VIKING/PENGUIN "Tripping" provides narratives of 50
different psychedelic experiences, ranging from wonderful to
horrific.
By Christopher Cobb
Daily Bruin Contributor
Charles Hayes’ new book, “Tripping: An Anthology of
True-Life Psychedelic Adventures,” offers a happy medium
between two extremes in the drug literature world: technical jargon
and personal odyssey.
Included in the anthology are a number of resources, including
an interview with recently deceased drug culture scion Terrence
McKenna and Hayes’ own personal history of hallucinogens.
Even those not particularly interested in the history of drug
culture might want to see some of the more contemporary connections
between hallucinogens and pop-culture, including the hallucinatory
quality of eating LSD and alcohol consumption in such Disney
classics as “Fantasia” and “Dumbo.”
Hayes also draws parallels between the hallucinogenic drug
culture and the evolution of computers and the Internet within the
last 30 years, claiming in his “Cultural History” that
Bob Wallace, an early developer in the Microsoft team and
co-creator of Shareware, says the concept is “psychedelically
inspired.”
 VIKING/PENGUIN Author Charles Hayes
collected stories in his new book, "Tripping."
“Tripping” is the latest of an ongoing torrent of
literature that has been released for as long as hallucinogens have
been around.
Hayes avoids the pitfalls of primarily focusing on the technical
aspect of the drug culture and spouting scientific names for every
substance, and avoids making his experience so interpersonal that
it cannot be read by anyone but himself.
A book that has influenced Hayes’ “Tripping”
is Aldous Huxley’s “Doors of Perception,”
Huxley’s personal account of a series of experiences with
mescaline, a hallucinogen with qualities similar to a small dose of
LSD.
“I think it’s an amazing book. There’s more to
it than just the clinical trip report,” Hayes said.
“He’s drawing from his knowledge about the realm of
archetypes and religion, psychosis, and he’s really tapping
into the eternal verities in that book.”
Another book of acclaim that Hayes referred to in the genesis of
his own is “PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story,” by
Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin and his wife Ann.
“He’s nicknamed “˜The Godfather of
MDMA,'” Hayes said. Shulgin, a former Dow scientist, is
considered responsible by many for bringing MDMA into the world of
the psychotherapeutic community.
“He’s kind of an august character in the psychedelic
community” Hayes said.
Using hallucinogenic drugs as a form of therapy is not an
entirely foreign idea to the UCLA campus. Dr. Charles S. Grob, a
psychology professor at UCLA, has contributed to a number of
scientific journals with articles that discuss the positive aspects
of such therapy. Grob has also leant his support to the
significance of Hayes’ book.
Hayes shares Grob’s theory that certain hallucinogens can
help in a therapeutic manner, going so far as to claim
hallucinogens had a lot to do with ending the conflict in
Vietnam.
“Going overseas and killing a bunch of Vietnamese is going
to seem utterly absurd on an acid trip. It seems absurd without it,
but you know, try that while tripping and it’s not going to
make any sense,” Hayes said. “It sounds trite, but
“¦ psychedelics work for people to break down patterns of
association and involuntary reflexes mentally and
physically.”
On top of great support within the hallucinogenic community,
Hayes has another selling angle for the book: a Web site. His use
of the electronic medium seems fitting, in that the Internet
operates with the desired universal connectedness for which many
who experiment with hallucinogens strive.
The site Hayes has set up in order to push the book operates as
a great advertisement for the anthology, but also stands alone as a
well of information for anyone interested in the history of
hallucinogens (http://www.psychedelicadventures.com).
Along with a general overview of the book, Hayes includes on the
site a smattering of the 50 experiences documented in the book.
Collected by Hayes from around the world over the last four years,
the anthology varies by drug taken, age of the participant and
quality of the experience.
“Esteem” is another variable in the collection.
Although most experiences are attributed to anonymous sources, some
are attributed to accomplished authors, like Anne Waldman, in her
“Point and Click: Icons in the window to the ancestral
manse.”
In her experience, she recounts a familiar moment while tripping
on LSD.
“I visualized, witnessed and encountered every person
I’d ever known,” Waldman said in an excerpt.
“Even some with whom I’ve had only remote contact, in a
sort of rainbow gathering or holy convocation that brought my own
personal world together.”
Of course, not all experiences are so easy to handle. Hayes made
a point to collect genuine fulfilling experiences and juxtaposed
them with the infrequent, albeit dangerous, bad trip.
“The Orgasm Death Dance,” an experience described by
Jason, known in the book by only his first name, outlines his time
at the National Rainbow Gathering in July, 1983.
“As soon as I left the circle, I was crushed with fatigue
and confusion. I sat down and looked at my body and was shocked at
how scrawny and weak it appeared. I felt naked and devoid of energy
and wanted to cover up right away.”
He then recalls slipping further down the descent into shame and
self-loathing, “I’ve never experienced such a dramatic
loss of joy and plunged so rapidly into the depths of mental and
physical exhaustion and self-estrangement.”
So if readers are interested in a trip without dealing with the
legality issue or to being overwhelmed by too much information,
Hayes is quick to offer the experiences documented in his book.
“That’s the fun thing,” he said. “You
can trip without doing the illegal drugs.”