4 ms·

It didn't seem to be doing Alexander Shulgin any favors in old age, from what I saw of his later interviews anyways. Though he probably exposed himself to far

It didn't seem to be doing Alexander Shulgin any favors in old age, from what I saw of his later interviews anyways. Though he probably exposed himself to far more than just psychedelics.

pmoriarty 7y ago
Shulgin did suffer a stroke and dementia in his old age. His wife, who probably did just as many (and many of the same) substances he did survived him and is doing fine. Something else to consider is that Shulgin said he usually only ever did maybe two or three sessions with any given substance, and then moved on to another one. It could be that one or more of them was beneficial, but he might not have taken enough of those particular ones to help. In contrast, Stanislav Grof had over 100 LSD sessions. I don't think enough is known about the relationship between psychedelics and neurodegenerative diseases to say how and which psychedelics affect them, but there are some interesting ongoing studies to see what effect microdosing LSD has on Alzheimer's disease, the Phase 1 trials of which have recently completed: https://newatlas.com/science/microdosing-lsd-alzheimers-phase1-trial-results-safety/ https://newatlas.com/science/microdosing-lsd-alzheimers-phas...
- refurb 7y ago
  Sasha Shulgin tested a lot of compounds, so making any claim would be tough - some might have helped and some might have hurt. It can take only a minor chemical modification to turn a benign drug into a neurotoxin one.
pgt 7y ago
Link to interview where Shulgin was not lucid?
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  It's not like I have them bookmarked or something. Many years ago after reading PIHKAL I went a bit down this rabbit hole watching a bunch of what's on Youtube associated with Shulgin. He had given some presentation where he was clearly experiencing some mental problems. I'm sure you can find examples if you go digging, I don't have time to do that for you.
  - pgt 7y ago
    Sorry, but your critical claims of Shulgin requires strong evidence. I'm willing to believe he struggled in his old age, but need to be convinced that it was due to psychedelic use and not post-stroke and normal dementia.

It didn't seem to be doing Alexander Shulgin any favors in old age, from what I saw of his later interviews anyways. Though he probably exposed himself to far more than just psychedelics.

pmoriarty 7y ago

Shulgin did suffer a stroke and dementia in his old age. His wife, who probably did just as many (and many of the same) substances he did survived him and is doing fine. Something else to consider is that Shulgin said he usually only ever did maybe two or three sessions with any given substance, and then moved on to another one. It could be that one or more of them was beneficial, but he might not have taken enough of those particular ones to help. In contrast, Stanislav Grof had over 100 LSD sessions. I don't think enough is known about the relationship between psychedelics and neurodegenerative diseases to say how and which psychedelics affect them, but there are some interesting ongoing studies to see what effect microdosing LSD has on Alzheimer's disease, the Phase 1 trials of which have recently completed: https://newatlas.com/science/microdosing-lsd-alzheimers-phase1-trial-results-safety/ https://newatlas.com/science/microdosing-lsd-alzheimers-phas...

refurb 7y ago
Sasha Shulgin tested a lot of compounds, so making any claim would be tough - some might have helped and some might have hurt. It can take only a minor chemical modification to turn a benign drug into a neurotoxin one.

pgt 7y ago

Link to interview where Shulgin was not lucid?

newnewpdro 7y ago
It's not like I have them bookmarked or something. Many years ago after reading PIHKAL I went a bit down this rabbit hole watching a bunch of what's on Youtube associated with Shulgin. He had given some presentation where he was clearly experiencing some mental problems. I'm sure you can find examples if you go digging, I don't have time to do that for you.
- pgt 7y ago
  Sorry, but your critical claims of Shulgin requires strong evidence. I'm willing to believe he struggled in his old age, but need to be convinced that it was due to psychedelic use and not post-stroke and normal dementia.