THE PHOENIX HAS RISEN FROM THE ASHES: A SOCIO-CULTURAL EXAMINATION OF THE NEO-PSYCHEDELIC MOVEMENT

BY

Shepherd M. Jenks, Jr.

B. A., Liberal Arts, The Evergreen State College, 1981

M. A., Social and Cultural Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1989

DISSERTATION

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy American Studies

The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico

December, 1997

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are many people who made this dissertation possible. I first want to express gratitude to the Department of American Studies at the University of New Mexico for allowing me the freedom to study exactly what I wanted to study. I especially wish to thank the two primary members of my committee, Jane Young (Chair) and Rick Strassman for their editorial expertise, dedication, wisdom and patience. I also wish to thank the other two members of my committee, Gordon Hodge and Ruth Salvaggio, who came through for me at the end. I wish to thank the many members of the neo-psychedelic movement who offered me information, suport, and encouragement, in particular, Ralph Metzner, Terence McKenna, Michael Horowitz, Jerry Beck, Deborah Harlow, Tom Riedlinger, June Riedlinger, Lester Grinspoon, Jim DeKome, Kat Harrison, George Greer, Tom Lyttle, Ralph Melcher, and my brothers and sisters of the Earth Vision Circle. I wish to thank my two favorite academic compatriots, Peter Venturelli and Tim Rouse, for their humor, inspiration, and friendship. Finally, I wish to thank my parents, my sister, and my sons for their love, kindness, and patience in helping me to pursue my dreams.

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THE PHOENIX HAS RISEN FROM THE ASHES: A SOCIO-CULTURAL EXAMINATION OF THE NEO-PSYCHEDELIC MOVEMENT

by

Shepherd M. Jenks, Jr.

B. A., Liberal Arts, The Evergreen State College, 1981

M. A.. Social and Cultural Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1989

ABSTRACT

There is a budding "neo-psychedelic movement" in the United States. This

movement redefines and extends the original psychedelic movement that began

in the 1950s, reached its zenith in the 1960s and declined in the 1970s. As in

the original movement, the neo-psychedelic movement comprises large numbers

of individuals and various groups that are devoted to the use, promotion and/or

study of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, and

MDMA (Ecstasy). These individuals and groups publicize their views and

communicate with each other in a variety of newsletters, magazines, books,

product catalogs, audio and video tapes, at conferences, and on the Internet.

This movement continues to profess the benefits of psychedelic drugs in the

face of severe penalties for their use, and a predominantly negative view of

psychedelics disseminated by the government and the mainstream media.

This dissertation examines the history, structure, beliefs, and behaviors of the

neo-psychedelic movement within the overall context of American culture. The

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movement is broken down into a wide variety of component parts, such as

psychedelic celebrities/experts, psychedelic organizations, psychedelic research

projects, and psychedelic artifacts. These component parts are then analyzed

using an epistemological framework of four intersecting belief categories: 1) the

entheogenic/ethnobotanical approach; 2) the scientific/psychotherapeutic

approach; 3) the recreational approach; and 4) the cyberpsychedelic approach

This dissertation concludes with a discussion of legal and illegal drug use,

the debate over government drug policies, and the current and future impact of

psychedelic drugs and the neo-psychedelic movement on American society.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... vi

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 2 - BACKGROUND AND HISTORICAL INFORMATION ...... 10

CHAPTER 3 - A COMPONENTIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE

NEO-PSYCHEDELIC MOVEMENT ...... 56

CHAPTER 4 - A PROPOSAL AND DISCUSSION OF AN

EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE

NEO-PSYCHEDELIC MOVEMENT ...... 140

CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION ...... 162

NOTES ...... 174

REFERENCES ...... 179

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INTRODUCTION

From the standpoint of the established values of the older world, the psychedelic process is dangerous and insane-a deliberate psychotization, a suicidal undoing of the stability, conformity and equilibrium which man should be striving for. With its emphasis on consciousness, on internal, invisible, indescribable phenomena, with its multiplication of realities, the psychedelic experience is dreadfully incomprehensible to one committed to a rational, Protestant, achievement- oriented, behaviorist, equilibrated, conformist philosophy. But it makes perfect sense to one who is ready to experience the world in terms of the Einsteinian, exponential view of the universe (Leary 1964,17).

Psychedelic drugs have played a complex, ambiguous, yet important role in

American culture during the past fifty years. These drugs were first heralded as

psychiatric wonder drugs (and even chemical weapons) in the late 1940s and

early 1950s, then popularized as consciousness-expanding tools for the masses

in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, and finally stigmatized as

destructive pariahs by American society in the late 1960s and up until the

present.

Although psychedelic drugs have been a part of American society for

decades, they are often associated solely with the 1960s. There are two major

reasons for this association: 1) at this time psychedelics (primarily LSD) became

known to the general American public through a largely negative media

campaign, and 2) during the 1960s many young Americans were involved in the

rebellious "Counterculture" movement, and these young people used

psychedelic drugs in a highly visible manner as one way to profess their anti­

establishment commitment.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Although psychedelic drugs today remain as controversial as they ever were

in the past, they continue to be an unusual phenomenon in the American cultural

landscape. Since the mid-1980s a new and diffuse social movement has arisen

on several fronts to keep these substances in the public mind. As in the original

psychedelic movement, the "neo-psychedelic" movement comprises large

numbers of individuals and various groups that are devoted to the use, worship,

study and/or promotion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, mescaline, psilocybin

mushrooms, and MDMA (Ecstasy). This movement continues to profess the

benefits of psychedelic drugs in the face of severe penalties for their use, and a

predominantly negative view of psychedelics disseminated by the government

and the mainstream media.

The individuals and groups that comprise the neo-psychedelic movement

publicize their views and communicate with each other in a variety of

newsletters, magazines, books, product catalogs, audio and video tapes, at

professional conferences, and in "cyberspace." The individuals in the neo­

psychedelic movement range from young people who take psychedelic drugs at

all-night gatherings known as "raves," to people who take psychedelic drugs for

"personal growth" in a psychotherapeutic context, to people known as "drug

tourists" who travel to exotic locales around the world to ingest psychedelic

substances with the "natives." The groups in the neo-psychedelic movement

range from scientifically-oriented organizations such as the Multidisciplinary

Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which promotes legitimate

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. scientific research with psychedelics, to religious organizations such as the

Peyote Way Church of God, which worships the mescaline-containing peyote

cactus as a divine sacrament.

This dissertation is the product of research data about the neo-psychedelic

movement that I have been collecting and analyzing for several years. During

this study I have gathered data from three primary sources: 1) published

materials written by the members of the neo-psychedelic movement itself or by

various mainstream and alternative media sources; 2) two psychedelic

conferences I attended; and 3) various sorts of cultural artifacts associated with

the neo-psychedelic movement.

I will first provide background and historical information about psychedelic

drugs since the reader may be unfamiliar with this particularly complex and

unusual class of psychoactive substance. Second, I will discuss the primary

causes for the increased visibility of psychedelic drugs in American culture after

a seemingly long hiatus. Third, I will document and analyze the various

components of the neo-psychedelic movement such as individuals,

organizations, written texts, and cultural artifacts. Fourth, I will provide a

detailed analysis of the movement's key beliefs and behaviors, and place the

movement within a drug subcultural context. Finally, I will discuss the neo­

psychedelic movement within the overall context of American culture in the

1990s.

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Methodological Considerations

Personal Statement

In any sort of qualitative research in which the lines between the observer

and the observed can become blurred, I feel it is very important for the observer

to place him or herself in the context of what is being studied. What are the

rationales, both professional and personal, for the study? Why pursue this

object of study rather than others? So, in this personal statement I will try to

explicate my own research context.

I initially became interested in the neo-psychedelic movement as a result of

my more general interest in drug subcultures. As my doctoral studies in the drug

field proceeded, I began to notice that most drug subculture research seemed to

be focused on inner-city heroin and crack cocaine users, who are frequently

poor, marginalized, and people of color. Given the fact that most illegal drug

users are White (Lusane 1991), I wondered why drug subculture researchers

were ignoring the obviously large numbers of middle-class White users of

heroin, cocaine, PCP, marijuana, psychedelics, and other drugs.

However, coming from a cultural anthropology background I was aware of a

debate in this discipline about the historic tendency to study "down" rather than

"up" (e.g., Nader 1974), or more specifically, the tendency to study foreign,

exotic, or marginalized cultures rather than cultures more similar to those of the

researchers themselves . This bias in anthropological research also seemed to

apply to the bias in drug subculture research that focused on drug use occurring

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on the street, in crack houses, or heroin "shooting galleries," rather than drug

use occurring in the suburbs, on college campuses, or in corporate offices.

Consequently, I began examining marijuana and psychedelic drug

subcultures because they seemed to be in need of study. In particular, I was

very surprised that research into marijuana subcultures was so lacking given that

marijuana is by far the most widely used illegal drug in the U.S.

As I delved deeper into my research on marijuana and psychedelics, I

discovered that these two types of illegal drugs are the only substances that

seem to inspire users to form social groups and informational exchange

networks devoted to the promotion of these substances, e.g., National

i Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws or Multidisciplinary Association

for Psychedelic Studies (Jenks 1995). In contrast, one does not see a National

Organization for the Reform of Heroin Laws or a Multidisciplinary Association for

Crack Studies. This phenomenon seemed interesting and important to me so I

decided to look into it further, primarily by focusing on psychedelic subcultures in

my doctoral research.

Another reason why I chose to study psychedelic drugs is that these

substances have been neglected by both scientifically and humanistically-

oriented academic scholarship. Whereas other popular illegal drugs such as

heroin, crack/cocaine, and to a lesser extent, marijuana have been examined

from various sociological, anthropological, medical, and criminal perspectives,

psychedelic drugs and subcultures remain under-studied, especially during the

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last 20 years.

I believe that there are two primary reasons for this lack of scholarly attention:

1) strong cultural taboos against psychedelics have hindered the traditional

inclination for scientists and scholars to examine any society-wide phenomenon

regarding drugs, and 2) psychedelics have been seen as less important to study

than other drugs because other drugs are used and abused more widely in

American society, and are seen to cause more pronounced social problems and

criminal activity.

Audience

l also believe that it is important in qualitative research to define an intended

i audience for which one is providing a written explanation of research activities

and findings. Obviously, this dissertation is being written specifically for the

members of my dissertation committee so that I can fulfill the requirements for

my Ph.D.. But more generally my intended audience for this study is anyone

interested in psychedelic drug subcultures, particularly those who may not even

be aware that large numbers of people use psychedelic drugs or that the neo­

psychedelic movement exists at all.

The audience I am writing for is not necessarily the people within the neo­

psychedelic movement itself, since most of them are probably already familiar

with the parameters of their own activities and interests. They may find much of

my research "old news" except for, perhaps, my analysis of the movement and

related conclusions.

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Data

The intent of this dissertation is to paint a broad picture of the neo­

psychedelic movement with the intention of illuminating an overall holistic

perspective, or "gestalt," to this phenomenon. Given that the neo-psychedelic

movement is a very large, complex, and diffuse phenomenon, choosing this

broad focus has necessitated processing and analyzing a great deal of

information from a sizable number of sources. Although I have attempted to

utilize as many of these sources as possible, I have had to make choices

regarding what data I would include in this dissertation and what data I would

not.

For example, I originally planned to conduct formal interviews with a variety

of people within the neo-psychedelic movement in order to supplement the body

of written material concerning the movement. However, after delving into this

written material I realized that perhaps I was too ambitious in planning to include

formal interviews as an additional source of data because 1) much of the written

material consists of the personal beliefs and experiences of members of the neo­

psychedelic movement itself, and thus represents information that would be very

similar to information gathered in individual interviews, and 2) the written

material consists of an inordinately large amount of information that is constantly

growing larger due to the growth of the movement.

Consequently, the primary sources of data that I have utilized in this

dissertation consist of psychedelic drug-related books, magazines, newspapers,

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journals, newsletters, articles, flyers, brochures, and catalogs. Also, to a limited

degree, I have utilized a few compact discs, audio and video tapes, television

and radio programs, and cultural artifacts such as t-shirts and posters.

Collecting these materials has been no small feat given that 1) most books about

psychedelics that were published more than ten years ago (which perhaps

represent the majority) are out of print and were never included in most library

collections; 2) recent books about psychedelics are frequently expensive and/or

published by obscure presses, and again are not collected by libraries; and 3)

the sheer number of psychedelic drug-related newsletters, brochures,

magazines, catalogs, articles, etc. is staggering and constantly growing, making

their procurement very time-consuming and often expensive.1

The purpose of collecting, reviewing, and analyzing these materials was to

gain an understanding of what the neo-psychedelic movement is, what its

activities are, what types of beliefs its members hold, how it communicates with

and represents itself, and how it is generally perceived by mainstream society.

In short, I have approached the written materials in this study as cultural texts

containing information from which I have been able to discover and describe the

overall cultural themes and patterns of the neo-psychedelic movement.

A secondary source of data I have utilized consists of information that I have

gathered from various Internet sites such as the World Wide Web. Although the

Internet has become a crucial link in the information network of the neo­

psychedelic movement in just a few short years, I have chosen to provide only a

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relatively superficial account of this new phenomenon in this dissertation. The

reason for this is that I simply need to limit the scope of my research in order to

keep my focus manageable. The Intemet/neo-psychedelic movement

connection is very strong and complex, expanding at a rapid pace; therefore, this

phenomenon is ripe for a detailed future research project.

Finally, I have conducted dissertation fieldwork by attending two psychedelic

conferences: 1) the April 1993 "Psychedelic Summit Meetings" celebrating the

50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, CA;

and 2) the October 1996 "Entheobotany: Shamanic Plant Science" conference in

San Francisco. These conferences represented a mass congregation or

"gathering of the tribes" of many individuals and groups involved in the neo­

psychedelic movement. At these conferences I was able to gather a generous

amount of field data about many aspects of the movement.

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BACKGROUND AND HISTORICAL INFORMATION

The growing presence in our midst of chemicals that seem to alter consciousness raises questions of the utmost importance for us as individuals and as social beings. Examples of these questions are: What do these drugs tell us about the relationship between mind and body? Are they legitimate tools (in any sense) for changing the mind in a direction of greater awareness? How can a society come to terms with the individual urge to alter awareness? These questions are important because they bear directly on the nature of consciousness, which is, ultimately, the only problem worthy of total intellectual effort. It is the concern of all the world's philosophies and religions, other problems being less precise statements of the same thing. All of us are working on the problem of consciousness on some level, and the conclusions we come to determine what we think about ourselves and the universe, how we live, and how we act (Weil 1986, 1-2).

An important reason why psychedelic drugs have inspired so much

controversy over the years is that both experts and lay-people alike have great

difficulty agreeing on what these substances are and what they are not, and

what effects these substances have and what they do not. This controversy over

psychedelic drugs is exacerbated not only by the fact that the effects of

psychedelics can encompass the full range of human experience (which, by its

very nature cannot be wholly understood), but also because so many other

complex factors often enter the debate such as myth, misinformation, prejudice,

ignorance, and most importantly, differing perspectives of reality, religion,

science, and politics (Grinspoon and Bakalar 1979).

At the most basic level psychedelic drugs are either natural, synthetic, or

semi-synthetic psychoactive substances that have a profound effect on the

human mind. Even at this level, though, the line between made-by-nature and

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man-made is sometimes blurred, since the primary psychoactive alkaloids in

most natural psychedelic substances have been reproduced in the laboratory.

Some people would argue, however, that to remove the psychoactive alkaloid

from its natural, plant or fungi-based state through chemical synthesis

thoroughly alters the "essence" of the original substance. A good example of

this thinking might lie in a Native American's belief that the peyote cactus is an

intelligent plant-being in and of itself, and not just a plant containing the readily

synthesized psychedelic alkaloid called mescaline.

Natural psychedelic plants and fungi such as peyote and psilocybin

mushrooms (the two best known in this country) have been used by human

beings for thousands of years, while semi-synthetic psychedelics such as LSD

and synthetic psychedelics such as MDMA (Ecstasy) have become part of the

psychedelic pharmacopeia only in this century.

In general, the effects of all types of psychedelics are similar, having

relatively minor physical effects such as dilation of pupils, and mildly increased

heart rate and blood pressure. However, the perceptual and psychological

effects of psychedelics can be very pronounced. In their book,The Varieties of

Psychedelic Experience, Masters and Houston offer this thorough and eloquent

description of these effects:

... Changes in visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and kinesthetic perception; changes in experiencing time and space; changes in the rate and content of thought; body image changes; hallucinations; vivid images—eidetic images-seen with the eyes closed; greatly heightened awareness of color; abrupt and frequent mood and affect changes;

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heightened suggestibility; enhanced recall or memory; depersonalization and ego dissolution; dual, multiple, and fragmentized consciousness; seeming awareness of internal organs and processes of the body; upsurge of unconscious materials; enhanced awareness of linguistic nuances; increased sensitivity to nonverbal cues; sense of capacity to communicate much better by nonverbal means, sometimes including the telepathic; feelings of empathy; regression and "primitivization"; apparently heightened capacity for concentration; magnification of character traits and psychodynamic processes; an apparent nakedness of psychodynamic processes that makes evident the interaction of ideation, emotion, and perception, with one another and with inferred unconscious processes; concern with philosophical, cosmological, and religious questions; and, in general, apprehension of a world that has slipped the chains of normal categorical ordering, leading to an intensified interest in self and world and also to a range of responses moving from extremes of anxiety to extremes of pleasure (Masters and Houston 1966, 5).

However, one of the most important facts about psychedelics that is frequently

not emphasized is that the actual effects of these substances can vary greatly

depending on the specific substance, dosage, and most importantly, the "set"

and "setting" in which they are taken-the set being the individual personality or

state of mind of the user at the time of ingestion, and the setting being both the

physical and interpersonal environment where the drug is experienced.

For example, one time a person might take LSD with friends at a "rave" and

experience profound feelings of euphoria and togetherness without experiencing

any visual distortions. Another time the same person might take the same dose

of LSD alone at home and experience profound feelings of anxiety accompanied

by horrific visual hallucinations. Moreover, this hypothetical situation could just

as easily be reversed with the group experience being a "bad trip" and the

solitary experience being a "good trip." The complexity of the psychedelic

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experience can also be seen here in how this same person ends up interpreting

the two situations in retrospect. He or she might perceive the "good trip" as

merely an enjoyable experience without much residual impact, while perceiving

the "bad trip" as profoundly healing and life-changing.1

Perhaps the primary lesson of psychedelic drugs that is often lost in the

whirlwinds of controversy is that they have the enormous and almost

incomprehensible potential to invoke the entire range of human experience:

from the most pleasurable, religious, and euphoric to the most terrifying, hellish,

and painful-and sometimes this range of experience can occur during the

course of one psychedelic trip! This is why the psychedelic experience can be

so puzzling, fascinating, and difficult to comprehend. As the discoverer of LSD,

Albert Hofmann, states:

Both are part of our existence. Only when we are conversant with both, heaven and hell, is our life full and rich; and it is fuller and richer the more deeply we experience both. The psychedelic experience can lead us to the deepest depths and the highest heights, to the boundaries of that which humankind is capable of experiencing (Hofmann 1996, 52).

The psychedelic experience is very chameleon-like and seems to mirror

whatever perspective or worldview one brings to the experience (Grof 1994).

The entire experience seems to emphasize the belief that one creates one's own

reality, and this is why different people can come to very different conclusions

about what this phenomenon really is: for psychopathologists the psychedelic

experience is psychosis; for shamans the experience is visionary; for artists the

experience is creative; for mystics the experience is mystical; for the party-goer

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the experience is a good time; for anti-drug advocates the experience is

dangerous; and for law enforcement personnel the experience is criminal.

Similarly, when people with different perspectives attempt to describe the

psychedelic experience with a label, their choice of words can also be quite

different. Over the years, there have been many labels used to describe this

class of drug: psychotomimetic (to mimic psychosis), psycholytic (mind-

loosening), psychodysleptic (mind-disrupting), hallucinogenic (causing

hallucinations), oneirogenic (causing dreams), entheogenic (generating God

within us), and of course, psychedelic (mind-manifesting).

At the present time, the two most widely used terms are hallucinogenic and

i psychedelic and they represent an excellent example of the "politics of

labeling."2 In general, the people who use the term psychedelic are proponents

of the drugs or drug users themselves, while those who use the term

hallucinogenic usually do so within a medical or legal context. Most of the

people within the "psychedelic subculture" prefer the term psychedelic to

hallucinogenic, regarding the latter term as misleading and having a negative

connotation since 1) most psychedelic experiences do not produce actual

hallucinations (Szara 1994), and 2) hallucinations in modem American culture

imply something not real, that only "crazy people" see.3 Moreover, in many

preindustrial cultures what we modems would call hallucinations are described

as visions, and represent a meaningful communication with a spirit realm-a

realm of non-ordinary reality where knowledge and wisdom can be acquired and

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then brought for use into the "real" world (Hamer 1973; Rublowsky 1974;

Wallace 1958). As renowned ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson states:

"Hallucination" means "a lie." A hallucination is nothing. I don't like the word. I do not think it should be used. ...It is all right for Tim Leary and their ilk, they can use it, but it is a shabby word, "hallucination." It is not a hallucination what you experience when you consume the mushrooms that produce visions and that speak (quoted in Forte 1997a, 68-69).

For proponents, the term psychedelic (mind-manifesting) seems to better

encompass what the majority of users experience while under the influence of

these drugs, although mind-manifesting is obviously somewhat vague (which

might actually be its primary appeal to most people). Finally, psychedelic has

come to mean more than just a type of drug in popular usage. The word also

describes a sort of 1960s Counterculture sensibility marked by a free-spirit

attitude, unusual behavior, and Day-Glo colors.

The Beginnings

Before examining the neo-psychedelic movement, it is important to

understand something about the original psychedelic movement. This original

psychedelic movement is often mistakenly associated solely with the 1960s;

however, it actually coalesced in the 1940s and 1950s, and, more broadly, has

deep roots in pre-industrial human civilization.

Psychedelic drugs in the form of plants and fungi have been used around the

world by pre-industrial cultures for many thousands of years. These "Plants of

the Gods" (Schultes and Hofmann 1979) were (and are) used for a variety of

religious and medical purposes, and in many cases they were central to the

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cultural foundations of a people's way of life. In fact, a few researchers (e.g.,

McKenna 1991, 1992; Wasson et al. 1986; Wasson, Ruck, and Hofmann 1978)

have advanced the hypothesis that psychedelic plants and fungi provided the

initial impetus for humanity's religious impulses:

As man emerged from his brutish past, thousands of years ago, there was a stage in the evolution of his awareness when the discovery of a mushroom (or was it a higher plant?) with miraculous properties was a revelation to him, a veritable detonator to his soul, arousing in him sentiments of awe and reverence, and gentleness and love, to the highest pitch of which mankind is capable, all those sentiments and virtues that mankind has ever since regarded as the highest attribute of his kind (Wasson, Ruck, and Hofmann 1978, 23).4

European knowledge of psychedelics began in the 16th century when the

Spanish Conquistadors discovered that the indigenous peoples of Mexico used

a wide variety of these substances: psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and ololiuqui

(morning glory seeds containing LSD-like compounds). The Spanish were quick

to condemn these sacred plants "as pestiferous and wicked poisons from the

devil" (Anderson 1980, 3) and began a strident, centuries-long "war on drugs"

attempt to stamp out this evil. However, the Indians of Mexico simply went

underground with their knowledge and use of psychedelic plants and a fair

amount of this tradition remains to this day.

In the mid to late 19th century, botanists in both the United States and

Europe identified and classified the peyote cactus, which grows in a large area

of northern Mexico and southern Texas. Soon reports of peyote's psychoactive

characteristics reached scientists such as German psychopharmacologist Arthur

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Heffter, American physician Weir Mitchell, and English psychologist Havelock

Ellis, who experimented on themselves to discover the wonders of this New

World plant the Conquistadors had called "raiz diabolica" or the devil's root

(Stafford 1992, 104). These early Western psychedelic explorers described the

fantastic worlds they visited after ingesting peyote, and little did they know that

they were beginning a long tradition of scientific inquiry into psychedelics that

would grow over the next 100 years.

Coincidentally, also in the late 19th century, the indigenous Mexican tradition

of using peyote as a religious sacrament was brought out of Mexico and up to

the Native Americans within the United States. At this time, the Plains Indians,

in particular the Comanches and the Kiowa, lost their bitter battle against the

White man and were herded onto reservations in Oklahoma. In an attempt to

keep some semblance of their cultural traditions they began a religious revival

movement around 1890 using the peyote "medicine" from Mexico (Stewart

1987).

The new peyote worshiping cults on reservations in Oklahoma became a way

for Native Americans to uphold their traditions in the face of the White man's

attempts to erase the Indian way of life. On these reservations the benevolent

White custodians believed the Indians needed to be assimilated into the White

American culture, so they banned most Native American cultural practices.

Instead, they made the Indians wear the White man's clothes, eat the White

man's food, speak the White man’s language, and practice the White man's

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religion.

Anderson (1980) proposes five basic elements that explain why the new

peyote ceremony appealed to these Indians:

1) Included traditional Indian religious symbols

2) Was partly magical and contained visions

3) Encouraged the pan-Indian sentiment

4) Incorporated a belief in salvation as well as an ethical code

5) Adopted certain parts of the Christian religion

These five elements served to help resolve the conflict between Native

Americans and White American culture in two important ways: first, they allowed

the Indians to keep some means for traditional religious expression while

encouraging solidarity among all Indians; and second, they provided a means for

compromise with the White American culture by incorporating Christian beliefs

and ethical codes into Native American culture (Aberle 1982).

The peyote ceremony was only partly successful in reducing cultural conflicts

between Indians and Whites because its existence created new conflicts. Not

only were many Whites suspicious of the new ceremony, especially since a

"drug" was involved, but also, many Indians, too, were against the ceremony

because they saw it as a threat to their ancient traditional ways. Although these

controversies, both within and outside of the Native American culture, remain to

this day, the peyote ceremony continues to help and enrich the lives of over one-

half the adult Native American population (Mount 1987).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Native American Church (NAC) was incorporated in 1918 in an attempt

to formally legitimize the peyote ceremony within the White American culture.

The Articles of Incorporation read:

The purpose for which this corporation is formed is to foster and promote religious believers in Almighty God and the customs of the several Tribes of Indians throughout the United States in the worship of a Heavenly Father and to promote morality, sobriety, industry, charity, and rightliving and cultivate a spirit of self-respect and brotherly love and union among members of the several Tribes of Indians throughout the United States...with and through the sacramental use of peyote (de Ropp 1957, 32).

The NAC regards peyote as a sacrament, and uses this plant in an elaborate,

highly ritualized ceremony. This all-night-long ceremony, which is usually held

in a tepee and led by a "priest" known as the "Roadman," consists of much

prayer-saying, drumming, and singing, as well as the ingestion of peyote. The

ceremony is seen as a general mind/body/spirit healing session for everyone

involved, although special sessions are frequently called to heal the ailments of

a specific person or even to celebrate a birth or wedding. NAC members believe

that the use of peyote gives them a way to communicate directly with the Great

Spirit and thus bring harmony into one's life (Brito 1989).

Over the years, one of the most important functions of the NAC has been to

help guarantee Indian use of peyote under the First Amendment (freedom of

religion) to the Constitution. The Church has fought many state and federal

court battles over this issue because of the White culture's prejudices against

Native Americans in general, and their inability to see how any psychoactive

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substance can be used as a sacrament (of course, the use of sacramental wine

is always conveniently overlooked). At the present time, the use of peyote by

Native Americans is legal in only 23 states. The issue continues to be a struggle

for the NAC given the federal government's drug war rhetoric and the Supreme

Court's general conservative sympathies.

In the 1990 Employment Division vs. Smith case, the Supreme Court

overruled several legal precedents by deciding that the sacramental use of

peyote by Native Americans was not protected by the First Amendment to the

Constitution. The court's majority ruled that the state's interest in curbing the

use of illegal drugs took precedence over any religious right Native Americans

have to use peyote (Bullis 1990). No mention was made in this majority opinion

of the fact that illegal traffic in and recreational use of peyote is practically non­

existent (Pavlik 1991). However, in a "check and balance" rebuke to this

decision, a bill guaranteeing the right of Native Americans to use peyote for

religious purposes (H.R. 4230, sponsored by Congressman Bill Richardson of

New Mexico) was passed in October 1994 by Congress and signed into law by

President Clinton (Franklin and Patchen 1994).

The Native American Church is important to the psychedelic story because it

represents not only how psychedelics can be used in a positive and beneficial

manner (the way they have been used in other pre-industrial cultures), but also,

intriguingly, how their use can be effectively transferred into and adapted for

another culture’s purposes. This latter fact is often overlooked-the peyote

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ceremony is by no means indigenous to the Native North Americans nor is it a

very old phenomenon.

Moreover, the struggles of the NAC to gain recognition and legal status as a

bona fide religion mirror the struggles of the mostly White proponents of

psychedelic drugs during the last 40 years, primarily because both groups are

fighting against American culture’s stigmatization of these substances.

