Andy Roberts interview

by Malcolm Paul

Andy Roberts Introduction

Andy Roberts is sometimes described as an ‘Acid Historian’, but prefers the description of himself as a ‘Historian of Britain’s Psychedelic Culture’.

Author of 13 books on a whole range of subjects, from ‘UFOs’ to ‘Celtic Gods’ as well as the thrilling biography of Michael Hollingshead ‘Divine Rascal‘ and ‘Acid Drops’, he gives faces to the people and their Acid exploring stories – including Andy himself.

Andy has established that LSD was comfortably at home in the UK before it crossed the Atlantic and became the alternative mind expanding cultural celebrity that it grew into from the Sixties onwards in the United States.

‘Hijacked‘ is the word often used to describe the kidnap of a thriving, therapeutic, experimental LSD culture that existed in the UK before it hopped across the ‘’pond’ and blew Transatlantic minds as well.

Andy has reclaimed the UK birthright of LSD and set that record  straight informatively and insightfully in a classic book ‘Albion Dreaming’ – now available in a new bumper, chapter by chapter revised edition that I recommend you buy as new or in many cases – such as mine –  a supplement to their original copy.

I really recommend that if you have an interest in psychedelic history and culture you get reading Andy’s books – if Breaking Convention will allow me, I’d like to quote a little resume of Andy’s other interests and his relationship with Breaking Convention, an enlightened gathering of like-minded people that meets once a year to keep psychedelic culture alive and enriched for followers and contributors alike.

It was a topic I was eager to discuss with Andy during the interview, and he was happy to elucidate.

“Andy Roberts has been involved with Breaking Convention since the beginning, and is the friendly face on our merchandise and book stall. In addition to this role, Andy is a historian of Britain’s LSD psychedelic culture and author of Albion Dreaming: A Social History of LSD in Britain, Acid Drops, Divine Rascal, and In Search of Smiles. 

His other research interests include, listening to music, hill walking, beach combing, reading, landscapes and their mysteries, natural history and paranormal phenomena. Musically, he has been severely influenced and affected by the Grateful Dead and the Incredible String Band among a host of others. He first fell down the rabbit hole in 1972 and has been exploring the labyrinth of passages ever since. His views on the psychedelic experience are (basically) – You take a psychedelic and you get high. What happens after that is largely the result of dosage, set and setting.”

When we talked about Literature and the LSD experience Andy singled out this gem from the great Mersey Bard, Roger McGough’s ‘Poem for LSD Week’ which is simply “mind, how you go”, which just about sums it up.

For any more about Andy I offer our interview and suggest visiting online links and the books available.

Q) You recently took part in the ‘Breaking Convention‘ gathering at Exeter University (17-19 May 2025).
I think it might be a good place to start if you could tell the readers – myself included – what that event is all about and what type of people attend?

A) Breaking Convention is a three-day conference covering all aspects of psychedelic drugs and their culture. It began in 2011 and is held every two years. The first one was at the University of Kent in Canterbury, then it was at the University of Greenwich for several years and it has been held at the campus of Exeter University since 2023. All kinds of people attend, from psychedelic neophytes to grizzled psychedelic veterans.

Q) What range of subjects do you talk about?

A) Everything from the science of psychedelic drugs to their medical and psychotherapeutic uses, their history and culture. Anyone can submit a paper and over the three days there are over 100 presentations. There are also psychedelic art galleries, rituals, installations and performances as well as book and other stalls. Perhaps its greatest allure is the chance for people to meet and hang out with people who all share the same interests, the chance to talk to psychedelic movers and shakers, authors and elders. BC is unique and anyone with the slightest interest in psychedelics and their culture should go. I’ve made some very good friends at Breaking Convention and met and talked to key people in world psychedelic culture.

Q) Is an agenda available?

A) The BC website gives all the information you need and in addition most of the talks are filmed and are available free on BC’s Youtube channel.

Q) What role did you play in BC, and how can people find out more about what took place?

A) I have had minor involvement in BC since it began and have given talks at each of the events as well as having several book launches there. I also help run the BC book and merchandise stall.

