The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience

The varieties of Psychedelic Experience was published in 1966, just as the first legal restrictions on the use of psychedelic substances were being enacted. The authors' pioneering work on the effects of LSD on the human psyche, which was viewed by its participants as possibly heralding a revolution in the study of the mind, was among the casualties of this interdiction.

As a result, the promising results to which their studies attested were never fully explored. Nevertheless, their fifteen years of research represents a sober and authoritative appraisal of what remains one of the most controversial developments in the study of the human psyche.

Avoiding the wild excesses taken by both sides on this issue, this book is unique for the light it sheds on the possibilities and the limitations of psychedelic drugs, as well as on the techniques for working with them.

With drug legalization being an increasingly important issue, The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience provides a welcome and much needed contrast to the current hysteria that surrounds this topic.