Better travelling

through chemistry
Ash Hibbert, May 2009

Longer Applied Ethics Thesis (161-527)

Master of Arts in Professional & Applied Ethics
Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics
School of Philosophy, Anthropology & Social Inquiry
Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne
 “Earth. Even the word sounded strange to me now…
unfamiliar. How long had I been gone? How long had I been
back? Did it matter? I tried to find the rhythm of the world
where I used to live. I followed the current. I was silent,
attentive, I made a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand,
and perform the millions of gestures that constitute life on
earth. I studied these gestures until they became reflexes
again. But I was haunted by the idea that I remembered
her wrong, and somehow I was wrong about everything.”

— Solaris (2002)

“Some of these rambles led me to great distances; for an

opium-eater is too happy to observe the motions of time.
And sometimes in my attempts to steer homewards, upon
nautical principles, by fixing my eye on the pole-star, and
seeking ambitiously for a north-west passage, instead of
circumnavigating all the capes and headlands I had
doubled in my outward voyage, I came suddenly upon such
knotty problems of alleys, such enigmatical entries, and
such sphinx's riddles of streets without thoroughfares, as
must, I conceive, baffle the audacity of porters, and
confound the intellects of hackney-coachmen.”

— Thomas De Quincey
 “The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of
Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to
possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the
eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the
hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of
them is.”

— Marcel Proust
 Page 4/52

Introduction

To understand the many1 and convoluted2 motivations of travel I will be drawing from
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a psychological theory that attempts to
explain personality and motivation. A pyramid best illustrates Maslow’s hierarchy,
with basic needs in the lower levels, and advanced needs towards the top:

Many of the indispensable forms of travel, which constitute about a third of

the instances of travel, fit under the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.3 To
begin with, much of our daily travel is to satisfy physiological requirements: we shop
for food, commute to work, and return home for the night to sleep in shelter from the
elements. The type of travel rarely romanticised about usually practiced by refugees is
travelling out of a need for safety: security for self, for loved ones, to have a better
life, to be able to practice traditions without persecution.

The need for love and belonging motivates a lot of travelling. For example,
people frequently travel in order to visit to or travel with friends and family.
 Page 5/52

The penultimate level of Maslow’s hierarchy is concerned with esteem, while

at the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the need for self-actualization. Self-
actualization includes the desire to become more empathic with others, to increase our
creativity, to have a more authentic appreciation of the world, and to appreciate our
environment.4 According to Maslow, self-actualization is the culmination of all human
activities.

The developed world is becoming increasingly affluent so that basic needs are
becoming easier to satisfy. This allows people from the developed world to focus
more on satisfying their higher needs. As affluence grows, and tourism infrastructure
is developed, travel is also becoming more accessible. As a result, self-actualization as
an objective of travel is becoming both more accessible and more desirable. As people
are increasingly able and electing to travel, the satisfaction of higher needs is
increasing.5 We are more likely to travel in order to achieve something that transcends
our regular existence.6 The impact of such travel will therefore be growing. I will be
focusing on the forms of travel that correspond with these higher needs as it is
therefore increasingly important to address the ethical issues relating to such travel.

Travelling out of physiological needs is often essential for survival. Travelling

can be very useful to achieve a sense of belonging. Yet travel is but one of many ways
to achieve self-actualization. Admittedly, we could feasibility reduce the travel we
undertake motivated by a need to satisfy physiological needs, for safety, or for the
need for love and belonging without compromising our well-being. For example,
people could change their lifestyles to reduce the amount of travel that they have to
do: they could live closer to their work, friends, family, and social infrastructure such
as shops and schools. In addition, urban planners could better help bring about a
return to more localised, self-sufficient economies and communities, and a focus on
public transport infrastructure. I have elected not to focus on these instances of travel,
and instead focus on travel for self-actualization. Should I find some instances of
travel for self-actualization to be morally undesirable, it would be much easier to
suggest possible substitutes to such travel.

A sensitivity to, and concern for, the ethics of tourism is already evident in
travel literature. Advocates of travel often cite its altruistic benefits in defence of the
evident detractions. For example, a serial traveller may recognise that their travel can
 Page 6/52

affect the environment. However, they may claim to travel out of a desire to broaden
their cultural awareness, to alleviate global problems through personal actions, and for
creative enrichment. There is a pressing need to evaluate whether such purported
benefits of travel outweigh its moral costs.

I argue that in a substantial number of cases, the benefits of travel struggle to

outweigh their environmental, cultural, and financial costs. I also argue how travel
frequently brings about the negation of the very things that the ethically conscious
traveller may seek to achieve. International travel can cause heightened tensions
between the developed and undeveloped worlds, lead to the propagation of false
perceptions of ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ cultures, the corrosion of traditional cultures, ,
and the degradation of the very environments that many travellers claim to admire.

I argue that self-actualization is achievable with the use of mind-manifesting

substances known as psychedelics. These substances include singular drugs such as
LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), mescaline (peyote), and to a lesser extent
MDMA (ecstasy) and THC (cannabis).7 I will refer to use of psychedelics for the
purpose of self-actualization as ‘psychedelic travel.’ Psychedelic travel may be as
efficient and ethical a means of self-actualization as geographical travel. For example,
for fewer costs, it may bring about similar positive environmental, cultural, and
personal benefits, including greater empathy, creativity, and authenticity.

Correlating psychedelic travel with geographical travel has a precedent. In the

1960s, Ken Kesey’s ‘Merry Pranksters’ famously travelled on an LSD- and gasoline-
fuelled trip across the U.S. reminiscent of the continuous, directionless nomadicism of
the Hell’s Angels.8 Musicians such as the Grateful Dead have also attempted to
combine geographical travel with psychedelic travel, and to turn such dual-journeys
into works of art.9 German author Ernst Junger,10 and Aldous Huxley, both drew
strong parallels between internal and psychedelically aided travel, and external travel,
the latter suggesting that psychedelics are the modern day equivalent of, and as valid
as, sea voyages.11 Grof also uses the analogy of travel in describing the psychedelic
experience.12 Other authors have created guides for psychedelic travel, and who have
shown the potential overlaps between geographical and psychological travel, include
Dan Carpenter,13 and Lindsey Banco.14
 Page 7/52

I do not argue that Psychedelics help satisfy our physiological needs, or our
need for safety. While psychedelics may bring us into closer emotional proximity to
our friends and family,15 they will not bring us into closer geographic proximity with
them. However, users of psychedelics tend to be more compassionate,
environmentally aware, creative, thrifty, and self-confident than users of legal drugs
or those who abstain from all drugs.16 17
Psychedelics, then, may help us meet our
higher-range needs. A society where the majority of people were concerned more with
each other and the planet and less on working and buying things might be
economically unfavourable; however, I will assume that overall, these traits are in fact
desirable.

Whether people are this way because they take psychedelics or are more likely
to take psychedelics because they are that character is problematic. If the former is the
case, then benefits of consuming psychedelic substances could satisfy many of the
higher needs in Maslow’s hierarchy, without as much of the moral penalty to which
physical travel can be subject. If society legalized psychedelics, many of the moral
penalties of their use would decrease. For example, any penalties relating to
psychedelic use may not only exclude an increase in crime but could bring about a
reduction in crime.

Psychedelic and geographical travel has no monopoly on self-actualization.

There may be means of self-actualization that are superior to both forms of travel. Not
everyone wishes to travel, and many satisfy their need for self-actualization through
other means. A challenge to the ethics of travel may be irrelevant to them. Therefore,
while psychedelic travel may enable self-actualization at an insignificant moral cost,
no one is obliged to practice psychedelic travel.

That said, many intellectuals have in fact benefited from using psychedelics,
them; much medical literature exists that has endorsed psychedelics as a valuable
psychological tool; and many European countries have opted to manage drug use
rather than prohibit drugs outright. Yet social stigma and legal limitations have
hindered and continue to hinder unfettered discourse about the social and personal
value of psychedelics.

One of the most potent criminalized psychedelics is Lysergic acid

diethylamide, or LSD, a hallucinogen first synthesized by Albert Hofmann in 1938. In
 Page 8/52

the 50s and 60s, a huge amount of formal research took place in regards to
psychedelics.18 LSD’s criminalization has meant that the output of research into
psychedelics has dropped off dramatically.19 In many cases, it appears that
researchers produce and receive literature on psychedelics with significant prejudices:

The inquiry by New Scientist found that many of the

findings on ecstasy published in respected journals could
not be trusted. It said it was an ‘open secret’ that some
researchers who failed to find impairment in ecstasy users
had trouble getting their findings published.

‘Our investigation suggests the experiments are so

irretrievably flawed that the scientific community risks
haemorrhaging credibility if it continues to let them inform
public policy,’ the report said … Similar uncertainty
surrounds evidence that ecstasy impairs mental
performance. In the majority of tests on mental agility,
ecstasy users performed as well as non-users.’20

The bias against psychedelics in medical research seems to be most evident in the
strong tendency in researchers, though there are admirable exceptions,21 to treat the
use of substances that are illegal automatically as instances of abuse. Researchers
frequently study drugs with a focus on the harm that they cause, rather than the
benefits that they may provide. It is important to have information on the dangers of
drug use and there are likely to be scientists whose research into psychedelics is
largely unbiased by their legal status. However, the legal status of such drugs, as well
as limited funding,22 hinders any exploration of their potential benefits. The political
and legal constraints likely compromise the ability of those who wish to conduct drug
research or report on that research in an even-handed way.
 Page 9/52

Costs and Benefits of Psychedelic and Geographic

Travel

Environmental, Cultural and Economic

Sustainable ecotourism practices,23 including, ostensibly, eco-tourism, allow those in

the developed world to gain economic benefits for their natural and cultural resources.
Sustainable and empowered economic practices, where development it is on the terms
of the locals, and when the locals are its chief beneficiaries, allow communities to
value their environment as a renewable export rather than something to be clear-
felled. Such a situation where no one forces a community to sacrifice their
environment or heritage for their short-term well-being is essential for an ethical
mode of travel.24 Indeed, the health of natural environments, and local communities,
are interdependent. This is true from both an economical and a deep-ecological
perspective, for example, when a coastal village might rely on marine life for
subsistence and trade, yet even were it to become financially independent of the
fishing trade, maintaining a historic relationship with the ocean might remain
fundamental. 25

The well-being of the local environments is clearly of interest to communities.

Communities would often be the most effected by any potential destruction. Tourism
has the potential to endanger local environments. Therefore, communities should have
the most say over whether tourism development goes ahead or not. Local
communities should be able to veto, without fear of reprisals, and with open and free
debate, any proposed development in their area. Sustainable ecotourism practices
strive to fulfil these requirements. When they do, there is a much higher chance that
the potential harms of tourism to local environments and cultures are much lower, and
that the benefit to communities and their environment is greater.

