{"title":"Mike Jay","description":"\u003cp\u003eWelcome to our collection of works by Mike Jay, an acclaimed author known for his deep dives into intriguing historical and biographical subjects. With a knack for weaving compelling narratives, Jay explores the intersections of drugs, consciousness, and history, providing readers with a unique lens through which to understand these complex topics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFree Radicals\u003c\/em\u003e offers a captivating journey into the world of self-experimenting scientists and the impact of their revolutionary ideas. In \u003cem\u003eHigh Society\u003c\/em\u003e, Jay delivers a comprehensive history of mind-altering substances and their influence across different cultures and eras.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHis book \u003cem\u003eMescaline\u003c\/em\u003e traces the historical and cultural significance of the psychedelic substance, illuminating its role in both indigenous rituals and modern scientific research. With \u003cem\u003ePsychonauts\u003c\/em\u003e, Jay introduces readers to the fascinating explorers of the mind, who risked everything to understand the workings of consciousness. In \u003cem\u003eThis Way Madness Lies\u003c\/em\u003e, he delves into historical perspectives on mental illness, offering insights into how societal attitudes have shaped psychiatric practices over the centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhether you're interested in biography, history, or the intricacies of human consciousness, Mike Jay's books promise to engage and enlighten, making them an essential addition to any enthusiast's bookshelf.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"mescaline-by-mike-jay-9780300257502","title":"Mescaline","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMescaline\u003c\/em\u003e became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley’s \u003cem\u003eThe Doors of Perception\u003c\/em\u003e, after which the word “psychedelic” was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century, it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile, peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences, and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline’s many lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"John Wiley and Sons Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46796438044908,"sku":"9780300257502","price":28.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24572763482294.jpg?v=1757096184"},{"product_id":"psychonauts-by-mike-jay-9780300276091","title":"Psychonauts","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Fascinating.”—Thomas W. Hodgkinson, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Richly detailed and frequently illuminating.”—Rhys Blakely, \u003cem\u003eTimes\u003c\/em\u003e (UK)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Excellent.”—Clare Bucknell, \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e Best of the Week Pick\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUntil the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on themselves. Vivid descriptions of drug experiences sparked insights across the mind sciences, pharmacology, medicine, and philosophy. Accounts in journals and literary fiction inspired a fascinated public to make their own experiments—in scientific demonstrations, on exotic travels, at literary salons, and in occult rituals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut after 1900, drugs were increasingly viewed as a social problem, and the long tradition of self-experimentation began to disappear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Sigmund Freud's experiments with cocaine to William James's epiphany on nitrous oxide, Mike Jay brilliantly recovers a lost intellectual tradition of drug-taking that fed the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and the emergence of modernism. Today, as we embrace novel cognitive enhancers and psychedelics, the experiments of the original psychonauts reveal the deep influence of mind-altering drugs on Western science, philosophy, and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46796624986348,"sku":"9780300276091","price":24.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24758653482294.jpg?v=1757101712"},{"product_id":"high-society-by-mike-jay-9780500297940","title":"High Society","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA global history of intoxication, exploring the international spectrum of drug use in cultures across the world, from prehistory to the present day.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery society is a high society. Every day, people drink coffee on European terraces, chew betel nut in Indonesian markets, take coca leaf on Andean mountainsides and smoke tobacco in every nation on earth. Mike Jay's global history of intoxication looks at the earliest archaeological evidence of drug use, the botanicals of the classical world, the mind-bending self-experiments of early scientists and today's 'war on drugs'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eHigh Society\u003c\/i\u003e Jay paints vivid portraits of the roles that drugs play as medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols and trade goods. He traces the understanding of intoxicants from prehistory to the present, and reveals how the international trade in substances such as tobacco, tea and opium shaped the modern world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published to accompany the highly successful exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London, and now featuring a new preface, this striking and lyrical book remains one of the most complete explorations of drug use in cultures across the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46849260650732,"sku":"9780500297940","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/613fa7e192c78c9cc6a3899c06263747.jpg?v=1759045380"},{"product_id":"this-way-madness-lies-by-mike-jay-9780500518977","title":"This Way Madness Lies","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs mental illness—or madness—at root an illness of the body, a disease of the mind, or a sickness of the soul? \u003ci\u003eThis Way Madness Lies\u003c\/i\u003e is a thought-provoking exploration of the history of madness and its treatment as seen through the lens of its proverbial home: the Royal Bethlem Hospital, London, popularly known as Bedlam.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOrganised chronologically, the book explores the meaning of mental illness through the successive incarnations of the institution that defined it: the 18th-century madhouse, the 19th-century asylum, and the 20th-century mental hospital.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMoving and sometimes provocative illustrations sourced from the Wellcome Trust's exceptional collection and the Royal Bethlem Hospital's archive highlight the trajectory of each era of the institution: founded in the optimistic spirit of humanitarian reform but eventually dismantled amid accusations of cruelty and neglect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEach chapter concludes with a selection of revealing and captivating artwork created by asylum patients and other artists from each era of the institution and beyond. Compelling and intriguing, these artworks express the personalities and attitudes of the originators far more powerfully than descriptions of their conditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46851724017900,"sku":"9780500518977","price":60.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780500518977.jpg?v=1759122464"},{"product_id":"free-radicals-by-mike-jay-9780300282610","title":"Free Radicals","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe story of the circle of scientists, poets and dissidents who discovered laughing gas—and forever changed our understanding of the mind\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn unlikely circle of doctors, chemists, poets and political radicals formed a group round the maverick physician Thomas Beddoes. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, he founded the first modern medical institute, the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol. When he and its researchers discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, what was a pioneering public health initiative became a freewheeling exploration of consciousness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCelebrated historian Mike Jay tells the story of Dr. Beddoes and his group of unorthodox experimenters. With the support of Erasmus Darwin and poets Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a laboratory designed by James Watt and funded by Thomas Wedgwood, and the self-experimenting chemistry assistant Humphrey Davy, Beddoes precipitated a revolution in scientific investigation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFree Radicals\u003c\/em\u003e for the first time charts the intellectual ferment of the Institute and reveals its crucial influence—as the crucible of the Romantic movement, and the birthplace of modern drug culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46855776501996,"sku":"9780300282610","price":28.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300282610.jpg?v=1759276658"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/mike-jay.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}