Wednesday 27 June 2012

And Then He Thought He Was a Fish

Peter Welch went insane. He took acid, didn't get any sleep, and didn't associate meaning as we do. (It's only because we all agree on our meanings of words that we aren't labeled insane.) It's all right, he got better. And then wrote a book about it. (This was a Kickstarter project I backed.)

I have never done recreational drugs myself. Partly because I'm not in those social circles, but mostly because I am basically scared about what I would end up doing if I stopped stopping my brain from doing stupid things. As such, I can only view this some an observational point of view. (If I have known people who experienced psychosis, I can't say for sure. Possibly one person... although we were never exactly sure how much of it was believed versus just plain bullshitting... )

Anyway, this is Peter Welch's tale, and he tells it with a sense of humour over his own antics, but also with brutal honesty. It is not a tale of 'do not do drugs', nor is it 'I did drugs and was fine'. It is a tale of 'here's how drugs can screw things up if you are not careful'. And as such, it is an interesting read. He remembers a lot of detail, so we get the lead up to the break and we know what he's interpreting, meaning we can see what's really happening during the doctor's observations.

While I can't say this has any resonance for me, I recommend it to find out about what can happen to the human mind.

[END]

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