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diff --git a/timeforms.otx b/timeforms.otx index 7e5328e..5ec8983 100644 --- a/timeforms.otx +++ b/timeforms.otx @@ -767,628 +767,111 @@ Perhaps young radicals' vision is comparably transhistorical. Perhaps technolog \sec Abstract -Subcultures create their own dialects composed of special words -and phrases embodying their special experiences. Hip language is an -example. Consideration of some aspects of the special vocabulary -used by psychedelic enthusiasts provides an entry into the special -myths, metaphors, and fantasies of their "subculture". Among these -are the "electric" metaphor (e.g., turned on, channels of communication, bit, etc.); the cybernetic metaphor (e.g., feedback, playback); -McLuhanisms (e.g., media, message, cool); and others more manifestly psychiatric in reference (e.g., paranoid, hang up, etc.). +Subcultures create their own dialects composed of special words and phrases embodying their special experiences. Hip language is an example. Consideration of some aspects of the special vocabulary used by psychedelic enthusiasts provides an entry into the special myths, metaphors, and fantasies of their "subculture". Among these are the "electric" metaphor (e.g., turned on, channels of communication, bit, etc.); the cybernetic metaphor (e.g., feedback, playback); McLuhanisms (e.g., media, message, cool); and others more manifestly psychiatric in reference (e.g., paranoid, hang up, etc.). +This chapter arrays these sociolinguistic data in support of the hypothesis that psychedelic myths, metaphors, and fantasies are largely \e{responses} to discrepant rates of social change engendered in post-industrial societies by their variety of new technologies. Discrepant rates of social change engender discrepant rates of experience, a condition we term "achrony". It is suggested that "achronistic" experiences generate the psychedelic myths, metaphors, and fantasies discussed. The question raised is --- are radical hopes "mere" fantasies? -This chapter arrays these sociolinguistic data in support of the -hypothesis that psychedelic myths, metaphors, and fantasies are -largely responses to discrepant rates of social change engendered in -post-industrial societies by their variety of new technologies. -Discrepant rates of social change engender discrepant rates of -experience, a condition we term "achrony". It is suggested that -"achronistic" experiences generate the psychedelic myths, metaphors, and fantasies discussed. The question raised is --- are radical -hopes "mere" fantasies? - - -INTRODUCTION - -Participant observation is a method of research which suffers -paradoxically from its own merits, since it yields up far more data -than one can neatly conceptualize and statistically manipulate. -Nevertheless, clinicians and social scientists have long been aware -that it is often the method of choice, especially when the universe to -be sampled is of indeterminate size or character, or when the subject -of inquiry is of such known complexity that the complexity itself -becomes the subject of inquiry. - - - - -For example, clinicians and social scientists whose interests -acquaint them with members of the psychedelic generation quickly -become aware of a bewildering complexity of themes recurrently -expressed by members of this subculture.' These include aspects of -Eastern mysticism, Western pharmacology, Egyptian theology, Greek -astrology, Japanese diets, and a veritable panoply of similarly -esoteric elements. Early in their encounters with psychedelic -protagonists, clinical-and social scientists are greeted with what seems -to be a private language, complete with its own nouns, verbs and -adjectives as well as syntax, grammar, and structure. Increasingly, -many investigators are beginning to conclude that their ignorance -will remain fixed unless they master to some degree the complexities -of this sociolinguistic universe. And, as they do so, they become -aware, along with their increasing fluency, that the words and -sentences of this subcultural jargon, like the words and sentences of -their own professional vocabularies, resemble icebergs, only a -fraction of which are available to "conscious" observation, the -remainder being submerged in a sea of shifting sociocultural and -idiosyncratic currents. If we wished to know, in a given encounter, -not only what the words mean in general, i.e., in American speech, -but what they particularly mean, 1e., to the individuals speaking -them, we would be well advised to devote attention to both aspects. -The principal aim of this chapter is to focus attention on the -sociocultural aspects of psychedelic speech, to assist those investigators who wish to understand how what is (1) cultural, what is -(2) sub-cultural, and what is (3) psychological, may be more sharply -delineated. Such efforts follow the lead of Henry Murray, whose -maxim, "All men are like all other men, some other men, and no -other men", became part of the founding philosophy of that field -anthropologists call "culture and personality".® - - -The general hypothesis woven through the paragraphs that -follow is that language is properly included in that class of social -events which have in recent years experienced the tremendous -impact of the changing technologies characteristic of contemporary -societies. Specific hypotheses with regard to the impacts of particular - - - - -technologies on particular populations are then derived and tested -with sociolinguistic data. I will attempt to show that an understanding of the impact of certain technologies on the lives of the -psychedelic subculture helps us to distinguish psychedelic myths -(i.e., beliefs shared by most 'members of the subculture) from -metaphors (favorite comparisons used by the subculture to compare -itself with the general American culture) and from fantasies -(apparently idiosyncratic acts of imagination by individual members -of the subculture). Failure to draw such distinctions increases the -danger that observers will infer psychological disease (e.g., hallucinations) where none exists, and conversely increases the danger that -legal and social scientists will attribute to pharmacological agents -powers that actually reside elsewhere (e.g., the technologies characteristic of post-industrial societies). - - -METHOD AND PROCEDURE - -In addition to its usefulness in managing complex data, -participant observation permits great flexibility of operation, so that -one can learn, not only from living in the neighborhoods where his -"subjects" (including himself) live, but one may move about in the -many places where his subjects behave, including hospitals, universities, coffee houses, and underground theatres. Here too, the method -suffers from its virtues, since cogent objections against the reliability -and validity of the data so derived may be well-founded. Suffice it -then to assert at this point that I have learned the language in the -many places where it is spoken.* You will have to judge for yourself -whether the generalizations I derive therefrom describe the population with which you are acquainted. - - -Procedurally, I will first present a list of words and phrases -drawn from this language. I will then show that groups of these -words and phrases can be shown to have their origins and contexts in -the several technological characteristics of our society. I will then -attempt to show how the experiences generated by the various -technologies operating in contemporary society generate some of the - - -myths, metaphors and fantasies characteristic of the subject population. - - - - -SELECTED ASPECTS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC DIALECT - -A glossary of words used by the psychedelic generation -published in 1966, began with the caution, "Of course, by the time -you read this, it may well be out of date".