To make this mundane world sublime
Take half a gram of phanerothyme.
Aldous Huxley
To sink in hell or soar angelic
You’ll need a pinch of psychedelic.
Humphry Osmond
“Thus ran the exchange between two pioneers in the study of those drugs to which it was so difficult to give a name, because it was so difficult to summarize and classify what it was that the chemicals did. Dr. Osmond’s entry won the popularity contest, and today the word “psychedelic” is so well known that it is commonly used in advertisements. But its meaning has become more clouded as its fame increased.
What is psychedelic? A style of lettering on posters? The deafening throb of a rock band? Kaleidoscopic light effects that tire the eyes? Or anything at all that one wishes to sell? The psychedelic fashions will pass, and the word “psychedelic” may have to go with them. It may have lost its ability to refer to an elusive and precious state of consciousness. Say “psychedelic” and you hear the glib voice of the salesman, the hypocritical tones of the mystifier, the rationalizing chatter of the dissipated and purposeless. But this was not what Humphry Osmond meant by the word.
“Psychedelic” was a good word. A sick society has degraded its referent and thus the name. We need a new name and a new concept. So – phanerothyme, to make this mundane world sublime. But not, as some might think, to gain but a brief illusion of sublimity amidst a mundane world, but to perceive the true sublimity of creation and, in reverence and loyalty to what we have seen, to make our mundane selves sublime.”
excerpt from Phanerothyme by Lisa Bierberman
