Alexander Shulgin (Sasha) has passed away. Who was he?
I'll bet you've never heard of him. Alexander Shulgin was an amazing person. He held a phD in chemistry. He knew more about how chemicals work in our brains than anyone ever has. He made hundreds of compounds that temporarily interact with receptors in our brains like locks and keys. He and his wife Ann experimented with these compounds themselves. He then wrote about how he made these substances and about his experience with them in two books PiHKAL (Phenethylamines i Have Known And Loved) and TiHKAL (Tryptamines i Have Known And Loved). As you can see he was into the small "i" thing long before Apple. Maybe that's where Apple came up with the idea to name their stuff iPhone and iPad (I wouldn't doubt that for a minute).
He said, "I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyze its availability."
He is absolutely right about that...beyond right. Timothy Leary was Micky Mouse. Alex Shulgin was Einstein, srsly.
He was born on June 17, 1925 in Berkeley, California. He passed away on June 2, 2014 (aged 88) in Lafayette, California. Tomorrow would have been his 89th birthday. He lived and did his research on his Lafayette, CA farm of 22 acres. Below is a picture of his laboratory. It had a dirt floor for years and was full of cobwebs. He didn't kill spiders believing they had the right to inhabit his lab too.
You can read about him, if you'd like: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Alexander Shulgin is most noted for rediscovering 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine or MDMA for short. On the street it's called Ecstasy. Why they say he re-discovered it is because it was originally made by Merck in Germany in 1912. Back then chemical labs were creating all sorts of things just to see what they could make.
Merck had no use for MDMA and had no idea what it did. It was just one of hundreds of organic compounds they were making for the reason of just making stuff. When Germany fell in WWII, we took all the information we could get from German chemical companies to find out what they knew in terms of making lethal compounds that could kill people. But all that information was simply stashed away.
Shulgin created MDMA himself without originally knowing Merck had done so previously.
The reason Shulgin made Ecstasy was due to his being an expert in organic chemistry and brain chemistry. He knew exactly how chemicals would interact with the brain.
It you look at the structure of MDMA below, you'll see both a furan ring (the five-sided part on the left) and a benzene ring (the six-sided thing next to the furan ring). If you know a good amount about chemistry (and I do) you would know this MDMA molecule will interact with both dopamine receptors (via the furan ring) and serotonin receptors (via the benzene ring) in the brain. This means MDMA should both jack you up (you can dance all night due to dopamine release) and make you feel extremely empathetic, loving and connected to others (it sure does! due to serotonin release).
Shulgin created MDMA for its potential use in psychotherapy. He introduced it to therapists for just this reason. It is said that when a person is on Ecstasy and gets therapy at that time, a years' worth of therapy happens in 4 hours. I totally believe this due to my personal experiences with Ecstasy. When I first started experimenting with it, it was perfectly legal and wasn't made illegal until 1986.
This is such a powerful ally that it is the choice in treating those with PTSD. Currently it is being used in this manner on a limited scale with war veterans with extreme PTSD. Below is a youtube video addressing this very issue. Coincidentally, it largely involves a man from where I live. I've met this guy and see him around town all the time. Living next to a college town, he was able to find some Ecstasy himself. Four doses changed his life whereas decades of therapy and pharmaceutical drugs hadn't really done a thing for him.
I have been fortunate enough to know about Alexander Shulgin and his amazing work for years and years. I know it's both due to living in northern California myself and due to what I seek. He's been given several awards from the DEA (I'm not shitting you) even though they have made everything he made illegal and Schedule I. I have also been given the amazing gift of being able to sample many of his chemical creations, all when they were perfectly legal. (That is entirely another diary...which I will never write. These included 2C-C, 2C-E, 2C-I, 2C-P, 2C-T-2, 2C-T-21, 4-Acetoxy-DET, 4-Acetoxy-DIPT, 4HO-MIPT [<--- I love this!], 5-MeO-DALT, 4-Flouro-MA, IAP and Ecstasy) I'll just say I've had experiences using these substances I would never have had otherwise. Each of these experiences has been profoundly wonderful and enlightening and increased my understanding and ability to "see" by quantum leaps. Really, that's all I can say.
There is a movie made about Shulgin. I'll post the link here: http://youtu.be/...
There is so much I could write about Shulgin. When he passed away I felt deep sorrow. He was a man who thought like none before and likely none will again. He made a deep impact in my life. I have all the books he wrote about creating his phenethylamines and tryptamines and isoquinolines (things from cactus mostly). I relish these and go to them often because I'm a true seeker as was he.
Goodbye dear Sasha. You are my hero and I will miss you deeply. You were a true visionary. I can honestly say I loved this man. From his relatives at his death:
Sasha Shulgin died at 5pm on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2014 - seven days ago. He was many things to me: friend, father figure, role model, teacher and much, much more. After discussions with Ann and others, I have decided to share my personal account of his death with all of you. Although difficult, I think it is the right thing to do. Full disclosure has always been, after all, one of the cornerstones of Sasha's belief system.
Sasha’s breathing had suddenly become more shallow and labored, so we were all at a heightened state of awareness. Peaceful and touching Tibetan music was playing in the background. Surrounding Sasha, with whispers of love and support, were wonderful wife and magical matriarch Ann Shulgin, Wendy (Ann’s daughter), Jason (son-in-law), and eight-year-old Audrey (grandaughter), Dechen (caregiver), Tania (my wife), and Greg Manning (me).
I spoke my last “hi-de-ho” to Sasha. Back some years ago, when he started losing his sight, I began greeting him with that phrase. It became a statement of endearment, but at the time I just wanted him to know that, no matter where he was or how big a crowd surrounded him, I was nearby and had his back.
Sasha exhaled strongly and seemed to not take in another breath. I was in disbelief. My hand was touching his foot. Someone else was listening closely for breath. Another was checking his wrist, and then his neck, for pulse. A kiss. A caress. Faces of stark, honest emotion: loss and love, but no fear.
Ann left the room, returning quickly with a brightly colored cloth belt. She wrapped it under Sasha’s chin, past his ears, and tied it at the top of his head. This, she said, was a tradition to respect the deceased by insuring that the mouth would not remain agape.
Someone else produced a white Tibetan scarf and arranged it around Sasha’s head as an offering. Tania went out into the garden and returned with rose petals, which were sprinkled generously around his body. He seemed so peaceful, so angelic. I looked at Audrey and thought how good it was that she was present to witness death as it should be: the natural conclusion of life.
We all started hugging each other. Tears flowed like rain on a warm day at dusk. Ann whispered to Sasha and kissed him. She later told me how evident it was when she kissed Sasha that our bodies are like suits of clothing. At some point we just take them off and move on. What is left is not us.
Sasha’s body stayed with us for five more hours as we grieved, and communed, and talked, and occasionally even laughed.
He died as he lived: full of grace, uncomplaining.
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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