Kirjahaku

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.

A provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind A New Yorker Best of the Week Pick “Jay is a leading expert on the history of Western drug use, and Psychonauts is the latest in a series of excellent studies in which he has investigated the roots of a kind of psychoactive exploration that we tend to associate with the nineteen-fifties and sixties.”—Clare Bucknell, New Yorker “Captivating. . . . A welcome reconsideration of the role drugs play in life, medicine, and science.”—Publishers Weekly Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on themselves. Vivid descriptions of drug experiences sparked insights across the mind sciences, pharmacology, medicine, and philosophy. Accounts in journals and literary fiction inspired a fascinated public to make their own experiments—in scientific demonstrations, on exotic travels, at literary salons, and in occult rituals. But after 1900 drugs were increasingly viewed as a social problem, and the long tradition of self-experimentation began to disappear. From Sigmund Freud’s experiments with cocaine to William James’s epiphany on nitrous oxide, Mike Jay brilliantly recovers a lost intellectual tradition of drug-taking that fed the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and the emergence of modernism. Today, as we embrace novel cognitive enhancers and psychedelics, the experiments of the original psychonauts reveal the deep influence of mind-altering drugs on Western science, philosophy, and culture.

“Fascinating.”—Thomas W. Hodgkinson, The Guardian “Richly detailed and frequently illuminating.”—Rhys Blakely, Times (UK) “Excellent.”—Clare Bucknell, New Yorker A New Yorker Best of the Week PickA provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on themselves. Vivid descriptions of drug experiences sparked insights across the mind sciences, pharmacology, medicine, and philosophy. Accounts in journals and literary fiction inspired a fascinated public to make their own experiments—in scientific demonstrations, on exotic travels, at literary salons, and in occult rituals. But after 1900 drugs were increasingly viewed as a social problem, and the long tradition of self-experimentation began to disappear. From Sigmund Freud’s experiments with cocaine to William James’s epiphany on nitrous oxide, Mike Jay brilliantly recovers a lost intellectual tradition of drug-taking that fed the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and the emergence of modernism. Today, as we embrace novel cognitive enhancers and psychedelics, the experiments of the original psychonauts reveal the deep influence of mind-altering drugs on Western science, philosophy, and culture.

The story of the circle of scientists, poets and dissidents who discovered laughing gas—and forever changed our understanding of the mind An unlikely circle of doctors, chemists, poets and political radicals formed a group round the maverick physician Thomas Beddoes. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, he founded the first modern medical institute, the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol. When he and its researchers discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, what was a pioneering public health initiative became a freewheeling exploration of consciousness. Celebrated historian Mike Jay tells the story of Dr. Beddoes and his group of unorthodox experimenters. With the support of Erasmus Darwin and poets Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a laboratory designed by James Watt and funded by Thomas Wedgwood, and the self-experimenting chemistry assistant Humphrey Davy, Beddoes precipitated a revolution in scientific investigation. Free Radicals for the first time charts the intellectual ferment of the Institute and reveals its crucial influence—as the crucible of the Romantic movement, and the birthplace of modern drug culture.

A global history of intoxication, exploring the international spectrum of drug use in cultures across the world, from prehistory to the present day. Every society is a high society. Every day, people drink coffee on European terraces, chew betel nut in Indonesian markets, take coca leaf on Andean mountainsides and smoke tobacco in every nation on earth. Mike Jay’s global history of intoxication looks at the earliest archaeological evidence of drug use, the botanicals of the classical world, the mind-bending self-experiments of early scientists and today's ‘war on drugs’. In High Society Jay paints vivid portraits of the roles that drugs play as medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols and trade goods. He traces the understanding of intoxicants from prehistory to the present, and reveals how the international trade in substances such as tobacco, tea and opium shaped the modern world. First published to accompany the highly successful exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London, and now featuring a new preface, this striking and lyrical book remains one of the most complete explorations of drug use in cultures across the world.

