What Hashish Did To Walter Benjamin: Mind-Altering Essays on Marijuana

by Sebastian Marincolo, Joseph Dolce (Preface)

What is it like to be high on marijuana? Can a cannabis high help to remember long gone events, to fuel your imagination, to work creatively, to come to introspective and other insights, to empathically understand others, and to personally grow? How much did cannabis inspire outstanding thinkers, artists and musicians like Charles Baudelaire, Rudyard Kipling, Walter Benjamin, Billie Holiday, Diego Rivera, John Lennon, Carl Sagan, Hal Ashby, and so many others? And how much did the marijuana high positively transfom our society?

"What Hashish Did To Walter Benjamin - Mind-Altering Essays on Cannabis" is a collection of 20 groundbreaking neurophilosophically inspired essays on the astounding positive potential of the cannabis high. The essays summarize more than ten years of Marincolos research and are written for a wide audience. This deep new exploration of the marijuana high as an altered state of consiousness addresses educated marijuana users and their relatives, medical cannabis professionals and patients, as well as neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers interested in the subject of altered states of consciousness.

190 pages, Paperback

Published November 20, 2015

About the author

Dr. Sebastián Marincolo aka Dr. Sebastian Schulz studied philosophy and linguistics in Tübingen, Germany, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States, under the guidance of philosophers Manfred Frank, William G. Lycan, and Simon Blackburn—some of the most influential philosophers of their time. He earned his award-winning doctorate in the interdisciplinary fields of neurophilosophy and the philosophy of consciousness.

Driven by a deep interest in the nature of human consciousness and altered states of consciousness, Marincolo has focused extensively on researching the cannabis high and its impact on higher cognitive functions. His work explores areas such as memory, attention, imagination, pattern recognition, introspection, empathy, creativity, and spontaneous insight.

To pursue his research in a field often fraught with stigma, Marincolo has balanced independent work with professional roles as a photographer, creative director, and senior communication consultant for foundations and internationally operating clients.

In his role as a Director of Communiaction and Marketing for one of the biggest cannabis poducers worldwide he played a pivotal role in advancing the acceptance of medical cannabis across Germany and Europe, ultimately helping tens of thousands of patients gain access to cannabis-based treatments.

Marincolo is the author of six nonfiction books and numerous essays on human consciousness and altered states of consiousness with a focus on the cannabis high. His works have been published by respected publishers such as Klett-Cotta Tropen (Stuttgart, Germany) and Hilaritas Press, the publishing house of Christina Wilson, daughter of Robert Anton Wilson.

He enjoyed a long-standing collaboration and friendship with Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University and one of the world’s most renowned cannabis experts.

Marincolo’s research and cannabis macro-art photography have garnered global media attention, with coverage by SPIEGEL Online, ZDF/3sat, Stuttgarter Zeitung, Hessen 2, SWR1, SWR2, and Deutschlandfunk.

A sought-after speaker at conferences, Marincolo has also been featured as a guest on numerous podcasts, including Joe Dolce’s Brave New Weed Podcast, Aidan McCullen’s Innovation Show, and the TrueLife Podcast.