However, there are many scholars, government officials, and perhaps most

members of the NAC, who would claim that the use of peyote by Native

Americans has nothing to do with the use of psychedelic drugs by mostly White

Americans. As La Barre argues in the preface to the second edition of his

classic work The Peyote Cult

... epistemological techniques among Amerindians and among Europeans are diametrically opposed; the two groups have quite different cognitive maps. Indians still actively seek in peyote the supernatural visionary experience; but Europeans strenuously pursue the critique that seeks assiduously to rid experience of idiosyncratic subjective elements. ... it is a shaky claim to a secular and scientific posture of others like Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary that makes us queasy-in addition to our profoundly differing view that, like science, effective social criticism requires as clear a head and articulate a tongue as possible, rather than a drugged mind seeking private feeling or the semantically ineffable (LaBarre 1989, xiv-xv).

Inadvertently, La Barre revives an old anthropological question here. That is,

to what extent can a person from one culture actually enter into and comprehend

the often radically different culture of another? I believe that under usual

circumstances it is very difficult for anyone to do this except in a way that

penetrates the other culture to only a more or less moderate depth. However, I

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also think that if an outsider is able to enter another culture by sharing that

culture's use of a psychedelic substance, then the outsider stands a much

greater chance of penetrating deeply into the core of the other belief system.

The reason for this is that by its very nature the psychedelic experience tends to

rearrange one's usual perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs, thus allowing one to be

more open to differing perspectives of reality. Some notable examples in the

psychedelic literature include Castaneda's (1968) experiences with Yaqui Indian

shaman Don Juan, Danner’s (1982) journeys with the Yanomama in Venezuela,

Lamb's (1971) account of Manuel Cordova’s life with the Amahuaca in the

Amazon, and Myerhoffs (1974) ethnography of the Huichol peyote hunt in

Mexico.

The Modem Psychedelic Revolution

If one has to pick a date for when the modem psychedelic revolution began, it

would most likely be 1943 when the Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann, accidently

discovered the amazing psychoactive properties of LSD-25. Although several

scientists had previously explored the properties and uses of mescaline, never

before had a new, semi-synthetic psychedelic drug been discovered, and never

before (nor in any time since) had any drug been discovered with the potency of

LSD. Hofmann found that LSD is psychoactive in the microgram (1/1,000,000

gram) range, which is seven thousand times more potent than the effective dose

for mescaline—the most potent psychedelic drug known up to that time

(Wakefield 1964).

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Hofmann actually first synthesized LSD in 1938 while working for the

pharmaceutical company, Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. He had

been synthesizing new compounds from a base of the rye fungus ergot in search

of a new circulatory and respiratory stimulant. When animal experiments on

LSD proved inconclusive, Hofmann shelved the drug until 1943, at which time he

had a premonition to synthesize LSD again. This time, while preparing the drug,

he unknowingly absorbed a small amount of it through his skin and soon began

experiencing "a not unpleasant intoxicated condition, characterized by an

extremely stimulated imagination" (Hofmann 1980, 15).

Three days later on April 19, 1943 Hofmann intentionally ingested what he

thought to be a very minute dose (250 micrograms) of LSD. It was actually a

fairly large dose and he was forced to leave his laboratory early to go home on

his bicycle. This psychedelic bicycle ride home and Hofmann's subsequent full­

blown LSD "trip" has become a legendary event in psychedelic lore. Although

during this trip Hofmann found his experience to be quite disturbing, he awoke

the next morning with "a sensation of well-being and renewed life" (Hofmann

1980, 19), and he immediately realized that he had discovered something

extraordinarily important.

By 1947, after a few years of research, Sandoz Laboratories began marketing

LSD as an aid in psychotherapy, because of its perceived tendency to loosen

repressed psychological material in the patient's unconscious (Hofmann 1980).

This type of therapy became known as psycholytic or "mind-loosening" therapy.

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This therapeutic method arose out of the psychoanalytic model in which analysts

would gain access to their patients’ unconscious (and thus to repressed,

pathological material) through free association and dreams. LSD seemed to

loosen up the psychological defenses warding off unconscious material in a

much more effective manner than these traditional psychoanalytic methods

(Sandison 1954, 1991).

Another experimental use Sandoz proposed for LSD was to study the nature

of psychoses, because the drug seemed to have psychotomimetic (to mimic

psychosis) properties. Sandoz suggested 1) that psychiatrists could take LSD

themselves in order to gain first-hand knowledge of what these psychotic states

were like; and 2) that normals be given LSD in order for researchers to further

study the nature of psychoses (Stevens 1987).

These two models for the psychedelic experience, psycholytic and

psychotomimetic, became the primary scientific paradigms for research into

psychedelic drugs from the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. From the late

1950s and up until the early 1960s, as the complexity of the psychedelic

experience was debated and became better understood, and as other more

humanistic psychological theories competed with psychoanalysis for viability, the

psycholytic and psychotomimetic paradigms gradually met with competition from

other models (Neill 1987). As Cohen states in his seminal book The Beyond

Within: The LSD Story.

When these drugs [psychedelics] came under scientific scrutiny after

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World War II, they were believed to cause a "model psychosis." a "madness in miniature." The hope was that a schizophrenia-producing drug might teach us how to cure psychiatry's greatest problem in the laboratory. It is now generally agreed that the drugged state does not quite mimic the naturally occurring schizophrenias. ..."psychotomimetic" describes only one aspect of the LSD state. Most people who take the drug do not become psychotic (Cohen 1966, 12-13).

However, to this day psycholytic psychedelic therapy continues in Europe,

perhaps because Europe has always been the primary home of psychoanalysis.

The psychotomimetic paradigm, too, continues to have adherents, especially

among those who see psychedelics as a menace to society such as Supreme

Court justice Antonin Scalia, who penned the majority opinion in the 1990 Smith

peyote decision (see page 20), and the oft-quoted psychiatrist, Dr. Henry

Abraham, who says taking LSD is like playing Russian roulette with your brain

(Urban 1993).

One of the reasons why there was such a scientific interest in LSD during the

1940s and 1950s was that the science of medical psychiatry was making great

strides in psychopharmacology and in understanding the biological base of

mental illness. This discovery of the "chemical brain" led to the identification of

chemical neurotransmitters that govern a wide range of perceptions, emotions,

and behaviors. Soon,

...sensing a lucrative market, the pharmaceutical companies began an aggressive search for mind drugs. Thorazine, the first major tranquilizer, appeared in 1954, the sedative Miltown a year later, to be followed by Stellazine, Mellaril, Valium, Librium, Elavil, Tofranil—a miscellany that was destined to change the face of psychology by giving it a technology that could control, if not actually cure, most mental illness (Stevens 1987, 19).

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Astonishingly, Freud's prescient prediction of fifty years earlier that "behind

every psychoanalyst stands the man with the syringe" seemed to be coming true

(quoted in de Ropp 1957, 212).

Another important chapter of the modern psychedelic revolution also began

in the late 1940s and early 1950s. At this time the CIA implemented several

long, top secret programs designed to investigate the potential of psychoactive

drugs *'or use in chemical warfare (Lee and Shlain 1985). The goals of these

multi-million dollar programs with code names like Operation Bluebird, Operation

Artichoke, and later Operation MK-ULTRA were to see if any sorts of drugs

could be used as behavior modifiers, truth serums, memory erasers, and

disorientation and torture agents in the fight against the perceived enemies in

the Cold War. Over the next 25 years the CIA tested just about every

psychoactive drug known: marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, psilocybin

mushrooms, DMT, PCP, amyl nitrate, nitrous oxide, barbiturates, amphetamines,

and tranquilizers (Lee and Shlain 1985).

The true scandal in these top-secret programs was not that the CIA

investigated these drugs for use in chemical warfare, but that they engaged in

illegal, unethical, dubious, and dangerous activities during their obsessional

Cold War-fueled quest. Not only did the CIA secretly engage the services of

universities, hospitals, research labs, and prisons around the country, as well as

monitoring the work of drug researchers not on their payroll, they also

administered these drugs to thousands of unwitting civilians and military

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personnel, many of whom suffered temporary or permanent disabilities, and

some of whom died (Lee and Shlain 1985).

All of the CIA's activities in this area remained completely secret until 1977

when, under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA was forced to declassify

documents outlining its extensive investigations into psychoactive drugs. A

public uproar ensued and the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health and

Scientific Research (chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy) conducted hearings

on this issue. The hearings, which were decidedly superficial, concluded that

although the CIA did engage in many questionable activities during its

investigations into psychoactive drugs, these activities were no longer practiced

by the agency (Lee and Shlain 1985).

Another date that arguably marks the beginning of the modern psychedelic

revolution, at least from a popular point of view, is 1954, when Aldous Huxley

published his psychedelic tour-de-force,The Doors of Perception. Huxley

(1952) was a famous English novelist/philosopher who had written a best seller

called Brave New World, which described a horrific, futuristic civilization whose

population was forced into obedient compliance with a powerful mind-control

drug. InThe Doors of Perception, Huxley brilliantly described his first

experience with mescaline given to him by the psychiatric/psychedelic

researcher Humphrey Osmond (who later coined the term psychedelic or "mind-

manifesting"). During the experience, Huxley was completely stunned by the

"beatific vision" he saw-he kept repeating to himself 'This is how one ought to

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see, how things really are" (Huxley 1954, 34).

Huxley's book was the first popular work to call attention to the vast religious,

mystical, and philosophic possibilities invoked by the use of psychedelic drugs.

The book harshly criticized the narrow psychotomimetic paracigm of

psychedelics, which dominated the scientific literature of that time. The Doors of

Perception offered a new theoretical paradigm that would later become the

psychedelic paradigm, which regarded the brain and nervous system as a giant

reducing valve or filtering mechanism that could be freed from its perceptive

prison by the psychedelic experience. Huxley quotes English philosopher C.D.

Broad:

Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful (Huxley 1954, 22-23).

Thus, Huxley borrowed the title for his book from this poetic vision of William

Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to

man as it is, infinite" (5).

Another crucial publication that appeared in the 1950s to set the stage for the

coming psychedelic revolution of the 1960s was a May 1957 article in LIFE

magazine by the banker and amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson. In this

article Wasson and his pediatrician wife Valentina described their rediscovery of

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the legendary Aztec teonanacatl or "God’s Flesh" in Mexico. The use of this

psilocybin-containing mushroom was believed to have been stamped out after

the Spanish Conquest; however, the Wassons discovered a group of Mazatec

Indians still using it in Oaxaca led by a shaman named Maria Sabina. The

Wassons ate the "magic" mushrooms and recounted their psychedelic

experiences in glowing terms to millions of mainstream Americans. In the article

Wasson even quotes Maria Sabina's response when he asked her what the

effects of the mushroom were. She said simply 'They carry you there where

God is" (quoted in Strausbaugh and Blaise 1991, 77).

The story of how Wasson's article appeared in such a popular magazine as

LIFE is just as fascinating as the article itself. Through his position as bank vice

president of J. P. Morgan & Company, Wasson had become friends with

conservative Henry Luce, president of Time-Life Corporation, and his equally

well-known wife, Clare Booth Luce. During the late 1950s, the Luce's had

experimented with LSD under the supervision of UCLA psychiatrist Sidney

Cohen, and they were both amazed by their experiences. Consequently, Henry

Luce felt more than happy to publish the Wasson's mushroom experiences in

order to inform the American public about these new wonder drugs (Lee and

Slain 1985).

The Luces were by no means the only famous or soon to be famous people

who experimented with psychedelics during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

After reading the Wasson article in LIFE, both Harvard psychologist Timothy

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Leary and famed nutritionist, Adelle Davis, tried psychedelics for the first tim e-

Leary taking mushrooms with friends in Mexico and Davis taking LSD with

psychotherapist Oscar Janiger (Riedlinger 1993).

During this time (when psychedelic drugs were still legal) it was the "in-thing"

to do for many celebrities to take psychedelics (primarily LSD) either out of

curiosity or for psychotherapeutic purposes. Since there were not as yet any

LSD distribution networks other than through legitimate researchers, who

received their LSD free from Sandoz Laboratories, these celebrities went to

several psychotherapists in the Los Angeles area for psychedelic "treatment."

Many of these celebrities, such as writers Anai's Nin and Christopher Isherwood,

classical musician Andre Previn, and actors Jack Nicholson, James Coburn, and

especially Cary Grant spoke publicly about their experiences on LSD, and these

testimonials served to further inform mainstream America about the new

psychedelic revolution.

Many of the early psychedelic voyagers realized immediately the social and

political implications of psychedelic drugs. This impact was foreshadowed in

one of the first LSD animal experiments in the 1940s at Sandoz Laboratories. In

this experiment a chimpanzee was given LSD and then reintroduced into its

group. Soon the group erupted into chaos not because the chimp was doing

anything too bizarre, but simply because it ignored all of the coordinated social

behaviors that usually governed order within the group (Hofmann 1980).

The primary question remained-if psychedelics had such an impact on

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society, who should take them and who should control their use? Albert

Hofmann, Aldous Huxley, and Gordon Wasson all took what could be called the

"elitist perspective," believing that only the "cream of the crop." such as

intellectuals, writers, artists, musicians, and legitimate researchers, should have

access to these drugs. As Clare Booth Luce said "We wouldn't want everyone

doing too much of a good thing" (quoted in Lee and Shlain 1985, 71). Timothy

Leary, on the other hand, took a more "egalitarian perspective" in believing

these drugs were so important that everyone should have the opportunity to take

them if they so desired. He would later be very vocal and adamant about this

stance.

The 1960s

In order to understand how the psychedelic revolution intersected with the

turbulent times of the 1960s, one must first be aware of the major themes and

occurrences of this period. During the 1960s a series of unique events occurred

in conjunction with one another to create one of the most trying, re-evaluative,

and transformational times in American history: successes, failures,

assassinations, social movements, riots, protests, and put-downs all came

together in an orgy of change.

Change is perhaps the key word in describing and understanding the 1960s.

For many reasons the status quo needed to change-sociaily, culturally,

politically, philosophically, and religiously. Many time-honored American

traditions of the past were called into question. "Business as usual" was no

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longer acceptable, and new ways of being, thinking, and doing needed to be

explored.

The large social movements of the 1960s were arguably the most influential

change-agents during that period. These explosions of largely grass-roots

democracy completely redefined American society both on a collective and

individual level. As Burns states Socialin Movements of the 1960s: Searching

for Democracy.

During the era called the 1960s several million Americans engaged in making history. They acted beyond the usual bounds of citizenship to change social practices. Many aspired to create a new society. In the process they transformed their own lives. If they did not realize their dreams, they did shape the future—most concretely by abolishing legal segregation, ending the Vietnam War, dislodging racial and sexual discrimination, and altering traditional gender roles (Burns 1990, xi).

One of the most prominent of these social movements of the 1960s (and one

that played a crucial role in the psychedelic revolution) was the mobilization of

millions of young, disillusioned Baby Boomers into the "New Left" and

"Counterculture" movements. This group of young people, so pampered and

coddled while they were growing up in the 1950s, realized, as they came of age

in the 1960s, that the supposed American ideals of life, liberty, and justice for all

did not necessarily apply if one were a person of color, a woman, or a member of

the younger generation:

In the 1960s the glaring contrast between textbook ideals of freedom and equal opportunity on the one hand and unabated racial and sexual subjugation on the other, along with conscription and an unjust war, impelled many blacks, women, and youth to close the gap between ideal and reality (Burns 1990, xiv).

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In closing this gap, young people formed political protest groups such as the

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which was instrumental in organizing

anti-establishment, anti-war, and civil rights demonstrations on college

campuses nationwide. These American youth also began an all-out effort to

distance themselves from the perceived hypocrisies of their parent's generation

by growing their hair long, wearing outrageous clothes, experimenting with "free

sex," listening to new forms of politically-oriented rack music, and, of course,

taking drugs (Roszak 1969).

The Psychedelic Revolution Grows Up and Out

Perhaps as good a place as any to begin the 1960s phase of the psychedelic

revolution is in August 1960 when the up-to-that-point conventional Harvard

psychologist Timothy Leary first plunged into the psychedelic realm by taking

psilocybin mushrooms in Mexico. As Leary recounts in his autobiography,

Flashbacks:

The journey lasted a little over four hours. Like almost everyone who has had the veil lifted, I came back a changed man. ...In four hours by the swimming pool in Cuernavaca I learned more about the mind, the brain, and its structures than I did in the preceding fifteen as a diligent psychologist. ...Soon I would find that the world was divided into those who had had the experience (or were eager to have it) and those who had not (and shuddered at the possibility) (Leary 1983, 32-34).

Here Leary makes a telling observation that what was to follow both with himself

and with society would be at once integrative and divisive, and healing and

debilitating, depending on one's perspective.

Leary returned to Harvard and that Fall began his psychological

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investigations into psilocybin, which had recently been identified as the active

ingredient in Maria Sabina's mushrooms and synthesized in the lab by Albert

Hofmann. From the beginning, Leary's research into psychedelics was

controversial because he insisted on using an "existential/transactional"

approach that required 1) researchers gaining a direct understanding of the drug

by taking it themselves, and 2) divorcing the research setting from the lab or

hospital and creating a new, more comfortable setting in places such as faculty

homes.

Leary's research procedure was one version of the humanistic approach to

psychedelic research that had gradually, towards the end of the 1950s, replaced

the original psychosis-producing model. Humanistic psychology itself was seen

as the Third Force in psychology arriving on the heels of the Second Force

(psychoanalysis) and the First Force (behaviorism). Humanistic psychology

encompasses a broad range of psychotherapeutic approaches such as Erich

Fromm's existentialism, Abraham Maslow's self-actualization and Carl Rogers'

notion of a fully-functioning human being (Herman 1992).

Humanistic psychology has also been called the psychology of "personal

growth" (Leary 1983), and emphasizes the notion that even "normal" people can

become happier, more whole, and better functioning. This is a crucial

proposition in the psychedelic revolution because many "normal" people who

take psychedelics feel the experience has enriched their lives. However, the

notion of "normal" people becoming better is problematic for the medical

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establishment and American society at large because of questions about an

individual's freedom to take psychedelics for "personal growth," and the related

questions of what rights physicians and the government should have to control

the use of psychedelics. Unfortunately, most of the Western medical system is

based on a pathological model of health in which "sick" people are returned to

"health" or "normality" by treating their "diseases." Within this model there is

little conception of making healthy people better, although this may be changing

due to the growing Western acceptance of alternative medical approaches such

as preventative medicine.

Leary's Harvard Psilocybin Research Project (HPRP) first administered the

drug to a few faculty members and graduate students in order to determine

optimum dosage levels and the equally important factors of set and setting. One

of these faculty members, a staid academic psychologist named Richard Alpert

(later known as Ram Dass), had a life-changing experience similar to Leary's

and became Leary's right-hand man in psychedelic research (Dass 1971).

In March 1961 the HPRP began a study at Massachusetts’ Concord State

Prison with the intention of giving prisoners psilocybin in hopes of reducing their

recidivism rate of 70%. Over the next two years they gave the drug to 35

prisoners in conjunction with Leary's brand of existential/transactional therapy.

(This therapy, also called the psychology of "game playing," was employed in

the attempt to teach the prisoners to stop playing the "cops and robbers game"

and to start playing the "socially responsible citizen game.") The results of the

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study were incredible with more than twice the usual number of men being able

to stay out of prison after a five-year follow-up period (Clark 1970V

Perhaps the most famous study that the HPRP did was called the "Good

Friday Experiment," which attempted to measure the religious/mystical efficacy

of psilocybin. This experiment, co-directed by M.D. and Doctor of Divinity

student, Waiter Pahnke, entailed giving psilocybin to 10 Christian theology

students (who had never taken psychedelics before) in the Boston University

Chapel on Good Friday in 1962. This study was a rigorously scientific, "double­

blind" experiment with a control group of ten students taking a mild stimulant

(nicotinic acid) as a placebo. Neither the investigators nor the students knew

wno had received which drug. Again, the results of this study were astounding;

nine out of ten students who had taken psilocybin reported having a mystical

experience, while only one member of the control group reported this

phenomenon. Moreover, in follow-up interviews six months later, eight out of the

ten students reported the experience had had a profound, life-enhancing effect

(Pahnke 1967,1970).

In a long-term follow-up study to the "Good Friday Experiment" conducted in

the late 1980s by Harvard doctoral student (and current president of the

Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies) Rick Doblin, Doblin

comments that "all psilocybin subjects participating in the long-term follow-up,

but none of the controls, still considered their original experience to have had

genuinely mystical elements and to have made a uniquely valuable contribution

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to their spiritual lives" (Doblin 1991, 23). That these former divinity students still

reported positive effects from their single psychedelic experience 27 years later,

demonstrates the unequivocal power and profundity of this experience.

The experiments at Harvard illustrate just how wide open and successful the

field of psychedelic research was at that time. In the Realms of the Human

Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research, Grof states:

According to many clinical researchers, LSD-assisted psychotherapy seemed to allow a considerable shortening of the time required for treatment. In addition, therapeutic success was repeatedly reported in various categories of psychiatric patients who were considered to be poor prognostic prospects or were unresponsive to conventional treatment: these included chronic alcoholics, narcotic-drug addicts, criminal psychopaths, sexual deviants, and severe character neurotics (Grof 1976. 2).

However, there were criticisms of the reported success rates of many

psychedelic studies, such as investigator biases, lack of control groups,

inadequate follow-up periods, etc. These criticisms lie at the heart of the

difficulty of doing rigorously scientific psychedelic research because, by its very

nature, the research involves highly subjective and highly complex issues of

human experience and the scientific method. For example, there have always

been a variety of methodological approaches to psychedelic psychotherapy

beginning with dosage levels: LSD therapists with a psycholytic approach (e.g.,

Chandler and Hartman 1960; Sandison 1954, 1991) used small doses over a

period of time to facilitate a loosening of the psychological defenses warding off

unconscious material, while therapists with a "psychedelic" approach (e.g.,

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Chwelos et al. 1959; Osmond 1969) used large doses, often given only once, to

produce an overwhelming, and hopefully life-changing, psychedelic experience.

This latter method was especially popular in the treatment of alcoholism

(Kurland 1967).

Two other types of conceptual and methodological problems impact the

validity of results in psychedelic research. The first remains a problem of the

"soft science" nature of psychological research in general, and the second

involves the importance of set and setting in psychedelic research.

Psychological research is often seen as a soft science (as opposed to the

"hard" physical sciences) because studies of the mind and behavior rely, by

nature, on subjective data. For example, even the definition of "mind" is open to

many interpretations too numerous to mention here, and behavior, or more

specifically psychopathological behavior, is a socially constructed, and therefore

highly subjective, phenomenon-one must remember that until 1973

homosexuality was defined by the medical establishment as inherently

psychopathological behavior requiring treatment in a mental institution or

punishment in prison (Szasz 1974, 1992).

The importance of set and setting in the psychedelic experience and in

psychedelic research has frequently been underestimated. The effects of no

other class of drug are as affected by both the personality or state of mind of the

user (set) and by the surroundings, both physical and interpersonal, in which the

experience occurs (setting). Consequently, scientific researchers of

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psychedelics have had a difficult time understanding and accounting for the

complex variables associated with set and setting:

A major characteristic of this [psychedelic] research is that it is a "garbage-in, garbage-out" situation. In other words, the outcome of any investigation is very much dependent upon the structuring of the research design. This design performs two major functions: hypothesis generation and hypothesis testing, and to effectively engage in these activities, a good methodology is required. To be brief, to insure that an investigation will not be misleading, it takes exacting method to study "madness" (Freedman 1970, 3-4).

For example, one can conceive of an early research study into psychedelics

using a psychotomimetic model taking place in a sterile hospital environment,

under bright white lights, with a doctor in a white coat holding a clipboard,

standing over the prone, LSD-injected subject asking "Are you feeling psychotic

yet?" Obviously, this sort of research environment would reinforce the

psychosis-mimicking perspective of the investigator, and not be conducive to a

beneficial psychotherapeutic process for the patient. Later, as more researchers

began to realize the importance of set and setting, subjects were moved into

dimly lit rooms, with comfortable furniture, and soft music, thus creating a much

safer environment psychologically for the subject, and a more effective

atmosphere for any psychotherapeutic process to enfold.

One perplexing problem in psychedelic research using the scientific paradigm

and method that has always been difficult is inquiry into the religious and

mystical aspects of the psychedelic experience. This problem is represented by

a dichotomy on both a conceptual and practical level. On the conceptual level,

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religious and mystical experiences are by definition subjective, irrational, and

more or less ineffable. Science by definition is objective and rational, and based

on the premise that phenomena can be described and measured using standard

linguistic or mathematical tools. On the prauical level, scientifists who inquire

into religion and mysticism not only have difficulty defining what to study

(hypothesis generation), but also find it problematic to observe and measure the

phenomenon (hypothesis testing).

In addition to these practical problems, there is a simple bias in scientific

research against studying these types of phenomena. Religion and mysticism

are seen as lying outside of the disciplinary boundaries of science since they are

based on a belief in the supernatural, and thus are not considered "real"

phenomena. A good example of this "let's bury our head in the sand" attitude

can be seen in the aftermath of the "Good Friday Experiment." Dr. Pahnke

wanted to continue his successful investigations in this area, but his requests for

permission to do so and for funding from the trustees of the Harvard Divinity

School and from the Food and Drug Administration were denied. Apparently the

notion that a drug could induce a mystical experience was too much for these

conservative bureaucrats to believe. As Timothy Leary explains:

We remembered Huxley's observation that the original sin was ingestion of a brain-change fruit in the Garden. There was not much chance that the bureaucrats of Christian America were going to accept our research results, no matter how objective. ...We had run up against the Judeo- Christian commitment to one God, one religion, one reality that had cursed Europe for centuries and America since our founding days. Drugs that open the mind to multiple realities inevitably lead to a polytheistic view of

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the universe (Leary 1983. 109).

Not surprisingly, it is not just science that has difficulty with these issues. In

mainstream American society any religious and mystical experiences are tacitly

supposed to conform to and be governed by the dominant Judeo-Christian

beliefs about which experiences are valid and which are not. This is

complicated by Judeo-Christian religious dogma that emphasizes the need for

institutional intermediaries, such as priests or rabbis, to facilitate communication

between individuals and "God." Although the Judeo-Christian tradition has

always had mystics who claim to have had direct communications with "God”

(one of the hallmarks of a mystical experience), they were often viewed as

misguided at best or heretics at worst.

Finally, in the Judeo-Christian paradigm of spiritual thought, drug-induced

religious and mystical experiences are regarded as not real, delusional, and

blasphemous (Bakalar 1985). This has been especially true ever since

psychedelic drugs developed such a bad reputation in mainstream American

society during the late 1960s, and perhaps, this is a major reason why the Native

American Church has had to constantly struggle to maintain its religious freedom

to use peyote.

The lack of a paradigm in the Judeo-Christian tradition (and the Western

rational tradition for that matter) for both individual religious and mystical

experience and drug-induced experiences, was one of the primary reasons why

many psychedelic drug users in the 1950s and 1960s were drawn to the ancient

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religions of the East (Bakaiar 1985). If Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism have

anything in common it would probably be a tradition of individual spiritual

pursuit. A second commonality might be an appreciation for, indeed, a

requirement for the inclusion of altered states of consciousness in this spiritual

pursuit. These religions incorporate various physical disciplines to induce

different states of consciousnesses such as meditation, yoga, fasting, chanting,

and of course, the ingestion of drugs. In fact, as Wasson (1971) argues in

Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, the ancient Vedic scriptures upon which

Hinduism is based praised the consciousness-expanding properties of a

psychedelic mushroom.

Another reason why psychedelic drug users took an interest in Eastern

religions was the early influence of psychedelic pioneers publishing books on

this subject. InThe Doors of Perception, Huxley (1954) discusses similarities

between the psychedelic experience and various aspects of Buddhist meditation,

and the influential theologian Alan Watts (1962) devotes an entire book, called

The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness, to

making connections between Hinduism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and

psychedelics. Later, in 1964, Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert

published a popular book called The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based

on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which serves as a de facto travel guide for the

use of psychedelic drugs.

In 1962 Leary and his associates at Harvard were given LSD for the first time

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by a charismatic Englishman named Michael Hollingshead. Hollingshead

(1973), who later called his autobiography The Man Who Turned on the World,

introduced Donovan, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Charlie Mingus, and

Maynard Ferguson, among others to the wonders of LSD. Although he had

used psilocybin over a hundred times up to that point, Leary was awestruck by

the power of LSD. He knew, too, that LSD would replace psilocybin as his

research drug of choice.

Coincidentally, it was also at this time that the Harvard Psychology

Department and the Dean became upset about Leary’s teaching and research

work with psilocybin. Evidently all the bright graduate students in the

department were gravitating toward Leary's research focus, and even the

undergraduates were lining up to take Leary's courses, leaving other faculty

members starving for students. Soon, these faculty members (many of whom,

Leary later discovered, were on the CIA payroll) started questioning Leary's

research methods of administering psilocybin to subjects outside of a medical

setting, and of the researchers taking the drug along with their subjects. Before

long, an article appeared in the university newspaper about the "drug scandal" in

the Psychology Department—a story that was picked up by the Boston

newspapers. An uproar and an investigation ensued; Leary did not help his

precarious situation with his uncompromising and flamboyant style declaring that

"LSD was more important than Harvard" (Lee and Shlain 1985, 88).

