Albion Dreaming (46 page)
Authors: Andy Roberts
Political and media scaremongers have persistently highlighted
the mental health problems that LSD can cause, citing this as the reason for the drug’s vilification. The real “dangers” of LSD however are not to the individual, but to the status quo itself. This book has shown that the insights people have gleaned from LSD, peyote, mescaline and similar psychedelic drugs all seem to be antithetical to the materialistic, consumer driven lifestyle currently led by the majority of the civilised world.
Reports from the majority of those who have used the drug suggest that LSD shatters their worldview causing them to look deep within themselves, to reflect on and challenge their lifestyles, values and relationship with the environment. At its most potent, LSD gives the user no option but to examine and challenge all accepted notions of perception, thought, identity, culture and the nature of reality. The danger, to the Establishment, must be that if enough people used LSD, there might, as chemist Richard Kemp hoped, be a revolution that could threaten how life in Britain is lived.
Of course, Kemp’s much vaunted LSD revolution was not realised. At least not in the way he envisaged. But an ongoing, subtle, psychedelic revolution did take place. It took place in the mind of everyone who ever took LSD, and its effects have been far reaching.
This revolution in the head initially bore fruit in upheavals in the relatively ephemeral, but highly visible, areas of music, fashion and art. At the next level, it stimulated interest in ecological and environmental matters, causing people to reevaluate how they lived, what they ate, what their actions were doing to the planet. Because of LSD’s effect on perceptions of identity and society, people were inspired to try new ways of living outside the nuclear family structure, in communes, communities, squats and mixed relationships. The drug triggered interest in alternative therapies such as yoga and homeopathy, all virtually unknown in Britain prior to the Sixties. On the deepest level, LSD gave spiritual, religious and numinous experiences, imbuing the user with feelings of love and a oneness with humanity and the universe. It is an enduring irony that LSD, pursued so eagerly by the British and American military for martial purposes, became the major catalyst
for the love and peace generation. All these ideas and experiences have caused manifestly real changes in individuals and society, and they continue to do so.
In April 2007, as if to echo the insights millions of people have drawn from their LSD experiences, Albert Hofmann wrote his clearest statement to date of his beliefs about LSD: “Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materialistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change. Therefore I attribute absolute highest importance to consciousness change. I regard psychedelics as catalyzers for this. They are tools which are guiding our perception toward other deeper areas of our human existence, so that we again become aware of our spiritual essence.
“Psychedelic experiences in a safe setting can help our consciousness open up to this sensation of connection and of being one with nature. LSD and related substances are not drugs in the usual sense, but are part of the sacred substances, which have been used for thousand of years in ritual settings.”
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On Tuesday, 29 April 2008, Albert Hofmann died aged 102. His death generated worldwide media coverage, with the British broadsheets devoting several pages to obituaries and features dealing with LSD and its effect on society and culture. People from all walks of life came forward to give the media soundbites about how LSD had influenced their lives and, rather than being vilified as the creator of a drug which destroyed minds, Hofmann was, by and large, lauded as the catalyst behind a minor cultural revolution, the echoes of which are still reverberating through the lives of everyone who came into contact with his “problem child”.
Albion Dreaming
has shown that Britain has been a crucible for LSD culture, every bit as socially relevant as the American experience of the drug. It is hoped that this book will stimulate further research into just how influential the British LSD experience has been on the development of psychedelic culture worldwide. Whether you believe LSD is an escape from reality or a trip to the heart of it, the hidden history of the most potent and undefinable
drug known to humankind is only just being unearthed. LSD is a valuable tool for consciousness change, the understanding of which is still in its infancy.
Millions of psychedelic voyagers have tried to articulate the purpose of their LSD experiences, but few have been effective in doing so. Perhaps the best verbalization, and the final word in this book, comes from philosopher Aldous Huxley in a letter to LSD’s discoverer, Albert Hofmann. Although specifically about LSD, Huxley’s comments could refer to the purpose of any transcendent human experience, whether accessed through natural or chemical means:
Essentially this is what must be developed: the art of
giving out in love and intelligence what is taken from
vision and the experience of self-transcendence and
solidarity with the universe.
