better travelling through chemistry

“Earth. Even the word sounded strange to me now… unfamiliar. How long had I

been gone? How long had I been back? Did it matter? I tried to find the rhythm of

the world where I used to live. I followed the current. I was silent, attentive, I made

a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand, and perform the millions of gestures that

constitute life on earth. I studied these gestures until they became reflexes again.

But I was haunted by the idea that I remembered her wrong, and somehow I was

wrong about everything.”

— Solaris (2002)

“Some of these rambles led me to great distances; for an opium-eater is too happy

to observe the motions of time. And sometimes in my attempts to steer

homewards, upon nautical principles, by fixing my eye on the pole-star, and

seeking ambitiously for a north-west passage, instead of circumnavigating all the

capes and headlands I had doubled in my outward voyage, I came suddenly upon

such knotty problems of alleys, such enigmatical entries, and such sphinx's riddles

of streets without thoroughfares, as must, I conceive, baffle the audacity of porters,

and confound the intellects of hackney-coachmen.”

— Thomas De Quincey

“The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be

not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through

the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that

each of them beholds, that each of them is.”

— Marcel Proust

Introduction

To understand the many1 and convoluted2 motivations of travel I will be drawing from

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a psychological theory that attempts to

explain personality and motivation. A pyramid best illustrates Maslow’s hierarchy,

with basic needs in the lower levels, and advanced needs towards the top:

Many of the indispensable forms of travel, which constitute about a third of

the instances of travel, fit under the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. 3 To

begin with, much of our daily travel is to satisfy physiological requirements: we shop

for food, commute to work, and return home for the night to sleep in shelter from the

elements. The type of travel rarely romanticised about usually practiced by refugees is

travelling out of a need for safety: security for self, for loved ones, to have a better

life, to be able to practice traditions without persecution.

The need for love and belonging motivates a lot of travelling. For example,

people frequently travel in order to visit to or travel with friends and family.

Ash Hibbert http://acoldandlonelystreet.blogspot.com.au/

http://acoldandlonelystreet.blogspot.com.au/

The penultimate level of Maslow’s hierarchy is concerned with esteem, while

at the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the need for self-actualization. Self-

actualization includes the desire to become more empathic with others, to increase our

creativity, to have a more authentic appreciation of the world, and to appreciate our

environment.4 According to Maslow, self-actualization is the culmination of all

human activities.

The developed world is becoming increasingly affluent so that basic needs are

becoming easier to satisfy. This allows people from the developed world to focus

more on satisfying their higher needs. As affluence grows, and tourism infrastructure

is developed, travel is also becoming more accessible. As a result, self-actualization as

an objective of travel is becoming both more accessible and more desirable. As people

are increasingly able and electing to travel, the satisfaction of higher needs is

increasing.5 We are more likely to travel in order to achieve something that transcends

our regular existence.6 The impact of such travel will therefore be growing. I will be

focusing on the forms of travel that correspond with these higher needs as it is

therefore increasingly important to address the ethical issues relating to such travel.

Travelling out of physiological needs is often essential for survival. Travelling

can be very useful to achieve a sense of belonging. Yet travel is but one of many ways

to achieve self-actualization. Admittedly, we could feasibility reduce the travel we

undertake motivated by a need to satisfy physiological needs, for safety, or for the

need for love and belonging without compromising our well-being. For example,

people could change their lifestyles to reduce the amount of travel that they have to

do: they could live closer to their work, friends, family, and social infrastructure such

as shops and schools. In addition, urban planners could better help bring about a

return to more localised, self-sufficient economies and communities, and a focus on

public transport infrastructure. I have elected not to focus on these instances of travel,

and instead focus on travel for self-actualization. Should I find some instances of

travel for self-actualization to be morally undesirable, it would be much easier to

suggest possible substitutes to such travel.

A sensitivity to, and concern for, the ethics of tourism is already evident in

travel literature. Advocates of travel often cite its altruistic benefits in defence of the

evident detractions. For example, a serial traveller may recognise that their travel can



affect the environment. However, they may claim to travel out of a desire to broaden

their cultural awareness, to alleviate global problems through personal actions, and for

creative enrichment. There is a pressing need to evaluate whether such purported

benefits of travel outweigh its moral costs.

I argue that in a substantial number of cases, the benefits of travel struggle to

outweigh their environmental, cultural, and financial costs. I also argue how travel

frequently brings about the negation of the very things that the ethically conscious

traveller may seek to achieve. International travel can cause heightened tensions

between the developed and undeveloped worlds, lead to the propagation of false

perceptions of ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ cultures, the corrosion of traditional cultures, ,

and the degradation of the very environments that many travellers claim to admire.

I argue that self-actualization is achievable with the use of mind-manifesting

substances known as psychedelics. These substances include singular drugs such as

LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), mescaline (peyote), and to a lesser extent

MDMA (ecstasy) and THC (cannabis).7 I will refer to use of psychedelics for the

purpose of self-actualization as ‘psychedelic travel.’ Psychedelic travel may be as

efficient and ethical a means of self-actualization as geographical travel. For example,

for fewer costs, it may bring about similar positive environmental, cultural, and

personal benefits, including greater empathy, creativity, and authenticity.

Correlating psychedelic travel with geographical travel has a precedent. In the

1960s, Ken Kesey’s ‘Merry Pranksters’ famously travelled on an LSD- and gasoline-

fuelled trip across the U.S. reminiscent of the continuous, directionless nomadicism of

the Hell’s Angels.8 Musicians such as the Grateful Dead have also attempted to

combine geographical travel with psychedelic travel, and to turn such dual-journeys

into works of art.9 German author Ernst Junger,10 and Aldous Huxley, both drew

strong parallels between internal and psychedelically aided travel, and external travel,

the latter suggesting that psychedelics are the modern day equivalent of, and as valid

as, sea voyages.11 Grof also uses the analogy of travel in describing the psychedelic

experience.12 Other authors have created guides for psychedelic travel, and who have

shown the potential overlaps between geographical and psychological travel, include

Dan Carpenter,13 and Lindsey Banco.14



I do not argue that Psychedelics help satisfy our physiological needs, or our

need for safety. While psychedelics may bring us into closer emotional proximity to

our friends and family,15 they will not bring us into closer geographic proximity with

them. However, users of psychedelics tend to be more compassionate,

environmentally aware, creative, thrifty, and self-confident than users of legal drugs

or those who abstain from all drugs.16 17 Psychedelics, then, may help us meet our

higher-range needs. A society where the majority of people were concerned more with

each other and the planet and less on working and buying things might be

economically unfavourable; however, I will assume that overall, these traits are in fact

desirable.

Whether people are this way because they take psychedelics or are more likely

to take psychedelics because they are that character is problematic. If the former is the

case, then benefits of consuming psychedelic substances could satisfy many of the

higher needs in Maslow’s hierarchy, without as much of the moral penalty to which

physical travel can be subject. If society legalized psychedelics, many of the moral

penalties of their use would decrease. For example, any penalties relating to

psychedelic use may not only exclude an increase in crime but could bring about a

reduction in crime.

Psychedelic and geographical travel has no monopoly on self-actualization.

There may be means of self-actualization that are superior to both forms of travel. Not

everyone wishes to travel, and many satisfy their need for self-actualization through

other means. A challenge to the ethics of travel may be irrelevant to them. Therefore,

while psychedelic travel may enable self-actualization at an insignificant moral cost,

no one is obliged to practice psychedelic travel.

That said, many intellectuals have in fact benefited from using psychedelics,

them; much medical literature exists that has endorsed psychedelics as a valuable

psychological tool; and many European countries have opted to manage drug use

rather than prohibit drugs outright. Yet social stigma and legal limitations have

hindered and continue to hinder unfettered discourse about the social and personal

value of psychedelics.

One of the most potent criminalized psychedelics is Lysergic acid

diethylamide, or LSD, a hallucinogen first synthesized by Albert Hofmann in 1938. In



the 50s and 60s, a huge amount of formal research took place in regards to

psychedelics.18 LSD’s criminalization has meant that the output of research into

psychedelics has dropped off dramatically.19 In many cases, it appears that

researchers produce and receive literature on psychedelics with significant prejudices:

The inquiry by New Scientist found that many of the findings on ecstasy published

in respected journals could not be trusted. It said it was an ‘open secret’ that some

researchers who failed to find impairment in ecstasy users had trouble getting their

findings published.

