Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind

by Mike Jay

A provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind
 
A New Yorker Best of the Week Pick
 
“Jay is a leading expert on the history of Western drug use, and Psychonauts is the latest in a series of excellent studies in which he has investigated the roots of a kind of psychoactive exploration that we tend to associate with the nineteen-fifties and sixties.”—Clare Bucknell, New Yorker
 
“Captivating. . . . A welcome reconsideration of the role drugs play in life, medicine, and science.”—Publishers Weekly
 
Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on themselves. Vivid descriptions of drug experiences sparked insights across the mind sciences, pharmacology, medicine, and philosophy. Accounts in journals and literary fiction inspired a fascinated public to make their own experiments—in scientific demonstrations, on exotic travels, at literary salons, and in occult rituals.
 
But after 1900 drugs were increasingly viewed as a social problem, and the long tradition of self-experimentation began to disappear.
 
From Sigmund Freud’s experiments with cocaine to William James’s epiphany on nitrous oxide, Mike Jay brilliantly recovers a lost intellectual tradition of drug-taking that fed the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and the emergence of modernism. Today, as we embrace novel cognitive enhancers and psychedelics, the experiments of the original psychonauts reveal the deep influence of mind-altering drugs on Western science, philosophy, and culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Drugs, Philosophy, Health

372 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 18, 2023

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Reviews

[Stitching Ghost]

I particularly enjoyed the segments about Freud, I think they provided me an interesting nuance to what I was told about his drug usage in that history of psychology 101 class I took forever ago. It's pretty much the entire point of this book, to revisit (or explore) how we view self-experimentation with mind altering drugs and how our views of the people who partake in said experimentation has ebbed and flowed over time.

The book is pretty accessible, there is little to no jargon and even someone with little to no knowledge of the topic should be able to understand and enjoy it without resorting to extra material. That being said there is a fair amount of names and personally I found that the chronology sometimes got a little muddled.

It was a thought-provoking read for me in some regards so I might revisit this review later on.

I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[AdiTurbo]

Started out as a very interesting read from a fresh perspective - that of self-experimenting and whether it's a valid scientific research method, but by the middle of the book it dwindled to name-dropping and repetitive descriptions of the drug experiences of each and every known person who ever tried drugs. There is no point in going through every celebrity or cultural icon's drug tales if it doesn't serve to prove an argument, shed more light on the issue or deliver an insight. I just couldn't take it anymore. So even though the author is clearly knowledgeable on the subject, did thorough research and chose an interesting angle, I don't think it resulted in an interesting enough read. Sorry.

[Zane B.]

Nebija nekas no tā, ko gaidīju. Grāmata ir tikai milzīgs daudzums ar vārdiem un uzvārdiem, kurus aizmirsu jau nākamajā lapaspusē. Īsais kopsavilkums: Freidam patika kokaīns, un daži cilvēki salietojās un nojūdzās.

[hayatem]

كيف أثرت المواد المخدرة منذ مطلع استخدامها في القرن التاسع عشر حتى يومنا هذا في تشكيل العقل والتعايش معه. كما ساهمت في فتح آفاق علاجية جديدة للأمراض النفسية والعصبية، واستخدمت كمخدرات جراحية ومسكنات ألم قوية.
قام العديد من العلماء والأطباء بتجارب ذاتية على أنفسهم لقياس تأثير المواد المخدرة ومدى فعاليتها وأمانها للاستخدام بالرغم من المخاطر والاعتراضات الأخلاقية على ذلك. وأذكر هنا عدد من الأمثلة :

فريدريش سيرتونر (Friedrich Sertürner) – مورفين
في أوائل القرن الـ19
التجربة: بعد أن عزل المورفين من الأفيون، جربه على نفسه وأصدقائه!
النتيجة: لاحظ تأثيره القوي في تخفيف الألم والنوم العميق، لكنه أدرك أيضًا أنه قد يكون خطيرًا جدًا ومُسببًا للوفاة بجرعات عالية.
التأثير التاريخي: أول من عزل مادة فعالة من نبات مخدر، مؤسس علم “الكيمياء الدوائية”.