® It begins with the word -"acid", of course, then lists the word "backwards", which it defines -as 'tranquilizers or any central nervous system depressant". - - -Proceeding alphabetically, on our own list, we would next list -the word "bit", which means any item of information or behavior, as -in "that bit'. A "bummer" is a bad trip, or any bad experience. -Someone who has had too many trips is said to be "burnt-out". -Someone who has had a number of good trips is likely to be "cool" -about it, i., relatively uninformative unless asked by a trusted -person. - - -A trip may begin well but may end badly. The painful -termination of any experience, by extension, is termed "crashing", -or "coming down hard". This is especially likely if one "uses" -"crystal" (or "speed", or "forwards" or "ups", i.e., amphetamines or -other central nervous system stimulants). Someone who is deeply -into the interior (vs. the social) aspects of a trip is "destroyed" (or -"zonked", "out of his mind", or "spaced"). Contrary to popular -belief, it is entirely possible to "dig" (or enjoy) such experiences. -One can "get into" them if one knows how. One can even dig -experiences which "blow your mind", i.e., dissolve those structures -of consciousness on which we ordinarily rely for "sanity". One who -does not understand such mental events will probably "bug" -(bother) one who does, with his irrelevant questions. One who knows -how "high" another is may get a 'contact high" (empathetic -euphoria) in communicating with him. "Copping out" means -resorting to conventional vs. "hip" explanations or behaviors, i.e., -giving up. - - -If something is really "groovy" (particularly enjoyable) one -may say it is "crazy". An "out of sight" or "far out" (avant garde) -experience is particularly groovy, but not quite "mind blowing". -People who don't know how to "groove" are said to be a "drag" - - - - -(i.e., they reduce one's joy). Drags tend to "bring down' or "turn -off" people who would prefer to be "high" or-"stoned" (using a -psychedelic drug or being high or stoned on, or by, anything else -they happen to be "into" or "grooving on"). The trick is to "turn -on" (be high on something, not necessarily "dope", i.€., any -pharmacological substitute) and to stay turned on. Then one can -"grok" (dig communicating, or meditating joyfully and profoundly). - - -If one "flips", or "flips out", one may be either particularly -enthusiastic or psychotic, depending on whether such "freaky" -(unusual) experiences are dug or one gets "hung up" (panicked or -very worried) about them. Such "hassles" (bothersome trivia, -worthless rituals, meaningless events) are considered to be "drags" or -"downs" by real "heads" (regular users of psychedelics). Heads who -"smoke joints" (use marijuana) or "drop" (ingest) LSD regularly, -usually distinguish themselves from those who do so very often (pot -or acid freaks), although they may also be music freaks, or print -freaks, or sex freaks, etc., depending on which activity they very -often engage in to turn themselves on. - - -Heads who dig "out of sight gigs" (experiences which require -some skill) regularly "rap" (talk intensely) about them with other -heads making similar scenes. "Riffs" are scenes where really good -raps Occur, although uninitiates may "put down" (deplore) or "bring -down" (ruin) them unless caution is exercised. When bad or "heavy" -scenes generate "paranoia" one has to decide whether to "split" -(leave); whether others are "straight" (naive); or represent "the man" -(straight authority). Failure to make a decision leaves one "uptight" -(tense) and unable to "go" (groove). - - -People who have dropped tabs of acid or toked on a joint of -grass, who have successfully integrated these experiences for themselves, are said to be "together" (healthy) although one is even more -healthy if one has gotten both his head and his scene together. One -can then feel "good vibrations" and 'know where it is really at". -Such people used to be called 'with it"; they now have their own - - - - -»"» ae "» ce - - -"bags", "gigs", "scenes", etc. They enjoy "balling" (intercourse) and -instantly recognize cats and chicks who are "into it'. They are: -seldom hassled because they know how to "score" (buy drugs) -without getting "busted" (arrested) or getting "burnt" (buying -counterfeit drugs). They are very "spacey" people who like to go -through their own "changes" so they generally avoid "shrinks" like -the plague. - - -The foregoing list, it should be recalled, is a biased sample. -Nevertheless, if we regard the subcultural dialect from which the list -derived as a symbolic organism® having an ecology and an evolution -analogous to other living organisms, we may begin to investigate how -this dialect achieved its present form, and examine how it relates to -its parents. - - -TECHNOLOGY AS ENVIRONMENT - -Following Hegel, or clinical practice, we may begin anywhere, -confident that the whole story will eventually unfold. Previous -work' suggests that we will reach the heart of the matter faster if we -observe that many of the words selected bear the imprint of the -technologies which originally created them. - - -Thus, the central terms which have become the most widely -known by reason of frequent repetition are acid and trip. An acid, as -everyone knows, will dissolve most metals. In this context, Leary's -demand that we put all the metal back underground serves to reveal a -feeling very common in the subculture, that mechanical and metallic -experiences are to be avoided and replaced, hopefully by better ones; -but if such experiences cannot be removed or replaced, perhaps -dissolving them in another sort of acid will help for the time being. -And, if one can simultaneously dissolve the machine and travel, out -of sight of all such machines, so. much the better will the trip be. We -sometimes forget that taking trips of the more ordinary variety, using -automobiles, railroads, ships, and airplanes, has become absolutely -commonplace for the great majority of Americans only in the last 25 -years, when mass transportation became a technological reality. - - - - -Again, as everyone knows, it is not simply the availability of -mass transport, but of rapid transit which describes our era of jet -planes and 400 horsepower cars. Taken in conjunction with another -well-known fact, i.e., that highway accidents claim more deaths than -wars, one begins to account for two more popular metaphors --- -speed and crash. In the dialect, "speed kills" is a familiar graffiti -which puns deliberately on highway technology by pointing out that -one who goes very fast on drugs is as likely to crash as his highway -counterpart. This same awareness of the hurtling pace of our era -seems to underlie such words as backwards and forwards, whose drug -translations seem to be regressing and accelerating. The word -"rushing" means a particularly delightful experience of those first -few flushes of euphoria that begin many drug scenes. - - -The word "scene" of course is usually associated with drama, -most often, in our era, with film or tv drama. Similarly, riffs and gigs -derive originally from the speech of musicians who performed in -these media. Both travel and media experiences may go too slowly, -in which case they will be said to drag. - - -Such "interpretations", however, -are rather commonplace. -Almost as well-known are the terms "turn on" and "turn off", which -remind us, according to McLuhan® of the fact that the psychedelic -generation is composed of the first generation of children raised -entirely in an electric environment, consisting not simply of tv sets -which one can only turn on or off (as Vice President Agnew -observed) but of an entire industrial establishment powered no -longer by muscles and steam but by electricity and its 20 year old -wonderchild, the computer. - - -Computers make automation possible because they process -billions of bits of information per second, which is not only -exponentially faster than machinery but exponentially more productive. As noted elsewhere?, an era which processes that much -information that fast calls forth a corresponding increase in the -consciousness of the people who live in that era. As McLuhan says, - - - - -the computer is the LSD of the business world' °. Turning the quote -around, it has been said that acid is the computer of the turned-on -generation. In other words, as noted elsewhere'?, the psychedelic -revolution is the result of the cybernetic one, and is an appropriate -response to it. - - -Put it this way: heads are trying to do psychologically what -computers have done sociologically, that is, exponentially expand -the ability to process vast quantities of experience very rapidly. Such -experiences tend to vanish into the future very quickly. They tax the -imagination, which responds with such phrases as "outta sight". -Minds which have dissolved preconceptions (programs) which prevent such rapid processing may be said to be "blown", as if their -fuses were trying to handle more current than they were designed -for. Too much of this sort of thing will earn the description "burnt -out". - - -Paradoxically, electric media require more participation because, so to speak, the gaps between the billions of bits they use to -move information must be filled in by the observer. Such media also -require higher levels of participation because the pace at which they -deliver information is so fast. If a picture is worth a thousand words, -how many words is a two-hour tv documentary worth, requiring the -viewer to reach conclusions on more matters in a day than granddad -had to decide in a lifetime. Media which foster increased participation are said to be "cool"; those which suggest less are said to be -"hot". It was no accident that the generation which insisted on -marching on Washington, called itself "cool", i.e., responding to the -pressure of our electric media to participate faster at higher levels of -consciousness in a world of vast informational complexity. Political -"trips", as it were. - - -When you're "where it's at", you are like the diamond stylus -tracking the grooves of an LP record. Your feelings will follow the -changes in the chord structure of the music. One of the best -compendia of myths, metaphors and fantasies easily available is the -Beatles' recently released book of illustrated lyrics. Although books - - - - -and print are regarded as hot media, suitable only for intellectuals -and other professionals, still, the lyrics are a groove, as they say. - - -Rockets which must reach transorbital velocities (beyond -25,000 miles per hour) are not now readily available to the common -man except as he imaginatively identifies with the astronauts who -recently landed again on the moon. This relative unavailability -should not hide the fact that this extension of man's ecosphere, even -beyond the media extensions of his nervous system, was the principal -value of the journey. Hence, we should not be surprised to note that -the words "spaced out" or "spacey" are the most recent additions to -the psychedelic dialect, since the technology of space flight is the -most recent extension of our technological environment. Similarly, -since, it is absolutely essential for NASA's computers to include in -their calculations the most minute alterations in the relative positions -of sun, moon and earth, we should not be too surprised to note that -astrology is one of the principal myths of the psychedelic sub-culture. - - -The need for brevity prevents any extended discussion of -astrological language here. We may pass beyond this topic by simply -noting that astronautics is a major technology in the same environment in which astrology is a currently flourishing mythology. - - -The general notion which each of these parallels between -technology and language suggests is one with which students of the -human mind should be familiar. It is the maxim that we must -understand what consciousness is conscious of in order to understand -what consciousness is. Since we already know that the principal -impact of technology is to change the world we live in, we should be -able to conclude rather quickly that language, one of the principal -incarnations of consciousness, will contain reflections of the environments man is conscious of. We should also not be surprised to -discover in the language of one of our principal subcultures, -reflections of those technologies which have most changed the world -from a pre-industrial agrarian society into a post-industrial cyberna - - - -ted one. In short, there should be words for the experiences -technology has fashioned for the subculture, as indeed there are. - - -The question of central interest in this chapter, however, is not -whether the subculture is sharply aware of its technosphere; few will -argue that it is not. What we wish to discuss is whether the forms -of awareness they cherish are real, sound and healthy, or are they -unreal, unsound and unhealthy? We want to know whether the -language of this subculture "describes things that aren't there"; in -short, whether radicals are experiencing the sociological equivalent of -an hallucination in their hopes for social change. - - -THE MIND METAPHOR - -Hang ups, hassles, bum trips, visions, crashes, paranoia, flips, -freak outs, being stoned, zonked, spaced, and vibrations, are words -which the psychedelic dialect uses to describe forms of consciousness -which are readily admitted to characterize the subculture's style of -awareness. In short, they are far from oblivious to what we might call -fixations, obsessions, psychiatric episodes, hallucinations, depressive -states, paranoia, lapses of consciousness, frenzies, narcosis, euphoria, -empathic identification, etc. - - -The problem seems to be that they often value such experiences -positively, whereas we are more likely to view them as pathognomonic indices supportive of diagnoses of mental unsoundness. This is -something of a paradox, since a major part of their awareness of such -phenomena derives from the fact that they are the most psychiatrized generation in history. For, if by technology we mean the logic -of a set of techniques, we may say that the psychedelic generation -has been made more aware of the logic underlying psychiatric -techniques than any prior generation in history, precisely because of -the widespread adoption of the techniques of psychiatry in contemporary America. Similarly, shall we dismiss their largely negative -evaluation of contemporary American social sciences as spiteful - - - - -reaction formations, or are there grounds for concluding that their -rejection is healthy and sound, notwithstanding the fact that they -live in one of the most thoroughly social scienced worlds ever to -occupy the planet. - - -In other words, how shall we account for the fact that -psychedelic language seems to adopt words and phrases derived from -the mechanical technologies they deplore while rejecting words and -phrases derived from the psychiatric and social technologies they -have been raised on. - - -Although the answer to this question goes to the heart of the -matter, and will help us to distinguish sound from unsound myths, -metaphors and fantasies, there is one further paradox we must -confront before we can spell the answer out. It was to this final -paradox that Wittgenstein alluded when he said: "Whereof man -cannot speak, thereof should man be silent"!