist Realism
Tsing - The Mushroom At The End Of The World
Fair review based off what I've read of it so far (just the intro). Erik Davis is great not cringe tho IMO -- maybe it is my teenage discordianism but I think cultural crosswiring is fun. You should check out Nomad Codes and Techgnosis too if you like him.
I enjoyed DMT the spirit molecule by Strassman. He's the only person in the US to have done a study of DMT on humans. He documents the theoretical physiology of DMT in the pineal gland, the process he went through to obtain the DMT from the DEA and FDA and documents the experiences of his subjects. I found every chapter interesting aside from the final chapters where he starts talking about quantum mechanics.
>I read Doors of Perception
Consider rereading Brave New World and then reading Island to see how his attitude towards psychedelics evolved.
>I thought True Hallucinations sounded intriguing
It's a decent read. I would take everything with a grain of salt, but it's a decent read. You may also be interested in Burroughs' Yagé Letters to compare and contrast with it in terms of white colonization of South American psychedelic spiritualism (ayahuasca being a tourist industry today).
Do trip if you're interested but don't take guff from aggressive acidheads. Disliking McKenna's mystique is a good start. Remember to take things one step at a time, to ease yourself in, to start with lower doses: disappointment is preferable to trauma, and you can always trip again in the future, and this idea of hurrying to "heroic doses" is exactly the kind of soullessly touristic checkbox ticking that psychedelia should be breaking people out of.
This book is relatively recent, right? I remember first seeing it advertised after my tripping had mostly ended. The focus on McKenna, Wilson, and Dick is very interesting, and tells me exactly what kind of book it is. Is the author as uncritical as his subjects, though? What I always found most frustrating about those three is the disingenuousness of their claims of skepticism. They pretend to be self-critical as a smokescreen to obscure their arbitrariness, or even worse use skepticism as a vehicle to claim whatever they want.
Classic list but very narrow, and a lot of trash mixed in with quality, although that's typical of the topic in general. I would emphasize the William James recommendation (pic related). Although he does not spend long on substance use per se, mainly passingly mentioning nitrous and mescaline, his general method in describing religiois experiences is extremely well suited to psychedelic experience and has had a lasting influence on the field. If you're especially interested in how psychedelia flowered in the 60s, Jay Stevens' Storming Heaven may be of interest to you.
>soullessly touristic checkbox ticking
lmao what a pussy do you even salvia bro haha
its not a book obviously, but erowid is hands down the best website for trip reporting, you should spend a lot of time there.
>mushrooms are for becoming smart
oh the irony
Mushrooms cause an increase in neuroplasticity.
>Also what are some other recommendations?
Erowid
bump
>mushrooms are for becoming smart
Drugs are a waste of time. Just admit you're doing it for fun.
the datura accounts are fucking awesome
t. Hasn't tried shrooms
Which books would you consider steering clear of? I'm curious.
Wasn't expecting to see, "The Divided Self". Enjoyed the book, but not sure how it relates to psychedelia, outside of the delusions his patients suffer from.
>the datura accounts are fucking spooky
FTFY
Frankly posts like yours only reinforce the opinion they caused me to develop in the first place.
Yeah, I was intrigued by that. Don't think much has been translated into English though.
Thanks.
Comprehensive list, I'll pick through it.
I'll take those recommendations on board too.
>Reading is a waste of time. Just admit you're doing it for fun.
Sorry for the bulk reply, got a bit out of hand
Even Lobsterman agrees
B
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J
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>fun is a waste of time
LSD is the best aphrodisiac ever desu
Does everything feel exceptionally soft to you while tripping too, sensual user? Elaborate `,:)
Disgusting druggies