‘Our investigation suggests the experiments are so irretrievably flawed that the

scientific community risks haemorrhaging credibility if it continues to let them

inform public policy,’ the report said … Similar uncertainty surrounds evidence that

ecstasy impairs mental performance. In the majority of tests on mental agility,

ecstasy users performed as well as non-users.’20

The bias against psychedelics in medical research seems to be most evident in the

strong tendency in researchers, though there are admirable exceptions,21 to treat the

use of substances that are illegal automatically as instances of abuse. Researchers

frequently study drugs with a focus on the harm that they cause, rather than the

benefits that they may provide. It is important to have information on the dangers of

drug use and there are likely to be scientists whose research into psychedelics is

largely unbiased by their legal status. However, the legal status of such drugs, as well

as limited funding,22 hinders any exploration of their potential benefits. The political

and legal constraints likely compromise the ability of those who wish to conduct drug

research or report on that research in an even-handed way.



Costs and Benefits of Psychedelic and Geographic Travel

Environmental, Cultural and Economic

Sustainable ecotourism practices,23 including, ostensibly, eco-tourism, allow those in

the developed world to gain economic benefits for their natural and cultural resources.

Sustainable and empowered economic practices, where development it is on the terms

of the locals, and when the locals are its chief beneficiaries, allow communities to

value their environment as a renewable export rather than something to be clear-

felled. Such a situation where no one forces a community to sacrifice their

environment or heritage for their short-term well-being is essential for an ethical

mode of travel.24 Indeed, the health of natural environments, and local communities,

are interdependent. This is true from both an economical and a deep-ecological

perspective, for example, when a coastal village might rely on marine life for

subsistence and trade, yet even were it to become financially independent of the

fishing trade, maintaining a historic relationship with the ocean might remain

fundamental. 25

The well-being of the local environments is clearly of interest to communities.

Communities would often be the most effected by any potential destruction. Tourism

has the potential to endanger local environments. Therefore, communities should have

the most say over whether tourism development goes ahead or not. Local

communities should be able to veto, without fear of reprisals, and with open and free

debate, any proposed development in their area. Sustainable ecotourism practices

strive to fulfil these requirements. When they do, there is a much higher chance that

the potential harms of tourism to local environments and cultures are much lower, and

that the benefit to communities and their environment is greater.

The explosion of eco-tourism, which purports to enable sustainable travel to

vulnerable ecologies and communities, would seem to suggest that tourism has the

potential to occur, at the least, without negative impacts on the environment. Tourists

as well as institutions are taking a greater interest in ecotourism: the Federation of



National parks in Europe explicitly state that their aim is to look after the long-term

integrity and well-being of cultures, by avoiding the excesses of development.

However, there does seem to be cases where the major decision makers, and

beneficiaries, in tourism development are not the local communities, or even from the

same country:

What seems to be all too obvious is that the bounty is carved up between an

extremely select few – often located in a country other than the destination – and

that far too many of the industry’s workers, particularly in developing nations, are

no more than wage-slaves scratching a pitiful living. The assumption often made

by the industry that these workers’ lives are automatically of a better quality now

that they are employed within tourism appears to be remarkably far from the truth,

as I witnessed repeatedly from Thailand through to Cancun. And there is plenty of

evidence that many locals have been displaced to make way for tourists, often at a

considerable cost to the local environment. Tourism generally appears to be a

one-sided transaction whereby the buyer – the tourist – comes off much the better

from the deal than the sellers at the destination.26

Tourism developers may simply choose to dismiss the views and values of the local

populace directly affect by the developments. Even where locals may appear to agree

to tourism development, such agreements are not necessarily voluntary or informed.

Though it can also happen in the developed world,27 28 this is most likely to occur in

the case of developing countries.29 During the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, for

example, the Sri Lankan government prevented those who had used the coast for

fishing, which was crucial to their livelihood, from returning to the sites of their

villages to rebuild, while giving hotel developers license to build in the conveniently

cleared land.30

The impact of tourism on a region’s ecologies might also have repercussions

beyond a single, contained area. Climate change for example has helped highlight

how local acts, such as deforestation, can have global repercussions. It is important

that tourist developers and tourists themselves recognize that what one country does

to its environment, can have vast repercussions.31 For example, tourism development



might result in the contamination of the water table with industrial waste, which

would be detrimental to the interests of the human and non-human inhabitants in other

regions or states. In some cases, then, tourism development should not take place in

an area even if local communities unanimously desire it and it has proven long-term

economic benefit for them especially where tourists and locals are unaware or

indifferent to these impacts.

The survival of both local economies and ecologies relies on an appreciation

of their interdependence. However, this appreciation appears absent from much

tourism literature.32 Where an appreciation of the interdependence of local economies

and ecologies does appear to be present in the marketing of eco-tourism it might

simply be a case of ‘greenwashing’, where a business will counter-factually market a

product or policy to appear as environmentally friendly. Similarly, since Eco Tourism

is a rapidly growing industry, it can create a new market for travel, specifically to less

developed,33 and thus often more fragile, destinations.34 Therefore, even sincere

efforts at tourism reform might merely broaden the scope for environmental and

cultural destruction. Like conventional tourism, ecotourism and alternative tourism

might simply be another means of commodifying a people.35 While ecotourism is one

strategy towards achieving a more enlightened mode of travel, the two are not

necessarily synonymous. Instead, ecotourism may simply have become the very thing

that it was trying to tackle.36 Finally, the carbon emissions from flying means that

travel, especially travel abroad,37 is bound to contribute to environmental degradation,

regardless of the care taken at the destination to live ‘green’. It is debatable whether

travellers can compensate for this contribution through, for example, a carbon trading

scheme.38

Tourism can transform finite natural resources into greater, and more sustainable,

sources of revenue. Locals are more likely to safeguard higher sources of revenue.

Therefore, tourism can encourage locals to safeguard their natural resources. In

addition, many countries would suffer economically should the revenue that they

derive from tourism suddenly cease. Therefore, as some advocates of tourism would

argue, we should allow regions to become destinations for tourists so that they may

develop economically.39



However, the presence and use of a resource does not necessarily lead to

positive economic development, and any such benefits do not necessarily flow to

those it should. For example, an abundance of particularly sought-after resources,

such as a natural wonder, can make a region of specific interest to exploitative groups,

including multinational corporations, who are then able to export the profits of such

tourism. The money that tourists may believe they are investing in communities

usually goes to big, overseas businesses.40 Local communities thus do not necessarily

profit significantly, if at all, from the tourist trade for which they may have sacrificed

their traditional way of life. In cases where host countries have lax environmental

protection regulations, in order to encourage foreign investments, multinational

corporations may be exempt from having to take responsibility for any of the long-

term consequences of such destruction. It is often up to the community to assume

many of the economic, ecological, and social costs of tourism development. These

costs may continue to accumulate long after the local tourism operators have departed.

Arguments in support of travel demonstrate a false economics in their understanding

of such investments’ real consequences. While many tourist spots are generative

resources, in that their enjoyment does not deplete them directly, the environment in

which such tourist spots are located are vulnerable to damage, over-developed, or

pollution to the point that the tourist spot itself is no longer appealing.

Engaging in travel that provides even some money to the distantly needy may

appear to be better than were they to receive nothing. However, this can also be a case

of false economics. For example, the co-recipients of tourist dollars spent in their

region, who might be an oppressive government, may use their newfound financial

and moral support41 42 to repress their citizens, thus subtracting from the benefits the

citizen received from their share from the tourist.

The psychedelic MDMA can increase one’s wonder at the physical, and especially

natural, world. People who take MDMA can better register the emotional investment

in objects. This is valuable in an era that is becoming increasingly conscious of the

quantity of carbon a product is responsible for emitting through the entire span of its

manufacture, distribution and consumption. This holistic concern for the

environmental cost of the things that we produce is arguably in vogue chiefly because



it is the logical way to think of how polluting a product is. Yet while on MDMA, such

holistic, trans-temporal sensitivity is the natural way to feel. Such sensitivity would

also help people become more aware, for example, that the pair of runners they see on

the shelf of a sports store were stitched in a sweatshop, or that a punnet of

strawberries were harvested by underpaid immigrant labourers. Such consciousness

then would not only benefit ecologies. It would also mean that consumers in the

developed world would not look upon practices, which failed to uphold human rights,

favourably.

Should psychedelics become selectively legalized, one complication that

might well arise is the event of ‘drug havens’. People who are eager to experience

psychedelic travel yet whose own governments continue to criminalize psychedelics

may throng to places where such psychedelics are available and legal. This would

exacerbate the social, cultural, economic and environmental problems discussed here

in relation to geographical travel. The advent of drug havens is visible, for example, in

the drug tourism in Amsterdam, or the trance scene in Goa India.43 Imposing pro-

psychedelic legislation on those countries that currently ban psychedelics, in order to

take the pressure of drug havens, may have negative cultural and legal implications.

Yet much of the original international criminalization of drugs such as LSD and

MDMA came because of pressure from select but highly influential authorities.44

Rather than social or medical sciences it is racism, politics, financial interests, and

classism have driven prohibition movements.45 Therefore, reconsidering currently

prohibition legislation may in fact allow states greater autonomy and cultural

pluralism.

Psychedelic travel is unlikely to be subject to the same types of exploitative

transactions that takes place in tourism. While many drugs grown abroad such as

coffee and opium poppies result in exploitative working conditions, the synthesising

of many psychedelics such as LSD and MDMA rely on highly developed industry.

Societies with highly developed industries tend to have higher standards of workers

rights. Therefore, were synthesised psychedelics legalized, their manufacture could

take place with labour standards that would be both higher than tourism industries in



the developed world, and higher than that which psychedelics are currently being

produced at.

Many currently legal and socially accepted drugs, such as tobacco, caffeine,

and alcohol, have such a privileged state because they have a long history of extensive

use. Their continued popularity and prominence is significantly due to their

availability and legal status. Therefore, many substances that may have far more

benefits at a much-reduced personal and social cost are at a disadvantage because of

the prohibition and social stigma. Furthermore, if the legal status of drugs changed to

accurately reflect the cost-benefit ratio of drugs, existing patterns of drug use would

alter significantly. At their current rates of consumption, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine

have social and personal benefits that struggle to outweigh their costs. Alcohol, for

example, is arguably a cause of much death,46 violence,47 and other social problems.48

Consumption rates of these drugs might reduce were psychedelics to become legal,

more accessible and more affordable. The collective costs of dealing with the effects

of currently legal drugs would then also decrease.49

While the costs of psychedelics are well known, there are also many physical

and psychological benefits. In helping to bring complexes to the forefront of the

patient’s mind, rather than repressing them,50 much faster51 52 than conventional

techniques,53 LSD has possible applications in psychological therapy,54 and the

potential to play an important role in Jungian, Freudian55 and Existential analysis56 and

psychotherapy.57 LSD has also contributed immensely to our understanding of the

human brain and mind,58 59 and along with psilocybin, may help treat cluster

headaches. Ketamine may help in drug rehabilitation.60 61 62 Cannabis may help treat

epilepsy.63 MDMA may aid in the treatment for Post-traumatic stress disorder.64

Psychedelics in general may help boost the immune system,65 help treat mental

illness,66 67 68 69 may help autistic children,70 and have possible applications in

palliative care.71 72 73 Many psychologists are highlighting the need for further

research74 into psychedelics, in relation to Transpersonal Psychology75 and other

areas.76 77 78 79 Psychedelics are often safer than many other drugs,80 especially those

delivered intravenously.81

Psychedelic drug use does carry with it certain health risks that could result in

social and economic costs, which non-psychedelic users and the state would then



presumably have to pay. However, the above benefits of permitting psychedelics in

society would, I argue, outweigh those costs, and making both a personal and a social

cost-benefit calculation in the context of drug legislation is not new.82 There may be

risks to the individual, the costs of which could be disproportionately expensive, yet

these risks are anticipatable. The following chapter on personal development and

creativity will attest, however, that many renowned intellectuals have taken

psychedelics productively. Potential psychological and physical health benefits of

psychedelics exist for many regular users, in addition to the environmental, emotional,

personal and existential benefits discussed in depth in this thesis. These benefits can

exist without an inevitable risk of compromising their mental or physical well-being,

or their livelihood.

Ecstasy pills can have potentially unsafe additives that also reduce or replace

the proportion of MDMA, their active ingredients. By virtue of it being underground,

standards of ecstasy production are unregulated. Therefore, were ecstasy legalized and

production standards regulated, ecstasy would likely be much safer, with standardized

strength.

In terms of the potential for an increase in drug-related crime, hard drug use

might result in crime because of a combination of at least two factors: their high-cost,

and their addictiveness. People may resort to crime when they are addicted to a hard

drug, so that they can finance their continued use. Psychedelics, however, are not

physically addictive.83 Therefore, users of psychedelics are much less likely to resort

to crime, compared to users of hard drugs. Psychedelics can be very cost-effective to

produce,84 with the high costs to consumers being largely a result of the criminal risks

that producers and distributors run. Therefore, were psychedelics legalized, they

would be much cheaper than they currently are on the black-market. As psychedelics

would be very affordable if legalized, even were some users to become

psychologically addicted to them, they would not need to resort to crime.

The low cost of psychedelics would also mean that prospective travellers

could achieve the same ends via psychedelic travel for very less cost, especially when

compared to geographical travel. For example, they would not have to choose

between spending $600 on an air-fair or $600 on LSD to get an equivalent experience.

Rather, they would have the choice of paying for an air-fair as well as all of the other



expenses of travel such as accommodation, in addition to the risk of violating their

negative duty not to harm others, or they can spend an insignificant amount on LSD.

Psychedelic travel is thus much more accessible to those whom travel is prohibitively

expensive.

Only one’s finances generally limit geographical travel. The physiological and

psychological costs, however, limit Psychedelic travel. While I argue that an

enlightened system and populace can help mitigate such costs, the potential for harm

would compound with greater use. If people, then, were to engage in psychedelic

travel as frequently, and for as long, as they would like to engage in geographical

travel, the negative personal and social consequences would manifest. However, this

incorrectly presumes that people would need to engage in psychedelic travel with the

same frequency and duration as they would in geographical travel. Instead, as I

argued, psychedelic travel is an alternate means to achieve ends similar to those

sought through geographical travel. Having achieved their objectives the psychedelic

traveller would then have no further reason to continue in their drug use, if just for the

time being. Taking LSD, for example, is a potent experience that many users are often

in no hurry to repeat. Therefore, there is no need of excessive psychedelic use in order

to gain the benefits of psychedelic travel.

People who take psychedelics may be more likely to begin taking harder drugs. Users

of hard drugs may be more likely to resort to crime to finance their addiction.

Therefore, people who start out taking psychedelics may end up having to resort to

crime to support their non-psychedelic drug-use.

However, users are not psychologically predetermined to escalate to harder

drugs. There are specific factors that contribute to an increase risk of taking up harder

drugs. Co-occurrence of abuse occurs at different rates between drugs, influenced to

varying degrees by different factors such as genetics, upbringing, and non-family

environment.85 86 A risk matrix would help people determine particular vulnerabilities

to loosing control of their drug use. People who are able to identify roughly the level

of risk that they run in escalating their drug use are also better able to manage the risk

of their use, or to choose not to use at all. Prospective or current users of psychedelics



can be advised on how to reduce their risk profile before, or during, their psychedelic

drug use.

Many of the risks posed by psychedelics may be a result of their

criminalization.87 As mentioned, unregulated production can endanger users, so

regulating production would help improve user safety. Also, if social and legal

reforms were to take place that meant psychedelic use was more supported, then both

the probability of potential risks, as well as their consequences, would be probably be

reduced. Mobility, or escalation, from use of one relatively benign drug to use of

harder drugs, is also a result of the drugs having the same legal status.88 When

legislation discriminates between different drugs, such as by legalizing psychedelics,

black markets also discriminate between the different drugs. When markets remain

separate, people who take one type of drug such as psychedelics remain separate from

suppliers and users of other types of drugs. Therefore, by legalizing psychedelics,

people would be less likely to escalate their drug use; thus, those who wish hard-drug

criminalization to be more effective should in fact advocate the legalization of

psychedelics.

Ceasing to participate in indulgent, distant geographical travel would free up many

resources. Yet, would-be travellers may simply redirect saved money to other things

as ‘wasteful’ as tourism. However, those who take psychedelics are, on average, much

more empathic compared to non-psychedelic users, and much less materialistic.89 If

people reduced geographical travel, and began psychedelic travelling, they would

conserve resources and be much more likely to direct those resources towards, for

example, charities. Reducing geographical travel, and permitting psychedelic travel,

would therefore result in much improved social outcomes.