The explosion of eco-tourism, which purports to enable sustainable travel to

vulnerable ecologies and communities, would seem to suggest that tourism has the
potential to occur, at the least, without negative impacts on the environment. Tourists
as well as institutions are taking a greater interest in ecotourism: the Federation of
 Page 10/52

National parks in Europe explicitly state that their aim is to look after the long-term
integrity and well-being of cultures, by avoiding the excesses of development.

However, there does seem to be cases where the major decision makers, and
beneficiaries, in tourism development are not the local communities, or even from the
same country:

What seems to be all too obvious is that the bounty is

carved up between an extremely select few – often located
in a country other than the destination – and that far too
many of the industry’s workers, particularly in developing
nations, are no more than wage-slaves scratching a pitiful
living. The assumption often made by the industry that
these workers’ lives are automatically of a better quality
now that they are employed within tourism appears to be
remarkably far from the truth, as I witnessed repeatedly
from Thailand through to Cancun. And there is plenty of
evidence that many locals have been displaced to make
way for tourists, often at a considerable cost to the local
environment. Tourism generally appears to be a one-sided
transaction whereby the buyer – the tourist – comes off
much the better from the deal than the sellers at the
destination.26

Tourism developers may simply choose to dismiss the views and values of the local
populace directly affect by the developments. Even where locals may appear to agree
to tourism development, such agreements are not necessarily voluntary or informed.
Though it can also happen in the developed world,27 28
this is most likely to occur in
the case of developing countries.29 During the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, for
example, the Sri Lankan government prevented those who had used the coast for
fishing, which was crucial to their livelihood, from returning to the sites of their
villages to rebuild, while giving hotel developers license to build in the conveniently
cleared land.30
 Page 11/52

The impact of tourism on a region’s ecologies might also have repercussions

beyond a single, contained area. Climate change for example has helped highlight
how local acts, such as deforestation, can have global repercussions. It is important
that tourist developers and tourists themselves recognize that what one country does
to its environment, can have vast repercussions.31 For example, tourism development
might result in the contamination of the water table with industrial waste, which
would be detrimental to the interests of the human and non-human inhabitants in other
regions or states. In some cases, then, tourism development should not take place in
an area even if local communities unanimously desire it and it has proven long-term
economic benefit for them especially where tourists and locals are unaware or
indifferent to these impacts.

The survival of both local economies and ecologies relies on an appreciation

of their interdependence. However, this appreciation appears absent from much
tourism literature.32 Where an appreciation of the interdependence of local economies
and ecologies does appear to be present in the marketing of eco-tourism it might
simply be a case of ‘greenwashing’, where a business will counter-factually market a
product or policy to appear as environmentally friendly. Similarly, since Eco Tourism
is a rapidly growing industry, it can create a new market for travel, specifically to less
developed,33 and thus often more fragile, destinations.34 Therefore, even sincere
efforts at tourism reform might merely broaden the scope for environmental and
cultural destruction. Like conventional tourism, ecotourism and alternative tourism
might simply be another means of commodifying a people.35 While ecotourism is one
strategy towards achieving a more enlightened mode of travel, the two are not
necessarily synonymous. Instead, ecotourism may simply have become the very thing
that it was trying to tackle.36 Finally, the carbon emissions from flying means that
travel, especially travel abroad,37 is bound to contribute to environmental degradation,
regardless of the care taken at the destination to live ‘green’. It is debatable whether
travellers can compensate for this contribution through, for example, a carbon trading
scheme.38

Tourism can transform finite natural resources into greater, and more sustainable,
sources of revenue. Locals are more likely to safeguard higher sources of revenue.
 Page 12/52

Therefore, tourism can encourage locals to safeguard their natural resources. In

addition, many countries would suffer economically should the revenue that they
derive from tourism suddenly cease. Therefore, as some advocates of tourism would
argue, we should allow regions to become destinations for tourists so that they may
develop economically.39

However, the presence and use of a resource does not necessarily lead to
positive economic development, and any such benefits do not necessarily flow to
those it should. For example, an abundance of particularly sought-after resources,
such as a natural wonder, can make a region of specific interest to exploitative groups,
including multinational corporations, who are then able to export the profits of such
tourism. The money that tourists may believe they are investing in communities
usually goes to big, overseas businesses.40 Local communities thus do not necessarily
profit significantly, if at all, from the tourist trade for which they may have sacrificed
their traditional way of life. In cases where host countries have lax environmental
protection regulations, in order to encourage foreign investments, multinational
corporations may be exempt from having to take responsibility for any of the long-
term consequences of such destruction. It is often up to the community to assume
many of the economic, ecological, and social costs of tourism development. These
costs may continue to accumulate long after the local tourism operators have departed.
Arguments in support of travel demonstrate a false economics in their understanding
of such investments’ real consequences. While many tourist spots are generative
resources, in that their enjoyment does not deplete them directly, the environment in
which such tourist spots are located are vulnerable to damage, over-developed, or
pollution to the point that the tourist spot itself is no longer appealing.

Engaging in travel that provides even some money to the distantly needy may
appear to be better than were they to receive nothing. However, this can also be a case
of false economics. For example, the co-recipients of tourist dollars spent in their
region, who might be an oppressive government, may use their newfound financial
and moral support41 42
to repress their citizens, thus subtracting from the benefits the
citizen received from their share from the tourist.
 Page 13/52

The psychedelic MDMA can increase one’s wonder at the physical, and especially
natural, world. People who take MDMA can better register the emotional investment
in objects. This is valuable in an era that is becoming increasingly conscious of the
quantity of carbon a product is responsible for emitting through the entire span of its
manufacture, distribution and consumption. This holistic concern for the
environmental cost of the things that we produce is arguably in vogue chiefly because
it is the logical way to think of how polluting a product is. Yet while on MDMA, such
holistic, trans-temporal sensitivity is the natural way to feel. Such sensitivity would
also help people become more aware, for example, that the pair of runners they see on
the shelf of a sports store were stitched in a sweatshop, or that a punnet of
strawberries were harvested by underpaid immigrant labourers. Such consciousness
then would not only benefit ecologies. It would also mean that consumers in the
developed world would not look upon practices, which failed to uphold human rights,
favourably.

Should psychedelics become selectively legalized, one complication that

might well arise is the event of ‘drug havens’. People who are eager to experience
psychedelic travel yet whose own governments continue to criminalize psychedelics
may throng to places where such psychedelics are available and legal. This would
exacerbate the social, cultural, economic and environmental problems discussed here
in relation to geographical travel. The advent of drug havens is visible, for example, in
the drug tourism in Amsterdam, or the trance scene in Goa India.43 Imposing pro-
psychedelic legislation on those countries that currently ban psychedelics, in order to
take the pressure of drug havens, may have negative cultural and legal implications.
Yet much of the original international criminalization of drugs such as LSD and
MDMA came because of pressure from select but highly influential authorities.44
Rather than social or medical sciences it is racism, politics, financial interests, and
classism have driven prohibition movements.45 Therefore, reconsidering currently
prohibition legislation may in fact allow states greater autonomy and cultural
pluralism.

Psychedelic travel is unlikely to be subject to the same types of exploitative

transactions that takes place in tourism. While many drugs grown abroad such as
 Page 14/52

coffee and opium poppies result in exploitative working conditions, the synthesising
of many psychedelics such as LSD and MDMA rely on highly developed industry.
Societies with highly developed industries tend to have higher standards of workers
rights. Therefore, were synthesised psychedelics legalized, their manufacture could
take place with labour standards that would be both higher than tourism industries in
the developed world, and higher than that which psychedelics are currently being
produced at.

Many currently legal and socially accepted drugs, such as tobacco, caffeine,
and alcohol, have such a privileged state because they have a long history of extensive
use. Their continued popularity and prominence is significantly due to their
availability and legal status. Therefore, many substances that may have far more
benefits at a much-reduced personal and social cost are at a disadvantage because of
the prohibition and social stigma. Furthermore, if the legal status of drugs changed to
accurately reflect the cost-benefit ratio of drugs, existing patterns of drug use would
alter significantly. At their current rates of consumption, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine
have social and personal benefits that struggle to outweigh their costs. Alcohol, for
example, is arguably a cause of much death,46 violence,47 and other social problems.48
Consumption rates of these drugs might reduce were psychedelics to become legal,
more accessible and more affordable. The collective costs of dealing with the effects
of currently legal drugs would then also decrease.49

While the costs of psychedelics are well known, there are also many physical
and psychological benefits. In helping to bring complexes to the forefront of the
patient’s mind, rather than repressing them,50 much faster51 52
than conventional
techniques,53 LSD has possible applications in psychological therapy,54 and the
potential to play an important role in Jungian, Freudian55 and Existential analysis56 and
psychotherapy.57 LSD has also contributed immensely to our understanding of the
human brain and mind,58 59
and along with psilocybin, may help treat cluster
headaches. Ketamine may help in drug rehabilitation.60 61 62
Cannabis may help treat
epilepsy.63 MDMA may aid in the treatment for Post-traumatic stress disorder.64
Psychedelics in general may help boost the immune system,65 help treat mental
illness,66 67 68 69
may help autistic children,70 and have possible applications in
palliative care.71 72 73
Many psychologists are highlighting the need for further
research74 into psychedelics, in relation to Transpersonal Psychology75 and other
 Page 15/52

areas.76 77 78 79
Psychedelics are often safer than many other drugs,80 especially those
delivered intravenously.81

Psychedelic drug use does carry with it certain health risks that could result in
social and economic costs, which non-psychedelic users and the state would then
presumably have to pay. However, the above benefits of permitting psychedelics in
society would, I argue, outweigh those costs, and making both a personal and a social
cost-benefit calculation in the context of drug legislation is not new.82 There may be
risks to the individual, the costs of which could be disproportionately expensive, yet
these risks are anticipatable. The following chapter on personal development and
creativity will attest, however, that many renowned intellectuals have taken
psychedelics productively. Potential psychological and physical health benefits of
psychedelics exist for many regular users, in addition to the environmental, emotional,
personal and existential benefits discussed in depth in this thesis. These benefits can
exist without an inevitable risk of compromising their mental or physical well-being,
or their livelihood.

Ecstasy pills can have potentially unsafe additives that also reduce or replace
the proportion of MDMA, their active ingredients. By virtue of it being underground,
standards of ecstasy production are unregulated. Therefore, were ecstasy legalized and
production standards regulated, ecstasy would likely be much safer, with standardized
strength.

In terms of the potential for an increase in drug-related crime, hard drug use
might result in crime because of a combination of at least two factors: their high-cost,
and their addictiveness. People may resort to crime when they are addicted to a hard
drug, so that they can finance their continued use. Psychedelics, however, are not
physically addictive.83 Therefore, users of psychedelics are much less likely to resort
to crime, compared to users of hard drugs. Psychedelics can be very cost-effective to
produce,84 with the high costs to consumers being largely a result of the criminal risks
that producers and distributors run. Therefore, were psychedelics legalized, they
would be much cheaper than they currently are on the black-market. As psychedelics
would be very affordable if legalized, even were some users to become
psychologically addicted to them, they would not need to resort to crime.
 Page 16/52

The low cost of psychedelics would also mean that prospective travellers
could achieve the same ends via psychedelic travel for very less cost, especially when
compared to geographical travel. For example, they would not have to choose
between spending $600 on an air-fair or $600 on LSD to get an equivalent experience.
Rather, they would have the choice of paying for an air-fair as well as all of the other
expenses of travel such as accommodation, in addition to the risk of violating their
negative duty not to harm others, or they can spend an insignificant amount on LSD.
Psychedelic travel is thus much more accessible to those whom travel is prohibitively
expensive.

Only one’s finances generally limit geographical travel. The physiological and
psychological costs, however, limit Psychedelic travel. While I argue that an
enlightened system and populace can help mitigate such costs, the potential for harm
would compound with greater use. If people, then, were to engage in psychedelic
travel as frequently, and for as long, as they would like to engage in geographical
travel, the negative personal and social consequences would manifest. However, this
incorrectly presumes that people would need to engage in psychedelic travel with the
same frequency and duration as they would in geographical travel. Instead, as I
argued, psychedelic travel is an alternate means to achieve ends similar to those
sought through geographical travel. Having achieved their objectives the psychedelic
traveller would then have no further reason to continue in their drug use, if just for the
time being. Taking LSD, for example, is a potent experience that many users are often
in no hurry to repeat. Therefore, there is no need of excessive psychedelic use in order
to gain the benefits of psychedelic travel.

People who take psychedelics may be more likely to begin taking harder drugs. Users
of hard drugs may be more likely to resort to crime to finance their addiction.
Therefore, people who start out taking psychedelics may end up having to resort to
crime to support their non-psychedelic drug-use.

However, users are not psychologically predetermined to escalate to harder

drugs. There are specific factors that contribute to an increase risk of taking up harder
drugs. Co-occurrence of abuse occurs at different rates between drugs, influenced to
varying degrees by different factors such as genetics, upbringing, and non-family
 Page 17/52

environment.85 86
A risk matrix would help people determine particular vulnerabilities
to loosing control of their drug use. People who are able to identify roughly the level
of risk that they run in escalating their drug use are also better able to manage the risk
of their use, or to choose not to use at all. Prospective or current users of psychedelics
can be advised on how to reduce their risk profile before, or during, their psychedelic
drug use.

Many of the risks posed by psychedelics may be a result of their

criminalization.87 As mentioned, unregulated production can endanger users, so
regulating production would help improve user safety. Also, if social and legal
reforms were to take place that meant psychedelic use was more supported, then both
the probability of potential risks, as well as their consequences, would be probably be
reduced. Mobility, or escalation, from use of one relatively benign drug to use of
harder drugs, is also a result of the drugs having the same legal status.88 When
legislation discriminates between different drugs, such as by legalizing psychedelics,
black markets also discriminate between the different drugs. When markets remain
separate, people who take one type of drug such as psychedelics remain separate from
suppliers and users of other types of drugs. Therefore, by legalizing psychedelics,
people would be less likely to escalate their drug use; thus, those who wish hard-drug
criminalization to be more effective should in fact advocate the legalization of
psychedelics.

Ceasing to participate in indulgent, distant geographical travel would free up many

resources. Yet, would-be travellers may simply redirect saved money to other things
as ‘wasteful’ as tourism. However, those who take psychedelics are, on average, much
more empathic compared to non-psychedelic users, and much less materialistic.89 If
people reduced geographical travel, and began psychedelic travelling, they would
conserve resources and be much more likely to direct those resources towards, for
example, charities. Reducing geographical travel, and permitting psychedelic travel,
would therefore result in much improved social outcomes.

Both scenarios result in a reduction of the environmental and cultural

destruction that is occurring with currently levels of, and practices relating to,
 Page 18/52

geographical travel. Therefore, even should psychedelic travel fail to result in a more
empathic, non-materialistic society, we might never the less be in an improved world.
 Page 19/52

Compassion

I will present a limited analysis of both geographical and psychedelic travel’s

potential to engineer inter-cultural understanding, greater empathy, and more open
mindedness.

Some advocates of geographical travel claim that travel results in more

enlightened, globally conscious and politically active citizens, that it makes people
more empathic, and reduces prejudice. Certainly, travelling educates people about
other cultures. This may be just of the aspects, or façade, of the culture that the locals
perceive as advantageous to present. Yet veteran travellers may be more willing, and
able, to go deeper into the cultures that they visit, and gain greater understanding of
the destination that they explore. As tourists from developed countries return home,
moulded into better ‘world citizens’ from their experience, they may be more likely to
shape the policies and attitudes of their peers and politicians to improve the state of
the world. The benefits of living in a marginally more enlightened world might then
compensate, say, any loss of culture or biological diversity.

The notion of ‘Citizen Diplomacy’, which occurs whenever normal citizens

are received, either deliberately or inadvertently, as a representative of their country,
provides a much-used justification for rationalizing travel to contentious travel
destinations. One such destination is Burma,90 whose military government persecutes
its citizens, including those who support the tourist industry. The development of
tourism infrastructure in Burma appears to rely on labour practices that violate human
rights, and the displacement of residents:91

In Burma many human rights abuses are directly

connected to the regime’s drive to develop the country for
tourists. More than one million people have been forced out
of their homes in order to ‘beautify’ cities, suppress
dissent, and to make way for tourism developments, such
as hotels, airports and golf courses. In Pagan, where over
5000 people were forced to pack their belongings and
 Page 20/52

move to an undeveloped area, many were given just 10

hours’ notice and little compensation for the destruction of
their homes. In February 2004, Burmese soldiers rounded
up ethnic Salons, or ‘sea gypsies’ who normally live on
boats in the Mergui Archipelago, forced them to live on
land and take part in a ‘Salon Festival’ aimed at foreign
tourists. The Salons were forced to perform traditional
dances for the tourists.

Throughout Burma men, women, children and the

elderly have been forced to labour on roads, railways and
tourism projects, under the harshest conditions. Tourist
sites have been renovated using forced labour, such as the
moat surrounding the Golden Palace in Mandalay. The new
airport at Mandalay, which opened in 2000 specifically to
handle international flights, was partly built with forced
labour and many people were forced from their homes to
make way for the project. The 2001 US State Department
Report on Human Rights, states that in Mrauk U, a popular
site of ancient temple ruins, “the government used forced
labor to prepare the city for expected tourist arrivals.”92

This has led to calls from within and without Burma for a boycott of the nation and
especially its tourist industry.93

Tourists might rationalize their visits to such countries on the basis that they
are contributing economically to developing countries, and so benefiting the people of
those countries. The bulk of tourism money goes to the military government, which
relies on such revenue.94 Therefore, those who support Burmese tourism are indirectly
sponsoring the persecution of the Burmese people. Therefore, they may not be acting
with the best interests of the Burmese. 95

Some advocates of Citizen Diplomacy also argue that travel to Burma can help
convert the Burmese people to the liberal democratic views of the West. However,
 Page 21/52

freedom of speech is limited in Burma. Those Burmese converted by the foreigners

visiting Burma prevented from exploring their newfound political interests. The
Burmese military might instead intimidate or brutalize those Burmese who attempt
discourse with foreigners. Therefore, justifying tourism to Burma because it allows
tourists to open a helpful dialogue with the Burmese people does not appear to be
satisfying argument. In the case of Burma, at least, Citizen Diplomacy is therefore an
unsatisfying rationalization for tourism to contentious sites such as Burma. Rather,
support of the tourism boycott of Burma is likely to be more in the interests of the
Burmese people.

In addition, better-informed citizens may not make for better world citizens. It
is difficult to form a confident causal link between travel and a reduction in racism, or
to be certain that travel is not the effect of a more open-minded populace; people may
travel because they are more empathic and less prejudiced. Travel may instead be the
outcome of a more affluent populace that is more able to perceive itself as
comfortably isolated from the problems of the world upon their return. Many of those
who would travel to Burma or any other developing country do so then out of a desire
to connect emotionally with the distantly needy. It is difficult to measure how
successful such travellers are in achieving this goal, though as described above, their
can be some obvious failures. In any case, though, as many travellers would most
likely concede, the very act of travelling to developing countries such as Burma might
cause very real and negative impacts. Examining whether or not travellers do actually
benefit from their contact with the Burmese, then, is no trivial matter. Travellers must
weigh up the potential benefits, such as being better informed, and more emotionally
driven to improve the state of the Burmese, against the very real costs of such fact-
finding mission such as sponsoring a military dictatorship. Travellers, then, have a
negative, natural duty not to act in a way that brings about harm in others. They may
violate this duty, in the case of the Burmese, even when they are not travelling.
However, the harm is much more blatant, and probably magnitudes greater, if they
were to travel to Burma. Having failed in their negative duty to the Burmese people
by financing the junta, travellers are then obliged to try to fulfil their positive
obligation to compensate the Burmese. They might do this by publishing work about
the human rights abuses that are happening in Burma, to bring about widespread
empathy for their plights, and thus perhaps build enough momentum for a political
 Page 22/52

response to those human rights abuses. Yet these outcomes are not reliant on
travelling to Burma and are determined less by opportunity, and more by will and
imagination. For example, there is already a wealth of information available regarding
the history of the Burmese situation. Travelling in order to cultivate compassion for
others also seems excessive when we have such oft-missed opportunities in our own
country. Furthermore, the aforementioned obligations also would not have existed, at
least as strongly, had the traveller not violated their original negative duty to avoid
harm.