Q) I read on Facebook that one of the speakers, Tom O’Neill, spoke about Charlie Manson and his possible connection with the CIA, Acid experiments and MKUltra.
I mean where would you be able to listen to or read about what Tom was speaking about?

A) Yes, O’Neill’s book Chaos! is one of the best, most detailed researched books I have read. The guy has devoted over 20 years of his life to researching what/who and why Charles Manson became who he was. Tom doesn’t claim to have the definitive answer to the Manson events but he has demonstrably proved that the accepted narrative is wrong and the US prosecutor lied numerous times to get across the idea it was all to do with Charlie wanting to foment a race war. O’Neill has unearthed disturbing evidence which suggests Manson may have been part of an MKULTRA operation and was taught how to control people with acid and, whilst I am usually very sceptical of conspiracy theories, O’Neill’s evidence just can’t be ignored. I recommend anyone interested to read the book and watch the two part Netflix documentary of the same name and/or check out O’Neill being interviewed by Joe Rogan, or one of the many other Youtube interviews he has done. You won’t regret it!

Q) Has anyone ever accused you and your fellow ‘acidheads’ of being some kind of cult?
Perhaps ‘acidheads’ is the wrong term? Would you prefer another group name or is that how ‘straights‘ think?

A) A cult implies a leader, which doesn’t exist so whilst people may level that accusation it’s a load of nonsense. We are all leaders of our own cults!

Q) Are you ok with the description of yourself as an ‘Acid Historian‘?

A) Yes, though I prefer Historian of Britain’s Psychedelic Culture.

Q) Do you just get labelled a bunch of old Hippies?

A) I *am* an old hippie so I don’t mind that at all.

Q) I would probably fall into that category as well, a man who wants to ‘relive ‘, hang on to some Golden era in the past where visionaries like William Blake saw Angels in trees while listening to the Incredible String Band in an orchard. What do you think?

A) There’s nothing wrong with visionaries and indeed I think the world could do with more of them, and the ISB should be the soundtrack to everyone’s visions!

Q) Do people ever ask you if you have a room set aside from the ‘Convention‘ bit where you have candles/drapes and bean bags and you all sneak off and drop a tab or two?
Go on Andy ‘spill the beans’, I’m not a Daily Star reporter.
Or are all happenings very respectable?

A) I’m sure substances are consumed at BC but people are discreet as no one would want to prejudice the integrity of the event, which could lead to it being banned.

Q) I notice that attendees also wear lanyards that show you are entitled to lunch.’Meal Voucher’?

A) Yes, the lanyards are made from donated blotter art, sadly not dosed.

Q) It all seems very organised. Not too organised I hope.
Looking at the photos of people scrambling to buy merchandise it looks like a pretty mixed collection of lovely people having a good time. True?

A) I think that’s a perfect description. The small group of organisers spend a year or so putting each event together.

Q) Do you think it would ever be possible to recreate events like those in 1965 and 1968, mentioned below?

“Celebrations take place to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Poetry Incarnation, which saw over seven thousand people flock to London’s Royal Albert Hall to witness the birth of the 60’s counterculture. Among those taking part in the original event were poets Allen Ginsberg, Alexander Trocchi, Harry Fainlight, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Horovitz and photographer John “Hoppy” Hopkins”

“R.D. Laing, a prominent psychiatrist, was associated with the Albert Hall poetry event in 1965, and later, the Dialectics of Liberation Conference at the Roundhouse in 1967. His work and ideas were also strongly connected to the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He challenged conventional approaches to psychiatry and mental illness, advocating for a more humanistic and existential approach.”

A) Yes, in fact BC pretty much fulfils that description. But yes, those kinds of psychedelic celebrations could easily take place.

Q) Andy, do you think that we could ever create such incredible cultural events as we did in the 1960s where we can get so many great innovators, revolutionaries and cultural game changers under one roof so to speak?
Or would everybody be huddled around a computer screen doing a ‘face to face’ zoom meeting?

A) In this way I’m pleased to say ‘Breaking Convention’ is doing just that.

Q) I think it’s fair to say that LSD was the significant part of both events: ‘The International Poetry Incarnation’ and the ‘Dialectics of Liberation Conference’ – the multi coloured elephant in the room (bit like Elmer, if you’ve ever read that to your kids at bedtime). Is that a fair comment?

