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Context for The Far-Off Land
A short history of psychedelic therapy
Where Seaich’s 1959 journals sit in the long story of sacred plants, laboratory chemistry, prohibition and today’s clinical research. Status current as of November 3, 2026.
Updated
Before the laboratory
Peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and other visionary plants were used across the Americas for ritual, healing and divination long before any European arrived. Spanish chroniclers of the sixteenth century recorded the Aztec name for the sacred mushroom, Teonanácatl, “the flesh of the god.”
Seaich opens his Introduction with this history, following the peyote cult north to its present form in the Native American Church.
From mescaline to LSD
Arthur Heffter isolated mescaline from peyote in 1897, testing it on himself. In 1938 Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD-25 at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel; on April 19, 1943 he discovered its effects. By the late 1950s Hofmann had also isolated psilocybin and psilocin, and Sandoz was supplying LSD to researchers around the world.
The 1950s: an open season
For a decade, these substances were legal and studied openly. Much research followed a “model psychosis” approach, comparing the drug state with schizophrenia. Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception (1954) brought mescaline to a literary audience, and in 1956–57 Humphry Osmond coined the word “psychedelic.”
This is the world Seaich wrote in. In his autobiography he recalled that he and five University of Utah colleagues each put in ten dollars to order LSD by mail, that Sandoz sent written instructions, and that Dr. Louis Goodman, co-author of the leading pharmacology textbook, offered advice.
Prohibition
From the mid-1960s, federal restrictions closed the field. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 placed LSD and psilocybin in Schedule I, and research largely stopped for a generation. Seaich’s typescript stayed in his library.
The renaissance
From the 2000s, trials at Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, NYU and elsewhere revived research into psychedelics for depression, addiction, PTSD and end-of-life distress. The FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to MDMA for PTSD in 2017 and to psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression in 2018 and major depressive disorder in 2019. In 2024 it declined to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
In April 2026 the FDA granted Compass Pathways a rolling review of its new drug application for COMP360, a synthetic psilocybin treatment for treatment-resistant depression, and selected it for a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher. As of early November 2026 it remains investigational: no classic psychedelic and no MDMA therapy has been approved by the FDA.
Where Seaich fits
Seaich wrote at the end of the open decade, as a composer and pharmacist rather than a clinician. His journals record dose, time and setting, and his essay reads the experience through memory, myth and mysticism. That pairing is why his work reads differently from the clinical reports of the period, and why it speaks to current interest in set and setting, music and meaning.
Sources for the 2026 status
Timeline
- Pre-ColonialIndigenous use of peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and other entheogens across the Americas for ritual, healing, and divination.
- 16th c.Spanish chroniclers document Aztec sacramental use of Teonanácatl and other psychoactive plants.
- 1897Arthur Heffter isolates mescaline from peyote through deliberate self-experimentation.
- 1938Albert Hofmann first synthesizes LSD-25 at Sandoz Laboratories, Basel, Switzerland (November 16).
- 1943Hofmann discovers LSD’s psychedelic properties on April 19, “Bicycle Day.”
- 1954Aldous Huxley publishes The Doors of Perception, the first major literary account of the mescaline experience.
- 1957Humphry Osmond coins the term “psychedelic.” R. Gordon Wasson publishes his mushroom experiences in Life magazine.
- 1958–59Hofmann isolates psilocybin and psilocin from Psilocybe mexicana. Sandoz distributes LSD to researchers worldwide.
- 1959Eugene Seaich writes The Far-Off Land and begins his self-experiments with mescaline and LSD in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- 1960October 22: the ninth and final journal entry.
- 1966–70Legal suppression of psychedelic research; the Controlled Substances Act (1970) classifies LSD and psilocybin as Schedule I.
- 1994American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments protect peyote use in the Native American Church.
- 2000sClinical trials at Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, NYU and elsewhere revive scientific interest in psychedelics for depression, addiction, PTSD and end-of-life distress.
- 2006Eugene Seaich dies. His grandson finds the typescript in his library.
- 2012A first, self-published edition of The Far-Off Land appears.
- 2017The FDA grants Breakthrough Therapy designation to MDMA for PTSD.
- 2018The FDA grants Breakthrough Therapy designation to psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression (COMPASS Pathways). Breakthrough designation is not approval.
- 2019The FDA grants Breakthrough Therapy designation to psilocybin for major depressive disorder (Usona Institute).
- 2024The FDA issues a complete response letter declining to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
- Apr 2026The FDA grants Compass Pathways a rolling review of its new drug application for COMP360 psilocybin and a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher.
- 2026The Annotated Edition is published, restored from the 1959 typescript. No classic psychedelic or MDMA therapy has yet been approved by the FDA.
1959