Holy The Firm
October 1, 2008 5:12 PM Subscribe
The walls seem to be kind of moving in and out, breathing...... That pill seemed so very, very tiny..... what is happening.....????? You know that music really sounds great.... There was an edge, but then we put on the Byrds, "to everything turn, turn..." all is calm...............................................................................
posted by caddis at 5:39 PM on October 1, 2008
posted by caddis at 5:39 PM on October 1, 2008
Every time I read a description of a drug trip I feel the same way as I do when someone describes a crazy dream they had and expects me to be amazed by how crazy it was.
NEWSFLASH: IT WAS A DREAM. THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE CRAZY.
Next time I get drunk I'm going to write about it at solipsistic length. It'll be amaaaaaazing.
Oh, and that time I drank too much coffee? That's a fucking NOVEL.
The guy is older than me but he should still get off my lawn.
posted by unSane at 6:47 PM on October 1, 2008
NEWSFLASH: IT WAS A DREAM. THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE CRAZY.
Next time I get drunk I'm going to write about it at solipsistic length. It'll be amaaaaaazing.
Oh, and that time I drank too much coffee? That's a fucking NOVEL.
The guy is older than me but he should still get off my lawn.
posted by unSane at 6:47 PM on October 1, 2008
I did a lot of acid in the 80s, listened to a lot of Peter Gabriel (up until Sledgehammer anyway). Thanks for the reminder. I have my own memories which I keep mostly to myself even as they inform "nearly every act I have performed since that day and nearly every word I have written" ... unlike the hundreds (thousands?) of times I've drunk to excess. That stuff's mostly just gone.
posted by philip-random at 7:06 PM on October 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by philip-random at 7:06 PM on October 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
Acid trips (or mushroom trips, which are much better) are exactly like dreams in that there is no possible way to explain exactly how it was to anyone else. It was for you and only you to experience. (That being said, Lavery does a pretty good job explaining the nuances of tripping.)
But comparing psycho-hallucinogenic experiences to getting drunk is like comparing having sex to getting into a fight, or reading a book to watching a movie. They're both exhilarating and full of sensory excitement, but in completely different ways.
I'm glad I chose most of my developmental drug experiences to be of the hallucinogenic kind. To be fully cliche, it has changed my thinking on everything for the better. And that's no exaggeration.
posted by Drainage! at 8:13 PM on October 1, 2008
But comparing psycho-hallucinogenic experiences to getting drunk is like comparing having sex to getting into a fight, or reading a book to watching a movie. They're both exhilarating and full of sensory excitement, but in completely different ways.
I'm glad I chose most of my developmental drug experiences to be of the hallucinogenic kind. To be fully cliche, it has changed my thinking on everything for the better. And that's no exaggeration.
posted by Drainage! at 8:13 PM on October 1, 2008
Shit, I couldn't read it, sorry; the words were morphing into Sanskrit or something, and all sliding down the screen.
posted by not_on_display at 9:27 PM on October 1, 2008
posted by not_on_display at 9:27 PM on October 1, 2008
Every time I read a description of a drug trip I feel the same way as I do when someone describes a crazy dream they had and expects me to be amazed by how crazy it was.
Nope, I've never heard a trip report -- written with any sense of earnestness, that is -- that sounds as trivial and personal/subjective as a dream report. This, despite the fact that I've shared both experiences with millions of others. I think it's that peculiarly shared ineffability which makes the well-articulated trip reports compelling to those who've visited similar territory.
posted by treepour at 9:32 PM on October 1, 2008 [2 favorites]
Nope, I've never heard a trip report -- written with any sense of earnestness, that is -- that sounds as trivial and personal/subjective as a dream report. This, despite the fact that I've shared both experiences with millions of others. I think it's that peculiarly shared ineffability which makes the well-articulated trip reports compelling to those who've visited similar territory.
posted by treepour at 9:32 PM on October 1, 2008 [2 favorites]
Dude, we should like, bring a tape recorder? And record what we talk about. Cause it's.... [hilarious/really deep], man!
posted by infinitewindow at 10:11 PM on October 1, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 10:11 PM on October 1, 2008 [2 favorites]
I think it's that peculiarly shared ineffability which makes the well-articulated trip reports compelling to those who've visited similar territory.
Nice point. The psychedelic experience isn't random. True, it can be dreamlike but it's a dream in a territory that many can visit, and many have. I love a good psychedelic discussion. Oddly enough, they often seem to happen over a beer.
posted by philip-random at 10:44 PM on October 1, 2008
Nice point. The psychedelic experience isn't random. True, it can be dreamlike but it's a dream in a territory that many can visit, and many have. I love a good psychedelic discussion. Oddly enough, they often seem to happen over a beer.
posted by philip-random at 10:44 PM on October 1, 2008
To be fully cliche, it has changed my thinking on everything for the better.
Which is, I suspect, the real reason the Morons in Charge© made it illegal.
posted by Enron Hubbard at 5:39 AM on October 2, 2008
Which is, I suspect, the real reason the Morons in Charge© made it illegal.
posted by Enron Hubbard at 5:39 AM on October 2, 2008
It always does my head in when folk make tripping out to be some sort of meaningful, quasi-religious experience that reveals deep life-changing truths through exploring a new 'territory'. Isn't it enough to see some weird shit, feel out of it, and have a laugh? It's a shame that psychedelics come with all this hippy baggage, making it difficult for people just to get plain old twatted on acid or mushrooms. You know, good old hardcore recreational drug abuse!
