The Psychedelic That Kicked It All Off. "Mescaline, A Global History of the First Psychedelic," by Mike Jay

Why Read It

Mescaline is simply in a class by itself. Not only is it the psychedelic with the richest history of ancient documented ceremonial use, but it also had a massive influence in kicking off the modern day psychedelic renaissance. The very word ‘PSYCHEDELIC’ was coined by Humphrey Osmond and Aldous Huxely after both experimented with the cactus and became convinced that its use must be popularized and distributed far and wide. Huxley went on to popularize mescaline in his classic work, The Doors of Perception, which inspired a generation and led Jim Morrison to name his band, “The Doors.”

Alexander Shulgin ingested mescaline in the late 1950’s and the result was Shulgin left his position as a senior research chemist at Dow Chemical and devoted the last 50 years of his life to researching and developing novel psychedelic compounds, most notably methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA.

Mescaline is known as a plant medicine that regularly stimulates mystical experience for the user. Richard Evans Shultes and Albert Hoffmann capture the spiritual energy of mescaline in this short passage from their masterwork, Plants of the Gods. “For the Huichol Indians of Mexico, the Peyote cactus is not a plant but a god, a gift from the Earth Goddess to humans to assist them in attaining a connection to her in the mystical realms.”

Mescaline’s unique ability to initiate spiritual experience puts it at the center of the psychedelic yoga path, which is one of the established paths of awakening found in the Perennial Philosophy.

Overview

Mike Jay’s “Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic” offers a comprehensive look at mescaline’s journey through time and cultures, emphasizing its pivotal role in shaping the modern understanding of psychedelics. It delves into its use in traditional indigenous rituals among Native American tribes like the Huichol and the Navajo, where mescaline-containing cacti are considered sacred and used for spiritual insight. The book also examines the encounters between indigenous practices and Western explorers, missionaries, and researchers, who often misunderstood or misrepresented the significance of mescaline use.

As one of the earliest psychoactive compounds to be isolated and studied, mescaline served as a precursor to the psychedelic renaissance, capturing the interest of artists, writers, and scientists. The book underscores mescaline’s profound influence on figures like Huxley and Shulgin, and also Jean-Paul Sartre, William James, and others. By detailing its intersections with the rise of psychopharmacology and its centrality to the 1960s counterculture movement, Jay demonstrates how mescaline paved the way for the broader acceptance and resurgence of psychedelic research and therapy in contemporary times.

Key Takeaways

Historical Use and Indigenous Practices: The book delves into the long history of mescaline’s use in indigenous cultures, particularly among Native American tribes like the Huichol and the Navajo. It examines how mescaline-containing cacti, such as peyote, were used in spiritual and religious rituals to achieve altered states of consciousness and connect with the divine.
Philosophical and Ethical Reflections: The book prompts readers to consider broader philosophical questions about altered states of consciousness, the nature of reality, and the human relationship with psychoactive substances. It also raises ethical questions about cultural appropriation, colonialism, and the responsible use of mescaline.
Artistic and Literary Inspiration: The book looks at how mescaline influenced artists, writers, and thinkers, such as Aldous Huxley and Henri Michaux. It explores their personal experiences with mescaline and how these experiences shaped their creative works and perspectives on consciousness, spirituality, and reality.
Western Medical and Scientific Exploration: The book explores how mescaline made its way into Western medicine and scientific circles. It covers the investigations of early scientists and researchers who sought to understand the effects of mescaline on the human mind and its potential applications in treating various psychological conditions.
Encounters with Western Explorers: The book discusses the interactions between indigenous practices involving mescaline and the explorers, missionaries, and researchers from the Western world. It highlights the misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and cultural clashes that often arose as Westerners encountered indigenous mescaline rituals and traditions.

"Quotes"

“Mescaline launched the psychedelic era but would play little part in its future. By 1954 it was already being superseded in scientific research by LSD, which produced similar effects on the mind at less than a thousandth of the dose and with fewer physical side effects. By the time Timothy Leary had his psychedelic awakening on psilocybin in 1960, the scientists who ventured through Huxley’s ‘Door in the Wall’ were rarely using mescaline. By 1963, its research uses were tightly controlled and LSD was hitting the streets. From that bright May morning in 1953 the many threads of mescalines story lead not forwards by back, into a past that Huxley simultaneously revealed and concealed.”

“In contrast to LSD, ‘psychedelic’ was only the latest of the many labels that had been attached to mescaline. The word had been coined to rescue it from the language of psychiatry, where clinical terms such as ‘hallucinogen’ and ‘psychomimetic’ connected it to mental disease; but mescaline had many cultural lives before the psychiatrists claimed it. Over the previous decades it had been explored by artists, litteratuers and philosophers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Walter Benjamin, and Antonin Artaud, and its consciousness-expanding effects had been filtered through the gaze of modernist art, phenomenology and existentialism.”

“The Huichol native Indians of Mexico have become an archetype of traditional psychedelic shamanism and, though peyote is only one element in their highly elaborated cosmology and ritual, it now dominates western perceptions of them. Some scholars regard them as surviving exemplars of an archaic peyote culture that spanned northern and central Mexico centuries before Spanish conquest…and may well be virtually unchanged since Cortez.”

“Good mescaline comes on slow…”

“Peyote has been collected and consumed for as long as San Pedro, perhaps longer. Dried buttons found alongside ancient rock art in the Shumla caves on the Texas side of the Rio Grande have been radio-carbon dated to around 4000 BCE, and shown still to contain mescaline at a concentration of around 2 per cent.”