In May 1963 Leary's associate, Richard Alpert was fired for breaking an

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agreement not to give LSD to undergraduates. It was the first time a Harvard

professor had been fired in :he 20th century. Alpert declared it ironic that he

was fired "for giving a student the most profound educational experience of his

life" (Lee and Shlain 1985, 88). A few days later Leary himself was fired under

the pretext of not showing up for a meeting.

The firing of two Harvard professors involved in a "drug scandal" was a story

too good for the national media to pass up, and soon LSD was big news across

the nation. Thus began the public debate about LSD that would rage for the rest

of the decade and beyond. Initially, this debate was centered on two concerns:

1) what should be done about the many researchers in the U.S. who were using

LSD for experimental or psychotherapeutic purposes, and 2) what should be

done about the popularity of illicitly produced LSD used by the growing

psychedelic underground.

Until 1963 LSD was classified as a "new drug" by the FDA. and just about

any researcher could obtain it simply by writing to Sandoz Laboratories. In

1962, as a result of the Thalidomide disaster, the Kefauver-Harris Amendments

to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act of 1938 were passed, which

severely restricted all "new drug" experimentation. Hence LSD was reclassified

as an "experimental drug" and the FDA would only allow medical psychiatrists

working on federal or state funded projects to obtain supplies of the drug. This

reclassification of LSD as an "experimental drug" was surprising since "between

1950 and the mid-1960s there were more than a thousand clinical papers

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discussing 40,000 patients, several dozen books, and six international

conferences on psychedelic drug therapy" (Grinspoon and Bakalar 1979, 192).

Obviously, with regard to LSD, there seemed to be more going on than met the

eye.

These new restrictions were part of a general trend within the medical

profession to regain control over all psychedelic research in the early 1960s.

Almost overnight, the psychosis-producing model recaptured its status as the

dominant psychedelic paradigm, and, following the medical establishment's lead,

the media publicized warnings about the possibility of psychotic episodes from

using psychedelics. This reemphasis on psychedelic psychosis was very

surprising, too, given that in 1960 one of the most respected medical autnoriues

in the field, Dr. Sidney Cohen, had found in a worldwide survey of twenty five

thousand psychedelic "trips" in a psychotherapeutic context, that there were only

eight reported incidents of psychotic episodes lasting more than forty eight hours

(Cohen 1966). Finally, the medical establishment's attempt to limit psychedelic

research was very successful since the number of authorized psychedelic

researchers dropped from 70 in 1964 to 16 by 1967 (Bunce 1979).

Paralleling the medical and government regulatory establishment's

crackdown on psychedelic research was the increasing non-medical usage of

psychedelics. There were several reasons for this increase: 1) the media’s

sensational coverage of the Harvard "drug scandal," 2) the proliferation of

underground chemists making LSD, and 3) the flamboyant exploits of high-

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profile psychedelic "prophets" on both the West and East coasts.

In the West, celebrated novelist Ken Kesey (1962), who had written the best­

seller One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and his band of "Merry Pranksters"

were touting the coming psychedelic revolution from a commune south of San

Francisco. They embarked on a cross-country trip in a psychedelic-colored bus

in 1964 creating havoc and "blowing minds" wherever they went. After returning,

they began a series of public "Acid Test" parties in the San Francisco Bay Area

featuring a new "acid rock" band called the Grateful Dead. Using the slogan

"Can you pass the Acid Test?" Kesey and his cohorts challenged young people

to come to the parties, take LSD, and expand their consciousnesses.

Thousands of young people did come and pass the Acid Test, and they helped

to create the new psychedelic counterculture that would sweep the country. In

1968 journalist Tom Wolfe immortalized Ken Kesey, the Acid Tests, and the

psychedelic counterculture in his best-selling book,The Electric Kool-Aid Acid

Test.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Timothy Leary and his associates had taken

up residence north of New York City in a huge, sixty-four room mansion known

as Millbrook. The year was 1963 and the four-thousand-acre estate had been

lent to Leary by two young (and very rich) members of the Hitchcock family, who

had recently been turned on to LSD. Leary used Millbrook as a pulpit to preach

his psychedelic gospel to America (and especially the youth of America) calling

for everyone to 'Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Out!"

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Life at Millbrook became a grand experiment in psychedelic communal living.

With psychedelics as their "sacrament," all sorts of people came and went,

meditated, freaked out, danced, caroused, had sex, played music, did yoga,

became instant artists, and frolicked naked around the grounds. The group

offered "seminars" to the general public, and a steady stream of celebrities,

artists, musicians, and "hipsters" came up from New York City to enjoy the show

(Kleps 1977). Needless to say, the media had a field day publicizing Leary's

new psychedelic lifestyle with Leary himself encouraging this publicity.

By the mid-1960s the Counterculture was in full force across the U.S.

Although, by no means all or even most members of the Counterculture were

devotees of psychedelics, these drugs helped nevertheless to create an

atmosphere of exploration and change—an out with the old, in with the new

attitude that guided their attempts to overthrow the racist, sexist, capitalist,

militarist, conformist, and bureaucratic American cultural beliefs and institutions

of the older generation:

Counterinstitutions ...mushroomed all over. A kindred spirit brought to life ...underground newspapers and "free universities" in big cities and campus towns; the panoply of alternative structures (stores, community services, and so forth) in hippie enclaves like Haight-Ashbury; feminist collectives, health clinics, rape crisis centers; and the thousands of intentional communes, urban and rural, that ranged from disciplined revolutionary (or religious) cells to apolitical living groups (Burns 1990, 94).

In conjunction with the psychedelic-inspired Counterculture, the more

politically-oriented New Left movement organized rallies, demonstrations, and

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sit-ins across the country, protesting everything from the bureaucratic inertia in

government, to the lack of relevance in university classrooms, to, of course, the

U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The older generation in power responded to these

protests in horror by beating, tear-gassing, and arresting the youthful

demonstrators, and the more insidious tactic of blaming almost everything on the

perceived destructive influences of the drugs these youth were taking (Stevens

1987).

Also by the mid-1960s, the government/medical establishment/ media

campaign against psychedelic drugs had reached a frenzy (Baumeister and

Placidi 1983). Politicians attempted to outdo each other in decrying the dangers

of psychedelics to American society. The media began publishing numerous

sensationalistic reports of dubious accuracy about rapes, murders, and mental

illnesses all caused by the use of LSD (Dahlberg, Mechaneck, and Feldstein

1968). By 1967, the possession and sale of psychedelics was illegal throughout

the U.S., and severe penalties were created for transgressors.

At this time the first reports linking LSD to genetic damage were published in

the medical literature and the media afforded these studies wide coverage.

There were pictures of deformed "LSD babies" in popular magazines, and in

March of Dimes' pamphlets that cautioned against using LSD even once (Goode

1993). These initial genetic damage studies were later found to be poorly

designed and executed, and LSD was ultimately exonerated as a mutagen or

birth defect-causing drug by more rigorous scientific studies (Dishotsky et al.

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1971). However, these later studies were not publicized by the media, and it is

now apparent that the whole controversy had been created by a combination of

bad science, wishful thinking, and media irresponsibility (Grinspoon and Bakalar

1979).

In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected president on a "law and order1' platform,

and began the first "War on Drugs." In 1970 the Controlled Substances Act

(CSA) was passed, which categorized all psychoactive drugs into hierarchical

schedules that restricted their availability and use. Psychedelic drugs were

placed into the most restrictive category of Schedule I, in which the criteria for

admittance were (1) "high potential for abuse," (2) "no accepted medical use in

the United States," and (3) "lack of accepted safety for use under medical

supervision" (Smith and Knapp 1987, 86). In effect, the CSA banned all human

subject research with psychedelic drugs-an action that would endure for twenty

years.

Although psychedelic drug research using human subjects ceased by the

early 1970s, non medical use of these drugs continued unabated. This use of

psychedelics corresponds with a general trend of increased illegal drug use in

the U.S. that peaked in the late 1970s and declined throughout the 1980s.

However, as we will see, a reversal of this trend has recently appeared in

American society as psychedelic drugs have undergone a resurgence of

popularity on a broad scale.

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The Reemergence of Psychedelic Drugs

Although psychedelic drugs have remained popular in various drug

subcultures since the 1960s, during the last ten years there has been a rise in

both the use of and general interest in these substances within American society

(Matousek 1993; Seligmann et al. 1992; Seymour and Smith 1993; Treaster

1991). This phenomenon has occurred in five specific areas and for a variety of

reasons.

One of the primary forces behind this psychedelic renaissance has been the

emergence of MDMA or "Ecstasy" in the late 1970s and early 1980s as both a

recreational drug and as a pharmacological tool in alternative psychotherapies

(Beck and Rosenbaum 1994). MDMA is a synthetic substance that most users

report has the effects of providing increased physical energy and a heightened

sense of emotional awareness centering on feelings of ecstasy (hence the

popular term for the drug) and love and empathy for oneself and others.

Additionally, MDMA, when taken at normal dosage levels, does not cause the

pronounced disruption of everyday reality that is often associated with other

psychedelic drugs taken at normal dosage levels, which results in the drug being

"easier" or more "friendly" to experience, especially for novice users (Beck and

Rosenbaum 1994). These subjective effects of MDMA are also the primary

reason why many people do not consider this drug to be a true psychedelic, and

people within the psychotherapeutic MDMA subculture have coined other terms

for this class of drug such as empathogen (empathy generating), or entactogen

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(allowing for a touching within) (Eisner 1994).

The perceived empathogenic or entactogenic effects of MDMA have resulted

in a number of non-traditional psychotherapists using it as a tool in

psychotherapy. They believe MDMA provides patients with a greater

understanding or empathy for their emotional difficulties, thus facilitating

psychological healing (Adamson 1985; Adler 1985; Beck and Rosenbaum 1994;

Eisner 1994; Greer and Tolbert 1986).

The use of MDMA has also become associated with the Rave movement.

Raves are large, all-night dance parties often held in a semi-clandestine manner

at clubs, warehouses, or outdoor locations in cities throughout the U.S. Raves

became popular in the late 1980s in Great Britain and were imported into the

U.S. in the early 1990s. These gatherings are attended mostly by young people

who dance for hours on end to an electronic, fast paced type of music known as

techno, or simply rave music. Many of these young people take psychedelics

such as MDMA or LSD at raves (Garcia 1992; Rogers 1993; Romero 1992;

Zeman 1992).

MDMA was made illegal in 1985 due to rising fears within the government of

its rampant recreational use and concerns about its neurotoxicity.5 At this time

MDMA was declared a Schedule I drug (placing it the same category with other

psychedelic drugs) because the government believed it showed a high potential

for abuse, no medical utility, and unproven safety and effectiveness. This

scheduling action was highly controversial among some medical doctors and

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promising and should at least be investigated further. These critics pointed out

that human research with Schedule I drugs is rarely approved or financed by

government regulatory organizations (Beck and Rosenbaum 1994).

A second area in which there has been a resurgence of interest in

psychedelic drugs is in the mainstream scientific research community (Kurtzweil

1995). A very important component of the neo-psychedelic movement is the

growing number of scientific researchers in the U.S. who have recently received

government permission to investigate various aspects of psychedelic drugs

using human subjects (Cauchon 1994). These researchers have been allowed

to resume the rigorous scientific investigation of psychedelics that took place in

the 1950s and 1960s, and was effectively terminated by the government in the

early 1970s.

The primary reason why this research was blocked by the government was

the negative social and political associations surrounding psychedelic drugs

during the late 1960s and early 1970s (Clark 1975; Clark and Funkhouser

1970). During the past 20 years government regulatory organizations were able

to effectively discourage research on psychedelics by making the approval

process so convoluted and time-consuming that scientists felt it was not worth

pursuing (e.g., Strassman 1991). Accompanying this unsupportive research

environment was a lack of financial support from government funding agencies—

scientists simply could not obtain funding for projects involving human subject

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research with psychedelics (Cauchon 1994).

A third indication of the resurgence of interest in psychedelic drugs can be

seen in the plethora of new books and articles about psychedelics and members

of the neo-psychedelic movement published in the last ten years, which have

helped to rekindle the interest of many people in these substances. These

books and articles, published by both mainstream and alternative presses, have

created a snowball effect generating interest among users of these drugs as well

as alarm and dismay among non-users. This media interest in psychedelics has

coincided with the creation within the last ten years of organized groups (e.g.,

the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, the Albert Hofmann

Foundation, and The Island Foundation) devoted to promoting various aspects

of psychedelic drugs. These groups, in particular MAPS, have served as

psychedelic drug lobbying groups and information conduits to the media and to

government regulatory organizations. In addition, the newsletters (some of

which are quite lengthy) and, most recently, the World Wide Web sites of these

groups, are an invaluable source for up-to-date information about psychedelics

and what is currently happening on the psychedelic "scene."

A fourth reason for the psychedelic renaissance seems to be a general

nostalgia within American popular culture for the 1960s that developed in the

1980s and continued into the 1990s, and this in turn seemed to spark or rekindle

people’s curiosity about psychedelics (Gates 1994). Crucial to this 1960s

nostalgia has been the widespread popularity of the psychedelic rock group the

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Grateful Dead (until their breakup in 1995), who were more popular in the late

1980s and early 1990s than they were in the 1960s. In fact, The Dead v'ere one

of the most financially successful musical acts in the U.S. during the early

1990s, grossing $52.4 million on their 1994 tour ("Stones top list" 1994). This

30-year old group, who were on tour throughout most of any given year (until the

death of Jerry Garcia in 1995), played to millions of dedicated fans and a great

many of these fans used psychedelic drugs at these concerts (Cauchon 1992).

A fifth and final indication of the reemergence of psychedelics can be seen in

the increasing numbers of young people who are using these drugs. Several

national surveys have shown a slow but steady increase during the past several

years in the number of young people who report they use or have used

psychedelics, in particular, LSD (Gavzer 1994; Henderson and Glass 1994;

Seligmann 1992; Urban 1993).

There appear to be several factors involved in this trend: 1) given the

government and mainstream media anti-cocaine (including crack) campaign that

began in the mid-1980s, and the more recent mid-1990s anti-heroin campaign,

young people seem now to perceive psychedelics as generally less harmful than

these other drugs; 2) the institutionalization of psychedelic drug use at raves

and at Grateful Dead concerts has provided young people with psychedelic drug

subcultures offering social support as well as physical environments for

psychedelic drug exploration; and 3) the rise in the popularity of MDMA as a

"user-friendly" psychedelic, particularly among novice users, combined with the

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fact that LSD may have become more "user-friendly" than in the 1960s, since

this drug is now available in smaller and consequently less physically and

psychologically demanding doses than in the past. Also young people may be

influenced by the fact that LSD is an inexpensive and "cost-effective" drug

providing an 8-12 hour high for only few dollars.

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A COMPONENT1AL DESCRIPTION OF THE NEO-PSYCHEDELIC MOVEMENT

The neo-psychedelic movement is a large, complex, and diverse social

phenomenon with many components. In order to understand what these

t components are and how they relate to each other I have organized them into a

general descriptive outline. I have based this outline on the anthropological

notion of approaching any given culture as an assemblage of "cultural texts" that

can be "read" in order to provide information about that culture. Cultural texts,

such as language, objects, and activities carry symbolic meanings, and by

reading these texts, we can decipher and interpret the symbolic meanings

associated with each of them (Geertz 1973; Robbins 1993).

The following is a general outline of the cultural texts of the neo-psychedelic

movement, which I will use to present a componential description of this

phenomenon:

I. The psychedelic masses

II. The psychedelic celebrity/expert

A. The psychedelic elder

B. The general celebrity/expert

C. The female celebrity/expert

III. The psychedelic organization

A. The scientific organization

B. The cultural organization

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IV. The psychedelic research project

V. The psychedelic conference

VI. The psychedelic written text

A. The book

1. The compendium book/How to guide

2. The personal narrative/travelogue

3. The novel

4. The scientific/social scientific/historical text

B. The journal

C. The magazine

D. The newsletter

E. The reference guide

F. The product catalog

VII. The psychedelic artifact

A. The substances

B. Memorabilia/souvenirs

1. The poster

2. The commemorative item

3. The audiotape/videotape/compact disc

VIII. The psychedelic rave

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IX. Cyberpsychedelic texts

A. Virtual reality

B. The Internet

1. WWW sites

In the following section I will discuss the cultural texts of the neo-psychedelic

movement individually and in more detail. Given the large number of examples

of some of these cultural texts, such as psychedelic books, I have chosen to

highlight either one or several examples that best illustrate the composition of

that particular text.

I. The psychedelic masses

The psychedelic masses are composed of the millions of anonymous

individuals who can be known only as statistical evidence for the popularity of

psychedelic drugs in the U.S. According to the 1995 National Household Survey

on Drug Abuse (SAMHSA 1995), overall, the psychedelic masses are

represented by the 20.1 million individuals (9.5% of the population) 12 years of

age or older who have ever used psychedelics, the 3.4 million (1.6% of the

population) who have used them within the past year, and the 1.5 million (.7% of

the population) who have used them within the past month. (From this point on,

for the sake of simplicity, I will use "past year use" as a sort of middle-ground

comparative standard.)

The composition of the psychedelic masses can be further delineated using

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the following sorts of statistical evidence:

1) About 25% more males than females report past year use: 2.0 million

vs. 1.5 million;

2) Substantially more Whites than Hispanics or Blacks report past year

use both in terms of total numbers and as a percentage of their

respective populations: 2.9 million Whites ( 1.8%) vs. 249,000

Hispanics (1.3%) or 107,000 Blacks (.5%);

3) Past year use is clustered among people under the age of twenty-five:

ages 12-17: 4.6%; ages 18-25: 5.3%; ages 26-34; 1.3%; and ages 35

and older; .4%.

Both the facts that more men than women and more young people than older

people use psychedelics are not confined to this class of substances—these

facts are also reflected in the overall usage patterns of illegal drugs in general.1

The following is a numerical comparison of how the past year use of psychedelic

drugs (1.6%) relates to the past year use of other illegal drugs as a percentage

of the total population: marijuana—8.4%; cocaine (including crack)—1.7%; crack-

-0.5%; and heroin-0.2%. As is evident from these numbers, psychedelics are

much more popular than crack or heroin, just a bit less popular than cocaine,

and substantially less popular than marijuana.

II. The psychedelic celebrity/expert

An effective way to identify and understand the millions of individuals

involved in the neo-psychedelic movement is to examine the varieties and types

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of those individuals who are the major players within the field. I refer to these

people as psychedelic celebrities/experts simply because, as a result of their

activities, such as speaking at conferences and publishing books, they are well-

known to people, at least within the movement, and are considered very

knowledgeable about psychedelics.

Although there are a few undisputed psychedelic celebrities/experts known to

people outside of the neo-psychedelic movement such as Timothy Leary and

Terence McKenna, most psychedelic celebrities/experts are known only within

the field. These psychedelic celebrities/experts are also numerous, so instead

of attempting to identify all of them, I will simply highlight a representative

sample of these individuals.

There are many ways to categorize the most prominent members of the neo­

psychedelic movement. Given the diversity and complexity of the psychedelic

drug field, I re-emphasize my earlier point that the boundaries of these

categories are fluid and thus often overlap depending on the specific case. The

following is an annotated list of the five important ways I have developed to

categorize this diffuse group of individuals:

1) Length of time involved with psychedelic issues

The celebrities/experts of the neo-psychedelic movement are a

multigenerational group of individuals comprised of people now in their 70s, 80s,

or even 90s who played major roles in the original psychedelic movement of the

1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, people in their 40s and 50s who were largely

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introduced to psychedelics as youth in the 1960s. and people in their 20s and

30s who continue to carry the psychedelic banner. (Although there are many

young people in their teens who are obviously part of the neo-psychedelic

movement, I am not aware of any of them who could be considered psychedelic

celebrities/experts.) It is important to note that all of these individuals are active

members of the movement since they continue to profess their pro-psychedelic

views in the public realm.

2) Types of psychedelic-related work or writings

Psychedelic celebrities/experts have become prominent for the specific

contributions they have made to the psychedelic field. Although many of them

have broad interests within the field, these individuals are usually associated

with specific areas of study and writings such as various types of

anthropological, ethnobotanical, pharmacological, psychological, or sociological

research, or various accounts of personal or popular psychedelic drug usage.

3) Associations with specific types of psychedelic substances

Many psychedelic celebrities/experts have achieved prominence primarily by

their associations and interest in specific types of psychedelic drugs. For

example, some are known primarily for their work and writings on LSD, while

others have made their contributions to the field in the areas of ethnobotanicals

(e.g., ayahuasca) or of phenethylamines (e.g., MDMA). However, these

associations with specific types of substances are not exclusive associations,

since many psychedelic celebrities/experts have worked with or written about

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several different types of psychedelic drugs and generally have an interest in the

psychedelic field as a whole.

4) Associations with specific psychedelic drug organizations or with specific

publications

There are several psychedelic celebrities/experts who have founded

psychedelic drug organizations or who have written or edited psychedelic drug

publications. Both these organizations and publications serve a wide variety of

practical and informational functions within the psychedelic drug field.

5) Gender

Although men have traditionally dominated the psychedelic field, women

have played important roles as well. Many of the female psychedelic celebrities

are associated in the field with their husbands either through direct or indirect

collaboration.

A. The psychedelic elder

Psychedelic elders are those individuals who have been associated with

psychedelics for decades. As I mentioned earlier, these elders established

themselves in the psychedelic field during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and

continue to publicly espouse their generally positive views of psychedelics.

Psychedelic elders are held in the highest esteem, if not reverence, by many

neo-psychedelicists.

The elder statesman of both the original psychedelic and the neo­

psychedelic movement is Swiss chemist and discoverer of LSD, Albert Hofmann.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dr. Hofmann, who turned 91 in 1997, continues to speak out for the responsible

use of psychedelics and the importance of scientific investigation of these

substances. For example, in his opening speech at the 1990 MAPS

Psychedelic Research Methodology Conference in Bern, Switzerland, Hofmann

talked about the therapeutic value of psychedelic drugs and decried their

prohibition:

The capacity of psychedelics to provoke under favorable conditions the experience of unity, of wholeness, makes these agents to fit best in the therapeutic context in the present trend of psychology, represented in transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy, where the experience of a deeper, all encompassing reality constitutes the basic healing element. The prohibition of psychedelics is connected unfortunately with today’s fanatic war against drug use. It is very important therefore to point again and again at the fundamental differences between addiction producing, highly toxic drugs and the no-dependency producing psychedelic substances with relatively low toxicity. The fact is, that the psychedelics not only do not produce addiction but that they are even promising medicaments in the treatment of addiction (Hofmann 1990, 1-2).

Another important psychedelic elder and perhaps the person most associated

with psychedelic drugs by mainstream society is Timothy Le~ry. As I discussed

in the historical section of this dissertation, Leary played a major role in the

original psychedelic movement first as a scientist and then as a popular culture

icon.

Until his May 1996 death at age 75, Leary remained a flamboyant figure

within American popular culture (Eisner 1996). In fact, he used his months-long

process of dying from prostate cancer as another media-driven stage from which

to propagate his controversial views about drugs, politics, society, technology.

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and many other topics (Bates and Tumquist 1996; Hastings 1995; Ressner

1996). Journalist Douglas Rushkoff describes Leary's final trip:

Perhaps the three-ring death act was a continuation of the lifelong Leary stage show—more devil-may-care repudiation of obsolete social customs, from the prosecution of drug users to the persecution of smokers. On learning of his inoperable prostate cancer, Tim realized he was smack in the middle of another great taboo; dying. True to character, he wasn't about to surrender to the fear and shame we associate with death in modem times. No, this was going to be a party. Our media-savvy cultural renegade was going to milk it for every second of airtime and inch of newsprint it was worth. Timothy Leary, High Priest of LSD and Champion of Cyberspace, was back under the big top (Rushkoff 1996, 64).

As an obvious member of the neo-psychedelic movement, Leary in his later

years continued to promote psychedelics in lectures, interviews, and in his

writings. However, psychedelics were no longer the major focus of his ideas as

they had been in the past (Rogers 1992). Instead, he promoted various

cyberpsychedelic visions, which are outlined in his final bookChaos &

Cyberculture (1994). In the following passage from this book he discusses the

individual and the information age:

Never before has the individual been so empowered. But in the information age you do have to get the signals out. Popularization means making it available to the people. Today the role of the philosopher is to personalize, popularize, and humanize computer ideas so that people can feel comfortable with them... The fact is that a few of us saw what was happening and we wrestled the power of LSD away from the CIA, and now the power of computers away from IBM, just as we rescued psychology away from the doctors and analysts. In every generation I've been part of a group of people who, like Prometheus, have wrestled with the power in order to hand it back to the individual (Leary 1994, vii).

The grand dame and rare female elder (age 85) of the neo-psychedelic

movement is Laura Huxley. Huxley, who was Aldous Huxley's wife until his

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death in 1963, primarily shows her support for the neo-psychedelic movement by

giving interviews and attending psychedelic conferences, usually as a member

of a "women in psychedelics" panel. In these panels she often focuses on her

life with her husband and admits she is currently not very involved with

psychedelics having not personally ingested them since the 1960s. However,

she does actively promote the healing and spiritual properties of these

substances (Brown & McClen 1993; Doblin 1994).

Other psychedelic elders include "psychedelic therapist to the stars" Oscar

Janiger ("LSD: The return trip" 1993), renowned ethnobotanist Richard Evans

Schultes (Davis 1996), psychedelic researcher Myron Stolaroff. who recently

published an account of his work entitledThanatos to Eros: 35 Years of

Psychedelic Exploration (1994), and psychedelic researcher, purchaser of the

"magic gram" of LSD2 and current "prisoner of consciousness" activist John

Beresford.

B. The general psychedelic celebrity

Perhaps the most outspoken and well-known individual of the neo­

psychedelic movement is a charismatic

philosopher/ethnobotanist/raconteur/author named Terence McKenna.

McKenna, who many feel has become the Timothy Leary of the 1990s, has

served as a lightening rod for the spread of psychedelic ideas and culture (Davis

1993; McIntyre 1994). McKenna is probably best known as a loquacious and

highly articulate speaker who travels widely, exhorting his views on psychedelics

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in relation to such diverse topics as ethnobotany, shamanism, evolution,

consciousness, UFOs, technology, virtual reality, and what he calls "the end of

history" (McKenna 1991).

McKenna's ideas are some of the most original and thought-provoking of any

in the neo-psychedelic movement, and many of them are rooted in his own

personal experiences of psychedelic drug-taking in exotic locales around the

world. For example, two of McKenna's books The Invisible Landscape: Mind,

Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (1993) and True Hallucinations: Being an

Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise (1993),

center on his experiences in the Amazon in 1971, during which he, his brother

Dennis, and others pursued ethnobotanical research, shamanic exploration with

hallucinogenic tryptamine-containing substances, and profound philosophical

musings.3 WhileTrue Hallucinations is a highly readable and amusing account

of this experience, The Invisible Landscape is a less accessible "scientific"

treatise that outlines their findings during this psychedelic expedition to the

Amazon. Psychedelic historian Jay Stevens describes The Invisible Landscape

in this manner:

Dense. Technical. Fascinating. Infuriating. Marvelously weird. Mixed in with theories drawn from the study of schizophrenia, molecular biology, and ethnobotany, were pungent disquisitions on shamanism and psychedelic philosophy. Plus what seemed to be a story about an encounter with an insectoid intelligence who had curious things to say about the nature of time. The closest thing I could compare it to was an alchemical text published in the classic period-the seventeenth century- before the bonds linking science and magic were severed, when it was still

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possible to have a scientist magician on the order of Isaac Newton (McKenna and McKenna 1993, xi).

Stevens is accurate in nis description of this book as dense and technical-it is

rich with chemical formulas and mathematical equations as well as highly

detailed scientific and philosophical explanations of often extraordinarily bizarre

phenomena. To say the least, the book is a difficult read unless one is a

molecular biologist, mathematician, ethnobotanist, psychiatrist, and psychedelic

shaman all rolled into one, which is an accurate description of the

interdisciplinary reach of the McKenna brothers.

The primary focus of The Invisible Landscape and the crowning discovery of

the 1971 Amazon expedition is McKenna's theory of time. This theory, which

McKenna claims he was directed to by a "hyperdimensional" or extraterrestrial

intelligence while under the influence of psychedelic drugs, combines the King

Wen sequence of the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, the l-Ching, with more

modem fractal mathematics, to describe a theory of time that culminates in some

sort of omega point ending on December 21, 2012. He has encapsulated this

theory into a computer program called "Timewave Zero" that purports to show

the "degree of novelty" or "degree of connectedness" present on Earth at any

point in history. As McKenna states:

...I have actually developed a piece of software that I call Timewave Zero. It's a fractal wave, a mechanical description of time that shows that all times are actually interference patterns created by other times interacting with each other and that all of these times originated from a single end state (McKenna 1991, 20).