Formulating and implementing treatments to help sufferers of physical and mental

illnesses would benefit from understanding the subjective experience of illness.
Gaining such an understanding may be possible with the aid of psychedelics. Some
psychedelics may induce a mental state very similar to those suffering from some
forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia, a parallel referred to as ‘model
psychoses.’96 97
While researchers continue to debate this concept,98 superficial
parallels between some experiences on LSD, and some forms of mental illness, are
obvious: for example delusion, hallucinations, and grossly disorganized behaviour. At
the least, taking LSD might allow one to briefly experience, what people with some
forms of psychiatric illnesses frequently experience.99 100 101 102 103

If psychiatrists were to take LSD, they may develop a greater empathy with
their patients. This would, at the least, lead to increased compassion.104 Better
treatments might be developed. For example, hospital equipment needs to be easy to
clean, minimalist, straightforward to use and generic for purposes of practicality. Yet
such equipment surrounds, and is used on, mentally vulnerable patients. The
experience of such equipment can have a significant impact on their emotional state.
People’s emotional health is crucial to their physical health. If we are to heal people in
hospitals, equipment and décor must not only be functional, it must also be pleasing to
the eye and reassuring. The utility of such equipment includes the emotive dimension.
Psychedelics are useful tools to help us better appreciate this emotional dimension,
not only of psychiatric or emergency wards, but also of other public and private
environments such as schools and retirement villages. With this knowledge, we can
 Page 23/52

better design and construct spaces to be comforting and supporting of the emotionally
and psychologically vulnerable.

Like the tourist in Burma, the person who takes psychedelics to try to facilitate
greater and lasting empathy may also fail in their objective. They may even become
entrenched in their psychedelic use. However, this would not be a dereliction of their
negative duty to do no harm, or of their positive obligation to compensate for any
harm caused. As long as the psychedelic user was able to manage their usage
successfully so as not to hurt anyone or become a burden, they would have much
more leeway than the idealistic traveller to Burma would. There may be a case where
the mere fact of their usage, even without causing any substantial harm to themselves
or others, may still bring about anguish or even ostracism from their family. However,
this is a reactionary response, highly conditioned105 by a long tradition of using drug
users as useful scapegoats for unrelated social problems.106 For this reason perhaps,
the reactions of other are irrelevant when rating the impact of a person’s psychedelic
use.

Creativity

Psychedelics may help enhance creativity.107 Many renowned scientists and

philosophers have described the contribution they believe that psychedelics have
made to their own creative endeavours. For example, French philosopher Michel
Foucault, though a renowned philosopher before taking psychedelics, took LSD at
Death Valley National Park and called the event the best experience of his life.
Because of an epiphany from the experience, he shelved hundreds of previously
written pages for his History of Sexuality series, and started over again.108 Alan Watts
experimented with LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, dimethyl-tryptamine, and cannabis
and found that his experiences contributed positively to his understanding of
mysticism and human consciousness.109 Psychedelic experiences have guided the
numerous I.T. pioneers,110 including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.111 LSD critically aided
 Page 24/52

Nobel Prize winning chemists Kary Mullis112 113

and Francis Crick114 in their
discoveries.

Psychedelics may also have a positive and lasting contribution to the strictly
artistic process.115 116
Numerous musicians and writers have become widespread
proponents of LSD as a professional aid,117 and an instrument for self-initiation.118 It is
argued that rock music would never have happened had the musicians of the time had
not embraced psychedelics.119 120 121 Authors who have supposedly found inspiration in
psychedelics include Philip K. Dick,122 Alan Ginsberg,123 Ken Kesey,124 Jean-Paul
Sartre, Aldous Huxley, and visual artist Robert Crumb.125 126
Such LSD-inspired
creativity is equally available to amateur and established artists.127

A close parallel to artists, scientists, and academics taking psychedelics would

be the practice of ‘doping’. ‘Doping’ is the term used for when athletes take
performance-enhancement drugs. Doping occurs frequently in sport. The
intelligentsia, which includes artists, scientists, and philosophers, rarely mention using
psychedelics. One might argue then that psychedelics are not effective.

However, to be in a position to make deductions about the value of

psychedelics in enhancing mental performance, by drawing parallels between
psychedelic use amongst intelligentsia and performance enhancement drugs amongst
athletes would require a similar quality and quantity of research in the two
demographics. The calibre of research into drug use in, say, athletics, is much higher
than that into drug use amongst the intelligentsia. Since competition organizers
stringently drug-test professional athletes, professional athletes are thus at risk of
exposure. Conversely, few if any academic institutions test their employees for drugs.
If members of the intelligentsia do take drugs such as psychedelics, they are far less
likely than professional athletes to have their drug use exposed. This may explain why
sports doping is a well-known and discussed phenomenon, while any drug use
amongst the intelligentsia that is occurring is not well known. In addition, many
physical performance-enhancement drugs used by athletes are legal outside
professional competition. Athletes may admit to having taken such performance-
enhancement drugs without the fear of legal repercussions. Psychedelics are virtually
all illegal, and the social stigma attached to their use varies between profession and
person. Therefore, uses of drugs in sport are more likely to become public knowledge
 Page 25/52

in sports compared to academia. Consequently, it is not useful to try to compare

published rates of psychedelic usage to physical performance enhancement drugs, and
so try to compare their respective usefulness.

Furthermore, the results of psychedelics are not always as consistent and

reliable as they presumably are with physical performance enhancement drugs. In
addition, sports drugs are not as subject to the same environmental and personal
factors. While the quality of physical performance enhancement drugs may be
reliable, the constituents of psychedelics can vary tremendously.128

Thirdly, it is much more difficult to measure the benefits of psychedelics, since

people will respond to them differently. A sports player on performance enhancement
drugs will likely beat their personal best when cycling, or lift heavier weights in
resistance training. Yet measurements of creativity are much less precise. Certainly
not all psychedelic experiences are guaranteed be to the users liking. 129 The
psychedelic experience can differ dramatically between130 and within131 each particular
drug. For example, in tremendous contrast to Huxley’s experience of mescaline,
Sartre’s single trip was deeply unsettling, though arguably the division between good
and bad trips132 is arbitrary and both are as valuable133 parts of the same experience.134
Sartre’s psychedelic experience, for example, was crucial to his writing of his novel
Nausea.135 The results with psychedelics are not as predictable when compared with
performance enhancement drugs yet there are certainly outcomes. The challenge
remains with the individual in how, if at all, to utilise one’s psychedelic experiences.
The enthusiasm to which individuals will rise to this challenge varies greatly. Often,
the effects of even a limited number of psychedelic journeys can be subtle in the short
term and yet life changing in the long run. Often the value of psychedelics is
inseparable from the artist’s life and thinking.

As with, presumably, many physical performance-enhancement drugs, there

are undeniable psychological and physiological risks involved in using psychedelics,
and not everyone would consider that the potential creative and intellectual benefits to
justify the associated risks.

Many argue that the youths of the counter culture movement were ill suited to
fully utilize and appreciate psychedelics.136 Yet as the following case studies of the six
young LSD users in the profiles of psychedelic travellers attests to, safe and
 Page 26/52

constructive psychedelic use is possible in a self-regulated environment. It is false

then to claim that because only the intelligentsia should have access to psychedelics
because only they can fully appreciate them. Were it true that intellectuals are in a
much better position to benefit from psychedelic travel, it is overly paternalistic to
deprive people of the opportunity to find out whether psychedelics are, for them at
least, also a tool for self-actualization. The sentiment of such writers also recalls many
serious travellers and travel writers who resent the popularization of tourism. Often
this resentment is because the huge influx of tourists means that it is harder for the
serious traveller to find ‘untouched’ or ‘authentic’ locales to explore. It can also be
from a belief that the majority of tourists are simply not sufficiently cultivated or
developed to utilize their encounters with other cultures and environments to their full
potential. As true as this may be, most travellers would likely resent such
characterization.

Users of psychedelics, for lack of sensibility or discipline, may be

overwhelmed by the frivolous aspects of psychedelic use, and remain ignorant of the
more transformative aspects. Yet many people may undertake geographical travel and
return with nothing but a serious tan and a large debt. We do not generally criticise
such people for having missed the purpose of travelling, in spite of the high costs both
to themselves, financially, and to their host country, culturally and environmentally.
Therefore, with an enlightened risk management safeguards in place to mitigate the
dangers posed by psychedelic use, people might benefit from using psychedelics even
if for purely self-indulgent reasons.

Authenticity

Many proponents of travel appear to assume that that there is only so much that we
can get out of experiencing things that originate from geographically distant locations,
while at home, and affirm travel as one of the few means through which we are able
to gain truly authentic experiences of reality.137
 Page 27/52

Yet tourism commodifies a culture and environment: tourism providers

frequently sell the very identity of a place to a tourist for their consumption. Tourists
will often go to a destination to experience an often-stereotypical notion of a
traditional culture. Preconceptions formed of a particular place may have been
originally accurate. Yet travel agents may continue to use that same static image. They
inevitably promote and market an outdated notion of a travel destination, long after as
both the environment and the culture have changed, or tried to change. Because of its
inherently invasive character, then, tourism is responsible for making people and
places less ‘real’. Tourists themselves may even be subject to such artificiality.138 139

Jean-Paul Sartre presents an example of a person who intentionally assumes

the role of a waiter, even though he knows it to be, and treats it, as a light-hearted
joke. The waiter knows that his behaviour is insincere. He purposefully and
substantially misrepresents himself and his peers. The waiter is therefore exercising
bad faith. Tourism can similarly encourage people to practice bad faith. Through
investment, and government policies tourism encourages a people and to adjust to fit
with the preconceptions of the tourists.140 Tourism industries can sponsor or coerce
locals to reinforce their own stereotypes, and places them in the predicament of
having to ‘act themselves’:

… Those at the sharp end of the tourism/hospitality

industries, such as holiday representatives, waiters, hotel
receptionists, and so on, are expected to adopt a particular
kind of role in relation to their customers … They must
‘cater for’ the tourists, smile, exchange pleasantries, and
generally learn to give a performance … The employee
engages in a form of ‘method acting’, adapting their
demeanor to fit with the employees’ and tourist’s
expectations of ‘virtuous behavior’ even though these
displays of emotions may conflict with their own personal
feeling … Within the tourist arena it is clear that tour
guides play multiple roles to satisfy the desire of tourists
which are quite separate from their roles at home or in
 Page 28/52

social settings … The tour guides choose, or feel

compelled, to present only certain aspects of their complex
culture, which draws on local tradition but is clearly located
within the broader processes of globalization ... The very
fact that this emotional labor is owned and managed by
others in order to make money means that it becomes
estranged and disassociated from the interests, values and
life of the actual employee.141

While tourism is purported to allow for a cultural exchange between tourist and local,
there are economic factors at play that ensure that such cultural exchanges are far
from being fair. Locals are likely to become all too bitter towards tourists because of
the economic disparity between the two groups, resulting in a kind of mutual
deception.142 Locals present travellers with a fabricated spirituality and wisdom.
Meanwhile, travellers make locals aspire for the very lifestyle and materialism that the
traveller is trying to escape.

