The Origins of MDMA — Extract from PIHKAL by the Shulgins
“Yes, there is something you might find interesting.
I’ll tell you a bit about it.
First of all, it’s not one of my materials. It was discovered a long time ago, in 1912, in Germany.
Nobody paid any attention to it until a good friend of mine — a delightful, funny, slightly crazy girl who’s also a very good chemist — called my attention to an old publication that mentioned several compounds, this one among them, and told me she thought it might be an interesting one to synthesize. It was simply intuition, on her part, some kind of extraordinary intuition -”
“What’s the name of it?”
He grinned, his eyes teasing, “Methylenedioxymethamphetamine. MDMA for short.” I repeated the initials under my breath. He continued, “I suppose I can take credit for step-fathering it, anyway, if not for inventing it. I made it in my lab and nibbled.
It gave me a pleasant lightness of spirit. That’s all. No psychedelic effects whatsoever. No moving walls or glowing colors; nothing of that sort. Just a distinct lightening of mood. And an inclination to get busy and do things that needed doing. So I concluded that it might be an anti-depressant of some kind, and I took some over to an old friend, Adam Fisher, a psychologist in his late sixties or early seventies who had told me he was getting ready to retire — beginning to phase out his practice. I knew that he was very experienced with psychedelics, had been for years. So I asked him if he’d like to sample this MOM A stuff and tell me what he thought.”
I sipped from my glass and realized, with a burst of warmth inside me, that I was very happy. Being here, listening to Shura telling the story, with sunlight glowing on the fruit in the bowl, I was content simply to exist in this moment and let everything else go. He was saying, “Adam tried it, and the result of that experience was -,” he paused, chuckling, “Well, to put it briefly, Dr. Fisher came out of retirement. He changed his practice, and in some ways I suppose you could say MOMA completely altered the course of his life.”
“How did he change his practice?” “Well, since then — that was about seven years ago — he’s spent his time training people, mostly therapists, in the use of MDMA. He’s introduced probably several thousands of them across the country to this drug, teaching them how to use it properly, for themselves and their patients. At least, for those patients who are considered good candidates for the experience.”
“It was an anti-depressive, then, as you thought?”
“Yes and no. It had that effect on me, in a mild sort of way, but it had a very much more important effect on Adam, and I gather on most other people who take it. They say it makes it possible for them to have remarkable insights into the way they’re living, what they’re doing with their lives. They see how they’re making problems for themselves, or wasting what they have, what they are. It’s a drug that seems to allow insight, but it lets them see and understand without being afraid. It doesn’t threaten them with any loss of control.” “Which is what most people are afraid of -,” I nodded.
“Yes. The fear of losing control, being helpless, seems to be almost universal, and it certainly comes up in people who’ve never taken a psychoactive drug before. MOMA allows you to be totally in control, while getting a really good look at yourself. Adam told me that it does away with what he calls the fear barrier, the fear people have of seeing what’s going on inside them, who they are. Most people describe a feeling of acceptance inside which makes it all right to take a good look at themselves. It makes the insight relatively non-threatening.”
