Rating: 
Summary: Entheogens: Professional Listing
Review: "PIHKAL" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy." http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy
Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: a powerful, thorough look inside the intricacies of a relationship between two people, their relationship to psychoactive powers within their universe, and nitty gritty details about the nature of politics and philosophy.Romance and science coalesce symphonically here. An encyclopedic undertaking that achieves success on a number of fronts, this work shatters delusions and opens your mind. There is really something for everyone here: an inspiring love story and a challenging counter-culture tome written by geniuses. Not to mention the fact that you get a lot of pages for a nice price. A must for any extensive library.
Rating:
Summary: Very, very ,very interesting.
Review: A very good book especially if you have tried or like to try any psychedelic substance. More studies should be published for a wider range of people not only scientist!!
Rating: 
Summary: Pihcal: a chemical love story
Review: A very interesting book, with something for everyone, from chemists to the curious. Rarely have I seen a book published on the subject with such scientific objectivity, yet it is still filled with anecdotes that are very interesting and fun to read. I enjoyed every page
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: After reading this book I felt inspired to take a chemistry class. Now that I have taken one I have decided to pursue a career in pharmaceuticals. After reading this book I was awakened to another world.
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Summary: Could the author have Asperger's?
Review: Having only read the excerpt - the flavor of the writing and some of the author's interests - seem similar to that / those of people with Asperger's syndrome. Could these pharmaceuticals be helpful in ameliorating the emotional flatness associated with disorders on the autistic spectrum?
Rating: 
Summary: An encyclopedia
Review: I found the first half of this book to be rather unintersting. It is disconnected from the second half and should essentially stand as its own autobiography.
The second half of this book is an encyclopedia. The discussion of the mechanism of action of the substances in the book is limited to the point of being useless. The discussion on the metabolism of these drugs is also quite limited. For example, there is even one point where the author simply asserts that 'the [other] textbooks' are simply wrong about the metabolism of some phenethylamines by monoamine oxidase. He doesn't bother to go on explaining how they're wrong, or what evidence is available to the contrary.
There is way too much rambling in the second half of the book about why he named one substance this-or-that instead of naming it something else. That provides no insight into these drugs.
It is, of course, important to have the synthetic procedures documented. That is why I call this book an encyclopedia. I can't call this an insightful book about PEA-derivatives as drugs. This book is mostly just a collection of large amounts of data, with an autobiographical book tagged onto the front.
For anyone studying these drugs (i.e. psychedelics or phenethylamine derivatives) from the perspective of pharmaceutical chemistry, this book is a starting point, and that's all. The structure activity relationships of these substances is discussed, but that discussion is limited to purely the chemistry of each compound in isolation. That is, Shulgin has done his work by synthesizing a number of substances, testing them and documenting their effects. His summary (or conclusions) based on the vast amount of data in PIHKAL only generalizes about how structure relates to activity, but without speculating on why these structure-activity relationships are observed.
The book says nothing about how structure relates to pharmacokinetics, receptor binding, or mechanism of action. This book simply serves as a stepping stone for you, the interested reader, to try figuring out why Shulgin observed what he observed. The book is a very small peice of a very large puzzle about psychedelic drugs and consciousness. Shulgin has provided us with a lot of data with this book, but little discussion.
In my opinion, however, the book is way too long to acheive what it ultimately acheives. The first half of the book serves no purpose and seems like a pretentious addition. The second part of the book could be cut by about a third in length if he left out the parts about how he named each substance. IMO, there should be an additional section at the end where he discusses the general observations in more detail. Ultimately, the book is just a collection of syntheses with little meaningful discussion piled on top.
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Summary: Important scientific biography, interesting new-age history
Review: I had assumed this book to be new-age fluff after having
seen it referenced so often in other new-age fluff books.
So I was quite surprised to find that it is really a
fascinating scientific biography, a genre I am
personally addicted to. The 'love story' wanders into the
fluff zone occasionally, and the chemistry recipe book
wanders into extreme alchemical arcana, but overall its
a comprehensive compendium that is unique as far as I know,
and a valuable record of the behind-the-scenes history
of the California new-age 80's. I am only puzzled at
Dr. Shulgin's lack of comment or experience in the traditional
spiritual practices, since even though he frequented Zen centers
while doing his assays, he seems not to be the least curious
as to the perspectives of these traditions. I was also interested to read more about the mysterious therapist
referred to as 'Jacob' in the book 'The Secret Chief' by author
Myron Stolaroff. Check out this book after 'Pikhal' and you
will get a fresh and equally important perspective on the
practices of this seminal group of psychic healers/explorers. somebody oughta make a movie! :)
Rating:
Summary: Great Story
Review: I have found this to be a very interesting story. It's fascinating to read Dr. Shulgin's account of his own life.
He seems like a very talented and worldly individual. I would be quite afraid to ever try any of the compounds in the book but it's interesting to read about them anyway. The way I read it, Dr. Shulgin's mission focus is one of cognitive enhancement, not getting stoned. I applaud him for writing this book.
Rating:
Summary: A psychedelic masterpiece
Review: I will not give a full review as others have, all i will say is if you have any interest in psychedelics and want to learn some chemistry this should be your first port of call. Written by the leaders of psychedelic research.
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