2. سيغموند فرويد (Sigmund Freud) – كوكايين
في ثمانينات القرن الـ19
التجربة: كان فرويد مفتونًا بالكوكايين، وجرّبه على نفسه لفترة طويلة، وأوصى به لعلاج الاكتئاب والإدمان على المورفين.
النتيجة: أصبح مدافعًا عنه، لكنه لاحقًا أدرك الأضرار عندما أدمن أحد أصدقائه عليه ومات لاحقًا.
الجانب المثير: كتب أوراقًا علمية عن الكوكايين بعنوان “Über Coca”.

❝وجدت في الكوكايين مادة مذهلة تساعد على تحسين المزاج، وتقلل من الإعياء، وتزيد من الثقة بالنفس.❞
— سيغموند فرويد، في رسالة إلى زوجته، 1884

❝في جرعات صغيرة، الكوكايين يمنحك الشعور بالسعادة ويجعل الكلمات تتدفق كالنهر.❞
— من ورقة بحثية لفرويد بعنوان “Über Coca”

لكن لاحقًا، واجه فرويد انتقادات شديدة حين بدأ الأطباء يلاحظون الآثار الجانبية والإدمان الناتج عن استخدام الكوكايين.


3. هوفمان (Albert Hofmann) – LSD

في عام 1943 (وإن كان خارج القرن الـ19، لكنه حالة شهيرة جدًا)
التجربة: عن طريق الخطأ، تعرّض لمادة LSD التي صنعها في المختبر، وبدأ يشعر بتغير في وعيه، فقرر تجربة جرعة أكبر عن قصد بعد أيام.
النتيجة: دخل في أول “رحلة هلوسة” موثّقة في التاريخ الحديث.
سمّي اليوم: “يوم الدراجة” (Bicycle Day) لأنه عاد لمنزله على الدراجة تحت تأثير LSD.

❝كنت أعاني من رؤية غريبة… ألوان حية تتراقص، وأنماط غير مألوفة من الصور تتدفق وتتحول.❞
— ألبرت هوفمان، في وصف أول تجربة LSD له، 1943

‏❝LSD هو دواء يمكن أن يُستخدم كأداة نفسية عميقة، لكنه يحتاج إلى احترام كبير.❞
— من مذكراته “LSD: My Problem Child”


4. همفري أوسموند (Humphry Osmond) – المسكالين (Mescaline)

في الأربعينات والخمسينات
التجربة: جرّب مادة المسكالين بنفسه، ثم بدأ بدراستها كأداة لفهم الأمراض النفسية مثل الفصام.
النتيجة: ساهم في نشر مصطلح “psychedelic” (مؤثرات نفسية عميقة).

5. ويليام جيمس (William James) – أكسيد النيتروز (غاز الضحك)

في أواخر القرن 19
التجربة: جرّب الغاز واستنتج أن الوعي يمكن أن يتغير تمامًا بفعل مواد خارجية.
النتيجة: أثّرت هذه التجربة في فلسفته ونظرياته عن تعددية الوعي.

لكن مازال ليومنا هذا اعتراضات اخلاقية على التجارب الذاتية للمواد المخدرة بغرض طبي أو علمي لعدد من الأسباب اذكر منها:

السلامة الشخصية والمسؤولية المهنية.
التأثير على الجمهور والطلبة.
غياب الضوابط الأخلاقية.
السياق القانوني: في كثير من الدول، حتى لو كان الباحث طبيبًا أو عالِمًا، استخدام المخدرات غير المشروع يعرضه للملاحقة القانونية.التجربة الذاتية قد تُستخدم ضد الباحث لاحقًا لتشويه سمعته أو التشكيك في نتائج أبحاثه.

