T HE C ENACLE / A PRIL - The ElectroLounge

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work. I bought rubber boots. I’ll send a picture in my new sea
drag.
Jim Burke’s letters appeared in five of The Cenacle’s six 1998
issues. He addresses his attention most often to two topics: the nature
of time & reality, & the importance of psychedelic drugs. Regarding the
first of these he writes:
We must slow things down to observe, and to confront
ourselves. One of the most efficient ways to achieve this is
through the use of psychedelic substances.
He continues, relating time to psychedelics:
Time has no awareness of us, it does not function in the
corporeal sense. But time has vibrations and those drugs
alter our perception of them.
& in the following passage he states one of his main theses most directly:
To be aware of existence is precious. We exist in the moment
and this is all we need to reconcile ourselves to inevitable
change. The unconditional awareness of existence, and the
resulting benefits to mankind, can probably be achieved only
through the mass introduction of psychedelic substances in
our culture. Our existence is so fleeting.
These letters were important to publish because they contain good
writing & deep thought but also, frankly, they advocate artfully the
sacredness & importance of psychedelic substances. Interest in LSD,
mescaline, peyote, psylocybin mushrooms & the like has grown at
century’s turn to levels not reached since the late 1960s. Those, like
Burke & myself, who contend that these substances are both powerful &
good nonetheless still stand in opposition to the government & much of
society. Only by presenting our case coherently & forcefully &
consistently may we get more people to listen & consider our views. We
know that America since the 1960s has been a turned-on country,
especially in its cultural aspects; seeking to convince people of this, show
them the obvious— for example, how utterly
common & influential is the use of LSD &
mushrooms among writers, musicians, filmmakers,
artists, & actors— is an effort that is being made in
the trenches of American society every day.
Timothy Leary wrote in 1989 that “the influence of
psychedelic drugs on art, music, literature, fashion,
language, electronic graphics, film, television
commercials, holistic medicine, ecological
The Cenacle / 49 / October 2003