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psychedelicadventures.com
A
Conversation with Charles Hayes, Q:
We commonly associate "tripping" with the 1960s, but in fact people
have been "tripping" for thousands of years. Why have people felt the
need to trip? A:
Because there are genuine, time-tested traditions for the use of plants to
extend consciousness and open the heart to values and wisdom, among other
things. The psychedelic movements of the Sixties and, more recently, the rave
scene have tribalized ritual drug usage in a more informal, youth-oriented
setting, but it all harkens back to ancient shamanic and religious practices
that have existed in most cultures around the world. Q:
What is the appeal of Ecstasy to young people today – as compared to the LSD
so popular in the Sixties? A:
Though there can be negative reactions, in the main, Ecstasy provides a
spectacular feeling of joy and openness that can translate into an intense
communal bond at settings such as raves; a heightened and expanded intimacy The rave movement is
in some ways an echo of the psychedelic Sixties culture, though, in this case,
without the challenge to the ego posed by LSD and similar drugs. In that
respect, Ecstasy use is much less individual-oriented and largely free of such
extreme conditions of alienation and solipsism, since it poses comparatively
very little threat to the psyche. As community-oriented as it is, though, I
don't think the Ecstasy generation has quite the dialectical edge that the
psychedelic movement of the Sixties had. By comparison, LSD breaks down barriers
much more violently than Ecstasy does, and the participants of the Sixties
revolutions had more than one kind of wall they were fighting to bring down,
which deepened the bond they had with one another across several fronts both
physical and metaphysical. Of course, there is
an expressly psychedelic contingent within the rave community, people who mix
LSD and Ecstasy and who use other psychedelics such as DMT and psilocybin to
achieve a sort of pagan, aboriginal grace through what the late shamanologist
Terence McKenna called the "Archaic Revival." Q:
Are there any dangers to Ecstasy use? A:
Yes, I think there definitely are for those who do it too much and too often and
especially with impure material There are reports of nerve damage in such cases,
though the outward symptoms are minimal thus far. For the most part,
though, a single or infrequent dose of 150 milligrams, as had been recommended
in psychiatric practices before Ecstasy was criminalized, has had generally
marvelous effects upon people. Kids, of course, have a way of taking a good
thing too far, so there are definitely perils to watch out for -- just as there
are with, say, alcohol and cars. Harm reduction efforts, such as the lab-testing
done by DanceSafe, should help in this regard.
Q:
Are you concerned that your book glamorizes drugs? A:
My intent is to show both the tolls and the rewards for taking a
chemically-abetted excursion from reality. Rare is the reward without a price.
One guy who dropped acid at a Rainbow Gathering completely bought into the
notion that he was attending the final celebration of the gods and that his
urgent mission was to mate with his chosen one before the entire tribe moved on
to a higher sphere at the climax of the "orgasm death dance." Did he
experience a titanic sense of exhilaration? Sure, but he also had a horrible
comedown when he regained his senses. The same with a flashback
subject, who had a sort of déjà vu of enlightenment, during which he began
speaking in tongues, but then he plummeted into the flipside of that experience
in an episode of horrific eternal recurrence that revisited him in flashbacks
for years to come. Occasionally, it can be
sheer hell, as in the case of a woman who thought she was melting away; or, on
the other end of the spectrum, sheer joy, as experienced by a fellow who watched
a replay of his parents making love in the act of creating him. He just looked
on in awe and gratitude, weeping. Q:
What really happens to a person on psychedelics? A:
Generally, psychedelics dissolve boundaries, which can produce a profound
feeling of interconnectedness, the sense of the microcosm reflecting the
macrocosm on a kind of molecular level. This naturally can lead to spiritual
awakenings but also to what Aldous Huxley called a “terror of the infinite.” Of course, it depends on
the material you’re using. Some psychedelics, notably the tryptamines (DMT and
psilocybin) are known to manifest more hallucinations and even a “voice”