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Obviously, the most controversial (and many would say fascinating) aspect of

McKenna's theory of time is that it has an endpoint, which he calls the "end of

history." This endpoint (which McKenna later discovered was coincidentally the

same exact date that some scholars claim the ancient Maya assigned to the end

of their calendar) does not represent the "traditional" end of the world,

apocalyptic prophesy foretold by various religious groups throughout the ages,

but instead proposes that time itself will somehow be transformed and that we as

time-based human beings will be transformed as well. McKenna is somewhat

obtuse in his explanation of exactly what the result of this transformation will be,

but he explains it in this manner:

My interpretation of the zero point is that it is the point at which the ingression into novelty and the degree of interconnectedness of the separate elements that comprise the concrescence will be such that the ontological nature of time itself will be transformed. History will end, and the transcendental object that has been drawing being into ever deeper reflections of itself since the first moments of the existence of the universe will finally be completely concrescent in the three-dimensional space-time continuum. Then the moving image of time will have discovered itself to be Eternity (McKenna 1991, 111-113).

Another psychedelically-oriented theory for which McKenna is known is

outlined is his bookFood of the Gods—The Search for the Original Tree of

Knowledge: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution (1992a).

This theory concerns the role psychedelic plants have played in human

evolution. McKenna theorizes that as the early hominids moved out of the

rainforest in Africa and onto the savannah in search of food, they came in

contact with the coprophilic (dung-loving) species of the psilocybin-containing

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mushrooms, Stropharia cubensis, which sprouted out of the dung of various

animals on the plain. McKenna believes that the hominids who partook of these

mushrooms gained several evolutionary advantages over their non-mushroom

eating peers: 1) an increase in visual acuity [an effect of low levels of psilocybin

ingestion] that would aid in the hunting and gathering skills of this group, thus

providing them with a survival advantage; 2) an increase in sexual arousal [an

effect of moderate levels of psilocybin ingestion] that would give this group an

obvious reproductive advantage; and 3) an increase in informational and

imaginal processing in the brain [an effect of high levels of psilocybin] that would

provide this group with communicative advantages, both in terms of the

development of language and the eventual development of ritualistic and

religious concerns. McKenna proposes:

At whatever dose the mushroom was used, it possessed the magical property of conferring advantages upon its archaic users and their group. Increased visual acuity, sexual arousal, and access to the transcendent Other led to success in obtaining food, sexual prowess and stamina, abundance of offspring, and access to realms of supernatural power. All of these advantages can be easily self-regulated through manipulation of dosage and frequency of ingestion (McKenna 1991, 26).

The influence of McKenna and his ideas on the neo-psychedelic movement

cannot be underestimated. Not only has McKenna provided the movement with

an influx of highly original ideas, but he has also served as a charismatic,

articulate, and highly intelligent spokesperson reminiscent of Timothy Leary, and

like Leary he has served as a bridge between the more or less underground,

somewhat obscure, subcultural elements of psychedelic drug aficionados and

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the mainstream media. However, unlike Timothy Leary, McKenna has largely

been able to avoid the negative media publicity that so often accompanies

psychedelic drugs, perhaps because his personal style is more understated and

less flamboyant than Leary's. The media has treated McKenna as primarily an

object of curiosity and a psychedelic eccentric who has wild, but intriguing ideas.

Utne Reader (Spayde 1995), a magazine that compiles "the best of the

alternative media," even chose him as one of "100 visionaries who could

change your life." In an article in Esquire magazine, writer Mark Jacobson

describes McKenna in this manner:

Put simply, Terence is a hoot. It’s that meld of that nutty distended voice (is he talking underwater or what?) and those outside ideas. An impressive polymath of the off angle, it would be difficult to find anyone outside of a paranoic ward with such an extravagantly articulated personal cosmology. One moment he's blizzarding you with left-field references from Meister Eckehart, Teilhard du Chardin, and the great Blake, giving chapter and verse on the sci-fi masters like Philip K. Dick (of course) and Alfred Bester, then backtracking to impart how people used to come for miles around just to watch St. Augustine read a book in silence because they'd never seen anyone do it without moving their lips (Jacobson 1992, 134).

McKenna has also become deeply involved in the rave movement (see page

123) because he believes this movement is represented by a new and influential

generation of psychedelic drug aficionados (Gladstone 1994; Korzybski 1993).

Consequently, he has participated in various raves in the Bay Area as an

entertainer/philosopher who spews his spoken word psychedelic "rap"

accompanied by ambient techno music. He has even released a CD and video

of his performances at certain raves.

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Another prominent neo-psychedelic celebrity/expert is pharmacologist and

chemist Alexander Shulgin, who with his wife Ann, published a fictionalized

account of his quest to synthesize and experiment with new psychedelic

compounds calledPIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story (1991).4 Dr. Shulgin, (who,

given his age, could also be called a psychedelic elder), is famous within the

psychedelic subculture for his resynthesis and subsequent discovery of the

effects of MDMA in the mid-1970s. Dr. Shulgin has also synthesized and

experimented with dozens of related compounds during the past 15 years, and

he has vigorously spoken out for the positive uses of psychedelics. For

example, in the eloquent and passionate introduction toPIHKAL (which was also

published as an article in the Whole Earth Review under the title "Confessions of

a Psychedelic Alchemist") Shulgin writes:

[In this introduction] I have stated some of my reasons for holding the view that psychedelic drugs are treasures. There are others, and many of them are spun into the texture of this story. There is, for instance, the effect they have on my perception of colors, which is completely remarkable. Also, there is a deepening of my emotional rapport with another person, which can become an exquisitely beautiful experience, with eroticism of sublime intensity. I enjoy the enhancement of the senses of touch, smell, and taste, and the fascinating changes in my perception of the flow of time. I deem myself blessed, in that I have experienced, however briefly, the existence of God. I have felt a sacred oneness with creation and its Creator, and-most precious of all—I have touched the core of my own soul. It is for these reasons that I have dedicated my life to this area of inquiry. Someday I may understand how these simple catalysts do what they do. In the meantime, I am forever in their debt. And I will forever be their champion (Shulgin 1991, xx).

Other examples of neo-psychedelic celebrities/experts include: Peter

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Stafford, author of Psychedelics Encyclopedia (1992), which was recently

published in a third revised edition; and Jonathan Ott, a prolific independent

scholar (Ott 1976, 1985, 1994, 1995; Ott and Bigwood 1978: Wasson et al.

1986) whose recent two volume magnum opusPharmacotheon: Entheogenic

Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History (1993) and Pharmacotheon II:

Entheogenic Plants and the Origins of Religions (forthcoming), offer brilliant

anthropological, ethnobotanical, religious, and historical analyses of psychedelic

drugs and their use throughout the world.

C. The female psychedelic celebrity/expert5

From an academic perspective, Marlene Dobkin de Rios is one of the most

prominent female psychedelic celebrity/experts. I say from an academic

perspective here since she definitely identifies herself more with the mainstream

academic side of psychedelic studies, than with the more alternative or popular

culture approach to these studies. Dobkin de Rios is a professor of

anthropology at California State University, Fullerton, and has conducted

research on the cross-cultural aspects of psychedelics for many years, though

her primary focus is on the Amazon region. Her books include:Amazon Healer:

The Life and Times of an Urban Shaman (1992); Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural

Perspectives 1984);{ and Visionary Vine: Hallucinogenic Healing in the Peruvian

Amazon (1972).

In a provocative article entitled Drug Tourism in the Amazon, Dobkin de Rios

(1994) severely criticizes the rise of tour groups to the Amazon that cater to

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. American and European tourists interested in participating in an "authentic"

drug-induced shamanic experience. Dobkin de Rios says these groups have

become a commodity to a small segment of self-styled Amazonian healers who

offer "advanced shamanic training" primarily through the use of ayahuasca (a

powerful brew of various plants usually containing DMT and the MAO inhibitors,

harmine and harmaline). Most often these "healers" are Mestizo men who

pract;ce without any sort of training or traditional apprenticeship period:

The "shamans" are hardly tribal natives. Rather, they are middle class men (generally no women are involved) who have previously hawked goods or services of one kind or another. They see in these Western tourists a source of income; they recognize the tourist’s thirst for the exotic. In Bruner’s (1991) words, they realize that "the more modern the locals, the less interesting they are to occidental tourists." Thus it is very important for the shamans to tout their own profound traditional wisdom and native roots (Dobkin de Rios 1994, 18).

Dobkin de Rios also disparages the drug tourists whom she believes are

travelling to the Amazon in search of "a mystical experience of oneness with the

universe and native spirits" (18) in order to alleviate their own psychological and

spiritual emptiness. In this way, she sees drug tourists as merely postmodern

consumers in search of new and exotic products and experiences with which to

indulge themselves. This phenomenon of drug tourism, then, according to

Dobkin De Rios, should come as no surprise:

Perhaps we should be able to predict that this search for foreign drugs in a foreign setting would be a post-modern phenomenon as world capitalism changes its emphasis from production to consumption and meeting consumer needs-whatever they happen to be (Dobkin de Rios 1994, 16).

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A female psychedelic celebrity/expert who is fairly new to the neo­

psychedelic scene is Stacy Schaefer. Schaefer is an assistant professor of

anthropology at University of Texas, Pan American, and has studied the Huichol

Indians of Mexico since the 1970s. She co-edited (with long-time psychedelic

anthropologist Peter Furst) a recently published book entitled,People of the

Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion, and Survival (1996). Schaefer's

primary research focus has been the role of women in Huichol culture and her

talk at the October 1996 Entheobotany Conference was called "In the Hands of

the Ancient Ones: Pregnancy, Children, and Peyote in Huichol Culture." In this

lecture, Schaefer described how peyote is integral to the Huichol sense of being,

and how Huichol women eat peyote throughout their pregnancies and children,

too, partake of the cactus on a regular basis. Schaefer was quick to note that

Huichols stress the importance of peyote ingestion occurring under the direction

of a shaman, since the peyote spirit is so powerful and strong. Schaefer also

told an interesting anecdote about the Huichol belief that certain people have a

natural affinity with the peyote spirit. In this anecdote a five year-old Huichol boy

loved to eat peyote, to the chagrin of his parents, who thought he was eating too

much. So one day they took all of the peyote in the house, put it into a bag, and

buried it outside of the village. The next day when they entered the house they

found the boy holding the bag and happily eating peyote out of it. When they

asked him how he had found the bag even though it was buried outside of the

village, he replied that the peyote spirit had directed him to its location.

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III. The psychedelic organization

One of the most important aspects of the neo-psychedelic movement has

been the formation of organized groups that serve as informational support

systems for people interested in psychedelics and to promote the use, worship,

and/or study of these substances within mainstream society. Most of these

groups have sprouted up within the last ten years and represent a good

indication of the strong resurgence of interest in psychedelic drugs.

A. The scientific organization

1. The most prominent, active, and best organized of psychedelic

organizations is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

(http://www.maps.org). MAPS was founded in 1986 as an outgrowth of a group

of people who had publicly opposed the restrictive scheduling of MDMA in the

mid-1980s. As stated in its newsletter:

MAPS is a membership-based organization working to assist psychedelic researchers around the world design, obtain governmental approval, fund, conduct and report on psychedelic research in humans. MAPS is now focused primarily on assisting scientists to conduct human studies to generate essential information about the risks and psychotherapeutic benefits of MDMA, other psychedelics, and marijuana, with the goal of eventually gaining medical approval for their medical uses (MAPS 1994, 43).

MAPS has a current membership of over 1400 members and continues to

grow through the tireless efforts of its long-time president, Rick Doblin. MAPS

publishes a quarterly newsletter that has grown, too, since its inception from a

several page flyer-like publication to a sophisticated, almost academic journal­

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like publication of 40 to 60 pages. Recently, MAPS has begun to experiment

with a new format to keep its members informed by alternating a brief newsletter

of short updates with a longer and more inclusive "bulletin." MAPS also helped

to sponsor the April 1993 Psychedelic Summit Meetings celebrating the 50th

anniversary of the discovery of LSD held in the San Francisco Bay Area.

2. The Heffter Research Institute (http://www.heffter.org) is a relatively new

organization similar in some ways to MAPS in that its focus is on promoting

scientific psychedelic research. The organization's logo includes the subtitle

"Research at the Frontiers of the Mind" and the following is a description of its

aims from a recent fund-raising letter:

The mission of the Heffter Research Institute is to conduct research of the highest scientific quality with psychedelic substances and, through transmission of the results to the medical and scientific communities, contribute to a greater understanding of the mind and enhance our quality of life (Heffter Research Institute, letter undated, postmarked April 16, 1996, 1).

The Heffter Research Institute also emphasizes the importance of its role as a

private, independent research organization:

The current political and intellectual climate offers new opportunities to reopen avenues of research that have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pursue within conventional frameworks. However, the government's role as a supporter of research on human subjects and the beneficial uses of psychedelics has been inadequate. In order for a truly uncompromised and creative research in the field of psychedelic neuropsychopharmacology to have any hope of fulfilling its promise, it must be pursued from within the context of an independent research institute whose operations and research programs are not dependent on government funding (Heffter Research Institute, letter undated, postmarked April 16, 1996, 1-2).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Finally, the Heffter Research Institute has several "high priority research

projects" that it hopes to undertake if its current fund-raising efforts are

successful. These projects include:

Differential effects of Hallucinogens, Entactogens, and Psychostimulants; MDMA effects on the human brain and psychobiologic effects in humans; Controlled study of the impact of the Native American Church Peyotism; Investigations on the human psychopharmacology of Ayahuasca: Receptor profiles of LSD analogs and other psychedelic drugs; Use of MDMA, Psilocybin, and LSD in terminally ill patients; and. LSD-assisted psychotherapy of substance abusers (Heffter Research Institute, letter undated, postmarked April 16, 1996,1).

3. Botanical Dimensions is an organization directed by Kathleen Harrison

(Terence McKenna's ex-wife) that serves to further ethnobotanical preservation

and research. It publishes a newsletter entitledPlantWise and this newsletter

describes its broad mission:

Botanical Dimensions is a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization, founded in 1985, dedicated to collecting living plants and surviving plant lore from cultures practicing folk medicine in the tropics worldwide. Ethnobotany is the study of plants used by people for food, fiber, building, and medicine. Ethnomedical plants are those used to prevent and cure illness, to maintain well-being of the body, mind, and spirit. Because the medicinal plants are endangered, we support live plant and seed collection efforts in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. We maintain a private botanical garden in Hawaii, propagating the living collection for research and genetic diversity, and support a locally-run ethnobotanical garden in Peru. In California, we coordinate educational outreach, keep a plant database, fundraise, and publish this newsletterPlantWise (Botanical Dimensions 1992, 2).

4. Botanical Preservation Corps (BPC) is a loose-knit group of plant

enthusiasts who travel around the world to collect and preserve plant specimens

of ethnobotanical interest. BPC is also an educational organization offering

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seminars/field courses on ethnobotany to the general public as well as selling

audio tapes of these courses from a mail-order operation located in Sebastopol,

CA. BPC's flagship seminar/field course entitled "Ethnobotany and Chemistry of

Psychoactive Plants" is offered annually for two weeks in January and is held at

the ancient Mayan temples of Palenque in Southern Mexico. The instructors for

the January 1996 course included among others: Alexander and Ann Shulgin,

Terence McKenna, Jonathan Ott, and Luis Eduardo Luna. The promotional

flyer for this course describes the experience in this manner:

Come spend a week at the ancient sacred Mayan temple city of Palenque, discovering the mysteries of the rainforest, learning all about psychoactive plants and mushrooms from leading experts in an informal, intensive training seminar. Find out how to grow and prepare plant materials. Study the sacred plants of shamanism, past and present. Train in the methods of ethnobotany and field techniques for plant collecting right in the mystical primary complex rainforest of this ancient ceremonial center. This is an opportunity not to be missed! The seminar will be in the form of hands-on training, practical workshops, demonstrations, instruction, talks and lectures, with a range of exotic botanical material available for study. Evenings will be devoted to slideshow presentations. There will also be ample time for exploring the ruins and surrounding rainforest on your own. The past BPC seminars have become legendary underground events.Join us! (Botanical Preservation Corps, promotional flyer for 1996 seminar, undated).

B. The cultural organization

1. The Albert Hofmann Foundation is an organization named in honor of the

discoverer of LSD and provides information about psychedelics and

consciousness through its extensive library. The Foundation has many well-

known individuals on its Board of Advisors and publishes a catalog of books,

calendars, and audio and video tapes available for purchase.

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2. The Island Foundation (http://www.island.org) is an organization founded

by Bruce Eisner, author ofEcstasy: The MDMA Story (1993), and is devoted to

the creation of a psychedelic culture by serving as a clearinghouse for new

ideas about psychedelics and other "consciousness technologies":

Island Foundation's mission is to foster the creation of a new culture based on the visions and ideals catalyzed by the psychedelic experience. Island Foundation seeks as its members those who have gained a vision of a more sensible and peaceful way of living together through the use of psychedelic and other mind-altering substances, as well as other methods of radically altering consciousness which lead to a deeper experience of spirit and soul (Island Foundation, undated promotional letter, postmarked December 6, 1996).

The Island Foundation is named after Aldous Huxley's psychedelic novelIsland

(1963) and publishes a newsletter entitledIsland Views.

C. The psychedelic church/spiritual organization

1. The Peyote Way Church of God

(http://www.primenet.com/~idic/peyote.html) is a serious, bona fide religious

organization of non-Indians that regards peyote as a divine sacrament and

works to acquire the same constitutional rights Native Americans have to use

peyote for religious purposes. The Peyote Way Church of God incorporates

general Christian as well as Mormon beliefs into its practices and in its

newsletter, The Sacred Record, lists the following tenets:

1) The sacramental use of Peyote. 2) A holistic lifestyle (the health of the body, of the family, and of the Earth). 3) The pursuit of personal experiences of the Holy Spirit within and without ourselves. 4) Self-discipline. 5) Compassion.

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6) Non-violence. 7) Selfless service. 8) The recognition of the central role of the female as the giver of life. 9) Family-oriented cottage industry (Peyote Way Church 1994, 11).

One of the Church's officials, Reverend Anne L. Zapf, describes its Peyote

sacrament in this manner:

Peyote requires only a sincere desire to know. You will never experience more than you are prepared to receive. It is a friendly teacher, gentle and firm, patient and forgiving. It shows us the error of our ways and forgives us when our sorrow and penitence is sincere. Peyote helps us to become one with God, and for a brief time we may know the serenity and balance of the Universe (Zapf 1994, 4).

2. The Council on Spiritual Practices (http://www.csp.org) is a spiritual

organization whose website contains information on its purpose and history, as

well as sections entitled: "Spiritual Practices, Peak Experiences...; CSP

Entheogen Project; Society and Law; Other WWW Sites of Interest; Spiritual

Traditions and Communities; and CSP Guestbook." CSP is

...dedicated to making direct experience of the sacred more accessible to more people. We are convinced that such encounters can have profound benefits for those who experience them, for their neighbors, and for the world. CSP has a threefold mission: 1) to identify and develop approaches to primary religious experience that can be used safely and effectively, 2) to resolve social and legal obstacles to their use, and 3) to help individuals and congregations bring the grace and joy that arise from direct perception of the divine into their daily lives. The Council on Spiritual Practices has no doctrine or liturgy of its own and is committed to working through peaceful and lawful means (Council on Spiritual Practices 1997, 1).

3. The Fane of the Psilocybe Mushroom (http://www.lycaeum.org/~thefane)

is a religious organization based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada that

worships psilocybe mushrooms as a sacrament. As stated in their website:

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Membership in the Fane is open to all who agree with the three following principles: 1. That all mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe are sacraments and their ingestion is a religious practice and an aid to enlightenment. 2. Everyone has the right to expand consciousness and to stimulate aesthetic, visionary, and mystical experience by whatever means one considers desirable without interference from anyone, so long as such practice does not injure another person or their property. 3. We do not encourage the ingestion of the sacrament by those who are unprepared (Fane of the Psilocybe Mushroom 1997, 3).

IV. The psychedelic research project

A very important component of the neo-psychedelic movement is the growing

number of scientific researchers in the U.S. who have recently received

government permission and funding to investigate various aspects of

psychedelic drugs using human subjects (Kurteweil 1995).6 These researchers

have been allowed to resume the rigorous scientific investigation of

psychedelics that took place in the 1950s and 1960s, and was effectively

terminated by the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and its

resultant regulatory quagmire.

There seem to be several reasons why the government lifted this ban on

research. The first, of course, involves the perseverance of Dr. Rick Strassman,

whom I will discuss shortly. Another reason is that only so much can be learned

from studying how psychedelic drugs affect animals, which was the only type of

research that occurred during the human subject ban. Animal studies give a

good indication of how psychedelic drugs work in the mammalian brain, but the

subjective effects of these substances in humans is so pronounced that they

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must be studied both biochemically and psychologically in human subjects

(Frederick 1994; Freedman 1984; Strassman et al. 1994). A final reason is that,

given the resurgence in the use of psychedelics among the general population

and in particular among young people during the past few years, the government

may see the need to examine in a rigorous scientific manner the effects of these

drugs in humans. In addition, perhaps as a component of the "war on drugs,"

the government has a political need to show that abused drugs are being

actively studied.

At the forefront of the resumption of psychedelic drug research is psychiatrist

Dr. Rick Strassman formerly at the University of New Mexico, who in 1990 was

the first scientist in more than 20 years to be granted the opportunity to conduct

this type of research (Porush 1993). In the late 1980s, Dr. Strassman began

petitioning various government regulatory organizations to conduct human

research into the effects and mechanisms of action of the short-acting

psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine or DMT. In 1990, after a two year

Kafkaesque process of negotiating the government regulatory maze of

inefficiency, ignorance, and indifference, Strassman was finally given permission

to conduct his research (Strassman 1991). Strassman's long and difficult

process of gaining government approval to resume human psychedelic drug

research after a 20 year hiatus was in itself so new and experimental that he

published a paper detailing how he accomplished this feat in order to help guide

future researchers (Strassman 1991).

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Since this time Strassman has given DMT to dozens of subjects and has

published his findings in several scientific journals and publications (Strassman

1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 1995a; Strassman and Qualls 1994; Strassman, Qualls,

and Berg 1996; Strassman et al. 1994).

In 1992 Strassman was awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Institute

on Drug Abuse to continue his research on DMT, as well as to begin studies with

human subjects into the effects of the psychedelic drug psilocybin—the

psychoactive chemical found in "magic" mushrooms (Strassman 1992). In 1995

Strassman ceased his research on DMT and psilocybin at the University of New

Mexico due to an unexpected move to Victoria, British Columbia necessitated by

an illness in his family (Strassman 1995b).

At the present time there are several other studies in various stages of

implementation being conducted in the U.S. into the effects of psychedelic

drugs. One study that is looking into the effects of MDMA is being conducted at

the Harbor-UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles under the auspices of psychiatrist Dr.

Charles Grab. In 1992, Grab received permission from the FDA to conduct a

Phase 1 safety and tolerance study of MDMA with human subjects. This was the

first government approved study of MDMA since it was made illegal and placed

into the Schedule 1 drug category in 1985 (Pekkanen 1992a, 1992b; "MDMA

Research Update" 1994).

Grab began his study in May 1994 and after administering MDMA to eighteen

subjects, completed his experiment in November 1995 (Grab 1995a, 1996; Grab

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et al. 1995). Since this time he has been analyzing the Phase 1 results in hopes

of being given permission to conduct further studies. In particular, Grab hopes

to conduct a Phase 2 study that

...will gather preliminary data on the safety and efficacy of MDMA and guided imagery when used as an analgesic in cancer pain and as a psychotherapeutic adjunct for the treatment of anxiety and depression related to terminal illness. The study will also seek to determine the physiological effect of MDMA on the immune system as well as whether the combination of MDMA and guided imagery could be used as an effective tool to facilitate psychoneuroimmunological (mind/body) stimulation of the immune system ("MDMA research" 1996, 2).

It is important to note that Grab has had great difficulty raising funds to

support his MDMA studies and he has received no direct federal financial

support. His work has been funded through a combination of support from the

Harbor-UCLA Research and Educational Institute, the Multidisciplinary

Association of Psychedelic Studies, and individual donors (Grab 1995b).

An additional Phase 1 psychedelic drug study is now being conducted by

Drs. Juan Sanchez-Ramos and Deborah Mash at the University of Miami to

examine the safety of the psychedelic drug ibogaine in humans (Diamond 1994;

Mash 1995, 1996; Sanchez-Ramos and Mash 1994). Ibogaine is derived from

the plant Tabemanthe iboga, which is used for religious purposes by the Fang

people of Gabon in Western Africa (Goutarel, Gollnhofer, and Sillans 1993).

Ibogaine has been said by its proponents, notably independent researcher, ex­

heroin addict, and pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Howard Lotsof, to help cure

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various types of substance addictions (Jetter 1994; Lotsof 1995; Nadis 1993;

Taub 1995)7

In comparison to research on other psychedelic drugs, ibogaine research has

initially proceeded on the fast track.8 There appear to be several reasons for

this: 1) drug addiction is always a hot topic and researchers are always looking

for new ways to treat this difficult problem; 2) Howard Lotsof has promoted the

effects of ibogaine as something other than a psychedelic experience (which has

negative connotations to mainstream observers). He believes the drug puts

patients into a “waking dream" in which they are better able to see the

destructiveness of their addictions and thus overcome them (Lotsof 1995); and

3) there seems to be some evidence that ibogaine does not just work on a

psychological level, but also has some neurochemical effects in the brain that

relieves addictive cravings (Blakeslee 1993; Lotsof 1995; Sisko 1994).

One of the reasons Lotsof has been promoting ibogaine is that he has formed

a corporation called NDA International that has received a patent on the drug.

This means that should ibogaine be approved as a treatment for drug addiction,

NDA will have exclusive rights to manufacture and market the drug for this

purpose.

This is an ongoing problem in psychedelic research because older

psychedelic drugs cannot be patented, and thus, even if they were approved for

certain types of medical treatments, no one company could receive exclusive

financial benefits. This perhaps is the primary reason why no pharmaceutical

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companies have jumped on the psychedelic drug research bandwagon.9

Although it is conceivable that new psychedelic drugs could be patented, the

nature of these medications is that they are only used several times at most in

any given patient. Therefore, any company with a patent on the drug would

have to charge thousands of dollars per dose in order to gain any financial

rewards. A final reason why pharmaceutical companies are not currently

involved in psychedelic drug research and development is that these drugs are

still too socially, politically, and scientifically controversial.

After an eight year process, the FDA and other federal and state government

regulatory bodies have approved a psychedelic drug research study for the use

of LSD in the treatment of substance abuse. Albert Kurland, Richard Yensen

and Donna Dryer of the Orenda Institute in Baltimore, MD have proposed

inducing peak experiences in substance abusers with LSD in hopes of changing

their behavior patterns (Dryer and Yenson 1993; Yenson 1996). As of Spring

1997, these researchers were poised with LSD imported from Switzerland to

begin their study with 60 patients with substance abuse problems (Yenson and

Dryer 1997).

Psychiatrists Dr. John Krystal of Yale University and Dr. Evgeny Krupitsky of

the Leningrad Regional Center for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Therapy in

Russia are about to begin a psychedelic drug study at Yale University. This

study will examine the psychopharmacology of ketamine in alcoholics (Krystal

1996). Ketamine is a pharmaceutical anesthetic that at sub-anesthetic dosages

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produces a strong psychedelic effect.

Dr. Krupitsky, who along with Krystal received a grant from the National

Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and MAPS to fund this

research, has been studying the biochemical, neurophysiological, and

psychological aspects of ketamine therapy with alcoholics in Russia since 1985

(Krupitsky 1994, 1995, 1996-1997).

V. The psychedelic conference

Another important aspect of the neo-psychedelic movement and another

component that serves as a conduit for the psychedelic information network are

the irregularly scheduled psychedelic conferences. All of these have taken

place in California (the unofficial regional headquarters of the neo-psychedelic

movement) and represent a broad-based gathering bringing together many

psychedelic celebrities who speak on a variety of topics to an audience of like-

minded psychedelic fans. The most recent of these conferences include:

1. "Psychedelics in the '90s: A Benefit for the Multidisciplinary Association of

Psychedelic Studies," 1990, Berkeley, CA

2. 'The Bridge Conference: Psychedelics: Past, Present, and Future," 1991,

Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

3. 'The 1993 Psychedelic Summit Meetings Commemorating the 50th

Anniversary of Albert Hofmann's Discovery of LSD, University of California at

Santa Cruz and San Francisco, CA

4. 'The Gathering of the Minds: Southern California Psychedelic Symposium,"

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1994, Chapman University, Orange, CA

5. "Entheobotany: Shamanic Plant Science Conference," 1996, San Francisco,

CA

To illustrate what typically occurs at these gatherings I will include the

following detailed excerpt from my field notes, which recount my attendance at

the 1993 Psychedelic Summit Meetings.

