Erowid Extracts D O C U M E N T I N G T H E C O M P L E X R Elationship B E T W E E N H U M a N S a N D P Sychoactives

Erowid Extracts D o c u m e n t i n g t h e C o m p l e x R elationship B e t w e e n H u m a n s a n d P sychoactives

February 2016 Number 28

Shulgin Archiving • Life with Sasha & Ann • Sasha’s Peyote and Mescaline Files Faces & Places • The Art of Legibility • The Demise of Shulgin’s Folly Thanks Sasha!

After Sasha Shulgin’s death in I’ll be taking o-chem this fall in this Sasha Shulgin’s work has provided June 2014, waves of thank-yous were man’s honor. Rest in peace Alexander the world with tools that can be posted to Twitter and other social Shulgin. #ThanksSasha used to discover the truth in us all. media sites. Below are just a few — @J_A_Elliott17 #ThanksSasha showing the impact that Dr. Shulgin — @tRyanTooHard had on people’s lives around the world. #ThanksSasha for opening up my mind & expanding my universe, This week, we say #ThanksSasha to RIP Alexander Shulgin, a genius, a without you I would not be the same. Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, a man true philosopher and a great man. Your work changes lives. who dedicated his life to researching #ThanksSasha — @StayStizzie biochemistry & psychedelics. #bioDFF — @dantheman1261 — @ravelrie So sad to see you’ve gone. Your #ThanksSasha for having been work has had a profound impact on #ThanksSasha The work of this no less than a revolutionary and medicine and other developments. man has benefited countless. A true introducing us to those marvelous We need more people as brite. visionary who will be missed dearly, molecules that we too have known #ThanksSasha words cannot express my gratitude. and loved. — @CitrusFruits23 — @ryandegrunt — @Earthismymother Over the past months some great MDMA relieved me of trauma & showed Shulgin was a scientist of the purest souls have passed on to the other side. me the path to emotional health, kind. Curious, brave, insatiable for Dreamers, doers n goers who inspired love, openness. #ThanksSasha new knowledge. #ThanksSasha me to question. #ThanksSasha — @JasonLouv — @veek — @lxxdoobsxxl #ThanksSasha for showing me a R.I.P. Sasha Shulgin, you’ve changed Alexander Shulgin brought simple world made of unconditional, infinite the lives of many. #ThanksSasha joys to many, and greater knowledge love & showing me I’ve always been — @Enso_Botanicals to us all. #ThanksSasha part of that world. #universallove — @MarkKriegsman — @cecee_x

2C-I opened the door for me to #ThanksSasha for enabling love a beautiful and esoteric world of where there might have been none. experience. I am genuinely sad that and for helping the world rage a little Sasha is gone. #ThanksSasha harder at EDM shows. — @m3dicin3b0ttle — @BobbyExtraDry

#ThanksSasha because of you I saw In a few years, when drug-war fear the stars for the first time and found has died down, his contribution to out who I truly was NOT who society humanity will truly be acknowledged. wanted me to be. #ThanksSasha — @YoCuhCuh — @molly4081

Have just found my set of ‘dirty #ThanksSasha, just thanks… pictures’, hand-drawn by Sasha — @vplusah Shulgin!! Time to get them framed. #ThanksSasha — @mpesce

#ThanksSasha For making electro Send correspondence to: music tolerable. [email protected] — @ScottLumsden Please include a name, title, and city/state/country of origin to be Did some important me-work recently. Adam John Williams (@AdamMacadamia) published with your letter. Letters with a tattoo of a young Sasha. #ThanksSasha may be edited for length and clarity. Photo by Fiona Cowan. — @ZenQuagga

)ii Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Table of Contents Erowid Extracts Number 28, February 2016 Thanks Sasha! ...... )

Introduction to the Shulgin Archiving Issue of Erowid Extracts ...... 2 Founder, Editor in Chief Fire Erowid by Earth & Fire Erowid Founder, Executive Editor Earth Erowid Infectious Excitement ...... 3 Technical Developer JL by Wendy Tucker Managing Editor Sylvia Thyssen Bläk Faces & Places: Sorting Photos in the Shulgin Archives ...... 4 Shipping & Archiving by Stacy Simone Out of the Memory Box: Prague 1992 ...... 7 Crew Shawn Corrado, Roi, Limonene, David Bey, by Ann Shulgin David Arnson, Jonathan Taylor, Psilo The Shulgin Legacy: Chemistry Survival ...... 8 Associate Editors by Paul Daley Rev. Meo, Zachawry Sasha’s Peyote and Mescaline Files...... 12 by Keeper Trout Experience Collection - Reviewers Uil, Antheia, Kernel The Art of Legibility...... 18 by Shawn Corrado Experience Collection - Triagers Reflex, Toaster, Pskoactv, Adlai, Lotn, The Demise of Shulgin’s Folly...... 20 Theo, Catskills, Kalle, Lizard, Magiktreez, by Paul Daley Nickflyer, Cutepuppy, Survival, Scab13, Spent, Blinkidiot, Revelator, Jhoppa Life with Sasha and Ann...... 22 by Tania Manning Erowid Center is a non-profit educational Shulgin Patronyms and Family History...... 24 organization. Erowid Extracts is its members’ by Scott Bodarky newsletter. Extracts has been published twice a year since May 2001. To subscribe, or to support Erowid Center’s mission to educate, improve health, and facilitate Erowid Center’s mission is to provide and facilitate access to objective, reform, visit: accurate, and non-judgmental information about plants, chemicals, technologies, and related issues that affect the mind, body, and culture. Erowid.org/donate Erowid Center supports and trains libraries, publishers, and other information distributors on issues related to these fields. Past issues are available at:

It is also Erowid Center’s goal to support medical, legal, scientific, Erowid.org/extracts academic, and independent experts in developing and publishing related resources. Erowid Center PO Box 1116 Grass Valley, CA 95945 Erowid.org Subscriptions: To become a member and subscribe to Erowid Extracts, visit: [email protected] http://erowid.org/membership/ Change of Address: To update your mailing address, use the form at: ISSN 1548-8071 https://erowid.org/donations/donations_update_address.php © 2016 Erowid Center Erowid is a ® Registered Trademark Cancellations: To cancel your subscription, contact: [email protected] All rights reserved Reprints: To request permission to reproduce an article or image from this newsletter, contact: [email protected] Image Credits: Photos from the Shulgin Archives, Erowid, Paul Daley, Know Your Body and Tania Manning. On the Cover: 1) Ann and Sasha; 2) Chemical Reference Sample Index Card; 3) Sasha’s Peyote and Mescaline Files; Know Your Mind 4) Flowering Cactus in the Garden; 5) Sasha in His Lab; 6) Ann in Her Know Your Substance Late Teens; 7) Chemical Storage Cabinet, Before Cleaning Know Your Source

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Introduction to the Shulgin Archiving Issue by Earth & Fire Erowid

We probably don’t need to tell Erowid readers how A lot of archiving work has been accomplished during the influential Alexander and Ann Shulgin have been to the last eight years, with help from more than a dozen people. field of psychoactive drugs, or to Erowid itself. Sasha’s Many projects are underway, and there’s much more to come. innovative melding of novel synthetic chemistry and Digitizing and cataloging the Shulgins’ notebooks and psychopharmacology made him an academic visionary. other materials offer insights into their meticulous note Sasha and Ann’s crossing of cultural boundaries—through taking, their research group, their impact on scientific engagement with academics, enthusiasts, businesspeople, and literature, and the broader historical context for their law enforcement—set them apart. Their work in support of courageous, visionary partnership. unapproved psychedelic psychotherapy changed the course When Sasha began investigating psychedelic and of history and continues to improve innumerable lives. empathogenic compounds in the 1960s, the bureaucratic As a duo, they’ve inspired us and many others. The hurdles were significantly lower. As his work progressed, publication of their books PiHKAL and TiHKAL, in which there was a steady march towards more governmental control. they paired a deeply personal love story with technical Additional research restrictions were added, and some of chemistry and pharmacology, demonstrated their vision and his most interesting creations were banned as Schedule I brought them to the attention of the wider world. drugs (with “no acceptable medical use and a high potential While their books are justifiably well known, there is for abuse” according to the DEA). Despite this designation, also a significant collection of their papers, photos, and the Shulgins and their research group continued exploring unpublished writings that can be of enormous benefit to the new compounds and documenting their investigations. The world. This issue of Erowid Extracts is therefore devoted to archiving process is revealing more personalized accounts, recent archiving efforts and stories from Team Shulgin. and more detail from these unpublished works.

“The preservation of historical works is integral to societal evolution towards more sophisticated and balanced relationships with psychoactives.” —Erowid Center

Sasha first showed us his handwritten pharmacology Simultaneously, Transform Press, owned by Wendy notebooks in 1999, and we were appropriately awed. Of course, Tucker (Ann Shulgin’s daughter), is now working on we immediately asked if we could scan them for posterity. multiple books based on Sasha’s lectures, as well as new Sasha shook his head and said that they contained too much editions of PiHKAL and TiHKAL. private information that might put others at risk. He did After receiving a grant of $5,425 (USD) towards our generously allow us to photograph and scan other documents Shulgin Collection Archiving Project from Island Healing in from his collection. He also repeatedly provided permission January 2015, we pledged an additional $8,276 to the project for us to archive and publish any factual information he had from Erowid Center’s general budget. In April 2015, Erowid collected (as long as it had been filtered for privacy). Ann and Center became the payroll processor for several part-time Sasha had already given the second halves of PiHKAL and members of Team Shulgin who are sifting, cataloging, TiHKAL to the online world: they have been available on the scanning, and transcribing. Current funding for this project Erowid website for nearly twenty years now. will be exhausted in early 2016, and we are seeking new As time passed, we continued to engage the Shulgins grants to sustain and expand this work. about ways to mitigate privacy concerns, and they gradually 2015 was an extremely important year for continuing warmed to the idea. Lab notebook scanning commenced in the Shulgins’ legacy. Our heartfelt thanks to Erowid late 2007 with Tania and Greg Manning’s assistance, and contributors, Team Shulgin, Transform Press, and everyone financial support from John Gilmore. engaged in this ongoing effort. •

2 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Infectious Excitement by Wendy Tucker

Sasha and my mother Ann published PiHKAL we must better understand the inner workings in 1991. Although I had read some of it before it of our minds. This idea was exciting to me, so was published, I was working and living in Japan when I returned to the Bay Area in the summer when I first read it all the way through. I must of 1992, I began working more extensively with say, it was quite the strange experience reading Sasha and Ann on their follow-up book, TiHKAL. about my mother and stepfather in this way! Working with Sasha was always a pleasure. But mostly, I was impressed and exhilarated He was patient and kind, and best of all, he that they had managed to put out such a daring was excited about the work he was doing. That book. At the time, no publisher would pick it up. excitement was infectious. In his files, which It was too edgy, too risky, stand brimming with papers, articles, and letters and nobody knew how it going back many years, there is evidence that was going to be received. he always had this disposition, this excitement. The truth was, Sasha Tarcher Books considered It can be gleaned from letters to colleagues feared that if he didn’t it, but declined. So Sasha and friends, as well as from his class lectures. and Ann consulted with He was a fun teacher, constantly intrigued and get the information in friends and were guided curious about chemistry. He was in awe of the print, for all to see, it through the process of magic of chemistry, and he helped students setting up their own see it through his eyes. Transform Press is in might be destroyed or imprint. Transform Press the process of publishing some of his lectures forgotten, and there was born. and class notes. It’s so much fun to “hear” his When PiHKAL first voice in the printed material that he prepared might never be a came out in 1991 it was for his students. continuation of his work. revolutionary. Publishing The archiving process, the unearthing of chemical syntheses of material that Sasha had worked on for years psychoactive compounds and years, is so very important for the future. (and so many of them!) was brave. The truth As we know, things are opening up in the was, Sasha feared that if he didn’t get the field of psychedelic research. Over time we’ll information in print, for all to see, it might be discover the many uses for these substances. destroyed or forgotten, and there might never be Sasha was just one of the first in this field; with a continuation of his work. His ingenious way of the groundwork that he has laid, there are many working needed to be known by chemists, both more compounds to be discovered. underground and aboveground, in order for the For now, we are the discoverers, finding discovery of new compounds to continue beyond precious letters, papers, and information that him. He felt that the mind, so vast and difficult to will help others build on his work. That is what navigate, was the most uncharted territory known he wanted, that is why he published, that was to man, with the depths of our oceans and the always his intent. There is a lot to do, a lot to far reaches of space its only rivals in novelty. He go through. Like any archiving project it is slow knew that the compounds he was creating were and meticulous, but we have already uncovered tools for that purpose, for us human beings to treasures. I feel honored to be a part of this begin to be able to Know Ourselves. To evolve process, to be a part of this history. •

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 3 FACES &places Sorting Photos in the Shulgin Archives by Stacy Simone

For the past ten months I’ve box or envelope is a surprise— been brushing aside dust, cobwebs, I never know what will surface. stuffed animals, and tchotchkes to While uncovering these treasures, Whether it’s images discover buried-but-not-forgotten I have gotten to know the Shulgins photographs. Some are pasted into and their families in a uniquely of Sasha engrossed in albums or sit neatly in their original intimate way, from infancy to laboratory experiments, envelopes with negatives still intact, their elder years and to Sasha’s while others are strewn haphazardly final days. I have joined them in or perplexing portraits in random boxes, or displayed on the raising of children, attending such as a one-year-old shelves. Burning Man, and travelling the Whether it’s images of Sasha world. And most of all, I have Ann holding a young cow engrossed in laboratory experiments, joined them in celebrating their antique photos of the Shulgins’ life’s work, which has been such on a leash at the beach, extended families dating back to an inspiration to so many. each box or envelope is the early 1900s, heartwarming baby Reviewing these photos involves pictures of newer family members, setting aside those that are higher a surprise—I never know or perplexing portraits such as a quality, scanning them, importing what will surface. one-year-old Ann holding a young them into Aperture, rating them for cow on a leash at the beach, each quality, and labeling for faces and

4 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 (facing page) Ann and Sasha—c. 1995; Sasha boating—1978; (this page) Ann and Stacy reviewing photos—2015; Dr. Shulgin in his lab—c. 1990; Sasha and Ann with friends—c. 1980; Sasha with viola—c. 1981; a young Ann with cow—1932; Ann and Sasha with wedding cake—1981

