“I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyze its availability.” – Alexander Shulgin

In 1913, Merck Chemical Company in Germany did not realize what they had done when they created patent #274.350. With no actual application listed and simply being noted as a precursor chemical, this substance went into the back storage room and disappeared for almost 40 years. The next time patent #274.350 was seen occurred in 1953 when the United States Government saw its potential for who knows what and used it in undocumented (at least to the public) chemical human tests. The progression of #274.350 leads to the hands of Alexander Shulgin, the first person to ingest the patented chemical entirely on their own accord. This moment in time changed the world forever, as Alexander Shulgin discovered what we now know today as MDMA.

Today’s society pretty much has two out looks on #274.350. One outlook would say it is killing millions of kids daily. The other would argue it’s the “most magical thing ever”. Just because these are the two outlooks people have, it does not mean either is correct. Society assumes a position that this substance is much worse than it actually is (an argument that could be a paper in itself, so let’s make assumptions for the sake of this paper). Party goers think it’s amazing and entirely safe for you, which based on death reports MDMA most definitely is not entirely safe. Neither side looks at alternative ways this substance could even be used.

Therapy for the mentally ill aided by the use of MDMA. Shulgin and his friends all shared a common belief that the mind could be “catalyzed” to do amazing things with the use of substances. MDMA just happened to be the newest substance in a long history of psychedelics to be used to treat all sorts of mental illnesses. The effects of the drug provide a deeper insight into someone’s own mind. It “Catalyzes” the brain into therapy as described in the quote above. Small doses of this, along with a guided session have been shown in recent studies to actually aid in disorders specifically PTSD. With all the negative attention this drug gets, it would be revolutionary if it could be used in a beneficial way.

Sadly, with the way the Government currently takes its stance, researchers wanting to do work in these alternative fields of psychology have a hard time getting the permission to do so. A lot of research was done in the 60’s and 70’s with MDMA, but it was shut down after it became popularized in the party scene. Hopefully one day the world will be able to change their views on how it can be used.