أمثلة تاريخية على الاعتراض:
• تيموثي ليري (Timothy Leary) – أستاذ من هارفارد، طُرد من الجامعة بسبب تجاربه الذاتية على LSD في الستينات، وقد وُصف بأنه غير مسؤول و”خطير ثقافيًا”.
• في ألمانيا والولايات المتحدة، أُوقفت العديد من الدراسات على MDMA وLSD في السبعينات والثمانينات بسبب المخاوف الأخلاقية والاجتماعية.

في يومنا هذا هناك عدد من التجارب التي تجري لاستخدام المواد المخدرة وفعاليتها في علاج بعض الأمراض وهذا يشمل حالات التوحد، صدمات النفس، الاكتئاب الشديد، القلق، وإدمان المواد. واذكر على سبيل المثال:
تجارب DMT، LSD، 5‑MeO‑DMT بمعدلات سريع، بعض منها في مراحل متقدمة لعلاج الاكتئاب والقلق.

العلاجات النفسية باستخدام المؤثرات (Psychedelics)
VLS-01 (DMT لعلاج الاكتئاب المقاوم للعلاج)
بحسب بيانات الشركة المطوّرة. بدأ المرحلة الثانية من التجارب السريرية في مارس 2025 لعلاج المكتئبين الذين لم يستجبوا للعلاجات التقليدية، وتوقع إعلان النتائج في أوائل 2026.

*سياسات حديثة لتقنين استخدام المخدرات:
عدد من الدول في السنوات الأخيرة بدأت تتبنى سياسات جديدة تجاه بعض أنواع المخدرات، خصوصًا تلك التي تُستخدم لأغراض علاجية أو نفسية. بعضها شرّع الاستخدام الطبي تحت إشراف مراكز مرخصة، وبعضها سمح بالاستخدام الشخصي في جرعات صغيرة ضمن إطار منظم وآمن. أذكر منها أمريكا، هولندا ، كندا ، وألمانيا وآخرون.
وهي تسمح باستخدام مواد معينة مثل MDMA وPsilocybin وKetamine لأغراض علاجية أو تأملية.

الكتاب رائع للمهتمين بدراسة تاريخ المواد المخدرة وتأثيرها العلاجي، وتاريخ الطب والوعي الإنساني .
وأبدع بندر الحربي في الترجمة .

[Nils]

On its face it’s a cultural and scientific history of the emergence of interest in various mind-altering substances in the West, mainly the German, English, and French speaking portions. But what it really is, is a history of self-experimentation by scientists who perceived that while the physical effects of chemical on the body could be measured, the subjective, interior, or psychological effects could only be experienced directly by self-administration of the chemicals. What emerges from this in the end is the importance of drugs as a crucial subplot in the broad history of post-Enlightenment North Atlantic intellectual history, one that has run at oblique angles from the Enlightenment’s exaltation of reason and rationality, and shows how drug use has been a specific mechanism for exploring the limits and boundaries of reason defined as objective precision. Subjectivism, the Unconscious, Bounded Rationality, psychism, and other dodgy idea from the point of view of the prigs and puritans.

[Steve]

Overall, the book was worth reading. The content was interesting and thorough. But I didn’t find the writing style conversational enough for my taste and at times I found the writing stilted and slow-moving. I also would have liked to read more about the scientific and medical aspects of the subject, but that’s a personal taste thing. I think that people interested in the drug culture side of the story will appreciate this book more than I did. Thank you to Netgalley and Yale University Press for the digital review copy.

[Kate]

Do you fancy yourself a “lover of pleasure, a careless and merry idler of western pavements, a hunter out of snug restaurants, and a fine critic of fantastic dancing”? When you close your eyes, do you see a “saffron inkwell from which is born an emerald mushroom studded with rose fruits”? Growing up, were you inculcated to Just Say No? If you, like Sherlock Holmes, “abhor the dull routine of existence” and “crave for mental exultation,” check out Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind, a consciousness-expanding study of nineteenth and twentieth-century western knowledge of and attitudes toward drug use by cultural historian Mike Jay. If you’ve ever sampled “Dr. J. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne” or battled insomnia with “spirit of urine and laudanum with milk for three nights,” take a break from your “ether frolics” and “voice tabloids” to consider whether “everything pleasant is forbidden,” a vice is merely a “taste you don’t share,” and “dream begins where the freedom to direct our thoughts ceases.”

