Favorite Stories 6
Art Kleps had this to say about communicating the nature of the LSD experience:
"Part of the problem may lie in the fact that it seems improbable if not impossible that anyone can go through this kind of thing without turning into a terrorized blob of babbling jelly. How can anyone stand it -- or even enjoy it -- if the experience is as overwhelming and convincing as we say it is?
The inexperienced reader, however sympathetic he was to start out with, begins to suspect either exaggeration or some kind of self-protective pose of bravado on the part of the author, and starts picking the thing apart rather than granting that willing suspension of disbelief which is so necessary if you want to really find out what it feels like to be someone else or to understand an alien philosophy."
In the late '60s, I went to the University of Toronto for a week-long psychedelic conference, actually as a representative of The East Village Other. I knew I was to be in the kick-off debate, but didn't have an idea as to the topic.
Shortly after arriving, I was informed that it was the right of everyone to "turn on, tune in and drop out," and that the fraternity that had brought me there was fairly intent on getting me drunk
almost immediately after landing.
I also was informed that the opponent in this debate was the chief feature writer for The Toronto Star, and that we were to wear powdered wigs, and that the women would only be allowed
in the galleries.
This is the sort of thing that can get me on my high horse, and, as it turned out, much to my surprise, I won by the judges' vote of 9-1.
For what it is worth, here is some
of what I had to say:
"I don't mean that I think these drugs such as LSD have any special help for the left or the Christians or the intellectuals or whomever, but that they offer help for all of us. I have concluded that what they are doing is creating people who are not even too reliable in any traditional sense from the standpoint of an ideology, but who may be very necessary in terms of society's survival.
"These are molecules that are dangerous to systematized thinking. They are what might be called 'soul drugs.' The words frighten us, but I say these drugs put people in touch with their own soul and collective reality, and I think this is more important, finally,
than any organized system of thought.
In the case of the psychedelics, as everyone says, conditions under which they are tried deeply influence the direction of the experience. At the present time, though, these things are being taken in nothing like ideal conditions -- with the collapse of such traditional values as reason and faith, and in our cities so filled with chaos and misery and despair. Here we are onto the old paradox that what the catalyst is designed to do is almost in some sense necessary as its prerequesite."
John Beresford's advice regarding difficulties arising in a psychedelic session is that confrontation is an enemy: "Confrontation is precisely what should be avoided when a person who has taken LSD shows signs of agitation or depression or in some other way is manifesting resistance to the natural flow of the experience. What the person helping can do then is search for and suggest an image or idea which complements the image or idea which acted as the springboard of resistance. The resistance is undone and the normal flow of the session can proceed."
Dr. Stanislav Grof, author of LSD Psychotherapy and a slew of other books, provides a useful start in evaluating the possibility and meaning of a turbulent experience with a psychedelic: "The problem is the definition of a 'bummer.' Difficult experiences can be the most productive if properly handled and integrated. The best set and setting and quality of LSD cannot guarantee a 'good' trip, if this means easy, pleasant, uncomplicated. The problem is more management of the experience than the experience itself. We can increase the productiveness of sessions."
Nearly five pages about "dealing with difficulties" appear in my Psychedelics Encyclopedia (pages 26-30). An earlier version that Bonnie Golightly and I wrote appears in Chapter VIII, "Guidelines to the Use of LSD," from our LSD -- The Problem-Solving Psychedelic under the heading "Tight Spots," and can be found at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/stafford.htm
