Snowbound

Abstract

alive, as did everyday experience. After I came down from the LSD trip, I was deliberately determined to hold onto that freedom—adetermination informed by a structural psychological awareness that had been obtained in the intensity of my earlier psychotherapy experience.My subsequent introduction tomarijuana freed me of physical and sexual awkwardness, turned me onto intimate discourse, facilitated a heightened closeness inmy friendships, and furthered my sense of being a creative person. Thiswas not completely linear. Therewere ups and downs, andtheprocess tookplacewithabsorption in the growing Movement, which came with a sense of being in a community of progressivepeopleworldwide.Psychedelic use in that formative period increasedmy self-confidence and sensuality. It did not prevent me from making all manner of errors in personal and political life, but I wasmuch better at discernment,moving on, kindness, and forgiveness. Psychedelic use invariably affects the personal/psychologicalmatrix. Starting a journey forces an encounterwith fear—of the unknown, of the lurking dangers believedhiddeninone’sownmind,ofcoming back altered. In the encounter the first period is generally absorbed with the personal: relationships,guilt, love, longing, grief, attachments, and self-concepts. This encounter opens theway to examination, release, and change, to reframing and heightened awareness of self and the others. A bad trip—usually in an uncomfortable setting under stressful circumstances—can result in fear, paranoia, and a recoil from the opened space that is perceivedas threatening.Somefolksnever use psychedelics again. Occasionally too young people and some others—I know personally of several twelveand thirteenyear-olds—experience damagingmental effects thatmay last far too long. Set (the mind’s orientation) and setting (the circumstancesofuse)alwaysaffect thequality of significant psychedelic experiences. Conscious preparation, good location, and thepresenceof supportive friendsmakefor better experiences andoutcomes. The Empathic State: Generally any psychedelic experience may heighten empathy and empathic awareness. This awareness can manifest as love and affection; as the ability to see another’s point ofviewandputoneself in theotherperson’s shoes; as deep respect and regard; as elimination of barriers that separate; as communionwith nature; or as a transcendent feelingofwarmth forall things. In the eighties, the potency of ecstasy (MDMA) was recognized as ameans—a tool—for heightening the quality of communication between people and for fairly reliably producing a state of warmth, affection, and nonsexual sensuality. Many therapists, includingmyself, introducedMDMApsychotherapy within couple, family, and group contexts. Because the experience was fairly replicable,generallypositive, and withoutmuch in theway of distortion and hallucination,anewnamewascoined fora cluster of substances for whichMDMA was the exemplar: “empathogens.” Those of uswho sawMDMA’s potential for positive impact were able to demonstrate its medical utility before the Drug EnforcementAdministration’sownadministrative lawjudge.Theagencywentagainst itsown judge’s finding, whichwould have placed MDMAinanaccessibleSchedule II classification, and placed it in the highly criminalized and inaccessible Schedule I group of substances that included other banned psychedelics and heroin. In the years that followed the 1986 ruling, MDMA use soared, and the “rave” phenomenonbegan toattracthugenumbersofpeople—againa testimony to the power of the substance to facilitate loving, intimate, sensual experience. MDMA’s appeal continues to be based on the facilitation of a state of communion and community larger than the personal self ’s usual strictures allow. MDMAconsciousness can be learned and generated without the drug as part of an expansive, loving, daily life. Much of the concern about brain damage due to serotonin depletionwas based on phony research thatwas retracted fromthe literature when it was exposed. Hundreds of millions of doses have been consumed in (continued frompage 12) P S YC H E D E L I C S Snowbound