Grey, Charles

Tripping : An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures, now with an updated and expanded resource section!

Average customer rating:

Psychedelic experience as story-telling
Armchair Tripping!
Tripping: A Bit Unreal, But Great
Must reading for all Spiritual explorers
mandatory reading for passage through an absurd time

Tripping : An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures, now with an updated and expanded resource section!
Charles Hayes
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140195742
Release Date: 2000-10-31

Book Description

The psychedelic experience has been both demonized and mythologized, but what is it really like to trip?

TRIPPING: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures, the first major compilation of personal testimonies about psychedelic experiences, contains narratives by 50 people of various nationalities and walks of life about their most unforgettable altered states -- from the heavenly to the horrific. In gripping, often suspenseful tales suffused with a high sense of adventure, TRIPPING liberates the psychedelic experience from the closet of social stigma as well as from the mists of Sixties counter-cultural idealism.

Relating the harrowing straits and exhilarating peaks of the psychedelic inner odyssey are many accomplished writers, including former Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow, war photographer Tim Page, Beat poet Anne Waldman, science fiction writer Robert Charles Wilson, thriller writer Steven Martin Cohen, Ecstasy expert Bruce Eisner, and phenomonologist Paul Devereux.

Most of the narratives, however, come from “ordinary” people from Sydney to Belfast to San Francisco, for whom their anonymity brings out an intensely personal, confessional dimension. The stories, edited mostly from taped interviews by journalist Charles Hayes, enable readers to either “trip” vicariously or compare notes on their own experiences.

Specially featured is a lengthy conversation with the late <B>Terence McKenna</B>, the man who many believe inherited Tim Leary's mantle as the leading spokesman for psychedelics from the late Seventies until his death in April 2000. A veteran of myriad "heroic doses," McKenna discusses some of his own trips for the first time, as well as a range of issues, including his own provocative brand of eschatology, politics, and anthropology, at the center of which is an abiding faith in the power of psychedelic drugs.

TRIPPING's balanced, objective perspective portrays both positive and negative impacts of psychedelic experiences, depicting both the tolls and the rewards of such chemically-induced excursions from reality. Types of episodes run the gamut from encounters with godhead and alien or discarnate entities; out-of-body experiences, freak-outs, flashbacks, psychosis (momentary and otherwise), and acts or events of apparent magic or miracle. The trips described were catalyzed not just by classic psychedelics such as LSD, but by a wide array of psychotropics, from the sacred plants of indigenous peoples to the latest synthetic “smart drugs.”

<B>Some sample plotlines</B>

At a summer festival, a man on LSD believes he's attending the final celebration of the gods and that his mission is to mate with his chosen one before the entire tribe moves on to a higher sphere at the climax of the “orgasm death dance."

A young man eats some peyote buttons on a hike in the Grand Canyon, and stumbles upon a near-death experience.

A group of army buddies test the limits of their bodies' endurance during an acid session by a campfire.

The ministrations of the "shining ones", astral beings accessed during an LSD trip, lure a college student to higher realms of consciousness.

A psychedelic ingested at the notorious Altamont concert of 1969 triggers a bizarre odyssey through the San Francisco city jail and mental health system for a fellow who believes he's an angelic revolutionary.

After a déjà vu of enlightenment during which he begins speaking in tongues, a tripper plummets into the flipside of that experience in an episode of horrific eternal recurrence that revisits him in flashbacks.

A wooden carving of Christ speaks out loud to a seminary student during a church service, reshaping her theology and the depth of her faith.

The narratives in TRIPPING are placed in larger contexts by Hayes's essays, which include a synopsis of the history and culture of psychedelics from the ancient Greek mystery rites to today's Ecstasy-fueled rave events; an exposition on the kinetics of tripping (what can go right and wrong on a trip), including basic medical and psychological background; and a concise index of psychedelic substances.

The illustrations in TRIPPING are provided by renowned visionary artist Alex Grey and four computer graphics masters.

You can contact the author at Trippingtales@aol.com and at his website.

Customer Reviews:

Psychedelic experience as story-telling.......2004-11-16

This book contains an amazing interview with Terence McKenna, which took place toward the end of his life, that is worth the price of the book.

Tripping is the best story-telling approach to the psychedelic encounter that I have read or experienced. I have always felt that all story-telling festivals need a psychedelic tent, because these extreme experiences are some of the best stories human beings can tell. Through the psychedelic medium human beings still tell stories of meeting gods and demons, travelling to new fantastic worlds, and taking mythic and perilous journeys.

Even though these stories are about the experiences of a number of travellers, Hayes has expertly rewritten their accounts through a single narrative voice. This gives the book continuity it otherwise might have lacked.

Bruce Eisner's story about taking too much LSD at Burning Man is hilarious. Very well done.

Armchair Tripping!.......2001-11-14

This anthology of true life psychadelic experiences, from LSD and Ecstacy to peyote and ayahuasca, is an entertaining, enlightening trip into the world of mind altering drugs, which probably is too honest and unbiased for the liking of authorities who wish to erase drugs from society. Its candid and honest perspective is a refreshing change from the constant message that drugs are bad and must be obliterated. In Tripping, both euphoric and terrifying experiences are related, as well the use of entheogens, drugs used for spiritual purposes. Tripping neither encourages or discourages drug use, it simply lays the facts out straight. Although every trip differs, there are themes that turn up frequently, such as a higher understanding of self and life, of enlightenment, and sometimes of complete disorientation and panic. I'd highly reccomend Tripping to anyone interested in hallucinogenics and tripping.

Tripping: A Bit Unreal, But Great.......2001-09-09

Tripping must be the best compendium of accounts of entheogenic and recreational drug use ever produced. The accounts give the reader the most vivid sense possible of what the tripping experiences are like without actually using the drugs. It deviates a bit from realism, however, insofar as almost all the authors seem intelligent, literate, and can actually write, and write well! In the real world, most druggies unfortunately are pretty dumb. Nevertheless, I found the book riveting and a delight to read.

Must reading for all Spiritual explorers.......2001-06-12

Excellent source of information! Anyone who is considering exploring the depths of the mind will benefit from these trip reports and well written material. Begins with an informative history of tripping and describes the basic features of what one might expect in a trip. This is done in an easy to understand style for people of all walks of life, very much like the trip reporters themselves. These extraordinary reports are a thorough and complete recollection of events that took place before, during and after the trips, giving the reader a good idea for the set and setting of each situation. This helps people to learn more about how and why we respond in different ways and with this knowledge we can possibly prevent disasters from taking place through responsible use. Being that the reports came from the actual people and not a clinic, it gives us the chance to look at them through the eyes of the experiencers and not just observers. The interview with Terence Mckenna is enlightening and insightful. Also some really cool psychedelic art in various locations in the book to enjoy between reports.

mandatory reading for passage through an absurd time.......2001-01-01

Tripping, the book, is a collection of brief but compact, and often intense explorations of the meaning of Being. Here is the classic mid-journey text that has outgrown the initial amazement of psychedelic enlargement but still retains the open endedness that much remains to be learned. Tripping, the experience, is presented without gloss as the unpredictable state of consciousness that may be kissed by the angels, interrogated by the demons, or simply incredibly weird. Some experimenters record life changing moments of psychic integration and movement to a higher plane, as a lifelong clarification, others describe the possibility of sinking into the *schlomuss*, or state of spiritual desperation. A worthy and honest book such as this one should make us concerned to know which circumstances are most likely to promote change of great value, and which may lead in another direction. The author himself, to his great credit, begins the narrratives with a questioning note much like this. As Tripping will be a heavily referred to text in the upcoming Mind States II conference, readers should also consider The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq , a moderately difficult but highly important work that might have been titled UnTripping. I read Hayes and Houellebecq side by side, a couple of narratives from Tripping, then a chapter of Elementary Particles. The combined experience is not easy to absorb intellectually, but once all has settled, the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. If I had to make one recommendation , it would be to read these books together and treat them as a single masterpiece that no sigle mind could have imagined.

