What follows is the last part (written by Timothy Leary) introduction to the book "LSD, the drug that dilates Consciousness "(published in Italy by Feltrinelli in 1967 and originally published in the United States in 1964 under the title" The Consciousness Expanding Drug LSD ") and is the most common fears that people might have in taking psychedelics.
here the piece (the piece that follows is extrapolated from the introduction to the book):
Fear of what can happen
All us. and here I include the most experienced veterans on the psychedelic, we must recognize that certain fears are generated by the idea of \u200b\u200bexperimenting with psychedelics. The first step to work constructively on this fear is to groped to understand its nature and its cause. You can enumerate five most common types of fear caused by the concept of expansion of consciousness:
1. Cognitive : the fear of loss of rational control, and the terror of disorientation and confusion.
2.Sociale: the fear of taking something shameful or ridiculous, or to lose social inhibitions.
3.Psicologica: fear of self-discovery, namely the fear of discovering something about ourselves we do not want to face.
4.Culturale: the terror of discovering the painful truth about the institutions with which we identify ourselves, to see beyond the tribal misinformation, to lose any illusions about our duties towards society and thus of being irresponsible.
5.Ontologica: The fear of discovering a world of experience and a new dimension of reality so pleasant to make us want to go no more out. This fear is probably based on suspicion unconscious, perhaps shared by all and delivered very effectively by one of the leading theorists and scholars of the techniques of consciousness expansion, the late George I. Gurjieff that consciousness normal is a sort of sleepwalking and that somewhere there is a waking state, a form of reality (caused by psychedelics) which never want to return.
All these fears are often compared to the fear of death. Each of the five elements of ego structure has evolved through the work of teaching, experience and habit, so much that can be considered as part of identity. Their fears are the fear of disintegration, a shattering of that identity. The terror of such a disruption is equivalent to the terror of death, is indistinguishable from it. However, we believe that the construct of identity is an illusion. Who has the courage to face the collapse of the illusion dies, but dies in a mystical sense. Zen says
a couplet: "Be dead, completely dead, and act according to your will." It is that the therapeutic process that Tillich describes as "a walk in hell." Who has the courage to go through this hell, he deserves what is transcendent beyond.
Like other forms of anxiety, these fears are related to five deep aspirations and potential of humans. For every fear there is a corresponding release.
Terror knowledge is the negative interpretation of the desire to get out of our minds in order to make full use of our brain. The transcendence of mind makes possible new forms of consciousness.
The terror of doing something of social conviction and negative interpretation of the ancient axiom (Taoist, Zen, Buddhism) that do b BIAM out of our mind to achieve that state of calm from which flow the creative the richest experiences.
The terror of discovering ourselves is the negative aspect of the opportunity to discover what exists beyond ourselves.
The fear of not being able to maintain our illusions about the negative aspect of society is to conceive the idea of \u200b\u200bnew institutional arrangements. The terror of slavery
ontological is the static and negative interpretation of the concept of inner freedom, that is assuming our ability to move voluntarily from one level of consciousness to another, just as the scientist moved his attention from the microscope to the telescope.
This book, dedicated to substances dilator, conscience and written by scientists and academics, is another episode that fits in the endless round of communication, "game" of the reader and writer. There are authors who are trying to explain and describe the experience, as they themselves admit, are beyond the reach of words, and there are readers, each of which approaches the book with his background of expectations and experiences.
We plan to read this book in the same way that we program a psychedelic session. The subject is, of course, in the thirteen chapters that are about to present itself to the nervous system of the reader. To get the most from this book, like a psychedelic session, we must deal with an open mind. let us say that this book can not be within the mental categories of those who have not yet participated in a psychedelic session. who tried to impose on this book its rational structure would ultimately remain within the limits of their class, and would be a shame for him and for us.
Like a psychedelic session, this book can amaze, excite and even frightening, the reader should always give in to their emotions. But if he is able to make their own rational categories permeable and elastic, can realize some of the possible experiences (social, creative, psychological, cultural and ontological) offered by the process of expanding consciousness.
The study of psychedelic drugs in the last ten years has caused a huge emotional response from the company. Each of the "expanders of consciousness" that have contributed to this book over two dangers, one personal and one social.
First, each of them came out voluntarily and in a constructive way from his mind to be able to continue your own research. Secondly, they all risk of social sanctions to write about their experiences. Some have lost their jobs, others have risked their reputations, all had to stand up to stali orthodoxy at a time which would be more comfortable retreat.
They have enjoyed the pleasure of the adventure, the excitement of discovery, the charm of the paradox.
We wish the reader that the book coomunichi to him the same emotions.
Timothy Leary. Millbrook, NY May 1964
ps Only 'introduction is written by Timothy Leary , the rest of the book is written by 15 different authors including Aldous Huxley (author of "The Doors of Perception"), Alan Watts, Humphry Osmond (the psychiatrist who coined the term "psychedelic"), William Burroughs (writer, author of "Naked Lunch"), etc., etc. .... philosophers, writers, doctors, psychiatrists, theologians ....
2 ps LSD The book is in many ways, not only with regard to the fears that may accompany the investigator in taking LSD (the concerns are dealt with only in that part of the introduction shows above).