heard by many trippers. Salvia divinorum, the most powerful drug in
nature by weight, tends to send people careening along distinctly
geometrical lines of inner space. Some patterns emerged in
the testimonies, notably a cycle of contraction and relaxation with the latter
winning out - that is if the dose was large enough and/or the subject
surrendered to it. Most commonly, a boundary dissolution process begins that
feels like the deconstruction of the ego and of all form, which tends to arouse
panic. It's as if the pressure of mortality becomes almost unbearable in a
physical sense, but then some mysterious ethereal gust rides through the center
of it and unleashes a fantastic sense of relief and expansiveness. Trippers can
feel as though they've lived their whole lives in a mere instant. Q:
How did you get people to talk about such transgressional events in their lives? A:
It was a pleasure and a relief, even cathartic, for my subjects to reveal (in
taped interviews) some of their most sacred memories to me, which often brought
them to tears. One fellow careened off into a flashback in the middle of
recounting his story. A Scandinavian aristocrat I talked to broke down as he
described being absolved by God during an LSD experience, as did another man who
wept at the memory of a life-saving flash of peyote-derived inspiration on a
dangerous precipice in the Grand Canyon. Many trips have been transformational
for their subjects, who experienced breakthroughs or began new careers as a
result. Q.
Is it necessary for readers to have tripped themselves in order to identify with
these stories? A.
The beauty and terror of the stories in TRIPPING come more from the minds Q:
How did you choose the published stories from among those of the 120 subjects
you interviewed? A:
I selected the stories for dramatic and literary value. I looked for tales that
were true odysseys, adventures in which adversity was faced, and which produced
breakthroughs, spiritual awakening, sexual catharsis, or psychological healing
or some kind. Q:
Where did you find your subjects? A:
I traveled around the world twice to collect the narratives, going to India and
Nepal, to London and across the US and Hawaii, and then returning to my base in
Bangkok, where I was living for most of the project. I had a memorable time
eating legal hashish biscuits with the sadhus in Haridwar, India, at the 1998
Kumbh Mela spiritual gathering, and visiting two legal peyote institutions in
Arizona. Q:
How do you think Terence McKenna’s legacy will be perceived a generation from
now? A:
I think he’ll be seen as the premier psychonaut of the age, who went a long
way toward objectifying the phenomena of the psychedelic experience. He
encouraged psychedelic experients to look far beyond themselves and their petty
concerns for self-integration, serenity, and harmony and all such New Age-ish
platitudes. No longer is the psychedelic pursuit a Sixties-style "Better
Living Through Chemistry," a quick fix to raise your consciousness to a
higher plateau, but an ongoing quest for knowledge about the universe and the
nature of reality. Terence issued a highly
challenging announcement to humanity: that there is a Voice in the Plants trying
to teach us something useful. Q:
Are you trying to promote the legalization of drugs? A:
It's irrelevant whether psychedelics are legal or illegal in this regard: The
intensely dramatic experiences they engender would still be adventuresome and
emotionally resonant, regardless of their legal status. Nevertheless, I think
it’s criminal to incarcerate so many people for pursuing something as
fundamental and natural as altering one’s consciousness. But I’m not a
libertarian on the issue. I believe that all potentially useful drugs should be
heavily regulated, if only to guarantee the chemical hygiene of the substances.
Those who are knowledgeable (chemists, psychiatrists, religious authorities,
shamans) could be placed in charge of institutionalizing the safe and
responsible administration of psychedelics. Q:
Do most individuals really need to experience something as expressly intense,
soul rocking, and utterly strange as a psychedelic experience can be?
A:
Probably not, though that does not in any way reduce the fascination for tales
about such extremities of experience as are found in TRIPPING, adventures within
the mind that may be considered the mental equivalent of mountain climbing or
deep sea diving. Q:
Would you advise anyone to trip on a psychedelic drug? A: Why bother, when you can read TRIPPING and avoid the risks? |
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