Psychedelic Press Blog — psychedelia
A Variety of Religious Paths in Psychedelic Literature
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This article is by Robert Dickins, author of Erin, and editor of the Psychedelic Press UK Journal. INTRODUCTION: THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION In the mid-to-late 1950s, after the publication of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception (1954) and Heaven and Hell (1956), a debate ensued as to whether hallucinogens, soon to be coined ‘psychedelics’ by Dr. Humphrey Osmond in a letter to Huxley, could be used in order to facilitate a religious/mystical experience. Although Huxley did not go so far as to equate the visionary experience of mescaline with the mystical in those texts, as described in various works of scripture,...
A Pipe of Salvia: A Psychedelic Extract from Erin
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This is an extract from the novel Erin – featured in our latest journal – the book is available from both the Psychedelic Press UK bookshop and Amazon. Have I slept? I thought so, though I couldn’t be sure. My dreams had been so real; my reality seemingly but dreams. I didn’t dare open my eyes for fear of seeing Charlie; the grotesque stranded in mud. Why did I leave him in the mud? I tried to wrestle back my reasons but they eluded me. Fear, came a whisper from outside my thoughts. Fear of what? I replied. Fear of what we can turn into. I remembered an air of paranoia, waves...