Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tripping With Jewish Psychiatrists? Huh?!
(1)
First sip of 3.2 Natural Light at 1400. Cheers. Gotta reread last week's posts. Standby... Ok, finished that first beer at 1415. Buzzing slightly. Working on beer #2 at 1420. I liked last week's posts!
Continuing with the 'books which influenced me' theme, I should also mention 'The Power of Myth,' a PBS Television series in which Bill Moyers does extensive interviews with teacher/author Joseph Campbell. I absolutely loved that series. Highly recommended. It's not on HULU (last time I looked) but you can find Campbell-related TV fare at this Clicker site. You may also be able to order the series from PBS.
I still have books and books to go, but first, I had a really good laugh at this first line of The Private Sea by William Braden: 'At a party in Chicago, a young man under the influence of LSD seized a live kitten and ate it. Later, in an effort to explain his action, he said he had felt an urgent need to experience everything.' Braden goes on:
'The story is revolting, of course, and possibly apocryphal; but the incident is by no means improbable, and it does make the point - that LSD is powerful medicine, and that the consequences of its use are often bizarre and terrifying.'
Sheeeit. Braden obviously knew nothing at all about LSD when he wrote that. In fact, Braden probably never did even one LSD trip! He did one Mescaline trip, however, and writes about it in a 'postscript' to that remarkable book. It describes his Mescaline experience at 'the Ridgeway psychiatric hospital in Chicago on May 16, 1966.' It was a baaad trip - not at all surprising given the 'set and setting' of the experiment: you do not do these kinds of long-acting hallucinogenic drugs at a hospital in the presence of Jewish fucking psychiatrists! No! Not! Negative! You do do (tap) these kinds of drugs in the presence of family and friends. (Buzzing my brains out on beer #4 at 1547.) Braden eventually requested his psychiatrist 'babysitters' to give him the antidote, Thorazine. They complied of course, leaving Braden with a very memorable experience and a tape (tap) of the conversations. The experience was apparently so intensely existential that he did considerable research in the various Eastern religions, which research eventually culminated in his book, The Private Sea. Sipping on beer #5 at 1616. Yum.
First sip of 3.2 Natural Light at 1400. Cheers. Gotta reread last week's posts. Standby... Ok, finished that first beer at 1415. Buzzing slightly. Working on beer #2 at 1420. I liked last week's posts!
Continuing with the 'books which influenced me' theme, I should also mention 'The Power of Myth,' a PBS Television series in which Bill Moyers does extensive interviews with teacher/author Joseph Campbell. I absolutely loved that series. Highly recommended. It's not on HULU (last time I looked) but you can find Campbell-related TV fare at this Clicker site. You may also be able to order the series from PBS.
I still have books and books to go, but first, I had a really good laugh at this first line of The Private Sea by William Braden: 'At a party in Chicago, a young man under the influence of LSD seized a live kitten and ate it. Later, in an effort to explain his action, he said he had felt an urgent need to experience everything.' Braden goes on:
'The story is revolting, of course, and possibly apocryphal; but the incident is by no means improbable, and it does make the point - that LSD is powerful medicine, and that the consequences of its use are often bizarre and terrifying.'
Sheeeit. Braden obviously knew nothing at all about LSD when he wrote that. In fact, Braden probably never did even one LSD trip! He did one Mescaline trip, however, and writes about it in a 'postscript' to that remarkable book. It describes his Mescaline experience at 'the Ridgeway psychiatric hospital in Chicago on May 16, 1966.' It was a baaad trip - not at all surprising given the 'set and setting' of the experiment: you do not do these kinds of long-acting hallucinogenic drugs at a hospital in the presence of Jewish fucking psychiatrists! No! Not! Negative! You do do (tap) these kinds of drugs in the presence of family and friends. (Buzzing my brains out on beer #4 at 1547.) Braden eventually requested his psychiatrist 'babysitters' to give him the antidote, Thorazine. They complied of course, leaving Braden with a very memorable experience and a tape (tap) of the conversations. The experience was apparently so intensely existential that he did considerable research in the various Eastern religions, which research eventually culminated in his book, The Private Sea. Sipping on beer #5 at 1616. Yum.
