Storming Heaven

An interesting historical perspective of how psychedelic drugs came to enter and alter our collective cultural consciousness from the time of Albert Hoffmann's well known bicycle ride up through the early 1970's and beyond. The book seems well researched and is footnoted, yet it reads easily and smoothly, creating a "plot" of sorts from time to time and event to event. Many key players involved in the introduction of psychedelics to the masses are described, some are better developed than others, but their interconnections and certain historical perspectives provided make for mostly intersting and enjoyable reading.

The first chapters describe early research with psilocybin, LSD, etc., and seem a bit overweighted compared to what happened later and what has gone on to happen more recently. This book was published in 1987. Still, there is very little mention of the active use of MDMA and related entheogenic substances that were still legal during the early 1980's. Sasha Shulgin, Terrence McKenna, and a few others get a quick mention somewhere in the Epilogue, but... Still, Storming Heaven is a success in providing a reasonably balanced synopsis of recent history as influenced by modern psychedelics, and it throws in a few tidbits for psychedelia trivia buffs. While it is not a "must have," it is a worthwhile addition to your psychedelic library.