Field Notes From a Psychedelic Conference

In April 1993 I flew to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend and observe

'The 1993 Psychedelic Summit Meetings Commemorating the 50th Anniversary

of Albert Hofmann's Discovery of LSD." A promotional flyer distributed by the

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies provides the following

detailed and telling rationale for the event:

In the fifty years since Albert Hofmann accidently absorbed that minuscule amount of LSD-25 on April 16,1943, research into psychedelic drugs and psychedelic states of mind has ebbed and flowed, depending on the political and social climates of the times. Years of the "War on Drugs," "Just Say No" campaigns, mandatory minimum sentencing, and other forms of propaganda, censorship, repression, and denial have disillusioned and frightened many of us. We have turned our back on these plants and substances used in many other times and cultures as tools for healing, spiritual growth, and re-creation. But, use of psychedelics has not dwindled during this current oppressive cycle. On the contrary, more and different groups of people are exploring these catalysts of consciousness for themselves. The government and the medical profession are beginning to listen to those who claim that psychedelics can be a safe and beneficial part of our society. In order to loosen the tether of laws and counter the misinformation concerning these tools, we must be able to provide clear and accurate facts, obtained through scientific research, as well as personal, subjective experiences. The upcoming anniversary events will serve to raise both public awareness and funds for psychedelic research, and to provide a meeting

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place to evaluate and discuss the current and future state of psychedelics (LordNose! 1992a, 2).

The overall structure of the 1993 Psychedelic Summit Meetings consisted of

several distinct parts spread out over three days. The first meeting, which was

sponsored by MAPS, The Island Group, and the UCSC student group, Millbrook

West, took place from 7:00pm to midnight on Friday, April 16 on the campus of

the University of California at Santa Cruz. The meeting was billed as a lecture

and entertainment event focusing specifically on LSD. The second meeting,

sponsored by MAPS, California/National Organization for the Reform of

Marijuana Laws (CANORML), and the Cannabis Action Network (CAN) took

place from 11:00am to midnight on Saturday, April 17 at the First Unitarian

Church in San Francisco, and was billed as a "series of panel discussions on

psychedelics and cannabis, with educational displays, photographic and art

exhibits, a psychedelic art auction, a video room, books, food, and vendors"

(LordNose! 1992a, 3). On the third day, Sunday, April 18, a free outdoor music

and dancing event (including Terence McKenna as speaker) was held in the

afternoon in Golden Gate Park. The Psychedelic Summit Meetings culminated

that evening with an all-night, multi-media dance celebration at a nightclub in

San Francisco.

On Friday evening, I drove to Santa Cruz and initially attended a pre­

conference, $100 a plate, fund-raising buffet for that evening's speakers and

other psychedelic dignitaries. The buffet was attended by about 50 people at

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the Dream Inn in a panoramic room overlooking the ocean. I arrived late and

everyone was eating. I introduced myself to Rick Doblin, one of the conference

organizers and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic

Studies (MAPS). I just wanted meet him in person since we had only previously

talked on the phone. He seemed very busy so I went and sat down at an empty

seat. I introduced myself to the man sitting next to me, whom I did not

recognize. When he told me his name, Dr. Gary Bravo, I knew he was a

psychiatrist involved with trying to get permission and money to give MDMA to

terminally ill people. In fact, this happened to me often over the course of the

weekend—knowing the names of people involved in the neo-psychedelic

movement, but not their faces since I had only read their work and not seen their

picture before (unless it was on a book jacket).

Dr. Bravo and I talked for about 45 minutes about his work, and he told me he

had recently received permission to conduct his research from the FDA, but was

having difficulty in getting permission from the state regulatory body, the

California Research Advisory Panel (which he ironically referred to by its

acronym, CRAP). Dr. Bravo illustrated his frustration with this anecdote: He

asked one of the more prominent members of CRAP how the panel went about

supporting research and this person emphatically replied, "Oh, we don't support

research, we just regulate it!"

After the buffet I drove up to the UC Santa Cruz campus for the first of the

Psychedelic Summit Meetings. I arrived at the auditorium about 30 minutes

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before the starting time of 7:30. There was lots of hubbub outside of the hall

because 10 or so vendors and groups had set up tables to sell things and/or

pass out information. All of the main psychedelic groups had tables, as well as

some marijuana groups. Two of the hottest items for sale seemed to be the

colorful and psychedelically-inspired T-shirts and posters commemorating the

50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD.

At one of the tables was a group I was not familiar with called "Citizens for

Equal Justice" (CEJ), which is an offshoot of the group "Families Against

Mandatory Minimums" (FAMM). FAMM is lobbying for abolishing federal

mandatory minimum sentences for various offenses, primarily because most

drug offenses require mandatory minimums and most of these drug offenders

are young, non-violent first-time offenders. CEJ's main purpose, as explained to

me by their representative, is to lobby for changes in the "carrier weight" law that

gives people caught with LSD in particular, long mandatory prison sentences

without parole for relatively small amounts of actual LSD . These severe

sentences for LSD offenders contrast with the relatively light prison sentences

many violent offenders often receive even after their second or third offense.

CEJ's representative went on to say that LSD is particularly affected by the

carrier weight law because the drug is so potent that one dose is measured in

the millionths of a gram range. The current laws include the weight of the LSD

carrier, which is most often blotter paper, gelatin caps, or sugar cubes, in

deciding how much LSD the person has. Therefore, someone caught with a

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given amount of LSD on blotter paper might receive a mandatory prison

sentence of five years, while another person caught with the same amount of

LSD on sugar cubes might receive a sentence of twenty years, because sugar

cubes are substantially heavier than blotter paper. CEJ points out that the vast

majority of these "prisoners of consciousness," as they call them, are first-time

offenders under the age of 25.

Later, it was evident that these draconian drug laws would be a focus of the

conference and several speakers told moving stories of these "prisoners of

consciousness" serving long sentences in prison. This issue was something that

I had not read or heard much about before, and seemed to represent a new,

more politically-oriented direction of the neo-psychedelic movement.

The conference itself began an hour late because of a seating problem;

ticketless people were trying to get into the relatively small 547-seat, sold-out

auditorium. The auditorium was definitely crammed full of people.

The first speaker was a 24 year-old UCSC student named Matthew Brenner,

who helped to organize the conference. He was a good example of the new,

younger generation of the neo-psychedelic movement. He started a pro­

psychedelic group on campus called Millbrook West, which was named after

Timothy Leary's famous early 1960s Millbrook, NY psychedelic center. Brenner

did not actually talk about Millbrook West though-instead he talked about some

of the "prisoners of consciousness" he had been corresponding with in prison.

He also discussed the open letter to the "psychedelic community" distributed at

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the conference, and written by a recently released prisoner named Neil Hassall,

who had served eight years on an LSD conviction. Hassall reportedly made

200,000,000 hits of LSD during his manufacturing career (Strassman, 1996,

personal communication).

In this letter, Hassell criticizes the psychedelic community for reaping the

consciousness-expanding benefits of the LSD that was manufactured and sold

by the current "prisoners of consciousness," while not doing anything to help

these people once they were in prison. Hassell then calls the psychedelic

community to task:

I suggest this conference begin to do something to remedy this gaping flaw at the center of the community. Even if you have only taken one hit of acid in the last thirty years, you have a responsibility. The substance itself tells you this. Support groups for those in prison must be formed. Links between all those behind bars should be fostered through newsletters and postcards of appreciation. The establishment of some means of helping those who are without community support on their release should be considered. These young casualties need a community. Many are serving periods of nine years and more behind the walls, this amount of time breaks the human bond with society too irrevocably. Without help, some of the bravest and trusting of your children are going to become mutilated casualties. Remember, it is your demand for this substance which is ultimately responsible for their incarceration. If you share in their belief in LSD’s validity, then also share in the darker side of the bargain (Hassell 1993, 2).

Some of the other highlights of the evening included a moving 5 minute

videotaped message by Albert Hofmann (the discoverer of LSD), whose health

would not allow him to come to the conference from Switzerland. He told a

fascinating story about being called the father of LSD, and then asking himself

the question "who was the mother of LSD?" He then described the first chemical

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synthesis he made from the rye fungus, ergot, from which LSD is derived.10 This

first synthesis was of a non-psychoactive drug called Hydergine. Evidently,

Hydergine is widely used to stimulate uterine contractions in pregnant women.

So Hofmann tied this in with the ergot fungus being the mother and he being the

father of LSD. He also connected Hydergine's link with physical birth to LSD's

link with spiritual birth, and described this pairing as an example of the sacred

connection between the material and the spiritual. It was an effective metaphor

and with his European eloquence, Hofmann told the story much better than I

ever could.

After introducing Hofmann's video message, Dr. Oscar Janiger (president of

the Albert Hofmann Foundation and early psychedelic psychotherapist)

complimented Hofmann by saying it was extraordinary that a very conservative,

rational, and literal-minded chemist would immediately see the profound psycho­

spiritual implications of LSD after only a brief encounter with the drug. Janiger

pointed out that many such chemists might have dismissed the experience as

uninteresting and put the drug back on the shelf. But Hofmann had the intuitive

fortitude to see its value and decided to experiment further with the drug on

himself.

Some of the other highlights of the evening were: a very surreal videotape

message from Ken Kesey showing him singing happy birthday to LSD

interspersed with film footage of his famous 1964 "Merry Pranksters" cross­

country trip on a psychedelically-painted bus; Aldous Huxley’s wife, Laura

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Huxley and nephew Francis Huxley conducted a dramatized reading of a

psilocybin mushroom trip from her autobiography This Timeless Moment: A

Persona! View of Aldous Huxley (1968); John Robbins, vegetarian guru and

author of the recent book May All Be Fed: Diet for a New World (1992),

discussed his insights into humanity, food, and the planet Earth and attributed

these insights to his use of LSD. At the conclusion of his talk, Robbins proposed

this universal grace to the audience: "may all be fed, may all be healed, and may

all be loved." Finally, several speakers discussed the necessity to resume

scientific research into LSD and the accompanying difficulties faced by

traditional scientific thinking in describing and analyzing the psychedelic

experience. They said traditional scientific thinking does not have the

epistemological structure or objective measuring tools to adequately define what

psychedelics are and how they affect humans.

The UCSC conference ended about 12:30am and I returned to my motel

room exhausted, but exhilarated from the stimulation of doing fieldwork. I arose

early the next morning to make the drive up to San Francisco for the next

segment of the Psychedelic Summit Meetings.

The schedule for Saturday's meetings was overwhelming-non-stop panels

from 11am to midnight all taking place in the main sanctuary of the Unitarian

Church. The list of panels were:

1) MDMA - current usage patterns among different populations, and attempts by

researchers to gain permission from the government to study this drug.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2) Raves-Harm Reduction/Benefit Enhancement — current attempts by the

Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic to educate rave organizers and young

people using psychedelics at raves in the Bay Area.

3) Women in Psychedelics — specific issues faced by women involved with

psychedelics.

4) Marijuana - current attempts to legalize the medical use of marijuana and

change current marijuana laws.

5) Sacred and Healing Plants — ethnopharmacological issues in psychedelic

drug use.

6) Psychedelics in the Treatment of Substance Abuse - current attempts by

researchers to gain government permission and funding to use psychedelics

(primarily LSD, Ibogaine, and Ketamine) in substance abuse treatment.

7) Psychedelics and Society — popular trends of psychedelics in American

society.

8) Drug Policy-Strategies for the Future — various issues surrounding how

government should approach the regulation and control of the use of

psychedelics and other drugs.

In several adjacent rooms many sorts of information and vendor tables were

set up, as well as Brownie Mary’s Hemp Seed Cafe serving meals, snacks, and

beverages (some containing sterilized hemp seeds), and a special room for a

showing/silent auction of psychedelically-oriented artwork. Throughout the day

the atmosphere in these adjacent rooms was boisterous and busy. Hundreds of

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people milled about, and later in the evening a live dance band played. This

fair-like atmosphere was a good way to meet and talk to both conference

participants and speakers, and throughout the day I conducted several informal

interviews.

Highlights of the conference included: TheRaves-Harm Reduction/Benefit

Enhancement panel was composed of Jerome Beck, co-author (with Marsha

Rosenbaum) of Pursuit o f Ecstasy: The MDMA Experience (1994); Gantt

Gailaway, pharmacist, Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic; David Presti,

psychologist, San Francisco Veterans Administration Hospital; Nicholas

Saunders, English author ofE: for Ecstasy (1993) and Ecstasy and the Dance

Culture (1995); and Bruce Eisner, author of Ecstasy: The MDMA Story (1994).

The panel was interesting because the issue of harm reduction/benefit

enhancement is still very new and controversial. For example, the Haight

Ashbury Free Medical Clinic received a $4000 grant from the San Francisco

AIDS Foundation to create and print 50,000 brochures informing MDMA users of

both the hazards (e.g., hyperthermia and unsafe sex) and benefits of using this

drug at raves. The idea behind this effort is to enhance the positive effects of

this drug such as empathy and spiritual insight by reducing MDMA's negative

effects such as hyperthermia from not drinking enough water, and anxiety from

taking too large a dose.

This informational approach is controversial because it may seem to condone

drug use-MDMA in the official view is not supposed to have any positive effects,

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and so to tell users what these positive effects are is seen as encouraging the

use of this drug. The Clinic's brochure entitled,Info E: practical information

about ecstasy (no date), describes these positive effects:

The multifaceted jewel Ecstasy catalyzes a powerful experience that takes many different forms. It can provoke an intense, energetic, spiritual high or lead to warm, loving relaxation. It can connect people freely and openly with each other or promote deep inner thinking and analysis. Sensual'yet not necessarily sexual, beautiful and sometimes dangerous, Ecstasy covers a wide range of human emotions, experiences, and passions. What you put into it is what you get out, so be sure to explore the many facets of the experience.

And these negative effects:

Those little annoying side effects Although some people say it has no side effects, Ecstasy is not the perfect drug. Users have reported a variety of mild physical symptoms such as jaw clenching, teeth grinding, eye wiggles, tightened muscles, sweating, chills, increased heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature, auditory effects, nausea, shaking, and next-day sleepiness. Occasionally it can cause toxic reactions in people with asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, epilepsy, psychosis, or depression. Remember, Ecstasy is a powerful drug. Treat it—and your body—with respect.

As time passes... Myths abound concerning Ecstasy's effects after repeated usage. Most claims (such as that it causes Parkinson's disease or drains spinal fluid) actually refer to other drugs or common misconceptions. Although scientists suspect some nerve terminal damage and neurotransmitter depletion in the brain based on animal research, the true long-term effects and implications remain a mystery until further human research becomes legal. By avoiding the temptation to use Ecstasy too frequently, you can lessen the risk and have more fun.

The theory behind describing both the positive and negative aspects of

ecstasy is that if one just tells people about the negative effects, and they go out

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and have a positive experience with the drug, then they believe they were lied

to. If they read something describing both the positive and negative, then they

are more likely to perceive the information as accurate, and hopefully use the

drug more wisely.

The Women in Psychedelics panel was composed of Laura Huxley (see

page 64); Nina Graboi, 1960s LSD pioneer, author of One Foot in the Future

(1990); Carolyn Garcia, aka "Mountain Girl," former member of Ken Kesey's

Merry Pranksters and Jerry Garcia’s ex-wife; Kathleen Harrison, director of

Botanical Dimensions and Terence McKenna's ex-wife; and Lorainne Boyll,

expert on peyote and Huichol Indian shamanism.

The women discussed a variety of issues ranging from the first time they took

LSD, to taking psychedelics during pregnancy, to what makes the psychedelic

experience different for women. Concerning this latter point, Kathleen Harrison

voiced her belief that the psychedelic experience for women is more of a "heart-

oriented" or emotional experience than a "head-oriented" or intellectual

experience. She believes that many men are so caught up in intellectualizing

the psychedelic experience, that they underestimate the importance and value of

the emotional wisdom to be derived from the experience. She said indigenous

cultures go to these plant medicines or spirits in order to learn how to better

negotiate life's passages such as birth, puberty, marriage, and death. For

women, she said, psychedelics make the heart stronger so they can better deal

with the darkness and pain life can bring. Finally, Ms. Harrison made the point

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that men too often approach psychedelics from a macho orientation in which

"pushing the envelope" or ingesting large or "heroic" doses of psychedelics is

highly valued.11 Her ex-husband, Terence McKenna, is well-known for

advocating these heroic doses:

One thing that people do that I'm definitely opposed to is to diddle with it. If you're not taking so much that going into it you're afraid you did too much, then you didn't do enough. Not the way people will take it to go to the movies, go to the beach, this and that. No, I talk about what I call "heroic" doses and "committed" doses. And if you only do heroic doses, then every trip will count. You won't have to do it more than three or four times a year to feel fully psychedelic (McKenna, 1991, 15).

A final consensus among all of the women on the panel was the necessity for

women to speak out about the importance of psychedelics to them personally.

Nina Graboi spoke of "psychedelicized women" or women who in the past may

have been fearful of discussing their psychedelic experiences, but who are now

beginning to come forth with heart-felt accounts of how these substances have

positively impacted their lives. Carolyn Garcia emphasized the point that by

actively sharing their experiences with others, women are carving out their own

cultural niche within the traditionally male-dominated psychedelic subculture.

The Sacred and Healing Plants panel was composed of Dennis McKenna,

ethnopharmacologist and brother of Terence; Kathleen Harrison (see above);

Ralph Metzner, psychedelic research pioneer; and Tom Pinkson, a therapist who

is trained in Huichol shamanism.

This panel had a distinct spiritual emphasis concerning how psychedelic

plants and their "plant spirits" can serve human beings as teachers. Metzner

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said that humanity's perceptions are distorted because we perceive ourselves as

being separate from the Earth, and do not realize that by wasting natural

resources and polluting the environment we are not only destroying the Earth,

but ourselves as well. He pointed out that psychedelic plants can help us to

change these ignorant and destructive perceptions, teach us humility and

respect for the Earth, and show us "the right way to live." Tom Pinkson and

Kathleen Harrison echoed Metzner*s comments.

Dennis McKenna also talked about what we can learn from psychedelic

plants and offered a fascinating theory regarding the evolution of these plants.

The question McKenna asks is why some plants (totaling less than 100 in the

entire plant realm) contain psychedelic alkaloids that in many cases are

chemically similar to neurotransmitters in the human brain? These alkaloids do

not seem to be present in the plants for any particular reason, and McKenna

takes an evolutionary perspective in theorizing why these plants contain

psychedelic chemicals.

McKenna believes that these chemicals serve as some sort of "molecular

language" in plant consciousness that the plants can use to communicate with

human consciousness. One of the intended effects of this communication from

the plants’ perspective is it helps them to propagate themselves around the

world, which is a very beneficial evolutionary strategy. McKenna believes this

theory makes good evolutionary sense because, although once these plants

were only found in remote areas, such as in the Amazon, they now can be found,

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through a human symbiosis of use and cultivation, in many other areas around

the globe, such as in someone’s apartment in New York City! And McKenna

then asks the thought-provoking question "Do we cultivate these plants or do

they cultivate us?"

Like the others on the panel, McKenna believes that psychedelic plants are

communicating with humans to teach us about how all life on the planet is

interrelated, and that we have a responsibility to protect and not destroy the

environment. One example he gives for how these plants communicate with

humans is by asking many shamans in indigenous cultures how they learned to

use plants for visionary or medicinal purposes; they reply that the plants

themselves communicated this information to them.

The Psychedelics and Society panel was composed of Ken Goffman aka

R.U. Sirius, co-founder MONDOof 2000 magazine; Stephen Gaskin,

quintessential hippie, author ofHaight Ashbury Flashbacks (1990), and founder

of The Farm commune in Tennessee; and John Perry Barlow, lyricist for the

Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Unfortunately, the two psychedelic celebrities Timothy Leary and Terence

McKenna were supposed to be on this panel, but they were noticeably absent.

One of the most eloquent speakers and the highlight of this panel was John

Perry Barlow. Barlow gave an impassioned talk in which he said that the

government's "War on Drugs" is only a war on some drugs and "their drugs are

dangerous and fucked up." (He's referring to alcohol and tobacco here.) He

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portrayed the "War on Drugs" as a "War of Cultures"-their culture (meaning

materialistic, authoritarian, and repressive) vs. "our culture" (meaning loving,

caring, and responsible). He said "they know they can't control us when we do

our drugs" so that's why they are illegal. Barlow warned that in the pursuit of its

"War on Drugs," the government is whittling away at the Bill of Rights and the

Constitution.

Barlow also believes we are in a "War on Truth" about what values are

important, and which drugs are healthy and which are unhealthy. He

emphasized the necessity for psychedelic aficionados to stand up and "tell the

truth about who we are" so that mainstream society realizes that they are normal

people and not drug-crazed criminals. He illustrated this point with an anecdote

about talking to a cop who was working at a Grateful Dead concert. The cop

was incredulous because the crowd was so well-behaved: "I can't believe it!

Half of the people here are obviously on acid and they're all OK!" However, with

a nod towards the reality that psychedelics are criminalized in American society,

Barlow concluded his talk by telling the audience to "be real honest about who

you are and careful about what you do" and "be thou wise as serpents and

harmless as doves."

The final panel of the conference on Drug Policies-Strategies for the

Future was composed of 12 experts on drug policy. They spoke about a variety

of issues such as LSD carrier weight laws, mandatory minimum sentences, the

right to alter consciousness as a fundamental human right, drug users' right to

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privacy, drug education, drug treatment, and the state of the criminal justice

system.

The conference was not over until after midnight. Almost everyone I talked to

thought it had been a success, although several of my informants said they felt

overwhelmed with being bombarded by information for 13 straight hours—they

wished the conference organizers had spread the panels out over two days

instead of trying to do it all in just one day.

As for myself, during the weekend I learned a tremendous amount about what

the neo-psychedelic movement is and what issues concern neo-psychedelicists.

I met many interesting people, and I was impressed with the high level of

knowledge and expertise demonstrated by the speakers. Virtually all of the

speakers were sincere, intelligent, and articulate, and very committed and

passionate about psychedelic drugs. None of them could be described as weird,

spaced-out, or "off their rocker," which is often how psychedelic drug users are

portrayed in American society. The speakers are simply ordinary people. They

would not stand out in a crowd and no one would even begin to think that they

had fairly radical views about altering consciousness, and probably had, as

individuals, ingested large amounts of various psychedelic drugs during their

lives. The point here is that these prominent members of the neo-psychedelic

movement are run-of-the-mill people who would not stand out in a crowd if not

for the fact that they are promoting something that is seen by many as criminal

and deviant in American society.

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VI. The psychedelic written text

Writings about psychedelics are the primary mode of communication for

members of the neo-psychede'ic movement. Whether in books, articles,

newsletters, or most recently, on the Internet, members of the neo-psychedelic

movement write about all aspects of psychedelic drugs. In fact, as I mentioned

previously, one of the best indicators in the recent resurgence of interest in

psychedelics is the substantial increase in the amount of written information

being published, distributed, and exchanged.

A. The psychedelic book

1. The compendium book/How to guide

The books in this category often list many kinds of psychedelic plants and

compounds along with a variety of related information such as chemistry,

botanical identification, traditional usage patterns, historical data, and personal

ingestion tips. The style and content of these books range from a very scholarly

and academic approach to a more popular and journalistic approach. Some

prime examples of books in this genre are:

a) Psychedelics Encyclopedia (1992) by Peter Stafford. One of the first

psychedelic compendiums, this work was originally published in 1979 and is now

in its third, expanded edition. The book is very comprehensive and written in a

witty, informative style.

b) Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use(1979) by Richard Evans

Schultes and Albert Hofmann. This book is another early compendium written

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by two renowned psychedelic elders. As its title suggests, the book focuses on

plant psychedelics, ethnobotanical information, and traditional usage patterns; it

also contains a large number of black and white and color photographs and

drawings.

c) Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History (1993)

by Jonathan Ott. This is a very detailed, thorough, and scholarly book covering

entheogens from around the world with numerous notes, appendices, indexes,

and a huge bibliography.

d) Psychedelic Shamanism: The Cultivation, Preparation, and Shamanic Use of

Psychotropic Plants (1994) by Jim DeKome. In this book, DeKome, the editor of

The Entheogen Review, offers a comprehensive how-to guide written in a

popular style for all intrepid psychedelic explorers. DeKome provides almost

everything one needs to know about psychedelic plants in order to journey into

the shamanic realms of hyperspace including detailed, subjective descriptions of

what to expect while under the influence of these plants.

e) The Essential Psychedelic Guide (1994) by D.M. Turner. This short, but

informative book provides specific information about a variety of psychedelic

substances. It is obviously designed with users in mind, since it focuses on

practical information concerning dosages, administration, safety factors, and

what types of intoxicated states to expect. The author also discusses using

various psychedelic and non-psychedelic drugs in combination with one another-

-sometimes in combinations of up to six substances at one time.

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f) How to Get High: The Use of Drugs as a Spiritual Path (1988) by Dawn

Human. This is a short guide published by the author that focuses on using LSD

and marijuana as adjuncts in spiritual practice. The guide utilizes various

meditative, yogic, and other spiritual techniques from Buddhism, Hinduism,

Shamanism, and Christianity.

2. The personal narrative/travelogue

This category of psychedelic texts represents books written about

personal encounters with psychedelic drugs. Some of these books focus on the

inner emotional, psychological, and/or spiritual experiences of the user, while

others expand on this inner focus by describing conjunctual outer experiences of

travelling to exotic locales in search of psychedelic substances, interacting with

teachers, shamans, and unusual people, and engaging in extraordinary rituals.

Some typical examples of books in this category include:

a) True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary

Adventures in the Devil's Paradise (1993) by Terence McKenna. This book

centers on McKenna's experiences in the Amazon in 1971, during which he, his

brother Dennis, and others pursued ethnobotanical research, shamanic

exploration with hallucinogenic tryptamine-containing substances, and profound

philosophical musings.

b) The Four Winds: A Shaman's Odyssey into the Amazon (1990) and Journey

to the Island of the Sun: The Return to the Lost City of (1992)Gold by Alberto

Villoldo and Erik Jendresen. These two books (the second is a sequel to the

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first) tell the tale of Villoldo's remarkable and life-changing shamanic

experiences in Peru, and his ritual use of both San Pedro cactus and

ayahuasca.

c) To Seed the New Planet: A Story of Self-Realization and Divine Union

Through Psychedelic Transformation in Nature (1995) by John Walker. In this

book Walker describes his encounter with a self-sustaining psychedelic

community in the mountains of Northern California. Guided and encouraged by

the members of this community and the natural environment, Walker undergoes

a profound spiritual transformation aided by LSD.

d) Through the Gateway of the Heart: Accounts of Experiences with MDMA and

other Empathogenic Substances (1985) complied and edited by Sophia

Adamson. This book details a variety of individuals' experiences, in their own

words, with healing, transformation, and other sorts of meaningful insights

through the conscious use of MDMA and 2CB. The book also includes detailed

guidelines for how to use these substances in a conscious, safe, and efficacious

manner.

3. The scientific/social scientific/historical text

The largest number of psychedelic books can be included this category. In

fact, I could probably break this category down further into specific sub­

categories, but in order to be concise, I will not do so. The books in this

category range from more or less academic texts that discuss psychedelic drugs

from a sociological or anthropological perspective to journalistic-like texts that

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. examine historical contexts of psychedelic drugs. Some typical examples of

books in this category include:

a) Pursuit of Ecstasy: The MDMA Experience1994) ( by Jerome Beck and

Marsha Rosenbaum. This comprehensive sociological study of MDMA

examines the history, effects, usage patterns, and legal issues surrounding this

substance. The authors effectively use information gleaned from 100 formal

interviews with MDMA users to show the complexities of how these individuals

perceive and use this drug in their lives.

b) LSD: Still With Us After All These Years (1994) by Leigh J. Henderson and

William J. Glass. This NIDA-funded sociological study of LSD focuses on the

resurgence in the use of this drug among young people. The book examines

statistical evidence concerning LSD use as well as ethnographic data about user

beliefs and behaviors.

c) Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (1984) by Marlene Dobkin de

Rios. This anthropological text surveys the use of psychedelic plants in eleven

societies and on four continents. Dobkin de Rios also discusses the wide-

ranging social, cultural, and evolutionary effects that psychedelic plants have

had on humans for thousands of years.

d) Where the Gods Reign: Plants and Peoples of the Colombian Amazon

(1988) by Richard Evans Schultes and Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, their

Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia (1992) by Richard Evans

Schultes and Robert F. Raffauf. These two companion volumes, authored and

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co-authored by renowned ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, represent

classic anthropological/ethnobotanical texts. Both in photographs and written

text, each book describes the complex cultural practices of the peoples in this

region by focusing on their use of many types of medicinal and psychoactive

plants.

e) Ecstasy: The MDMA Story (1994) by Bruce Eisner. First published in 1989

and now in a second expanded edition, this book offers the most comprehensive

and detailed information about MDMA available. Eisner leaves no stone

unturned in discussing MDMA's chemistry, effects, history, and legal status, as

well as covering the different sorts of drug subcultures MDMA pervades, from

ravers to psychotherapists.

f) E for Ecstasy (1993) and Ecstasy and the Dance Culture (1995) by Nicholas

Saunders. These two books by English author Nicholas Saunders are distinct

cultural artifacts in and of themselves. E for Ecstasy has a brilliant silver cover

inlaid in reflective rainbow glitter with the title standing out in raised, embossed

letters. Ecstasy and the Dance Culture has a cover with a silver, rainbow glitter

capital E, and contains numerous artistic black and white photos/montages, as

well as a large section of color photographs. Both books offer a comprehensive

survey of the history and usage patterns of MDMA in Great Britain focusing on

the rave and dance club scene (see page 123). Both books also offer practical

information about MDMA's physical and psychological effects; additionally, each

contains an extensive reference section and a large MDMA bibliography

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compiled by Alexander Shulgin.

g) Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (1987) by Jay Stevens.

