The outstanding American chemist-pharmacologist of Russian origin lived an amazing life, the analogue of which can only be the feat of Louis Pasteur. But unlike Pasteur, Shulgin tested not new serums, but compounds he synthesized, the legal and social status of which is currently problematic - psychoactive drugs. Having challenged the “new inquisition”, which limited the right of mankind to know itself, Dr. Shulgin, despite all sorts of legal obstacles, continued his research for forty years, achieving a kind of scientific feat, the significance of which only future generations will be able to appreciate.