Ecstasy: Dance, Trance, and Transformation

by Nicholas Saunders, Rick Doblin

Ecstasy - Dance, Trance & Transformation is the most comprehensive source of information about Ecstasy and the dance culture. This book looks at Ecstasy in the US - laws, music, and users - and the global scene. A valuable book for anyone who uses E or has ever thought of taking it.

Genres: Drugs, Music

280 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 1996

About the author

Guru of the alternative lifestyle, Nicholas Saunders was primarily responsible for the development of Neal's Yard in London.
Nicholas spent much of the 70's writing alternative guide books, culminating in one for England and Wales. He later spent some time at a large community in Denmark from where he would often travel back to England to buy nuts and beans at considerably cheaper prices. His interest in wholefoods spurred him to move back to England and set up a series of businesses in a disused back street of warehouses into the wholefood and alternative therapy mecca it is today.
He set up a coffee house, a bakery, a dairy, therapy rooms and an apothecary. Throughout his life, his astute business sense and natural charisma ensured the success of just about every project he initiated. The innovative and original businesses set up by him are still thriving and mostly comprise what is now a delightful Bohemian corner of Covent Garden.
He had embarked on many trips researching links between drugs and spirituality and it was during one such expedition to South Africa that he was killed, age 60, in a car accident.

Reviews

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and organized with an extensive bibliography. The authors do a good job of sticking mostly to a factual presentation, presenting both positives and negatives of the drug usage, and providing a platform for opinions that are clearly presented as such. Some of the information gets dodgy when certain energistic life-force modalities (i.e. bullshit) are included,, and of course I have no patience for the mystical ramblings that other people tie to the drug usage, but it's still interesting to see the various highly conflicting opinions about psychedelics and spirituality. The sections on the various rave scenes got a bit tedious, but wasn't excessively long.

Wouldn't it be nice if our drug laws could be overhauled to focus on harm-reduction instead of criminalizing behavior that people are going to do anyway, and thereby creating violent black-markets and increasing the danger of uncontrolled dosage and adulterated products? Seriously the fucking War On Drugs needs to end. It has done unbelievable amounts of harm.

[Christina Laflamme · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been going to raves for a year already and my friend Myron was really encouraging me to not try ecstasy. But after a year, I was curious. So I read a book, this one, then decided: yep, I want to try it. Oh, the rave days. It was a fun, frenetic chapter in the beauty of my youth. I found the book informative and clear.

[Ant · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this smug, preachy, and outdated.
There were just too many 'anecdotal' quotes which somehow just made me think this guy has multiple personalities. To their credit, they did have varying, sometimes opposing views.

I love the idea of exploring MDMA as the therapeutic drug that it was initially touted as, but I found his writing style tedious.

I can only give it one star as I didn't write this on MDMA.

[BiL · Rating 3 out of 5]

My friend Mat bought this for me back in the Rave days of mid 90's Orlando. Doood, let me give you a back rub mannnn.....