Both scenarios result in a reduction of the environmental and cultural

destruction that is occurring with currently levels of, and practices relating to,

geographical travel. Therefore, even should psychedelic travel fail to result in a more

empathic, non-materialistic society, we might never the less be in an improved world.



Compassion

I will present a limited analysis of both geographical and psychedelic travel’s

potential to engineer inter-cultural understanding, greater empathy, and more open

mindedness.

Some advocates of geographical travel claim that travel results in more

enlightened, globally conscious and politically active citizens, that it makes people

more empathic, and reduces prejudice. Certainly, travelling educates people about

other cultures. This may be just of the aspects, or façade, of the culture that the locals

perceive as advantageous to present. Yet veteran travellers may be more willing, and

able, to go deeper into the cultures that they visit, and gain greater understanding of

the destination that they explore. As tourists from developed countries return home,

moulded into better ‘world citizens’ from their experience, they may be more likely to

shape the policies and attitudes of their peers and politicians to improve the state of

the world. The benefits of living in a marginally more enlightened world might then

compensate, say, any loss of culture or biological diversity.

The notion of ‘Citizen Diplomacy’, which occurs whenever normal citizens

are received, either deliberately or inadvertently, as a representative of their country,

provides a much-used justification for rationalizing travel to contentious travel

destinations. One such destination is Burma,90 whose military government persecutes

its citizens, including those who support the tourist industry. The development of

tourism infrastructure in Burma appears to rely on labour practices that violate human

rights, and the displacement of residents:91

In Burma many human rights abuses are directly connected to the regime’s drive

to develop the country for tourists. More than one million people have been forced

out of their homes in order to ‘beautify’ cities, suppress dissent, and to make way

for tourism developments, such as hotels, airports and golf courses. In Pagan,

where over 5000 people were forced to pack their belongings and move to an

undeveloped area, many were given just 10 hours’ notice and little compensation

for the destruction of their homes. In February 2004, Burmese soldiers rounded up

ethnic Salons, or ‘sea gypsies’ who normally live on boats in the Mergui



Archipelago, forced them to live on land and take part in a ‘Salon Festival’ aimed

at foreign tourists. The Salons were forced to perform traditional dances for the

tourists.

Throughout Burma men, women, children and the elderly have been

forced to labour on roads, railways and tourism projects, under the harshest

conditions. Tourist sites have been renovated using forced labour, such as the

moat surrounding the Golden Palace in Mandalay. The new airport at Mandalay,

which opened in 2000 specifically to handle international flights, was partly built

with forced labour and many people were forced from their homes to make way for

the project. The 2001 US State Department Report on Human Rights, states that

in Mrauk U, a popular site of ancient temple ruins, “the government used forced

labor to prepare the city for expected tourist arrivals.”92

This has led to calls from within and without Burma for a boycott of the nation and

especially its tourist industry.93

Tourists might rationalize their visits to such countries on the basis that they

are contributing economically to developing countries, and so benefiting the people of

those countries. The bulk of tourism money goes to the military government, which

relies on such revenue.94 Therefore, those who support Burmese tourism are indirectly

sponsoring the persecution of the Burmese people. Therefore, they may not be acting

with the best interests of the Burmese. 95

Some advocates of Citizen Diplomacy also argue that travel to Burma can help

convert the Burmese people to the liberal democratic views of the West. However,

freedom of speech is limited in Burma. Those Burmese converted by the foreigners

visiting Burma prevented from exploring their newfound political interests. The

Burmese military might instead intimidate or brutalize those Burmese who attempt

discourse with foreigners. Therefore, justifying tourism to Burma because it allows

tourists to open a helpful dialogue with the Burmese people does not appear to be

satisfying argument. In the case of Burma, at least, Citizen Diplomacy is therefore an

unsatisfying rationalization for tourism to contentious sites such as Burma. Rather,

support of the tourism boycott of Burma is likely to be more in the interests of the

Burmese people.



In addition, better-informed citizens may not make for better world citizens. It

is difficult to form a confident causal link between travel and a reduction in racism, or

to be certain that travel is not the effect of a more open-minded populace; people may

travel because they are more empathic and less prejudiced. Travel may instead be the

outcome of a more affluent populace that is more able to perceive itself as

comfortably isolated from the problems of the world upon their return. Many of those

who would travel to Burma or any other developing country do so then out of a desire

to connect emotionally with the distantly needy. It is difficult to measure how

successful such travellers are in achieving this goal, though as described above, their

can be some obvious failures. In any case, though, as many travellers would most

likely concede, the very act of travelling to developing countries such as Burma might

cause very real and negative impacts. Examining whether or not travellers do actually

benefit from their contact with the Burmese, then, is no trivial matter. Travellers must

weigh up the potential benefits, such as being better informed, and more emotionally

driven to improve the state of the Burmese, against the very real costs of such fact-

finding mission such as sponsoring a military dictatorship. Travellers, then, have a

negative, natural duty not to act in a way that brings about harm in others. They may

violate this duty, in the case of the Burmese, even when they are not travelling.

However, the harm is much more blatant, and probably magnitudes greater, if they

were to travel to Burma. Having failed in their negative duty to the Burmese people

by financing the junta, travellers are then obliged to try to fulfil their positive

obligation to compensate the Burmese. They might do this by publishing work about

the human rights abuses that are happening in Burma, to bring about widespread

empathy for their plights, and thus perhaps build enough momentum for a political

response to those human rights abuses. Yet these outcomes are not reliant on

travelling to Burma and are determined less by opportunity, and more by will and

imagination. For example, there is already a wealth of information available regarding

the history of the Burmese situation. Travelling in order to cultivate compassion for

others also seems excessive when we have such oft-missed opportunities in our own

country. Furthermore, the aforementioned obligations also would not have existed, at

least as strongly, had the traveller not violated their original negative duty to avoid

harm.



Formulating and implementing treatments to help sufferers of physical and mental

illnesses would benefit from understanding the subjective experience of illness.

Gaining such an understanding may be possible with the aid of psychedelics. Some

psychedelics may induce a mental state very similar to those suffering from some

forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia, a parallel referred to as ‘model

psychoses.’96 97 While researchers continue to debate this concept,98 superficial

parallels between some experiences on LSD, and some forms of mental illness, are

obvious: for example delusion, hallucinations, and grossly disorganized behaviour. At

the least, taking LSD might allow one to briefly experience, what people with some

forms of psychiatric illnesses frequently experience.99 100 101 102 103

If psychiatrists were to take LSD, they may develop a greater empathy with

their patients. This would, at the least, lead to increased compassion.104 Better

treatments might be developed. For example, hospital equipment needs to be easy to

clean, minimalist, straightforward to use and generic for purposes of practicality. Yet

such equipment surrounds, and is used on, mentally vulnerable patients. The

experience of such equipment can have a significant impact on their emotional state.

People’s emotional health is crucial to their physical health. If we are to heal people in

hospitals, equipment and décor must not only be functional, it must also be pleasing to

the eye and reassuring. The utility of such equipment includes the emotive dimension.

Psychedelics are useful tools to help us better appreciate this emotional dimension,

not only of psychiatric or emergency wards, but also of other public and private

environments such as schools and retirement villages. With this knowledge, we can

better design and construct spaces to be comforting and supporting of the emotionally

and psychologically vulnerable.

Like the tourist in Burma, the person who takes psychedelics to try to facilitate

greater and lasting empathy may also fail in their objective. They may even become

entrenched in their psychedelic use. However, this would not be a dereliction of their

negative duty to do no harm, or of their positive obligation to compensate for any

harm caused. As long as the psychedelic user was able to manage their usage

successfully so as not to hurt anyone or become a burden, they would have much

more leeway than the idealistic traveller to Burma would. There may be a case where

the mere fact of their usage, even without causing any substantial harm to themselves

or others, may still bring about anguish or even ostracism from their family. However,



this is a reactionary response, highly conditioned105 by a long tradition of using drug

users as useful scapegoats for unrelated social problems.106 For this reason perhaps,

the reactions of other are irrelevant when rating the impact of a person’s psychedelic

use.

