I’m ambivalent about psychedelic drugs
I had a vast amount experience with real LSD and fresh plump mushrooms teeming with psilocybin as well as some peyote buttons here and there
Last experience was summer 1977
Millions of people have used these drugs and a handful who did were members of the Manson family
The tag smoker or drinker or orgy participant is just as much an indicator
However Charlie did use the girls natural malleability and drugs as part of his manipulative medicine bag
No question
Nor do I think psychedelics are safe
They can be life altering for the fragile
One needs a strong sense of self and everyone doesn’t have that
Trying to explain the self realization or connectedness or elemental awareness one feels in such drugs is impossible to explain to folks who haven’t done it
Drinking is an anesthetic .. numbing agent all cloudy and goofy and strips self control away or exaggerates irritants for some
Marijuana stimulates at first a heightened giddy sense but fades into a depressed couch lock watch TV and be inward for most
Psychedelics are so intense especially at 1965-1974 doses
I guard the experience for what it was but I don’t advise it for everyone especially women
I would not change at least not for me
Besides having a wife and family and being a Christian and southerner those experiences from that era are huge markers in my life
No question about it
Which belies the whole premise of the article
these are not recreational drugs
Well stated.
It’s been my general observation that people who put too much store in physical reality should not delve into psychoactives of any kind, it scares them. People with strong phobias or deeply suppressed trauma shouldn’t do it either, because it will come out, sometimes in a spectacular fashion that is rarely pretty. Well adjusted creative sorts, whether that’s visual, musical or otherwise tend to fare the best and might actually derive some benefit, although I refuse to recommend that anyone experiment with this stuff. It’s too unpredictable one individual to the next.
If one had a balanced mind, and knew what shape of cow pie to look for in the pasture, the trip was enjoyable.
If there were flaws, they would definitely be enhanced, and the possessor of such flaws was riding on the roll of the dice.