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by 0F 1535 days ago
The print version has the autobiographies of the authors as well as all this. I found it interesting that everyone buys the book to learn more about Sasha but his section of the autobiography is rather sparse. It’s his wife who really fills in all the details and gives you a rich illustration of the human aspect of their lives.

I am awestruck by one thing in particular. At one point Anne took a drug that basically induced a severe psychiatric disorder, a very painful one. It was essentially the worst case scenario for drug users. But eventually she decided to take decisive action by taking another powerful drug, MDMA. Believe me, I can tell you from personal experience, when you have a severe psychiatric disorder caused by a drug, the idea of taking another drug is terrifying. But, believing it would fix her, she did. And the crazy thing is that it actually worked. I will never understand the strength it must have taken to do that.

Sasha shulgin in the greatest hero of our time. He experimented on himself to pave the way for the cure to PTSD and soon many other things. He should be put on the dollar bill.

3 comments

She later did so much MDMA, that it now doesn't have any effect on her anymore, she claims. Doubt she tried it recently though, as she's 91 now.

Incidentally, Shulgin didn't discover MDMA himself. It was discovered around 1910 IIRC, but hadn't found to be useful back then. He rediscovered it much later.

I've heard similar accounts of MDMA losing effectiveness with folks who have used regularly for extended periods of time. I haven't experienced it myself but I try to wait at least 8-12 weeks between uses. I have a theory that for many people it comes down to the highly variable quality of what you get on the street. I buy all my stuff on the dark net and test it, and after figuring out a couple of other variables that have a big effect on me (mainly: timing of food consumption. I fast minimum 5 hours before a roll) I have had very consistent experiences. But the quality issue would certainly not be at play with the Shulgins so I wonder if there's something to the long term effectiveness stories.
"I will never understand the strength it must have taken to do that."

It might have been strength rooted in desperation.

In which of the two books did you read this and do you happen to remember what the drug was?

There were some other gems like (if I'm not mistaken) someone's heart stopping after a massive hit of something exotic. I want to say DMT but I'm not sure.