Creativity

Psychedelics may help enhance creativity.107 Many renowned scientists and

philosophers have described the contribution they believe that psychedelics have

made to their own creative endeavours. For example, French philosopher Michel

Foucault, though a renowned philosopher before taking psychedelics, took LSD at

Death Valley National Park and called the event the best experience of his life.

Because of an epiphany from the experience, he shelved hundreds of previously

written pages for his History of Sexuality series, and started over again.108 Alan Watts

experimented with LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, dimethyl-tryptamine, and cannabis

and found that his experiences contributed positively to his understanding of

mysticism and human consciousness.109 Psychedelic experiences have guided the

numerous I.T. pioneers,110 including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.111 LSD critically aided

Nobel Prize winning chemists Kary Mullis112 113 and Francis Crick114 in their

discoveries.

Psychedelics may also have a positive and lasting contribution to the strictly

artistic process.115 116 Numerous musicians and writers have become widespread

proponents of LSD as a professional aid,117 and an instrument for self-initiation.118 It is

argued that rock music would never have happened had the musicians of the time had

not embraced psychedelics.119 120 121 Authors who have supposedly found inspiration in

psychedelics include Philip K. Dick,122 Alan Ginsberg,123 Ken Kesey,124 Jean-Paul

Sartre, Aldous Huxley, and visual artist Robert Crumb.125 126 Such LSD-inspired

creativity is equally available to amateur and established artists.127

A close parallel to artists, scientists, and academics taking psychedelics would

be the practice of ‘doping’. ‘Doping’ is the term used for when athletes take



performance-enhancement drugs. Doping occurs frequently in sport. The

intelligentsia, which includes artists, scientists, and philosophers, rarely mention using

psychedelics. One might argue then that psychedelics are not effective.

However, to be in a position to make deductions about the value of

psychedelics in enhancing mental performance, by drawing parallels between

psychedelic use amongst intelligentsia and performance enhancement drugs amongst

athletes would require a similar quality and quantity of research in the two

demographics. The calibre of research into drug use in, say, athletics, is much higher

than that into drug use amongst the intelligentsia. Since competition organizers

stringently drug-test professional athletes, professional athletes are thus at risk of

exposure. Conversely, few if any academic institutions test their employees for drugs.

If members of the intelligentsia do take drugs such as psychedelics, they are far less

likely than professional athletes to have their drug use exposed. This may explain why

sports doping is a well-known and discussed phenomenon, while any drug use

amongst the intelligentsia that is occurring is not well known. In addition, many

physical performance-enhancement drugs used by athletes are legal outside

professional competition. Athletes may admit to having taken such performance-

enhancement drugs without the fear of legal repercussions. Psychedelics are virtually

all illegal, and the social stigma attached to their use varies between profession and

person. Therefore, uses of drugs in sport are more likely to become public knowledge

in sports compared to academia. Consequently, it is not useful to try to compare

published rates of psychedelic usage to physical performance enhancement drugs, and

so try to compare their respective usefulness.

Furthermore, the results of psychedelics are not always as consistent and

reliable as they presumably are with physical performance enhancement drugs. In

addition, sports drugs are not as subject to the same environmental and personal

factors. While the quality of physical performance enhancement drugs may be

reliable, the constituents of psychedelics can vary tremendously.128

Thirdly, it is much more difficult to measure the benefits of psychedelics,

since people will respond to them differently. A sports player on performance

enhancement drugs will likely beat their personal best when cycling, or lift heavier

weights in resistance training. Yet measurements of creativity are much less precise.



Certainly not all psychedelic experiences are guaranteed be to the users liking.129 The

psychedelic experience can differ dramatically between130 and within131 each

particular drug. For example, in tremendous contrast to Huxley’s experience of

mescaline, Sartre’s single trip was deeply unsettling, though arguably the division

between good and bad trips132 is arbitrary and both are as valuable133 parts of the same

experience.134 Sartre’s psychedelic experience, for example, was crucial to his writing

of his novel Nausea.135 The results with psychedelics are not as predictable when

compared with performance enhancement drugs yet there are certainly outcomes. The

challenge remains with the individual in how, if at all, to utilise one’s psychedelic

experiences. The enthusiasm to which individuals will rise to this challenge varies

greatly. Often, the effects of even a limited number of psychedelic journeys can be

subtle in the short term and yet life changing in the long run. Often the value of

psychedelics is inseparable from the artist’s life and thinking.

As with, presumably, many physical performance-enhancement drugs, there

are undeniable psychological and physiological risks involved in using psychedelics,

and not everyone would consider that the potential creative and intellectual benefits to

justify the associated risks.

Many argue that the youths of the counter culture movement were ill suited to

fully utilize and appreciate psychedelics.136 Yet as the following case studies of the six

young LSD users in the profiles of psychedelic travellers attests to, safe and

constructive psychedelic use is possible in a self-regulated environment. It is false

then to claim that because only the intelligentsia should have access to psychedelics

because only they can fully appreciate them. Were it true that intellectuals are in a

much better position to benefit from psychedelic travel, it is overly paternalistic to

deprive people of the opportunity to find out whether psychedelics are, for them at

least, also a tool for self-actualization. The sentiment of such writers also recalls many

serious travellers and travel writers who resent the popularization of tourism. Often

this resentment is because the huge influx of tourists means that it is harder for the

serious traveller to find ‘untouched’ or ‘authentic’ locales to explore. It can also be

from a belief that the majority of tourists are simply not sufficiently cultivated or

developed to utilize their encounters with other cultures and environments to their full

potential. As true as this may be, most travellers would likely resent such

characterization.



Users of psychedelics, for lack of sensibility or discipline, may be

overwhelmed by the frivolous aspects of psychedelic use, and remain ignorant of the

more transformative aspects. Yet many people may undertake geographical travel and

return with nothing but a serious tan and a large debt. We do not generally criticise

such people for having missed the purpose of travelling, in spite of the high costs both

to themselves, financially, and to their host country, culturally and environmentally.

Therefore, with an enlightened risk management safeguards in place to mitigate the

dangers posed by psychedelic use, people might benefit from using psychedelics even

if for purely self-indulgent reasons.

Authenticity

Many proponents of travel appear to assume that that there is only so much that we

can get out of experiencing things that originate from geographically distant locations,

while at home, and affirm travel as one of the few means through which we are able

to gain truly authentic experiences of reality.137

Yet tourism commodifies a culture and environment: tourism providers

frequently sell the very identity of a place to a tourist for their consumption. Tourists

will often go to a destination to experience an often-stereotypical notion of a

traditional culture. Preconceptions formed of a particular place may have been

originally accurate. Yet travel agents may continue to use that same static image.

They inevitably promote and market an outdated notion of a travel destination, long

after as both the environment and the culture have changed, or tried to change.

Because of its inherently invasive character, then, tourism is responsible for making

people and places less ‘real’. Tourists themselves may even be subject to such

artificiality.138 139

Jean-Paul Sartre presents an example of a person who intentionally assumes

the role of a waiter, even though he knows it to be, and treats it, as a light-hearted

joke. The waiter knows that his behaviour is insincere. He purposefully and

substantially misrepresents himself and his peers. The waiter is therefore exercising



bad faith. Tourism can similarly encourage people to practice bad faith. Through

investment, and government policies tourism encourages a people and to adjust to fit

with the preconceptions of the tourists.140 Tourism industries can sponsor or coerce

locals to reinforce their own stereotypes, and places them in the predicament of

having to ‘act themselves’:

… Those at the sharp end of the tourism/hospitality industries, such as holiday

representatives, waiters, hotel receptionists, and so on, are expected to adopt a

particular kind of role in relation to their customers … They must ‘cater for’ the

tourists, smile, exchange pleasantries, and generally learn to give a performance

… The employee engages in a form of ‘method acting’, adapting their demeanor to

fit with the employees’ and tourist’s expectations of ‘virtuous behavior’ even

though these displays of emotions may conflict with their own personal feeling …

Within the tourist arena it is clear that tour guides play multiple roles to satisfy the

desire of tourists which are quite separate from their roles at home or in social

settings … The tour guides choose, or feel compelled, to present only certain

aspects of their complex culture, which draws on local tradition but is clearly

located within the broader processes of globalization ... The very fact that this

emotional labor is owned and managed by others in order to make money means

that it becomes estranged and disassociated from the interests, values and life of

the actual employee.141

While tourism is purported to allow for a cultural exchange between tourist and local,

there are economic factors at play that ensure that such cultural exchanges are far

from being fair. Locals are likely to become all too bitter towards tourists because of

the economic disparity between the two groups, resulting in a kind of mutual

deception.142 Locals present travellers with a fabricated spirituality and wisdom.

Meanwhile, travellers make locals aspire for the very lifestyle and materialism that the

traveller is trying to escape.

Furthermore, tourism is frequently responsible for the destruction of the

cultures and environments that tourists, hungry to experience authentic people and

places, are seeking out. Those who travel abroad may do so in the full knowledge that

the very act of travel is helping eradicate that which they are visiting. Take the



example of a tourist who travels to the Great Barrier Reef, from outside of

Queensland or New South Wales, with the intention of better understanding the

impact of climate change on natural environments. A cause of climate change is the

burning of the fossil fuels that power planes, cars, and trains. In travelling to the north

east coast of Australia, the traveller is contributing to the Great Barrier Reef’s

destruction. They thus help accelerate the conversion of the reef’s destruction from

being a topical issue, to being a historic fact. They have travelled to see how the world

is, yet in doing so have helped ensure that they remember only how the world was.

Conversely, a person who looks at photos of the surface of the red planet taken

by a Mars Rover, has not experienced, and most likely will never experience, standing

on the surface of Mars, yet the Mars Rover has not contributed to the destruction of

the Martian environment. It will remain virtually the same, most likely, for countless

centuries. The images that the Martian devotee sees, then, will remain an authentic

representation of the surface of Mars for a very long time. The accuracy of the

memories of the tourist who goes to the Great Barrier Reef, however, will have a very

short life span. The tourist’s direct experience of the Great Barrier Reef then is, if

anything, less authentic than the experiences of a person who vicariously experiences

Mars. In some situations, then, it is therefore more authentic to experience reality

vicariously, than experiencing it viscerally.

Standing on Mars might well be the culmination of the journey of a lifetime.

Yet that journey would have come at a tremendous environmental and financial cost,

an appreciation of that could, and perhaps should, detract from the traveller’s

enjoyment. Space exploration is only the most palpable instance of tremendous

expenditure on personal travel for minimal social gain. For many in developing

countries, though, intercontinental travel might seem as desirable, and feasible, as

interplanetary travel is to those in the developed world. As long as there are such

pressing needs at home, and such costs of leaving it, the desirability of either form of

travel seems paltry:

“If your Holiness were given the opportunity to orbit the Earth in the space shuttle,”

I inquire, “would you accept?”



There is a moment’s silence. The Dalai Lama stares at me with wide eyes

before replying.

“If very safe – then I will go!” He laughs uproariously, and he wipes his

eyes on the sleeves of his robe.

“Is this a dream of yours? To view the Earth from orbit?”

“Interesting …” he nods, considering the question seriously. “But not

essential. Still much work to be done here, on this Earth. Until there is no poverty,

no illness. Once everything is okay on this planet – no further problem – then we’ll

need a holiday!”143

Psychedelic travellers can experience a kind of culture shock similar to that

experienced by geographical travellers. The culture shock of psychedelics is the

beginning of a trip, when the psychedelic traveller struggles to interpret their

experience, to relate it to their regular life, to frame it, to reconcile it with consensual

reality, and to come to terms with the sudden awareness of the multiplicity of reality.

Similarly, people can experience on psychedelics an analogy to reverse-culture-shock.

Reverse culture shock is the difficulty in adjusting to the cultural norms of the

community the traveller has temporarily departed from, often combined with an

overwhelming sense of anticlimax.144 Psychedelics then, especially LSD, have the

potential, like geographical travel, to make natural environment and culture less

familiar to users: Aldous Huxley describes his psychedelically induced vision as if the

world is constructing itself from the ground up.145 LSD specifically can place the

user’s entire system of ontology and epistemology into question. Psychedelics can

force users to confront, and question, personal and social dogmas:146 Albert Hoffman

observed the possibility psychedelics offer with other sublime experiences within

nature147 in allowing us to glimpse the mystery beyond socially constructed reality.148

Psychedelics thus allow users to regain an appreciation of and sensitivity to natural

and artificial environments. Psychedelics can refresh people’s relationship with

reality, removing the ennui, the normalness, and the regularity to which they have

become accustomed. Users of psychedelics may continue to appreciate the

epistemological benefits long after the chemical effects have worn off. For example,

users of psychedelics may be able to perceive the world through a kind of dual,



overlaid vision: the world as perceived by most people and the world as it can appear

while in an altered state of conscious.

Yet psychedelics might distance users permanently from reality and society,

and the broad, socially accepted utilisation of drugs, including psychedelics, could

arguably result in an apathetic population. For example, some critics have described

the psychedelic culture of the 1960s as decadent because of the prevalent drug use,149

and some writers have warned that were antidepressants to become widely accepted

human progress would slowly stop.150 However, this is a risk posed only by non-

psychedelic drugs:

‘Well, all drug fiends regardless of what the thing is, they shoot drugs because

they're not what they want to be and when they shoot drugs, they are what they

want to be, see? It solves all their problems. But this doesn't necessarily hold true

with this LSD. You're not what you want to be, you see yourself for what you really

are, and it's funny.… You know, like you've been trying so hard to be something

and you never want to admit to yourself you're not and then all of a sudden you're

behind this drug and you see yourself just for what you are. It hurts.’ 151

Psychedelics do not help facilitate escapist tendencies, or encourage escapism.

MDMA for example is a social drug, and not a nihilistic one. For an MDMA

experience to be enjoyable, the environment chosen for the trip needs to be a place

enjoyable even when straight. Since enjoyment of psychedelics relies on sensation,

psychedelics are clearly substances of this world. Psychedelics can often bring about a

very extroverted state, and encourage an appreciation of relatedness. Unlike drugs

such as opiates, psychedelics derive their powers from the emotions and meaning that

we invest in the environment. Users of psychedelics would need to continue to be

concerned with the well-being of both themselves, and their environment, in order to

have an enjoyable experience. The experience on psychedelics, especially

mescaline,152 is a factor of the individual. Taking psychedelics can encourage people

to improve the world and them self. They do not allow people to escape from

themselves or their peers. Personal, social, and environmental well-being is likely to

become even more of a priority for those who have taken psychedelics.



Profiles

Earlier, I argued that varying degrees of anti-drug bias and censorship in psychedelic

research might impinge on attempts to provide an accurate depiction of their costs and

benefits. As long as psychedelic use is illegal and stigmatized, a pro-psychedelic

stance might be unfairly disadvantaged because of a lack of reliable empirical

evidence to draw from, or a rational and unprejudiced audience to debate with.

An additional handicap puts a pro-psychedelic stance at a further

disadvantage. The media broadly promotes tourism, and tourism has established in

society as an important industry. Tourism’s role as a status symbol gives it an

additional, significant, and most likely invariable advantage over psychedelic travel.

Therefore, even if the cost-benefit ratios of geographical and psychedelic travel were

comparable, psychedelics might still be unable to compete.

However, those less concerned with how their form of journeying acted as a

type of status symbol would look more favourably towards cheaper forms of travel

such as psychedelic travel. Those born between 1955 and 1965, a generational cohort

renowned for their preoccupation with status, might be less likely to consider

psychedelic travel over geographical travel. Those who are economically

disadvantaged are less able to engage in geographical travel than their wealthier

counterparts are. Psychedelic travel offers comparable ends by a much more

economically accessible means. Therefore, the economically disadvantaged would

presumably be, or already are, more likely to take up psychedelics than those who

have the option of choosing between geographical and psychedelic travel. This

suggests that the most likely demographic to engage in psychedelic travel might be

those who are born after 1965 and those who are less wealthy, for example younger

people from or in middle-class upbringings. Some evidence on the matter supports

this broad generalization.

The 1994 study by Henderson and Glass of young, suburban LSD-users

presents profiles of contemporary psychedelic travellers. Their research involved

interviewing six subjects about their previous LSD use. All of the subjects were very



positive about their experiences on LSD, in spite of the occasional misadventure, over

some five years of taking the drug. None of the interviewees was regretful over their

decision of whether, and when, to start taking psychedelics. Their experience sheds

some useful light on the motivations of young psychedelic travellers, and suggests a

number of other things about the likely candidates for psychedelic travel.