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 5 places. Ann and I spend about an hour each week sitting at the kitchen table and going through images, identifying people and moments. Each one triggers fascinating stories and anecdotes. Recently, a few photos of Ann and Sasha at a Giants game surfaced. Surprised to see them at a ball game, I asked Ann if they were secret sports fans. No—apparently this was the only ball game Ann has ever attended. On this outing, they were ex- perimenting with one of Sasha’s creations, the name of which Ann can’t remember “but it was one of the T’s”, she says. At the game, the substance seemed to have no effect at all. A few weeks later, they consumed the same compound at the same dosage with their research group in Palo Alto. This time, there was a blast of reaction! “The wallpaper in the bathroom was doing amazing things”, Ann comments. That substance “became famous as the non-effective drug that was more than effective.” Unearthing these jewels of time is like exploring an archeo- logical dig. I look forward to seeing what’s under the next rock! By preserving these treasures, the Shulgins’ legacy will be carried on for generations to come. •

Ann—1960s; Sasha in his lab—1980; Myron Stolaroff and Mark Kleiman—c. 1995; Sasha and Ann at a baseball game—1983

6 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Out ofPrague the Memory 1992 Box by Ann Shulgin

Last week I went into the office to get my checkbook and concrete over all the cobblestones, for reasons of efficiency. saw on the desk a large box filled with what looked like old Or for no reason. Another thing we observed was a multitude files—very old files—with tags like “Paris”, “Barcelona”, of workers scrubbing the walls of large buildings all through and “Prague”. I reached for one in the middle of the box, the the city. What they seemed to be washing off was mostly “Prague” file, as memories flew through my mind. The box, it graffiti. It was explained to us, eventually, that one of the turned out, was one of several containing notes on conferences most remarkable things about the Soviets was their disdain for Sasha and I had attended over the years. I bundled the olive beauty. Beauty in old cities, like cobblestones and the walls green file under my arm and took it to the living room, where of ancient buildings, was considered bourgeois, decadent I began sorting through it. and meaningless. Now that the Soviets The Prague conference was a rich were gone, beauty was being coaxed experience. Not just the conference, back to the streets and buildings of but everything around it, in the city. Prague. The title of the meeting was “Science, On our last evening there, Sasha and Spirituality and the Global Crisis”, one I, with a small group of friends, took a of the more discreet names given by walk to the end of the Charles Bridge, those in the psychedelic community the major bridge in the city, filled responsible for choosing ways of day and night with street musicians, alerting interested citizens to what artists and young dancers in elaborate might be coming to their town. Titles of costumes. At the far end was a short conferences around the western world walk uphill to the huge castle, which have ranged from out-loud, blatant ones we had explored the day before. This like “Psychedelics, Science and the War time, we turned around at the end of on Drugs”, or perhaps, “Psychedelic the bridge and walked slowly back, Drugs, the Mind and the Soul”, to the talking, sharing experiences of the city, quiet, don’t-make-too-much-noise and by the time we reached the last few ones like our Prague conference of yards, night had fallen and the lights June 1992. Somehow, no matter how were coming on everywhere. Suddenly, careful the announcement, those most from below the bridge, somewhere on interested in the psychedelic experience the edge of the Vltava River beneath managed to make their way to the us, probably from a cafe where a meetings meant for them. crowd of people—mostly young and We found ourselves in this ancient, enthusiastic, I would guess—had magnificent city at one of its most crucial moments, when gathered for the evening, there came a chorus of sound: President Hável—a lovely man, an intellectual, poet, We Will, We Will, philosopher and playwright—was being called on to preserve ROCK YOU! (clap—boom boom, clap) the integrity of his country (he failed) against the hold-outs We Will, We Will, of the Soviet system who wanted to separate themselves from ROCK YOU! (clap—boom boom, clap) those who had thrown the Soviets out (they succeeded). We could only watch and wish him luck, while observing the We stood there, frozen, as chills spread from coccyx to remnants of the Russian occupation. crown in every one of us. When the triumphant shouts faded, Sitting at a table in an outdoor cafe, having coffee and we began to move again. I did my best to hide the tears that a pastry, Sasha and I and some of our friends from the were streaking down my face. We were all chuckling, and a conference saw several workmen digging into the concrete few of us were singing the song underneath our breaths as of the street with loud jackhammers. Bits of white concrete we left the bridge. were flying everywhere. We asked, through a translator, what The song, as I’m sure you was going on, and were told that the street used to be made know, is by Queen. It’s still one entirely of large cobblestones, like most of the city streets, of my favorite pieces of music and that one of the first things the Soviets did was to pour in the world. •

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 7 Chemistry Survival by Paul F. Daley, PhD

“So, would you like to see the lab?” “Well, yeah!”, I said (who wouldn’t!?), and so we walked out the back door of the house, down a dirt path, across a rough-sawn two-by-twelve board spanning a rivulet, and proceeded to a small, cinder block building nestled in a grove of trees. The door was opened, and I walked into an alchemist’s hangout, Sasha Shulgin’s laboratory. That was in the fall of 1977. I had met Alexander Shulgin that October, and he invited me to visit “The Farm”, after finding out I had just started my PhD program at his beloved UC Berkeley. I had a vague recollection of reading his papers during a research project I’d done some five years earlier on tryptamines in Phalaris grasses that were implicated in sheep poisonings. But that job was scant preparation for my future life with Sasha. Skipping forward to the early 2000s, I began to visit Sasha and the Farm after a long (too long!) absence, The Shulgin Legacy helping out as seemed appropriate, fixing his computers, chatting about chemistry, watching the scene. I became a regular at the twice-yearly barbecue potlucks the Shulgins threw for their friends and extended–Bay Area psychedelic community.

8 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Photos by Paul Daley—(facing page) magic stockroom chemicals with unplanned reaction afoot; Sasha in his lab; our mascot!; Mark Martini attired for lab cleanup; Poncho testing stockroom “unknowns” for appropriate disposal; (this page) deteriorated boxes of reference samples; reference samples in new boxes; cabinet of intermedi- ates and reagents at the east end of the lab in October 2007; same cabinet after cleanup; (following page) index card for reference samples; Team Shulgin members Paul, Poncho, and Mark during cleanup.

In 2007 I lucked into an opportunity to work with Sasha, to be his “eyes and hands” in the lab, and to explore continuing his research. Sasha’s eyesight had deteriorated significantly with macular degeneration, and his lab showed the effects of that handicap. In my first months working with Sasha, I cleaned, made minor necessary modifications to bring the lab once again to safe and working conditions, and looked toward the future. Prior to Sasha’s death, we had begun sorting, cataloging, and moving the contents of his chemical “magic stockroom”, identifying the collection of compounds he had made, and finding the material remains of his chemistry. Evaluation of the stockroom revealed that it was seismically unsound for long-term storage of the wide variety of chemicals Sasha had accumulated.

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 9 Poncho (pictured below, center) “I have a magic stockroom with 10-15,000 brought two additional PhD organic chemicals in it. If [anyone] wanted to reproduce chemists, and the four of us did that, they’d be very hard-pressed. I have been back-of-the-pickup truck analytical collecting materials from a university here and chemistry to identify the contents a company there—anywhere they’re told by the of each bottle or container. In all, nine people worked on this environmental people, ‘Get rid of these things. cleanup for more than seven days. I They’re carcinogenic, they’re explosive, they’re was a certified hazardous waste site all kinds of negative things, and since you have operator for 25 years at Lawrence people employed here, you can’t keep this in Livermore labs and my hundreds of stock.’ So I get a phone call saying, ‘We’re coming hours of training prepared me well in with a bunch of boxes.’ And it’s beautiful. It’s to lead the process. sort of an idea source. I browse amongst the We discovered samples of Sasha’s creations dating all the way latest and see what I can do with it.” back to his doctoral dissertation — Dr. Shulgin, in a 2005 High Times (stable isotope-labeled amino interview with David Bienenstock. acids!), pesticide precursors from his days at Dow Chemical, and many of the unscheduled compounds described in PiHKAL and TiHKAL. A lot of these rare or unique compounds were unfor- tunately stored in less than ideal conditions, and transplanting them to new homes is an ongoing project. To improve safety, seismic survivability, and access, Sasha’s supply of stockroom chemicals was moved to fireproof cabinets in a steel shipping container. Since Sasha’s been gone, we’ve ramped up the cataloging of these materials to improve access for further research. This process has allowed us to identify expired or unstable chemicals and develop a database of starting materials and other oddball compounds in the collection that number in the thousands. Though there are immense challenges to continuing the Shulgin laboratory as a viable research installation, we are moving ahead, and are keeping Sasha’s vision alive. •

10 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Help bring the research and ideas of visionary elders to the world!