Furthermore, tourism is frequently responsible for the destruction of the

cultures and environments that tourists, hungry to experience authentic people and
places, are seeking out. Those who travel abroad may do so in the full knowledge that
the very act of travel is helping eradicate that which they are visiting. Take the
example of a tourist who travels to the Great Barrier Reef, from outside of
Queensland or New South Wales, with the intention of better understanding the
impact of climate change on natural environments. A cause of climate change is the
burning of the fossil fuels that power planes, cars, and trains. In travelling to the north
east coast of Australia, the traveller is contributing to the Great Barrier Reef’s
destruction. They thus help accelerate the conversion of the reef’s destruction from
being a topical issue, to being a historic fact. They have travelled to see how the world
is, yet in doing so have helped ensure that they remember only how the world was.

Conversely, a person who looks at photos of the surface of the red planet taken
by a Mars Rover, has not experienced, and most likely will never experience, standing
on the surface of Mars, yet the Mars Rover has not contributed to the destruction of
the Martian environment. It will remain virtually the same, most likely, for countless
 Page 29/52

centuries. The images that the Martian devotee sees, then, will remain an authentic
representation of the surface of Mars for a very long time. The accuracy of the
memories of the tourist who goes to the Great Barrier Reef, however, will have a very
short life span. The tourist’s direct experience of the Great Barrier Reef then is, if
anything, less authentic than the experiences of a person who vicariously experiences
Mars. In some situations, then, it is therefore more authentic to experience reality
vicariously, than experiencing it viscerally.

Standing on Mars might well be the culmination of the journey of a lifetime.

Yet that journey would have come at a tremendous environmental and financial cost,
an appreciation of that could, and perhaps should, detract from the traveller’s
enjoyment. Space exploration is only the most palpable instance of tremendous
expenditure on personal travel for minimal social gain. For many in developing
countries, though, intercontinental travel might seem as desirable, and feasible, as
interplanetary travel is to those in the developed world. As long as there are such
pressing needs at home, and such costs of leaving it, the desirability of either form of
travel seems paltry:

“If your Holiness were given the opportunity to orbit the

Earth in the space shuttle,” I inquire, “would you accept?”

There is a moment’s silence. The Dalai Lama stares

at me with wide eyes before replying.

“If very safe – then I will go!” He laughs uproariously,

and he wipes his eyes on the sleeves of his robe.

“Is this a dream of yours? To view the Earth from

orbit?”

“Interesting …” he nods, considering the question

seriously. “But not essential. Still much work to be done
here, on this Earth. Until there is no poverty, no illness.
Once everything is okay on this planet – no further problem
– then we’ll need a holiday!”143
 Page 30/52

Psychedelic travellers can experience a kind of culture shock similar to that

experienced by geographical travellers. The culture shock of psychedelics is the
beginning of a trip, when the psychedelic traveller struggles to interpret their
experience, to relate it to their regular life, to frame it, to reconcile it with consensual
reality, and to come to terms with the sudden awareness of the multiplicity of reality.
Similarly, people can experience on psychedelics an analogy to reverse-culture-shock.
Reverse culture shock is the difficulty in adjusting to the cultural norms of the
community the traveller has temporarily departed from, often combined with an
overwhelming sense of anticlimax.144 Psychedelics then, especially LSD, have the
potential, like geographical travel, to make natural environment and culture less
familiar to users: Aldous Huxley describes his psychedelically induced vision as if the
world is constructing itself from the ground up.145 LSD specifically can place the
user’s entire system of ontology and epistemology into question. Psychedelics can
force users to confront, and question, personal and social dogmas:146 Albert Hoffman
observed the possibility psychedelics offer with other sublime experiences within
nature147 in allowing us to glimpse the mystery beyond socially constructed reality.148
Psychedelics thus allow users to regain an appreciation of and sensitivity to natural
and artificial environments. Psychedelics can refresh people’s relationship with
reality, removing the ennui, the normalness, and the regularity to which they have
become accustomed. Users of psychedelics may continue to appreciate the
epistemological benefits long after the chemical effects have worn off. For example,
users of psychedelics may be able to perceive the world through a kind of dual,
overlaid vision: the world as perceived by most people and the world as it can appear
while in an altered state of conscious.

Yet psychedelics might distance users permanently from reality and society,
and the broad, socially accepted utilisation of drugs, including psychedelics, could
arguably result in an apathetic population. For example, some critics have described
the psychedelic culture of the 1960s as decadent because of the prevalent drug use,149
and some writers have warned that were antidepressants to become widely accepted
human progress would slowly stop.150 However, this is a risk posed only by non-
psychedelic drugs:
 Page 31/52

‘Well, all drug fiends regardless of what the thing is, they
shoot drugs because they're not what they want to be and
when they shoot drugs, they are what they want to be,
see? It solves all their problems. But this doesn't
necessarily hold true with this LSD. You're not what you
want to be, you see yourself for what you really are, and
it's funny.… You know, like you've been trying so hard to be
something and you never want to admit to yourself you're
not and then all of a sudden you're behind this drug and
you see yourself just for what you are. It hurts.’ 151

Psychedelics do not help facilitate escapist tendencies, or encourage escapism.

MDMA for example is a social drug, and not a nihilistic one. For an MDMA
experience to be enjoyable, the environment chosen for the trip needs to be a place
enjoyable even when straight. Since enjoyment of psychedelics relies on sensation,
psychedelics are clearly substances of this world. Psychedelics can often bring about a
very extroverted state, and encourage an appreciation of relatedness. Unlike drugs
such as opiates, psychedelics derive their powers from the emotions and meaning that
we invest in the environment. Users of psychedelics would need to continue to be
concerned with the well-being of both themselves, and their environment, in order to
have an enjoyable experience. The experience on psychedelics, especially
mescaline,152 is a factor of the individual. Taking psychedelics can encourage people
to improve the world and them self. They do not allow people to escape from
themselves or their peers. Personal, social, and environmental well-being is likely to
become even more of a priority for those who have taken psychedelics.

Profiles

Earlier, I argued that varying degrees of anti-drug bias and censorship in psychedelic
research might impinge on attempts to provide an accurate depiction of their costs and
benefits. As long as psychedelic use is illegal and stigmatized, a pro-psychedelic
 Page 32/52

stance might be unfairly disadvantaged because of a lack of reliable empirical

evidence to draw from, or a rational and unprejudiced audience to debate with.

An additional handicap puts a pro-psychedelic stance at a further

disadvantage. The media broadly promotes tourism, and tourism has established in
society as an important industry. Tourism’s role as a status symbol gives it an
additional, significant, and most likely invariable advantage over psychedelic travel.
Therefore, even if the cost-benefit ratios of geographical and psychedelic travel were
comparable, psychedelics might still be unable to compete.

However, those less concerned with how their form of journeying acted as a
type of status symbol would look more favourably towards cheaper forms of travel
such as psychedelic travel. Those born between 1955 and 1965, a generational cohort
renowned for their preoccupation with status, might be less likely to consider
psychedelic travel over geographical travel. Those who are economically
disadvantaged are less able to engage in geographical travel than their wealthier
counterparts are. Psychedelic travel offers comparable ends by a much more
economically accessible means. Therefore, the economically disadvantaged would
presumably be, or already are, more likely to take up psychedelics than those who
have the option of choosing between geographical and psychedelic travel. This
suggests that the most likely demographic to engage in psychedelic travel might be
those who are born after 1965 and those who are less wealthy, for example younger
people from or in middle-class upbringings. Some evidence on the matter supports
this broad generalization.

The 1994 study by Henderson and Glass of young, suburban LSD-users

presents profiles of contemporary psychedelic travellers. Their research involved
interviewing six subjects about their previous LSD use. All of the subjects were very
positive about their experiences on LSD, in spite of the occasional misadventure, over
some five years of taking the drug. None of the interviewees was regretful over their
decision of whether, and when, to start taking psychedelics. Their experience sheds
some useful light on the motivations of young psychedelic travellers, and suggests a
number of other things about the likely candidates for psychedelic travel.

To begin, the case studies illuminate the deeply ingrained societal conditions
that gave rise to the teenager’s drug use in the first place. Their drug taking occurred
 Page 33/52

in domestic conditions of prevalent disillusionment153 and silence154 including a lack

of discussion of illicit155 drug use.156 They took LSD to lend a degree of pleasure that
was lacking in their regular experiences; therefore, deficiency of excitement might
explain high rates of drug use in suburbia. Ironically, then, it is the same surplus of
safety in conservative, middle-class suburbia that drives the subjects to use LSD,
which is also essential for comfortable psychedelic experiences.157 Being able to enjoy
psychedelics requires a sense of safety, while a lack of alternative activities motivates
psychedelics use. Middle-class suburbia is a relatively secure and uneventful
environment for teenagers. Therefore, middle-class suburbia might actually promote
psychedelic drug use, while those who have stable lives might be in a better position
to reduce the risks of psychedelic use.

The teenagers interviewed also had little or no freedom of movement beyond

the city that they lived in;158 distant recreational travel, accompanied by the rest of
their family, may have taken place for the subjects, though again their freedom within
the constraints of such trips would still have been limited. Psychedelics provided the
teenagers a means of a travel in which they were in control. Therefore, those
prohibited from geographical travel because of financial or personal constraints might
be more likely to engage in psychedelic travel.

The quantity of LSD taken by the six youths, in single sessions, was lower
than the psychedelic users of the counter-culture. The reduced potency of doses might
explain this reduction in quantity, however they could have presumably compensated
for this by increasing their own rate of consumption. Therefore, rates of consumption
are likely to be deliberate, and a reflection of a changed motivation and class of LSD
users.159 At lower doses of LSD, users experience a more nuanced psychedelic state,
with perceptual effects more dominant, and a reduction of the emotional and psychic
effects. In addition, the psychedelic experience is in less conflict with regular
experience. The interviewees made their psychedelics compliment, rather than
substitute, their regular experience and experiences. LSD-takers under study were less
disengaged or fractured from reality during their trips than previous generations of
LSD-users.160 As a result, these contemporary users of LSD were better able to
reconcile their drug use with their regular, public lives. These youths and their
psychedelic-using peers demonstrated the ability to regulate their own consumption,
to minimize harm by providing intelligent and compassionate support to fellow-users,
 Page 34/52

and to engage in drug-assisted self-actualization. This resulted in much safer and

calmer drug-taking habits compared to the counter-culture movement161 and a much
more honest appraisal of the costs and benefits of drug use compared to their
parents.162 In the study, the suburban teenagers demonstrated a high degree of
maturity and awareness in relation to accumulative effects and dangers of psychedelic
use.163 The most significant long-term damage related to their LSD use was the fact
that they were, as of the time of the study, in a drug rehabilitation program. These
successes appeared to have occurred in spite of, unlike their 1960s equivalent, a lack
of formalised sub-culture, or a familiarity with any texts or personalities connected to
psychedelics.

