Marcus Clarke’s “Cannabis Indica” and Altered States of Consciousness in 19th-Century Australian Mass Media
Clare J. Burnett
Journal of Australian studies April 3, 2026 DOI: 10.1080/14443058.2026.2655776 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness Cannabis |
| Key points | Argues that Marcus Clarke's story "Cannabis Indica" is a literary experiment that gothicises drug taking and adapts colonial understandings of the drug to explore colonial consciousness and the duality of rational and irrational thought. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT In 1868 eminent Australian author Marcus Clarke wrote a gothic tale for his own Colonial Monthly Magazine titled “Cannabis Indica”, purportedly under the influence of hashish. Contemporaneous reviewers discussed this little-known short story as merely a curio, and modern scholars have followed suit. However, the experimental short story is distinguished as one of the first fictional portrayals of altered consciousness and drug use in Australia by an Australian author. Scholars have primarily considered depictions of altered states of consciousness and drug use by European and American writers rather than colonial authors due to the plethora of international fictional and scientific accounts of drug taking. This article argues that Clarke’s story acknowledges and modifies these international understandings, gothicising the experience of drug taking and adapting colonial touchpoints of understanding about the drug, including its oriental origins and link to medical perceptions of insanity, to engage in a literary experiment into colonial consciousness and what it means to be torn by the duality of rational and irrational, of scientific thought and fantastical thinking, and of being both a colonial and part of the empire.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on altered states of consciousness, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altered States of Consciousness | 1966 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: The transient hypofrontality hypothesis | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| A neurophenomenological approach to non-ordinary states of consciousness: hypnosis, meditation, and psychedelics | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Hypnotic phenomena and altered states of consciousness: a multilevel framework of description and explanation | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |