LSD, The Grateful Dead, and How Abnormality Could Save Our Planet.
I first experienced the psychedelic Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in June 1992. The man I am today, reconstructed after having my life destroyed by drug addiction, is reluctant to accredit the use of any drug. Nonetheless, acid still is resistant to my mind’s damnation. From my moment of exposure to it -and throughout the years to follow- I can honestly say I am without a “bad” acid experience. The fact that I have had only benign experiences (perhaps hundreds) with the substance, opposed to some of the nightmarish days and nights I’ve spent with other chemicals, allows my conscience the freedom to consider LSD one of the “useful drugs” the world of illicit compounds has to offer. |
they can cause us to create elaborate rationalizations to defend our use. It’s as if the drug -itself- is a living entity, struggling to survive… And, in trying to preserve itself, it uses our own talents regarding self-deception to mask the harm its doing. It should be clear that I understand a chemical’s ability to tamper with our reason. Having said this, it may seem like madness to demonstrate why I feel using psychedelics might prove beneficial.
But, I’m going to demonstrate just that. |
Now, I feel I’ve at least partially shielded my ass from future debate, I will commence with my argument…
(Summer 1992 Anno Domini) - Jerry Garcia had still been among the living. With his existence so thrived the unity of a musical group known as The Grateful Dead. With the group’s existence continued a sociological phenomenon known as a “Dead Show”.
The “Dead Show”, in essence, was simply a concert at which The Grateful Dead headlined; although the hundreds of thousands who were aware of the goings-on surrounding a Dead Show knew -perhaps unwittingly- it had been something far greater than a simple concert.
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No longer blinded by desire, my fears of social-inadequacy dissipated and were no more. Cravings for dominance subsided. A realization seemed to unconsciously spread throughout the crowd… An understanding that there is great strength in accepting the notion of equality. Equality being felt throughout led to a togetherness, the greatest strength of all. I saw it all around me, it no longer seemed the number one underlying interest of humanity had been the acquisition and hoarding of wealth and power. The Dead Show was a community wherein people did not seek to make themselves kings by controlling one another in any of the thousand ways humanity has learned to control. It was a community of individuals (mostly intoxicated by psychedelics), unquestionably different from one another in talents and design, but obviously respectful of each other‘s well being. I continued to observe as equality and fellowship prevailed. There seemed to be no “strangers” amongst the acres of people, only “friends” that had yet to be introduced. The collectively-drugged community seemed to harbor interests similar to those some fifteen thousand years ago… Before people stopped caring about the guy next to them, before children learned to scream “Mine! Mine! Mine!“, before we let the fear of “not having more” stop us from sharing. Compassion, willingness to love unconditionally, and Unity flourished amongst the Dead Show community. And, after spending my life in a world of greed and conspiracy, it felt like I were on another planet.
A mass of people sharing the same state of mind is less like a group of individuals and more like one being. Psychotropic chemicals can dissolve the Ego. It is our Ego that poisons us with the desire to “be king”. Something happens when we share the same feelings, when we individually stop wanting to control one another, we forget about trying to dominate the people around us, we become One and -in doing so- we become something greater than any “king” to date. |
acid as well. According to Webster’s, that which is “Abnormal” is “not normal, average, or typical; irregular”. With this in mind, the psychological effect of LSD, defined as “Transient Abnormal Thinking”, doesn’t have to carry implications of lunacy, madness, and deviancy. In fact, the aforementioned explanation of an acid trip need not carry a negative inference at all.
Let’s look at the aspect of transience. I think the characteristic of the psychedelic experience that professionals refer to as transient are the moments spent wherein thoughts -so many thoughts- arise but only seem to linger for a short time. Sure, this is true, but what is to say the ideas envisioned while “thinking abnormally” will be forgotten forever? If the thoughts and discoveries we hold -even for a moment- come back for us to ponder and cultivate at a future time… I would say they’re not “transient”. The breakthroughs (if you will) we reach while we undergo an acid brainstorm don’t fade away into nonexistence ; we eventually recall the ideas we conjure while under the influential trance of the psychedelic.
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