Grover Eisner Betty Remembrances of LSD Therapy Past

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Tennessee (it has their seal on it). Al seems to recognize quite
clearly that it is not quite the same as some Ph.D.'s but it is
recognized by state and so with limitations by federal law. And
hell, Al is better than 100 Ph.D.s or M.D.s, much shrewder, too!
His lawyers have examined it carefully and tell him that he is
entitled to call himself Dr. H. if he wishes. However now he
seems happy enough to be Captain! I am curious to know what
happened. But it does seem that K. Ditman was ill advised to hold
up Al's LSM. It was an arbitrary, improper, and probably illegal
act. It was above all the one sort of action which would set Al
moving along his tycoon lines... What Al did not quite recognize
was that in his new surroundings such behavior was a trifle outre.
Yet looking at it from his point of view it was wholly commendable
and really very moderate. So I suppose Wild W. Hickock would have
been commendably moderate if he had shot off someone's hat rather
than his head& Al signaled quite clearly that he would get his
property back and this meant that he would act in accordance with
common business procedure. I don't think that anyone heeded his
signals... Anyway, he is very happy getting news of your work and
of course I am too&
I think you are perfectly correct (and the mystics bear you
out on this) that there is a psychotic belt lying between
normality and what my colleagues Duncan Blewitt (one of the two
bedeviled psychologists) calls the golden strand. Physical
contact may be very important&
I do hope to see the great old master of Zurich. He has
written too much, but he is so exuberant and seems to have no
critical friend who can hack off some of the pudding. Indeed
rather the reverse. The faithful are inclined to encourage him to
great diffuse tomes! I had a notable three hours with him almost
two years ago, but I fear that I won't be so lucky this time.
Jung is greatly pleased at our work on toxin X whose existence he
predicted about 50 years ago in spite of Freud's opposition&
My good wishes to Sid -- and of course to Gerald, Margaret,
Will and Michael when you see them. Let me know if my hunch is
right about the Ditman episode. I'm pretty sure what you saw was
another convention being played. It looked like nursery, but it
is orthodox business. Ever Humphry
Box 1056, Weyburn. 15:7:(should be 8):57
My dear Betty,
Now you have got something. That clicks&
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I think that we must realize that not only are there specific
difficulties at each level, but there is a very real possibility
of a scrambling of levels -- being in two places at the same time.
We experience this in a mild way with the cinema and television
now, but we have very quickly learnt how to cope& Now what
determines our capacity for changing levels and being able to
accept "other realities"? There are clearly two great dangers
which have to be guarded against: 1. the incapacity to accept
another reality other than the culturally sanctified one, i.e.,
one learns society's way so well or so painfully that one either
dare not or can not look elsewhere& 2. The incapacity to have a
relatively stable here and now , so that the other levels become
here and now and can swamp here and now. What has to be done is
to steer a course between these two and it is not and can not be
easy. The administrator has usually fallen into error l., the
artist or saint into error 2&
There must, surely, be a variety of hells depending upon the
levels involved. I suspect that one level is very simply the non
expression of the cosmic in one who has once experienced it. Hell
can be here and now, in the personal subconscious, in the
impersonal symbolic, and in impersonal humanity ages. I don't
believe that it is in the cosmic because it is essentially only
the absence of the cosmic. Does that sound right?
The great virtue of impersonal (humanity-ages) is that it
gives one perspective. We are not alone, we can not be alone.
There is no personal tragedy, the only personal tragedy is the
result of confining oneself and one's experience to the levels of
personality at which we normally function -- I wholly agree.
First we must discover that no man or woman is an island, but we
are parts of the main. After this it is possible for us to begin
to appreciate those levels which you label cosmic. To me this
does not mean that we have reached THE ABSOLUTE, as some would
have it, but as Raynor Johnson wisely suggests, we have reached
the limit of our perceiving and communicating apparatus. In other
words our 3-4 dimensional brain has limitations beyond which it
can not go. This does not, I am sure, apply to our souls, but
however as far as we in our here and now are concerned it is
important because it sets a limit on our experience. The limit is
so vast and generous as to be no limitation, but it has some
important practical applications. The best that we can know of
God is the most that can be revealed in our 3-4 dimensional
continuum -- beyond that we can not and will not be able to go.
However by understanding our limitations we can be splendidly
free. We do not need to heed those who peddle distorted visions
of God, they have partly sprung from subconscious levels and
though they may be useful and even necessary at certain times as
guide posts -- only an idiot mistakes the guide post for his final
destination. -- I suspect that therapy which will emerge will aim
at first allowing the person to orient himself and find out where
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he is vis-a-vis the various levels; second to explore them with a
greater or lesser freedom; and lastly to learn how to relate the
cosmic levels through the others to the here and now, and to live
so that all are attuned. Enough to do? &
I was greatly pleased to have your news and look forward to
further news... Good wishes to Sid and Gerald when you see him.
It looks as if we are soon going to be ready for a good push on
all fronts and push back our ignorance some distance. Ever
Humphry (on with the last bit of the budget)
September 8, 1957
Dear Humphrey:
So much has happened in the past few weeks that I doubt that
I shall be able to communicate it properly&
I think I wrote you that I was going to conduct -- by the
way, I hope that you are comfortable because I have a feeling that
this is going to run on tonight -- so get some good stout ale at
your elbow or a pot of delicious English tea. I figure it must be
the water because I never had any like that in England. Anyway, I
had a psychotherapy seminar with some of the Sequoia Seminar
people -- ten of their leadership group, in fact. I did one last
year as a trial and there seemed to be great possibilities& I had
long wanted to try some experimentation with group therapy, and
this seemed to be my chance& There has been a gradual movement of
the group away from the strict consideration of the teachings of
Jesus to a combined study of the best method of living life& and
self study. Because through the years it became apparent that one
might decide to live the good life, but there was some little
nuisance inside who didn't get the word and really raised havoc
when the chips were down in important decisions&
Last summer I had tentatively planned with one of the
members of the seminar who is an art teacher that we would combine
art and therapy. There has always been music at the seminar& So we
have a situation with many factors: a group of ten people deeply
interested (and committed) to living the best life they know of
and at the same time dedicated to finding out about whatever
elements of themselves prevent this; a gorgeous natural setting --
redwoods, beautiful country in the Santa Cruz mountains and no
household chores or interruptions from mundane affairs; the
combination of therapy, art, and music. And I added another [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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