Medicine, Drugs, and the Internet

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Drugs and Cyberspace

Since the beginning of time, humans have been searching for the ultimate answer. Throughout many cultures, plants as well as manufactured substances are used both for healing and to broaden perceptions and challenge reality. Drugs are a part of the incessant evolution of the human species towards a higher and greater intelligence, empathy and awareness or consciousness (Rushkoff, 34). Gurus and shaman have eternally incorporated plant chemicals into methods for enlightenment.

For America, the early 1950's marked the emergence in popularity of psychedelic drugs as a tool for mind expansion (Kuhn, 163). Timothy Leary, an icon of 60's drug subculture, as well as cybernetic psychology explains, "the psychedelic drug movement of the 60's and the personal computer movement of the 80's are inner and outer reflections of each other." Leary also argues that only if you understand something about computers, can you begin to understand psychedelic drugs (Sheff, 120).

Psychedelics deconstruct one's basic assumptions about life, presenting choices that are arbitrary to the individual and the given society. In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley reflects on the capabilities of chemicals on the human mind: "Administered in suitable doses, peyote changes the quality of consciousness more profoundly and yet is less toxic than any other substances in the pharmacologist's repetory" (Huxley, 9). Douglas Rushkoff, one in the same as Leary, has written several books on the topic of psychedelics and cyberspace. He believes "with the help of a psychedelic journey, one can come back [from tripping] and consciously choose a different reality from one that's been agreed upon...

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...rception. New York: Harper & Row, 1954.

Kimm, Todd. "Can a Man Fly on the Internet?" icon. Vol. 16, Oct. 15, 1998, www.iconquest.com

Kuhn, Cynthia; Scott Swartzwelder; Wilkie Wilson. Buzzed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.

Leary, Timothy. High Priest. New York: College Notes &Texts, Inc., 1968.

Leinhard, John H. "A Concern About Reality." No. 88. Nov. 1998. http://www.uh.edu/engines.

McKenna, Terence. Archaic Revivals. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991.

Neumann, Peter G. "Are Computers Addictive?" Communications of the ACM Vol. 40. No. 3 (March 1998): p. 128.

Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994.

Sheff, David. "From Psychedelics to Cybernetics." Publish. Feb 1992: p.120

Taylor, Eugene. "Psychedelics: The Second Coming." Psychology Today. Jul 1996: pp.56-59+

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