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Shulgin's intentions in writing PiHKAL

CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

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Oct 27, 2009
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255
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The Open Road
So I know that Shulgin wrote PiHKAL so that none of his (and other's) creations would simply drift away and be forgotten about. Putting the knowledge out into the public (freedom of speech: fuck yeah!), not to be only accessible in scientific literature. My question is, what do you think Shulgin's hopes and intentions were in writing and publishing PiHKAL?

Did he want his creation's to:

simply be tried by professional chemists (and maybe a few of their friends) in hopes that they elaborate on and synthesize new chemicals?

reach a wider audience, for his magical half-dozen to be further tried in people and become common psychedelic drugs?

become the hectic, massive business and culture that it is now?

Well probably not the last one, but if you have any ideas on what he intended please share what you think!
 
Interesting thread, rather than guess I will simply say I am glad he wrote and published it.

I can say that if I were him and in the same position I would have done the same for all the reasons you mentioned.

CaptainAmerica said:
simply be tried by professional chemists (and maybe a few of their friends) in hopes that they elaborate on and synthesize new chemicals?
Click to expand...

yep, why not


CaptainAmerica said:
reach a wider audience, for his magical half-dozen to be further tried in people and become common psychedelic drugs?
Click to expand...

sounds good to me

CaptainAmerica said:
become the hectic, massive business and culture that it is now?
Click to expand...

maybe not the hectic part, but I like the idea of psychedelics being accessible, and the culture tends to be a fun loving and peaceful one. let people do what they want and why not share the magic

atara said:
He may have been paranoid about the government destroying or otherwise suppressing all his in vivo data on the compounds in the books and so decided to publish it to keep that from happening.
Click to expand...

Oh absolutely that
 
^ But Shulgin is a man, like you and me, a great man, but I doubt his mind is really superior to ours.
No, perhaps no one at bluelight wasn't able to do the work he did... anyhow, there is nothing impossible to guess his reasons for publishing PiHKAL. Of course, we can't be sure that our guess is correct:)

I think his main motive were changing the world for the better(As I recall, he spoke about psychedelics as of tools that can change the whole world). Well, I realize that this may sound a bit silly and childish, but I really think it was his main reason.
 
Imagine creating substances that give a new light to life and yourself in general. You would have extreme pride in it (at least I would). He was probably very motivated to write down his experiences and recollection of this because he did not want it to become lost. Being the first to try these substances would be like leading a new era of mind openness and understanding. But not to record and allow others to knowledge of these substances they would simply be lost forever and we would not have nearly as much understanding between humans and psychoactives. Thank you Sasha!
 
The effect drugs (his creations especially) have; creating subcultures that function well, self contained within their means, is pretty fucking wild when you think about it. Where would psychedelics be now without Shulgin's Pihkal and Tihkal is almost a better question because I feel his intentions are pretty obvious, it seemed to be based out of love for humans. I feel like he knew what a lot of these random untouched compounds might do to him after going through the first 10-20, but the possibility of changing lives, literally changing people's brains for the better kept him at it, and led to him publishing his works for all to enjoy.

There wouldn't be much to talk about on BL's psychedelic drugs forum without him, thats for sure.
 
StickyChron said:
There wouldn't be much to talk about on BL's psychedelic drugs forum without him, thats for sure.
Click to expand...
I know a lot of people don't pay much attention to the front page on their way to their forum of choice, so to all of you who missed it, Ann and Sasha Shulgin need our help. If Shulgin's creations have meant something in your life, now is your chance to show your appreciation by helping him to extend his.
 
I believe Shulgin worked in the field because he wanted to discover substances that could be used to explore the mind. By publishing his work, his discoveries could be used for that purpose by others. Scientists publish their work to advance their science.
 
i assume his intentions are good; he wants to help people
he doesn't strike me as particularly dark or evil

in one interview i watched he said he was a "tool-maker" i guess he felt his creations could be useful to others

an analogy i was thinking of would be if a journalist found out a lot of secret information they felt the public should know; but sacha seems too innocent to compare to a journalist
 
allium said:
^ But Shulgin is a man, like you and me, a great man, but I doubt his mind is really superior to ours.
No, perhaps no one at bluelight wasn't able to do the work he did... anyhow, there is nothing impossible to guess his reasons for publishing PiHKAL. Of course, we can't be sure that our guess is correct:)

I think his main motive were changing the world for the better(As I recall, he spoke about psychedelics as of tools that can change the whole world). Well, I realize that this may sound a bit silly and childish, but I really think it was his main reason.
Click to expand...

I don't find that silly or childish in anyway.

I see it the same way you do.
 
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