A) I think BC is the closest we have to such events these days. The digital world is inescapable and I think the psychedelic community in Britain uses it very well to organise and stage events, communicate information and connect people.

Q) Andy I had to look up and see if taking LSD and Magic Mushrooms was still illegal – silly me.
I remember reading somewhere where you said that you weren’t “encouraging anyone to break the law”- I paraphrase.
Is this still the case that we must obey archaic, out-of-date laws written by alcoholics in Parliament?

A) An individual’s decision to break the law must be based on their informed conscience! It’s an interesting area for many important reasons. A ‘law’ implies there is a crime and thus a victim. But taking acid in and of itself does not have a ‘victim’, as people take the drug voluntarily, so what is the ‘crime’? Also, and many people see this as a semantic argument, but it’s not and I can’t stress this enough- acid is not illegal, because no drug or material object can be illegal, only human actions pertaining to it, such as manufacture, distribution, possession etc. And it’s not illegal to be high, although you have to be in possession to be so! Acid- all drugs- are in fact controlled, which then opens up the question as to who controls them and for what reason. We should also remember that acid became a controlled drug on the basis of no medical evidence or scientific study, but on media scare stories from America. Until September 1966 it could be bought in chemists, from drug companies and/or prescribed by a doctor.

Q) Taking successive Governments of both parties past record there isn’t going to be a change or liberalisation of any Drug Legislation in the near future. What do you think?

A) Personally I don’t believe there will be. Many people see the medical use of acid as being the gateway to recreational use being permitted but I very much doubt that. It’s my belief that governments should have no say in what adult individuals can put in their body, or by what method they choose to alter their consciousness. Governments should exist solely to protect the country, build roads and houses etc not govern private lives. In addition, there’s nothing in it for the government. Unlike decriminalising cannabis which would raise massive amounts in tax money there would be little financial gain from decriminalising acid. It’s a classic example of a government trying to control the consciousness of its subjects and, imo, the reason why it was outlawed in 1966 and further cracked down on in the free festival years of the 70s and beyond.

Q) Has anyone ever been arrested while ‘tripping’?

A) I have heard of that happening to people. Assuming one doesn’t panic it should be manageable and a great story to tell!

Q) I guess it would be pretty weird putting someone’s ‘state of mind’ in the Dock, wouldn’t it?

A) Micheal Hollingshead conducted his own defence on acid when in court during May 1966. He still got sent down, but realised the absurdity of being tried for trying to alter his own and others’ consciousness and thought defending himself on acid would be fun. I write about this in my biography of Hollingshead, Divine Rascal.

Q) Donovan was once arrested for tripping – but then again – he did jump naked onto the back of a policeman.
I suppose you should be cautious of the company you keep when tripping?

A) He couldn’t have been arrested *for* tripping as there is no such charge.

Q) Do you have any opinion on the legality or otherwise of taking LSD or Magic Mushrooms?
( I used that term generically to cover all types of organic plants/fungi, etc that cause one to hallucinate and hopefully have a good time).

A) See answer re law, above, it’s even more ludicrous when applied to fungi which grows all over Britain. I don’t think the laws against fungi use put off anyone from taking it, although several people have been arrested and charged.

Q) Is it becoming harder to apply the strong arm of the law to so-called illegal drugs when we see a legal, societal and medical crossover use of drugs such as Cannabis/Ketamine/LSD/ Phybocillin taking place?

A) Yes because people are openly flouting the law. Most towns now smell of cannabis and even when the police come across people smoking weed they tend to get let off with a caution at most, at least for the first offence. The police, rightly or wrongly, seem to go after dealers and importers of drugs these days rather than end users.

Q) Do you think it’s getting harder to know who to bust and why?

A) Much harder because, in the case of acid, if you’re sat at home tripping or in the outdoors how would anyone know?! Acid is easy to conceal or dispose of in the event of a plod problem so unless someone is unlucky and it is found by search or search warrant I think it is very hard to be bust – even at festivals where acid use is widespread, arrests for it are low.

