Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic

by Mike Jay

Overview

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity

Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, after which the word “psychedelic” was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples.
 
Mescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline’s many lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300257502
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	572,637
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mike Jay has written extensively on scientific and medical history. His books on the history of drugs include High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture and The Atmosphere of Heaven. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xii

Prologue one bright may morning 1

3 May 1953: Hollywood Hills

1 Cactus mysteries 13

2000 bce-present: Andean South America

2 The devil's root 31

1519-present: Mexico

3 Making medicine 51

1880-93: Oklahoma, Texas, Detroit, Berlin

4 Brilliant visions 77

1895-98: Washington DC, Philadelphia, Leipzig, London

5 Higher powers 101

1899-1918: London, Missouri, New York, Taos, Oklahoma

6 Der meskalinrausch 129

1919-28: Vienna, Heidelberg, Chicago, Côte d'Azur

7 Profane illuminations 147

1929-36: Warsaw, Bucharest, Paris, Berlin, Mexico

8 M-substance 169

1936-52: Oklahoma, Taos, London, Hamburg, Baseh Saskatchewan

9 The doors blown open 199

1953-59: California, Wisconsin, Mexico, Paris, Atlantic City, Oxford

10 Tripping with mescalito 225

1960-2014: New York, California, Texas, Arizona, Las Vegas

Epilogue under a comanche moon 247

7-8 October 2017: Oklahoma

Endnotes 257

Bibliography 275

Index 288

Editorial Reviews

Mike Jay’s history of mescaline use is a bit of a mind-altering experience itself.”—The Economist

“Refreshing. . . . No gnostic detective, Jay isn’t searching for ungraspable truth. He’s a biographer tout court.”—Philip Alcabes, Los Angeles Review of Books

“What Mike Jay’s history of mescaline illustrates is that although we may not grasp how, the context of a trip determines its destination.”— Kate Womersley, Times Literary Supplement

“Jay deftly sets down the cultural and scientific history of mescaline in its heyday: a curious chronicle that deserves not to be forgotten.”—Alison Abbott, Nature

“A beautifully written, deeply researched, and wonderfully captivating book.”—James Pugh, Social History of Alcohol and Drugs (A journal of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society)

“A thoroughly researched book. . . . Through it, Jay traces artistic and philosophical movements, and legal and civic shifts; we see the development of America’s pharmaceutical industry and the USA’s history of state violence against Native Americans.”—Katherine Waters, TheArtsDesk.com

“This is a terrific account of mescaline, the first psychedelic. Mike Jay has nailed it.”—Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind

“Mike Jay is the Neil Armstrong of today’s psychonauts. In Mescaline an incredible amount of scholarly and personal research is beautifully presented and ordered in a sensible chronology that really works to channel potentially disruptive and mad matter into a fascinating cultural history. I just loved the last chapter which brought everything back to its proper place in a careful Native American ritual. It made the most emotionally satisfying ending to an extraordinary trip.”—Nicholas Rankin, author of Telegram from Guernica

“Mike Jay is one of the most wise, well-informed, clever and funny voices on drugs in the world. Everyone should read everything he writes—it is consistently brilliant.”—Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections

From the Publisher