[Dũng Dỗ]

Excellent overview of drug history as well as a history of Western civilization. I had no idea how much drugs shaped the modern world, especially our conception of the mind, so, safe to say learned much from this book.

[Erlend Thonstad]

Very cool book. Informative, neutral description of the psychopharmacological history of cocaine, cannabis, ether, N20, chlorophorm, morphine, peyote and other substances in western culture. 4.5/5

[Daniel Hasegan]

An amazing overview of the drug culture of the past few centuries. It mostly focuses on 1800s but it gives a great backdrop of the cultural setting of the time. I took so many notes about intense, heroic, and peculiar individuals labeled as Psychonauts.

[Sofia]

this book was so disappointing. i did learn some interesting things. but i found the writing style to be overly academic (and that’s coming from a phd student), a lot of the time it felt like he was just throwing complicated words together but nothing really came across. i also found there to be too much of a focus on philosophy and psychology, and a lot of the concepts and schools of thought there were also not properly introduced, so i got nothing out of those parts. as other reviewers have mentioned, it got extremely repetitive as well. most of the historical figures that were followed were not memorable at all. all the quotes describing drug experiences sounded the same so that got boring fast.

i did appreciate what the author was trying to do with this book but it did not work at all for me. i feel like i don’t even know how he made such an interesting subject matter so boring. basically every story he told was boring. everything interesting i learned was in spite of the writing and narrative style, and it just made me want to seek out other books on the subject. this book was such a slog. and i’m a BIG fan of nonfiction. yes i’m a bit salty about it.

[Ard]

A history of how the western world discovered drugs and their wide ranging effects, focussing for the most part on the 19th century. While interesting and sometimes amusing, it's also pretty repetitive, featuring many, many people who tried nitrous oxide or cocaine or hash or whatever and wrote about it, but whose story didn't really add too much to the multitude of similar stories in this book or necessarily to the main argument. In the first half of the book I regularly reread the text on the back, wondering where all of this was going. It sure was interesting, but not as fascinating as I had expected.

[Patrick]

“Today, altered consciousness and non-ordinary reality are primarily associated with the psychedelics that emerged in the 1950s but, as we have seen, explorations of this kind date back much further: psychedelics have colonised a pre-existing cultural niche that flourished long before the term was coined.”

Mike Jay’s focus on the 19th and early 20th century investigations of nitrous, ether and chloroform make for a revealing study in how a culture engages with drugs and their consequent alterations in consciousness. We have, it turns out, an example with which to compare the way psychedelics entered the scene in the mid-20th century.

The metaphysical context at that time was German Idealism and its abstractions. Hegel was all the rage, and in fact William James’s experiments with nitrous, Jay argues, have to take into account his struggle with Hegel’s philosophy. Taken as a whole, this period presents the same gamut of reactions: from “nitrous theatres” in which the disoriented state of the imbiber becomes a monetized spectacle, to materialists who refuse to allow that the nitrous experience is anything other than a “delusion,” to prophets proclaiming the “anesthetic revolution” and the divine qualities of nitrous.

Over and over again we see people making the same mistake: believing that drugs have a linear metaphysical effect. “Take this and you’ll see.” It happened with nitrous, and it is happening now with psychedelics.

Drugs don’t draw their own conclusions about reality. We do.

[Felix George Elliott]

'The invention of 'drugs' can be seen as an attempt, characteristic of its historical moment, to draw a sharp line between good and bad substances and enforce it with state control. Yet we have known since antiquity that good and bad are not inherent in any particular plant or molecule. As the classical authority Dioscorides wrote over two thousand years ago, "the dose makes the poison": all drugs have the potential to heal or to harm.'