Is mental illness – or madness – at root an illness of the body, a disease of the mind, or a sickness of the soul? Should those who suffer from it be secluded from society or integrated more fully into it? This Way Madness Lies explores the meaning of mental illness through the successive incarnations of the institution that defined it: the madhouse, designed to segregate its inmates from society; the lunatic asylum, which intended to restore the reason of sufferers by humane treatment; and the mental hospital, which reduced their conditions to diseases of the brain. Moving and sometimes provocative illustrations and photographs, sourced from the Wellcome Collection's extensive archives and the archives of mental institutions in Europe and the U.S., illuminate and reinforce the compelling narrative, while extensive ‘gallery’ sections present revealing and thought-provoking artworks by asylum patients and other artists from each era of the institution and beyond.

Stranger Than Fiction brings together, for the first time, Mike Jay's distinctive and immensely readable forays into the twilight zones of history, culture and the human mind.Among them are his trademark investigations into the hidden histories of drugs, from the lotus eaters of Homer's Odyssey to the laughing gas escapades of the Romantic poets and Sherlock Holmes' cocaine habit; his reports from the disputed territories of mesmerism, brainwashing and mind control; fantastic beliefs from the birth of the Illuminati conspiracy to futuristic scenarios of human evolution; and global travel tales from megalith cultures of Borneo to ancient temples of Peru, the 'cargo cult' ceremonies of Melanesia to Britain's most anarchic bonfire night.Beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated, Stranger Than Fiction is a unique compendium of forgotten histories, untold stories and unexplored worlds.

The remarkable life of Colonel Edward Despard, comrade-in-arms of Nelson and a man who championed the rights of freed slaves, but who was executed in Britain for high treason in 1803.

20. sajandini uurisid teadlased narkootilisi aineid enda peal katsetades. Droogikogemuste värvikad kirjeldused viisid uute taipamisteni meeleteadustes, farmakoloogias, meditsiinis ja filosoofias. Ajakirjad ja proosateosed innustasid huvitunud avalikkust nendega ise katsetama: nii rändteatris, eksootilistel reisidel, kirjandussalongides kui ka okultsetes rituaalides. Ent 20. sajandil hakati selliseid aineid üha sagedamini tajuma ühiskondliku probleemina ja ammune enese peal katsetamise komme hakkas hääbuma. See raamat, mis muu hulgas kirjeldab Sigmund Freudi kokaiinieksperimente ja William Jamesi naerugaasiepifaaniat, hashishi tulekut läände ja narkootikumide kajastamist ilukirjanduses, toob esile kadumaläinud intellektuaalse traditsiooni, mis mõjutas psühholoogia sündi, alateadvuse avastamist ja modernismi esilekerkimist. Meelekosmost uurinud "psühhonaudid", selgitades psühhoaktiivsete ainete mõju inimteadvusele, edendasid oma eksperimentidega märkimisväärselt õhtumaade teadust, filosoofiat ja kultuuri. "Psühhonaudid" viib lugeja kaasahaaravale ja väga intiimsele teekonnale, toetudes läbivalt viimaste sajandite professionaalsete või isehakanud vaimu-uurijate isiklikele lugudele, meenutustele ja märkmetele. Need kätkevad imepärast variatiivsust alates hulljulgusest ja imelistest taipamistest kuni humoorikate lolluste ja traagikani (muidugi, mida muud sellisest teemast oodata võikski!). Paralleelselt joonistub välja nii teaduslike uurimismeetodite progress kui ka ühiskondlike ja isiklike narratiivide nagu norm vs. tabu, subjektiivne vs. objektiivne pidev edasi-tagasi pendeldamine. Nende lugude mõistmine ja arendamine on ilma igasuguse kahtluseta meie ajaloo praegusel perioodil äärmiselt tähtis. Ilmselt tähtsam kui kunagi varem." Viljar Veede, dr. med., psühhiaater, SA Teraapia Arenduseks ja Innovatsiooniks Psühhedeelikumidega (SA TAIP) nõukogu esimees