*. He referred to the -fact that in each of our lives, we fling a bridge of shared meaning -across that chasm which separates our tiny individualities from that -massive infinity which is the universe of all (or no) meaning. - - -Culturally, we know that a population will collectively erect -'this bridge by consensually validating a set of beliefs, or myths, -which enable the consciousnesses of that people to be shared. Yet, -like the fantasies which egos erect to preserve sanity, they remain -largely out of awareness, i.e., unconscious. When challenged, such -myths and fantasies will be vigorously defended by the persons or -populations espousing them, since they feel they require them to -remain sane. Their content is the wisdom of things unseen, and their -function is to maintain unseen the very bases of consciousness, -without which consciousness could not be, yet with which consciousness cannot be conscious of its bases. - - -So it is with the psychedelic dialect, which is based on premises -of which it seems unaware, just as psychiatric and social science are - +\sec Introduction +Participant observation is a method of research which suffers paradoxically from its own merits, since it yields up far more data than one can neatly conceptualize and statistically manipulate. Nevertheless, clinicians and social scientists have long been aware that it is often the method of choice, especially when the universe to be sampled is of indeterminate size or character, or when the subject of inquiry is of such known complexity that the complexity itself becomes the subject of inquiry. +For example, clinicians and social scientists whose interests acquaint them with members of the psychedelic generation quickly become aware of a bewildering complexity of themes recurrently expressed by members of this subculture.\bknote{1} These include aspects of Eastern mysticism, Western pharmacology, Egyptian theology, Greek astrology, Japanese diets, and a veritable panoply of similarly esoteric elements. Early in their encounters with psychedelic protagonists, clinical-and social scientists are greeted with what seems to be a private language, complete with its own nouns, verbs and adjectives as well as syntax, grammar, and structure. Increasingly, many investigators are beginning to conclude that their ignorance will remain fixed unless they master to some degree the complexities of this sociolinguistic universe.\bknote{2} And, as they do so, they become aware, along with their increasing fluency, that the words and sentences of this subcultural jargon, like the words and sentences of their own professional vocabularies, resemble icebergs, only a fraction of which are available to "conscious" observation, the remainder being submerged in a sea of shifting sociocultural and idiosyncratic currents. If we wished to know, in a given encounter, not only what the words mean in general, i.e., in American speech, but what they particularly mean, 1e., to the individuals speaking them, we would be well advised to devote attention to both aspects. The principal aim of this chapter is to focus attention on the sociocultural aspects of psychedelic speech, to assist those investigators who wish to understand how what is (1) cultural, what is (2) sub-cultural, and what is (3) psychological, may be more sharply delineated. Such efforts follow the lead of Henry Murray, whose maxim, "All men are like all other men, some other men, and no other men", became part of the founding philosophy of that field anthropologists call "culture and personality".\bknote{3} -based on premises of which they are largely unaware. And, just as it -is the proper function of research to uncover these assumptions (or -myths) so that we may learn a little more about what makes us -human, so it is the proper function of psychedelic protagonists to -uncover the assumptions (or myths) underlying the trip philosophy, -and its attendant forms of consciousness. +The general hypothesis woven through the paragraphs that follow is that language is properly included in that class of social events which have in recent years experienced the tremendous impact of the changing technologies characteristic of contemporary societies. Specific hypotheses with regard to the impacts of particular technologies on particular populations are then derived and tested with sociolinguistic data. I will attempt to show that an understanding of the impact of certain technologies on the lives of the psychedelic subculture helps us to distinguish psychedelic myths (i.e., beliefs shared by most 'members of the subculture) from metaphors (favorite comparisons used by the subculture to compare itself with the general American culture) and from fantasies (apparently idiosyncratic acts of imagination by individual members of the subculture). Failure to draw such distinctions increases the danger that observers will infer psychological disease (e.g., hallucinations) where none exists, and conversely increases the danger that legal and social scientists will attribute to pharmacological agents powers that actually reside elsewhere (e.g., the technologies characteristic of post-industrial societies). +\sec Method and Procedure -But how can those devoted to psychedelic exploration seek the -help of psychiatric and social scientists if those scientists begin with -the assumption that psychedelic explorers are ipso facto unwell, -devoting their time to exploring the blindalleys of mental pathology. -If most scientists say that tripping is hallucinating, and that ends -that, we should expect psychedelic protagonists to reject the -so-called "scientific assistance" (e.g., psychotherapy) just as peremptorily as science rejects theirs. Which both of them, in fact, do.'4 +In addition to its usefulness in managing complex data, participant observation permits great flexibility of operation, so that one can learn, not only from living in the neighborhoods where his "subjects" (including himself) live, but one may move about in the many places where his subjects behave, including hospitals, universities, coffee houses, and underground theatres. Here too, the method suffers from its virtues, since cogent objections against the reliability and validity of the data so derived may be well-founded. Suffice it then to assert at this point that I have learned the language in the many places where it is spoken.\bknote{4} You will have to judge for yourself whether the generalizations I derive therefrom describe the population with which you are acquainted. +Procedurally, I will first present a list of words and phrases drawn from this language. I will then show that groups of these words and phrases can be shown to have their origins and contexts in the several technological characteristics of our society. I will then attempt to show \e{how} the experiences generated by the various technologies operating in contemporary society generate some of the myths, metaphors and fantasies characteristic of the subject population. -If a person wonders whether his paranoia about being arrested -and hospitalized for observation is real or delusional, where does one -draw the line between the likelihood of his arrest and his alleged -paranoia? For, the more he reveals to the establishment his -preference for those forms of consciousness he consensually shares -with the members of his own subculture, the more likely is his arrest. -How do we know that his feelings of profound distrust are sound or -unsound merely by listening to him, when the establishment -constantly barrages him with "information" saying that he and his -whole subculture are "sick". More to the point, how is be to know? -Faced with a culture which seems to him to prefer to remain -unconscious of its own genosuicidal tendencies, how can we expect -his culture to trust ours? And it is no use arguing that each culture -has a right to its own myths, metaphors, and fantasies, for the fact is -that the establishment (though not its avant garde) simply condemns -the psychedelic enthusiast, if not for his pathology, then certainly -for his imprudence. Let us inquire how this situation came about. +\sec Selected Aspects of the Psychedelic Dialect +A glossary of words used by the psychedelic generation published in 1966, began with the caution, "Of course, by the time you read this, it may well be out of date".