The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience: The First Comprehensive Guide to the Effects of LSD on Human Personality

by Robert E.L. Masters, Jean Houston, and Jean Houston Masters, R. E. L.

Book Overview

One of the most important books written on the effects of LSD on the human psyche. - Its authoritative research has great relevance to the current debate on drug legalization. - Prolific authors... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0055837HA
• ISBN13: 9780440092896
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Co. Inc
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Read this book!

this book is an excellent primer to understanding the many incarnations of psychedelic experience. the information is put forward in a very professional way. benefits of LSD and other drugs in therapy are thoroughly weighed against potential detriment. This is a serious book, that confronts the question of where the real value lies in the psychedelic experience, and whether it exceeds the risks. the concept of levels of psychedelic experience, is a good introduction to the works of Stanislav Grof and Transpersonal Psychiatry!

well written approach to psychedelic therapy

Very well written. Masters and Houston provide a description of what I would call their skeptically optimistic approach to psychedelic therapy. They advance a theory on possible levels of the psychedelic expererience. Also, there is *a lot* of helpful advice to 'trip sitters'. If you are going to trip sit I reccommend reading this and looking at erowid.org.

Best Ever Work About The Psychedelic Experience

Brand new re-issue of the classic 1966 work.If "The Doors Of Perception" was the most important work on psychedelics because of its influence, this then is by far the greatest because of its impeccable research, its far-ranging implications and its clear, lucid and compelling putting together of the evidence for the remarkable therapeutic and consciousness-illuminating value of LSD and other psychedelics (principally peyote). They don't, however, proselitize, and this is much to their credit. In fact, they go to some lengths to inform the reader that an active pro-drugs "for the sake of drugs" mindset is fraught with peril, and do so in a way that is both impartial and learned.They're at their best, however, in their extraordinary recounting of the psychedelic experiences they conducted themselves as guides. There are so many instances where the subject, usually a person with a very intense psychological or emotional problem, arrived at a life-changing breakthrough, that it lingers long in the mind. But the book is most of all a primer for their very lucid theory of the psychedelic experience and its various stages or levels. It is, in fact, so well thought out and explained, that this reviewer wonders why it had so little impact on the great body of psychedelic research, even after all these years. To me, it is the only theory that makes any sense and it's also the only one that could be used in a therapeutic setting so that the chances of errors or mistakes in guidance be effectively minimized.

The best book on psychedelics of ALL.

If "The Doors Of Perception" was the most important work on psychedelics because of its influence, this then is by far the greatest because of its impeccable research, its far-ranging implications and its clear, lucid and compelling putting together of the evidence for the remarkable therapeutic and consciousness-illuminating value of LSD and other psychedelics (principally peyote). They don't, however, proselitize, and this is much to their credit. In fact, they go to some lengths to inform the reader that an active pro-drugs "for the sake of drugs" mindset is fraught with peril, and do so in a way that is both impartial and learned. They're at their best, however, in their extraordinary recounting of the psychedelic experiences they conducted themselves as guides. There are so many instances where the subject, usually a person with a very intense psychological or emotional problem, arrived at a life-changing breakthrough, that it lingers long in the mind. But the book is most of all a primer for their very lucid theory of the psychedelic experience and its various stages or levels. It is, in fact, so well thought out and explained, that this reviewer wonders why it had so little impact on the great body of psychedelic research, even after all these years. To me, it is the only theory that makes any sense and it's also the only one that could be used in a therapeutic setting so that the chances of errors or mistakes in guidance be effectively minimized.

A look at The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience

This book was very informative towards the use's of psychedelic drugs such as lsd. It provide's you with the truth and with actual accounts of people on these drugs. It really is the first comprehensive guide to the effects of LSD on human personailty.