Big Ol' Page on Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin

Alexander Shulgin creator of thousands of psychedelic compounds which he compiled in his opuses, PiKHal and TikHAL, is an interesting man to say the least.  He also rediscovered MDMA and popularized its use for psychotherapy leading to it later becoming a popular club drug.  He was truly a visionary and an evolutionary agent for our species.

                                                           young Shulgin in the lab

I have personally tried a few of his novel psychedelic compounds and they are unbelievable to say the least.  It is amazing to think that a man created these substances on purpose. My personal favorites...

4-ACO-DMT
-Similar to psilocybin mushrooms with alot of personal insight and pure absurd fun.  Has a 3 hour peak compared to mushrooms' almost instantaneous peak.  Visuals reminiscent of DMT.

2-CE
-UNBELIEVABLY visual.  The sky was a morphing visualizer, my posters came off the walls and conversed with me, I could see individual bugs upon all the individual blades of grass in my lawn, with eyes closed felt like I was riding a train through alien beings' living rooms, they were not pleased.  Also with eyes closed felt like I was experiencing periods of evolution from the past.(becoming a slug, gorilla, etc.)  Has to be experienced to be understood, changed my life.

Here are some collections of interviews with Sasha Shulgin and sometimes, his wife Anne, on a range of topics.

Shulgin 1995 in LA Times on Psychedelics, Government Interference and his life

Vice Magazine visits Aging Shulgin's House, listens to him Rant

Shulgin, YouTube, "Why I Discover Psychedelic Substances"

and my personal favorite...

Terence McKenna and Sasha Shulgin walk and Converse

MMMMM.....new psychedelics

Ketamine and Imprinting Zen

The art of Zen is ancient and derives from mainstream Buddhism.  It focuses less on doctrine and practice and puts the focuses directly in the present on normal actions and through increased consciousness of one's normal actions one's self begins to see reality for what it really is.  The stages of Zen are well communicated in this Zen haiku.

First there is a mountain
Then there is no mountain
Then there is

One first becomes conscious of their interior verbalization and categorization of the outside world.  Then one slowly comes to realize that they are in control of their interior response to the outside world and may reduce it to nothing if they wish.  Finally one realizes the inherent intercourse between these two perspectives then, the objective outside world and reality can then be seen as an alchemical union between the inner creative subjective experience and the objective material experience.

Ketamine is a dissociative analgesic that has long been used in surgery yet in the last few decades has gained prominence as a meta-programming chemical.  Meta-programming refers to the self-directed programming of mind that occurs when one is able to abstract their thinking processes above their normal consciousness in order to re-arrange and streamline one's conscious train of thought.  Ketamine numbs the self from the signals sent from the body and in doing this stretches out time as the mind attempts to fill in the holes of sensory information that the body is numb to.  In relation to the dose of Ketamine administered one may enter a reality that is more their own mind coupled with reality or they may experience a "K-Hole" where they are completely physically incapacitated yet their mind remains active within their own imagination.  These peak K-hole experiences feel as is they last for an eternity as time breaks within the subjective inner realm.  In reality the experience rarely lasts more than 45minutes to an hour.
In order for Ketamine to aid in Zen practice one must have a working Zen practice before dosing Ketamine.  During the experience the mind will not be able to control the body.  The mind and body will operate independently yet autonomously.  Any attempt to use top-down control of mind over body will result in a comical OCD-like repetitive physical action.  A friend of mine on his first Ketamine experience attempted to climb over the railing on his porch, an action he performs several times each day.  Because he had no knowledge of Zen and still operates from a mind controlling body perspective he hilariously attempted to move his leg over the railing a dozen times before he was aided by nearby onlookers.
My first experiences of K I was paralyzed but as I became acclimated to my mind and body operating independently I realized the body's inherent knowledge in navigating the environment only needed directions from the mind, not constant guidance.  The dissociative properties of K also aid in one realizing the Is-ness of the world without relation to thought patterns or preconceived notions.  When one returns from the hour long sojourn into the imagination they find that the world is more beautiful and complete than when they left it.  Goes to show that one cannot appreciate something until they lose it.  In this vein Ketamine is an aid to die before you die so that upon your return you may appreciate the world for what it is in all its glory without covering it in ideas.  Ketamine also gives one time to organize information from more conventional mushroom or acid trips because when removed from the body and embedded in the mind absorption of this information is more easily performed.  A truly interesting chemical.  The most famous K-head ever was an extremely interesting man, John C. Lilly. 

