Psychedelic Sobriety

David Metcalfe, one of the most interesting people writing on esoteric and other related matters, interviewed me for Reality Sandwich:

How did writing this historically centered autobiography help you understand your experiences? 

The single most important thing I realized was how mediated my experiences had been. Whether it was Silver Surfer comic books, Syd Barrett albums, or William Blake's poetry, cultural artifacts formed the language of my trips, my ideas, my hopes, and my fears. In understanding this, I came to believe that all experiences, not matter how pure we think they might be, are intimately shaped by symbols and mythologies and grammar. As I say in the book, there can be no pure experience. Even during the most profound context-smashing acid trip, our unconscious is drawing from a rich and abundant well. Maybe it's a Ray Bradbury story read in seventh grade or maybe it's a passage from the Vedas.

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Interviews related to Too Much to Dream

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Erik Davis on his show on Expanding Mind

Other interviews include:

Interview with R.U. Sirius at Acceler8tor.com

Interview with Ian Pickus on WAMC's Roundtable

Interview with Virginia Prescott on NHPR's Word of Mouth

Interview with John Schaefer on WNYC's Soundcheck

Back in the Pit

Photo by Laura Black

The students had returned, so Harvard Square was particularly crowded. I was walking down the sidewalks with Sam, my 9-year-old son, and together we navigated gawking parents, wide-eyed freshman, and the panhandlers out in full force, who were eagerly hoping for less jaded and more sympathetic newcomers. Full-time Cambridge residents learned long ago to differentiate between the truly hard-luck cases and those spare-changers just looking to score for a drink or a drug. A little anxious about the new faces, I kept my hand tight around Sam’s. He doesn’t know it, but it feels a little like my home has been overrun by locusts in chinos and knee-length A-line skirts. We turned a corner and came upon what is affectionately known by locals as “the Pit,” populated, as usual, by young punks and other assorted teenage freaks with leather jackets, pierced noses and lips, and multicolored hair. I felt a wave of ease and nostalgia. Here is the Harvard Square I know and love.