Notes
PROLOGUE A NEW DOOR
The first of these molecules: Hofmann, LSD, My Problem Child, 40–47.
The second molecule: Wasson and Wasson, Mushrooms, Russia, and History, vol. 2.
a fifteen-page account: Wasson, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom.”
LSD scrambled your chromosomes: Cohen, Hirschhorn, and Frosch, “In Vivo and In Vitro
Chromosomal Damage Induced by LSD-25.”
In the spring of 2010: Tierney, “Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again.”
For a peer-reviewed scientific paper: Griffiths et al., “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type
Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance.”
emergency room admissions involving psychedelics: Johansen and Krebs, “Psychedelics Not Linked
to Mental Health Problems or Suicidal Behavior.”
nearly a thousand volunteers: Personal correspondence with Matthew W. Johnson, PhD.
the term “psychedelics”: Dyck, Psychedelic Psychiatry, 1–2.
CHAPTER ONE A RENAISSANCE
Entering his second century: Langlitz, Neuropsychedelia, 24–26.
“the only joyous invention”: Hofmann, LSD, My Problem Child, 184–85.
As a young chemist: Ibid., 36–45.
And there it remained for five years: Ibid., 46–47.
Now unfolds the world’s first bad acid trip: Ibid., 48–49.
“My ego was suspended”: Quoted in Nichols, “LSD.”
“everything glistened and sparkled”: Hofmann, LSD, My Problem Child, 51.
“in the edifice of materialist rationality”: Jonathan Ott in translator’s preface to ibid., 25.
“the feeling of co-creatureliness”: Langlitz, Neuropsychedelia, 25–26.
The second watershed event of 2006: Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal.
“major therapeutic possibilities”: Kleber, “Commentary On: Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type
Experiences,” 292.
“hope that this landmark paper”: Schuster, “Commentary On: Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-
Type Experiences,” 289.
“that, when used appropriately”: Nichols, “Commentary On: Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type
Experiences,” 284.
“free oneself of the bounds”: Wit, “Towards a Science of Spiritual Experience.”
the noetic quality: James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 370.
“Dreams cannot stand this test”: Ibid., 389.
more than a thousand scientific papers: See, for example, Grinspoon and Bakalar, Psychedelic Drugs
Reconsidered, 192.