Average customer rating:

Not his best, but I liked it
Very Good Book
Ho-Hum
Early De Lint shows only a hint of his potential
great companion to Riddle of the Wren

The Harp of the Grey Rose
Charles de Lint
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142400602

Book Description

He is the Songweaver, but before he was a master of song he was merely Cerin of Wran Cheaping—a seventeen-year-old orphan raised by a wildland witch. Then he encountered the Maid of the Grey Rose—the lone survivor of the war that devastated the Trembling Lands and the promised bride of Yarac Stone-Slayer, the feared and terrible Waster. The mysterious beauty captured Cerin's heart, drawing him into a world both dark and deadly, until, armed with only a tinkerblade and the magic of song, he would take on a man's challenge . . . and choose a treacherous path toward a magnificent destiny. The Harp of the Grey Rose is award-winning fantasist Charles de Lint's first novel, long out of print—and it hints of the wonderful stories to come.

Customer Reviews:

Not his best, but I liked it.......2006-10-09

This was a quick, enjoyable read, but it is readily apparent that this was his first novel. It pulls too heavily from other sources and doesn't have deLint's distinctive voice that make his later stories so spell-binding.

Very Good Book.......2004-06-01

I read this book and couldn't put it down. It keeps you in the book and makes you wish you were there. It was like The Riddle of the Wren, but The Harp of the Grey Rose missed out on some of the details it had. The only thing that wasn't great about the book, is that it seemed like two stories. Besides that, this is a great book and you should buy it.

Ho-Hum.......2004-05-28

Those looking for a typical De Lint read won't find it here. "The Harp of the Grey Rose" reads at a young level, with none of the hints of darkness and/or redemption of some sort that can be found in De Lint's later works. You can tell about fifty pages into the book that it was originally a novella even if you didn't know so beforehand. Though it seems like the rest of the story is a bit forced, if you have a free afternoon, its an amusing story and it doesn't take long to read.

Early De Lint shows only a hint of his potential.......2003-08-05

I had seen this title on lists of CDL's work, but it took me several years to find a copy. Having read it, I understand why he let it go out of print, and may be keeping it that way even though a new edition would surely sell. It's not a bad book, but it's very much an immature work compared to his later stuff. It's connected to the Newford stories (it's about the childhood of the harper Kelledy), but the tone is very different. The most striking thing about it is the heavy Lloyd Alexander influence, something De Lint seems to have shed as he developed his own voice. In fact, it's downright derivative, though competent and even promising. It straddles, a bit awkwardly, adult fantasy and children's literature, and does not have the distinctive complexity of imagination that makes De Lint's mature work so fascinating and unique. For a fan of the mature work, it's not much more than a curiosity; as an introduction to De Lint it barely hints at the brilliance that came later.

great companion to Riddle of the Wren.......2002-07-28

This is a wonderful book! Its not exactly a sequel to Riddle of the Wren, but set in the same universe, with the same hoary feel to it. Not one of his more well-known books, but I loved it as a kid and still do. Both are a definite must-read if you love old high fantasy.

Average customer rating:

The last of the plainsmen
Zane Grey
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Death Wears Grey (Jubal Cade, No 8)
Charles R. Pike
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Micronesian Reader
Eve Grey
Manufacturer: High Commissioner, Trust Territory of the Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FX66LY

Classic X-Men #9 (Like a Phoenix from the Ashes, Volume 1)

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Classic X-Men #9 (Like a Phoenix from the Ashes, Volume 1)
Chris Claremont
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic

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ASIN: B000M1EN96

Product Description

Classic X-Men issue #9. May 1987.

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Scotlands only Regular Regiment of Horse

Royal Scots Greys (Men-at-Arms)
Charles Grant
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0850450594
Release Date: 1972-06-15

Book Description

For almost three centuries the Royal Scots Greys have had the proud distinction of being Scoland’s only regular cavalry regiment, famed for their distinguished service record from Marlborough’s wars to World War II. Indeed, the Greys at Waterloo form one of the most memorable features of military history. With their cry of ‘Scotland forever!’ they charged upon the French ranks seizing the imperial eagle of the French 45th Regimental. This book also looks at how this traditional cavalry unit struggled to come to terms with the realities of modern warfare during the Anglo-Boer war and World War I. Equipment and organisation used in all these combats is detailed in full and uniforms are shown in full colour artwork.

