Pancakes in the Stream(edit 0.001 Billy, Tom, and Ella)

[Erthona]

Timeout,

Thanks for commenting. I guess we will just have to disagree on this one. I think hallucinogens produce a very similar effect to certain forms of dementia. Both are states that are to a greater or lessor degree disconnected from reality; both exhibit dreamlike qualities and both seem to block access to certain -if not most of the- memory. Of course with dementia this is (mostly) a permanent and progressive condition, whereas with the other it is (most times) temporary (although I have known those to go off to the weenie roast and never return). Stan Groff (one of the bigwigs in the 4th wave of psychology, aka transpersonal psychology)did a fair amount of work on LSD psychotherapy and found that many people who were diagnosed as having schizophrenia were in fact not schizophrenic but were experiencing a condition he called "spiritual emergence," which Groff likened to "kundalini awakening. Given the right environment and support these people could work through this "process" in about a year and be just as sane, if not more so than before this supposed schizophrenic onset happened.   Regardless of what one calls it, the symptoms are all similar and physically both the serotonin and the dopamine (especially the D2 receptor site) have been altered in similar ways. Aside from that I have worked with the elderly with these sort of brain disorders and have personal experience of the chemical induced type.
So these are my experiences with this sort of thing. I'm not saying that your experience is invalid, I'm sure it is perfectly accurate from your perspective, and I appreciate you sharing it. Maybe this could act as a springboard for you to explore this subject in a poem.

Thanks again,

Dale
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71 degrees,

Wow that's quite the leap from this to William Carlos Williams poem. Sorry, I can't really see any similarity between the two (not anymore than I can see between myself and William Carlos Williams Obvious you do, but I just don't get the connection at all (I did go back and reread his poem). Thanks for your comments.

Dale