No Lonesome Dope after all!

[Nick Medford]

In message <200011021630.QAA03040 at holyrood.ed.ac.uk>, M Holmes
<fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK> writes
>
>What's intriguing is that there do seem to be certain hallucinatory
>images which are consistent across cultures and are even independent of
>the means used to induce the state (priests used to whip themselves and
>then wear hairshirts in order to make the wounds go septic; Jesus
>starved himself; others avoided sleep - it just makes you so proud
>science has made it as easy as taking a pill :-)
>
>Leary was probably onto something when he said that it indicated
>something about basic neuronal wiring, but boy did he ever run with that
>ball.
>
>
>FoFP

Don't know if you saw the recent BBC prog on prehistoric shamans: certain
criss-cross patterns found in cave paintings are now thought (by some,
probably not all, archaeologists) to be records of visual hallucinations
experienced in shamanic trance states. Very similar hallucinatory patterns
are reported by old folk who's visual cortex is degenerating. Of course this
doesn't prove that the cave paintings represent hallucinations but it's an
interesting idea.

Leary: agreed, he stretched a little inspiration an awfully long way.

Speaking of Leary: I believe the Hawks met some of his 'people' while they
were on a US tour in the 70s, at the time he was languishing in jail. I
remember reading about a mad scheme to free him which would have
involved a silver helicopter covered in strobes and speakers- to make the
jailers think he was being carried off by a UFO, y'see.... obvious really, can't
imagine why the plan wasn't enacted. Anyway the music emanating from
the speakers was to be none other than Hawkwind. Think this story was in
the "Do Not Panic" book which I sadly lost after lending it to the wrong
person (i.e. someone I never saw again).

Fairly sure I heard DB say something about Leary just after they played
Orgone Accumulator in Brixton. However the Accumulator wasn't Leary's
idea, it was the brainchild of Wilhelm Reich (as Nik Turner correctly
announces at the start of Undisclosed Files), although Leary may well have
been an admirer of Reich- there were many parallels between them. FWIW
I think they were both eccentrics with fascinating but ultimately untenable
ideas. Course that doesn't justify the way they (Reich especially) were
persecuted.
--
Nick Medford