BAILLY, J.C. and J.P. Guimard. Mandala: Essai sur L’Experience Hallucinogene.

(Paris): Pierre Belfond, 1969. First edition.  Hardcover. 21.6cm by 14.2cm.  330 pages. Scarce and important anthology exploring the phenomenology, aesthetics, and political dimensions of hallucinogenic experience at the height of the European counterculture. This French-language volume combines psychedelic theory, artistic interpretation, and firsthand reports of drug-induced states, situated within the intellectual ferment of the 1960s. A central highlight is the French translation of Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner’s foundational essay On Programming Psychedelic Experiences. Other contributors include philosophers, poets, and underground artists, offering a kaleidoscopic examination of LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin as tools for personal transformation and cultural subversion. The editors—Jean-Claude Bailly and Jean-Pierre Guimard—bring a distinctly French sensibility to the emerging field of consciousness studies, balancing psychoanalytic speculation with mystical inquiry. Visually engaging, the book includes a range of photographic and graphic illustrations evoking altered states and ritual iconography. Though lesser known than English-language psychedelic classics, Mandala remains a key French-language text in the study of psychotropic aesthetics, and a vivid artifact of European hallucinogenic culture. A very good copy, small liquid splash to fore-edge in very good dust jacket.