You don't see people waxing lyrical about their experiences on, say, coke, which can be just as 'profoundly' mind-altering and hallucinatory, but I bet if coke had been the drug of choice for hippies, you would get lyrical trip reports about staying up on a three day bender communing with one's ego in an acute spiritual panic. In other words, I suspect that set and setting, as Timothy Leary (I think?) called it, apply on a sort of cultural level - mystic bibble isn't completely intrinsic to psychedelic drug experiences, it's a result of mystic bibblers poisoning the well with expectations of 'meaningful' experiences on these particular drugs. Not that I'm denying that people do have these meaningful experiences on acid &c., and good luck to them. I just wish it wasn't nigh on obligatory to do so.
posted by jack_mo at 6:18 AM on October 2, 2008
You don't see people waxing lyrical about their experiences on, say, coke, which can be just as 'profoundly' mind-altering and hallucinatory, but I bet if coke had been the drug of choice for hippies, you would get lyrical trip reports about staying up on a three day bender communing with one's ego in an acute spiritual panic. In other words, I suspect that set and setting, as Timothy Leary (I think?) called it, apply on a sort of cultural level - mystic bibble isn't completely intrinsic to psychedelic drug experiences, it's a result of mystic bibblers poisoning the well with expectations of 'meaningful' experiences on these particular drugs. Not that I'm denying that people do have these meaningful experiences on acid &c., and good luck to them. I just wish it wasn't nigh on obligatory to do so.
posted by jack_mo at 6:18 AM on October 2, 2008
We scrawled some LSD writings down on a letter envelope that was laying around. This was 25 years ago. I just found it last week:
"In the shafs, you young evil king-doers like you"
"Yes, yes, Jim...up with the buck thumb."
Mostly, they were littered with expletives.
posted by pepcorn at 7:03 AM on October 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
"In the shafs, you young evil king-doers like you"
"Yes, yes, Jim...up with the buck thumb."
Mostly, they were littered with expletives.
posted by pepcorn at 7:03 AM on October 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
"you don't see people waxing lyrical about their experiences on, say, coke, which can be just as 'profoundly' mind-altering and hallucinatory, but I bet if coke had been the drug of choice for hippies, you would get lyrical trip reports about staying up on a three day bender communing with one's ego in an acute spiritual panic. "
I don't know, jack-mo, aren't you forgetting about pretty much the entire oeuvre of '80s music? Isn't this basically the entire idea of "new order" and "new wave" ? A rejection of the psychedelic/narcotic 60s/70s? (so far as musical genres can be defined by drugs of course).
Teenage Dream + little (green) fishes
posted by vronsky at 11:49 AM on October 2, 2008
I don't know, jack-mo, aren't you forgetting about pretty much the entire oeuvre of '80s music? Isn't this basically the entire idea of "new order" and "new wave" ? A rejection of the psychedelic/narcotic 60s/70s? (so far as musical genres can be defined by drugs of course).
Teenage Dream + little (green) fishes
posted by vronsky at 11:49 AM on October 2, 2008
"Isn't it enough to see some weird shit, feel out of it, and have a laugh?"
That's exactly what I was going for in the 80's. We did not like hippies, and had no interest in their prattle, we just wanted to get messed up. 25 years later, however, I can't help to admit that the hallucinatory experiences enriched and broadened my life on a positive way.
"You don't see people waxing lyrical about their experiences on, say, coke..."
We did a lot of this, too, and for the same reasons - to get messed up. The only way coke has "enriched" my life is to make me aware of the dark, empty sociopath that anyone can turn into given an addiction to too much stimulation.
posted by patrick rhett at 9:25 AM on October 3, 2008 [2 favorites]
That's exactly what I was going for in the 80's. We did not like hippies, and had no interest in their prattle, we just wanted to get messed up. 25 years later, however, I can't help to admit that the hallucinatory experiences enriched and broadened my life on a positive way.
"You don't see people waxing lyrical about their experiences on, say, coke..."
We did a lot of this, too, and for the same reasons - to get messed up. The only way coke has "enriched" my life is to make me aware of the dark, empty sociopath that anyone can turn into given an addiction to too much stimulation.
posted by patrick rhett at 9:25 AM on October 3, 2008 [2 favorites]
Although one or the other has obviously destroyed my ability to spell or conform to any rules of grammar, as evidenced above. And probably right here.
posted by patrick rhett at 9:28 AM on October 3, 2008
posted by patrick rhett at 9:28 AM on October 3, 2008
infinitewindow: Dude, we should like, bring a tape recorder? And record what we talk about. Cause it's.... [hilarious/really deep], man!
We did that once. Unfortunately, we were on the air. It really seemed like a funny idea at the time. Ok...truth be told, it's still funny. Pretty much all we did is giggle....until we couldn't breathe, then we'd get one or two words out...then convulse into laughter again.
When you hear the tape, it's hysterical, but only because laughter is contagious. I mean, it's funnier for us, because I remember the look on my best friend's face as she slowly slid off her chair and giggled uncontrollably under the table.
We were SO fired.
posted by dejah420 at 8:02 PM on October 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
We did that once. Unfortunately, we were on the air. It really seemed like a funny idea at the time. Ok...truth be told, it's still funny. Pretty much all we did is giggle....until we couldn't breathe, then we'd get one or two words out...then convulse into laughter again.
When you hear the tape, it's hysterical, but only because laughter is contagious. I mean, it's funnier for us, because I remember the look on my best friend's face as she slowly slid off her chair and giggled uncontrollably under the table.
We were SO fired.
posted by dejah420 at 8:02 PM on October 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
« Older IPCO Creamy Snuff Tobacco | Na Na, Hey Hey, Don't Kiss Those Nylons Goodbye... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by vronsky at 5:32 PM on October 1, 2008