Articles By: Mike Jay

Mike Jay has written widely on the history of science, medicine, drugs and consciousness. He is currently working on High Society, an illustrated history of mind-altering drugs to accompany a major exhibition at Wellcome Collection in London in November 2010. He is a trustee of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation (www.tdpf.org.uk) and his website is http://mikejay.net

“WATSON: THE NEEDLE!”

“WATSON: THE NEEDLE!”
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND COCAINE By Mike Jay – http://mikejay.net/ Cocaine was the great pharmaceutical success story of the last decades of the nineteenth century. In a few short years, it went from a minor item in specialist catalogues to a major seller in a huge range of preparations in high-street...
July 1st, 2010 | Arts | Read More

‘THE FRUITFUL MATRIX OF GHOSTS’

‘THE FRUITFUL MATRIX OF GHOSTS’
THE PSYCHIC INVESTIGATIONS OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE “A lady once asked me whether I believed in ghosts and apparitions. I answered with truth and simplicity: No, madam! I have seen far too many myself.” (1) © Mike Jay This exchange, recorded by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1809, was more than just...
May 4th, 2010 | Extended Mind | Read More

MUSHROOMS IN WONDERLAND

MUSHROOMS IN WONDERLAND
Was Alice in Wonderland and Victorian fairy art and lore in general inspired by actual experiences with mind-altering fungi? The first well-documented hallucinogenic mushroom experience in Britain took place in London’s Green Park on 3 October 1799. Like many such experiences before and since,...
March 1st, 2010 | Arts | Read More

ADVENTURES IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION

ADVENTURES IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION
THE TIME MACHINE AND THE BIRTH OF CINEMA In October 1895, the twenty-nine year old H.G.Wells was in the first flush of his fame and success. The Time Machine, serialised the previous year, had appeared in book form over the summer, and was heading for the Christmas bestseller lists on the back of reviews...
February 11th, 2010 | Arts | Read More

Legalisation: The First Hundred Years

Legalisation: The First Hundred Years
What happened when drugs were legal and why they were prohibited Mike Jay Today, as the notion of legalising drugs is making its way into the mainstream political agenda for the first time in living memory, one of the most common objections to it is that it represents...
January 3rd, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

Enter the Jaguar

Enter the Jaguar
The monumental ruins of Chavín de Huantar, ten thousand feet up in the Cordillera Blanca of the Peruvian Andes, are, officially, a mystery. The vast, ruined granite and sandstone structures – cyclopean walls, huge sunken plazas and step pyramids – date from around 1000BC but, although they...
December 15th, 2009 | Altered States | Read More

The Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy

The Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy
‘DARKNESS OVER ALL’ – JOHN ROBISON AND THE BIRTH OF THE ILLUMINATI CONSPIRACY By Mike Jay – http://mikejay.net/ At the beginning of 1797, John Robison was a man with a solid and long-standing reputation in the British scientific establishment. He had been Professor of Natural...
November 9th, 2009 | Social Insight | Read More