Drugged up dreamy testimonies
The literature of psychedelia promotes hallucinogenic drug use and often describes the experiences of its characters through dreamlike imagery, such as visual condensation, and hazy tones. The emotions and reflections of the hallucinogen user connect with that of a dreamer in that they both report moments of elation and intense fear, an analysis of the self and society, and a difficulty in expressing experiences in a logical lingual fashion.
The visual condensation of objects is probably the most obviously shared change in the senses. During Aldous Huxley’s unforgettable mescaline trip of 1953 he is asked to look at several items and report what he is seeing. At one point “the investigator directed my attention to the furniture,” after which Huxley’s mind produced a compression of desk-chair (21). In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a Prankster, Sandy, has taken acid without the sanction of the rest of the group and is forced to conceal his intoxicated state. This is a problem since the visual hallucinations are driving him mad, and he is unable to discern who people are. In the shower during Sandy’s unauthorized acid trip he looks down at his body and sees a strangers, and then suddenly “it isn’t a stranger, its his…mother…and suddenly he is back in this body, only it is his mother’s body-and then his father’s-he has become his mother and his father” (95).
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas cites the dreamlike condensation of reality and hallucination when Raul Duke is forced to check into his hotel under the influence of LSD. As he walks up to the reception desk he is found face to face with a woman whose “face was changing: swelling, pulsing…horrible green jowls and fangs jutting out, the face of a Moray Eel!” (24).
Language also provides a link for the psychedelic experience with the natural state of dreaming.
Often the tone of a piece of psychedelic literature is so dreamlike that it would be indecipherable were it not for known drug use. Narration within the texts progresses as would the unfolding of a dream; the language always within the confines of the space-time that exists in everyday life, and the character not imagining the situation but living it. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Raul Duke tries to concentrate on remembering who Lacerda is while battling an outside world of horror:
The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t concentrate. Terrible things were happening all around us. Right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman’s neck, the carpet was a blood-soaked sponge-impossible to walk on it, no footing at all. “Order some golf shoes,” I whispered. “Otherwise we’ll never get out of this place alive. You notice these lizards don’t have any trouble moving around in this muck-that’s because they have claws on their feet.” (24)
Raul Duke is able to consciously act and take part in the dream-like world around him. The impression of the dream world onto reality allows for the drug experimenter reflection upon the situation and voluntary action that is very rare in natural dreaming. Aside from narration of the experience other qualities of dreaming tend to appear during hallucinogen use. The condensation of objects is a result reported by both the dreamer and the drug user. As reported by J. Allan Hobson the three most common emotions of the dream (anxiety, elation, and aggression) also tend to be the leading feelings of the drug experience. There is a shared characteristic of forgetfulness whereas when the sleeper wakes up or the experimenter comes to only strong feelings persist and memories fade into non-existence. As described in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Clair Brush’s moment of intense emotion is illustrated as “a great flash of insight,” and further she points out, “I’ve forgotten it now, but there was one instant when everything fell into place and made sense, and I said aloud, ‘Oh, of course!’”(277). Sharing many common elements with a naturally achieved state of consciousness it is not surprising that people are attracted to drug experimentation.
Read more:
Dreaming and the Psychedelic Experience
Psychedelic Literature
What is the Psychedelic Experience?
It's all about the Brain: Hobson's Theory
Drugged up dreamy testimonies
The End of the Psychedelic Era
About the Author and Further Reading