Alexander Sasha Shulgin Books

Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, Ph.D., is a pharmacologist and chemist known for his creation of new psychoactive chemicals. After serving in the Navy, he earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley in 1954. In the late 50s and early 60s he did post-doctorate work in psychiatry and pharmacology at U.C. San Francisco and worked briefly as research director at BioRad Laboratories before becoming a senior research chemist at Dow Chemical Co.

In 1960, Sasha tried mescaline for the first time. He then experimented with synthesizing chemicals with structures similar to mescaline such as DOM. After leaving Dow in 1965 to become an independent consultant, Sasha taught public health at Berkeley and San Francisco General Hospital. In 1967, he was introduced to the possibilities of MDMA by an undergrad at San Francisco State University at a time when very few people had tried MDMA. Though Shulgin didn't invent the chemical, he did create a new synthesis process in 1976 and introduced the material to Leo Zeff, an Oakland psychologist who worked with psychedelics in his therapy practice. Zeff introduced hundreds of therapists to MDMA and word quickly spread outside the therapist community. Sasha's partner Ann Shulgin also conducted psychedelic therapy sessions with MDMA before it was scheduled in 1985.

Since that time, Shulgin has synthesized and bioassayed (self-tested) hundreds of psychoactive chemicals, recording his work in five books and more than two hundred papers. He is a fixure in the psychedelic community, who has spoken at countless conferences, granted frequent interviews, and instilled a sense of rational scientific thought into the world of self-experimentation and psychoactive ingestion. In April of 2010, Sasha and Ann Shulgin were honored for their lifetime of achievements in the field at the Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century conference in San Jose, CA, where a portrait of the couple painted by Alex Grey was unveiled for the first time.

On November 17, 2010, Sasha had a stroke. His recovery went well, but he continues to face a variety of age-related health challenges.

* The Shulgin Index (2011)
Volume One
Psychedelic Phenethylamines and Related Compounds

Alexander Shulgin, Ph.D., is a pharmacologist and chemist known for his creation of new psychoactive chemicals. After serving in the Navy, he earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley in 1954. In the late 50s and early 60s he did post-doctorate work in psychiatry and pharmacology at U.C. San Francisco, and worked briefly as research director at BioRad Laboratories before becoming a senior research chemist at Dow Chemical Co. After leaving Dow in 1965 to become an independent consultant, Sasha taught public health at Berkeley and San Francisco General Hospital.

Tania Manning is a close friend and personal assistant to Sasha and Ann Shulgin. She is currently archiving Sasha and Ann's life's work, and is also involved in preserving the works of other elders in the field of psychedelics. Tania has worked as a videographer on many projects, and has spoken at events sponsored by Erowid Center, MAPS, and the Women's Visionary Congress.

Paul F. Daley, Ph.D., received his bachelor's degree in Environmental Toxicology at U.C. Davis, and earned a Ph.D. in entomology at U.C. Berkeley in 1981. He is involved in environmental research and instrumentation science, and has published on topics ranging from experimental plant physiology and environmental remediation, to synthesis and detection of isotopically labeled compounds for pharmaceutical research and environmental tracing. Since 2007, Dr. Daley has been restoring the Shulgin Laboratory.

* PIHKAL (1991)
A Chemical Love Story

"PIHKAL is a compelling novel. Given the autobiographical nature of the story, the subject matter -- psychedelic biochemistry and sexual chemistry -- is daring indeed. PIHKAL is materially long but experientially short, no doubt due to the brisk and vivid writing."
-- Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy and founder of the Brain/Mind Bulletin

"PIHKAL is science at its best; the pursuit of SCIENTAS or 'knowing', in the face of the darkness of unknowing. A monumental work, important for an understanding of the modern search for spiritual enlightenment . . . and that quest to gain insight into the divine which is in the heart of every man and woman."
-- Brad Lenz, PH.D., Research Fellow in the History of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, Madison

"This courageous and compelling book ... provides a marvelous glimpse of altered states of consciousness and a unique opportunity to become acquainted with two exceptional lovers and fearless psychonauts. If phenethylamines become as important in the future as I believe they will, this book will be seen as a treasure trove of historic importance."
-- Lester Grinspoon, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University

