Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic Audiobook (Free)

A definitive background of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to European modernity

Mescaline became a popular feeling 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, expands deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean civilizations depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples.

Mescaline was isolated in 1897 in the peyote cactus, about Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic first encountered by Europeans through the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it was used by psychologists looking into the secrets of consciousness, religious seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president from the Cathedral of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, performers exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to remedy schizophrenia. On the other hand peyote played an essential role in protecting and shaping Native American identity. Sketching on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and analyzing the mescaline experiences of figures from William Wayne to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline’s many lives.