On Chemical Philosophy - I
"The moment after, I began to respire 20 quarts of unmingled nitrous oxide. A thrilling, extending from the chest to the extremities, was almost immediately produced..." - Humphry Davy
Musings/Thoughts revolving around Chemical Philosophy-
2C-T-4 or 2,5-dimethoxy-4-isopropylthiophenethylamine is another Shulgin's relics which is quite fascinating due to its psychedelic-phenethylamine association arising from the 2C compound tree. It's structural & pharmacodynamic in essence & in moderate doses, it's quite profound.
Amanita Muscaria is quite a popular psychedelic & very mycologically fascinating fungi known throughout Cultural History- even in visual depictions of St. Nicholas from the Christian Era. However, in the Genus Amanita, there are also toxic fungi like Amanita Phalloides etc.
Quite comical how subjectivity unfolds within different intellectuals of the past experimenting w/ Mescaline. While Huxley's account was quite beautiful, there was also Andre Michaux's bitter account. And well, let's not forget how Sartre developed HPPD like Crab hallucinations.
Douglas Sharon's accounts of Datura & San Pedro Cacti is quite captivating. The Peruvian 'Mestizo Curandero' cultural records depict a great anthropological narrative of street ceremonies for a true wizard who encounters such a journey that transcends the psychical consciousness.
The emergence of Fibonacci sequential ribs on Williamsi Laphophara is very sagacious w/ its creamy trichomes & napiformic roots within its autogamous floret. Beneath its glaucous green epidermis lies 50+ alkaloids like Mescaline- the 1st psychedelic to face scientific research.
The Psycholytic Therapy by Ethan Weinstein (an excerpt in
Psychedelic Press XXVII) details in-depth its renaissance in the 21st Century. It also mentions that some neuroscientists have used the language of the unconscious to describe their new data via fMRI & MRI- truly spellbinding!
We need more Chemical Philosophers- there's a lot to phenomenologically explore & theorise when it comes to the plethora of psychoactive substances & their ongoing research in the 21st Century. We need more Modern Davys'- I think they already exist :)
As Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes lays out in his chapter on Bergson & Psychedelic Consciousness (Noumenautics, 2015)- All existence is like a movement i.e., a process philosophy wherein the observer is observed & the mind remains ubiquitous!
-Sanjana Singh | 02.12.2021