So fascinating, well-researched and well-argued. My fav parts were the tasty morsels of various scientists'/artists'/writers' testimonies of their self-experimentations, some really beautiful descriptions in there.
Sometimes a little name- and date-heavy but on the whole accessibly written. I learned so much, would recommend to anyone inquisitively inclined.

[Laura]

"Psychonauts" reads like a work of sociology, primarily focused on the pre-20th century, with only brief mentions of the discoveries and advances made in the mid to late 20th century. I appreciated the book didn't overlap too much with the work of Michael Pollan ("How to Change Your Mind" and "This is Your Mind on Plants"). I was unfortunately looking for contemporary information on the matter, so this wasn't the book for me. Fentanyl Inc and the above mentioned "How to Change Your Mind" covered that interval in far more depth. Still, an informative read.

[Ville Verkkapuro]

A wonderful, fun study on my favourite subject: drugs. Why is it my favourite? Because it touches so many subjects: our society, creativity, a need for peace, transcendence, God, progress, slacking off, trauma, failed society, sad histories... it's about everything, always. As was this; a great and wild, fun ride. Reminded me of Trippi ihmemaahan by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, which is absolutely hilarious, too. The name drops here are pretty wild, from Baudelaire to Balzac to Freud et cetera, many familiar things yet still fresh. I bought this from a bookstore in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and the atmosphere and day were magical, I loved it and will forever cherish that memory through this book.

[Nathanael]

A thorough history of the discovery of and experimentation with many mind altering substances. It is interesting how tightly connected many of them are to the occult and spiritualism. I felt this book glorified the self experimentation the scientists and psychologists utilized, while downplaying the destructive force most of the drugs mentioned have been in the world.

[Ellen]

I found this rather hard going - and wasn’t sure what the point of it was. There is nothing quite so boring as someone describing their drug experiences - and surely the fact that cannabis makes you giggle and gives you the munchies isn’t news…

[Jenna]

An incredibly interesting topic but I struggled a bit reading it – there's a clear focus for each chapter on at least one main player and/or one drug but it felt a bit too unfocused, dipping in and out of various snippets of events, people and places. In the end I'm not sure what I'm taking away, knowledge-wise, other than a handful of interesting starting points.

[Nike]

Mycket engagerade, lätt flytande prosa. En klar femma tack vare tesens originalet, alla spännande exempel från idéhistoriens periferi och det ljuvliga språket – trots viss ovarsamhet när det kommer till källmaterialet och implicerande av orsakssamband som inte kan bevisas.

[Farah van der Kooi]

3.5
overall a good overview of the different opinions and perspectives about the use of drugs both in a medical setting and recreationally. sometimes it jumped between time periods and i thought the book would have a tiny bit more of a chemistry perspective but interesting nevertheless.

[Triinu]

Minu arvamuse raamatust leiab blogist https://triinuraamatud.wordpress.com/...

[Fidel]

El libro sigue la historia de diversas sustancias psicoactivas (hachís,éter, óxido nitroso, thc....)desde el punto de vista de la evolución y experimentación científica, su impacto en la sociedad y si retroalimentación.
Muy interesante

[Jim Beatty]

Catalepsy in which the patient became a waxen statue oblivious for an hour to all external stimuli.

[Loona Mets]

ülihuvitav teos. mul võttis parajalt aega, et ta läbi saada, sest infot on palju ning pikka aega järjest lugedes lihtsalt ei hooma enam seda, millest jutt on. sellegipoolest oli põnev lugeda selle kohta, kuidas ühiskondlikud suhtumised eri psühhoaktiivsetesse ainetesse ajalooliselt muutunud on.

