Shulgin is not a big fan of tryptamines. I own PiHhKAL and TiHKAL. PiHKAL is well written and makes all his favorite phenethylamines look fabulous despite the fact that most people don't like them much. Most people prefer tryptamines over phenethylamines, however his book TiHKAL makes you think tryptamines are pretty horrible compounds.
If you read his section on LSD in TiHKAL and compare that to his section on mescaline in PiHhKAL, you’ll see what I mean. He makes mescaline seem like the best thing in the world and pretty much glosses over LSD in TiHKAL. In the section on LSD there isn’t a single trip report. You would think maybe a word from Dr. Leary, Mr. Hofmann, etc., but there’s nothing interesting to read of it. It’s a big disappointment.
He’s obviously slanted in favor of phenethylamines and seems to dislike nearly all the tryptamines from what I’ve read in his book.
I was vastly disappointed when I bought TiHKAL. I thought PiHhKAL was an excellent book. I found most of the information in TiHKAL to be very inaccurate. I found the trip reports to be a collection of some of the worst possible trip reports you can find. He tried hard to find all those bad trip reports he used in that book. I don’t know what his motive is.
I think maybe he feels a little jealous that most of his phenethylamine creations have not been big hits on the drug scene. Albert Hofmann’s LSD overshadowed everything he ever created. Whenever people run across his creations on blotter paper they are usually pretty upset. A few people like them, but the majority prefer LSD and the other tryptamines over his creations.
On a side note, Shulgin did NOT invent MDMA, but a lot of people think he did. Most of the psychedelic drugs that have killed people were invented by Shulgin: DOB, DOM, 2C-T-7, etc. To this day LSD has killed no one. Every year you hear about deaths caused by one of the drugs invented by Shulgin. In general the tryptamines are far safer than the phenethylamines.
I think Shulgin feels that in his life he’s played second fiddle to Hofmann. Many look to Hofmann with almost God-like admiration from bringing LSD into the world. LSD had a huge impact on the entire world. Hofmann single handedly shifted the consciousness of millions of people by inventing LSD. And he did so by accident! Talk about dumb luck!
While Hofmann created LSD by accident, Shulgin has spent much his life specifically trying to make something as special as LSD, but has yet to succeed at it. Shulgin used mescaline as the bases for most of his creations. Had Shulgin focused his effort on the less toxic tryptamines instead, then maybe we’d have something better than LSD, psilocybin and DMT. If you do a poll you’ll find that the majority of psychedelic users like LSD, psilocybin and DMT more than any of Shulgin’s psychedelic creations.
You may remember me as 69Ron. I was suspended years ago for selling bunk products under false pretenses. I try to sneak back from time to time under different names, but unfortunately, the moderators of the DMT-Nexus are infinitely smarter than I am.
If you see me at the waterpark, please say hello. I'll be the delusional 50 something in the American flag Speedo, oiling up his monster guns while responding to imaginary requests for selfies from invisible teenage girls.