\bknote{5} It begins with the word "acid", of course, then lists the word "backwards", which it defines as 'tranquilizers or any central nervous system depressant". +Proceeding alphabetically, on our own list, we would next list the word "bit", which means any item of information or behavior, as in "that bit'. A "bummer" is a bad trip, or any bad experience. Someone who has had too many trips is said to be "burnt-out". Someone who has had a number of good trips is likely to be "cool" about it, i.e., relatively uninformative unless asked by a trusted person. +A trip may begin well but may end badly. The painful termination of any experience, by extension, is termed "crashing", or "coming down hard". This is especially likely if one "uses" "crystal" (or "speed", or "forwards" or "ups", i.e., amphetamines or other central nervous system stimulants). Someone who is deeply into the interior (vs. the social) aspects of a trip is "destroyed" (or "zonked", "out of his mind", or "spaced"). Contrary to popular belief, it is entirely possible to "dig" (or enjoy) such experiences. One can "get into" them if one knows how. One can even dig experiences which "blow your mind", i.e., dissolve those structures of consciousness on which we ordinarily rely for "sanity". One who does not understand such mental events will probably "bug" (bother) one who does, with his irrelevant questions. One who knows how "high" another is may get a 'contact high" (empathetic euphoria) in communicating with him. "Copping out" means resorting to conventional vs. "hip" explanations or behaviors, i.e., giving up. -ACHRONY +If something is really "groovy" (particularly enjoyable) one may say it is "crazy". An "out of sight" or "far out" (avant garde) experience is particularly groovy, but not quite "mind blowing". People who don't know how to "groove" are said to be a "drag" (i.e., they reduce one's joy). Drags tend to "bring down' or "turn off" people who would prefer to be "high" or "stoned" (using a psychedelic drug or being high or stoned on, or by, anything else they happen to be "into" or "grooving on"). The trick is to "turn on" (be high on something, not necessarily "dope", i.€., any pharmacological substitute) and to stay turned on. Then one can "grok" (dig communicating, or meditating joyfully and profoundly). -Just as a simple list of words fails to capture the nuances of a -dialect, so the simple enumeration of those technologies in our -ecosphere fails to depict the complexity of those forms of -consciousness which must experience them. We cannot simply add -the impacts of the technologies rampant in our society, since each is -quite distinct, and we scientists know that it is not permitted to add -apples, oranges, and say, pills. But even if we had simple numbers -measuring the impact of our several technologies, we would be -forced to multiply, not add them, to approach their true impact --- -which I believe to be so vast and far-reaching in their multiple impact -that nothing comparable has ever before happened to the human -species. I think the total impact of the technologies of our age has -produced a generation more unlike its parents than its parents were -unlike the apes from whence they sprung. +If one "flips", or "flips out", one may be either particularly enthusiastic or psychotic, depending on whether such "freaky" (unusual) experiences are dug or one gets "hung up" (panicked or very worried) about them. Such "hassles" (bothersome trivia, worthless rituals, meaningless events) are considered to be "drags" or "downs" by real "heads" (regular users of psychedelics). Heads who "smoke joints" (use marijuana) or "drop" (ingest) LSD \e{regularly,} usually distinguish themselves from those who do so \e{very often} (pot or acid freaks), although they may also be music freaks, or print freaks, or sex freaks, etc., depending on which activity they very often engage in to turn themselves on. +Heads who dig "out of sight gigs" (experiences which require some skill) regularly "rap" (talk intensely) about them with other heads making similar scenes. "Riffs" are scenes where really good raps Occur, although uninitiates may "put down" (deplore) or "bring down" (ruin) them unless caution is exercised. When bad or "heavy" scenes generate "paranoia" one has to decide whether to "split" (leave); whether others are "straight" (naive); or represent "the man" (straight authority). Failure to make a decision leaves one "uptight" (tense) and unable to "go" (groove). -Permit me to explain this conclusion, which might otherwise -seem to be an hallucination. All human cultures so far have been -characterized by a pace of evolution sufficiently slow to permit -parents to transmit their lifestyles to their young. Apes did this, but -poorly, since their communications were restricted to a relatively few -media, such as imprinting' *, kinesics!®, or direct mimicry. Humans -mastered another whole universe of symbols when the neocortex -permitted the invention of language'? and other symbolic media, -€.g., music, paint, sculpture, etc.* But 20th century technologies -have changed all that, for we now invent culture faster than we can -transmit it, even with electronic media which process billions of bits -of information per second. Hence, the so-called generation gap is in -reality a chasm we in the establishment cannot bridge because the -gap is widening faster than we can build across it. It is a situation -which prompted Margaret Mead to observe that now, for the first -time in history, our children must become our teachers.'® But even +People who have dropped tabs of acid or toked on a joint of grass, who have successfully integrated these experiences for themselves, are said to be "together" (healthy) although one is even more healthy if one has gotten both his head and his scene together. One can then feel "good vibrations" and "know where it is really at". Such people used to be called "with it"; they now have their own "bags", "gigs", "scenes", etc. They enjoy "balling" (intercourse) and instantly recognize cats and chicks who are "into it". They are: seldom hassled because they know how to "score" (buy drugs) without getting "busted" (arrested) or getting "burnt" (buying counterfeit drugs). They are very "spacey" people who like to go through their own "changes" so they generally avoid "shrinks" like the plague. +The foregoing list, it should be recalled, is a biased sample. Nevertheless, if we regard the subcultural dialect from which the list derived as a symbolic organism\bknote{6} having an ecology and an evolution analogous to other living organisms, we may begin to investigate how this dialect achieved its present form, and examine how it relates to its parents. -"and vice versa +\sec Technology as Environment +Following Hegel, or clinical practice, we may begin anywhere, confident that the whole story will eventually unfold. Previous work\bknote{7} suggests that we will reach the heart of the matter faster if we observe that many of the words selected bear the imprint of the technologies which originally created them. +Thus, the central terms which have become the most widely known by reason of frequent repetition are acid and trip. An acid, as everyone knows, will dissolve most metals. In this context, Leary's demand that we put all the metal back underground serves to reveal a feeling very common in the subculture, that mechanical and metallic experiences are to be avoided and replaced, hopefully by better ones; but if such experiences cannot be removed or replaced, perhaps dissolving them in another sort of acid will help for the time being. And, if one can simultaneously dissolve the machine and travel, out of sight of all such machines, so. much the better will the trip be. We sometimes forget that taking trips of the more ordinary variety, using automobiles, railroads, ships, and airplanes, has become absolutely commonplace for the great majority of Americans only in the last 25 years, when mass transportation became a technological reality. +Again, as everyone knows, it is not simply the availability of mass transport, but of rapid transit which describes our era of jet planes and 400 horsepower cars. Taken in conjunction with another well-known fact, i.e., that highway accidents claim more deaths than wars, one begins to account for two more popular metaphors --- speed and crash. In the dialect, "speed kills" is a familiar graffiti which puns deliberately on highway technology by pointing out that one who goes very fast on drugs is as likely to crash as his highway counterpart. This same awareness of the hurtling pace of our era seems to underlie such words as backwards and forwards, whose drug translations seem to be regressing and accelerating. The word "rushing" means a particularly delightful experience of those first few flushes of euphoria that begin many drug scenes. -that forecast seems optimistic, since there is no guarantee that we -could learn fast enough even if we tried, and we don't even seem to +The word "scene" of course is usually associated with drama, most often, in our era, with film or tv drama. Similarly, riffs and gigs derive originally from the speech of musicians who performed in these media. Both travel and media experiences may go too slowly, in which case they will be said to drag. +Such "interpretations", however, are rather commonplace. Almost as well-known are the terms "turn on" and "turn off", which remind us, according to McLuhan\bknote{8} of the fact that the psychedelic generation is composed of the first generation of children raised entirely in an electric environment, consisting not simply of tv sets which one can only turn on or off (as Vice President Agnew observed) but of an entire industrial establishment powered no longer by muscles and steam but by electricity and its 20 year old wonderchild, the computer. -be trying. +Computers make automation possible because they process billions of bits of information per second, which is not only exponentially faster than machinery but exponentially more productive. As noted elsewhere,\bknote{9} an era which processes that much information that fast calls forth a corresponding increase in the consciousness of the people who live in that era. As McLuhan says, the computer is the LSD of the business world.\bknote{19} Turning the quote around, it has been said that acid is the computer of the turned-on generation. In other words, as noted elsewhere,\bknote{11} the psychedelic revolution is the \e{result} of the cybernetic one, and is an appropriate response to it. +Put it this way: heads are trying to do psychologically what computers have done sociologically, that is, exponentially expand the ability to process vast quantities of experience very rapidly. Such experiences tend to vanish into the future very quickly. They tax the imagination, which responds with such phrases as "outta sight". Minds which have dissolved preconceptions (programs) which prevent such rapid processing may be said to be "blown", as if their fuses were trying to handle more current than they were designed for. Too much of this sort of thing will earn the description "burnt out". -There seem to be temporal strata in our society very like those -geologic strata which mark the ages of the earth; there are faults and -fissures in our culture like those on the surface of our planet; there -are mountains and valleys in the temporal nature of our contemporary experience; yet, we are strolling about as if we were still in -the garden of Eden while our children are screaming warnings to us -that the species Man is in great peril. We will often be in error if we -mistake their cries of warning for the shouts of children gone mad. I -am saying that their mythos is valid if it says our society must be -made over because it is based on an obsolete warrior culture, and -that we must soon learn to make love, not war. +Paradoxically, electric media require more participation because, so to speak, the gaps between the billions of bits they use to move information must be filled in by the observer. Such media also require higher levels of participation because the pace at which they deliver information is so fast. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a two-hour tv documentary worth, requiring the viewer to reach conclusions on more matters in a day than granddad had to decide in a lifetime. Media which foster increased participation are said to be "cool"; those which suggest less are said to be "hot". It was no accident that the generation which insisted on marching on Washington, called itself "cool", i.e., responding to the pressure of our electric media to participate faster at higher levels of consciousness in a world of vast informational complexity. Political "trips", as it were. +When you're "where it's at", you are like the diamond stylus tracking the grooves of an LP record. Your feelings will follow the changes in the chord structure of the music. One of the best compendia of myths, metaphors and fantasies easily available is the Beatles' recently released book of illustrated lyrics. Although books and print are regarded as hot media, suitable only for intellectuals and other professionals, still, the lyrics are a groove, as they say. -A generation whose vision is so drastically other than ours -might well regard itself as "freaks", that is, a race of mutants who -find themselves alone and afraid in a world they most emphatically -did not make, but who accept the responsibility to make it over, lest -they too perish. +Rockets which must reach transorbital velocities (beyond 25,000 miles per hour) are not now readily available to the common man except as he imaginatively identifies with the astronauts who recently landed again on the moon. This relative unavailability should not hide the fact that this extension of man's ecosphere, even beyond the media extensions of his nervous system, was the principal value of the journey. Hence, we should not be surprised to note that the words "spaced out" or "spacey" are the most recent additions to the psychedelic dialect, since the technology of space flight is the most recent extension of our technological environment. Similarly, since, it is absolutely essential for NASA's computers to include in their calculations the most minute alterations in the relative positions of sun, moon and earth, we should not be too surprised to note that astrology is one of the principal myths of the psychedelic sub-culture. +The need for brevity prevents any extended discussion of astrological language here. We may pass beyond this topic by simply noting that astronautics is a major technology in the same environment in which astrology is a currently flourishing mythology. -I am saying that their metaphors are valid if they hold that we -are like blind men walking the steep cliffs of species suicide, and that -their communal philosophy of brotherhood promises a better chance -of species survival than the bureaucracies we presently inhabit. I am -saying that very often, we accuse them falsely of hallucinating -because they see things we say aren't there because we refuse to look -at them, e.g., imperialism, genocide, racial oppression, ecological -poison, and a generalized reign of psychological terror and violence -supported by threats of nuclear and/or germ warfare. In such a -world, he is mad who is not paranoid. +The general notion which each of these parallels between technology and language suggests is one with which students of the human mind should be familiar. It is the maxim that we must understand what consciousness is conscious of in order to understand what consciousness is. Since we already know that the principal impact of technology is to change the world we live in, we should be able to conclude rather quickly that language, one of the principal incarnations of consciousness, will contain reflections of the environments man is conscious of. We should also not be surprised to discover in the language of one of our principal subcultures, reflections of those technologies which have most changed the world from a pre-industrial agrarian society into a post-industrial cybernated one. In short, there should be words for the experiences technology has fashioned for the subculture, as indeed there are. +The question of central interest in this chapter, however, is not whether the subculture is sharply aware of its technosphere; few will argue that it is not. What we wish to discuss is whether the forms of awareness they cherish are real, sound and healthy, or are they unreal, unsound and unhealthy? We want to know whether the language of this subculture "describes things that aren't there"; in short, whether radicals are experiencing the sociological equivalent of an hallucination in their hopes for social change. -So that the citizens of psychedelia should receive no more glory -than is rightfully theirs, we must recognize that their responsibilities +\sec The Mind Metaphor +Hang ups, hassles, bum trips, visions, crashes, paranoia, flips, freak outs, being stoned, zonked, spaced, and vibrations, are words which the psychedelic dialect uses to describe forms of consciousness which are readily admitted to characterize the subculture's style of awareness. In short, they are far from oblivious to what \e{we} might call fixations, obsessions, psychiatric episodes, hallucinations, depressive states, paranoia, lapses of consciousness, frenzies, narcosis, euphoria, empathic identification, etc. +The problem seems to be that they often value such experiences positively, whereas we are more likely to view them as pathognomonic indices supportive of diagnoses of mental unsoundness. This is something of a paradox, since a major part of their awareness of such phenomena derives from the fact that they are the most psychiatrized generation in history. For, if by technology we mean the logic of a set of techniques, we may say that the psychedelic generation has been made more aware of the logic underlying psychiatric techniques than any prior generation in history, precisely because of the widespread adoption of the techniques of psychiatry in contemporary America. Similarly, shall we dismiss their largely negative evaluation of contemporary American social sciences as spiteful reaction formations, or are there grounds for concluding that their rejection is healthy and sound, notwithstanding the fact that they live in one of the most thoroughly social scienced worlds ever to occupy the planet. +In other words, how shall we account for the fact that psychedelic language seems to adopt words and phrases derived from the mechanical technologies they deplore while rejecting words and phrases derived from the psychiatric and social technologies they have been raised on. -are as staggering as their "pathologies". 1 do not claim that they are -without pathology, that all their myths are right, that every -metaphor they use to distinguish themselves from us is true, that -each fantasy is beautiful and fine and good. There are "sick" ones, to -be sure, and broken ones, and lost ones. +Although the answer to this question goes to the heart of the matter, and will help us to distinguish sound from unsound myths, metaphors and fantasies, there is one further paradox we must confront before we can spell the answer out. It was to this final paradox that Wittgenstein alluded when he said: "Whereof man cannot speak, thereof should man be silent."\bknote{13} He referred to the fact that in each of our lives, we fling a bridge of shared meaning across that chasm which separates our tiny individualities from that massive infinity which is the universe of all (or no) meaning. +Culturally, we know that a population will collectively erect this bridge by consensually validating a set of beliefs, or myths, which enable the consciousnesses of that people to be shared. Yet, like the fantasies which egos erect to preserve sanity, they remain largely out of awareness, i.e., unconscious. When challenged, such myths and fantasies will be vigorously defended by the persons or populations espousing them, since they feel they require them to remain sane. Their content is the wisdom of things unseen, and their function is to \e{maintain} unseen the very bases of consciousness, without which consciousness could not be, yet with which consciousness cannot be conscious \e{of} its bases. -But the point lies deeper. In an age whose technologies thrash the -waters of time about so violently, by unleashing wave after wave of -rigid and turbulent social change, we shall all be caught, one way or -another, in cross-currents which pull us now one way, now another. -Therefore, it no longer suffices to say that we live in an age of -anxiety, or a period of alienation, or an era of anomie, because, in -our time, those pathogens are not only chronic but accelerating their -"influence. It seems, to paraphrase Shakespeare, that time itself is out -of joint, a condition we have termed "achrony". +So it is with the psychedelic dialect, which is based on premises of which it seems unaware, just as psychiatric and social science are based on premises of which they are largely unaware. And, just as it is the proper function of research to uncover these assumptions (or myths) so that we may learn a little more about what makes us human, so it is the proper function of psychedelic protagonists to uncover the assumptions (or myths) underlying the trip philosophy, and its attendant forms of consciousness. +But how can those devoted to psychedelic exploration seek the help of psychiatric and social scientists if those scientists begin with the assumption that psychedelic explorers are \e{ipso facto} unwell, devoting their time to exploring the blindalleys of mental pathology. If most scientists say that tripping \e{is} hallucinating, and that ends that, we should expect psychedelic protagonists to reject the so-called "scientific assistance" (e.g., psychotherapy) just as peremptorily as science rejects theirs. Which both of them, in fact, do.\bknote{14} -Achrony describes the plight of those caught between discrepant rates of experience. It seems to me that the term fits the -psychedelic generation, who have been forced to endure more rapid -shifts in the rates of their experience than any before them, -engendered by the most powerful and the most rapid world-changing -technologies man has ever invented. +If a person wonders whether his paranoia about being arrested and hospitalized for observation is real or delusional, where does one draw the line between the likelihood of his arrest and his alleged paranoia? For, the more he reveals to the establishment his preference for those forms of consciousness he consensually shares with the members of his own subculture, the more likely \e{is} his arrest. How do we know that his feelings of profound distrust are sound or unsound merely by listening to him, when the establishment constantly barrages him with "information" saying that he and his whole subculture are "sick". More to the point, how is \e{he} to know? Faced with a culture which seems to him to prefer to remain unconscious of its own genosuicidal tendencies, how can we expect his culture to trust ours? And it is no use arguing that each culture has a right to its own myths, metaphors, and fantasies, for the fact is that the establishment (though not its avant garde) simply condemns the psychedelic enthusiast, if not for his pathology, then certainly for his imprudence. Let us inquire how this situation came about. +\sec Achrony -The miracle in such a world is that so few of them hallucinate, -that is, mistake for a direct sensory experience forms of awareness -that derive from another time, be they memories (voices) from the -past or visions (terrors) of the future. +Just as a simple list of words fails to capture the nuances of a dialect, so the simple enumeration of those technologies in our ecosphere fails to depict the complexity of those forms of consciousness which must experience them. We cannot simply add the impacts of the technologies rampant in our society, since each is quite distinct, and we scientists know that it is not permitted to add apples, oranges, and say, pills. But even if we had simple numbers measuring the impact of our several technologies, we would be forced to multiply, not add them, to approach their true impact --- which I believe to be so vast and far-reaching in their multiple impact that nothing comparable has ever before happened to the human species. I think the total impact of the technologies of our age has produced a generation more unlike its parents than its parents were unlike the apes from whence they sprung. +Permit me to explain this conclusion, which might otherwise seem to be an hallucination. All human cultures so far have been characterized by a \e{pace} of evolution sufficiently slow to permit parents to transmit their lifestyles to their young. Apes did this, but poorly, since their communications were restricted to a relatively few media, such as imprinting,\bknote{15} kinesics,\bknote{16} or direct mimicry. Humans mastered another whole universe of symbols when the neocortex permitted the invention of language\bknote{17} and other symbolic media, €.g., music, paint, sculpture, etc.\starnote{and \e{vice versa}} But 20\tss{th} century technologies have changed all that, for we now invent culture faster than we can transmit it, even \e{with} electronic media which process billions of bits of information per second. Hence, the so-called generation gap is in reality a chasm we in the establishment cannot bridge because the gap is widening faster than we can build across it. It is a situation which prompted Margaret Mead to observe that now, for the first time in history, our children must become our teachers.\bknote{18} But even that forecast seems optimistic, since there is no guarantee that we could learn fast enough even if we tried, and we don't even seem to be trying. -CONCLUSION +There seem to be temporal strata in our society very like those geologic strata which mark the ages of the earth; there are faults and fissures in our culture like those on the surface of our planet; there are mountains and valleys in the temporal nature of our contemporary experience; yet, we are strolling about as if we were still in the garden of Eden while our children are screaming warnings to us that the species Man is in great peril. We will often be in error if we mistake their cries of warning for the shouts of children gone mad. I am saying that their mythos is valid if it says our society must be made over because it is based on an obsolete warrior culture, and that we must soon learn to make love, not war. -You have by now no doubt become aware that I have been -making a rather unsubtle plea. I will make it explicit: Fellow -scientists, in our confrontations with the long-haired, freaky-clothed +A generation whose vision is so drastically other than ours might well regard itself as "freaks", that is, a race of mutants who find themselves alone and afraid in a world they most emphatically did not make, but who accept the responsibility to make it over, lest they too perish. +I am saying that their metaphors are valid if they hold that we are like blind men walking the steep cliffs of species suicide, and that their communal philosophy of brotherhood promises a better chance of species survival than the bureaucracies we presently inhabit. I am saying that very often, we accuse them falsely of hallucinating because they see things we say aren't there because we refuse to look at them, e.g., imperialism, genocide, racial oppression, ecological poison, and a generalized reign of psychological terror and violence supported by threats of nuclear and/or germ warfare. In such a world, he is mad who is not paranoid. +So that the citizens of psychedelia should receive no more glory than is rightfully theirs, we must recognize that their responsibilities are as staggering as their "pathologies". 1 do not claim that they are \e{without} pathology, that \e{all} their myths are right, that \e{every} metaphor they use to distinguish themselves from us is true, that \e{each} fantasy is beautiful and fine and good. There are "sick" ones, to be sure, and broken ones, and lost ones. +But the point lies deeper. In an age whose technologies thrash the waters of time about so violently, by unleashing wave after wave of rigid and turbulent social change, we shall all be caught, one way or another, in cross-currents which pull us now one way, now another. Therefore, it no longer suffices to say that we live in an age of anxiety, or a period of alienation, or an era of anomie, because, in our time, those pathogens are not only chronic but accelerating their "influence. It seems, to paraphrase Shakespeare, that time itself is out of joint, a condition we have termed "achrony". -members of the psychedelic generation, let us make particularly -special efforts to understand their political condition as the context -of their psychological lives. Let us distinguish sharply between the -madness of our civilization and what may only be the sadness of the -child before us. And let us try to remember that all men are like all -others in some aspect if we but look deeply enough. +Achrony describes the plight of those caught between discrepant rates of experience. It seems to me that the term fits the psychedelic generation, who have been forced to endure more rapid shifts in the rates of their experience than any before them, engendered by the most powerful and the most rapid world-changing technologies man has ever invented. +The miracle in such a world is that so \e{few} of them hallucinate, that is, mistake for a direct sensory experience forms of awareness that derive from another time, be they memories (voices) from the past or visions (terrors) of the future. +\sec Conclusion +You have by now no doubt become aware that I have been making a rather unsubtle plea. I will make it explicit: Fellow scientists, in our confrontations with the long-haired, freaky-clothed members of the psychedelic generation, let us make particularly special efforts to understand their political condition as the context of their psychological lives. Let us distinguish sharply between the madness of our civilization and what may only be the sadness of the child before us. And let us try to remember that all men are like all others in some aspect if we but look deeply enough. METARAP: WHO YOU ARE IS HOW YOU CHANGE |