Full Description
An investigation based on direct experience into the meaning and message of altered states
"Every reader will find this account fascinating. A lively and intensely personal addition to the drugs-memoir genre."—Kirkus Reviews
"You're such an important part of the psychedelic history."—Joe Rogan Experience, episode #1854
• Recounts several dozen of the author's experiences of drug and non-drug altered states of consciousness from birth to early adulthood
• Applies the lenses of four explanatory models—psychoanalysis, psychopharmacology, Zen Buddhism, and medieval Jewish metaphysics—in understanding how and why they occurred
• Demonstrates the importance of careful unflinching recollection and documentation of both heavenly and hellish altered states in one's psychological, emotional, and spiritual life
Why do we seek out altered states of consciousness, or why, in some cases, do they happen unbidden? What do we see and hear, and what happens emotionally, physically, and psychologically? How and why are these experiences different from or similar to one another? Are they meaningful? And what do we do with them after they have passed?
Addressing these questions, renowned psychedelic researcher Rick Strassman, M.D., draws upon his journals and analyses of dozens of episodes of altered consciousness that occurred during, or are intimately tied to, his life between birth and young adulthood. Just as significant as the ecstatic blissful experiences are the uncensored and, at times, painfully unvarnished narratives of less elevated ones. Visually augmenting all these accounts are the striking images of artist Merrilee Challiss.
Understanding and applying the meaning and message of any altered state—its integration—first requires a clear-eyed recollection of the actual experience in all its aspects, neither pushing away the ugly nor grasping after the beautiful. This book provides a profound example of how one might go about accomplishing this daunting task.
Contents
Preface—Research Is Me-Search
Exploring Altered States
of Consciousness
Prologue—The Beginning
Part I
NATURE AND NURTURE
Introduction to Nature and Nurture
Early Childhood
1 Flying Baby
2 Prayer Wheel
3 Spanking
4 Tense Infant Analytic Session
5 Reading on the Toilet
6 Learning to Meditate
Part II
FINDING MY WAY
Introduction to Finding My Way
Young Adulthood
7 Terry and Beer
8 Kittens
9 Cloud Speakers
10 Flying Carpet
11 Rum and Coke
12 LSD Chicken
13 Snow Culvert
14 Steak on Acid
15 Basketball Gay Panic
16 Death Valley
17 Beetle
18 Bird Heads
19 Teufel
20 Redwoods Mailbox
21 Stripper
22 Nuclear Reactor
23 The Manifesto
24 Ubehebe
25 Clarissa
26 Permanent Insanity
27 New York Breakdown
28 En Route to The Temple
Childhood's End
Notes
Bibliography