A Way for the Rich to Redeem Themselves

An idea: If someone could enlighten or bring real love to the super rich in our world they would realize that their hoarding of wealth for selfish ego purposes harms the rest of humanity.  They need to realize that the man on the street corner started out with the same conscious sense of self that they did and that his experiences of pain and poverty are as real as the rich's experiences of splendor and luxury.  I bet there exists a special place in hell or the cosmos for the super rich who realize their commonality with everyman and continue to hoard wealth for no perceivable reason except extreme greed.  Maybe they are reborn as dung beetles or something suiting for their shit-hoarding habits.  If these people would step down from their pedestal and realize that the world is full of people just like them with the same fragile consciousness they may have hope for redemption.  If the super-rich suddenly all experienced intense unity or the mystic experience they may even band together in order to give away all their wealth in order to enrich the living standards of all men.  If all these tycoons redeemed their greed through an act of gratuitous yet needed generosity I think god and the masses  could forgive them for their sins.  Can people really believe life is about collecting the biggest pile of shit?

Humanity's Teen Angst

The greatest is within the smallest.
-Lao Tzu
Mankind's history seems to mirror the personal development of one single man.  When we were hunter gatherers we existed with vast potentiality and a love for all that surrounded us in nature.  The heavily engrained ego self-images of man we call religion and philosophy still paled in comparison to the vast raw spiritual experience man found himself taking part in.  In these early years man was close to his mother(the earth) and tried his best to act in accordance with her wishes.  As time went on man began to feel that he was more important than the earth he sprang from and cities, agriculture, and organized religion arrived to place man in a state of  circuitous self-reference that excluded his relationship with nature and the earth.  Much like the young child who has just learned how to speak and believes he knows everything.  Recently, just like a rebellious teen gravitates to beer and cigarettes humans have begun to poison their collective body, the earth, in an effort to reach some unforeseen future.  We have even made a prodigal journey to the moon believing that our mission was to leave the earth.  Like a teen who leaves home only to sadly trod back in the door days later.  More and more, we are feeling that all these self-driven strivings for dominance and independence from the natural matrix are ill-begotten.  Humans are beginning to see that our destiny originates from the past as much as it echoes from the future.  We cannot escape our origins, we must rather, build a new foundation upon what we always were with what we have learned in the millennia of civilization.

Why change the outside when you can change yourself?

    In today's world of rapidly expanding industrial infrastructure it has become hard to discern what all this progress really accomplishes for humanity as a whole.  People often say technology helps us live easier and more fulfilling lives, but, evidence exists that gives credence to the idea that the technological demiurge actually mitigates our ability to live rewarding lives.  Obesity and technological addiction represent only two of the facets of modernity that seem anything but progressive.  People have given up their inherent rights to enjoy their bodies alongside their minds when they become sedentary obese consumers.  Much of the technology that we believe extends our human capabilities actually makes us into machines where our only self-directed activities have become pushing buttons or other input devices upon the computers we love so deeply.  Along with these negative externalities we place upon ourselves there also exists the obvious stress technology and industry places upon the environment.
    Modern agricultural man has always tried to adapt the environment to his own devices when all other humans have adapted their culture and mind to the environment they found themselves in.  Humans have adapted to different ecosystems and niches across the globe throughout our long history.  Humans live full lives in the Arctic Tundra, the Amazonian Rainforest, and the Arizona desert, among many other places. Why do westerners and their capital system demand that a given area be adapted to suit the needs of their monolithic culture?
   I personally believe that this method of attempting to control the environment will continue to wane in the years to come.  Environmental awareness and global activism represent just two aspects of this rising trend.  Now what will the system of environmental degradation give way to?  A 1960's like return to nature and abandonment of technology? No, I believe that the object of our transformative technology will cease being the outside environment and will begin focusing upon our own physical vessels, our bodies.  Why adapt the outside world to our minds and bodily tastes when we can use man's inherent mental adaptability coupled with our new found technology to transform ourselves so we may fit into any ecological niche, terrestrial or extraterrestrial, that we wish.  Nanotechnology, genetics, computer brains, all these frontier technologies would allow man to adapt his self to any role he saw fit.  As technology advances we may even become so amorphous that we are able to change both our thought patterns and body structures at will.
  An example application of this idea would be to create photosynthetic men that require only sunlight and water rather than solid animal food.  This would quickly solve our population and hunger problem.  Let us hope that man realizes the futility in attempting to control the chaos outside him and begins to turn his need for adaptation inward, upon himself.