Customer Reviews:

Scotlands only Regular Regiment of Horse.......2005-07-02

A good detailed history of one tough Cavalry Regiment. It covers almost 300 years and is told very well. Its a pity thats its uniform illustrations are not up to grade. Someone should have Mr. McBride take a look at this as a good project for him when they re issue this book.

Geoffrey Keyes,: V.C., M.C., Croix de Guerre, Royal Scots Greys, lieut.-colonel, 11th Scottish Commando

Average customer rating:

Interesting biography of a WW2 "special forces" officer who was KIA

Geoffrey Keyes,: V.C., M.C., Croix de Guerre, Royal Scots Greys, lieut.-colonel, 11th Scottish Commando
Elizabeth Keyes
Manufacturer: G. Newnes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Customer Reviews:

Interesting biography of a WW2 "special forces" officer who was KIA.......2007-02-22

Quoting from the inside cover: "This is the story, told by his sister, of Lt-Col. Geoffrey Keyes, V.C., who lost his life in the raid on General Rommel's main headquarters in the North African campaign. The scope and daring of the conception - to be landed by submarine behind the German lines and endeavour to capture or kill Rommel; the heroism of Colonel Keyes, the leader, and his band of comrades, the intensity of the preparations and the drama of the raid - all these create a story to rank with anything yet written of those years of conflict.

But this is much more than a war book dealing with one feat of arms; it is a chronicle of the family in which Geoffrey Keyes life flowed from birth to death - a family headed by the late Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Keyes, whose leadership of the Zeebrugge Raid (in WWI) was the inspiration of Combined Operations in the 1939-45 war."

You've got the gist of the way the book's written from the above. Basically, a very interesting biography of a young man from the English upper class who went thru Sandhurst in 1935-36, joined the Scots Greys Regiment, served in Palestine, participated in the Narvik operation (Norway) and then joined the 11th Scottish Commando. The Commando operated as part of "Layforce" in the Med (an early special ops unit), saw action at the Litanu river when the Brits occuped Lebanon and Syria (those darn Frogs again...) and then planned, organised and led the "Rommel Raid" in late 1941. He was killed in the course of the unsuccessful operation and subsequently awarded the VC. A courageous man who served his King and his country.

Given that the book was written by his sister, a lot of the early biographical information must be very much the inside scoop. You certainly get a good picture of the man. For the rest of it, it's a good military history with a lot of interesting info on the early years in the Med, particularly "Layforce," a unit which receives mentions in a lot of other books but generally never in so much detail. This books long out of print, never been republished, but of you're interested in this type of account it's worth the read. By the by, there's a good sampling of b&w photo's in the book as well.

TOC for those interested: (and yes, the chapters are numbered using Roman numerals)
I. A Young "Centurion"
II. Nursery and Schoolroom
III. Malta
IV. School at Seaford
V. Portsmouth, 1929-31
VI. Eton and Tingewick 1931-33
VII. Eton, 1934-35
VIII. Sandhurst, 1935-36
IX. Diversions
X. Joining the Regiment
XI. The Scots Greys
XII. Palestsine
XIII. Tribulations
XIV. Narvik
XV. Evacuation
XVI. Joining the Commandos
XVII. The 11th Scottish Commando
XVIII. "Aquatic Sports"
XIX. "Layforce"
XX. The Litani River Action
XXI. The Disbanding of "Layforce"
XXII. The Rommel Raid
XXIII. The Green Mountain
XXIV. The Attack
XXV. The Beach
XXVI. The Victoria Cross
XXVII. The Dream Comes True

Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage (Adventure Theatre)

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Early Western but not exactly what you'd expect
Recommended
Riders - New Riders
Great
Zane Grey's Signature Romance

Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage (Adventure Theatre)
Zane Grey
Manufacturer: Monterey Soundworks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1569945195

Book Description

The first of Zane Grey's many best-sellers, this stirring tale of adventure and romance established the prototype for western novels. A proud young heroine stands alone against the villains who rustle and stampede her cattle — until a stranger rides into the territory. Classic of American frontier fiction, teeming with color, authenticity, thrills.