Support “A great library Psychedelic contains the diary Archiving of the human race.” at Erowid —George Dawson

Erowid Center’s archiving projects will cost an estimated $25–30,000 in 2016. Be part of bringing the hard-won wisdom of the past to generations of the future. Please contribute.

• The Hofmann Collection (2001 – 2002) — 4,000 documents • The Shulgin Collection (2007 – 2016) — 1,000 and counting • The Stolaroff Collection (2009 – 2016) — 5,000 documents • Michael Horowitz (2012 – 2016) — 2 boxes • Rosetta Books (2014 – 2016) — 2 carloads http://erowid.org/donate

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 11 Sasha’s

PEYOTEExcavating and Digitizing& MESCALINE the Cactus Papers Files

by Keeper Trout

My involvement in the archiving and precious originals. The work at the nonscientific publications ranging process has mostly been limited to Shulgin Farm is somewhat different. from a Huichol art show portfolio, scanning and understanding Sasha’s When gloves are involved, they might to Congressional hearings, to a mescaline files. These items had once be to protect the wearer, not the relic. Pentecostal tract damning peyote as a been intended by Sasha to serve as the The process began long before I tool of enslavement. reference basis for an ambitious first arrived, with Tania valiantly removing book that he was writing on peyotl more than a thousand staples on my Claims of Peyote Addiction and mescaline during the 1960s. behalf, replacing them with paperclips Among the more outrageous Sasha’s book on peyote was never to make my part of the scanning efforts popular accounts in Sasha’s files was completed and instead he repackaged go more smoothly. During that process, a 1961 pulp magazine asserting “most a very abbreviated set of some of its her hands travelled through more than peyote-chewers are bohemian types” highlights as a chapter within TiHKAL. four “linear file feet” of articles, letters, and claiming that “America’s Baffling When many people picture the and note pages related to mescaline. Sex Button” grew “wild in many parts archiving of historical collections, they The vast majority of the papers of the US. This ‘Orgy Drug’ causes hal- imagine conservators with white cloth are printed copies of articles from lucinations and wild desires yet many gloves in clean rooms, protecting rare various scientific journals and assorted states still don’t have a law against it.”

Images by K. Trout, Team Shulgin, & Erowid

12 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 It is fascinating to note that these erroneous popular-press accounts of peyote’s effects historically coincided with legislative attempts to restrict the use of peyote. Just as exaggerated news stories about “new drugs” are used today to influence public opinion and law, Sasha’s files document that this had also occurred nearly a century ago, with peyote as the target. When Native Americans, anthropologists, and other professionals opposed anti-peyote laws, Congress took another tack in 1935 and included treatment of “peyote addicts” as part of the stated reason for the creation of the federal Narcotic Farms (i.e. prisons). In a letter from 1945 found in Sasha’s collection, Indian Affairs Commissioner John Collier had been told by the Assistant Attorney General about an aziridine that contains a printed on tissue-thin paper to reduce that they could find no evidence in their mescaline moiety, as well as a patent the cost of mailing from France, or records that the “narco farms” had ever issued to the US Army regarding have darkened dramatically, changing treated a peyote addict during their first its potential as an “incapacitating from white to brown over the decades. decade of operation. Considering all of chemical weapon agent”.3,4,5 A number were printed on a 3M the words that have been written about Filmac microfilm reader–printer at peyote’s lack of addiction liability, one Archival Complexities the Dow Chemical facility where might think the matter was settled. Only a small fraction of these Sasha worked, using a curiously Nonetheless, in 1997, a judge ruled documents are rare or unique. What special paper. These prints, with their against Leo Mercado of the Peyote I’m digitizing is simply Sasha’s irregular manually-torn edges and Foundation in a civil case, stating that personal research library, mostly randomly exposed shiny silver spots, Mercado had “demonstrated himself comprising the output of photocopiers, aren’t just weird looking; the paper is to be an addicted user of peyote” who microfilm printers, and fax machines also electro-conductive and fragile. presented himself “as some So fragile, in fact, that our carny offering cotton candy for sheet-feed scanner dug a series any and all to use.” Crazily, even Sasha’s mescaline files include of distinct grooves down every in 2015, one can find “peyote page unless a sheet protector addiction treatment” offered declassified FOIA material was used for each individual by commercial drug treatment concerning the work at Edgewood sheet. This is the only paper I services.1,2 have ever encountered that came Arsenal with mescaline, MDMA, with a warning to avoid contact Military Files and related molecules. with electrical circuits. Sasha’s mescaline files In 2015 these brittle silvery include declassified FOIA papers look really archaic. But material concerning the work at with a wide range of quality. The best when Sasha acquired them while Edgewood Arsenal with mescaline, quality prints are generally journal working at Dow in the 1960s, this MDMA, and related molecules. The reprints that authors had sent to Sasha. was a new technology (released by documents contained surprisingly few A good portion of the literature is 3M in 1958). Somewhat analogous to answers to Sasha’s questions as to well used or in relatively bad shape photocopy devices that use electro- why they were interested in mescaline for scanning, due to the paper itself, statically charged drums or bands to and MDMA, or what the US Army or irregular margins. Some of the transfer images, 3M’s Filmac process researchers had learned. Among the photocopies are forty to fifty years created copies of photographic images military-related papers were several old and they show it. A few of the by charging an unusual metallic layer publications in the scientific literature early copies, including reprints, were located inside the “paper” itself.