To begin, the case studies illuminate the deeply ingrained societal conditions

that gave rise to the teenager’s drug use in the first place. Their drug taking occurred

in domestic conditions of prevalent disillusionment153 and silence154 including a lack

of discussion of illicit155 drug use.156 They took LSD to lend a degree of pleasure that

was lacking in their regular experiences; therefore, deficiency of excitement might

explain high rates of drug use in suburbia. Ironically, then, it is the same surplus of

safety in conservative, middle-class suburbia that drives the subjects to use LSD,

which is also essential for comfortable psychedelic experiences.157 Being able to enjoy

psychedelics requires a sense of safety, while a lack of alternative activities motivates

psychedelics use. Middle-class suburbia is a relatively secure and uneventful

environment for teenagers. Therefore, middle-class suburbia might actually promote

psychedelic drug use, while those who have stable lives might be in a better position

to reduce the risks of psychedelic use.

The teenagers interviewed also had little or no freedom of movement beyond

the city that they lived in;158 distant recreational travel, accompanied by the rest of

their family, may have taken place for the subjects, though again their freedom within

the constraints of such trips would still have been limited. Psychedelics provided the

teenagers a means of a travel in which they were in control. Therefore, those

prohibited from geographical travel because of financial or personal constraints might

be more likely to engage in psychedelic travel.

The quantity of LSD taken by the six youths, in single sessions, was lower

than the psychedelic users of the counter-culture. The reduced potency of doses might

explain this reduction in quantity, however they could have presumably compensated

for this by increasing their own rate of consumption. Therefore, rates of consumption

are likely to be deliberate, and a reflection of a changed motivation and class of LSD

users.159 At lower doses of LSD, users experience a more nuanced psychedelic state,

with perceptual effects more dominant, and a reduction of the emotional and psychic



effects. In addition, the psychedelic experience is in less conflict with regular

experience. The interviewees made their psychedelics compliment, rather than

substitute, their regular experience and experiences. LSD-takers under study were less

disengaged or fractured from reality during their trips than previous generations of

LSD-users.160 As a result, these contemporary users of LSD were better able to

reconcile their drug use with their regular, public lives. These youths and their

psychedelic-using peers demonstrated the ability to regulate their own consumption,

to minimize harm by providing intelligent and compassionate support to fellow-users,

and to engage in drug-assisted self-actualization. This resulted in much safer and

calmer drug-taking habits compared to the counter-culture movement161 and a much

more honest appraisal of the costs and benefits of drug use compared to their

parents.162 In the study, the suburban teenagers demonstrated a high degree of

maturity and awareness in relation to accumulative effects and dangers of psychedelic

use.163 The most significant long-term damage related to their LSD use was the fact

that they were, as of the time of the study, in a drug rehabilitation program. These

successes appeared to have occurred in spite of, unlike their 1960s equivalent, a lack

of formalised sub-culture, or a familiarity with any texts or personalities connected to

psychedelics.

Their accounts might also provide an idea of what age psychedelic use could

be reasonably safe for others. If they successfully managed their taking of

psychedelics even with such handicaps, it is likely that they would have managed

even better in a domestic environment, and community, that was actually empathetic

of their choice to take psychedelics. Ideally, the environment that people take

psychedelics should not only be safe, but also actually supportive of psychedelic use:

people who have grown up in urban communes, set up to create an environment

conducive for taking LSD,164 have spoken positively of their childhood. 165

As argued earlier, a risk matrix would be a very useful resource for enabling

prospective psychedelic travellers to decide how, or whether, to practice their drug

use. For example, it would be a necessary precondition that the decision to take

psychedelics at a young age must be voluntary. A realistic risk matrix would factor in

the variable set and setting conditions that impact on the safety of psychedelic use, as

well as the actual quantity and type of candidate psychedelic. For example, a person

with a history of mental illness may be unwise to take Psilocybin, though they may



benefit from MDMA, just as a person with a heart condition should generally not take

up resistance training, but would benefit from bushwalking. A teenager might take

only mild doses of THC and elect to transition over to, ultimately, heavy doses of

LSD in their twenties.

For some individuals, any form of psychedelic travel, in any situation, even

after legalization, might still pose too great a risk. Yet I have only attempted to

suggest an alternative to travelling abroad for self-actualization, rather than travelling

locally for the purpose of self-actualization or recreation, or abroad for employment,

to meet family, or out of physiological necessity. Therefore, those who could not

engage in safe psychedelic travel under any condition would still have the option of

engaging in some forms of geographical travel.

Conclusion

I have analysed whether tourism is an effective means of satisfying needs for self-

actualization, and if so, whether it is worth the costs. I have drawn parallels between

geographical travel and psychedelic travel. This has helped me explore whether

psychedelic travel can provide experiences and outcomes analogous to travel

undertaken for the purposes of self-actualization. It has also helped me come to some

tentative conclusions of the moral costs and benefits of psychedelic travel, relative to

geographical travel. I have taken some admittedly extreme examples of negative

cultural travel, specifically Burma, and equally extreme but positive angles on the

benefits of psychedelics. There are likely to be many leading international travel

organizations and countries that take a truly sustainable view on tourism because of

self-regulation, a desire to increase market share, or out of a prevailing sense of

environmental and social responsibility. This enables travellers to enjoy their

destinations with minimal impact and a zero carbon footprint. I have sought, however,

to counter any pre-perceived opinions that psychedelic use is either automatically

harmful or totally void of social or personal value. A well-informed and structured

risk matrix would help facilitate an unbiased assessment of the costs and benefits of



psychedelic use. It would play a key role in reducing the negative consequences of

psychedelic travel. Such an assessment would also likely encourage a much more

realistic and honest reappraisal of the cost and benefits of other practices apart from

tourism, such as the use of legal drugs.

I have identified some of the situations in which the environmental, economic

and cultural benefits of tourism may not outweigh the costs. I have also attempted to

challenge some of the popular notions regarding the holistic benefits of travel, and to

highlight the potential scale of global tourism’s negative impact.

People may travel in the belief, in some cases justified, that their significant

personal development may compensate for any economic, environmental or social

costs. Yet there are clearly also cases where travellers may bring about the very

problems that they sought to remedy. Those who value the benefits of their own self-

development from travelling, over the interests of their destination, would profit

ethically and personally from a more honest appraisal of the feasibility of their

objectives, and the consequences of their travelling to others.

Additionally, I have argued that, with certain conditions and people, there is

the potential of psychedelic travelling to be environmentally, culturally and personal

constructive in excess of its possible moral costs. These suggested benefits would be

even more accessible were society to legalize psychedelics. Such legalization might

also have additional benefits that include a reduction in the use of hard-drugs, in crime

rates, and in the excessive use of currently legal drugs.

These two points are largely independent of one another, and the refutation of

one, should not immediately detract from the other. If the legal prohibition of

psychedelics were in fact morally justified, and no practical exceptions existed, there

would still be a case for a critical assessments of global tourism. With the almost

universally agreement on the environmental impact of long-distance travel, for

example, there is at the least a strong reason for people to travel more locally rather

than abroad. Conversely, even if tourism were overall beneficial this would not

detract from the possibility that psychedelics provide an alternative form of

journeying. Rather, it would mean that those who travel out of a desire for self-

actualization might also gain similar benefits from staying locally and taking

psychedelics, and that those who cannot afford the luxury of geographical travel still



have access to the self-actualizing benefits of travelling. Those who are already able

to, or actually engage in, geographical travel could benefit themselves and others even

more by taking psychedelics, if they so desire, both at home and abroad. Were the

benefits of psychedelic so extensive however, that it proved a superior tool for self-

actualization and recreation, the total amount of travel could reduce by around two-

thirds without limiting exercises in self-actualization.166 At a time where geographical

travel is a major contributor to many worldwide problems including climate change,

loss of cultural and biological diversity, and unjust wealth distribution, such a

reduction might go a long way in helping extend our life expectancy as a species.

With the environmental, social, economic, personal, and existential benefits available

through psychedelic travel, that extra time might be much more enjoyable and

productive.

As an examination of the ethics of tourism, however, numerous questions remain

unexplored. Tourism may be a relatively benign industry for enabling those in the

developing world to achieve some degree of economic and social autonomy. Yet the

question remains whether the power imbalance inherent in the transaction between a

tourist from the developed world, and a tourism-worker in the developing world, can

ever be a just one. Many people from developed countries, for example, may travel to

developing countries or invest in their tourism infrastructure in order to capitalize on

favourable exchange rates, lax government regulations and laws, and a desperate

populace. With such opportunism in mind, the extent of complicity of those in the

developed world in maintaining that power imbalance, consciously or otherwise,

remains problematic.

