Today we're talking about the category of substances classified as psychedelics. Through my decades as educator, I have had occasion to talk with teenagers about smoking, drinking and even cocaine and ecstasy. These conversations have been initiated by the young person, and I have tried to make listening supersede speaking in each case. People usually feel more like hearing from someone else with opinions and experiences when they feel respected and listened to.
Through all these years, however, I haven't had occasion to talk about LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, or mushrooms with youth. I do leave such topics up to another to initiate and young people have not had such substances in the foreground at all as much as my generation did in the sixties and seventies. And for me, having a conversation about "drugs," lumping all psychotropic substances into one big scary grab-bag together with heroin, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol would be like warning kids about "liquids" when reflecting on my concerns about youthful use of alcoholic beverages.
The psychedelic drugs, and in particular LSD, are powerful, mind-altering substances to be used (or not) with care and guidance. LSD changed my life. I used it mostly in my 20's and always had positive, productive experiences with it. I would not, however, recommend it to anyone. The choice to consider its usage and then conscientiously prepare for a "trip" needs, in my opinion, to come entirely from the potential user. And I would actively try to dissuade anyone from taking a hallucinogen as a "party drug."
Growing up, a friend of my parents happened to be the preeminent medical researcher authorized to study the use of LSD as a therapeutic tool for psychotherapists to use with patients. When stars such as Cary Grant and Esther Williams were given the opportunity to take acid in a controlled situation and this hit the press, of course the topic was sensationalized and distorted. The chemicals people have used to alter their consciousness for millennia are too important to either embrace or dismiss with stereotypic thinking.
More than with any other ingestible substance I know, psychedelics' effects are dependent on set and setting. Set is one's mindset, including motivation, expectations, and unaltered state of mind going into the trip. Setting is where one is, what the surroundings are like, what the timeframe is like, and how much say-so the individual has as to what she or he needs to carry on with a successful trip. Setting forth with realistic expectations and goals, a guide one trusts, positive surroundings and plenty of unfettered time are, to my mind, prerequisites to using a powerfully mind-altering chemical.
I have learned to regard psychedelics as allies, even though I've rarely used them since I turned 30. I have many vivid memories of significant, mind-changing trips and I revere what positive differences in my perception and my attitude about reality these experiences have facilitated in me. I stand ready to converse about and consider guiding or using with motivated, adult friends. But if I never have another trip in my life, that's okay,too.
My understanding of my place in the universe and in time, my experience of physicality and mind spaces, my life philosophy, and my ability to enjoy the here and now have all been profoundly influenced by my psychedelic experiences. And unlike so many other "drug" experiences, I can recall in fine detail my past trips and what I've learned along the way. The processing afterward of a psychedelic experience is just as important as the preparation for the trip. What one gets out of a trip is a reflection of what one puts into it. I have felt mystical, timeless, dissolved, united, sexual, shapeless and godlike while tripping, though usually not all at once. I have also guided others, helping them move in positive directions, even when confronting some challenging states of being.
Having written the above, I find myself feeling both humble and peaceful. If you, dear reader, have a reaction or response to my musings, as always I invite you to respond or ask questions, either under your own name or a pseudonym, or by writing to me at backanalleyatgmaildotcom. Take care, dear reader.