"There has never been a book like PIHKAL, and . . . we may not soon see another of its kind. No library of psychedelic literature will henceforth be complete without it. Some day in the future, when it may again be acceptable to use chemical tools to study the mind, this book will be a treasure-house, a sort of sorcerer's book of spells, to delight and enchant the psychiatrist / shaman of tomorrow."
-- Dave Nichols, Ph.D., Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Purdue University

* TIHKAL (1997)
The Continuation

"Most readers of this book will likely belong to that unusual set...who need no convincing of the value of psychedelic drugs. There will be others -- not in the choir, not even in the congregation of true believers -- who will greet this book's birthing with bafflement, shock, or even anger."
-- Daniel M. Perrine, Loyola College, Baltimore

"This book not only reveals how psychoactives can be synthesized, but also how they can be extracted from so many ordinary plants that the means for psychedelic exploration can never be controlled again. The genie is out of the bottle and all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put it back again."
-- Nicholas Saunders, author of Dance, Trance and Transformation, 14 Neal's Yard, London

* Shulgin Lab Books - Vol 1, 2, 3, 6 & 8 (2007-2013)
Project overview and updates

Introduction
After several years of consideration and preparation, the first of Alexander Shulgin's lab books were scanned in 2007 and made available online. The lab books contain detailed experience reports about a wide variety of psychoactive substances as well as notes on chemical processes, formulas, sketches, and hand-drawn graphs.

The Shulgins' trusted assistants, gregM and Tania, took on the labor-intensive process of redacting the names of individuals whose privacy should be protected. The scanning was facilitated by Archive.org and performed by gregM and Raj Kumar. Paul Daley and Erowid staff have digitizing and hand-redacted additional lab books.

Erowid continues to seek volunteers to transcribe the texts and edit images to make them more readable. We are currently at the stage of transcription and proofreading of transcriptions. If you would like to help with this project, please Volunteer Today!

The searchable PDFs look best displayed in 2-page spreads, 'Fit to Screen'. Since 2008, Erowid volunteers have worked countless hours toward transcribing and proofreading lab books produced from the 1960s through the 1980s by Dr. Alexander Shulgin. The intended purpose of this project has been to create searchable versions of these valuable documents.

The lab books scanned and transcribed so far -- Books 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 -- have fallen into two categories: Pharmacology books (mainly comprised of experience reports), and "Chemistry" books, (comprised of lab notes, "dirty pictures" (sketches of molecules), and spectra print-outs from analytical instruments).

After many many hours of dedicated volunteer time, a proof-of-concept public beta version of searchable Lab Book 6 (PDF) -- one of the Chemistry books -- was released in September 2012. This was followed in December 2012 by the release of searchable Lab Book 1 (PDF) from the Pharmacology series, and in March 2013 by the release of searchable Lab Book 2 (PDF) from the Pharmacology series. A special congratulations and thank you for the result of this effort goes to the volunteer project lead, Shawn.

Books 6, 1, and 2 demonstrate what the transcribed Shulgin Lab Books will look like, after the process of deciphering, transcribing, and creating a facsimile takes place. In a few places, given Shulgin's handwriting, the age of the documents, and the peculiarities of special characters used in chemistry notation, volunteers were not able to decipher some bits of text. In these cases, text is indicated either in red or highlighted in yellow. (Eventually we'd love to crowd-source the deciphering of these remaining bits of text.)

* The Simple Plants Isoquinolines (2002)

In a SINGLE Book...

An alphabetical listing of the common NAMES of all simple isoquinolines, with immediate access to their structures, the plants that contain them, and a leading reference.

A searchable listing of the STRUCTURES of all simple isoquinolines, with immediate access to their common names, the plants that contain them, and a leading reference.

An alphabetical listing of the names of PLANTS that contain simple isoquinolines, with immediate access to their names and structures, and a leading reference.

If you have only the structure or the common name of the compound, or the name of the plant, with this book you can assemble the following information in twenty seconds:

Articles:

* Recent developments in cannabis chemistry
* The Backround and Chemistry Of MDMA