Q) Or who’s taking what and for what reason?

A) Ah yes, and with acid how would the police know someone was tripping. We don’t light up you know (even though it sometimes feels like we do!)

Q) I detect amongst the general population a bit of confusion as to what’s happening when it comes to the use of drugs like LSD – you can watch a documentary about people with severe depression being clinically treated with LSD and then a lot of ‘stoners’ off their face dancing at Burning Man and wonder what the fuck is going on. What do you think?

A) Yes, because most people haven’t got a clue about acid, what it does or why people take it. This situation is made more complex when, as you say, there are documentaries about its medical use on one hand but on the other, festivals of people who are very high on psychedelics just having a good time, which raises this very important point…

Many people these days are focussed on acid as being a ‘medicine’ or perhaps a ‘sacrament’ and its true, it can be used or framed as either of those qualities and yes, it can bestow what Huxley called a ‘gratuitous grace’ but let’s not forget that acid can be taken purely for pleasure, good old cosmic fun, and I think this aspect is often played down these days, as if it has to be used in some ‘worthy’ way to justify it us. Ken Kesey would be turning in his grave! I began to and continue to take acid because I believed it would be fun and show me how weird the world was and that alone seems to me to be a good reason. It won’t show you the ‘secret of the universe’ but it might show you there is no secret!

More of that later.

Q) In your book ‘Acid Drops’ you describe your first LSD trip as being disastrous – you talk about that also in the interview you gave to Psychedelic Frontier. Could you tell us more?

A) It was the archetypal ‘bad trip’. I was just gone 16 and had desperately wanted to try acid for ages. I had read everything I could about it and then one night at a very rowdy drunken house party someone sold me a green microdot (this was September 1971 and it was almost certainly on of Richard Kemp’s early microdots). Nothing happened so after 30 minutes I made the rookie mistake of taking another one. For reasons I was never sure of, someone punched me in the face and in that moment the universe exploded and for the next 12 hours or so I was plunged into a living hell of demons, 100-foot tall ice-warriors riding across the night sky in vast armies (I’d been reading a lot of Michael Moorcock) and, as the night progressed, an encounter with the ultimate source of evil itself, waaaay beyond simplistic constructs like ‘the devil’. I tried to put my head in the gas oven and it took several people to restrain me. The full story is in Acid Drops but suffice to say my world view was shattered and the after effects (thinking the world and everyone in it was an illusion created by ‘the devil’ to torment me) lasted for at least six months and even now 54 years later I can still feel the echoes of that trip when I’m on acid. Luckily I met my wife-to-be shortly after that trip and she was able to ground me until the acid psychosis faded.

Q) I contrasted that with one of my favourite pieces in ’PsypressUK’ volume 2 where you recount how Allen Ginsberg acted as a guide on Tom Maschler’s first Acid trip in the Welsh mountains. Do you remember?

A) Ginsberg’s poem about that \Welsh acid trip, Wales Visitation, is probably the best poem written about a trip. There are several videos on Youtube of him reading it.

The other contender is Roger McGough’s ‘Poem for LSD Week’ which is simply ‘mind, how you go’, which just about sums it up.

Q) I was never much of an Allen Ginsberg fan but I have to credit him with being an excellent companion to Tom when they set of a transcendental experience in the typically belligerent Welsh weather, must have been one of the most elemental experiences taken this side of Haight Ashbury.
This account is also in ‘Dropping Acid’ and having met Tom Maschler a couple of times I should imagine he was very grateful for Allen’s support. Can we read more?

A) Readers interested in the full story of Ginsberg’s trip and the writing of Wales Visitation can find the full story in Acid Drops.

Q) It almost goes without saying that the first experience of ‘psychedelic medicine ‘ should be a pleasant positive experience like sex, instead of waking up in a Hieronymus Bosch painting and screaming when things go ‘bad’.
Lots of people give up taking Acid when they have a couple of really bad trips. I imagine they are not getting something right or they have picked the wrong company or environment?

A) That was certainly my experience. But I wouldn’t want people to be put off. If one pays careful attention to set and setting, doesn’t take a heroic dose and is with like-minded people there’s every chance the experience will be magnificent and world shattering; Certainly the latter. You’re never the same person again after a profound psychedelic experience!

