Overview

"""Provides the much needed 'coming out of the closet' that the psychedelic movement has lacked. These stories will captivate, inspire, caution, and educate. This courageous book exceeds expectations."" -Rich Doblin, President, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) A collection of transformational psychedelic experiences, and a guidebook for how to understand them Flash back to a generation ago, when the world of psychedelics still coasted in the gritty, adventurous, do-it-yourself ethos of Sixties counterculture. Hang on for the bumpy thrill ride of the psychedelic experience before it was traded in for the white lab coat of pharmaceutical medicine. Read up on the early anecdotes and field reports that have made ketamine and MDMA the newest drugs in mental health treatment. In Tripping, journalist Charles Hayes compiles fifty narratives of psychedelic odysseys-from respectable Baby Boomers and young ravers to renowned Beat poet Anne Waldman and preeminent spokesperson Terence McKenna-to give readers a glimpse into this transgressive, experimental world of self-discovery. As he liberates psychedelics from their social stigma, Hayes explores ancient Greek rites and ecstasy-fueled raves, sacred indigenous plants and synthetic ""smart drugs,"" alien encounters and connections with nature, the terrifying and the sublime. A history, cultural timepiece, and resource guide all in one, Tripping is a compendium of forbidden memories whose otherworldly tales and expository advice will provide insight and inspiration to readers even-and especially-now, twenty years after its original publication."

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9780140195743

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A magnificent collection. - Alexander Shulgin, godfather of MDMA Hayes is such a bristling and intelligent writer that one almost wishes that he had written the whole book himself. The free flow of ideas about these verboten substances and their anthropological/psychological possibilities is exhilarating. - The Oxford American A sensitive and responsible approach to documenting profound experiences with 'drugs.' The results of this informal research are both informative and highly moving. - The Lancet Intriguing. The narratives are informative, cautionary, hilarious and spooky. The uninitiated may recoil from stories of visions of goat-devils, the moon as an alien flashlight, and nude escapades at Burning Man, but those in on the book's implicit wink will find like-minded stories of drug-induced bliss and abject terror. - San Francisco Chronicle Readers will find a sequence of first-person narratives (a form at least as old as The Canterbury Tales) that presents, in kaleidoscopic fashion, the last thirty years as refracted through the prism of a drug experience. - The Chronicle of Higher Education We can theorize about psychedelics till the cow patties come home, but there's nothing as poignant, perplexing, and funny as a well-told trip report. Charles Hayes has gathered together some great ones. Tripping is instructive, hilarious and -- let's face it -- enticing. I loved it. - R.U. Sirius, Mondo 2000 A classic in the growing body of contemporary psychedelic literature. For the experienced, Tripping is a harvest of inspiring moments and a reminiscence of one's own deeply shape-shifting journeys. For the uninitiated, it is a profound glimpse into the hidden world of the subconscious and a provocation for wider acceptance of the usefulness of psychedelic states. - Allan Badiner, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics

A magnificent collection. - Alexander Shulgin, godfather of MDMA Hayes is such a bristling and intelligent writer that one almost wishes that he had written the whole book himself. The free flow of ideas about these verboten substances and their anthropological/psychological possibilities is exhilarating. - The Oxford American A sensitive and responsible approach to documenting profound experiences with 'drugs.' The results of this informal research are both informative and highly moving. - The Lancet Intriguing. The narratives are informative, cautionary, hilarious and spooky. The uninitiated may recoil from stories of visions of goat-devils, the moon as an alien flashlight, and nude escapades at Burning Man, but those in on the book's implicit wink will find like-minded stories of drug-induced bliss and abject terror. - San Francisco Chronicle Readers will find a sequence of first-person narratives (a form at least as old as The Canterbury Tales) that presents, in kaleidoscopic fashion, the last thirty years as refracted through the prism of a drug experience. - The Chronicle of Higher Education We can theorize about psychedelics till the cow patties come home, but there's nothing as poignant, perplexing, and funny as a well-told trip report. Charles Hayes has gathered together some great ones. Tripping is instructive, hilarious and -- let's face it -- enticing. I loved it. - R.U. Sirius, Mondo 2000 A classic in the growing body of contemporary psychedelic literature. For the experienced, Tripping is a harvest of inspiring moments and a reminiscence of one's own deeply shape-shifting journeys. For the uninitiated, it is a profound glimpse into the hidden world of the subconscious and a provocation for wider acceptance of the usefulness of psychedelic states. - Allan Badiner, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics

Author Information

Charles Hayes, a substance use disorder counselor in New York City, has been a writer/editor for a variety of businesses and organizations, a communications manager for a marketing firm, and a journalist whose work has appeared in Reason, The Oxford American, Tikkun, High Times, and E magazine. Charles can be contacted by email at trippingtales@aol.com and at his website, www.psychedelicadventures.com.

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