Psychedelics: My Problem Discourse
Configurations March 1, 2008 Diana Reed Slattery 3 citations
The discourse around psychedelics is fraught with problems: their effects on humans are mostly illegal, yet exploration persisted after their prohibition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The article examines this issue through the perspectives of four prominent psychedelic outlaws—Terence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary, and John Lilly—who continued their explorations and wrote extensively. A key paradox is the prolixity of writing about experiences often described as ineffable. The author also incorporates her own encounters with a language from the psychedelic realm, responding to the call for new language to communicate about and with the spheres of experience accessed through psychedelic self-exploration.