Their accounts might also provide an idea of what age psychedelic use could
be reasonably safe for others. If they successfully managed their taking of
psychedelics even with such handicaps, it is likely that they would have managed
even better in a domestic environment, and community, that was actually empathetic
of their choice to take psychedelics. Ideally, the environment that people take
psychedelics should not only be safe, but also actually supportive of psychedelic use:
people who have grown up in urban communes, set up to create an environment
conducive for taking LSD,164 have spoken positively of their childhood. 165

As argued earlier, a risk matrix would be a very useful resource for enabling
prospective psychedelic travellers to decide how, or whether, to practice their drug
use. For example, it would be a necessary precondition that the decision to take
psychedelics at a young age must be voluntary. A realistic risk matrix would factor in
the variable set and setting conditions that impact on the safety of psychedelic use, as
well as the actual quantity and type of candidate psychedelic. For example, a person
with a history of mental illness may be unwise to take Psilocybin, though they may
benefit from MDMA, just as a person with a heart condition should generally not take
up resistance training, but would benefit from bushwalking. A teenager might take
only mild doses of THC and elect to transition over to, ultimately, heavy doses of
LSD in their twenties.

For some individuals, any form of psychedelic travel, in any situation, even
after legalization, might still pose too great a risk. Yet I have only attempted to
suggest an alternative to travelling abroad for self-actualization, rather than travelling
 Page 35/52

locally for the purpose of self-actualization or recreation, or abroad for employment,

to meet family, or out of physiological necessity. Therefore, those who could not
engage in safe psychedelic travel under any condition would still have the option of
engaging in some forms of geographical travel.

Conclusion

I have analysed whether tourism is an effective means of satisfying needs for self-
actualization, and if so, whether it is worth the costs. I have drawn parallels between
geographical travel and psychedelic travel. This has helped me explore whether
psychedelic travel can provide experiences and outcomes analogous to travel
undertaken for the purposes of self-actualization. It has also helped me come to some
tentative conclusions of the moral costs and benefits of psychedelic travel, relative to
geographical travel. I have taken some admittedly extreme examples of negative
cultural travel, specifically Burma, and equally extreme but positive angles on the
benefits of psychedelics. There are likely to be many leading international travel
organizations and countries that take a truly sustainable view on tourism because of
self-regulation, a desire to increase market share, or out of a prevailing sense of
environmental and social responsibility. This enables travellers to enjoy their
destinations with minimal impact and a zero carbon footprint. I have sought, however,
to counter any pre-perceived opinions that psychedelic use is either automatically
harmful or totally void of social or personal value. A well-informed and structured
risk matrix would help facilitate an unbiased assessment of the costs and benefits of
psychedelic use. It would play a key role in reducing the negative consequences of
psychedelic travel. Such an assessment would also likely encourage a much more
realistic and honest reappraisal of the cost and benefits of other practices apart from
tourism, such as the use of legal drugs.

I have identified some of the situations in which the environmental, economic

and cultural benefits of tourism may not outweigh the costs. I have also attempted to
 Page 36/52

challenge some of the popular notions regarding the holistic benefits of travel, and to
highlight the potential scale of global tourism’s negative impact.

People may travel in the belief, in some cases justified, that their significant
personal development may compensate for any economic, environmental or social
costs. Yet there are clearly also cases where travellers may bring about the very
problems that they sought to remedy. Those who value the benefits of their own self-
development from travelling, over the interests of their destination, would profit
ethically and personally from a more honest appraisal of the feasibility of their
objectives, and the consequences of their travelling to others.

Additionally, I have argued that, with certain conditions and people, there is
the potential of psychedelic travelling to be environmentally, culturally and personal
constructive in excess of its possible moral costs. These suggested benefits would be
even more accessible were society to legalize psychedelics. Such legalization might
also have additional benefits that include a reduction in the use of hard-drugs, in crime
rates, and in the excessive use of currently legal drugs.

These two points are largely independent of one another, and the refutation of
one, should not immediately detract from the other. If the legal prohibition of
psychedelics were in fact morally justified, and no practical exceptions existed, there
would still be a case for a critical assessments of global tourism. With the almost
universally agreement on the environmental impact of long-distance travel, for
example, there is at the least a strong reason for people to travel more locally rather
than abroad. Conversely, even if tourism were overall beneficial this would not detract
from the possibility that psychedelics provide an alternative form of journeying.
Rather, it would mean that those who travel out of a desire for self-actualization might
also gain similar benefits from staying locally and taking psychedelics, and that those
who cannot afford the luxury of geographical travel still have access to the self-
actualizing benefits of travelling. Those who are already able to, or actually engage in,
geographical travel could benefit themselves and others even more by taking
psychedelics, if they so desire, both at home and abroad. Were the benefits of
psychedelic so extensive however, that it proved a superior tool for self-actualization
and recreation, the total amount of travel could reduce by around two-thirds without
limiting exercises in self-actualization.166 At a time where geographical travel is a
 Page 37/52

major contributor to many worldwide problems including climate change, loss of

cultural and biological diversity, and unjust wealth distribution, such a reduction
might go a long way in helping extend our life expectancy as a species. With the
environmental, social, economic, personal, and existential benefits available through
psychedelic travel, that extra time might be much more enjoyable and productive.

As an examination of the ethics of tourism, however, numerous questions remain

unexplored. Tourism may be a relatively benign industry for enabling those in the
developing world to achieve some degree of economic and social autonomy. Yet the
question remains whether the power imbalance inherent in the transaction between a
tourist from the developed world, and a tourism-worker in the developing world, can
ever be a just one. Many people from developed countries, for example, may travel to
developing countries or invest in their tourism infrastructure in order to capitalize on
favourable exchange rates, lax government regulations and laws, and a desperate
populace. With such opportunism in mind, the extent of complicity of those in the
developed world in maintaining that power imbalance, consciously or otherwise,
remains problematic.

There is also a strong need for further empirical clarification on many of the
assumptions that motivate people to travel. This includes both the benefits of tourism
to the traveller, and the benefits to the travel-worker, their region, and their
compatriots. Measurements of personal development, and of net social benefit, are
seemingly very difficult to make, however they may be of tremendous importance in
any re-evaluation of the ethics of tourism. Many travellers might be genuinely
interested to know the cultural and environmental impact of their presence aborad, but
simply lack reliable information. Similarly, current and prospective psychedelic
travellers urgently require trustworthy information in order to make well-informed
decisions, and exercise better risk-management.

What has certainly come through in my studies of the writing by travellers and
travel advocates has been the fierce presence of individualism. This was abundantly
clear in surveys of the attitudes of those visiting contentious sites, including, but not
limited to, Burma. Those travelling primarily to satisfy their own need for self-
actualization are often capable of impressive feats of rationalization and of personal
 Page 38/52

Exceptionalism: the belief that normal rules or general principles do not apply to
them. Often, it is the very people who identify themselves as environmentally and
socially mindful who fall victim to such Exceptionalism. At the least, this appears to
cast heavy doubt over the ability of travellers and travel developers to regulate their
behaviour rationally. Better establishing the empirical facts regarding tourism’s costs
may therefore be insufficient in assisting prospective travellers and travel developers
to make intelligent and ethical decisions. Travellers, for example, may attach such a
value on their own self-actualization that they travel with disproportional regard to the
social and environmental consequences of their travel. Similarly, travel developers
may attach a value on their own economic enhancement as to marginalize any other
considerations. This would suggest that there is an equal if not stronger requirement
for further philosophical work on the ethics of tourism. Travel is becoming more
popular, and the impacts more blatant, so such research is increasingly important, yet
also more likely.

Unfortunately, it seems much less likely that adequate research will take place
in relation to the value of psychedelics, at least in the near future. Psychedelics have
played a significant role in the development of many cultures. The formal research
that has taken place into the psychedelic experience has help enable some incredibly
fascinating glimpses into the human psyche. Similarly, the more informal research has
also helped contribute to the production of a wealth of intellectual and cultural spin-
offs, the profits of which we continue to enjoy, from the computers that we use to the
music that we listen to, today. Continuing to inhibit or criminalize such research
seems to do us all a sizable disservice.
 Page 39/52

References

• ‘Alcohol-related deaths soar in northern England.’ Times Online. Published:

August 15, 2005; Accessed: 19 November 2008; URL =
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article555574.ece
• ‘Annual Causes of Death in the United States.’ Drug War Facts. Retrieved on
2008-03-07. Authored: 2007-05-16.URL =
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm
• ‘Big Day Out teen dies of suspected drug overdose’; Posted Feb 2, 2009;
Accessed 11 April 2009; ABC News; URL:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/02/2479932.htm
• ‘Boycott Burma Holidays - How tourism benefits Burma’s dictators’ Burma
Campaign UK. Accessed: 28/03/2009; URL:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/action_holiday.html
• ‘Boycott Lonely Planet!’ New Internationalist 0305-9529 March 2008 i409,
p20(1) Year: 2008
• ‘DEA Congressional Testimony’; US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Published: October 10, 2002; Accessed: 11 April 2009; URL:
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct101002.html
• ‘Drug Policy around the World.’ Drug Policy Alliance Network; Authored:
2007-12-18. Accessed: 14 May 2009 URL =
http://www.drugpolicy.org/global/drugpolicyby/westerneurop/thenetherlan/
• ‘Famous LSD Users.’ The Good Drugs Guide. Accessed: 14 May 2009; URL:
http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/articles/famous_users/lsd.htm
• Abrahart, David. ‘A Critical Review of Theories and Research Concerning
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) and Mental Health.’ MAPS. Authored:
March 1998. Retrived: 17 Nov 2008. URL =
http://www.maps.org/research/abrahart.html
• Adams, Gabriel J. ‘Why We Travel - To Find Or To Lose?’ EzineArticles.
Authored: 8 Sep. 2007. Retrieved: 30 Jan 2009 URL =
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-We-Travel---To-Find-Or-To-Lose?&id=722653
.
 Page 40/52

