Charles and his wife Shelley are a senior couple, who have discovered how to ‘roll’ and have become ‘roll models’ or ‘psychonauts’ themselves.
He has written this book to ‘show others the promised land’ as well as expressing his ideas about the therapeutical benefits of MDMA. Researched from his viewpoint as a psychoanalyst and mental health counsellor.
He describes himself as a 25 year old man trapped in a 65 year old body, and discusses how taking MDMA brings him to ‘Youthlandia’ a place of youth, joy, playfulness and a happy space of a second childhood.
He sees himself as a Utopian:
‘because I have visited heaven and glimpsed the glorious, and I just haven’t been the same since. It’s the politics of experience.’
Charles writes an honest and candid account of his experiences past and present.
The main theme being: taking MDMA ‘the medicine’ as he refers to it in various scenarios with his tribe of ‘psychedelarati’ friends and acquaintances, in a form of group therapy.
There are many fun moments in this book when he writes of festivals and parties he has attended with Shelley.
It is written with warmth and a touch of humour, and oodles of home-grown jargon.
There is also plenty of solid advice, and many important points to consider for anyone experimenting with ecstasy
It was certainly an interesting, insightful and generally understandable read, although a little long for me.
A must read for anyone trying to understand the uses and abuses of MDMA from either side of the fence.

Thanks to NetGalley and Park Street Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
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