Q) Do you think people should set aside those bad experiences and persevere?

A) Yes, my reasoning was, if it can be that bad the opposite must also be true, and so it was! I don’t think acid is an ‘easy’ drug, you have to be prepared to put some effort in in terms of intention, attention etc.

Q) Or are my contemporary and older friends right in saying ”well it was something we did
in the past but we’ve moved on now’?

A) I often meet people who say they did acid when they were young and enjoyed it, so I ask why they stopped. Their reasons are many, family, work, ‘growing up’, lack of availability, the law etc. But often they are excuses because the sheer power of the psychedelic experience is overwhelming. Equally many people turned to various religions or belief systems after powerful acid experiences because they needed some kind of philosophical framework to make sense of it all. Hinduism and Buddhism were very popular. These days it’s more likely to be animism or pantheism.

There’s no need to consign the psychedelic experience to youthful experimentation though. There’s lots of acid about these days so no reason not to take it if people wish to.

Q) I guess suggesting life changing LSD experiences are only for the young?

A) Not at all. I have known many people who didn’t take acid until their 30s, 40s etc and \I know people in their 80s who still indulge and have done so for over 60 years. I wouldn’t advise it for the very young, i.e. under 16 (although many people have taken it when under 16, accidentally or deliberately, without any problem). The main thing is to take it if you want to and don’t if you don’t want to.

Q) I haven’t actually met many people of my age (68) and older who are still taking LSD, have you?

A) I know many in their 60s and above (I’m 69) who use and have used acid since they were young including many who had professional careers in teaching, the police, social housing, numerous authors etc. I always tried to bring my ‘acid vision’ to work and to treat people as intelligent, free, human beings who didn’t need to be ‘controlled’ and also to try and get people to see just how amazing the world and they are; to see the extraordinary in the ordinary (Blake’s heaven in a grain of sand etc).

Q) I wonder what it’s like looking back over a life lived and now entering the twilight years and see that huge experience of life through the prism of a LSD experience.

A) Enormous fun, and taking acid in later life is very therapeutic and an excellent tool to use to analyse relationships past and present as well as being an insightful tool with which to contemplate the inevitability of death (I had a stroke in February and acid has certainly focused my thoughts on the matter). A couple of years ago I did the funeral eulogy for my old ‘acid mentor’ and did not shy away from his love of acid and recounted many of his psychedelic adventures which entertained the congregation enormously.

Q) Perhaps it would be a positive way to look back in peace at what life has meant to you and how living life is affecting the way that you think now.
I think it wouldn’t be a good idea – as you pointed out on several occasions, to take LSD if you have experienced a lot of trauma in your life – or in the present. How do you feel about it?

A) It can be a risk because acid is a non-specific sensory amplifier so it will amplify whatever lurks in the subconscious and will always draw it out. There’s no hiding from yourself when on acid! Some people can handle this, especially with a good guide, for others it can just make things worse. Another reason why set and setting is key!

Q) Do you know if people/groups who continue to take LSD later in life – a sort of ‘Age Unconcerned – High As A Kite Unconcerned’ exist?

A) I still take acid with a friend I first tripped with in 1974 and we are still very much ‘age-unconcerned’!

Q) Is it true that Aldous Huxley took LSD on his deathbed in California in order to experience a heightened awareness of the experience of death and communicate some profound knowledge to his followers grouped around his bed, only to have them all sat in the other room crying their eyes out as the news of President Kennedy’s assassination and death began to hit the TV screens?

A) Yes, he persuaded his wife to inject him with two doses, against the wishes of the doctor present. What’s the worst that could happen, he was dying!

Q) Would you consider that bad timing or just bad luck? Reality can be unpredictable!!!

A) I think Aldous was too far gone to care at that point!

Q) My first Acid trip was in 1973 at the age of 16. I was at college retaking ‘O’Levels and a friend who was five years older, an Italian guy, a real hippy, gave me my first tab of Acid (Purple Pyramid) at his place. He put on Balinese Temple music and said all the soothing right things a guide would do and I had an amazing experience…
So I guess I was one of the lucky ones.
Though you can keep the Balinese Temple chimes, they remind me of someone stacking up bamboo in a hurry.