[Samantha]

Very neat! I wish chapter 8, the one about modern psychedelics, was a bit longer instead of the middle chapters (5/6) which dragged a bit. I thought the chapter about Freud and other contemporaries cocaine use was particularly fascinating! As were those on chloroform, ether, and nitrous oxide, the latter of which I had no idea was so engrained/normalized in the public, beyond a medical standpoint, that at one point "laughing gas shows/parties" existed!

The shift of the public's opinion and openness towards self-experiment with drug use was interesting to learn about. What a shame that this openness faded as drugs became more stigmatized and regulated! I wonder where we'd be today without such stringent policies.

[Nuno Mendonça]

«Qual é o problema de ficar pedrado?» Os debates sobre euforia no século XIX, em que o prazer provocado pelas drogas era suspeito ou patológico, foram sucedidos por uma neurociência do século XXI em que o humor positivo é visto como um sintoma de níveis de dopamina ou de serotonina elevados, e interpretado através da linguagem de mecanismos de recompensa cerebral, desejo e dependência.

Esta é provavelmente a passagem de Psiconautas que mais ficou comigo, porque contém muito daquilo que eu esperava encontrar no livro: uma história das drogas que fosse também uma história da maneira como aprendemos a pensar a consciência, o prazer e até a normalidade.

Há aqui qualquer coisa que me remete imediatamente para Byung-Chul Han. A experiência interior parece ter sido progressivamente submetida à mesma lógica de medição e explicação que aplicamos ao resto de nós próprios. A euforia deixa de poder simplesmente existir e passa a ser traduzida em dopamina, serotonina, recompensa, dependência. Até o prazer precisa de uma justificação neuroquímica.

É particularmente interessante quando Mike Jay recupera Charles Taylor e a sua descrição do «eu» moderno como alguém que acredita possuir uma profundidade interior merecedora de exploração, valoriza a autenticidade e a originalidade e encontra na natureza algo benigno e restaurador. Jay observa como estes valores coincidem extraordinariamente com a atração contemporânea pelas substâncias que alteram a consciência. Para mim, esta era uma das pistas mais estimulantes do livro: a droga enquanto tecnologia de exploração do próprio sujeito. Um instrumento para descer a essa suposta profundidade interior e descobrir qualquer coisa mais autêntica sobre nós mesmos.

Infelizmente, Psiconautas raramente me entusiasmou tanto quanto estas ideias prometiam.

Aprendi bastante. Descobri, por exemplo, como o isolamento da morfina no início do século XIX foi decisivo para a química dos alcaloides e abriu caminho à posterior extração de substâncias como a cafeína e a nicotina. Descobri também a importância da cocaína para o aparecimento da anestesia local em oftalmologia, com Karl Koller a demonstrar em 1884 que era possível anestesiar o olho com cocaína, num episódio ligado às próprias experiências e ao entusiasmo de Freud pela substância. E toda a relação de Freud com a cocaína, numa época em que as fronteiras entre investigação científica, automedicação e experimentação pessoal eram muito mais porosas, é genuinamente fascinante.

O problema é que o livro permanece demasiado tempo preso ao século XIX. Isso corresponde ao projeto histórico de Jay, centrado precisamente nessa tradição perdida de cientistas, médicos, escritores e filósofos que experimentavam substâncias em si próprios para investigar a mente. Percebo a opção. Simplesmente não funcionou particularmente bem para mim.

Há uma acumulação enorme de figuras, experiências, relatos e episódios históricos que, a certa altura, começou a produzir o efeito inverso daquele que o tema prometia. As histórias sucedem-se, os nomes acumulam-se e a leitura torna-se estranhamente árida. Num livro sobre pessoas que respiraram óxido nitroso, consumiram ópio, haxixe, cocaína e éter para tentar descobrir os limites da consciência humana, dei por mim demasiadas vezes simplesmente aborrecido.

E talvez seja essa a minha maior frustração com Psiconautas. O material é extraordinário. Estamos a falar da descoberta de novas substâncias, do nascimento da farmacologia e da psicologia, de médicos a experimentarem drogas no próprio corpo, de Freud fascinado por cocaína, de cientistas e escritores convencidos de que uma alteração química da consciência lhes podia revelar alguma coisa sobre a natureza do eu. Há aqui matéria para um livro absolutamente alucinante.