• Australian Conservation Foundation. “The Ethical Travel Guide (Brief

article)(Book review).” Habitat Australia 35.1 (Jan 2007): 31(1).
• Baker, Jeff “All times a great artist, Ken Kesey is dead at age 66”. The
Oregonian: November 11, 2001. pp. A1
• Banco, Lindsey Michael. Psychedelic trips: travel and drugs in contemporary
literature. PhD thesis. Posted: 24-April-08, Accessed: 12 Nov 08; URL =
https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/dspace/bitstream/1974/1118/1/Banco_Lindse
y_M_200804_PhD.pdf
• Barbour, John D. ‘The Ethics of Intercultural Travel: Thomas Merton's Asian
Pilgrimage and Orientalism.’ Biography 28.1 (2005) 15-26
• Baron, Stephen W. ‘Street Youths and Substance Use: The Role of
Background, Street Lifestyle, and Economic Factors’. Youth & Society, Vol.
31, No. 1, 3-26 (1999).
• Bromell, Nicholas Knowles. Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics
in the 1960s. University of Chicago Press, 2002.
• Brown, David Jay. ‘Psychedelic Healing?’ Scientific American Mind.
December 2007/January 2008.
• Brown, Walter A. ‘Research on Psychedelics Making a Comeback’.
Psychiatric Times, Vol. 3 No. 10, October 1, 2007.
• Busch, Anthony K. ‘L.S.D. 25 As an Aid in Psychotherapy’ Diseases of the
Nervous System (volume 11(8), pages 241-243), August 1950.
• Butcher, Jim. The Moralisation of Tourism: Sun, Sand … and Saving the
World? London: Routledge, 2003.
• Carpenter, Dan. A Psychonaut’s Guide to the Invisible Landscape: The
Topography of the Psychedelic Experience. Inner Traditions / Bear &
Company, 2006.
• Carstairs, George Morrison. ‘A Land of Lotus-Eaters?’ American Journal of
Psychiatry 125:1576-1580, May 1969.
• Cheek, Frances E. ‘The Down-Head Behind an Up-Head—The Heroin Addict
Takes LSD.’ Substance Use & Misuse, Volume 4, Issue 1 March 1969, pages
101 – 119.
 Page 41/52

• Davis, Carl S. ‘Marijuana and Psychedelic Use: Are They Deviant

Responses?’ Drug Forum: The Journal of Human Issues, 6, 4, 315-25, 1978.
• De Beauvoir, Simone. The Prime of Life. Translated by Peter Green;
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1965, c1962.
• De Rios, Marlene Dobkin. LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process. Inner
Traditions / Bear & Company, 2003
• Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater, edited by
Alethea Hayter, New York, Penguin Books, 1971
• Debarbieri, Lili. ‘Ethical Traveler: Where is Tourism Headed?’ Earth Island
Journal; Summer 2008, Vol. 23 Issue 2, p23-23, 1p
• DeRogatis, Jim. Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic
Rock. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2003.
• Doblin, Richard Elliot. ‘Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and
Marijuana’. PhD Thesis. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2000
• Doblin, Rick, ‘A Clinical Plan for MDMA (Ecstasy) in the Treatment of Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Partnering with the FDA’ Journal Of
Psychoactive Drugs, volume xii number 3, autumn 2002
• Fendrich, Michael. ‘Substance Involvement among Juvenile Murderers:
Comparisons with Older Offenders Based on Interviews with Prison Inmates’.
Substance Use & Misuse, Volume 30, Issue 11 September 1995, pages 1363 –
1382.
• Fennell, David A. Tourism Ethics. Channel View Publications, 2005
• Friedman, Harris. ‘The Renewal of Psychedelic Research: Implications for
Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology’. The Humanistic Psychologist,
Volume 34, Issue 1 April 2006 , pages 39 – 58
• Goldstein, Kurt. The Organism: A Holistic Approach to Biology Derived from
Pathological Data in Man. 1934. New York: Zone Books, 1995.
• Gouzoulis-Mayfrank E, Hermle L, Thelen B, Sass H. ‘History, rationale and
potential of human experimental hallucinogenic drug research in psychiatry.’
Pharmacopsychiatry. 1998 Jul;31 Suppl 2:63-8.
• Greenfield, Robert. Timothy Leary: a bibliography. New York: Harcourt,
2006.
 Page 42/52

• Greenwald, Jeff. Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth.
Penguin, 1999.
• Grinspoon L. and Bakalar J.B. ‘Can drugs be used to enhance the
psychotherapeutic process?’ American Journal of Psychotherapy. 1986
Jul;40(3):393-404.
• Grinspoon, L. and Bakalar, J.B. Psychedelic drugs reconsidered. New York:
Basic Books. 1979
• Grof, Stanislav and Halifax, Joan. The Human Encounter with Death. New
York: E.P. Dutton 1977.
• Grof, Stanislav. LSD Psychotherapy. Hunter House Publishers, Alameda,
California. 1980
• Grof, Stanislav. Realms of Human Unconscious. New York: Viking Press,
1975.
• Hamilton, Margaret et al [Eds.] Drug Use in Australia: A Harm Minimisation
Approach. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002
• Harrison, Ann. ‘LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug?’ Wired. 01.16.06; Accessed
10/5/09. URL http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015
• Henderson, Leigh A. and Glass, William J. (Eds.) LSD: still with us after all
these years. New York: Macmillan, 1994
• Hickman, Leo. The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of our Holidays.
London: Random House, 2007.
• Hicks, Bill. Relentless. Label: Rykodisc; Producer: Kevin Booth. 1992.
• Hofmann, Albert LSD, My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs,
Mysticism, and Science. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1980.
• Hudson, Simon. ‘To Go or Not To Go? Ethical Perspectives on Tourism in an
‘Outpost of Tyranny’’- Journal of Business Ethics, 2007 – Springer (2007)
76:385–396
• Huxley, Aldous. Heaven and Hell. London: Chatto & Windus, 1956
• Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. London: Chatto & Windus 1954.
http://www.psychedelic-library.org/doors.htm Accessed: Mon, 18 Apr 2005.
• Huxley, Laura Archera. This Timeless Moment: A Personal View of Aldous
Huxley. Celestial Arts, 2000.
 Page 43/52

• Iyer, Pico. ‘Why we travel’. Salon.com. Published: March 18, 2000; Accessed:
May 14, 2009. URL =
http://archive.salon.com/travel/feature/2000/03/18/why/index.html
• Jones, Matthew T. The Creativity of Crumb: Research on the Effects of
Psychedelic Drugs on the Comic Art of Robert Crumb. URL =
http://mattsmediaresearch.com/pdfs/CreativityofCrumb.pdf Accessed: 12 Nov
2008.
• Kjellgren, Anette and Norlander, Torsten. ‘Psychedelic Drugs: A Study of
Drug-Induced Experiences Obtained by Illegal Drug Users in Relation to
Stanislav Grof's Model of Altered States of Consciousness’. Imagination,
Cognition and Personality. Volume 20, Number 1 / 2000-2001. Pages: 41 –
57.
• Klein, Naomi. Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan
Books, 2007.
• Krippiwr, Stanley. ‘Research in creativity and psychedelic drugs’.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Volume 25,
Issue 4 October 1977, pages 274 – 290.
• Krippner, Stanley and Powers, Susan Marie. Broken Images, Broken Selves:
Dissociative Narratives in Clinical Practice. Psychology Press, 1997
• Krupitsky, E. ‘Ketamine psychotherapy for heroin addiction: immediate
effects and two-year follow-up.’ Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment,
Volume 23, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 273 – 283.
• Laurance, Jeremy. ‘LSD helps alcoholics put down the bottle.’ Belfast
Telegraph. Published: 6 December 2006. Accessed: 17 November 2008. URL
= http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/lsd-helps-alcoholics-put-
down-the-botttle-13572163.html
• Lawrence, Thomas Edward. Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph. Oxford,
[1922]
• Lee, Martin A. and Shlain, Bruce. Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and the
Sixties Rebellion. New York: Grove Press, 1985.
• Lee, Mike and Seshadri, Aparnaa. ‘Tripping Your Way to Sobriety: ‘Acid' as a
Cure for Alcoholism. ABC News. Published: Oct. 16, 2006. Accessed: 17
 Page 44/52

November 2008. URL =

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2572846&page=1
• Lerner, Michael and Lyvers, Michael ‘Values and Beliefs of Psychedelic Drug
Users: A Cross-Cultural Study’. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 2006
• Macey, David. The lives of Michel Foucault: a biography. New York:
Pantheon Books, c1993.
• Markoff, John. What the dormouse said: how the sixties counterculture shaped
the personal computer industry. New York: Viking Penguin, 2005.
• Merton, Thomas. “From Pilgrimage to Crusade.” Mystics and Zen Masters.
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1967.
• Miles, Barry. Ginsberg: A Biography. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd. (2001)
• Miller, L. ‘Careful research of psychedelics resumes.’ Alternative Therapies in
Health and Medicine, 1995 May; 1(2): 19-21
• Mogar, Robert E. & Aldrich, Robert W. ‘The Use of Psychedelic Agents with
Autistic Schizophrenic Children’. Psychedelic Review Number 10, 1969.
• Nichols, David E. ‘Hallucinogens’. Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Volume
101, Issue 2, February 2004, Pages 131-181.
• Norton, G. Ron. ‘Panic Spectrum Disorders and Substance Use’ Anxiety and
Substance Use Disorders. Springer US, 2008.
• Novak, Steven J. ‘Second thoughts on psychedelic drugs’. Endeavour. Volume
22, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 21-23
• Pahnke, Walter N. and Richards, William A. ‘Implications of LSD and
experimental mysticism’ Journal of Religion and Health, Volume 5, Number 3
/ July, 1966, pp. 175-208
• Pearce, Philip L. and Caltabiano, Marie L. ‘Inferring Travel Motivation from
Travelers' Experiences’ Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 22, No. 2, 16-20
(1983)
• Pletscher, Alfred, and Ladewig, Dieter. [Eds.] 50 Years of LSD: Current Status
and Perspectives of Hallucinogens: a Symposium of the Swiss Academy of
Medical Sciences, Lugano-Agno (Switzerland), October 21 and 22, 1993.
Taylor & Francis, 1994
 Page 45/52

• Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time. Vol. V: The Captive (1923). Ch. II:
"The Verdurins Quarrel with M. de Charlus".
• Redleb, ‘Inter Generational Ecstasy’. Erowid Experience Vaults. Authored Sep
9, 2003; Accessed May 14, 2009. URL:
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=26702
• Rees, Alun. ‘Nobel Prize genius Crick was high on LSD when he discovered
the secret of life’; Associated Newspapers Ltd. Mail on Sunday (London);
August 8, 2004; URL: http://www.mayanmajix.com/art1699.html
• Riedlinger TJ, Riedlinger JE. ‘Psychedelic and entactogenic drugs in the
treatment of depression.’ Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 1994 Jan-Mar;
26(1):41-55.
• Roberts Thomas B. ‘Do entheogen-induced mystical experiences boost the
immune system? Psychedelics, peak experiences, and wellness.’ Advances in
mind-body medicine. 1999 Spring; 15(2):139-47.
• Roszak, Theodore. The Making of a Counter Culture. London: Faber, 1970.
• Sabavala, Avi, ‘Ethical travels depend on how, not where.’ Christian Science
Monitor, 08827729, 10/2/2006, Vol. 98, Issue 215
• Saldanha, Arun. Psychedelic white: Goa trance and the viscosity of race.
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2007.
• Savage, C. and Stolaroff, Myron J. ‘Clarifying the Confusion Regarding LSD-
25’. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, vol. 140, no. 3. 1965
• Sessa B. ‘Is there a case for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the UK?’
Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2007 Mar;21(2):220-4.
• Sessa, Ben. ‘Can psychedelics have a role in psychiatry once again?’ The
British Journal of Psychiatry (2005) 186: 457-458
• Sewell, R. Andrew, and John H. Halpern and Harrison G. Pope, Jr. ‘Response
of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD’. Neurology 2006;66;1920-1922.
• Shanon, Benny. ‘Ayahuasca and Creativity’. MAPS Newslet, volume X,
number 3, 2000.
• Smith, Kevin. ‘Carbon Neutral Myth.’ Carbon Trade Watch, Authored:
February 2007; Accessed 14 May 2009; URL:
http://www.carbontradewatch.org/pubs/carbon_neutral_myth.pdf
 Page 46/52

• Smith, Michael Valentine. Psychedelic Chemistry. Published 02.09.2007.

Accessed: 3/11/08 URL:
http://www.azcameron.co.uk/chem/Psychedelic.Chemistry-
Michael.Valentine.Smith-HTML.pdf.
• Smith, Mick and Duffy, Rosaleen The Ethics of Tourism Development,
London: Routledge, 2003.
• Solaris. Dir. Steven Soderbergh. Twentieth Century-Fox, 2002.
• Spencer, Metta. ‘The Ethics of Travel.’ Metta Spencer’s Weblog. Last
modified: February 19, 2007. Accessed: June 5, 2008. URL: http://metta-
spencer.blogspot.com/2007/02/ethics-of-travel.html.
• Tsuang, Ming T. et al ‘Co-occurrence of Abuse of Different Drugs in Men:
The Role of Drug-Specific and Shared Vulnerabilities’ Archive of General
Psychiatry. Vol. 55 No. 11, November 1998.
• Uhlig, Robert. ‘Ecstasy fears based on ‘flawed tests’’. Telegraph. Authored 18
Apr 2002; Accessed 14 May 2009. URL:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1391384/Ecstasy-fears-based-on-
flawed-tests.html
• Vukonić, Boris. Tourism and religion. New York: Pergamon, 1996.
• Watts, Alan. ‘Psychedelics and Religious Experience.’ California Law Review,
Vol. 56, No. 1, January 1968, pp. 74-85. URL =
http://web.archive.org/web/20041201130533/www.publicappeal.org/library/un
icorn/watts/psychedelics_and_religious_experience.htm
• Williams, Paul. "The Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet: Philip K.
Dick". philipkdickfans.com. Rolling Stone. Authored 1975-11-06; Retrieved:
2008-04-14. URL http://www.philipkdickfans.com/articles/rollingstone.htm
• Winkelman, Michael. ‘Therapeutic Effects of Hallucinogens’ Anthropology of
Consciousness. September-December 1991, Vol. 2, No. 3-4, pp. 15-19.
• Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kook-Aid Acid Test. New York: Bantam. 1972
• Yensen, Richard. ‘Helping at the edges of life: Perspectives of a psychedelic
therapist’. Journal of Near-Death Studies. Volume 6, Number 3 / March, 1988.
• Younie, Louise, ‘Alcohol, The Facts’ AvonWeb. accessed 19 November 2008;
URL = http://www.avon.nhs.uk/alcohol/the_facts.htm
 Page 47/52

• Zagnoni, P. G. and Albano, C. ‘Psychostimulants and Epilepsy’. Epilepsia.

Volume 43 Issue s2, 2002, Pages 28 – 31.
Endnotes
1
Vukonic (1996) 46
2
Vukonic (1996) 41
3
Hickman (2007) xiii
4
Goldstein (1995)
5
Pearce and Caltabiano (1983)
6
Vukonic (1996) 50
7
Pahnke and Richards (1966) 175
8
Wolfe (1972) 152
9
Wolfe (1972) 189
10
Hoffmann (1980) 73
11
Huxley (1956) 71-72
12
Grof (1975) xiii
13
Carpenter (2006)
14
Banco (2008) 241
15
Redleb (2009)
16
Lerner and Lyvers (2006) 10
17
Lerner and Lyvers (2006) 2
18
Novak (1998)
19
Savage and Stolaroff (1965)
20
Uhlig (2009)
21
Davis (1977)
22
Doblin (2000)
23
Fennel (2005) 9
24
Sabavala (2006)
25
Smith and Duffy (2003) 15
26
Hickman 369-70 (2007)
27
Fennel (2005) 8
28
Smith and Duffy (2003) 12
29
Australian Conservation Foundation (2007)
30
Klein (2007)
31
Debarbieri (2008)
32
Butcher (2003) 9
33
Butcher (2003) 48
34
Debarbieri (2008)
35
Fennell (2005) 5
36
Debarbieri (2008)
37
Spencer (2007)
38
Kevin Smith (2007)
39
Debarbieri (2008)
40
Hickman (2007) 369-70
41
Hudson (2007)
42
Hudson (2007)
43
Saldanha (2007)
44
Drug Use in Australia (2002) 9-11
45
Drug Use in Australia (2002) 4, 7
46
‘Alcohol-related deaths soar in northern England’ (2008)
47
Fendrich (1995)
48
Younie (2008)
49
Norton (2008) 81
50
Hofmann (1980) 26
51
Lee and Shlain (1985) 53
52
Hofmann (1980) 27
53
Grof (1975) vii
54
Winkelman (1991)
55
Hofmann (1980) 26
56
Hofmann (1980) 28
57
Busch (1950)
58
Nichols (2004)
59
Kjellgren and Norlander (2000)
60
Krupitsky (2000)
61
Laurance (2006)
62
Lee and Seshadri (2008)
63
Zagnoni (2002)
64
Doblin (2002)
65
Roberts (1999)
66
TJ Riedlinger and JE Riedlinger (1994)
67
Grinspoon and Bakalar, (1986) and (1979)
68
Sessa (2007)
69
David Brown (2008)
70
Mogar and Aldirch (1969)
71
Yensen (1988)
72
Grof and Halifax (1977)
73
Laura Huxley (2000)
74
Sessa (2005)
75
Friedman (2006)
76
Walter A. Brown (2007)
77
David Jay Brown (2008)
78
Miller (1995)
79
Abrahart (2008)
80
‘Annual Causes of Death in the United States’ (2007)
81
Michael Valentine Smith (2007) 2
82
Michael Valentine Smith (2007) 1
83
Grinspoon and Bakalar (1979)
84
DEA Congressional Testimony (2002)
85
Tsuang (1998)
86
Baron (1999)
87
‘Big Day Out teen dies of suspected drug overdose’ (2009)
88
‘Drug Policy around the World’ (2007)
89
Lerner and Lyvers 2 (2006)
90
Hudson (2007)
91
Hudson (2007)
92
Burma Campaign UK (2009)
93
Hudson (2007)
94
‘Boycott Lonely Planet!’ (2008)
95
Hudson (2007)
96
Gouzoulis-Mayfrank (1998)
97
H. Heimann, ‘Experience of Time and Space in model psychoses’ in 50 Years of LSD, Chapter 5 (1994)
98
Lee and Shlain (1985) 55
99
Huxley (1954)
100
Grof (1980) 1-2
101
Lee and Shlain (1985) 20
102
Hofmann (1980) 25, 27
103
Lee and Shlain (1985) 119
104
Lee and Shlain (1985) 45
105
Drug Use in Australia (2002) 48
106
Drug Use in Australia (2002) 8
107
De Rios (2003)
108
Macey (1993)
109
Watts (1968)
110
Markoff (2005)
111
Ann Harrison (2006)
112
‘Famous LSD Users’ (2009)
113
Ann Harrison (2006)
114
Rees (2004)
115
Krippiwr (1977)
116
Shanon (2000)
117
Henderson and Glass (1994) 3
118
Lee and Shlain (1985) 138
119
Bromell (2002)
120
Hicks (1992)
121
DeRogatis (2003)
122
Williams (1975)
123
Miles (2001)
124
Baker (2001)
125
Jones (2008) 16
126
Jones (2008) 2
127
Henderson (1994) 13
128
Lee and Shlain (1985) 89-90
129
Greenberg, Gary ‘Good Trips, Bad Trips: Psychedelic Trips and Disassociation’ in Broken Images, Broken Selves (1997)
130
Hofmann (1980) 83
131
Lee and Shlain (1985) 59
132
Lee and Shlain (1985) 57
133
Lee and Shlain (1985) 156
134
Hofmann (1980) 80
135
De Beauvoir (1965) 208-211
136
Roszak
137
Adams (2007)
138
Smith and Duffy (2003) 12-‘3
139
Iyer (2000)
140
Smith and Duffy (2003) 18
141
Smith and Duffy (2003) 40-‘2
142
Iyer (2000)
143
Greenwald (1999)
144
Hofmann (1980) 23
145
Huxley (1954)
146
Henderson and Glass (1994) 3
147
Hofmann (1980) 2
148
Hofmann (1980) Chapter 11
149
Roszak (1970) 162-‘3
150
Carstairs (1969)
151
Cheek (1969)
152
Huxley (1954)
153
Lee and Shlain (1985) 129
154
Henderson and Glass (1994) 135
155
Hofmann (1980) 79
156
Henderson and Glass (1994) 135
157
Henderson and Glass (1994) 31
158
Henderson and Glass (1994) 10
159
Henderson and Glass (1994) 128, 131-‘2
160
Lee and Shlain (1985) 283-‘4
161
Lee and Shlain (1985) 156
162
Henderson and Glass (1994) 27
163
Henderson and Glass (1994)26
164
Greenfield (2006) 212
165
Greenfield (2006) 191
166
Hickman (2007) xiii