April 3, 2023

"[W]e just got back another blood result... My wife, Marla, and I say to each other, 'No matter what this shows, it’s perfect.'"

"Indeed, it showed a big jump in this blood marker, which wouldn’t be something to celebrate. It is what it is. It’s real. And what’s more fun than reality?"

Said Dr. Roland Griffith, quoted in "A Psychedelics Pioneer Takes the Ultimate Trip" (NYT). The "ultimate trip" refers to his dying (of cancer). 
After getting the diagnosis, I had no immediate interest in psychedelics. I felt in many respects that I was having a very psychedelic-like experience. There was this awakening, this aliveness, and I hesitated to take a psychedelic because I wondered whether it was going to disrupt that. 
Then a question arose: Is there something I’m avoiding by not taking a psychedelic? Am I defending against some dark, fearful thing I’m in denial about? Am I papering it over with this story of how great I’m doing and actually I’m scared to death?...

So he took LSD, and he "asked the cancer," "What are you doing here? What can you tell me about what’s going on?" Getting no answer, he flattered cancer: "I really respect you. I talk about you as a blessing. I have had this astonishing sense of well-being and gratitude, despite everything that’s happening, and so I want to thank you." Then he got an answer when he asked cancer if it was going to kill him:

The answer was, “Yes, you will die, but everything is absolutely perfect; there’s meaning and purpose to this that goes beyond your understanding, but how you’re managing that is exactly how you should manage it.”

21 comments:

robother said...

That's just the cancer talking.

tim maguire said...

If he can't beat cancer and this helps him feel better about his fate, then it's a good thing.

Wince said...

The cancer yelled to him, "Don't Jump!"

Meade said...

lol @ robother

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Two keeping queit about canver stories in one morning. Hmmm. Maybe because the little woman and I are going through testing, wait and see, right now this stands out to me. Interesting theme, professor.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

he’s not waging a courageous battle- he’s fleeing to Canada instead

gspencer said...

"And what’s more fun than reality?"

Porn.

Yancey Ward said...

Everyone is going to die. There is no escaping that fate.

M Jordan said...

Cancer is unregulated cell growth. It’s life gone mad. It jumps borders, disobeys laws, steals life from other cells, and destroys its host. I’m against it. I will never hold peace talks with it. I will hire more and more border control agents to keep it out. In my opinion the only good cancer cell is a dead cancer cell.

But that’s just me.

Eva Marie said...

Very moving. Thank you for this post.

Roger Sweeny said...

So the psychedelic got his cancer to tell him just what he wanted to hear. You know, maybe it wasn't the cancer talking.

wildswan said...

"Reality is the ultimate trip," says psychedelic pioneer. "Meaning, order, reason - God, it's beautiful. I never imagined anything like it. But ... am I it's creator? Am I imagining it now?"

Narr said...

Some of my friends use to talk wistfully about tripping out on the way out, like Aldous Huxley, but I don't think any of them have, or will.

mikee said...

Glad that worked for them. But fuck cancer.

n.n said...

magic mushrooms, sympathy, empathy, viability

re Pete said...

"In the dark illumination

He remembered bygone years

He read the Book of Revelation

And he filled his cup with tears"

Michael K said...

Steve Jobs treated his rare curable pancreatic cancer with quack remedies and herbs until it was beyond cure. Steve McQueen, in desperation, sought quack remedies or his incurable mesothelioma but Jobs case was curable with conventional treatment.

So much for psychedilic care.

effinayright said...

Otherwise known as "whistling past the graveyard."

Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...

Paging Norman Spinrad (and his great short story Carcinoma Angels, fully on point here)…

Bunkypotatohead said...

How many doses of LSD per day is considered healthy moderation?

Steph said...

Jobs’ cancer wasn’t curable but it was treatable and he treated it poorly.