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A few key people are responsible for this book’s existence. I would like to thank Martin Liu and Chris Newson of Marshall Cavendish for taking it on and to Pom Somkabcharti for bringing it to fruition. My editor, Sarah Abel tightened, tweaked and queried the text until it was in a fit state for your eyes. Thanks too to Adrian Whittaker and Deena Omar for their encouragement and constant attention to detail. And of course to my wife, Gaynor Roberts who endured the highs and lows of the research and writing process.
The following people gave freely of their time, experiences and insights, providing the background hum of authenticity necessary for a book such as this. If I have omitted anyone, please accept my apologies.
Steve Abrams, Nigel Ayers, Brian Barritt, Bear, Joseph Berke, Sue Blackmore, William Bloom, Walter Brock, David Brunskill, Chris Case, Bob Campbell, David Clarke, Maureen Clyne, Dave Cunliffe, Neil Cuttriss, Ray Daniel, Age Delbanco, Paul Devereux, Jeff Dexter, Jeremy Dunn, Dice George, Lyn Ebenezer, Chris Faiers, Max Freakout, Robert Forte, Christopher Gibbs, Eric Gow, Great White Shark, Paul Guest, Adrian Haggard, Michael Haggiag, Casey Hardison, Amira Harris, Lee Harris, Dave Henniker, Charles Herwin, Vanessa Hollingshead, Paul Hollister, Stewart Home, Luke Hopkins, Hoppy, Philip Hogg, Jean Houston, Roger Hutchinson, Ronald Hutton, Alan Ibbotson, Mike Jay, Andrew Kerr, Stephen Kirkpatrick, David Larcher, Martin Lee, Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, Adrian Laing, Julie-Anne Lowe, Oliver Mandrake, Tom Maschler, John May, Toni Melechi, Pete Mellor, Penny Mellor, Patricia McCann, Mark McCloud, John Michell, Vin Miles, Monkey, Andy Munro, Steve Mynott, Chris Newson, Deena Omar, Neil Oram, Stephen O’Neill, Julian Palacios, Christopher Partridge, Kath Porteus, Sid Rawle, Matt Ridley, Tim Rundall, Rick Rutkowski, Ben Sessa, Craig Sams, Ronnie Sandison, Jonathan Schoch, Paul
Sieveking, Peter Simmons, Lionel Snell, Mark Stahlman, Allan Staithes, Carl Stickley, Dominic Streatfeild, Liz Spencer, Dave Tomlin, Tom Vague, Roman Vasseur, Julian Venables, Justin Warman, Ian Wilson, Adrian Whittaker, Gary Woodcock, and Rowdy Yates.
The author is interested in hearing from anyone who reads
Albion Dreaming
. Comments, criticism and information I have missed are all welcome at:
[email protected]
The internet is increasingly the best way to find up-to-the-minute information about psychedelic drugs. I highly recommend the following sites:
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
http://www.beckleyfoundation.org
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com
Permission to use the photos in the plate section has been granted from the following sources:
Photos 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 16, 18, 25, 26, 30: Author’s collection
Photo 3: Ronald Sandison
Photos 4, 5: Maxwell Hollyhock; the
New Scientist
Photo 9: Marianne Clancy
Photo 10, 13, 14: John Hoppy Hopkins;
www.hoppy.be
Photo 11: Crown Copyright, the National Archives
Photo 12: Jonathan Schoch
Photo 15: Tom Maschler
Photo 17: Gabi Nasemann Pape
Photo 19: Hampshire Constabulary History Society;
http://www.hants.org.uk/hchs/
Photo 20: Vin Miles
Photo 21: Julie-Anne Lowe and Stephen Kirkpatrick
Photo 22: Jeremy Dunn
Photo 23: Ray Daniel
Photo 24: Dave Henniker
Photos 27, 28, 29: D.C. Neil Cuttriss; copyright the Chief Constable of Sussex Police
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Interview with Ronnie Sandison, 3 February 2007
