Mescaline : a global history of the first psychedelic / Mike Jay.

"A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to western modernity. Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word 'psychedelic' was coined to describe it. But its story extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples. The peyote cactus, used since pre-Hispanic times in Mexico, was adopted by Plains Indian tribes during their forced captivity on the reservations, and was brought to the attention of western science by pioneering doctors and ethnologists. During the twentieth century, mescaline ranged across the new frontiers of western culture. It was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the presidents of the Morman Church, artists exploring creative derangement and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia, before kick-starting the sixties counterculture. Meanwhile peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography and the mind sciences, and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline's many lives."--Jacket.