Making the Climb
The alarm clock rang and I forced myself out of bed. I took a shower, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth--all my other normal morning routines. But that day was not normal at all. I was going to do something with my English class that I never thought I would do. I was going to hike up Poly Canyon. With a horrible night’s sleep and a sore throat, I was not in the mood to undergo a “moderately strenuous” hike, but I pushed myself to get ready.
Once the entire class had assembled, we made our way to the Poly Canyon gate where we would meet Professor Marx. The overcast sky and moist air were usual characteristics of San Luis Obispo mornings. I was not yet accustomed to this: I never dared to go outside before eight o’clock in the morning. The rest of the class shared my irritation over the fact that it was freezing and very early. After passing by dormitories and the Cerro Vista Apartments, we reached the meeting place where I could just make out the sight of Mr. Marx. Unlike the rest of us, he was bright eyed and ready to begin the walk.
Silence swept over the entire group as we began our trek. Nothing could be heard except the crunch of gravel underneath our feet and the occasional explanatory interjections by our professor regarding the surrounding plants and rocks. Huge formations of serpentinite created a wall on one side of the trail, and on the other side the mountains were covered in blankets of coastal scrub. After a few minutes every bush and rock looked the same to me and I could not identify with Mr. Marx’s admiration for the beauty of that area. Even with the surprising deer sightings and geological features around me, I could only think about the end of the hike.
Twenty minutes into the walk on the tan graveled road, something caught my eye. A tall antique-looking arch of rocks faced us. Its looming frame forced us to crane our stiff necks to view it. The very top was wearing thin and looked as if it was going to collapse in on itself. The arch was the entrance to a path lined with a low rock wall on either side. The mist created a moist refrigerator-like atmosphere; we gladly sat down on the walls to take a break.
United States. National Institute on Drug Abuse.DrugFacts: Hallucinogens - LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP. 2009. Non-print. .
The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, Unit 2, ‘Illness, Health and Care’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Born in Home, Pennsylvania in 1927, Abbey worked as a forest ranger and fire look-out for the National Forest Service after graduating from the University of New Mexico. An author of numerous essays and novels, he died in 1989 leaving behind a legacy of popular environmental literature. His credibility as a forest ranger, fire look- out, and graduate of the University of New Mexico lend credibility to his knowledge of America’s wilderness and deserts. Readers develop the sense that Abbey has invested both time and emotion in the vast deserts of America.
The Scottish Government [TSG] (2005). National Care Standards - support services (revised march 2005) [PDF] available at The Scottish Government website; scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/239525/0066023.pdf
Hallucinogens: a general group of pharmacological agents that can be divided into three broad categories: psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. Hallucinogenic drugs have played a role in civilization for thousands of year. It began with naturally occurring hallucinogens, such as the peyote cactus plant and wild mushrooms. Now there are man made drugs that have the same or more intense affects. These include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), MDMA (ecstasy), and dextromethorphan (DMX, often found in cough syrup). Within this essay, I will cover the history, production, and affects of hallucinogenic drugs.
Rising from the Plains by John McPhee is about an influential geologist, John David Love, interpreting the geologic history of Wyoming. The surface area of Wyoming has been subjected to many geological formations from the rise of the Rocky Mountains through the Laramide Orogeny in late Cretaceous time to the deep structural basin known as the Jackson Hole with rock dating back to the Precambrian period. Throughout each time period of the Earth’s history, the surface of Wyoming has experienced significant changes that have affected the physical landscape, as well as living organisms, even to this day. In this story John David Love shares his knowledge of the geologic history of Wyoming with John McPhee as they travel across Wyoming taking in the vastness that the landscape of Wyoming presents.
It is said that everybody has their own type of medicine that works for them, however on certain occasions not all of these medicines are prescribed and many strongly oppose for this type of medicine to be used. John Lennon was one of the many who used un-prescribed medicine. Lennon and many others agree that the use of hallucinogenic drugs peacefully cleared their mind and made them understand what they meant to the world and connected them to everything around them in a deeper level. Which lead to the creation of the well-known Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. quote “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimension’s”. No medicine had ever helped them achieve that inner peace and understanding that they were looking for until they tried hallucinogens in a medicinal way. After what is known as the “hippie era” Hallucinogenic drugs were made illegal and societies view went from the drug that made a person peaceful and lovable to the drug that was repugnant and awfully dangerous. Although hallucinogens are considered dangerous drugs not to be dabbled with by the average person, it has recently been proven to work as a successful therapy proving that they are safe and raising the question if they should be recognized as a way of therapy.
Leadbetter, D. and Lownsbrough, H. (2005) Personalisation and Participation: The Future of Social Care in Scotland, London, Demos.
While hallucinogenic drugs have been used for centuries, it was not until the discovery by Western society of their mind-altering properties (Hofmann 1959; Stoll 1947; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A) that these compounds began to be more widely used for treatment of mental disorders (see Abraham, Aldridge & Gogia 1996; Strassman 1995; Neill 1987; McGlothlin & Arnold 1971; Freedman 1968; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A). Hallucinates are derived from plants or the fungus that grows on plants, the first recorded hallucination was a tossup between mental issues that were then used for a political push or the ergotamine during the Salem witch trails in 1962, far after that Albert Hofmann became the creator of LSD from ergotamine a chemical from the fungus ergot, in Switzerland 1938. From that time LSD has played a part in history, studies have shown that much has changed in the half-century since LSD was first used by psychiatrists and then found widespread recreational use in the 1960's and 70's. Modern psychiatry has embraced drugs that affect the same brain molecules that are tweaked by hallucinogens (Blakeslee,
... in the action of hallucinogens has provided a focal point for new studies. Is there a prototypic classical hallucinogen? Until we have the answers to such questions, we continue to seek out the complex relationship between humans and psychoactives.
Although in the modern world such drugs have developed an almost taboo status, it is impossible to ignore the tales of enlightenment reported by ancient cultures and even those rebels that use such drugs illegally today. While the American government has been one of the main influences on today’s society’s negative attitudes towards psychedelic drugs, they have granted some scientist and psychologists permission to experiment with such agents, and despite the controversy and varying results there seem to be many positive uses of psychedelic agents. These positive uses and the research that has been directed toward these uses will be reviewed in the following, as well as a brief history of psychedelic drugs.
The third maddening buzz of my alarm woke me as I groggily slid out of bed to the shower. It was the start of another routine morning, or so I thought. I took a shower, quarreled with my sister over which clothes she should wear for that day and finished getting myself ready. All of this took a little longer than usual, not a surprise, so we were running late. We hopped into the interior of my sleek, white Thunderbird and made our way to school.
The professor stands in front of fifty students, lecturing them on Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto. Each student placed in a chair, facing forward and a desk in front of them. One person raises their hand, waiting patiently for the professor to call on them. At the end, a quiz is handed out to test each
I scarcely snoozed at all, the day before; incidentally, I felt insecure regarding the fact of what the unfamiliar tomorrow may bring and that was rather unnerving. After awakening from a practically restless slumber, I had a hefty breakfast expecting that by the conclusion of the day, all I wanted to do is go back home and sleep. Finally, after it was over, my dad gladly drove me to school; there, stood the place where I would spend my next four years of my life.