The BBC obituary on Shulgin[1] calls him the "Godfather of Ecstasy"[2], but he was far more than that.<p>He synthesized and carefully chronicled the effects of hundreds of psychoactive compounds on himself and a small, dedicated core group of explorers of human consciousness.<p>His efforts were published in two massive, definitive tomes called <i>PiHKAL</i>[3][4] and <i>TiKHAL</i>[5][6], the titles of which stand for <i>"Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved"</i> and <i>"Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved"</i>, respectively.<p>These volumes contained detailed chemical synthesis instructions for the compounds he created, along with "trip reports" and ratings[7] of the compounds' psychoactivity, ranging from:<p>PLUS / MINUS (+/-) <i>"The level of effectiveness of a drug that indicates a threshold action. If a higher dosage produces a greater response, then the plus/minus (+/-) was valid. If a higher dosage produces nothing, then this was a false positive."</i><p>to<p>PLUS FOUR (++++) <i>"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."</i><p>His chemistry lab was DEA-licensed to handle "illegal" (scheduled) compounds, though he often synthesized entirely novel compounds which were not scheduled because neither the compounds nor the laws scheduling them existed yet.<p>Shulgin tirelessly educated the public and the law-enforcement community on the effects and value of psychedelic and psychoactive compounds, and wrote a highly informative Q&A column.[7]<p>Shulgin's pioneering work inspired generations of chemists, self-experimenters, and explorers. He was well known, loved, and respected as one of the most highly accomplished psychedelic chemists in history. His presence and guidance will be deeply missed.<p>[1] - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shulgin" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shulgin</a><p>[2] - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27676669" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27676669</a><p>[3] - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIHKAL" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIHKAL</a><p>[4] - <a href="http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.sht...</a><p>[5] - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIHKAL" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIHKAL</a><p>[6] - <a href="http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal.sht...</a><p>[7] - <a href="http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/shulgin/blg/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/shulgin/blg/index.html</a>