dprogram • Alexander & Ann Shulgin


Home > 1 > 2 > 3 View Video Clip Extract from dprogram Volume 1 "There have been a number of very difficult experiences, there have been a number of very frightening ones. Part of the learning process can be very frightening." Alexander Shulgin Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin is a research chemist who has become a folk hero of the rave generation. Thirty years ago, after developing a compound which proved to be a highly profitable insecticide for Dow Chemicals, Shulgin was given free rein to explore whatever avenue he chose. Shulgin remembers his response with relish. "I said thank you very much, Dow, I'm very interested in psychedelics!" Amongst the folklore that has surrounded Shulgin is the myth that he synthesised MDMA - ecstacy, in fact the chemical was first synthesied by the German pharmaceutical company E.Merk in 1914. But Shulgin developed numerous psychedelic materials from his home laboratory in the Oakland Hills in California. Deeply sceptical of testing psychoactives on animals,he tried each chemical recipe first on himself, then with his wife Ann followed by a small circle of volunteers. In 1994, he published the recipes for over three hundred of these materials in 'PIKHAL - Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved'. A number of Shulgin's discoveries have proved to be useful prescription medicines while others have found their way onto the dance scene in Europe and the USA. 'PIKHAL' which was independently published and has sold over 20,00 copies, is sub-titled 'A Chemical Love Story' and the first section of the book, co-written with Ann, is a fictionalised account of the experiments of a research scientist called Shura Borodin and his wife Alice. Ann Shulgin, who describes herself as a 'lay therapist' was one of a number of practitioners on the West Coast who reported the successful use of MDMA as a therapeutic tool, before the government decreed all use of the substance illegal. MDMA - Penecillin of the Soul Ann Shulgin In the new book, Tihkal, I am writing some chapters on the use of MDMA and other psychoactive drugs in psychotherapy, because few, if any others are in a position to speak out. I can do so because I stopped doing that kind of work in the mid-80's, before the passage of the Analogue Drug Bill, so I am among the rare people who can describe what it's like to use MDMA in this way, having ceased and desisted doing so around ten years ago. Besides, Tihkal, like Pihkal, is fiction, so I can write whatever I choose to. MDMA was known as 'the Penicillin of the soul' but one of the reasons that it got put so quickly into Schedule 1 was that the many, many psychologists and psychiatrists who had been using it for years with some of their patients, particularly for marital problems and repressed child abuse memories, had not published in the medical or psychiatric journals. They had understandable reasons for being quiet about this use, namely, that it was not generally approved treatment in the medical community (in fact, the establishment medical community knew absolutely nothing about the drug or its therapeutic use), so the therapists who had discovered the extraordinary value of MDMA were reluctant to go public with the information. They all, I believe, decided to postpone publishing for a few more years, not foreseeing the illegalization that happened so fast. Once MDMA was scheduled, of course, those therapists who had been using it, for the most part, continued to use it, only now very much underground, because the use of this miraculous substance had suddenly become a felony. Both patient and doctor had to face the fact that what they were doing was now dangerous, illegal and worth years in jail, if they were discovered. Home > 1 > 2 > 3 email • mail order credits © dprogram 1996>2008
	Originally broadcast on UK television's Channel 4, dprogram is an award winning, mind expanding trip featuring rare and exclusive interviews with leading edge personalities from areas like cyber culture, consciousness research, parapsychology, music and art. Volume 1 includes: • Dan Mapes CEO of San Francisco's leading edge virtual reality design company SynergyLabs on the metaphysics of VR. • Jah Wobble Musician and founder member of Public Image Limited on Cockney mystics, creativity and the inspiration of William Blake. • Dr Sara Parker UC Berkeley scholar on the New Age 'colonisation' of Native American spirituality. • Bishop Joey Head of the First Church of the Last Laugh - the worlds fastest growing snack relgion! • Burning Man A unique four day experience exploring creativity and consciousness in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. • Willis Harman Former president of The Institute of Noetic Sciences on their 'conventional research into unconventional areas'. • Dr Edgar Mitchell Founder of The Institute of Noetic Sciences and Apollo 14 astronaut on parapsychology experiments in space. • Nick Pope of the British Ministry of Defence on why he had to change his mind about the UFO phenomenom. • Peter Russell Author, on the global brain, spirituality on the net and our part in the evolution of the planet. • Ann & Alexander Shulgin Pioneer researchers into psychedelics and the mind, on the politics of ecstacy. And more... Running time: 70 mins. £19.99 plus Post & Packing. Post & Packing rates: For the UK add £3.00 For Europe add £4.00 For the United States and the Rest of the World add £6.00 ORDER ONLINE Snail Mail Orders: Make a Cheque, Postal Order or International Money Order payable to Digital Media Labs and send to: Digital Media Labs 8 Manson House 16-17 Manson Place London SW7 5LT United Kingdom Customer Service Helpline: +44 (0) 20 7225 0861 Please Note dprogram is only available on VHS PAL. To play this tape in the US you must use a multi-region video machine capable of playing PAL format tapes. We are currently working to provide dprogram on DVD. If you would like to be notified when this becomes available enter your email address below.