Thanks to Youtube’s Thinkers Corner for posting this!
Alexander Shulgin was the brilliant Berkeley chemist who first synthesized MDMA (Ecstasy).
Choice quote: “I have been frequently asked to speak more slowly, and I will do my best to adhere to that request. It’s good for about 40 seconds.”(20:05)
I’m assuming, “Synthetic Psychedelic Compounds” refers to man-made compounds, compounds that have been put together by humans. But since humans are part of nature, isn’t the whole dichotomy of synthetic vs natural a false dichotomy? Isn’t everything we create natural? Even the most horrid compounds we create like PCBs and poptarts are natural.
If we lick goo off a toad and get stoned, we call that natural, but if I’m messing around in a lab and lick some powder off my finger, I call that synthetic. But wait, if I put the powder on a toad and then lick it, is that more natural? I’m so confused.