This book is a detailed social history of LSD from its discovery by Albert

Hofmann in the 1940s, through its quiet rise in popularity during the 1950s, to its

cat-out-of-the-bag turbulent history of the 1960s, and finally to its continuing

influence on American society in the 1980s. The book focuses on a fascinating

myriad of normal, unusual, nondescript, bizarre, famous, not-so-famous, and

infamous people whose lives were intertwined with and deeply affected by LSD

during a period of 40 years.

h) Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and the Sixties Rebellion (1985) by Martin A.

Lee and Bruce Shlain. This book is another social history of LSD, but one that

focuses on the CIA’s experiments with the drug during the 1950s and 1960s, as

well as the role LSD played in the social upheavals of the 1960s.

i) Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (1991)

by Luis Eduardo Luna and Pablo Amaringo. This is a unique, beautiful, and

extraordinary book of 49 full-color paintings of visions experienced and drawn by

Peruvian shaman Pablo Amaringo during ayahuasca healing sessions.

Amaringo includes a written explanatory text with each painting, and Luna, who

is an anthropologist, contributes his own detailed comments that place the

visions in an anthropological context.

4. The novel

Well-known novels about psychedelic drugs are non-existent (with the

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possible exception of the "may or may not be fiction" books of Carlos

Casteneda). Although a few obscure psychedelic novels have been published

since the 1960s, this is not a popular literary genre within the neo-psychedelic

movement. I have no definitive answer as to why this is the case, but one

reason may be that psychedelic personal narratives involving real-life events are

quite popular and often have a very novel-like quality with unusual characters,

exotic locales, bizarre situations, and strange-but-true events.

One exception to this lack of novels arising from the neo-psychedelic

movement is Ann and Alexander Shulgin's autobiographical "novel"PIHKAL

(1991). I put novel in quotation marks here because, although the Shulgin's call

their book a novel (perhaps with a wink), it is much more an autobiographical

narrative than a work of fiction, especially given the latter half of the book which

deals with real-life chemistry, synthesis, and personal experimentation with 179

new psychedelic compounds.

A psychedelic novel that has appeared recently is Wisdom's Maw: The Acid

Novel (1996) by Todd Brendan Fahey. This book uses the CIA's experiments

with LSD during the 1950s and 1960s as a base to expose a fictionalized, wide-

ranging LSD conspiracy involving such real-life historical figures as John F.

Kennedy, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, and

Hunter S. Thompson (Kent 1997).

B. The journal

Within the neo-psychedelic movement there are several academic-style

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journals. This style of psychedelic publication has been popular ever since the

original psychedelic journal The Psychedelic Review (edited by Timothy Leary,

Ralph Metzner, and Gunther Weil) was published from 1963 to 1968.12 Three

typical psychedelic journals are:

a) Psychedelic Monographs and Essays. Until it ceased publication in 1993

after six issues, this was one of the best published sources for psychedelic

information. This articulate, annual, and academic style journal edited by

psychedelic archivist Thomas Lyttle included material on a wide range of issues

about psychedelic drugs. Lyttle (1994) also published a compendium book of

articles excerpted from Psychedelic Monographs and Essays entitled

Psychedelics: A Collection of the Most Exciting New Material on Psychedelic

Drugs.

b) The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Known formerly as The Journal of

Psychedelic Drugs, this high quality, scholarly, research-oriented journal

occasionally publishes important articles about psychedelics, although its

primary focus is on abuse and addiction issues surrounding other types of drugs.

c) Integration: Journal for Mind Moving Plants and Culture. This journal is

published in Germany and contains both German and English language articles

on a variety of psychedelic drug related topics.

C. The magazine

The magazine format is quite popular with people who are in search of

information about psychedelic drugs. Psychedelic magazines are available at

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most good newsstands and, of course, by subscription. Such magazines

include:

a) High Times. Perhaps the greatest disseminator of psychedelic information

from the standpoint of reaching large numbers of people is High Times

magazine. This publication, which could be called the voice of the drug culture,

began in the early 1970s and now has a circulation of about 250,000. Although

the present focus ofHigh Times is on various aspects of marijuana, e.g., from

government policies to growing techniques, psychedelic drugs figure prominently

in the publication's format. Marijuana and psychedelics are also the only

substances afforded coverage in the publication-a change from earlier (1970s

to early 1980s) versions that also glorified cocaine.

In regard to its coverage of psychedelics, High Times often focuses on cross-

cultural utilization of these substances such as peyote use by the Native

American Church and ayahuasca use in the Amazon. These articles are mostly

researched and written by executive editor, Peter Gorman, who has a strong

interest in these areas (Gorman 1993, 1995; Lyttle 1993).

In fact, in a June 1992 article appearing in Newsweek magazine Gorman

describes his encounters with the Matses Indians in the Peruvian jungle and

includes a photo that depicts him snorting a DMT-containing snuff. Gorman also

discusses how some white, middle-class Westerners are venturing to far-off

locales around the world as "drug tourists" or "mind travelers" in search of

"vision quests," which are often induced by the ingestion of exotic plant

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psychedelics. (See page 71 for more information on drug tourism.)

b) Psychedelic Illuminations is a publication in a popular magazine-type format

that offers articles and information on a wide-range of psychedelic drug-related

topics. The most current issue (#8) has articles on: the 19th century American

drug aficionado, Fitz Hugh Ludlow; Jerry Garcia's afterlife; mushrooms and

African religions; psychedelic drugs in Celtic folklore; Terence McKenna’s

ruminations on the World Wide Web; an interview with rave producer and

"zippy" Frazier Clark; and a discussion with Runyon Wilde and Terence

McKenna on McKenna's The Archaic Revival (1991).

The stated purpose of Psychedelic Illuminations is to serve as:

...a networking and informational resource service. Our purpose is to support and advance scientific, philosophic, and literary works related to the phenomenology of psychedelics and shamanic voyaging. Our aim is to explore the notion of "plants as teachers" ( Psychedelic Illuminations 1995/1996, 4).

c) Magical Blend. This magazine frequently publishes psychedelic related

articles, although its primary focus is on societal and planetary healing and

transformation. It is very much a "New Age" publication consistently offering

articles about channeling, crystals, transpersonal psychologies, Eastern

spiritualities, UFOs, extra-terrestrials, etc.

D. The newsletter

a) The Entheogen Review: A Quarterly Ethnobotanical Update {TER). TERis a

small, newsletter-type publication founded in 1992 and edited by Jim DeKorne in

El Rito, NM. (DeKorne is the author of Psychedelic Shamanism: The

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Cultivation, Preparation, and Shamanic Use of Psychotropic Plants [1994].) The

following is the mission statement of TER:

This newsletter is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of psychotropic plants. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual usage of entheogens (The Entheogen Review 1996, 1).

TER has evolved over four years from primarily publishing articles and

comments by DeKorne to its current focus on commentaries from subscribers

describing their personal experiences and thoughts on a variety of entheogen-

related topics. One of the topics that permeates the publication is "do-it-

yourself psychedelic shamanism. This activity focuses on the discovery,

identification, chemical analysis, preparation, and ingestion of relatively obscure

legal and quasi-legal psychoactive plants. Many of these plants have never

been used for their psychoactive effects by indigenous peoples, and thus,

through self-experimentation, these modem shamanic explorers are treading the

ground traditionally reserved since time immemorial for shamans, medicine

people, and herbalists.

b) The Entheogen Law Reporter (TELR). This publication occupies a specific

niche within the neo-psychedelic movement.TELR is a quarterly newsletter

edited by defense attorney Richard Glen Boire, author ofMarijuana Law (1992)

and Sacred Mushrooms and the Law (1995). First published in 1993, the

following is TELRs statement of purpose:

Since time immemorial, mankind has made use of entheogenic substances as powerful tools for achieving religious insight and

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understanding. In the twentieth century, however, these most powerful of religious and epistemological tools were declared illegal and their users declared criminals. It is the purpose of this journal to provide the latest information and commentary on the intersection of entheogenic substances and the law (The Entheogen Law Reporter 1993, 1).

TELR offers up-to-date and detailed information on the often complex,

ambiguous, and changing legal aspects of psychedelic drugs within the United

States legal system. TELR discusses such issues as mandatory minimum

sentences, LSD carrier weight laws (see page 90), legal exemptions for religious

use, and search and seizure laws.

A good example of some of the legal issues that TELR covers is an article by

the editor from its Spring 1994 issue entitled: Criminalizing Nature and

Knowledge: Toads, Cacti, Mushrooms, and the Domain of the Human Brain. In

this article Boire discusses a recent case in California in which a man was

arrested for possessing Bufo alvarius toads (and extracted toad venom

containing the powerful, short-acting psychedelic, bufotenine), San Pedro cacti,

and a psilocybin mushroom (Gallagher 1994; Geissinger 1994; "Missionary for

toad" 1994).

The legal issues in this case center around whether or not the possession of

these items from the natural world is, in fact, illegal. The law does not

specifically outlaw these items, however the psychoactive chemicals (i.e.,

bufotenine, mescaline, and psilocybin) naturally contained within them are

illegal. Boire points out that when the law intended to proscribe natural sources

of illegal chemicals it has explicitly done so, as with peyote (containing

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mescaline), cannabis (containing THC), coca leaves (containing cocaine), and

iboga (containing ibogaine).

Boire also discusses other confounding legal issues in this case such as 1)

whether or not the toads and toad venom in question actually contain the illegal

chemical bufotenine (scientists are in disagreement on this issue); 2) San

Pedro cactus, which contains the illegal chemical mescaline, is a popular

ornamental cactus available commercially at garden stores; and 3) in order for

prosecutors to prove any crime has taken place there must be both the physical

act of committing the crime and an intent to commit the crime. Therefore in

cases of possession of controlled substances, prosecutors must provide

evidence, both of possession of the substance by the accused, and of the fact

that the accused knows what the identity of the substances actually is.

Prosecutors can prove the accused possessed this knowledge (i.e., intent)

simply by providing evidence of what the accused says or any related literature

such as drug-oriented books or magazines the accused may possess.

Regarding this final issue, Boire points out that the government, in a sense, has

criminalized knowledge in these drug cases, and he convincingly associates this

government action with George Orwell's notion of ’Thought Criminals" in the

novel 1984. As Boire declares:

The government's prosecution in this case paints a surreal picture of reality, stranger than any vision elicited by hallucinogens. In this picture, individuals are not sovereign over their own minds, nature herself is decreed illegal, knowledge is criminal, and prison is the possible parlor of any person with vision and courage enough to proclaim jurisdiction over

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his or her own mind and body (Boire 1994a, 9).

This unusual and rare case in California was reported in newspapers

nationwide including theNew York Times ("Missionary for toad" 1994). As a

result of the unique facts faced by the government in prosecuting this California

case, the case was resolved by a slap on the wrist plea bargain (Boire 1994b).

E. The reference guide

a) Psychedelic Resource List and Psychedelic Sourcebook.

The Psychedelic Resource List (no date) and the Psychedelic Sourcebook

(Beifuss 1995) are two independently produced, but similar publications offering

detailed, annotated listings of a plethora of psychedelic drug-reiated

organizations, businesses, and information clearinghouses. These two

publications demonstrate the concern and importance the neo-psychedelic

movement places on communication, information exchange, and networking.

The overall aims and structure of the Psychedelic Resource List and the

Psychedelic Sourcebook can be seen in the tatter’s thorough table of contents:

Ordering Information, Foreword, Acknowledgements, Spores and Kits, Spore

Germination, Book Catalogs, Audio and Video Tapes, Botanicals, Seeds,

Magazines and Newsletters, Organizations, Miscellaneous, Internet Sites,

Conversion Table, Dosage Table, Botanical Index, R.I.P.(obituary), Suggested

Reading, and Index of Businesses.

F. The product catalog

Psychedelic product catalogs are published by companies who sell a variety

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of psychedelic drug-related items. These items can range from T-shirts, to

psychedelic drug literature, to live plants of ethnobotanical interest. Most

psychedelic organizations such as MAPS and The Island Foundation offer

similar items for sale, however the bulk of these are information-oriented items

such as books and audio/video tapes. The following are several organizations

that publish psychedelic product catalogs:

a) Rosetta Folios, Books, and Teas. Rosetta, located in Berkeley, CA, sells

psychedelic drug-oriented books, article reprints, art-work, T-shirts, and legal

ethnobotanical teas. Most of these items are related to ethnobotany and/or

psychopharmacology.

b) ...of the jungle. This company, located in Sebastopol, CA, sells an

extraordinary variety of exotic ethnobotanicals in the form of live plants, cuttings,

seeds, dried plant material, and tinctures. Most of these items are legal, yet

some are quasi-legal since they may happen to contain illegal compounds and

thus their actual legality depends on the intent of the purchaser. Consequently,

...of the jungle includes this disclaimer in their catalog:

The propagule units listed here are intended for cultivation as houseplants only. The data provided on folk uses is given for historical interest and can be found in ethnobotanical literature. We do not suggest or imply attempting such folk use, nor guarantee any such claims regarding medicinal or other attributes to be correct, for the original sources may be inaccurate or unfounded. We accept no responsibility for the outcome of use or misuse of anything we offer. Placing an order constitutes agreement to these terms {...of the jungle 1996,1).

c) Flashback Books. This business, owned by Michael Horowitz and located in

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Petaluma, CA, sells rare and out-of print books related to psychedelic drugs and

the 1960s Counterculture.13

VII. The psychedelic artifact

A. The substances

Virtually all psychedelic substances, both natural and synthetic, can be

considered cultural artifacts because in some way they have been altered from

their original form and prepared for human consumption either through

harvesting, drying, cooking, brewing, or chemical synthesizing. For example,

mushrooms or peyote in their natural environments must be picked or cut and

then often dried to preserve them, ayahuasca must be brewed up from different

types of plants by boiling them for hours, and MDMA must be synthesized in a

laboratory by combining and manipulating several precursor chemicals in an

orderly fashion. In this way the final ready-for-ingestion psychedelic substance

becomes a cultural artifact. These artifacts can take such forms as fresh or dried

plant material, liquids, powders, capsules, tablets, or in the case of LSD, any

available "carrier medium."

LSD presents a good case for the psychedelic substance as cultural artifact.

LSD in its pure form is most frequently dissolved in a liquid solvent such as

alcohol, and since it is psychoactive in such small amounts, the drug is put on to

a carrier for easy ingestion (see page 90 for discussion of LSD "carrier weight"

laws). LSD carriers can be many things from tablets, to sugar cubes, to "electric

kool-aid," however the most common carrier consists of small squares of blotter

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paper (Stafford 1992). These squares of blotter paper can be taken to new

heights as cultural artifacts since LSD manufacturers often put elaborate or

comical artistic designs on the paper (e.g., Bart Simpson, Beavis and Butt-Head,

and Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice from "Fantasia"), which are

known as LSD blotter art. Exhibitions of LSD blotter art (with the LSD

deactivated) appeared in San Francisco and New York City in 1987-1988, and

graced the cover of Psychedelic Monographs and Essays, Volume 5 (Lyttle

1990).

B. Memorabilia/Souvenirs

1. The poster

Two psychedelic-related posters that are available for purchase are: 1) Plant

Hallucinogens: Sacred Elements of Native Societies (United Communications

1980); and 2) XochiSpeaks LordNose!( 1992b). Plant Hallucinogens was

researched and compiled by renowned ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes,

and portrays full-color renditions of 67 types of psychoactive plants from around

the world with the right side of the poster containing plants from the Old World

and the left side containing plants from the New World. Along the bottom of the

poster are brief ethnobotanical descriptions of each of these plants. Xochi

Speaks prominently displays the computer-enhanced original figure of the Aztec

deity Xochipilli or "Prince of Flowers," who appears to be undergoing a

psychedelic experience and has carvings of the psychedelic plant Ololiuqui

(morning glories) and psilocybin mushrooms inscribed on it. On the poster,

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Xochipilli is ecstatically gazing skyward toward color-coded renditions of 12

psychedelic drug molecules arranged in a semi-circle about his head. Above the

molecules are written descriptions of the 12 drugs explaining their names, class,

dosage, duration, effects, side effects, contraindications, and context.

2. The commemorative item

A number of items were created and offered for sale by various organizations to

commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD in 1993. These

items include:

a) T-shirts and posters depicting Albert Hofmann's famous psychedelic bicycle

ride, (see page 23) t b) A ceramic mug with an LSD molecule on it. i | c) A life-sized bronze bust of Albert Hofmann for $3,000. i ! d) A two CD compilation of electronic, ambient music of various artists entitled

"50 Years of Sunshine" (1993) from Silent Records. Each CD is made to look

like a round hit of LSD with one labeled 100 micrograms and the other labeled

250 micrograms. The songs on each CD often overtly refer to LSD, and seem to

correspond to these dosage levels with the 100 microgram disc containing fairly

accessible, melodic compositions, while the 250 microgram disc contains some

very unusual, atonal, and challenging works.

e) A commemorative newspaper entitled Lysergic Worid/Mondo Lysergica

(1993) produced by various more or less well-known members of the neo­

psychedelic movement. The newspaper, which has a front and back cover in

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rainbow colors, is packed with LSD-related information, photographs, history,

anecdotes, satires, cartoons, a crossword puzzle, and a center-piece world map

entitled "Psychedeiica Cartographia: Historic Sites of LSD Discovery, Research

& Culture."

3. The audiotape/videotape/compact disc

In addition to written texts, the audiotape, videotape, and compact disc are

other formats in which information about psychedelics is disseminated. These

items are sold by many psychedelic organizations, and there are a few

companies, such as Sound Photosynthesis

(http://www.photosynthesis.com/home.html) that carry large inventories of and

even record these materials for sale. Most audiotapes and videotapes contain

talks at lectures, workshops, and conferences by psychedelic celebrities/experts.

These formats are an especially effective method for disseminating the ideas of

lesser known people who may not have published a book.

Terence McKenna has pioneered a psychedelic videotape and compact disc

that are not talk-oriented per se, although he does spew his "rap" on them. His

"Alien Dreamtime" videotape and CD were recorded live in San Francisco with

the multi-media group Space Time Continuum on February 26/27, 1993.

VIII. The psychedelic rave

They call them raves: leviathan dance-fests that combine a squishy Grateful Dead philosophy with an Alice in Wonderland ambience. In huge warehouses and dance clubs, thousands of paisleyed post-adolescents dance wildly until dawn to the ceaseless beat of techno-house music-a numbing hybrid of hip-hop and disco that compels some listeners to don

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elephantine hats, gulp fluorescent juices and ingest mind-altering drugs. It's dance-mania with an aggressively cheerful maxim: Be Happy, Or Else. "It's more than just a party," an L.A. raver named Rio says solemnly. "It’s something spiritual" (Zeman 1992).

An important component of the neo-psychedelic movement is the rave

phenomenon. Raves are most commonly all-night dance parties (sometimes

attended by thousands of people) often held in a semi-clandestine manner at

clubs, warehouses, or outdoor locations in cities throughout the U.S. and around

the globe (Brown 1993; Mercer 1993; Robins 1992; Thornton 1996). Raves

became popular in the late 1980s in Great Britain and were imported into the

U.S. in the early 1990s. Generally, these gatherings are attended by young

people who dance for hours on end to an electronic, fast paced type of music

known as techno, house, or simply rave music. Many of these "ravers" take

psychedelics at raves in order to experience a "psychedelic consciousness" as

well as to be physically able to stay up and dance all night (Dotson, Ackerman,

and West 1995; Garcia 1992; Redhead 1993; Rogers 1993; Romero 1992;

Zeman 1992). The most popular psychedelics at raves are Ecstasy and LSD

and they seem to be ubiquitous:14

LSD is big, but Ecstasy, also known as X, is the main drug of choice at rave parties. It's not too hard to buy either. Just walk up to the guy who’s holding a cardboard sign with acid written on one side and a large X on the other. There are X T-shirts and X baseball caps everywhere. Which isn't surprising these days except that this may be the only place in America right now where they don't mean Malcolm (National Public Radio 1992, 9).

Although a distinctive "rave philosophy" is difficult to define, the general idea

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at a rave (besides dancing and taking psychedelics) is to be yourself, have fun,

and actively participate in an uninhibited, high-energy, ecstatic, and communal

experience. These beliefs, coupled with the bright clothes, pulsating lights, and

loud music also found at raves seem in some ways to mirror the "Acid Tests,"

"Be-Ins," and peace and love philosophy of the 1960s:

The rave scene smacks of '60s Flower Power revisited. Consider the clothes-the unisex look with oppy poppy geometric patterns in Day-Glo fuchsias, greens and blues, designed to appear in motion under black light. Or the drugs, the psychedelicized imagery and lights, the music. Or the tribalness of it all. But this is love and peace squeezed through a techno-screen. This is a triparite culture—a roiling combination of trendy club kids who were ready to move onto the next level, eco-warrior Rainbow Coalitionists and computer nerds. It is a culture where the techno-shaman is more apt to be a Mac whiz than a psychedelic guru or a leather-clad club cutie (Robins 1992, 30).

In general, though, the rave scene does not have the political overtones of its

1960s counterparts. Most ravers are decidedly apolitical and prefer to view

raves as spiritual or simply amusing experiences without political overtones.

However, there have been promoters who have tried to inject political awareness

into the rave scene by organizing raves to benefit the rainforest, the pro-choice

movement, AIDS education, and gay and lesbian rights (Baisden 1995; Levy and

Miller 1993).

The rave phenomenon has undergone many changes in the past few years.

Whereas in the late 1980s in the U.K. and the early 1990's in the U.S., raves

were more or less underground, spontaneous, and fairly free-form, a

combination of commercialization, police crackdowns, and negative publicity

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have led to raves being more organized, controlled, and less idealistic (Smith

1994; Thornton 1996).

The importance of raves to the neo-psychedelic movement lies in the fact that

for many young people the neo-psychedelic movement is defined by the rave

movement. For this group of young people raves are something that they can

"call their own"-something that's created by their peers and specifically

designed for their use and amusement, and something that their parents might

not understand or even approve of (West and Hagar 1995). Also, most

importantly, raves offer young people who are interested in psychedelics a

relatively safe and supportive setting among peers in which to be introduced to

these substances for the first time or to continue their individual and collective

psychedelic experiments. This last point is crucial given the generally powerful

and intense nature of the psychedelic experience, and the fact that many young

people are still under the general supervision of adult authorities at school or at

home.

IX. Cyberpsychedelic texts

One of the most interesting and perhaps crucial components of the neo­

psychedelic movement is the link between technology, computers, and

psychedelics. This link has created a cyberpsychedelic culture of people who

generally view psychedelics as technological tools for expanding the range of

human abilities in a manner similar to how computer technology has expanded

these abilities. The texts of this cyberpsychedelic culture take several

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interwoven forms including: 1) the long-time popularity of psychedelics among

computer technicians, engineers, and entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley; 2) the

tendency of the cyberpsychedelic culture to see itself as an iconoclastic force for

positive social change within what they see as a destructive and disintegrating

global society; and 3) the use of computer technology (especially the Internet)

by cyberpsychedelic culture to communicate information and promote new ideas

among themselves and to the world at large.

It's no secret that psychedelic drugs have been popular in the Silicon Valley

for a long time. Many of the pioneers (as well as the more recent constituents)

of the personal computing world were or continue to be serious psychedelic

aficionados, although they might not be so open publicly about their past or

present use of these substances. As Kim observes:

I've met enough of its denizens to know that the "enemy" in the war on drugs includes quite a few of our country's best minds and leading scientific innovators. If a massive nationwide raid were held today, it would net mathematicians, inventors, technicians, and a multitude of free­ lance visionaries-the very people we're counting on to beat the Japanese, renew the stagnant economy and generally lead us into the Macfuture... So before the crackdown goes any farther, perhaps it's time to ask: Can America afford to take the "high" out of high technology (Kim 1991, 98)?

Some famous examples of psychedelicized computer pioneers include: Steven

Jobs, founder of Apple; Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and Mitch Kapor,

founder of Lotus Development (Dery, 1996; Kim, 1991; Rushkoff, 1994).

Speaking specifically about Apple, the world's first personal computer, Rushkoff

proposes:

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So the very invention of the personal computer, then, was in some ways psychedelic-influenced. Maybe that’s why they called it Apple: the fruit of forbidden knowledge brought down to the hands of the consumer through the garage of a Reed College acid head (Rushkoff 1994, 27)?

So why do psychedelic drugs in particular appeal to this crowd of "techno­

nerds?" The answer to this question goes right to the heart of the connection

between psychedelics and computers: they both are seen as tools to expand

human abilities and the human mind beyond their ordinary boundaries. As

Rushkoff goes on to explain:

One of the primary features of the psychedelic experience as it relates to the human computer hardware, believes Ron Lawrence, a Macintosh expert from Los Angeles who archives Tim Leary's writing, is that it "reformats the hard disk and clears out the ram." That is, one's experience of life is reevaluated in an egoless context and put into a new order. One sees previously unrecognizable connections between parallel ways of thinking, parallel cultures, ideologies, stories, systems of logic, and philosophies. Meanwhile, trivial cares of the moment are given the opportunity to melt away (even if in the gut-wrenching crucible of intense introspection), and the tripper may reenter everyday life without many of the cognitive traps that previously dominated his interpretation of reality. In other words, the tripper gains the ability to see things in an unprejudiced manner, like the computer does (Rushkoff 1994, 28).

One of the best overviews of the technology, computer, and psychedelics link

can be seen in MONDO 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge (Rucker, Sirius,

and Mu, 1992).15 The authors of this book attempt to map the complex and

convoluted territory of what they term "New Edge" culture, which they suggest is

revolutionizing the urban centers of the Western world. Briefly, "New Edge"

culture could be described as a diffuse and anarchic collection of people who

are trying to make sense out of, respond to, and ultimately transform what they

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believe to be an increasingly bizarre, postmodern, consumer-frenzied world

dominated by the corporate/political/media/military/industrial complex. These

"New Edgers" see themselves as utilizing a wide-range of technological and not

so technological tools to revolutionize both themselves and the mainstream

status-quo (Elmer-Dewitt 1993). The User's Guide offers an A to Z manual of

many of these tools, ranging from virtual reality technologies, to fashion (or

wearable technology) tips, to conspiracy theories/political manifestos, to the

ingestion of exotic substances (including psychedelics) to increase brain power,

perceptual limitations, longevity, or sexual function. User's Guide editor Rudy

Rucker proposes this explanation of what New Edgers are trying to accomplish:

How can we make things better? The old political approach is to try to '•work within the system," to spend years trying to work your way up to a position of influence so you can finally set things right; only by then, you no longer even want to. But now, thanks to high-tech and the breakdown of society, you're free to turn your back on the way "they" do it, whatever it might be, and do it yourself. You can make your own literature, your own music, your own television, your own life, and-most important of all—your own reality. There is no reason to believe in or even care about the stale, self-serving lies being put out by the media day after dreary day. The world is full of information, and some of it is information YOU NEED TO KNOW, so why waste time on the Spectacle of the politicians and the media (Rucker 1992,10)?

New Edgers view psychedelic drugs as an important technology, similar to

computer technology in that they allow "the human brain to process greater

quantities of information" (Sirius 1992, 202). With the ability to process more

information comes the ability to perceive things from different perspectives and:

Interesting solutions to creative and technological problems often result from these different angles and vantage points that are brought on by

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mind-altering chemicals, thus the popularity of mind-altering drugs with today’s technological hackers (Sirius 1992, 205).

The User's Guide also presents psychedelics as potentially revolutionary

political tools. In the "P" for psychedelic drugs section the editors quote

psychedelic philosopher, Terence McKenna:

Psychedelic drugs decondition you from the prevailing myth of whatever culture you're in. That is a political act, to decondition yourself from a cultural mythology, and political acts are closely watched and controlled because they have consequences. The people at the top of the pyramid reserve the right to control political acts. This is the real controversy about psychedelic drugs. It's not whether one in 50,000 people steps out of a second floor window. No, the issue is what happens to the other 49,999 people. How their attitudes toward authority, their own lives, and their ability to take control of their own lives are subtly altered. It's a tremendous force for antifascism (McKenna 1992b, 206).

McKenna's comments here seem to refer also to one of the reasons for the

tremendous backlash against psychedelics in the 1960s. During this time the

use of these substances was implicitly associated with the tumultuous political

events that were occurring throughout the U.S.

