Supporters of pharmacological genius Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin launched a Facebook campaign seeking donations to help with his medical bills this week after the 85 year old ecstasy guru had a stroke.
“Please help, Sasha Shulgin needs your support,” they declared.
“This morning on the way . . . to the hospital for a scheduled test, Sasha had a stroke. He has been struggling for six months with an ulcer on his left foot that won’t heal, hoping to avoid amputation.”
“Sasha & Ann (his wife and fellow psychonaut) have been in serious financial trouble for some years, and the coming medical bills will be a burden they can’t bear alone. Please, express your gratitude for all the work that Sasha has done, for everything he has given to the world, and give something back.
“Think of all the ways that your life, and the lives of others, have been healed, transformed, and bettered by this wonderful man,” they continued. “He needs your help now. No amount is too small or too large. Please give until it feels good...not until it hurts,” they said. (Help Sasha Shulgin; click here: http://bit.ly/dJ5OZl )
As well as synthesizing and discovering hundreds of psycho active substances throughout his distinguished career, Sasha became best known for resynthesising and inadvertently popularizing MDMA in 1976, after sharing its unique propensities with psychiatrist friends who themselves then spread the word.
Chatting to the New York Times about the first time he sampled MDMA he compared its effects to a ‘low calorie Martini’ he explained ‘it didn't have the other visual and auditory imaginative things that you often get from psychedelics.’
“It opened up a person, both to other people and inner thoughts, but didn't necessarily color it with pretty colors and strange noises,” he said.
In his semi-autobiography/ pharmacology recipe book PIHKAL, however, he was decidedly more ecstatic describing the same experience.
"I feel absolutely clean inside, and there is nothing but pure euphoria. I have never felt so great or believed this to be possible,” he wrote, after taking a 120mg dose.
“The cleanliness, clarity, and marvelous feeling of solid inner strength continued throughout the rest of the day and evening. I am overcome by the profundity of the experience,” he added.
The counter-culture hero is currently recovering in hospital and undergoing treatments including speech therapy, the Guardian reported.
For non-tax-deductible contributions, Paypal $ to annandsashashulgin@comcast.net or snailmail: Sasha Shulgin, c/o Transform Press, PO Box 13675, Berkeley CA 94712.
For tax-deductible online donations to support the completion of Shulgin publishing projects that are underway (Erowid donations page: http://bit.ly/94XK8b
Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff
