The Psychedelic Chapter

This section isn't named just to make me look better than I was; I did inhale. I did drop acid. I tried speed a couple of times. I'm not going to use the term "experimented with drugs" (as if I walked around a laboratory in a white lab coat). But compared to most of my fellow (drug) travelers, I only skimmed the edges of the drug life. By that I mean, I was curious, I wanted to know (meaning experience) what the different highs were and how they felt.

One of the final times I tripped, I had an out of body experience. I had thought I died, because isn't that what happens when you die? You leave your body! Later I was told it is called Astral Projection and heavy mystics can do it, but it took LSD to trigger it in me.

I hear people put that down as if the fact that it was chemically induced negates the spiritual experience. Sorry, I'm here to shoot down that theory.

I got home very late from the Electric Theater, went to my basement room and puttered around a while. I finally laid down to go to sleep, but as I lay down (I was on my side facing the wall), I saw the wall begin to move like it was going down. In actuality I was floating up! I got as high as the ceiling and hung out there a while thinking about what my plans might be now that I was dead. At some point it occurred to me that I might have another chance to go back, maybe I was not permanently dead. I decided that yes, I would go back but now would be the time to make some changes for the better. A list appeared before my eyes with 2 columns: one was empty, one had faults and bad habits listed. Oddly enough, the columns reminded me of the type you see on game shows.

As I reviewed each of the entries, I had to consider what the change should be or solution to the problem. As I figured it out, the negative moved over to the empty column expressed as a resolution (for lack of a better word). This was more than 40 years ago, so I don't remember what all was on the list, it ran from the sublime to the ridiculous. The only item I recall now was smoking cigarettes. The resolution was obviously to stop (I did). Another thing I thought was odd was that the last thing I did before I laid down in that bed was look at the clock. It said 3am exactly. Well, after my experience was through and I slowly drifted back down into my body, I jumped up and looked at the clock. It was exactly 6am.

During the process, time had no meaning, I don't know that it lasted exactly 3 hours meant anything, but it seemed significant at the time. I told all my friends I had "died" and what happened, their reactions were all over the place: "Far out", "that happened to me man", "that happens to everybody, man, etc. But I could tell they didn't have the experience I had because it changes you, and they were pretty much the same nose pickers they always were.

I also had a house call from Jesus around this time. Now remember, I'd been living in a house with active ghosts for years, so I wasn't all that impressed. We had a chat, well, I talked at him for a while (he didn't answer back) then we just ignored each other. What did I say to JC? Just that I'd been expecting him, I understood he came around to most of the acid heads (probably not the Jews), and that it was just my turn. I related what I was probably suppose to get out of the siting, repent, get more religious, whatever, but I believed him to be a projection from my sub-conscience and
becoming a Jesus Freak was not on my list of things to do.
Then the awkward silence, having to step around him to go to the bathroom, etc. After a while I forgot about him, and when I checked, sure enough, he was gone (probably to drop in on Howie. Oops, forgot he was Jewish).

I mentioned the first several times I smoked pot, I didn't get high (for whatever reason), and began to think it was all a scam. To be fair, M.J. was very weak back then, you had to smoke yourself half to death to get a buzz, and I was more a social smoker, hand me a joint I would take a hit and pass it on.

One vivid memory was of dropping speed at school one afternoon. Suddenly I had focus like never before! It was almost like tripping without the hallucinations. My English teacher was on semantics, and I had not heard of it before, totally fascinated me. Speed had the opposite effect on me, I slowed down, 'even drove the car under the speed limit, became more polite, no wonder people get hooked on this stuff! The deadly side effect was this bizarre jaw twitch, it made me resemble a serial killer. That may be what caused me to never take it again.
The drug days were over for good after a few sessions with Clifford Royce (aka Mr Psychic). He used post-hypnotic suggestion to quell any thoughts of putting any kind of pill into my mouth. And I mean it worked (for a long time). It was 1974 before I took an unauthorized drug (for a headache). The act of doing that gave me a bout of blindness (calm, not hysterical). It was very strange, and I'm sure left a weird vibe on my future bandmates. They laid me down in the back of the club until I returned to normal.

4-20-09

Since this has become our national day of pot smoking awareness, I would like to say this about that: Legalize the stuff!! Tax it, regulate it, and (like prohibition) before long the idea of buying MJ from someone on the street will be as silly as buying a bottle of gin that way.


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