Research Catalog

Title

Mescaline : a global history of the first psychedelic / Mike Jay.

Author

Jay, Mike, 1959 December 14-

Publication

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 297 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), portraits; 25 cm

Summary

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.

Subjects

• Mescaline
• Peyote > History
• Mescaline > History
• Hallucinogenic drugs > History
• History

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prologue : One bright May morning : 3 May 1953 : Hollywood Hills -- Cactus mysteries : 2000 BCE-present : Andean South America -- The Devil's root : 1519-present : Mexico -- Making medicine : 1880-93 : Oklahoma, Texas, Detroit, Berlin -- Brilliant visions : 1895-98 : Washington DC, Philadelphia, Leipzig, London -- Higher powers : 1899-1918 : London, Utah, New York, Taos, Oklahoma -- Der Meskalinrausch : 1919-28 : Vienna, Heidelberg, Chicago, Côte d'Azur -- Profane illuminations : 1929-36 : Warsaw, Bucharest, Paris, Berlin, Mexico -- M-substance : 1936-52 : Oklahoma, Taos, London, Hamburg, Basel, Saskatchewan -- The doors blown open : 1953-59 : California, Wisconsin, Mexico, Paris, Atlantic City, Oxford -- Tripping with mescalito : 1960-2014 : New York, California, Texas, Arizona, Las Vegas -- Epilogue : Under a Comanche Moon : 7-8 October 2017 : Oklahoma.

Call Number

JFE 20-4901

ISBN

• 9780300231076
• 0300231075

LCCN

2019933930

OCLC

1055264022

Author

Jay, Mike, 1959 December 14- author.

Title

Mescaline : a global history of the first psychedelic / Mike Jay.

Publisher

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Creator/Contributor Characteristics

Gender group: Men

Nationality/regional group: Britons

Occupational/field of activity group: Historians

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Note

EXPLORES EFFECTS FROM ANCIENT AMERICA TO WESTERN MODERNITY.

Research Call Number

JFE 20-4901