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 13 Some of the pages in Sasha’s still in the discovery or development Leary’s archivist, after it was, for library are difficult, or in some cases process, such as the TMAs, in some some reason, autographed by Timothy impossible, to read, even with close cases even prior to their first synthesis Leary. The 1983 talk was later referred scrutiny, but we have done the best or bioassay. to in his famous essay “Why I Do that we can to faithfully digitize or There was also a special copy of What I Do”, which was published otherwise record what’s been found, Bruhn & Holmstedt’s 1974 “Early in 1996 as part of “The Pioneers of peyote research: an interdisciplinary Reform” conference proceedings for study”, that was sent to Sasha by Jan the 10th International Conference on One letter from Sasha Bruhn. This was obviously a limited Drug Policy Reform. edition item, as it was accompanied by to a close friend a set of black and white photographic Sasha’s Organization comments on his having plates that had been manually glued Sasha’s journal articles, hand- into place. written notes and references to other recently invited long- Ann and Sasha’s transition in cor- locations in his library were organized time friend Ann Perry to respondence technologies is revealed in folders. Each folder contained a in their comments about their “new year or a range of years. In some move in with him. Ann machines” that rapidly replaced pens parts the division was based on the later married Sasha to and mechanical typewriters. Sasha’s number of papers appearing during practice of correcting typos by typing that one year, but several folders had become Ann Shulgin. the letter “X” over the errors became such an incredible number of papers a thing of the past. crammed into them that it seemed like The files paint a fascinating portrait they would have been subdivided into even when the occasional page requires of Ann and Sasha’s lives and person- more manageable sizes. There were manual transcribing of the contents. alities. Sasha didn’t just keep copies also seemingly random insertions of of the letters he received from friends; out-of-sequence papers from other Unique Items he filed them coupled with copies of years peppered throughout the folders. The unique content has been the letters that he had written to them Perhaps those papers had been placed fascinating. I found a scientific paper or that Ann had written. together based on topical linkages for which Sasha had served as a peer As curiosities go, I was struck by related to Sasha’s writing projects. reviewer. One letter from Sasha to a Sasha’s “Drugs of Perception” talk Papers intended for use in his close friend comments on his having that he presented at a Santa Barbara never-finished peyote book were recently invited long-time friend LSD conference in 1983. The contents organized in reverse chronological Ann Perry to move in with him. Ann of his thoughts in that piece were order, and alphabetically by author. later married Sasha to become Ann memorable enough, but a copy of To aid with navigation, indexing, and Shulgin. There are discussions of many the presentation had been given to his own internal referencing purposes, well-known molecules while they were Sasha by Michael Horowitz, Timothy Sasha assigned a four-digit number to each publication that he intended to use in the book. That number was generally written in pen on the top of each article, but in some cases it was assigned to an entire folder containing multiple items. In the references of a good number of the published articles in his library, Sasha manually inserted his own numbering system alongside citations. He also crossed out references that were not pertinent. Part of this may have been how he kept track of papers that he had in-hand for a particular project versus those he still needed to obtain, but it’s also clear that he commonly used those numbers as a form of shorthand to refer to references elsewhere. Some entries in

14 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 his files are nothing more than a sheet of paper bearing a note referencing a given number or Chemical Abstracts entry located in some other project file, or a book in his library. This causes some interesting challenges in photocopying. For instance, Sasha sometimes taped a Chemical or Biological Abstracts entry on top of other text, requiring it be lifted to read the text beneath. In several cases he made such an entry deliberately and included the handwritten instruction to “lift”. These obviously require a separate scan in the lifted and resting positions to read all of the text. There are also sets of unique hybrid photocopies that had failed to copy legibly on the lower third of the paper. Rather than just replace them with new versions, each missing section had been copied again and taped over the length of the blank part of each page. Printing and photocopying annoyances are multi-generational. a reprint from the author, and finally, Correspondence with other Sasha’s dirty pictures and the actual reprint sent to him by that chemists was illuminating, especially handwritten notes appear scattered author. during the periods of active discovery throughout the papers. One of my Sasha commonly wrote for reprints of molecules like TMA and the pre- favorite comments, on “Phencycli- even when he already had a copy of the scheduling days of MDMA. Sasha’s dine, lysergic acid diethylamide, and article. He kept a stack of pre-printed conversations not only add to the mescaline: cerebral artery spasms reprint request cards on hand for that known history of these molecules, but and hallucinogenic activity”, simply purpose. He used these as a convenient also shed light on the sheer volume of says, “General Hypotheses, written method of professional introduction work he was accomplishing and how he by idiots”. to other chemists working in areas of approached the process of discovery. interest to him. Over time, this practice In a letter to Thornton Sargent early Networking helped acquaint Sasha with almost in 1966, Sasha describes the details Correspondence about obtaining everyone in the field and he became of eight projects that he was actively a reprint of a published paper widely known in the process. pursuing. He then described project A large number of the reprints nine as his need to “get started on include a signature and best regards or at least one” of an additional eight Sasha’s dirty pictures sometimes a more personal note from projects. the author. In some cases, a friendship I thought that Sasha’s comment of and handwritten notes between Sasha and a colleague like needing to get “off of the dime and into appear scattered Jan Bruhn developed over their years the vacuum line” in order to complete of correspondence. a pending synthesis was a wonderful throughout the papers. Sasha’s interest in psychoactive- phrase. related court cases is evident in some files; the charges brought in Accuracy accompanies many of the papers. A 1987 against the owner of Night- Among the jewels that have been common example might include the bloomers for selling live cuttings discovered in this process are some abstract that brought the paper to of Trichocereus pachanoi was well that capture how Sasha regarded the Sasha’s attention, a photocopy of it documented, along with his pleasant importance of accuracy in information that he had acquired for use, a copy of surprise at a positive outcome that he published about new or ongoing a letter or a note or the date requesting clearly did not anticipate. research. While reading Sasha’s files,

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 15 I was reminded of a conversation I had it was an obvious intermediate for PiHKAL, he referred to lophophine many years ago with a manufacturer several isoquinolines, the lack of again, this time saying, “It looks as of research chemicals. He emphasized its detection had caught Sasha’s if this compound is not active”, and that the first bioassayists pay an attention. He wrote a friend that he mentioning only two bioassays. One inordinate amount of attention to the suspected the activity of lophophine was at 150 mg: “Between two and minutiae of their own early experiences would fall in between mescaline and five hours, very peaceful and euphoric with a substance, resulting in an over- MMDA based on its structure. Then in weighting of their observations. We 1966, he made comments suggesting discussed that only when enough that subsequent bioassays supported Clearly with lophophine people have ingested a molecule that. In another letter from the 1960s, enough times that they can actually after describing the results of animal Sasha experienced experience the drug on its own terms toxicity studies he had commissioned, ambiguous results that does the pharmacology become fully Sasha commented on finding “a not- revealed. unexpected amalgamation of the nonetheless included Seeing Sasha’s notes on the results color-effects of mescaline and the something that caught of his research group supports this, benign lack of anxiety of MMDA.” as does Sasha’s cautious approach While noting lophophine to be sig- his attention. to reporting the activity of new nificantly less potent than mescaline or under-explored molecules. For (requiring 50% more material than instance, questions have been raised the typical dose of mescaline), Sasha mood elevation, similar to mescaline, online about the differences between made an intriguing comment that “it but without any visual distortion. Mild what Sasha was willing to say about is in the area of the qualitative char- enhancement of color perception, the Cardon cactus in print or in acteristics that especial note must be possibly a function of mood elevation public lectures compared to what made”. […] no eyes-closed vision.” he said in private conversations or The only time that related And another using 250 mg: to small groups. His files indicate comments appeared in print was in “Possibly something of a threshold that he deliberately omitted details 1973 when he suggested lophophine effect from 2:30 to 4:30 of the from public presentations when he was more potent than mescaline: experiment. Intangible, and certainly didn’t feel they had been sufficiently “This compound is active in man at there is nothing an hour later.” In The established. dosage levels of 150 to 200 mg, about Shulgin Index his comments, citing twice the potency of mescaline. The PiHKAL, became, “Threshold oral Lophophine Ambiguity qualitative description of its action is activity in humans at 250 mg; duration One curious thread in Sasha’s quite similar to that of mescaline, in unknown.” correspondence concerns a molecule that there is a peaceful elevation of I do not believe Sasha’s memory was named lophophine. Sasha was mood, the generation of an euphoric faulty here. I suspect these comments intrigued by this molecule, due to state, and the enhancement of visual show the limit of what he was willing its apparent absence in peyote. As perception especially in the color sense. to put into print without returning There are dissimi- to the molecule and performing larities, particularly additional bioassays, or risking the in that there is little creation of another unintended point of if any nausea and urban drug mythology. Sasha was very there is no visual aware of the potential of stimulating distortion. These a mad rush to synthesize and release latter differences a novel and, in this case, under-evalu- disappear at dosages ated molecule. of 300 mg and there Clearly with lophophine he is the generation of experienced ambiguous results that eyes-closed imagery nonetheless included something that similar to that observed caught his attention. It is noteworthy with mescaline.” 6 that he added a small but tantalizing Sasha apparently bit of intrigue and counterbalance to did not explore those fairly discouraging comments in it further. When PiHKAL with the words, “And certainly, discussing it three it would be reasonable to expect it to decades later in be an active psychedelic, and to be as