Customer Reviews:

Early Western but not exactly what you'd expect.......2007-04-04

One of the first Westerns, with plenty of action and the romance of the west. It features a rugged individual with a dark past, an independent and hardy woman who is in trouble and a cast of other interesting characters.

I think one of the reasons why we don't hear more about it is that most of the villians in this tale are ... (wait for it) ... Mormons. So there is probably some pressure in various publishing houses, etc not to promote it. Zane Grey paints the LDS group here as patriarchal, polygamous ruffians. You would guess that an early Western would use Native Americans, not Mormons, as the villians.

Anyway, if you are not offended by the choice of bad guys, it's a good story.

Recommended.......2006-07-22

I'm not much of a "Western" reader. But, this was Zane Grey's first book so I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out to be an interesting story. I "read" it as a book on tape. The reader of the book on tape was able to change his voice for each character so the result was like a "radio play". Very enjoyable!
Email:boland7214@aol.

Riders - New Riders.......2006-06-28

There are two basic styles of English prose. One is that of Dashiell Hammett - short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, short chapters, short novels. The other basic style is that of Charles Dickens - long passages of minute, detailed description. Zane Grey wrote in this second style, and he did it very well indeed. The American West comes alive in the pages of this book, a true classic. Calling this "purple prose" is like calling the music of the Grateful Dead "boogie" - it's a putdown that doesn't really mean anything. (Incidentally, a Grateful Dead offshoot band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, was named after this book.) Just as Alice chased a rabbit into Wonderland, so Venters chases a rabbit into Surprise Valley. He discovers true spirituality in the natural world and in other people - not in organized, denominational religion. The theme of this novel is that tyrannical fanaticism - religious and/or political - is dangerous and wrong. Grey was not specifically anti-Mormon. In fact, some of his Mormon charactors were good people. He was against any religious system that was out of control in its lust for power. Think of todays' "religious right", or for that matter, Islamic extremism. Grey would have disliked both.

Great.......2006-02-26

The book came at a timely fashion. It was in great condition and it looked brand new. The book was just as described.

Zane Grey's Signature Romance.......2005-09-23

I love the freedom and the grandeur Zane Grey brought to even his shortest story, and while RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE is dated, you can practically smell the saguaro lingering on every page, like mold, except with a fresher scent. As many other reviewers have noticed, the book is rife with anti-Mormon sympathies and it sort of does for members of the Latter Day Saints what BIRTH OF A NATION does for black people--i.e., no favors. What will Mormons make of a story which casts one of them as the heroine and all the others as a bunch of low class, scurvy thieving swine with nothing better on their minds than "wiving" and basically swindling poor Jane out of her wonderful ranch in the Cottonwoods of Utah.

Instead Jabe winds up crossing the line and falling for a "Gentile," the cowboy Lassiter who wields a six shooter and rides like the wind. She abdicates her place in respectable society to become "infamous, notorious," as she sobs out on the purple plain, "a rustler's girl and nothing more."

The two of them share a common love for children and the West, which Lassiter tries to hide behind his mask of not caring a damn for any person, place, thing or religion. His cold, hard impassivity becomes a screen on which Jane projects her romantic and sexual feelings, which are echoed daily and nightly in Grey's remarkable prose, a splashy palette of colors and earth tones. It won't take you long to rip through this romantic thriller, but you too will be amazed by the sympathetic treatment Zane Grey gives to his heroine, even though she slips through the fingers of morality like a jet of clear sparkling water from the Cottonwood River. Her life of sin is not total debauchery however, for she remains chaste, and lets the landscape, especially its canyons, reveal her pulsating desires.

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Nemesis: The Grey Sourcebook
ERNST , C. Brent Ferguson , Jeff Reitz , Rob Taylor , and George Vasilakos
Manufacturer: Eden Studios
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1887740449

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