Mike Jay escreveu um livro rigoroso, cheio de episódios que vale a pena conhecer e com algumas ideias verdadeiramente provocadoras sobre a construção da mente moderna. Mas, para mim, conseguiu a proeza curiosa de tornar frequentemente soporífera uma história sobre pessoas que passaram o século XIX a tentar alterar todos os estados de consciência possíveis.

Talvez devesse ter lido com mais cafeína.

[Dan]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Yale University Press for an advance copy on the history of drugs and those who chronicled their experiments both for science and for literature.

Humans have always been explorers. The need to know what is behind that rise, where this river leads and what is on the other side, is something some humans need to know, and others want to exploit. Similar to shaking a gift before opening, humans want to know, and if something is frowned on by polite society, or even better people in authority, well to many that is a reason to explore. This holds true for the inner world as well as the outer world. Humans need a reason to believe. This can't be all there is. There has to be things we can't see, secrets that being raised in a society we have been trained even ordered not to see. Drugs can open this inner world. For deep meanings, to finding a way past trauma, and for just getting through the day. Every experience is different, some can try and move on, some try to find out why, some try and want more, more tries, more experiences, more on top of more. Psychonauts by Mike Jay is a look at those tried drugs for a variety of reasons, science, art, theology, boredom, what they learned, and what happens when governments and puritanical thoughts get in the way of learning, and experimenting.

The book begins with an interesting take on two scientists who tried a long thought lost drug, experimenting on it themselves, based on an old underground newspaper, and written for an academic audience. These two men were roundly denounced by scientists, ethicists, and of course government lackeys for being improper, unethical and wrong. This was in 1995. Within a few years this lizard drug would be feted and talked about for all the great things it could do to help people. From this slight past, readers are brought back further, to Sigmund Freud and his buying of cocaine to help him deal with this tiredness, and problems being around people. Cocaine to Freud was wonderful, and he became quite the apostle, until it became embarrassing, and a part of his life that he would tend to skip over. From there readers learn of other experimenters, writers, artists, and common people, who tried, and wrote about their experiences on drugs, the rise of literary movements, and strides in medicine and philosophical thought. Also the rise of the War on Drugs, and how the benefits of these pharmaceuticals have been ignored and devalued for so long.

A fascinating book that covers quite a lot of subjects. Mike Jay is not only a good writer, but can balance a huge cast of famous, infamous and unknown people, and a huge cast of drugs, without ever losing the narrative, or making it seem like a lecture. Art, science, music, laws, philosophy, and more are discussed and not in a hey kids I am rapping with you kind of way. This is a serious history, with lots of stories, both good and bad. Some stories are kind of humorous, such as the chloroform party, where a group opened up a jar filled with the gas, smelled a nice smell, than the lead researcher awoke on the floor, under his table hearing the sound of bodies falling around him. In fact many of these early psychonauts seemed to do everything wrong, and yet their research are still of value. Jay explores both the artists who found their gifts via drugs, and the changes in politics that artists began to create, and the government enforcement that made us a nation that said no, without knowing why.

A very good book, something that will appeal to literary scholars, hipsters, and historians. A book that will be appearing on quite a few podcasts as there is quite a lot to be learned from reading. One of my favorite new histories of this year.

[Ryan Berger]

How seriously should we take drugs as a method of spiritual discovery, personal betterment, and an overall boon to humanity rather than a vice?

This is a comprehensive history of how mind-altering substances have been used throughout history from early adoption by doctors to when the neologism of "drugs" was freshly minted and then saddled with enormous amounts of baggage.

Psychonauts makes a compelling case that the way society treats substances is not so set-in-stone as the war on drugs might lead you to believe. Renowned minds in the fields of medicine, philosophy and art have all extolled the benefits of having these experiences, though the book plays fair and also examines not only the terrible costs of these experiences and whether they invalidate the rewards or are merely a dark dimension of tapping them as a resource.

