ARR 1988 - Flipbook - Page 136
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I tried LSD in a cheap little two-bed room at the Foothills Motel in
my home town of Nowhere, California. Seven ofus there, four girls and
three guys, and out of everyone only two people -Lisa and Gretchenhad ever "fried" before.
I had dropped about an hour before, which meant I'd been feeling the
preliminary effects-tightening jaws, edgy nerves-for about fifteen or
twenty minutes when we finally got the room. My chest felt as though a
small bird was caught inside it, struggling futilely to get out. I kept staring
around at everything, making sure I wasn't having any Drug-Induced
Hallucinations or anything, rd been warned that this expedition I had
embarked on could last about eight to ten hours. No sleep tonight,
apparently. It was just about midnight already. I wondered vaguely ifl
would survive this event.
The first stage of an LSD ride is like that first big drop on a roller
coaster, the one that sends the cars on their twisting, jerking journey. The
peak, however, is something entirely different. Imagine that same roller
coaster finally exploding off the track and out into space; a dizzying,
ecstatic, electric space. Ever since that night, the image of the roller coaster
has been indelibly intertwined with my concept of what LSD is all about.
Around two AM. we were reaching our peaks together. Emily and
Gretchen were touching each other's finger-tips and talking, laughing,
hiccoughing (at least that's what it sounded like to me), occasionally crying.
Edward was sitting in the bathtub in his boxers, running cold water over his
legs and singing like Nina Hagen. Lisa was lying on her back and uttering
little moany animal sounds at the ceiling.
As for me, I had taken my obligatory seat in the comer of the ceiling
and had taken on the job of Official Observer. I watched everyone, I listened
to them talking, I felt the things that they felt as I moved about the room
from group to group, mind to mind. I listened for a while as Daniel and
Hillary-two people who hardly knew each other-discussed the effects of
Einstein's E=MC 2 theorem on the ability of the human mind to comprehend
time. I know I certainly was having trouble comprehending time. I
wondered aloud if Einstein had ever taken acid.
Listening:
voices moving in and out ofrange:::catchingpieces of this conversation,
whole chunks of that one:::! could see the pieces distinctly, especially when
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