What can we learn about ASCs from this extraordinary
mixture of complex effects? Here we have a range of
states, sought out by millions of people worldwide,
which we seem able to describe only as a mishmash
of effects on thought, perception, emotion, and other
cognitive functions. As for mapping them, the task
seems daunting. Not only is it difficult to position
being stoned in relation to other ASCs, but being
stoned itself varies widely. Experienced users can
readily discriminate between cannabis that induces
heady or intellectual experiences, or mellow and
relaxing ones, and ‘laughing grass’ that makes every-
thing funny. They can express clear changes in the
nature of their experiences which may or may not be
in agreement with results of scientific tests that use
measures other than verbal self-report. We are very far
from a science of ASCs that can make sense of all this.
He wheeled off his bicycle, feeling Nicole’s eyes
following him, feeling her helpless first love,
feeling it twist around inside him. He went
three hundred yards up the slope to the other
hotel, he engaged a room and found himself
washing without a memory of the interven-
ing ten minutes, only a sort of drunken flush
pierced with voices, unimportant voices that
did not know how much he was loved.
(F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night, 1934)major psychedelics
I was [. . .] back in a world where everything shone with the Inner Light, and
was infinite in its significance. The legs, for example, of that chair – how
miraculous their tubularity, how supernatural their polished smoothness!
I spent several minutes – or was it several centuries? – not merely gazing
at those bamboo legs, but actually being them – or rather being myself
in them; or, to be still more accurate [. . .] being my Not-self in the Not-self
which was the chair. [. . .] four bamboo chair legs in the middle of a room.
Like Wordsworth’s daffodils, they brought all manner of wealth – the gift,
beyond price, of a new direct insight into the very Nature of Things.(Huxley, 1954, pp. 20–21, 25)This is how Aldous Huxley, novelist and author of Brave New World, described
some of what happened when ‘one bright May morning, I swallowed four-tenths
of a gramme of mescaline dissolved in half a glass of water and sat down to
‘The legs [. . .] of that
chair – how miraculous
their tubularity, how
supernatural their
polished smoothness!’(Huxley, 1954, pp. 20–21)ACtIVItY 13.1
Discussing ASCsPeople who have experienced ASCs often enjoy
talking about them, whether to share their insights,
laugh about their exploits, or explore their fears. This
needs a supportive and safe environment and you,
as leader of any discussion, must decide whether you
can provide it or not. In many European countries and
now also many states of the USA, cannabis has been
decriminalised for medical and/or recreational use, and
in some of these areas many other recreational drugs
are tolerated, but elsewhere, including at federal level
in the USA, anti-drugs laws are stringent. If you cannot
talk freely, restrict the discussion to alcohol, sleep, and
spontaneous ASCs. You might ask:
Why do you induce ASCs? What do you gain from
them?
How can you tell when you have entered an ASC?
Is one person’s ASC (such as being drunk, or
stoned) the same as someone else’s?
Another exercise requires advance preparation but avoids
problems of prohibition. Ask participants to bring along a
short description of an ASC. This can either be someone
else’s, for example from a book or website, or their own.
They read this out and ask everyone else to guess which
ASC is referred to. Discussing how they decided leads
naturally to all the other interesting questions about ASCs.