Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease July 1, 2006 C. Savage 4 citations
A collection of interviews with pioneers of psychedelic research—including Albert Hofmann, Ram Dass, and Stanislav Grof—captures the history and controversies of psychedelic therapy from the late 1990s. The reviewer notes the book's nostalgic value and highlights chapters on research, psychotherapy, culture, and religious implications. Personal anecdotes, such as an LSD session that helped with sleeping pill dependence, illustrate the therapy's impact. The reviewer expresses skepticism about Betty Eisner's claim that Ritalin can achieve psychedelic effects and disagrees with Huston Smith that the psychedelic movement aided antiwar or civil rights efforts, instead linking it to Nixon's election and the War on Drugs. Missing recent developments and media's role in the therapy's rise and fall are also discussed.