Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin (born June 17, 1925) is a pharmacologist and drug propagandist. He and his wife Ann Shulgin authored the books TIHKAL (Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved) and PIHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved), generally credited with the popularizing of ecstasy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He discovered many other noteworthy phenethylamines including the 2C* family of which 2C-T-2, 2C-T-7, 2C-I, and 2C-B are most well known.
Shulgin was given authorization by the DEA to synthesize and test the effects of psychoactive drugs. He had a group of between 20 and 30 friends with whom he regularly tested his creations. They had a systematic way of ranking the effects of the various drugs, with a vocabulary to describe the visual, auditory and physical sensations. He personally tested hundreds of drugs, mainly analogues to various tryptamines (family containing LSD, DMT and Psylocibin) and phenethylamines (family containing MDMA, and Mescaline). There are an infinite number of slight chemical variations, all of which produce slight variations in effect--some pleasant and some unpleasant--and all (of the effects not the infinite number of possible variations) meticulously recorded in Shulgin's books.
Some of the more interesting chemicals mentioned in Shulgin's books include DIPT (di-isopropyl-tryptamine). This appears to almost exclusively effect the patient's sense of hearing. And this by NONLINEARLY (as opposed to each pitch dropping the same amount, indicating that the drug might affect cortical processing areas rather than the ear itself) shifting down the percieved frequencies of sounds.
He currently works at home in Lafayette CA. He is producing two new books on isoquilonine analogues. These are primarily found in cactus.
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PiHKAL and TiHKAL are the commonly used names for two books by Dr Alexander Shulgin about phenethylamines, and tryptamines. Shulgin is a very respected and reputable figure when it comes to mind-altering chemicals.
The full titles of the books are Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved: A Chemical Love Story and Tryptamines I Have Known And Loved: The Chemistry Continues. They are widely regarded as the definitive works on the subject.
Both books are available as both paper and html through erowid.com (no ads) The second parts of the books are pretty technical from a chemical perspective. There are analyses on individual mind altering chemicals, separated into chapters, one per chemical, including dosages, synthesis, qualitative comments and analysis of the substance.
It should be noted that many of the chemicals synthesized are illegal in many jurisdictions. For this reason, these books are regarded as controversial.
