Lessons learned from Psychedelics

Lessons learned from Hallucinogens

 

When I was in my very early 20’s (post-Woodstock) living at home, I hitch-hiked with a friend from Kankakee to Champaign to visit friends. We were picked up on the highway by hippies in a decked-out Cadillac hearse – how propitious!

 

During the drive (about 90 minutes) a small tablet was presented to me; I don’t recall what it was purported to be. Very often the one offering such drugs had little to no idea what it was or where it came from. Such was the nature of things then.

 

I took the tablet and waited. (Those were more carefree days.) By the time we arrived at our destination, I was exceedingly high; so high that I was unable to walk unassisted. However, in my mind I was tremendously lucid and ‘expanded’. I had internal visions of the solar system; looking down on the orb of the earth from some vast distance. 

 

I recall being lead up a flight of stairs and equating each step with an increase in my ‘enlightenment’. Each step was to a new level of understanding, I recall thinking. At that point, confident that I had reached a new level of enlightenment and wisdom, I asked my friend to ask me anything, anything at all. She reposted sensibly with ‘Like what?’

 

The question came as the most weighty philosophical query ever presented me. I was unable to answer the question which caused me to laugh at my own hubris. I was simply out of my right mind because of the unknown drug I had taken earlier.

During the same era of the ‘Age of Aquarius’, I was in a group of ten or twelve young men and women who had ingested mescaline, alcohol and cannabis in various amounts. The party was held in a nature reserve along the river. We were all light-hearted and each member was in their own little world of blissful hallucination. Then, reality in the form of a patrol of two park rangers, arrived to spoil the party. The rangers rousted us for having alcohol in a nature reserve and for suspected under-age drinking.

 

Although tripping heavily, it fell to me to negotiate with the armed, uniformed rangers about the situation. At times, it seemed as if I was the only one of the party who could deal with the officers rationally – but what did I know? I was tripping. 

 

One member of our party had clambered up to the top of a large rock and refused to come down when commanded by the rangers. Others slunk to the perimeter to observe the proceedings, frightened and anxious. The one member of the party who had been named to be our designated driver for the day had consumed large quantities of marihuana brownies and was incapacitated, incoherent and only barely conscious.

 

Paranoia ruled the moment. The rangers explained that our driver’s licenses could not be posted in lieu of a bail or a fine because they were park rangers and not ordinary policemen. One scenario which the officers proposed involved our entire party accompanying them to the office, about 30 miles away and awaiting arraignment. This idea panicked several members into near delirium. It did my own mental state no favors either.

 

The rangers decided not to spoil our day – and indeed ruin our lives. Ultimately, a fine for the open alcohol in the park was negotiated as the better way to handle the situation; principally because our party was so large that the rangers would have had to call for back-up, wait possibly hours and arrange transportation for all of us back to their office. 

 

The amount of the fine was gathered from various members of the party in dribs and drabs. The officers took the ‘fine’ (about $25, as I remember) and recorded some information from our I.D.s and left us to de-compress from the incident. After the rangers departed, however, most in the dispirited party felt that the mood had been ruined and decided to leave the area before the officers could re-think the situation and possibly return.

 

This required operating motor vehicles while under the influence, however. This consideration was tabled in favor of bugging out from the crime scene post haste; sensible practicalities were tossed to the wind, so to speak.

 

As our designated driver was incapacitated (by the over-ingestion of magic brownies), driving the car fell to me as no one else felt capable. It fell to me to drive the family car of the incapacitated designated driver and four members of our group about 10 miles back to town through afternoon traffic. I did so without incident although I was still tripping balls. 

 

At one point in the drive, I remember that a friend remarked that I should see the sunset out the rear window as the colors were fantastic – mind-blowing (in the vernacular of the times). I demurred saying; ‘You’ll have to tell me about it as I’m a little busy at the moment.’  

 

What I learned from this and other psychedelic episodes was that I could maintain societally accepted behavior while blitzed. I could experience the hallucination and the mind-altering effects of the chemical and still do the necessary societally accepted functions – meeting the police, dealing with authority, drive a car. To be clear, the ability to maintain such a state of control was not always possible nor required.