Russ Roberts recently interviewed Pollan.
I will have finished the book by the time this post goes up. Meanwhile, the WSJ reviews an autobiography of the late John Perry Barlow. The review includes,
Barlow writes that his first acid trip, in 1965, was possibly the most important experience he ever had. “I went someplace overwhelmingly different that night and, to a large extent, I have stayed there throughout the rest of my life.”
According to Pollan, the research on psychedelics is consistent with this. He quotes researcher Roland Griffiths as saying that if you do a controlled experiment in which the experimental group receives a psychedelic, “70 percent will say they have had one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives.” Pollan also mentions Barlow as one of the notable people who took LSD during the 1960’s phase of research. But Pollan is most interested in the latest phase, which began in the 1990s.
Pollan also quotes a skeptic, Paul McHugh, who wrote that what trippers experience “are sadly familiar symptoms doctors are called to treat in hospitals every day.” The terms are “temporary psychosis” or “delirium.”
My cynical take is that if you have bad memories of a dissociated state, it is temporary psychosis, and if you have exalted memories, it is psychedelic. I’ve talked before about my personal Minsky cycle. I can recall the “Ponzi phase” culminating in temporary psychosis, and my memories of that could not be worse. I have no desire to try to induce anything like it by taking a drug.
My wife has a saying, “I prefer my bike stationary.” That is, she is content to ride a stationary bike in the gym, where she does not have to deal with the many obstacles that could cause her to fall off a bike while riding outside. Similarly, I will say that I prefer my psychedelic experiences vicarious. If someone else wants to explore “higher consciousness,” that’s fine for them. I’ll stick with ordinary consciousness as long as I have a choice.
As I noted in the last thread on this topic, I have experience with LSD, mushrooms, and a variety of other substances. That all ended (horribly) about 30 some years ago.
I read the transcript. Well, 80% of it. My reaction: /yawn.
There are many different practices on this earth that have the potential to take you “there.” But it’s not easy. LSD is easy, and the speakers acknowledge as much when talking about it being a shortcut.
I think your wife is a wise person.
A big problem is that psychoactive substances make you think you are having valuable insights even when you are not.
Experienced consumers might realize this–but it takes some combination of experience and honesty and dispassionate judgement.
1. IIRC, in _The folly of fools_, Robert Trivers says his initial experience with cocaine induced the thought that it made him so much more productive that the drug would pay for itself. Since the book is a book about self-deception, he did wise up–but not the first time.
2. In _Milosz’s A B Cs_, a little book of essays, Czeslaw Milosz suggests that alcohol, if used properly, helps hammer home the reality that inside every one of us there is a stupid person trying to get out. Deep down inside we are really stupid. s.v. “alcohol,” I think. Milosz wrote that while he was drinking there was another part of him observing his behavior, a bit ashamed of his antics. When he sobered up, he could still remember how stupid he was.
Interestingly, an alcohol counselor named Doug Thorburn asserts that alcoholics tend to experience “euphoric recall” in which their behavior seems justified retrospectively. This sounds like pop psychology, and might be, but the point is provocative. Healthy drinkers feel like idiots, looking back with some shame on their drunken behavior. If they like to drink they might practice harm avoidance and prudence and drink carefully, even if to excess. Unhealthy drinkers (says Thorburn) think everything went pretty well during that time.
Apropos of your post there is this at Slate Star Codex.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psychedelicists-so-weird/
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Sometime after Albert Hoffman’s death someone close to him personally or professionally wrote a letter to the _Economist_ in response to their “last page” obituary of him. The correspondent wanted to make it clear for the historical record that Hoffman used LSD occasionally to the end of his life and considered the drug worthwhile personally, and not as a recreational frivolity. Wikipedia tends to substantiate this.