{9} Shulgin Rating Scale

Sep 3

*1) Shulgin Rating Scale: plus one (+) “The drug is quite certainly active. The chronology can be determined with some accuracy, but the nature of the drug’s effects are not yet apparent.”

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*2) Shulgin Rating Scale: plus two (++) “Both the chronology and the nature of the action of a drug are unmistakably apparent. But you still have some choice as to whether you will accept the adventure, or rather just continue with your ordinary day’s plans (if you are an experienced researcher, that is). The effects can be allowed a predominant role, or they may be repressed and made secondary to other chosen activities.”

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*3) Shulgin Rating Scale: plus four (++++) “A rare and precious transcendental state, which has been called a ‘peak experience,’ a ‘religious experience,’ ‘divine transformation,’ a ‘state of Samadhi’ and many other names in other cultures. It is not connected to the +1, +2, and +3 of the measuring of a drug’s intensity. It is a state of bliss, a participation mystique, a connectedness with both the interior and exterior universes, which has come about after the ingestion of a psychedelic drug, but which is not necessarily repeatable with a subsequent ingestion of that same drug. If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.”

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*4) This was an exhibition of the Tremolo series by @spaghetticoder77 which I believe to be a great visual representation of various stages in Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin’s rating scale for reporting the subjective effects of psychoactive substances. A description of the subjective experience for each of the ratings on the scale was provided with its corresponding visual representation. It should also be noted that the link between the artwork and Shulgin Rating Scale is entirely my own interpretation and not necessarily what the artist was attempting to portray.