A coupleof years ago, retired teacher of spiritual researchstudies Chris Bache composed a book called LSD and the Mind of the Universe. His book is the story of 73 high-dose LSD experiences he had over a duration of 20 years, from 1979 to 1999, and how they altered his understanding of the extremely nature of truth. Bache thinks psychedelics represent a “true transformation in Western believed,” and his life hasactually been lived around that property. But after his long psychedelic journey, Chris ends up in a truly fascinating location. He questions, “Can you have too much transcendence?”
As a note to the reader, while I wear’t generally like to connect cautions to my interviews about psychedelics, in this case, I will: Don’t do what Chris did. It’s too extreme.
Where were you in your life when you veryfirst began these high-dose psychedelic sessions?
I was a new professors member in the department of viewpoint and spiritual researchstudies at Youngstown State University in Ohio. I had simply completed my graduate work at Brown University in approach of religiousbeliefs, and I was looking for where to go next. When I discovered the work of Stan Grof—a psychiatrist recognized for his researchstudy into non-ordinary states of awareness—I believed, “that’s my life’s work.” I began exploring with LSD when I was 30 years old and endedup when I was 50, and then I invested the next 20 years absorbing those experiences. I’m 74 now.
So these were high-dose experiences. We needto offer some sense of how high a dosage.
I was taking 500 to 600 micrograms of LSD, which is right at the body’s optimum. You can take more, however you wear’t get greater. I truly urge individuals not to do what I did. If I understood then what I understand now, I wouldn’t do it that method. It triggers a lot of wear and tear on the system, to go in and out of such severe levels of awareness, to so strongly tear apart the structure of your mind.
It was a theorist’s dream come real.
This is a much greater dosage than what we would thinkabout a high dosage in psychedelic treatment, best, state for dealingwith anxiety?
Yeah.
How long did these sessions tend to last?
All day. I’d typically start about 8 o’clock in the earlymorning, and I would be endedup around 6 o’clock.
The method you compose about this is that over these years, your psychedelic journey altered. It went through various stages.
Yes, in one stage, I began experiencing dreadful, horrible legions of suffering, discomfort, violence. Every session, it got muchdeeper and muchdeeper. Sometimes, it endedupbeing so extreme and so severe, I actually passed out from the severe suffering. In the starting, it was like I was experiencing something going on around me, however then, gradually, it started to get into my edges, and then ultimately there was no me left different from it. I endedupbeing this horrible, dreadful suffering.
On the favorable side, when I would send to this procedure, after numerous hours of suffering, I would go into an delighted part of the journey. For the veryfirst year, this suggested I skilled my whole life start to end, done. Of course, if you do that, you have some insights into what your life is about. After a year of this, I took a six-year hiatus. When I returned, while the ocean of suffering continued, when I would be spun into ecstasy, I was taken into this deep