mind & bodyanalysisThe Public Domain Review1897 · London, England
In 1897 Havelock Ellis ate peyote alone in London and wrote down the visions
On Good Friday 1897 the English writer Havelock Ellis took peyote, the cactus used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas for thousands of years, alone in his rooms in London. He was among the first Europeans to explore its active ingredient, mescaline, which had just been isolated. He and a small circle of artists and writers, including the poet W. B. Yeats, documented their experiences. Their reports influenced later psychedelic literature.
Ellis's account is an early scientific-literary exploration of psychedelics and perception, a precursor to Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception.
Mescaline was first isolated from peyote by the German chemist Arthur Heffter in 1897.
background
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, as well as on transgender psychology. He developed the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis.
Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline, which he conducted on himself in 1896. He supported eugenics and served as one of 16 vice-presidents of the Eugenics Society from 1909 to 1912.
From Wikipedia: Havelock Ellis (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗see
.jpg)
key facts
- Born
- 2 February 1859
- Died
- 8 July 1939
- Known as
- physician, psychologist
Facts: Wikidata (CC0)
Image: The Public Domain Review