A) I quit like a bit of Gamelan but I see what you mean!

Q) Do you think that your first unfortunate experience might have put you off for good?

A) It does for some. Acid is not for everyone. I think my problem was I was too keen to take it and should have let it find me in its own time so I could have given more thought to the set and setting.

“The first maxim is to treat psychedelics with the utmost respect and pay due diligence to your set (your beliefs, what mood you are in etc.) and setting (your physical environment). If you’ve just finished a long week at work and split up with your girlfriend then taking acid and popping down to your local Death Metal club is unlikely to result in a fruitful experience, for instance! And that principle goes for even the most experienced high dose user.”

“If you disrespect psychedelics they will, at some point bite back, kick your ass, turn you inside out and show you just how stupid you were!”

Q) I hope people who read your books and contemplate taking Acid listen to your very good
advice before doing so.

A) So do I, although I wouldn’t want to be prescriptive. People can do as they please, provided they are prepared to accept the consequences. Set and setting are of the utmost importance and can change a trip from bad to good- or vice versa – in a matter of seconds. I believe music is key here. There is a huge body of work created by musicians who created music for people to listen to while tripping. It’s not just a matter of listening to what you like, although that might work (it might not also, I once had to sit through several Kate Bush albums until my tripping partner conceded that Kate probably didn’t intend her songs to be listened to under the fluence). My favourite musical choices for psychedelic journeys have always been bands like the Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish, David Crosby, etc as well as more contemplative, philosophical stuff like the \incredible \tringe \band and Popol Vuh. Basically old hippie music. Those people knew what they were doing and how to make music that would enhance and deepen the psychedelic experience.

Q) I think in the early experimental days of Acid a lot more emphasis was placed on how to support someone having an experience with LSD.
Did Rave Generation get a bit ‘gung ho’ with just ‘wtf’ tripping’?
Plus they didn’t seem to see the acid experience as anything other than having a good time and getting off on the music – just the same as the 1960s – except not the Grateful Dead for four hours.

A) Nothing wrong with using acid for just a good time!, nothing at all. But remember, ravers were often dancing all night, often outside and acid, especially if mixed with MDMA (which results in a ‘stratospheric’ experience) helped supply the motive power for such exercise. I never really ‘got’ house/dance music until I heard it under the influence of MDMA and I would strongly suggest the rave scene would not have been what it was without MDMA.

Q) I mean nobody wants a manual or a log book for the journey of a lifetime but having had some pretty bad subsequent experiences with acid I would recommend a good guide, company and environment for all trips, not just the first.
I have never encouraged anyone to take LSD, including my own children and friends when they had asked me about it.

A) I would never encourage anyone to take acid but I firmly believe that everyone should have at least one powerful psychedelic experience in their lifetime as a kind of initiation into just how strange and complex the world, humanity and *they* are. It’s not compulsory, but it would deepen and enrich their experience of being alive in ways that only become obvious at the time.

Q) The interviewer for ‘Psychedelic Frontier’ pipped me to the post when it came to a question I had primed on ‘micro dosing ‘ – is it for the faint hearted? Amateur voyager? Not as it was in our day an experience for the fearless intrepid explorer – a bit like the exploits of a Dr.Livingstone of inner consciousness going like crew of the Enterprise to a place where no man has been before?

A) I think many people are confused about microdosing, which is taking a dose of acid that isn’t perceptual – a homeopathic dose almost – with the benefits allegedly being felt later in other ways than the obvious. I’ve tried microdosing and found it to be a waste of good drugs! ‘Taking a bit’ of acid on the other hand lies somewhere between a full and microdose, useful if you want to be high but still in complete control, for going to a museum or a party perhaps (indeed this method is known as the ‘museum dose ‘). You can always take more, but you can’t take less! I’ve used this latter method for hill walking (Crib Goch and Striding Edge on acid is quite something).

Q) As you wrote once, I paraphrase – take a dosage that suits you and your own individual situation?