Another attempt to capture the cultural links between technology, computers,

and psychedelic drugs (in many ways similar to MONDO 2000's description of

New Edge culture) can be seen inCYBERIA: Ufe in the Trenches of

Hyperspace (1994) by journalist Douglas Rushkoff. In this book, Rushkoff

creates a broad map of an extraordinary terrain or realm he calls Cyberia, which

includes not only the ever-expanding boundaries of cyberspace, but seemingly

every other plane of existence outside of our ordinary, physical reality. Rushkoff

explains:

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Cyberia is the place a businessperson goes when involved in a phone conversation, the place a shamanic warrior goes when travelling out of body, the place an "acid house" dancer goes when experiencing the bliss of a techno-acid trance. Cyberia is the place alluded to by the mystical teaching of every religion, the theoretical tangents of every science, and the wildest speculations of every imagination (Rushkoff 1994, 3-4).

Cyberia is thus not any sort of newly created space but the timeless,

boundless, and hyperdimensional realm described, visited, and sought by

human beings since the beginning of our existence. What Rushkoff details in

his book is the new access to this realm realized by people who are using

computers, new technologies, psychedelic drugs, and other modem cultural

tools not only to explore, but also to create a modem map of this age-old

territory. These people, who Rushkoff terms "Cyberians," are not only exploring

Cyberia, but also inherently creating and constructing it according to blueprints

only limited by their imaginations.

A. Virtual Reality

Looking like a cross between a Tai Chi master, a navy frogman, and the Terminator, a man harnessed to electronic leads and fitted with a strange piece of headgear slowly turns and gestures. The pointing hand and the ballet of sign language, combined with an air of intense concentration, give the unmistakable impression that the person is far, far away from the brightly lit San Francisco Bay Area laboratory in which he stands. You might almost say that he seems as if he were in another world (McKenna 1991, 228).

Another crucial link between computers, technology, and psychedelics is the

recent development of virtual reality (VR) technologies. Virtual reality, a term

coined by VR pioneer, Jaron Lanier, describes a new interactive technology that

creates the illusion of actually being in a computer-generated world (Brown and

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McCIen-Novick 1995; Rheingold 1991). The user accomplishes this feat by

donning various devices such as a head-mounted display for visual projections

and body sensors that transpose the actual physical movements of the user into

the artificial world. The physical interaction between the user and the computer­

generated images creates a "suspension of disbelief' in the user's perceptual

systems allowing the user to feel like he or she is actually in another three-

dimensional place. Moreover, given the limited-only-by-the-imagination range of

possible digital images offered by VR, users could not only sample the

experience of flying an F-16 at 1,000 miles per hour (flight simulators were one

of VR’s original applications), but also conceivably go for a stroll on Mars,

traverse an Amazonian rain forest, explore nerve pathways in the brain, or

indulge in an ultimate sexual fantasy with the partner of one’s choice. (This later

application seems to represent the "Holy Grail" for many VR enthusiasts and

remains a technology yet to be realized [Rheingold 1991].)

There are obvious analogies between the Virtual Reality experience and the

psychedelic experience-both "technologies" allow users to experience another

perceptual reality, and thus deconstruct their ordinary beliefs in what constitutes

"normal" reality. Also, because of these experiential similarities, many

psychedelic drug aficionados take to virtual reality like fish to water: John Perry

Barlow tells of introducing psychedelic veteran Jerry Garcia to VR and says "he

adapted to it quicker than anyone I watched other than my four-year old

daughter" (Rucker, Sirius, and Mu 1992, 262).

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Terence McKenna has proposed another novel relationship between VR and

psychedelics. He believes that VR technology may lead to a new form of

communication in which the ambiguous, context dependent meanings of

vocalized speech could be replaced by a more precise visual language that is

seen rather than heard (McKenna 1991). In other words, rather than trying to

explain verbally to someone what you mean, through yet-to-be-developed VR

technologies, you could actually show them visually what it is you want to

communicate. McKenna likens this form of communication to his experience of

taking ayahuasca with shamans in the Amazon:

The magical songs of the ayahuasqueros, the folk medicos of the Indians and mestizos of the jungle back rivers, are not song as we understand the term. Rather they are intended to be seen and to be judged primarily as visual works of art. To those intoxicated and adrift upon the visionary reveries unleashed by the brew, the singing voice of the shaman has become a magical airbrush of color and organized imagery that is breathtaking in its alien and cosmic grandeur. My hope is that virtual reality at its best may be the perfect mind space in which to experimentally explore and entrain the higher forms of visual linguistic processing that accompany tryptamine intoxication (McKenna 1991, 234-235).

B. The Internet

The net is invisible, cheerfully hiding behind the home computer, itself a cheerful appearing hybrid of those old friends the personal TV and the typewriter. Such mundane and well understood products as these hardly seem the likely harbingers of God's entry into human history. Yet such is the case, for the net has but a single overriding metapurpose; to connect. To connect and connect and connect. And out of these connections will come an unexpected and radical redesign of culture. The disparate human family is in the act of undergoing a true metamorphosis into something which more nearly resembles a single thinking, reacting, and planning superorganism; the necessary partner with the larger Gaian mind in the humbling task of healing and wisely managing the planet (McKenna 1995/96, 51-52 ).

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Another critical link in the technology/computer/psychedelic drug matrix is the

rise of the Internet to facilitate distribution of information and communication

between members of the neo-psychedelic movement.16 There are a large

number of psychedelic-related sites on the Internet such as World Wide Web

sites, FTP sites, newsgroups, and e-mail lists.

The proliferation of psychedelic-related Internet sites is a phenomenon that

has occurred only recently, say in the past three or four years, and represents

an important new direction for the sustenance and growth of the neo-psychedelic

movement. In fact, I would guess that the Internet has already surpassed, and

will continue to surpass, published material in importance as a source for

psychedelic-related information and communication. (Many psychedelic books,

magazines, and newsletters are now available in electronic form on the Internet.)

There are several reasons for this ever-growing importance of the Internet.

The first concerns the practical applications of the medium in that it allows

people instant, fairly inexpensive, and wide access to a vast pool of information

all in the privacy of their own homes. This latter point is especially important

given the ostracized and illegal nature of psychedelics within mainstream

society. Second, it allows people to perceive and interact with a "psychedelic

community" of like-minded others from all over the world. In this way, the

Internet offers a valuable system of social support even if it is only in the realm

of cyberspace. Social support systems are especially meaningful and important

for people whose beliefs and activities are seen as "deviant" by mainstream

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society since they

... provide access to valued activities and objects, contact with like-minded others, protective insulation from negative judgements and actions of "outsiders," and an evaluative typology members can use to maintain positive understandings of themselves and the social objects to which they and their fellows are committed (Sanders 1990, 10).

A third value of the Internet is that it inherently bypasses and thus subverts

the usual communication mechanisms of the mainstream media. On the Internet

information is not controlled, sanitized, or censured (although it may be

inaccurate), and anyone can access, for better or worse, information on any

subject that strikes their fancy. This fact is crucial given that psychedelic-related

issues are rarely covered or discussed in the mainstream media, and if they are,

the coverage is almost always in a negative context (Jenks 1995; Riedlinger and

Riedlinger 1989).

1. World Wide Web Sites

Most psychedelic organizations and some individuals (e.g., Terence

McKenna and Timothy Leary) have established WWW sites for themselves.

However, there are a plethora of additional psychedelic-related sites on the

WWW. Some of these include:

a) The Lycaeum (http://www.lycaeum.org), which came online in 1996, touts

itself as "the world’s largest entheogenic library and community" (header at

website). As of May 13, 1997, this website has had 301,841 visitors and it has

six international homepages translated into French, Spanish, Finnish, Italian,

and German.

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The contents of this website are indeed impressive, seemingly covering every

conceivable psychedelic-related issue. The index of the site contains ten

annotated sections as follows:

1. You Have Arrived: a detailed listing of services, descriptions, membership information, contact us. 2. Psychedelic Graphics: over one hundred megabytes of graphics of psychedelic celebrities, visionary plants, visionary chemicals, and psychedelic art. 3. Visionary Links: over 1000 links to other drug sites around the world, FAQs [frequently asked questions], drug information, organizations. 4. Discussion Forums: online forums discussing an incredibly diverse variety of topics-participate with a live community of very educated individuals. 5. Projects: these include contests, fundraisers, FAQs, information gathering, surveys, and more. 6. Drug Archives: the largest psychedelic drug library in the world, featuring Magic Mushrooms, Marijuana, LSD, extraction manual, trip reports. 7. Books For The Altered Soul: twenty two free online psychedelic books, book reviews, company resources, and an online entheogenic bookstore! 8. Melt Your Computer: mind melting computer software for your PC compatible or Macintosh. 9. Drug War: arm yourself against the war on drugs in this fascinating and educational page about the government's failing policies, including a feature on the CIA coverup, Dark Alliance. 10. Hosted Pages: some excellent hosted WWW home pages... politics, drug information, products and supplies, and more! (The Lycaeum 1997).

The Lycaeum is a membership-only website although some of the site is

accessible to non-members. The membership fee is $40.00/year and includes a

free Lycaeum T-shirt, coffee mug, or mousepad. In their application, prospective

members are required to write an essay that address the questions "why do you

have an interest in visionary plants and chemicals?" and "why do you want to

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become a member?” The Lycaeum justifies this requirement by stating: "As you

might know, there are a lot of jerks on the internet, and the essay ensures that

our membership, and discussion, is kept to high standards" (The Lycaeum

1997).

b) Hyperborea (http://www.levity.com/eschaton/hyperborea.html) is a website

managed by "gardener/curator" Terence McKenna. The site combines dreamy

full-color images with poetry-like text to create a psychedelic fantasy world of

McKenna-related ideas and inspirations, rants and raves (hypertext links are

underlined as they are on the site):

You have entered an Alchemical Garden at the Edge of Time. There is haze upon the distant hills, spreading Acacias bend low over reflecting pools. The air is filled with an all pervasive hum; these are the reveries of the Proustian bees... Hyperborea is a fleeting golden moment suspended between History and the unspeakable revelation of the Eschaton. Hyperborea is a nexus of feelings, evolving ideas and shifting appearances. It is both an objective world and a dream with a hallucination. Hyperborea is Novelty itself. Welcome weary websurfer, you have found the Wellspring and the Datepalm: you have found garden and starship, laboratory and time machine, archive and dream museum, pleasure dome and shimmering rain forest. Hyperborea is the last work of art. Behold, behold the final illusion. At last, at last! The final illusion (Hyperborea 1997).

In this chapter I have described the wide variety of components of the neo­

psychedelic movement. As the reader can see, the movement is a very large

and complex phenomenon encompassing large numbers of people, individual

celebrities/experts, different types of organizations and scientific research

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projects, professional conferences, all sorts of written texts and cultural artifacts,

raves, and computer/technology-related components. This diffuse complexity of

the neo-psychedelic movement makes it difficult to comprehend 1) common

aspects of the movement, 2) any sort of holistic cohesion permeating it, and 3)

meaningful conclusions that can be drawn from examining this phenomenon. In

the following chapter and in the conclusion, I will offer an analysis of the neo­

psychedelic movement that will give the reader a better understanding of this

movement as a whole.

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A PROPOSAL AND DISCUSSION OF AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

FOR THE NEO-PSYCHEDELIC MOVEMENT

A drug’s reputation, created through the use of symbols, images, or metaphors, is instrumental in people’s determination to use the substance, and in providing meaning and understanding of the effects they experience with it. The act of drug taking becomes, then, a social phenomenon with defined interactions between self, others, and society with ritualized activities occurring in specified settings (Montagne 1988a, 143).

Following the componential description of the neo-psychedelic movement in

the previous chapter, I will now propose an epistemological framework for the

variety of beliefs contained within the movement. This framework places the

component parts (or cultural texts) of the neo-psychedelic movement into four

general belief or approach categories: 1) the entheogenic/ethnobotanical

approach; 2) the scientific/psychotherapeutic approach; 3) the recreational

approach; and 4) the cyberpsychedelic approach.

These categories will provide a useful theoretical and practical framework

from which the reader can gain a better understanding of the neo-psychedelic

movement both as a phenomenon with many autonomous components and one

possessing an overall holistic cohesion. From these categories the deeper

symbolic meanings and relationships behind and among the cultural texts can be

derived.

Given the diverse and complex nature of the neo-psychedelic movement, any

attempt to impose meaningful categories on it is necessarily problematic

because few of its components fit neatly into any one descriptive box.

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Therefore, the reader should note that the boundaries of the following

categories are somewhat fluid and have many similarities, crossover points, and

intersections.

Finally, these categories should be viewed as epistemological approaches

that the individuals of the neo-psychedelic movement use to understand and

explain their own beliefs and experiences regarding what psychedelic

substances represent. Since these beliefs and experiences about psychedelics

are often highly context-dependent, what an individual believes or experiences

at any given time about psychedelics also may be fluid and variable.

1. The Entheogenic/Ethnobotanical Approach

This approach represents a broad-based epistemological coalition of ideas

about psychedelics that is based on two overall perspectives: 1) that ingestion of

these substances can put the user in touch with divine or supernatural spirits or

aspects thereof, whether by revealing the divine nature within oneself

(entheogenic) or facilitating a more direct connection with spiritual realms or

beings. Thus, this perspective inherently links psychedelics to a wide range of

larger religious and spiritual beliefs.

The second perspective of this approach is that ethnobotanical information,

primarily from indigenous cultures, is a rich and crucial source of knowledge

about how to identify, prepare, and use psychedelic plants. In fact, a new word

has recently been created within the neo-psychedelic movement to describe the

blending of these two perspectives-entheobotany—and a major conference

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entitled "Entheobotany: Shamanic Plant Science: A Multi-Disciplinary

Conference on Plants, Shamanism, and Ecstatic States" was held in San

Francisco in October 1996 with the speakers being a "who's who" list of

psychedelic celebrities/experts.

Although I believe this new word, entheobotany, is a descriptive and

efficacious term, for my purposes I prefer to keep the terms entheogenic and

ethnobotany more separate (but still in the same category). The reason for this

is that entheogenic beliefs can surround synthetic and semi-synthetic

psychedelic substances such as MDMA or LSD without having any relationship

to ethnobotany. However, with plant and fungi-based psychedelic substances

that indigenous peoples have used for a long time such as ayahuasca,

psilocybin mushrooms, or peyote, the two terms often go hand in hand, hence

the blended word, entheobotany.

The range of beliefs that could be included in the entheogenic/ethnobotanical

approach category is vast. One of the most prominent beliefs is that psychedelic

substances possess an inherent spirit or intelligence that communicates with the

user. Virtually all indigenous peoples who use psychedelic plants hold this

belief in one form or another (Brito 1989; Dobkin de Rios 1984a, b; Du Toit

1977; Furst 1976,1990; Hamer 1973; Luna 1986; Meyerhoff 1974; Schultes and

Hofmann 1979). This belief is also often emulated and reproduced by

spiritually-oriented, non-native users of these plants, although they may envision

a more modernized communication with a psychedelic spirit, for example,

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contact with UFOs or extraterrestrial intelligences (McKenna 1993; McKenna

1991; DeKome 1994; Turner 1994; Meyer 1994).

A widely held corollary belief in this category is that proper use of

psychedelics will facilitate healing and/or the acquisition of wisdom, and thus

these substances are often literally perceived as "medicines." Again, this is a

belief held by most indigenous people who incorporate psychedelic plants into

their culture and represents the basis for the religion that is sometimes termed

psychedelic shamanism (Hamer 1980; Kalweit 1988; Nicholson 1987; Drury

1989).

Among the primarily non-native people of the neo-psychedelic movement,

psychedelics are also perceived as healing and/or wisdom evoking medicines.

This is not surprising given both the tendency of this group to emulate the beliefs

of non-Westem cultures (e.g., Eastern religions or Native American shamanic

practices), and the historical association of psychedelics in a Euro-American

context with psychiatry and psychotherapy, as well as with well-known

intellectuals, artists, and writers, rather than with religious figures.

2. The Scientific/Psychotherapeutic Approach

The scientific/psychotherapeutic approach is historically rooted in the fact

that modem, western knowledge of psychedelic drugs was initiated and

developed in the scientific and clinical laboratories of Europe and the United

States during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. These scientific and clinical

investigations of psychedelics were proceeding rapidly long before the reality (or

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even the notion) of widespread non-medical or recreational use of these

substances ever occurred in the West. However, it was this rampant use of

psychedelics outside of the lab that served as a major factor in the U.S.

government severely curtailing human research with psychedelics for

approximately 20 years. Recently, with the lifting of this ban, the important link

between scientific research and psychedelics has now been re-established and

is a crucial component of the neo-psychedelic movement.

The scientific/psychotherapeutic research contingent is one of the most

important aspects of the neo-psychedelic movement because, for the

government and mainstream society, it is the only component of the movement

with legitimacy. Virtually all of the other individuals and organizations of the

neo-psychedelic movement operate more or less on the fringes of society due to

the unusual nature of their beliefs and the illegality of their activities.

The epistemological basis for the scientific/psychotherapeutic approach rests

on the idea that the theories and methodologies of Western science are highly

efficacious in explaining what psychedelic drugs are and how they work, and in

determining how they should be used. For example, to Western science, these

substances are psychoactive drugs with identifiable chemical structures that act

primarily in the human brain to profoundly alter mental function. However, as I

pointed out earlier in this dissertation, scientists themselves cannot always

agree on many important aspects of psychedelics as evidenced, for example, by

the differences of opinion over the years surrounding even what to call these

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substances, or by the ongoing debates over whether or not psychedelics have

any concrete medical utility (Bravo and Grab 1989).

Another important epistemological aspect of this approach category is that

science rightly exerts considerable power and control over the place

psychedelics hold in society. This situation is merely an extension of the

powerful rale science plays in our society at large in a multitude of ways, ranging

from the overwhelming prevalence of scientific world views and thinking, to the

regulation and social control of a society based on scientific principles and

findings.

Within the scientific/psychotherapeutic approach there are several different

focuses to the investigation of psychedelics. These include primarily biomedical

studies with two intentions: 1) learning more about how psychedelics affect the

human body, and 2) what efficacy these substances may have in treating

specific pathologies, such as substance abuse or anxiety.1

On a larger level this approach category could also include ethnobotanical,

anthropological, or sociological studies since these also are in the realm of

scientific investigations of psychedelics. However, in this dissertation I focus

primarily on biomedical research and psychotherapy that involves the

administration of psychedelic drugs to human subjects.

One aspect of the scientific/psychotherapeutic approach that does not enjoy

mainstream legitimacy is the underground contingent of psychotherapists who

utilize various psychedelics as adjuncts to psychotherapy. Although this work is

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illegal and obviously not sanctioned by mainstream professional or regulatory

bodies, these "renegade" psychotherapists sincerely believe in the efficacy of

their treatments and see themselves as carrying on the decades-long tradition of

psychedelic psychotherapy ( Adamson 1985; Adler 1985; Beck and Rosenbaum

1994). However, of course, the focus of these psychotherapists is on therapy

and not research, so in their work they do not use scientific methodologies such

as placebo-controls and quantification of effects.

3. The Recreational Approach

This approach epitomizes what most people think when they consider

psychedelic drug use or drug use in general. On the surface, taking a

recreational approach to psychedelics simply involves the notion that one takes

these substances purely to "get high" and experience the pleasures associated

with this intoxicated state. In this view, psychedelics are no different than any

other drug, and represent one more item in a drug user’s bag of pharmacological

treats. However, if we take a closer look at the recreational approach, we can

perceive that even the ideas "recreational," "get high," and "pleasure" are

actually not so easy to define because they can mean different things given

differences in the drug, person, and context.2

As I pointed out earlier, the "set and setting" in which psychedelic drugs are

ingested influence the ultimate experience of the user to a very large degree.

Thus, one person's recreational psychedelic experience might be completely

different than the recreational psychedelic experience of someone else

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depending on the set and setting. For example, a person who takes LSD on a

whim at a party after having consumed a large amount of alcohol with the

immediate intention of "getting really wasted," will have a much different

experience than a person who takes MDMA at a rave or a Grateful Dead show

after having fasted for several hours beforehand, intentionally attending the

event with supportive friends, and being sure to drink lots of water to prevent

dehydration. Both of these examples represent a "recreational" approach to

psychedelic drugs, but should be viewed along a continuum with the most

impulsive, unintentional, and potentially dangerous approach at one end and a

highly conscious, intentional, and potentially beneficial approach at the other.

In fact, at this latter end of the continuum a recreational approach might actually

blend with an entheogenic approach if the person intends to both "have fun" and

"learn something meaningful" during the experience.

It is also important to note that there is a more or less subtle negative bias

against recreation and pleasure in American culture. The Protestant/ Purtian

work ethic is alive and well in American culture and its adherents are generally

suspicious of recreational or pleasureable activities—one is supposed to engage

in these activities only after "earning" them through hard work and then only in

moderate doses. If one does not "earn" these activities through work or

engages in an immoderate amount of recreation or pleasure, then this is "bad"

and one is supposed to feel guilty. Perhaps this Protestant/Puritan attitude is

based on forgetting the true and positive meaning of recreation (and its inherent

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connection to the original sacred act of creation), which is "to impart fresh life to;

refresh mentally or physically" (American Heritage College Dictionary 1993,

1142).

4. The Cyberpsychedelic Approach

One of the most interesting and key aspects of the neo-psychedelic

movement is the link between technology, computers, and psychedelics. This

approach takes several forms, including the perception of psychedelics as

technological tools for improved brain functioning in such areas as creativity,

sensory awareness, and intellectual stimulation. In this way psychedelics are

viewed in a manner similar to other technological aids such as "brain-wave"

machines, virtual reality devices, sensory deprivation tanks, "smart drugs," and

even computers themselves.

Technology, computers and psychedelics also have an important historical

link given that several pioneers in the field of personal computing claim to have

received creative inspiration for their technological acheivements through their

use of psychedelics. Steven Jobs, co-developer of the Apple computer, and Bill

Gates, founder of Microsoft, are two of the best examples of this computer

pioneer/psychedelic drug connection (Dery 1996; Kim 1991; Rushkoff. 1994).

Another important link between technology, computers, and psychedelics lies

in the perceived similarities between the realms of reality offered by

psychedelics and the realms of "cyberspace." In this view, the Internet is seen

as having metaphorical links to psychedelics since both phenomena tend to alter

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increase access to differing modes of perception and communication. In many

ways, the reality of "cyberspace" resembles a kind of a psychedelic realm in

which the ordinary time/space continuum is altered to a remarkable degree—in

"surfing the net" normal national and international boundaries become

meaningless with the touch of a button and one can experience a seemingly

infinite variety of activities and information. Thus taking a trip on-line into the

cyberspatial realms of the Internet is similar to taking a psychedelic trip. For

example, thousands of WWW home pages covering every sort of conceivable

subject matter are available for exploration at the touch of a button on a

computer, just as thousands of psychedelic realms are available for exploration

with the simple act of ingesting a psychedelic substance. Of course, on the

WWW the challenge for users is learning how to discriminate between

meaningful and meaningless information, just as the challenge for psychedelic

users is to discriminate between useful information and informational clutter.

A final connection is simply that the Internet is fast becoming one of the most

important mediums for a back and forth neo-psychedelic communcation network.

The nature of this medium of communication is well suited to a highly diffuse and

more or less "underground" movement with ideas that are out-of-the-

mainstream.

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Discussion

Few of the component parts of the neo-psychedelic movement are solidly

within one sole epistemological approach category. The only obvious example

is that all psychedelic research projects are closely aligned with the

scientific/psychotherapeutic approach. Most of the other component parts

contain elements of two, three, or all four of the approaches. For example,

psychedelic conferences as a rule include speakers and panels on most aspects

of psychedelics, while the variety of psychedelic organizations, as well as

psychedelic celebrities/experts, definitely reflect all four approaches.

In terms of these epistemological approaches, the only component of the

neo-psychedelic movement that is difficult to gauge is the psychedelic masses

due to their general anonymity. In terms of sheer numbers, all four approaches

are represented within the psychedelic masses, however, the recreational

approach is probably dominant, given that most licit and illicit drug use outside of

a medical context in American society is recreational. Of course, as I discussed

previously, this recreational approach can take many different forms depending

on the set and setting, so it is difficult to generalize about how these forms

specifically manifest within this population.

Perhaps one generalizable aspect of the psychedelic masses approach to

these substances is represented by the overall ignorance regarding the history,

use, and effects of psychedelics in American culture and other cultures around

the world. For example, many of the college students I teach in my drug courses

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("Drugs in American Culture," "Drugs and Society," and "Anthropology of Drugs")

are amazed that psychedelics have been used and continue to be used for

religious purposes by various cultures for thousands of years. Similarly, they

often do not know that during the 1950s and 1960s, clinical research with

psychedelics was widespread and thought to be one of the most promising

avenues in psychiatry and psychotherapy. As a response to this overall

ignorance of psychedelics within the population, one of the stated purposes of

many organizations and informational components of the neo-psychedelic

movement is to educate the general public about the differing and often non-

recreational approaches to psychedelics (Jenks 1995).

Controversy, Language, and the Neo-Psychedelic Movement

One important method for analyzing the neo-psychedelic movement is to

examine the conflicts within its confines. In general there are two inherently

connected questions about psychedelics that generate controversy within (and

of course outside of) the movement: 1) What are these substances? and 2) How

should they be used? As is evident from what I have already presented in this

dissertation, these questions permeate not only the history of psychedelics in

American society, but all current debates about them as well. These questions

also allude to ideologies of psychedelic drugs that are of the utmost importance

in understanding both the substances themselves and the neo-psychedelic

movement. In speaking specifically about the large and complex body of

literature on psychedelics, Montagne notes:

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Most of the literature on psychedelic drugs is influenced strongly by the author’s ideologies, or belief structures, about those drugs and their functions in a specific society. Different ideologies not only influence attitudes toward personal use or non-use and toward others' use, but they even can affect the very nature and meaning of the psychedelic experience (Montagne 1994, 229).

The basis for differentiating between the four neo-psychedelic

epistemological approaches that are discussed in this chapter is a direct result

of these two questions and different responses to them. Different ideas about

psychedelics are readily apparent in the controversy of simply what to call this

class of psychoactive substances: are they hallucinogens, psychedelics,

entheogens, or empathogens? Or, taking another approach, are they drugs,

medicines, sacraments, or tools?

Given the complexity of the psychedelic experience, in particular, its potential

to invoke the entire range of human experience—from the most pleasurable,

religious, and euphoric to the most terrifying, hellish, and painful-it is no wonder

that people have a variety of opinions as to what these substances are. Thus, to

those who take a primarily entheogenic/ethnobotanical approach to

psychedelics, they are perceived as sacraments or medicines for wisdom or

healing; to those who take a scientific/psychotherapeutic approach, they are

perceived as psychoactive drugs or medicines for study or therapy; to those

who take a recreational approach, they are perceived as recreational drugs with

which to get high; and to those who take a primarily cyberpsychedelic approach,

they are perceived as technological tools for improved brain functioning.

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What we can see here in these differing perceptions of psychedelics are

attempts to describe the nature of these substances given the specific social and

cultural models embedded within each epistemological perspective.

And out of these models come ways to describe these effects using the

imprecise tool of language, or more precisely, linguistic metaphors. As

Montagne (1988b) points out in his astute article The Metaphorical Nature of

Drugs and Drug Taking, linguistic metaphors are routinely used to describe

drugs and drug taking since "our thoughts, behaviors, and experiences

regarding drugs are still only partially understood, due in part to the ineffable or

tacit nature of these phenomena" (417).

Metaphors allow us to describe and understand difficult concepts and

experiences in terms of other things that are often simpler or more familiar. For

example, the "war on drugs" uses the metaphor of war to help us better

understand (and of course justify) why extreme measures such as random drug

tests, property forfeitures, the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of citizens

with long mandatory minimum sentences, and billions of dollars spent each year

must be used to fight this "enemy" we call drugs. In the rhetoric of the war on

drugs, there are several negative metaphors commonly used for illegal drugs:

drug is evil, drug is the devil, drug is death, drug is disease, drug is plague, and

drug is scourge (Montagne 1988b). These metaphors are very important in

forming societal opinions about illegal drugs and in forming social policy

because:

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...in essence, they are instrumental in our construction of social realities regarding drug use, at either the personal or societal level. These metaphors might influence social perceptions to such an extent that social change is, or can be, brought about by the prevailing metaphorical structure, which in turn can alter the underlying metaphors that are present (Montagne 1988b, 420).

Although negative metaphors for drugs abound in mainstream American

society, there is obviously a clash of ideologies concerning illegal drugs-the

tens of millions of people who regularly partake of various sorts of these

substances probably do not equate them with the devil, and many neo-

psychedelicists believe just the opposite-that psychedelic drugs are divine.

This clash of metaphorical ideologies can even be seen in mainstream society

apart from illegal drug subcultures-the citizens of both California and Arizona

voted in November 1996 to effectively change the predominant social metaphor

of marijuana as illegal drug to marijuana as medicine, much to the chagrin of the

federal government (Gorman 1997).

