Why?

I'd venture that it's because "he said that he's learned to identify the signs of grand mal seizures, and if he feels one coming on, he simply sticks himself with a couple hundred milligrams of phenobarbital, straps himself in, and goes for a ride. Then he gets back to work."

How is it not awesome that someone can detect and prevent a major infirmity with such nonchalance and grit?

"How is it not awesome that someone can detect and prevent a SELF INFLICTED major infirmity with such nonchalance"

A bit like being impressed by a surgeon's ability to fix up his own femoral artery when he deliberately shoots himself in the groin.

Hmm, it's a fine line...

sure if the surgeon had shot himself as part of an experiment that would teach the world something. the line - and the observation frankly - look pretty thick otherwise.

Where can I read about the fact that he decided to give himself grand mal seizures?

start with pihkal and tihkal; they discuss his methodologies.

I imagine that obtaining those books might get me put onto a certain government list or two based on what I read at Wikipedia (but thanks anyway! ... just kidding - I don't really know :)

> In 1994, two years after PIHKAL was published, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided Shulgin's lab and requested that he turn over his DEA license. Richard Meyer, spokesman for DEA's San Francisco Field Division, has stated in reference to PIHKAL "It is our opinion that those books are pretty much cookbooks on how to make illegal drugs. Agents tell me that in clandestine labs that they have raided, they have found copies of those books," suggesting that the publication of PIHKAL and the termination of Shulgin's license may have been related.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIHKAL#Impact_.26_popularity