The book offers a broad discussion of the different, massive roles of psychedelics, and had and is still having a significant role in modern culture. Employing his personal experience, the author speaks up about the power of psychedelic drugs, their significance to medicine and treatment of certain illnesses, on the deep self-discovery, on creativity under the influence of psychedelic drugs, on spirituality. Brown openly speaks of alien encounters, psychedelic sex, parapsychology, our consciousness after death. Many people are afraid to speak openly about their fears and the challenges and to escape the vicious circle of psychedelic drugs due to cultural and legislative norms against drug use. More books on this subject and more people speaking freely might change the legal status of psychedelic drugs, making serious research on these substances and their use possible. This would offer answers to crucial questions such as: mortality, posttraumatic stress disorders, depression and creative processes. The book reveals what we can learn from psychedelic drugs about ourselves and the world that surround us. Brown also portrays how psychedelic drugs prepare us for the worlds outside our Solar System.
Film: The Panic in Needle Park, directed by Jerry Schatzberg
The Panic in Needle Park is a film about the times when heroin became famous in New York. Although drugs had always been there, it wasn’t until the counter-culture revolution in the 1960s that they became ever present. The film depicts the distressing perceptions of people who live and are lost on the world’s margins. The shooting locations reveal the dark side of city life, the stench spreading from the subway, and the dark side of Sherman Park, also known as Needle Park. The Panic in Needle Park is a disturbingly beautiful piece. Schatzberg’s uncompromising dark vision, the improvisation during shooting and portrayal of the truth makes you feel as if you were really there, out on the dirty streets with the main protagonists. He does not romanticize hard life, Boby’s petty criminal acts, Helen’s prostitution, their destructive relationship and the toxic surrounding of young heroin addicts. He observes Neolithic passages and unattractive cafés with a rough and raw fascination, revealing the economic, legal and moral traps addicts fall into, avoiding the trap of building his characters’ appearance and their dilemmas with sociological amateurism. He does not praise or criticize the characters, but refuses to condemn or feel sorry for them.