There is also a strong need for further empirical clarification on many of the

assumptions that motivate people to travel. This includes both the benefits of tourism

to the traveller, and the benefits to the travel-worker, their region, and their

compatriots. Measurements of personal development, and of net social benefit, are

seemingly very difficult to make, however they may be of tremendous importance in

any re-evaluation of the ethics of tourism. Many travellers might be genuinely

interested to know the cultural and environmental impact of their presence aborad, but

simply lack reliable information. Similarly, current and prospective psychedelic



travellers urgently require trustworthy information in order to make well-informed

decisions, and exercise better risk-management.

What has certainly come through in my studies of the writing by travellers and

travel advocates has been the fierce presence of individualism. This was abundantly

clear in surveys of the attitudes of those visiting contentious sites, including, but not

limited to, Burma. Those travelling primarily to satisfy their own need for self-

actualization are often capable of impressive feats of rationalization and of personal

Exceptionalism: the belief that normal rules or general principles do not apply to

them. Often, it is the very people who identify themselves as environmentally and

socially mindful who fall victim to such Exceptionalism. At the least, this appears to

cast heavy doubt over the ability of travellers and travel developers to regulate their

behaviour rationally. Better establishing the empirical facts regarding tourism’s costs

may therefore be insufficient in assisting prospective travellers and travel developers

to make intelligent and ethical decisions. Travellers, for example, may attach such a

value on their own self-actualization that they travel with disproportional regard to the

social and environmental consequences of their travel. Similarly, travel developers

may attach a value on their own economic enhancement as to marginalize any other

considerations. This would suggest that there is an equal if not stronger requirement

for further philosophical work on the ethics of tourism. Travel is becoming more

popular, and the impacts more blatant, so such research is increasingly important, yet

also more likely.

Unfortunately, it seems much less likely that adequate research will take place

in relation to the value of psychedelics, at least in the near future. Psychedelics have

played a significant role in the development of many cultures. The formal research

that has taken place into the psychedelic experience has help enable some incredibly

fascinating glimpses into the human psyche. Similarly, the more informal research has

also helped contribute to the production of a wealth of intellectual and cultural spin-

offs, the profits of which we continue to enjoy, from the computers that we use to the

music that we listen to, today. Continuing to inhibit or criminalize such research

seems to do us all a sizable disservice.



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Endnotes



1 Vukonic (1996) 462 Vukonic (1996) 413 Hickman (2007) xiii4 Goldstein (1995)5 Pearce and Caltabiano (1983)6 Vukonic (1996) 507 Pahnke and Richards (1966) 1758 Wolfe (1972) 1529 Wolfe (1972) 18910 Hoffmann (1980) 7311 Huxley (1956) 71-7212 Grof (1975) xiii13 Carpenter (2006)14 Banco (2008) 24115 Redleb (2009)16 Lerner and Lyvers (2006) 1017 Lerner and Lyvers (2006) 218 Novak (1998)19 Savage and Stolaroff (1965)20 Uhlig (2009)21 Davis (1977)22 Doblin (2000)23 Fennel (2005) 924 Sabavala (2006)25 Smith and Duffy (2003) 1526 Hickman 369-70 (2007)27 Fennel (2005) 828 Smith and Duffy (2003) 1229 Australian Conservation Foundation (2007)30 Klein (2007)31 Debarbieri (2008)32 Butcher (2003) 933 Butcher (2003) 4834 Debarbieri (2008)35 Fennell (2005) 536 Debarbieri (2008)37 Spencer (2007)38 Kevin Smith (2007)39 Debarbieri (2008)40 Hickman (2007) 369-7041 Hudson (2007)42 Hudson (2007)43 Saldanha (2007)44 Drug Use in Australia (2002) 9-1145 Drug Use in Australia (2002) 4, 746 ‘Alcohol-related deaths soar in northern England’ (2008)47 Fendrich (1995)48 Younie (2008)49 Norton (2008) 8150 Hofmann (1980) 2651 Lee and Shlain (1985) 5352 Hofmann (1980) 2753 Grof (1975) vii54 Winkelman (1991)55 Hofmann (1980) 2656 Hofmann (1980) 2857 Busch (1950)

58 Nichols (2004)59 Kjellgren and Norlander (2000)60 Krupitsky (2000)61 Laurance (2006)62 Lee and Seshadri (2008)63 Zagnoni (2002)64 Doblin (2002)65 Roberts (1999)66 TJ Riedlinger and JE Riedlinger (1994)67 Grinspoon and Bakalar, (1986) and (1979) 68 Sessa (2007)69 David Brown (2008)70 Mogar and Aldirch (1969)71 Yensen (1988)72 Grof and Halifax (1977) 73 Laura Huxley (2000) 74 Sessa (2005) 75 Friedman (2006)76 Walter A. Brown (2007)77 David Jay Brown (2008)78 Miller (1995)79 Abrahart (2008)80 ‘Annual Causes of Death in the United States’ (2007)81 Michael Valentine Smith (2007) 282 Michael Valentine Smith (2007) 183 Grinspoon and Bakalar (1979)84 DEA Congressional Testimony (2002)85 Tsuang (1998)86 Baron (1999)87 ‘Big Day Out teen dies of suspected drug overdose’ (2009)88 ‘Drug Policy around the World’ (2007)89 Lerner and Lyvers 2 (2006)90 Hudson (2007)91 Hudson (2007)92 Burma Campaign UK (2009)93 Hudson (2007)94 ‘Boycott Lonely Planet!’ (2008)95 Hudson (2007)96 Gouzoulis-Mayfrank (1998)97 H. Heimann, ‘Experience of Time and Space in model psychoses’ in 50 Years of LSD, Chapter 5 (1994)98 Lee and Shlain (1985) 5599 Huxley (1954)100 Grof (1980) 1-2101 Lee and Shlain (1985) 20102 Hofmann (1980) 25, 27103 Lee and Shlain (1985) 119104 Lee and Shlain (1985) 45105 Drug Use in Australia (2002) 48106 Drug Use in Australia (2002) 8107 De Rios (2003)108 Macey (1993)109 Watts (1968)110 Markoff (2005)111 Ann Harrison (2006)112 ‘Famous LSD Users’ (2009)113 Ann Harrison (2006)114 Rees (2004)115 Krippiwr (1977)

116 Shanon (2000)117 Henderson and Glass (1994) 3118 Lee and Shlain (1985) 138119 Bromell (2002)120 Hicks (1992)121 DeRogatis (2003)122 Williams (1975)123 Miles (2001)124 Baker (2001)125 Jones (2008) 16126 Jones (2008) 2127 Henderson (1994) 13128 Lee and Shlain (1985) 89-90129 Greenberg, Gary ‘Good Trips, Bad Trips: Psychedelic Trips and Disassociation’ in Broken Images, Broken Selves (1997)130 Hofmann (1980) 83131 Lee and Shlain (1985) 59132 Lee and Shlain (1985) 57133 Lee and Shlain (1985) 156134 Hofmann (1980) 80135 De Beauvoir (1965) 208-211136 Roszak137 Adams (2007)138 Smith and Duffy (2003) 12-‘3139 Iyer (2000)140 Smith and Duffy (2003) 18141 Smith and Duffy (2003) 40-‘2142 Iyer (2000)143 Greenwald (1999)144 Hofmann (1980) 23145 Huxley (1954)146 Henderson and Glass (1994) 3147 Hofmann (1980) 2148 Hofmann (1980) Chapter 11 149 Roszak (1970) 162-‘3150 Carstairs (1969)151 Cheek (1969)152 Huxley (1954)153 Lee and Shlain (1985) 129154 Henderson and Glass (1994) 135155 Hofmann (1980) 79156 Henderson and Glass (1994) 135157 Henderson and Glass (1994) 31158 Henderson and Glass (1994) 10159 Henderson and Glass (1994) 128, 131-‘2160 Lee and Shlain (1985) 283-‘4161 Lee and Shlain (1985) 156162 Henderson and Glass (1994) 27163 Henderson and Glass (1994)26164 Greenfield (2006) 212165 Greenfield (2006) 191166 Hickman (2007) xiii