Much of the material is shockingly repetitive to the point where I thought multiple sections had been copy-pasted. Jay comes equipped with an arsenal of interesting facts and proper contexts for understanding drugs but doesn't arrange his argument in a way that builds to something larger, interweaves ideas at the proper places, or is even sometimes satisfactorily coherent. He doesn't get lost in florid prose that tries too hard to capture the crystalline visions of drug tripping, as his writing style that joins many of the quotes doesn't stand out (which is probably a good thing given his source material). It's the most basic sequencing of information that I feel gets too chaotic.

Still, it rarely gets old listening to some of the most important poets and writers in the world discuss their experience with drugs. As Jay points out, there is a desire among enthusiasts and believers to have trained reporters describe the sensations and observations in these altered states.

The exploration of cultural contexts for drugs ultimately makes this book worth reading. Reading about the use and abuse of drugs by doctors (and their spouses!) was fascinating, as were the hasheesh dens and pharmaceutical tinkerers and even two surprisingly fun dives into the literary world with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I kept waiting for Jay to talk about Huxley, who is finally referenced in the last fifth~ of the book-- a massive feat of restraint. Huxley, as the author of Brave New World and the essays The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell, is a towering figure in the world of mind-altering substances. His cerebral spelunking was not the first or most expansive dive into what it's like to trip (which becomes painfully obvious throughout the book, making me wonder why it was Huxley's book caught the gust of mainstream updrafts), but his warning about state-sanctioned mind alteration was revolutionary. To hear him renounce some of the spiritual journey he'd been on because he'd properly weighed the costs and seen the room for abuse and control spoke volumes.

Lots of good, interesting information that could be much more artfully arranged.

[ApolloEyes7]

So, Mike Jay writes books about "drugs" and in a way attempts to destigmatize them. In this book, Psychonauts, he digs really deep into Opium and Cocaine in particular, especially in the first third of the book, delineating Sigmund Freud's use of Cocaine and Morphine. Also, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's personification of Sherlock Holmes in his early novels as administering Cocaine and Opium. Which changed, of course, as reports of these substances addictive qualities and side effects led to them becoming unwelcome and banned by laws against their common use. For example, the removal of Cocaine from Coca-Cola, overdose deaths, etc. Like his previous book, Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic, these books are like information dumps of drug history.

I gave this one four stars. Almost three. But I gave his previous book four stars and it's basically the same. It just covers more different substances. I do feel he needs more chapters and can take somewhat more of a novelist approach, or approach of an opinion piece. This is because his books are like gigantic news articles that scroll and give you tons of information, and some thought, but never go too deep. That's kind of frustrating! Still, if you are just walking or driving and need an easy read and want to learn a couple things, Mike Jay is the man for that!

A lot of these topics are common knowledge for people familiar with similar books, however Mike Jay always has some interesting information that didn't reach your ears! Drug culture, or "medication" use, or "substances", whichever taboo or nontaboo word you use, is a reality in our world. You may be antidrug, but have you ever taken sugar, caffeine, or prescription or over the counter medications? Who determines which medications are the most evil? During periods of time (eras) this all kind of changed. Addictions used to be thought to be vulnerabilities of the wealthy and scientific.

I won't bore you. The rest of you already know about these topics, or you can find them in this book, which I read on Audible. If you liked Mike Jay's last book you'll like this. There's a kind of person who reads books like this and you don't have to experiment to enjoy a good drug history book. They are books for the curious. People not curious about what substances are or how they work should not read this (or they could in order to benefit and learn things). The curious will wonder, maybe they'll explore the Tarot section of the book store, investigate ghosts and mystical motifs, or listen to Jimi Hendrix. A book like this could be more interesting to a person who never used any substances described in the book! For the curious, open-minded. Mike Jay, read on a weekend day.