A) Indeed, you can always take more but you can’t take less and there’s nothing worse than that sensation you get when you realise you might have overdone it and have to mentally buckle up for the next few hours!

Q) Though I’m just reading about Elon Musk who is having a problem getting his dosage right and he’s becoming even more unhinged than he already is on Ketamine and acid.

A) Proof that acid can’t make twats into people they aren’t!

Q) I recently interviewed the artist Samara Kupferberg – (yes, Tuli’s daughter lets get that out of the way) and I asked her about all things New Age and what role taking some drugs had on a younger generation and was it the same philosophy as perhaps her father and his anarchic band of mind expanding revolutionaries, who were determined to levitate the Pentagon and change the world.
This was her reply:

“There is most definitely a growing trend, if you will, of spiritual growth, meditation, holistic health and wellness practices, mind expansion, etc. I would say that here at least, many people still use drugs to access more explorative states of mind. Micro-dosing on mushrooms as well as using ketamine to assist in mental health and healing are quite popular currently. I suppose the micro dosing part is a newer concept and maybe people are not quite as eager to go fully into a mind blowing psychedelic trip as they were in previous generations. I personally am a huge advocate of cannabis in all forms and definitely find that it expands and enhances my creative energy and focus, as well as uplifting my mood and overall general attitude.”

Andy, would you like to comment on what Samara said?

A) See answer re microdosing, I think that covers it. Psychedelics can and have been used for every possible reason. There are no limits.

Q) Let’s lighten the mood a bit and look at LSD and its influence on Modern – I mean Twenty/Twenty First Century culture. Your book ‘Albion Dreaming’ has to be the definitive work on the topic of LSD and how it shaped, or perhaps didn’t our national consciousness…or am I only dreaming?

A) Well, I hope it fulfils that role although I sometimes worry that I might be forcing facts into a history and that there can be many other ways to chart acid’s progress through British society and culture. We need more acid historians!

Q) If I was to be a boring (never), old school Corporate trainer with a flip chart and a marker pen, and I had to single out some bullet points, that summed up the most important times/ influence of LSD in British Culture – setting aside the psychedelic sixties (how can we?), what would be the most radical society changing moments that I would be singling out?

Acid’s influence on music has been huge. Were it not for acid, as an example, we wouldn’t have had the Beatles in the form we had.
Acid’s influence on how people think about ecology, food (wholefoods, macrobiotics, vegetarianism etc were all encouraged by acid heads), body work (yoga and so on) has been immense. The realisation that ‘we are all one’ and everything is interconnected, a vision acid often bestows, is the first step on the road to treating yourself, others and the environment with reverence and care.
The drive for ‘cognitive liberty’, i.e. we should have the legal freedoms to obtain knowledge via psychedelic drugs if we choose, without hindrance or control by the Establishment.

Q) What if I shot my hand up and said the trip sequence in Kubrick’s ‘2001 Space Odyssey‘ or the Man/Monkey reversion in Ken Russell’s ‘Altered States’ with it Learian trip back to the primeval swamp, the ‘brainwashing ‘scene in the Ipcress File, Tina Turner’s ‘Acid Queen’ in ‘Tommy‘ (that quivering bottom lip made a whole generation tremble in their bedrooms), would it be the good depictions of LSD experience?

A) I think when I was taking LSD in the 1970s it was easier to tap into the music to enhance the experience than read about it or watch the film.

Q) Though I did think the ‘cemetery scene ‘in ‘Easy Rider‘ (not an English film obviously) was a much better depiction of the Acid experience than say ‘2001 Space Odyssey’. Kubrick’s visualisation felt like what he thought an Acid trip would be like, rather than something he had personally experienced. Do you agree?

A) Yes, the cemetery scene is, to my mind, a good representation of an acid experience. Easy Rider is one of my favourite films and influential on many levels. The ‘bridge scene’ in Apocalypse Now where Lance drops a trip and wanders around amazed at the light show caused by a VC attack is another good one; it’s entirely possible the actor was tripping.

