Western culture, psychedelics

The phrase altered state of consciousness (ASC) took on its current narrow meaning in the psychedelic era of the 1960s. The meaning was centered on the spectacular and exotic visions induced by synthetic drugs like LSD, and was therefore strongly tilted in the direction of psychopharmacology. But consciousness has always been alterable and our present perspective has deep roots in the religious traditions of both Eastern and Western cultures. 

This book is a broad and serious inquiry into this much-discussed topic. It will enlighten and surprise the uninitiated, as well as the frequent user. It includes first-hand reports of the nature of the experience recent scientific theories the use of psychedelics in primitive and non-western cultures and the sociology of drugs in our own society. There are also sections on the potential creative uses of psychedelics, from the enhancement of religious experience to the treatment of alcoholics and the design of mental hospitals. 

Although morning glory seeds contain a substance closely related to LSD-25 - the archetype par excellence for a "psychedelic" drug in Western culture - there is a significant contrast between the subjective effects of the amide versus the diethylamide form of the molecule. 

There have always been two strands in psychedelic culture and counterculture. A majority strand of people felt overwhelmed by the ugliness of Western civilization and wanted to get as much distance from it as possible. But about ten percent always consisted of "sci-fi" types. For instance, Digger manifestoes of 67 and 68 anticipated "machines of loving grace" that would usher in a postscarcity culture. 

In most aboriginal cultures, the extraction process for psychedelic plants is quite simple as often as not, the shaman just boils down the raw materials in a pot and then drinks the concentrated brew. We come from a different tradition with different beliefs and expectations. For one thing, our civilized" tastes have been refined to the point where we have difficulty in ingesting anything we perceive as bitter or repulsive- this,unfortunately, applies to most psychoactive botanicals. I know of no plant hallucinogen that actually tastes good, which I would want to eat even if it weren t a psychedelic. Westerners generally prefer pure compounds in the form of pills or capsules that can be easily swallowed, an efficiency which makes up in acceleration what it loses in verisimilitude. 

Conceptualization is a function of the imagination, an activity which takes place in the imaginal realm. It is what assumes shape when we set the stage for the "inner guide" meditation described previously. For Westerners entering hyperspace with psychedelic drugs from a non-shamanic culture deeply influenced by scientific materialism, some kind of a sufficiently elastic structure (hypothesis) is essential. The above concepts from Peru (however one may choose to modify them for personal use) are highly recommended. Perhaps these ideas may be placed in a more familiar context via a line from Robert Frost ... 

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