Mike Jay is a prolific and accomplished author who writes about a number of subjects in a wide range of disciplines. He joins me to talk about his new book Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic (Yale, 2019). The book is a definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to western modernity. Jay has written a number of books including Stranger than Fiction (Daily Grail, 2018) and High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science, and Culture (Park Street, 2010) among many others that you can see HERE.

You can see more at his official website and you can follow him on Twitter here.

Read Mike's Work:

Some Highlights:

Cross-cultural interactions based on a mind altering drug

Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell

William James The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

The Western Science "discovery" of Peyote

Indigenous use of Peyote and Spiritual Seekers

The use of colors and art in the psychedelic experience

Frederick Madison Smith and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Thousands of Years of History

Havelock Ellis and other famous writers

Native American Church USA

James Mooney and Ethnography

Sources and approaches to writing global history

Spiritual vs. Scientific approaches to drugs

Suggestions:

Mike - The Moor's Account- by Laila Lalami

Steven - I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - by Michelle McNamara

https://youtu.be/wOoHfDAfjXw

 

 

Cover Image: Portrait of Nena Stachurska by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz