Dr. Richard Miller, with Charlie Deist at the controls, conducted an interview with me on April 6th for the series “Confessions of Psychedelic Elders.” I admit to having thoroughly enjoyed the hour +, and who wouldn’t enjoy an hour to talk about themselves? I hope it was useful in the present struggle to gain some ground back from the US government’s “War on Drugs” that has severely limited the scope of consciousness in this country, primarily by sanctioning medicines designed to open up personal awareness.
The degree to which the world has become “psychephobic” was brought home to me in my recent review of Brian Muraresku’s book posted at Quillette (see my earlier post on that). While there was valid, and even well-warranted criticism of my review (I clearly went too easy on Muraresku, as I now realize), much of the criticism revealed an extraordinary amount of phobic anti-“drug” reaction one wouldn’t expect from the generally pretty enlightened readership of Quillette. So kudos to Dr. Miller for undertaking the work he’s done in his series, and bringing out the stories of those of us who have lived under the (yes) terror of the anti-Drug Warriors.
I didn’t quite realize the degree to which I had felt compelled to hide my history of the use of psychedelics until the interview, and then in an online discussion right after that with a young man who shares my fondness for entheogens. His obvious fearlessness, lack of caution and openness on the topic contrasted with my own caution and secrecy that dates back to the late sixties when I lived in the South. It’s not easy for the “elders” to open up on the subject, but Dr. Miller is quite a skilled interviewer and he manages to get what he wants in the end.