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. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their...

“Fascinating.”—Thomas W. Hodgkinson, The Guardian “Richly detailed and frequently illuminating.”—Rhys Blakely, Times (UK) “Excellent.”—Clare Bucknell, New Yorker A New Yorker Best of the Week Pick A provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on...

Is mental illness—or madness—at root an illness of the body, a disease of the mind, or a sickness of the soul? This Way Madness Lies is a thought-provoking exploration of the history of madness and its treatment as seen through the lens of its proverbial home: the Royal Bethlem Hospital, London, popularly known as Bedlam. Organised chronologically, the book explores...

The story of the circle of scientists, poets and dissidents who discovered laughing gas—and forever changed our understanding of the mind An unlikely circle of doctors, chemists, poets and political radicals formed a group round the maverick physician Thomas Beddoes. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, he founded the first modern medical institute, the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol....

A global history of intoxication, exploring the international spectrum of drug use in cultures across the world, from prehistory to the present day. Every society is a high society. Every day, people drink coffee on European terraces, chew betel nut in Indonesian markets, take coca leaf on Andean mountainsides and smoke tobacco in every nation on earth. Mike Jay's global...