Summary of Rick Strassman's The Psychedelic Handbook

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Psychedelics are drugs that reliably produce a unique state of mind in which you see visions and hear voices. They reliably produce a state of mind in which you feel ecstasy and terror, or nothing at all. The history of human beings using these drugs stretches back thousands of years, but their use reached its height in the 1960s and 1970s. During those two decades, hundreds of thousands of people used psychedelics at least once. Opium, the first ever drug to be used for its mind-altering qualities rather than its painkilling properties, was first used by Chinese emperor Shen Nung more than five thousand years ago. It was then cultivated by Indian physicians and used to treat depression and headaches. It would eventually become one of the most popular drugs in the history of human civilization. During the nineteenth century, it was often smoked in water pipes, and it was often combined with cocaine and alcohol, creating a powerful cocktail known as jimsonweed tea. The first American to use LSD was most likely a self-experimenter named Albert Hofmann. He accidentally ingested himself one hundred times the dose he intended to use on his friends. His life was never the same again.

#2 Psychedelics are drugs that reliably produce a unique state of mind in which you see visions and hear voices. They reliably produce a state of mind in which you feel ecstasy and terror, or nothing at all.

#3 LSD, the first ever drug used for its mind-altering qualities rather than its painkilling properties, was first used by Chinese emperor Shen Nung more than five thousand years ago. It was then cultivated by Indian physicians and used to treat depression and headaches. It would eventually become one of the most popular drugs in the history of human civilization.

#4 The history of humankind using psychedelics stretches back thousands of years. During the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of thousands of people used psychedelics at least once.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350000283

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Insights on Rick Strassman's The Psychedelic Handbook

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Psychedelic drugs are remarkable mind-altering substances. They reliably produce a unique state of mind in which you see visions and hear voices. You may lose awareness of your body while your consciousness travels through deep outer or inner space.

#2

The use of psychedelic drugs in religious and social ceremonies is still being suppressed by the Catholic Church.

#3

The use of LSD in the 1960s exacerbated social unrest, and its use was becoming uncontrolled. Reports of adverse effects began to accumulate.

#4

The 1950s and 1960s saw the intelligence and military establishments of the US and other countries use psychedelics as potential chemical warfare agents. None of these attempts were successful, and the unpredictability of LSD’s effects made them difficult to use as useful truth serums.

#5

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 effectively ended all human studies with psychedelics, but their use continued at about the same levels after the law as before it. Adverse effects have greatly diminished because people in the twenty-first century usually take lower doses.

#6

The most important lesson we learned during the first wave of psychedelic enthusiasm was the importance of set and setting in determining the results of a particular drug experience. This explains why the same drug at the same dose given to different people in different circumstances produces different effects.

#7

The tide began shifting in Europe and the US in the late 1980s, as clinical studies began to be conducted with psychedelics. They have been shown to be effective in treating a variety of emotional ills.

#8

The two major groups of