A definitive background of mescaline that explores its mind-altering results across civilizations, from ancient America to European modernity

Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley’s The Doorways of Perception, after which the term ‘psychedelic’ was coined to spell it out it. Its tale, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples.

Mescaline was isolated in 1897 through the peyote cactus, about Mescaline: A Global History of the Initial Psychedelic first encountered by Europeans through the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it had been utilized by psychologists looking into the secrets of consciousness, religious seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Cathedral of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, performers exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to treat schizophrenia. 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 statistics from William Adam to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline’s many lives.