Montagne (1988b) goes on to explain that the original Greek term for drug,

pharmakon, incorporated three metaphors to describe the multiple meanings

associated with these substances: remedy, poison, and magical charm. Each of

these metaphors to describe drugs is still utilized, depending on the drug and

context: the metaphor of remedy is associated with medicines in some sort of

healing context; the metaphor of poison is often used to describe the misuse of

drugs and illegal drugs in general; and the metaphor of magical charm is applied

to properties of "wonder" or "miracle" drugs such as penicillin or, more recently.

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the protease inhibitors to fight HIV, and of course, in users' descriptions of

psychedelic drugs.

In the context of the four neo-psychedelic epistemological approaches, the

metaphors employed to describe what psychedelics are (question #1), such as

sacrament, medicine, psychoactive or recreational drug, or technological tool,

are inherently linked to how psychedelics should be used (question #2). Thus,

to describe psychedelics as sacraments inherently links them to a

religious/spiritual use, while describing them as recreational drugs links them to

unstructured, casual, and primarily pleasurable usage. Closely following ideas

about how psychedelics should be used are related ideas about who should use

them (everyone, no one, volunteers, ill people, well people) and who should

control/administer them (everyone, no one, medical doctors, therapists,

shamans).

Elitism vs. Egalitarianism

How all these fundamental questions about psychedelic drugs are actually

manifested within the neo-psychedelic movement is a complex story, which I

have tried to tell in this dissertation. As I discussed in chapter two, debates

about what psychedelics are and how they should be used were also a

fundamental theme throughout the original psychedelic movement in the 1950s

and 1960s. At this time these debates were often polarized between those who

took an "elitist perspective" of psychedelics and those who took a more

"egalitarian perspective." Basically, the elitist perspective involves the notion

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that these substances are so special, powerful, potentially dangerous, and/or

unpredictable that access to them should be limited and controlled (although not

necessarily by the government). In contrast, the egalitarian perspective involves

the notion that because psychedelics are so special and extraordinary access to

them should not be restricted (especially by those in power) since they are the

birthright of every human being.3

During the 1960s the conflict between these two differing perspectives came

to a head with the illegalization of psychedelics and the defacto ban on human

psychedelic research. To this day, some in the neo-psychedelic movement still

place responsibility for this government crackdown squarely on the actions of

Timothy Leary:

To some extent this problem can be attributed to the behavior of Dr. Timothy Leary, who took it upon himself to be a cheerleader for the cause of psychedelics-against the wishes of some of his colleagues at the time. Among them, Frank Barron, Aldous Huxley, Huston Smith, and others felt that these materials were sacred and urged that they be treated with discretion and respect as was accorded the sacrament at Eleusis, alchemical elixirs, and the like. Unwilling or unable to contain his enthusiasm, Leary popularized psychedelic drugs and identified them as catalysts of a revolutionary social movement. He encouraged their use in ways that were seen as (and often were) hedonistic, irresponsible, or radically threatening to the status quo, thereby provoking the restrictive legislation we see today. (Forte 1997b, 2)

In many ways this contrast between the elitist and egalitarian perspective

permeates the neo-psychedelic movement to this day; how these perspectives

are actually manifested in practice is complex. Obviously, both the recreational

and cyberpsychedelic approaches are firmly rooted in an egalitarian perspective.

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Almost by definition, these approaches call for just about anyone (usually

excluding children) to have access to psychedelics for the purposes of

recreation and pleasure, as well as to improve the function of the "human

biocomputer." It is this egalitarian perspective, too, that puts anyone with a

recreational or cyberpsychedelic approach to psychedelics at odds with the

government, especially law enforcement, since the government is at best

decidely elitist in its perception of psychedelics.

The scientific/psychotherapeutic and entheogenic/ethnobotanical approaches

to psychedelics tend to be elitist-oriented with a wide-range of not necessarily

compatible control mechanisms governing the use of psychedelics, such as

government regulatory bodies, authorized research projects, therapist couches,

individual ethics, and shamanic rituals. Therefore, components of these two

approaches that hold the most restrictively elite perspective of psychedelics

have the most hope of receiving legitimacy from the government. For example,

as I previously stated, the only component of the neo-psychedelic movement

that already enjoys some mainstream legitimacy is the psychedelic research

project. The primary reason why current human psychedelic research has been

given this legitimacy is that it is "playing by the rules" designated by various

government agencies. (However, mainstream legitimacy is relative, given that

human psychedelic research in general is still viewed as new, experimental, and

fairly controversial.) In the elitist perspective of the government, psychedelic

drugs are scientific objects of study with potential medical uses, and should be

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adminstered solely by qualified scientists (preferably medical doctors) to highly

screened research subjects and/or patients. Perhaps the overriding metaphor

here is that psychedelic drugs are substances that need to be highly regulated

and controlled by designated authorities-the epitome of the elitist perspective.

On the other hand, there are those within the entheogenic/ethnobotanical

approach category who are searching for legitimacy from mainstream authorities

outside of the scientific research paradigm. These contingents, such as the

Peyote Way Church of God and the Council on Spiritual Practices, are seeking

to have the religious/spiritual use of psychedelics legitimized in American

society, just as the Native American Church enjoys exemption from the drug laws

with its use of peyote. The religious/spiritual use of psychedelics is problematic

in the eyes of government authorities since they define drugs and drug use

solely within a medical/legal paradigm, and do not acknowledge the potential

religious/spiritual properties of these substances (except if one is Native

American). Again we have a clash of linguistic metaphors (and epistemology!)

here with the "drug is pharmaceutical medicine" or the "drug is controlled

substance" metaphor conflicting with the "drug is spiritual medicine" or the "drug

is sacrament" metaphor. Forte provides this anecdote to illustrate the differing

points of view: "Once when a journalist casually referred to peyote (a classic

entheogen) as a drug, a Huichol Indian shaman replied, ’Aspirin is a drug,

peyote is sacred' (Forte 1997b, 1)."

The contingents within the entheogenic/ethnobotanical approach category

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hold a generally elitist perspective of psychedelic drug use. although it is of a

different quality than the scientific/psychotherapeutic approach. For this

contingent, an actual shaman or otherwise knowledgable person is required to

guide the psychedelic session. Although almost anyone is seen as being

eligible to participate in a psychedelic session, they must be adequately

prepared through such methods as fasting, deep personal reflection, and having

a positive attitude. In this way the psychedelic experience is regulated and

controlled through a screening process, albeit of different nature than that of a

scientific research protocol.

Ethical Guidelines

Within the context of American culture, this is one of the main difficulties

faced by individuals or groups who seek to use psychedelics in a

religious/spiritual manner, and who eventually hope to receive government

approval to practice their beliefs; there is no common or traditional ethic to serve

as a guide and foundation for the psychedelic experience. Whereas, indigenous

cultures that use psychedelics have age-old prescribed rituals to deal with the

powerful, boundary-dissolving, and seemingly unpredictable aspects of the

psychedelic experience, no such rituals exist in modern American culture-at

least until recently.

One of the hallmarks of the entheogenic/ethnobotanical contingent of the

neo-psychedelic movement is the development of various types of ethical

guidelines for the use of psychedelic drugs. Most often, the ethics of how

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indigeneous cultures use psychedelics are emulated and then, of course,

adapted to a modern American cultural context (Smith 1988). For example, the

Council on Spiritual Practices has developed and published an eight-point

"Code of Ethics for Spiritual Guides," which outlines the following the ethical

values:

1. Intention 2. Serving Society 3. Serving Individuals 4. Competence 5. Integrity 6. Quiet Presence 7. Not for Profit 8. Tolerance (Council on Spiritual Practices 1997, 174-175).

Ethical guidelines, such as these, serve not only as practical tools for managing

and optimizing the psychedelic experience in religious/spiritual contexts, but also

serve to demonstrate to government authorities the legitimacy of these contexts

as bona fide religious/spiritual practices deserving First Amendment protections.

Although no psychedelic religious/spiritual organizations other than the Native

American Church have received government approval, it is the hope of many

within the entheogenic/ethnobotanical contingent that they will someday not fear

prosecution and imprisonment for their beliefs (Barlow 1996; Sterling 1997).

Summary

In this chapter I have outlined a framework of trie neo-psychedelic movement

that is comprised of four basic epistemological approach categories:

entheogenic/ethnobotanical, scientific/psychotherapeutic, recreational, and

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cyberpsychedelic. These categories are very broad and I could easily have

broken them down further into sub-categories. But for the purposes of being

concise and of not losing a holistic sense of the neo-psychedelic movement, I

have chosen to highlight these four primary categories. Each of the component

parts of the neo-psychedelic movement, such as individuals and organizations,

can be described according to at least one of these categories: however, many

parts of the movement hold beliefs that overlap from one category to the next.

The reader should bear this in mind.

I have also focused my analysis on aspects of the two approach categories

that are espoused by those attempting to gain some legitimacy from government

authorities and mainstream American society in general. I have done this to

better place the neo-psychedelic movement within American society at large,

and to highlight the fact that this movement is quite different from other drug

subcultures. I will conclude now with a summation and explanation of my

research findings, and suggest areas of future research.

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CONCLUSION

Entheogens like ayahuasca may be just the right medicine for hypermaterialistic humankind on the threshold of a new millennium which will determine whether our species continues to grow and prosper, or destroys itself in a massive biological Holocaust unlike anything the planet has experienced in the last 65 million years. ...precisely because of our modem knowledge,we need the divine entheogens more than ever. Far from taking the mystery out of religion, the restoration of genuine entheogenic sacraments puts the Mystery back into religion, obviating the necessity of faith in sophistical doctrines. The Entheogenic Reformation is our best hope for healing Our Lady Gaea, while fostering a genuine religious revival for a new millennium. That revival is under way in the vast tent of this watery blue planet...Gi'me that Old Time Religion (Ott 1994, 90)!

The Neo-Psychedelic Movement and American Culture

Psychedelic drugs have had a complex and ambiguous 100 year history in

American culture. From the beginning, these substances have posed a difficult

challenge not only to the people who use them, but also to the larger concerns

of scientific, religious, social, and political values upon which this country is

based. The use of psychedelic drugs in American culture can then be seen as a

real historical force for large scale social and cultural change-despite the fact

that, at present, this seems to have been forgotten given the stigmatization of

and controversy over these substances.

As I have discussed, the original psychedelic movement-from research with

psychedelic drugs in mainstream laboratories, to the psychedelic "love-ins" of

the Haight-Ashbury, was a phenomenon reported with zeal in mainstream

newspapers and on the evening news. In this way the reality of psychedelics in

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American culture (whether positive or negative, depending on your point of view)

was and is hard to deny. However, the neo-psychedelic movement, although

reported on from time to time in the mainstream media, does not have the

explicit, societal-wide media presence in American culture that the original

movement did. (Although in terms of sheer numbers, there are many more

people taking psychedelics today than there were in the 1960s.) Consequently,

it is hard to judge the movement's impact or influence on the culture at large at

the present time.

The presence of the neo-psychedelic movement within American society

must be seen in light of the fact that our society, like most others around the

worla, is fundamentally a drug-using society. Whether they are psychedelics,

coffee, marijuana, Prozac, cocaine, or aspirin, most people alter their mental

state through chemical means, some sanctioned, some not. As I tell students on

the first day of my drug courses, "I can guarantee that 90% of the people sitting

in this room right now are currently under the influence of a mood-altering drug."

This statement, I believe, gets to the heart of the matter concerning drug use in

our society; drug use is often an unconscious, unexamined, or taken for granted

activity, to the point that commonly used legal drugs are often not considered

drugs at all. For example, the recent call for a "drug-free country" by the year

2001 by House Speaker Newt Gringrich (who, hypocritically admits to using

marijuana in his youth) (Superville 1997), presumably does not include the tens

of millions of drug-loving Americans who use alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and

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pharmaceutical medications on a daily basis. This is a perfect example of

unconscious, unexamined drug policy at best and a destructive hypocrisy at

worst.

As a result of having intensively studied the neo-psychedelic movement for

several years, I have seen it grow in leaps and bounds and achieve a level of

sophistication in publishing, information exchange, community building, and

social support that far surpasses the original movement. This fact is especially

true given the ever-growing presence of the neo-psychedelic movement on the

Internet.

In fact, the development of a psychedelic cyber-community on the Internet

can only serve to strengthen and enlarge the neo-psychedeiic movement as a

whole. In the long run I see the development of this psychedelic cyber­

community on the Internet as an important force for change, not only in the way

information about psychedelics is communicated among interested parties, but

also in helping to change, to an as yet unforeseen degree, how American society

in general views these substances.

It also is important to note that psychedelic-oriented information is by no

means the only drug-related information represented on the Internet. There are

many Internet sites related to other illegal drugs as well. This fact is lamented in

a recent article on the front page of The New York Times entitled "A Seductive

Drug Culture Flourishes on the Internet" (Wren 1997). In this article, the author

points out that the "drug culture,” including neo-psychedelicists, has a much

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more sophisticated and wider presence on the Internet than private and

government anti-drug forces. He points out that legal drugs also have a

widespread presence on the Internet-most alcohol, tobacco, and

pharmaceutical companies promote their products vigorously in cyberspace.

The presence of alternative messages about drugs on the Internet might be

one of the reasons why mainstream attitudes about illegal drugs and drug

policies seem to be gradually changing. Whereas just a few years ago

alternative drug policies such as harm reduction, treatment options for drug

offenders, decriminalization and even legalization were taboo to discuss by

policy makers (e.g., then Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders lost her job in 1993

for suggesting that drug legalization options should be studied [Elders 1994]),

now these policies are being openly debated in the public arena.

Although alternative drug policies have yet to be implemented on a wide

scale in this country, they are being publicly debated, and some new policies

have come to fruition. For example, the passage by state voters in November

1996 of the "Compassionate Use Act" (Proposition 215), legalized the medical

use of marijuana in California, and the "Drug Medicalization, Prevention, and

Control Act" (Proposition 200), legalized the medical use of all Schedule 1 drugs

in Arizona (Trebach 1997). The success of these propositions has created

political and legal turmoil at both the state and federal levels, given that federal

drug laws and regulations are supposed to supersede those of the state. The

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complex issues raised in these cases are now currently being heard in the courts

("Before and after" 1997).

It is important to note here that the Arizona initiative went further than the

California initiative in legalizing the medical use of all Schedule 1 drugs and not

just marijuana. Thus, in Arizona, all psychedelic drugs can be theoretically

prescribed by a doctor who 1) can produce scientific evidence that supports the

use of the drug as a treatment for a specific aliment, and 2) produces a written

opinion from a second doctor who concurs with the prescription (Trebach 1997).

However, obtaining a psychedelic drug by prescription in Arizona is unlikely

because, if for no other reason, these drugs are not currently produced for

prescription use by anyone in the U.S.

One of the main points in the drug debate in American society is that some

drugs are socially sanctioned and promoted, while others are not. But what most

people do not realize is that the line between the two, between sanctioned and

unsanctioned, legal and illegal, is often not drawn with any sort of rational

framework in mind, such as health concerns. Rather, where this line is drawn is

much more a matter of social convention, tradition, or economic concern. The

best example of this point is illustrated by the fact that the legal drugs alcohol

and tobacco kill 20-30 times more people in American society each year than all

illegal drugs combined (Goode 1993). However, this is not to say that certain

illegal drugs are harmless either on an individual or societal level. But many

neo-psychedelicists believe that psychedelic drugs are very low on the scale of

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drugs that are dangerous and harmful.1

One of the most important explicit beliefs within the neo-psychedelic

movement is that psychedelics are markedly different than other illegal drugs

and that government drug policy should reflect this difference (Sterling 1997).

For example, we do not see international drug cartels smuggling psychedelics

across borders by all available means, psychedelic drug gangs with Uzis battling

over turf, or psychedelic drug addicts ripping people off so they can get their

next fix. What we do see are scientists applying for permission and funding to

conduct psychedelic research, and individuals who may use psychedelics for

personal or spiritual reasons trying to keep themselves from being arrested. It is

in these two areas, scientific research and personal growth (broadly defined)

that neo-psychedelicists see the most irrational and unjust policies being

enforced, and also where, as I discussed in the previous chapter, they see their

best chances for changing and implementing new government policies (Forte

1997b; Strassman 1997).

Neo-Psychedelic Idealism

The neo-psychedelic movement is a diverse and complex network of

individuals and organizations that hold many views of what psychedelic drugs

are, how they should be used, and who should give and take them. What binds

the neo-psychedelic movement together is an overall belief in the potential of

psychedelic drugs to make a positive contribution, both to individuals and

society. On an individual level most neo-psychedelicists believe that

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psychedelic drugs offer people a valuable catalyst for personal psychological

and spiritual insight. On a societal level they believe psychedelics have the

potential not only to change the way we think about mind-altering drugs and the

place these substances have in Western society, but also where our society

(and humankind in general) is headed in the future. This psychedelic idealism is

one important factor that the neo-psychedelic movement shares with the original

psychedelic movement of the 1960s, although the neo-psychedelic idealism is

perhaps more tempered by the harsh realities of the government's war on drugs.

The idealism of the neo-psychedelic movement is reflected in several

different ways, again depending on what epistemological approach to

psychedelics is taken. Both the entheogenic/ethnobotanical and

cyberpsychedelic approaches are idealistic in their perceptions of psychedelics

as potential social change-agents. In Ott's quote at the beginning of this

chapter, we can see a specifically entheogenic/ethnobotanical idealism of

psychedelics being perceived almost as messianic saviors to a troubled world.

Similarly, cyberpsychedelic idealism can take on an eco-spiritual dimension as is

evident in Rushkoffs interpretation of a "cyberian utopia”:

Cyberians interpret the development of the datasphere as the hardwiring of a global brain. This is to be the final stage in the development of "Gaia," the living being that is the Earth, for which humans serve as the neurons. As computer programmers and psychedelic warriors together realize that "all is one," a common belief emerges that the evolution of humanity has been a willful progression toward the construction of Cyberia, the next dimensional home for consciousness (Rushkoff 1994, 5).

The psychedelic idealism of the scientific/psychotherapeutic approach lies in

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the belief that these substances have potential to teach us more about the

workings of the human brain and new methods to treat currently

intractable/untreatable conditions such as heroin addiction or the pain and

emotional suffering of terminally ill patients. Given the recent slow but sure

resumption of sanctioning of human psychedelic research by government

agencies, this scientific idealism could soon be better described as realism.

The Neo-Psychedelic Movement: Social Change-Agent?

The use of psychedelic drugs by millions of American citizens, and the

attempt to control and stamp out this use represents a polarization of differing

views not just about drug use, but also about differing views of reality, religion,

and social responsibility. The fact that psychedelic drugs have enjoyed a

widespread resurgence of interest in the past few years provides the evidence

for a developing social movement in present-day American culture that may or

may not come to resemble the Counterculture movement of the 1960s.

This role of change-agent for psychedelics becomes even more important in

light of the resurgence of interest in and use of psychedelics during the 1980s

and 1990s. After the 1960s, many people assumed that psychedelics had fallen

by the wayside, never to appear again upon the American cultural landscape.

But now, with a new generation of young people rediscovering these drugs, new

ways of electronic communication and networking that inherently subvert the

traditional communicative hegemony of the status quo, accompanied by the

recent lifting of the ban on human scientific research, psychedelic drugs are sure

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to create a new impact on American and global culture in ways that we can only

begin to imagine.

Some important questions remain: How will this younger generation

incorporate psychedelics into their lives? Will the use of these drugs influence

them into some sort of social action? And if they do, how will the dominant

powers in American society react to this social action? Two final questions are:

1) how will science incorporate the new psychedelic research and resulting

discoveries into its canon; and 2) will science ever be able to accept the

religious/spiritual implications that this new research is sure to bring forth? The

jury is still out on these questions, and perhaps it will remain out for a long time.

What does the future hold for the neo-psychedelic movement? At the very

least a large core group of people will continue to use and profess the benefits

of these substances in the face of continuing opposition by mainstream

American society. The people within the neo-psychedelic movement will remain

adamant that psychedelic drugs have been unjustly maligned and

misunderstood by the mainstream, and they will continue to try to change these

overall negative perceptions, if not the current drug laws themselves.

There are two fundamental reasons why psychedelic drugs are unlikely to

disappear from the American cultural landscape. The primary reason is that

these substances have been utilized by human beings since time immemorial as

tools to induce religious experience, promote psychological awareness, and

facilitate social cohesion, and this long-standing traditional use cannot be

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eradicated. Second, because psychedelics have the capacity to help users tap

into these fundamental issues of human experience, for good or ill, users often

become quite convinced in their assessment of psychedelics, often to the

dismay, incomprehension, and consternation of those outside of ‘he subculture.

Neo-psychedelicists are trying to find some way to incorporate these

substances into a modem American culture. This culture often denies or

trivializes positive psychological, religious, spiritual, or even pleasurable

experiences and, in particular, exhibits serious social disapproval of any

experiences that are drug-induced. Consequently, the neo-psychedelic

movement faces a long and difficult battle in its attempt to legitimize its beliefs

and practices concerning these substances either on a personal, organizational,

or societal level. At the very least, neo-psychedelicists, especially outside of a

scientific research context, perceive their use of psychedelic drugs as a

fundamental constitutional right to alter their consciousnesses in whatever way

they wish. They view their responsible use of psychedelic drugs as a right-to-

privacy issue similar to the right-to privacy issues emphasized by advocates of

safe and legal abortion or by the gay and lesbian rights movements.

In this dissertation I have tried to present an account of the neo-psychedelic

movement that is both comprehensive and accurate. I have attempted to

describe and analyze the movement both on the micro-level of the individual and

on the macro-level of American society. This has been a difficult and daunting

task, given the complexity of the movement in all its different components and

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the different disciplinary lenses one must utilize to understand this phenomenon:

sociology, anthropology, psychology, religion, medicine, and law. The neo­

psychedelic movement is ever growing and changing, so the reader should be

aware that this research project describes the movement through late 1997.

Areas for Future Research

There are avenues of socio-cultural research within the neo-psychedelic

movement that for reasons of brevity, lack of time, energy, or funding have not

been fully explored in this present work. These areas for future research

include, among others, the explosion of the neo-psychedelic movement on the

Internet, and the past, present, and future international presence of the

movement, particularly in Europe and South America.

The neo-psychedelic movement's presence on the Internet is an important

area for future investigation. The wide range of psychedelic-drug related

material on the Internet needs to be systematically explored, outlined, and

analyzed. Some questions that need to be addressed are: In what ways does

the Internet offer social support to the movement both in an individual and

collective sense? In what ways does the Internet give the neo-psychedelic

movement more power to affect social change? Will the government, law

enforcement, or anti-drug groups try to counteract the psychedelic presence on

the Internet and what might they do? Will the Internet have a negative effect on

the publishing of written material by members of the neo-psychedelic

movement?

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The international neo-psychedelic movement also needs to be investigated.

Some research questions in this area are: What are the primary countries in

which the neo-psychedelic movement is active? What is the relationship and

interaction between the neo-psychedelic movements in various countries? And.

what are the similarities and differences between the international movement

and its American component in such areas as illicit use: social views,

government regulation, and scientific research?

Other final areas for future research to examine are the international drug

tourism industry, the current state of the rave scene both in the U.S. and

internationally, and the relationship between the neo-psychedelic movement and

other alternative social movements such as the "zippy" movement, neo­

paganism, and large-scale gatherings such as the "Burning Man Festival."

In looking at the neo-psychedelic movement specifically and psychedelic drugs

in general, one thing is certain, scientific and social scientific researchers will

always find new material ripe for investigation-the psychedelic Phoenix has truly

risen from the ashes!

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CHAPTER ONE

1. For an interesting overview of psychedelic texts see Montagne (1994).

CHAPTER TWO

1. For more discussion on how "bad" trips can actually end up being "good"

trips see Brecher (1972); Hofmann (1980); Mogar(1965); and Walsh (1982).

2. Grinspoon and Bakalar (1983) offer an insightful discussion of this issue

in the introduction to their rich anthologyPsychedelic Reflections.

3. The word hallucination is derived from the Latin wordhallucinah meaning

to dream or to be deceived (American Heritage College Dictionary 1993).

4. Strassman (1996, personal communication) disagrees with this

hypothesis:

The existence of DMT in the human body suggests that non-plant induced psychedelic experiences pre-date, or are at any rate, do not post-date, exogenous ingestion of DMT or other tryptamine-induced psychedelic states. Maybe plants provided a wider range of people with those experiences, or were more reliable (which I don't think is true anyway) than self-induced methods.

5. For more information on the neurotoxicity of MDMA controversy see

Doblin (1995).

CHAPTER THREE

1. For comparative purposes, the rates of usage by sex and age for the legal

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Notes to Chapter Three

drugs alcohol and cigarettes show similar patterns to illegal drug usage,

however, the patterns are much less distinct: past year use of alcohol by men

was 70.0% vs. 61.1% for women; past year use of cigarettes by men was 34.6%

vs. 29.5% for women; past year use of alcohol for ages: 12-17: 35.1%: 18-25:

76.5%; 26-34: 77.0%; 35+: 65.0%; past year use of cigarettes for ages: 12-17:

26.6%; 18-25: 42.5%; 26-34: 38.4%; 35+: 28.7% (SAMHSA 1995).

2. Beresford's "magic gram" of LSD is an important item in psychedelic lore.

In 1961, Beresford, a physician at New York City Hospital, purchased gram #H-

00047 for $285 directly from Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland in order to

pursue his budding research interest in psychedelics. Part of this gram of LSD

was used in the research described in Master’s and Houston's bookThe

Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (1966), while another part was given to

Michael Hollingshead who, in turn, gave the drug to an extraordinary number of

well-known people including: Donovan, Paul McCartney, Keith Richard, Paul

Krassner, Frank Barron, Houston Smith, Paul Lee, Richard Katz, Pete La Roca,

Charlie Mingus, Saul Steinberg, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Ralph Metzner,

and Alan Watts (Stafford 1992; Stevens 1987).

3. The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching was co­

written with McKenna's brother, Dennis, and originally published in 1975 and

reprinted in 1993. True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's

Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise (1993), originally appeared in

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Notes to Chapter Three

1984 as a dramatized 9 1/2 hour-long audiotape "talking book."

4. PIHKAL is an acronym for "Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved."

5. I describe additional female psychedelic ceiebrities/experts, in particular,

Laura Huxley and Kat Harrison, in other sections of this dissertation on pages 64

and 99.

6. Research with psychedelics using human subjects is consistently being

done in various European countries, however, these studies are beyond the

present scope of this dissertation.

7. See The Ibogaine Story: Report on the Staten Island Project (De Rienzo,

Beal, and the Staten Island Project 1997) for the definitive treatise on ibogaine.

8. I say initially here since this research with ibogaine has subsequently

slowed considerably due to lack of funding and concerns about its neurotoxicity

("Ibogaine research” 1996).

9. For a brief discussion of psychedelic drugs and patents see Doblin (1992).

10. Ergot is believed to be the primary ingredient in the psychedelic

beverage used in the Mystery Rites of Eleusis in ancient Greece (Wasson,

Ruck, and Hofmann 1978.)

11. For another critique of this "macho ingestion syndrome" see Stevens

(1994).

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Notes to Chapter Three

12. A compilation of selected articles from The Psychedelic Review was

published in a book entitledThe Psychedelic Reader in 1965. This compilation

was reprinted for a "new generation of readers" in 1993 by Citadel Press (Weil,

Metzner, and Leary 1993).

13. Michael Horowitz is Timothy Leary's archivist and founder of the Fitz

Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, the largest collection of psychoactive drug books

and related materials in the world (Beifuss 1995).

14. For a variety of reasons, Ecstasy and raves have been inherently linked

from the start and are now considered almost synonymous by many people both

within and outside of the rave scene.

15. MONDO 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge is more or less a

compilation of ideas and other material from the magazine MONDO 2000. This

unusual and "off-the-wall" magazine, created in 1989, serves to chronicle

cyberculture in its many forms (including its psychedelic aspects)(Sobchack

1993).

16. In the interest of manageability, I have chosen to provide only a cursory

account of psychedelic-related information and activities on the Internet by

offering examples from the World Wide Web, since this phenomenon barely

existed when I began my research several years and now has grown into a large

and complex informational network. This important phenomenon is ripe for a

thorough and detailed investigation in the future.

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CHAPTER FOUR

1. It is important to note here that biological/pharmacological studies of

psychedelic drugs using animals has continued unabated while human research

has, until recently, been severely curtailed. In fact, one of the primary impetuses

of resuming these human studies is that the efficacy of animal studies is limited,

especially in the behavioral/psychological effects of psychedelics (Freedman

1984; Strassman 1994).

2. See Murray, Gaylin, and Macklin (1984) for a comprehensive examination

of the complex moral, social, medical, and legal issues surrounding recreational

drug use.

3. Of course, in actual practice, the elite and egalitarian perspectives are

not so polarized and blend into one another depending on the individual and

situation.

CHAPTER FIVE

1. For a systematic ranking and discussion of the relative risks of many

psychoactive drugs, see Gable (1992, 1993). Gable, who is not a member of the

neo-psychedelic movement, ranks the acute toxicity and dependence potential

of several psychedelic drugs from low to low/moderate in comparison to other

types of drugs.

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