16 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 interesting in man as its close cousin, him to express concern about the References mescaline. But, at the present time, safety of his work—not for his safety 1. ProjectKnow. “Peyote Addiction LOPHOPHINE is not known to be but the safety of Dow. This was not Treatment”. Accessed Dec 6, 2015. http:// present in the plant, and it is not known said to be due to widespread public projectknow.com/research/peyote/ to be active in man. I am confident that use of LSD and other drugs, but rather 2. Recovery.org. “Choosing the Best both statuses will change in the future”. due to their concerns that Sasha, or Inpatient Peyote Recovery Center”. (Emphasis added.) psychiatrists who were expressing Accessed Dec 6, 2015. http://recovery. org/topics/choosing-the-best-inpatient- growing interest in MDMA, might use peyote-recovery-center/ Knowledge in Black and White his molecules in human trials. This 3. Koupilová M, Herink J. “Effects of Sasha has commented (in the film concern was limited to any compounds Mescaline and Its Derivative N-(3,4,5- Dirty Pictures, for example) that it that Sasha might have synthesized Trimethoxyphenylethyl)-Aziridine on was the rise of public interest and at Dow using their facilities. Sasha the Spatial Orientation of Rats in a commented that they did not want T-Maze”. Physiologia Bohemoslova- certain knowledge to exist in “black ca. 1989;38(6):497–502. As listed in …Sasha described a and white”, as use of those drugs in Current Topics. 1990;33(11):161. [See humans might place Dow in direct also: Koupilová M, Herink J, Hrdina Dow legal team visiting violation of federal law. In his letter V. “Behavioural effects of N-(3,4,5- trimethoxyphenylethyl)-aziridine—a Sasha did not know what the outcome him to express concern mescaline derivative”. Activitas Nervosa would be, but soon thereafter he left Superior. 1989;31(4):259–60.] about the safety of his Dow on friendly terms and his further 4. Patocka J, Hrdina V, Zámocký J. “N- work—not for his safety research involved products from his (3,4,5-Trimethoxyphenylethyl)-aziridi- own lab. ne—a mescaline derivative: interaction but the safety of Dow. The act of archiving Sasha’s world with cholinesterases in vitro”. Activitas is huge, considering that the scientific Nervosa Superior. 1989;31(2):132–3. journal articles alone involve eight file 5. Razdan RK. 1-2-(Phenyl-lower-alklyl)- popular drug use during the 1960s that cabinets stuffed with papers. It is not aziridones munition payload. US Patent lead to he and Dow parting ways. The yet clear what else will emerge, but 3,889,600, filed Aug 17, 1971, and issued Jun 17, 1975. [Patent was assigned to the archives provide contemporaneous I anticipate that many nuggets will “United States of America as represented details on this and suggest Dow was come to light during the archiving by the Secretary of the Army”.] concerned about liability. process and even more when later 6. Shulgin AT. “Mescaline: The Chemistry In a letter to a friend, Sasha researchers have the time to read all and Pharmacology of its Analogs”. described a Dow legal team visiting of the included materials. • Lloydia. Mar 1973;36(1):46–58.

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 17 The Art of Legibility by Shawn Corrado

When I started working on the because the transcription process is reading my own. Eventually, I began Shulgin Archiving project in 2009, I difficult and involves highly technical to understand and recognize all of didn’t know what I was getting myself language and drawings. Some initial his shorthand with ease. I am now into. What I knew for sure was that I work had been done on the first (and approaching transcribing my one- wanted to give back to Erowid in a most complicated) pharmacology lab thousandth page of Sasha’s work. way that felt more significant than book, with the text entered plainly When I joined the project, the task just giving money, which I didn’t into a wiki page, but it didn’t look to was simply to transcribe the scans have much of. What I did have into text, but I wasn’t satisfied was time. I browsed around with the final output. I wanted the volunteering part of the I am now approaching to figure out how to present Erowid site and noticed they these books in a readily were looking for people to transcribing my one-thousandth accessible format that was help with transcribing scans page of Sasha’s work. both machine- and human- of Alexander Shulgin’s lab readable for ease of searching, notebooks. Being a huge fan of while redacting the names the Shulgins and their work over the have been touched in some time. of people who had not yet approved years, this sounded like a great way to Six years later, here I sit in the being publicly acknowledged. At first kill two birds with one stone—a way middle of the night, two monitors I considered using HTML, but due to give back to both Erowid and Sasha. glowing in my face as I peck at my to its shortcomings (and my lack of Wonderful, application sent. keyboard and squint at pages of HTML programming skills), I decided There seemed to have been a nearly illegible handwriting. It took to create PDF documents matching number of volunteers before my par- almost two painstaking years before the look and style of the original ticipation, but progress had been slow reading Sasha’s writing became like pages (see facing page).

18 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 The first documents we received face to my email address and know I reason I make progress is out of sheer from Team Shulgin were redacted could be trusted. That day was every stubbornness. The number of hours scans of notebook pages, but the bit as great as one could imagine; I I’ve poured into these notebooks is redacting was inconsistent. What I spent most of the day in Sasha’s lab greater than I’d like to admit, but needed was access to the un-redacted just soaking it all in, hanging out with I feel I’ve created something that scans of original books. This Paul Daley, and meeting and talking will provide lasting value to curious presented an opportunity that I will to a lot of interesting people. seekers in the future. Even if all that never forget as long as I live. Erowid After that, the lab notebook comes of it is a permanent online Center facilitated getting me invited transcribing project was mine—I am record of Sasha’s work, it will have to the Shulgin Farm in California, for still working on it today. It’s hard been worth every minute. • what must have been one of the last to attract additional volunteers for annual Easter parties with Sasha in this task due to its tedious nature, If you are interested in joining attendance. This gave me the chance which even to a Shulginophile drug Shawn in transcribing pages to meet Earth and Fire and the man geek is more monotonous than you from lab books, please contact himself, along with the rest of Team might imagine. A labour of love for [email protected] to Shulgin, and they were able to put a sure! Sometimes I wonder if the only learn more.

