Our best wishes and deep respect to psychedelic pioneer and maverick chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin who is preparing for his final trip on Earth; he is “surrounded by love and a lot of laughter,” his wife and research partner Ann Shulgin posted on Facebook:
We are still blessed in that he has no pain — or when he does have a twinge or even a needle-strike, it’s over immediately, and we haven’t had to give him any of the strong pain medicines which Hospice has available. We hope it continues that way.
But everything else is not good news. He’s holding on to life, or at least his body is fighting the good fight (he was always extremely strong and healthy, until a few years ago), and it’s possible that he may live to see his 89th birthday, but we can’t be sure. For that matter, he may stay with us for several months more, but we would be surprised if he did.
Sasha knows that he’s dying, but that doesn’t bother him. He doesn’t know he has cancer of the liver, and there’s no need for him to know; that knowledge would give him nothing useful. After all, as he has said, “We all have to die of something!”