Quote:

What about psychedelics?

``Well, cannabis is useful. When you're stuck and don't know where you're going you smoke cannabis and then you see four or five ways the narrative can go. No one is going to become a writer from taking any of these drugs but they can get beneficial material from them.

``I don't like any of the stronger psychedelics. I would never take LSD... I hate it.''

``You've tried it?'' (Obviously.)

``I've tried it. I just hate it. I don't like the feeling.... It makes me nervous. My coordination isn't good and there's a metallic taste in my mouth and there's nothing I like about it. I've taken mescaline, psilocybin. The only one I've been able to use with consistency is cannabis.''

``Has anything useful come to you with mescaline or psilocybin?''

``Yes, but mostly of an unpleasant nature. There is one interesting one though, yage', but I've never been able to get any since I left South America. There's ~Banisteriopsis~ in it; that's the main ingredient but not the only one. The medicine men use it to potentiate their powers, to locate lost objects and that kind of thing. But I'm not impressed much by their performance. Everybody has telepathic experiences all the time. These things are not rare. It's just an integral part of life. The faculty is probably increased to some extent by any consciousness expanding drug.''

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