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 19 The Demise of Shulgin’s Folly by Paul F. Daley, PhD

In 1981, Sasha and his compatriot infrared spectrometer, a tiny Peyton Jacob bid on a surplus workbench, boxes of chemical nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) references, a gas chromatogra- spectrometer at the old Ft. Ord phy/mass spectrometry machine, Army base in Monterey, California. clothing, part of Sasha’s library, They soon found themselves and lots (and lots!) of papers and in possession of a 1969 model memorabilia. Did I mention…lots? 60-MHz Hitachi NMR that they As we were closing in on hoped to use to probe their newly completion of The Shulgin Index, created molecular structures. These Volume I, in 2010, Sasha’s health large analytical instruments use deteriorated. He became bedridden, powerful magnetic fields and radio and for stretches was confined frequency waves to extract detailed to a hospital bed in the Shulgins’ information about the electronic living room. This arrangement was environment around protons or clearly unacceptable, and the family carbon-13 atoms in a molecule, and decided that Basement Four needed confirm structure. to be reclaimed as a bedroom Not the sort of equipment usually where Sasha could be properly found in a home! cared for. I took on exposing the Sasha’s son Ted arranged to have boarded-over windows and moving the hefty spectrometer brought in the accumulated stuff to the barn by forklift. After chopping a hole up the hill for safekeeping. But we in the roof of what had been Ted’s were left with…The Magnet. teen-years’ bedroom, the magnet Without disassembly, the NMR was lowered into place by crane. was too large to fit through any Only one problem…the NMR doorways. After a fair bit of Internet had sat idle for too long. Though sleuthing (Could it be dismantled in several technicians worked on place? Did it have unusual metals?), restoring it, “all the kings horses I finally met an enterprising welder, and all the kings men” couldn’t one Dennis Nelson, and struck a put the NMR back together again. deal: if he could help extract it, he The roughly two-ton device could have it! On the appointed day, —soon dubbed “Shulgin’s Folly”— we assembled a crew of seven and occupied the same spot for the next went at it. 30 years, succumbing to gradual After removing the large beige entombment in the corner of the metal cover, we found the core now catch-all room. of the NMR, consisting of a blue “Basement Four”, as the room stainless-alloy box that supported was affectionately known, also and shielded two opposed alnico became the home for Sasha’s permanent (unpowered) magnets.

20 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Being giant magnets, they exerted an irresistible force on any steel object that came too close. We had to take care not to lose tools or chains to its grasp. The magnet box was supported on wooden blocks (!), cemented onto an angled aluminum platform. We chipped away the wood blocks and slid the assembly down onto wooden rollers, slaves- building-pyramids style, and rolled it down the hall and out the door. Miraculously, we were able to move the core outside without damaging either the house or ourselves. The next day, our savior Dennis had a friend bring his tow truck to winch the core up the hill to the driveway and onward to its final resting place (we didn’t ask!). And so, Basement Four became a proper bedroom once again. • Photos courtesy Paul Daley & Shulgin Archives Photos courtesy Paul Daley & Shulgin

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 21 LIFE with Sasha and Ann

by Tania Manning

After reading PiHKAL and TiHKAL, San Francisco. The following year, I traveled to numerous events to speak. I fell in love with Sasha and Ann and started working as Sasha’s research In the morning, he would greet decided I had to meet them. I saw assistant helping him with his last me with a cup of coffee and ask me them speak at the 2001 Mind States book, The Shulgin Index. about my life, and then I would ask conference in Berkeley, but since my A few years later, Greg and I about his. After a few email exchanges husband Greg and I actually lived near moved to the Farm and were fortunate with his friends, usually involving the Shulgins in Lafayette, it seemed to witness firsthand Sasha and Ann’s groan-worthy puns, we would get into like I should stop by and say hello. We continuing love story. the research for the book. had briefly crossed paths before, but all Ann would come into the room and we knew about the Shulgins was that The Workday Sasha would drop everything, giving Sasha was a chemist. Greg encouraged Sasha was a great boss and teacher, her his undivided attention. They me for a year before I finally went up making it fun to go to play with him would have their morning kiss then we the hill to re-introduce myself. every day (as a job!). He answered would continue with our work. I expressed interest in working for letters from drug war prisoners and them and learned that Ann’s daughter budding young chemists seeking Travel Wendy, who had been Sasha’s research advice on educational paths. He sent As the Shulgins’ assistant, I assistant for ten years, was moving to free books to people who couldn’t accompanied them on their travels. Los Angeles to be with her husband afford them and spent time talking with We celebrated Albert Hoffman’s 100th Jason. The Shulgins hired me in lonely people on the phone. Somehow, birthday in Basel, Switzerland in 2006, 2003 at the Altered States and the in his late 70s, he also kept up with and Sasha’s 82nd birthday the next Spiritual Awakening conference in research, created new compounds, and year in Costa Rica at the Mind States conference. In 2009, we drove to visit Myron and Jean Stolaroff in Lone Pine, California. Jon Hanna and I were on a mission to box up Myron’s personal files—stored for years amidst dust and rodent droppings—so that Erowid Center could begin the process of digitizing and publishing them online. On a speaking tour in the United Kingdom, we were welcomed into the countryside home of Beckley Foundation’s Amanda Feilding and her husband Jamie. At the nearby Avebury henge monument, we touched the five-thousand-year-old stones, covered in lichen that seemed even older. We had great fun as Greg tried to follow Jamie driving 80 miles an hour, with Sasha screaming at every turn. (Back

22 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 home, whenever I would go through that each person was a yellow light, Sasha would mimic a capable of learning police siren.) I still remember Ann’s anything. There were no delight in finding the best fish and limitations as far as he chips she’d ever tasted in a pub in the was concerned. This was nearby village of Avebury. contagious for anyone Sasha would ask people when their who interacted with him. passport expired. He told me if things There have been got really bad in this country he and Ann several people who would move to Barcelona. It was one shared stories of wanting of their favorite cities in their travels. to meet Sasha all their lives, then somehow Burning Man finding our camp where I had been to Burning Man twice they realized their dream. before Ann and Sasha decided to take the trip with me. Sasha, Ann, Greg, and Collaborations I went three years in a row. I will never Ted Shulgin was forget Sasha’s enthusiasm for getting Sasha’s only son by his out of the RV and wanting to follow first wife, Nina. They me in my tradition of walking to the were part of the original Man immediately upon arrival. When research group. Ted told we got there, the Man wasn’t finished, me that TMA-2 was his and was still closed to the public. But first psychedelic, given someone recognized Sasha and we to him by Sasha. He were let inside for a peek. learned chemistry from The next year, Greg and I brought Sasha and knew how to our golf cart so we could take Sasha synthesize compounds (his favorite series and beyond. On Monday nights and Ann out on the playa, making it was 2C-I). they would go to Round Table Pizza much easier to see the sights. That Ted grew cannabis plants for Sasha after a day at San Francisco General, same year, the documentary filmmaker in the 1970s, when he was researching where they were working on nicotine Etienne Sauret came out to film them it under a government contract. Thirty studies. They would draw dirty pictures at Burning Man. He followed them on napkins over slices and cheap for five years before releasing red wine. Dirty Pictures, a movie about When Sasha’s health began to Sasha’s life and work. Sasha was great at holding decline and he required round- At Burning Man, the Shulgins court: teasing people, the-clock care, the tribe came gave talks and marveled at the art together to help provide money installations. Sasha would bring asking impossible questions, for caregivers and top-notch out his red pen to work on The delivering puns, and medical care. Donations of all Shulgin Index in the morning as kinds poured in; there was one people came out of their RVs and educating at the same time. envelope with no return address tents. I remember one morning and a five-dollar bill in it. I could Ann opening the door to their RV not possibly name all the people and saying, “There is sex after 80!” years later, Dr. Paul Daley analyzed who gave of themselves to take care Sasha’s chemist instincts were a sample wiped from a flask stored of Sasha. Thank you for your love, always on. In advance of a planned in the magic stock room and found it kindness and generosity. Thanks to all burn involving propane at the Crude contained THC. of the volunteers who help with the Awakening art installation in 2007, Every Sunday, Peyton Jacob came preserving of Sasha and Ann’s life’s Sasha was very concerned, telling us to the Farm for time in the lab, working work and maintaining Sasha’s cactus not to breathe if things went wrong. together with Sasha. They were a great garden. Sasha was great at holding court: duo. When Sasha introduced me to It’s great to be archiving Sasha’s teasing people, asking impossible him, he said, “Tania, this is Peyton. files and finding insights into the questions, delivering puns, and Everyone thinks I’m the great chemist man before and after he met Ann. educating at the same time. He was but he’s the great one.” They worked They really brought out the best in a great teacher because he believed well with one another, creating the 2C one another. •

Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 23 Shulgin Patronyms & Family History by Scott Bodarky

Archiving work at the Farm has handwritten the names: Grandfather named Theodore Stevens Shulgin. unearthed more about Sasha’s family “Stevens” Alexander Shulgin, with Sasha’s full name was Alexander history, genealogy, and naming Nadja, Valja, and Anna. (“Sasha”) Theodore Shulgin. Following traditions. There is another photograph (not in this tradition, Sasha named his son Sasha’s father, Theodore Stevens shown here) of Fedor (Theodore) Theodore (“Ted”) Alexander Shulgin, Shulgin, was born in Russia on the Shulgin’s visit back to Russia in 1968, using his own father’s first name as eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains. standing with Petr Stepanovich Shulgin, his son’s first name and his own name, He attended military school and became Roman Stepanovich Shulgin, Anna Alexander, as his son’s patronymic a second lieutenant in middle name. World War I. During The photograph that the Russian Revolution, Stevens Alexander Shulgin (Sasha’s grandfather) got me interested in trying Theodore fought for the Theodore Stevens Shulgin (Sasha’s father) to understand the family White Army. When the Alexander Theodore Shulgin (Sasha) names is one showing Red (Communist) Army Theodore Alexander Shulgin (Sasha’s son) “Stevens” Alexander was victorious, he was with a younger woman, forced to flee Russia, standing by a plain wood traveling 3,000 miles on horseback Stepanovna Shulgin, and Valentina coffin containing the body of an older across Siberia to China, and then to the Stepanovna Shulgin. woman. Her head rests on a pillow and United States. In Eastern Slavic naming convention, the coffin is lined with straw. Buried deep in a cardboard box the first name is given by the parents. On the back of the photo is an I found two photos, apparently of The middle name is patronymic and is epigram in Russian, which translates Theodore’s father. In one (facing page) based on the first name of the father. to “A keepsake for our dear children we see a white-bearded man with three Sasha’s grandfather was “Stevens” Fyodor, Genrieta, and grandson girls. On the back of the photo are Alexander Shulgin. His father was Aleksandre.”

Rubik’s Cube Era In a box, I found a yellow envelope containing Sasha’s many pages of detailed notes, illustrations, and analysis of the Rubik’s Cube. There were also two popular books of the day proffering solutions to the Rubik’s Cube, which leaves us with the enigma of whether or not Sasha actually “solved” the Cube himself. This mini-collection gives a glimpse into one of Sasha’s many momentary avocations and his detailed, problem-solving approach.

24 Erowid Extracts — Number 28 / February 2016 Fyodor would be Theodore, Genrieta would be Henrietta (Sasha’s mother), and of course Aleksandre is Dr. Shulgin himself. The inference I draw is that the dead woman is Sasha’s grandmother. In another box I found a letter from Sasha to his grandmother from 1935, when Sasha would have been about ten years old. The letter does not conclude, and, given that it is located at the Farm in California and not in Russia, it is not clear that this letter was ever sent. It reads:

Dear Grandma, Yes it’s true that we have bought a farm. 9 acres in all a garage, store room, and a house with a sun deck. About 200 yards from the house down hill is the spring. I have a lot of fun shooting birds. Once quite a time ago I and a friend of mine set part of the farm on fire. Our farm is about 6 miles from Uncle Harold’s farm. I’m now in the low sixth grade which is just about the end of elementary. Why don’t you “COME UP AND SEE ME SOME TIME”. Today I went out to the farm a little early. George, this friend of mine who has freckles, red hair (and quite self-modest) went out with us. When we arrived I shot like a bullet into the farm-house and got my gun and a little bit of ammunition. We played about for about half an hour with the gun. Then we were called upon by my father to do a little bit of work. […]

This letter appears to answer the question of when the Shulgin family moved from Berkeley to the farm near Lafayette. The letter is dated Dec 1, 1935 and return-addressed on Spruce Street in Berkeley. The family had purchased the farm but had not moved there yet; presumably that happened in 1936. The house they moved to on the farm is not the one that stands there now; it burned down some years later. Sasha’s lab was constructed in the basement of this destroyed house. •

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“Psychology, unlike chemistry, “Nothing can be more certain than “Life is too short not to experiment.” unlike algebra, unlike literature, this: that we are just beginning to — Jamelia (b. 1981) is an owner’s manual for your own learn something of the wonders of mind. It’s a guide to life. What could the world on which we live and move “A fool is a man who never tried an be more important than grounding and have our being.” experiment in his life.” young people in the scientific — William Ramsay (1852–1916) — Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) information that they need to live happy, healthy, productive lives? To “Every aspect of the world today— “When the chemistry is right, all the have good relationships?” even politics and international experiments work.” — Daniel Goldstein (b. 1969) relations—is affected by chemistry.” — Gregory Benford (b. 1941) — Linus Pauling (1901–1994) “I try to show the public that “There has never been any great chemistry, biology, physics, astro- genius without a spice of madness.” physics is life. It is not some — Seneca (4 BCE–65 AD) separate subject that you have to Und doch kann das be pulled into a corner to be taught was aus Erfahrung “Sanity is a madness put to good about.” uses.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson (b. 1958) stammt, durch — George Santayana (1863–1952) Erfahrung wieder “[T]he chemist creates original “It isn’t physics that will make molecules, new materials and vernichtet werden. this a better life, nor chemistry, novel properties from the elements nor sociology. Physics may be provided by nature, if indeed entire [ that which is gained from used to atom-bomb a nation and new worlds, that did not exist before chemistry may be used to poison they were shaped at the hands of experience can again be a city and sociology has been the chemist, like matter is shaped nullified by experience ] used to drive people and classes by the hand of the artist.” against classes. Science is only an — Jean-Marie Lehn (b. 1939) — Heinrich Hertz instrument, no more than a stick (1857–1894) or fire or water that can be used “Chemistry begins in the stars. The to lean on or light or refresh, and stars are the source of the chemical also can be used to flail or burn or elements, which are the building “It’s not an experiment if you know drown. Knowledge without morals blocks of matter and the core of it’s going to work.” is a beast on the loose.” our subject.” — Jeff Bezos (b. 1964) ― Dagobert D. Runes (1902–1982) — Peter Atkins (b. 1940) “To think is to practice brain “Nature is trying very hard to make “Remember to look up at the stars chemistry.” us succeed, but nature does not and not down at your feet. Try to — Deepak Chopra (b. 1947) depend on us. We are not the only make sense of what you see, and experiment.” wonder about what makes the “If one learns from others but does — R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) universe exist.” not think, one is still at a great loss. — Stephen Hawking (b. 1942) If, on the other hand, one thinks but “Science is a way of thinking much does not learn from others, one is more than it is a body of knowledge.” “Chemistry is necessarily an in peril.” — Carl Sagan (1934–1996) experimental science: its conclu- — Confucius (551–479 BCE) sions are drawn from data, and its “The truth is libraries are raucous principles supported by evidence “The power of Thought—the magic clubhouses for free speech, con- from facts.” of the mind!” troversy and community.” — Michael Faraday (1791–1867) — Lord Byron (1788–1824) — Paula Poundstone (b. 1959)