 

Q) I have to confess I never saw the 1967 Roger Colman film ‘The Trip’, maybe I should put it on my bucket list.
Despite The New York Times writing:

“The New York Times wrote, “Is this a psychedelic experience? Is this what it’s like to take a trip? If it is, then it’s all a big put-on. Or is this simply making a show with adroitly staged fantasy episodes and good color photography effects? In my estimation, it is the latter. And I would warn you that all you are likely to take away from the Rivoli or the 72d Street Playhouse, where the picture opened yesterday, is a painful case of eye-strain and perhaps a detached retina.”

The LSD experiences described in literature and film:

Julian Cope’s first Acid trip ‘Head-On’, pages 121-124 attempt to describe an acid trip:

“Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahagahahahaha”.

Is it possible to describe taking LSD in writing?

A) It’s not easy, but it can be done. I think Alan Watts in The Joyous Cosmology made the best attempt at writing about the psychedelic experience, showing how thoughts, things and ideas melt into each other, connections come and go and the wonder of the world is slowly changed and revealed yet stays exactly the same.

Q) Dave Savage?

“If you haven’t taken LSD you don’t fucking understand anything.”

A) I think this chimes with my suggestion that everyone should take acid at least once in their life. On the other hand you might realise you understand things less but want to find out more.

Q) Do you have a message for Dave?

A) I understand you Dave!

Q) Julian Cope puts lots of ‘whooshes’ in his description of taking LSD in his book ‘Head On’. Is it possible to describe the experience of an Acid trip when you can’t compare it like for like?
You write in ‘Acid Drops’ that there are few poets who tackle the acid experience. Is that because it’s basically indescribable?
I mean I’m a writer and I wouldn’t like to attempt it.

A) I’ve tried it a few times, most notably in the short piece of psychedelic fiction Misty \Mountain Drop, I wrote for Acid Drops.

I guess my ‘whoosing’ isn’t much different to Julian’s ‘ whoosing or ‘ Ahahahahahah etc

Q) I once asked a girl I used to know from the ‘old days’ whether she missed taking LSD? Her reply was that yes, she missed the “squiggly bits”.
Do you think she has a future as a chronicler of the Acid experience?

A) I think there’s more to it than the ‘squiggly bit’ but if that’s what she liked…

Q) Culture never stops. Assuming people are still taking Acid, are we seeing a continuing cultural impact in society? If so, where is it?

A) It isn’t obvious, but it’s there. I think its effects are seen in how the kids of acid heads grew up and what they chose for their careers, how they live etc, how people are still organising small festivals at which people can safely get high and enjoy themselves, the increase in ecological awareness etc (as per my comments further back), the medical benefits that are being seen in LSD trials.

Q) Andy, I confess I don’t have an updated version of Albion Dreaming.
I have been busy re-reading your other books as part of preparing for this interview.
Is it possible to briefly sum up what you cover in the new revised edition?

A) Each chapter had been thoroughly overhauled, updated etc, with additional information for most chapters. The main addition has been an appendix containing the text of a lecture given by Dr John Beresford to a London church group in 1966 about the effects of acid. Beresford was a close friend of Michael Hollingshead and it was he who facilitated the acquisition of the ‘magic gram’ of LSD from Sandoz which Hollingshed used some of to turn Tim Leary on for the first time.

Q) I think a lot of the New Comedians with their Surrealist ad lib humour sound like they’ve taken Acid at some time.
What do you think?

A) Some of it but it’s hard to know which bits/ \acid is so pervasive that we can assume it has tinged most areas of culture and has itself become a sort of meme. I often see people describing something as being like ‘??? On acid’ and people immediately know that’s cultural shorthand for something being weird, colourful etc.

Q) Andy, as we come to the end of a long interview, I get to what is probably the most difficult question. The question about the new internet/social media era allowing all kinds of dangerous conspiracy theories in under the umbrella of New Age and LSD cultural beliefs and how that might be harming the image of something people like me felt part of and what contributed something to our lives that was inspirational and positive but has now become
frightening and more than a little crazy. I don’t want to be an advertising platform for all
the wild theories out there at the moment – but ‘Deep State’s, QAnon, Anunnaki, Anti Vaxxers, Covid deniers, climate change deniers or even Holocaust deniers’ are creeping into the mix and toxifying something good.
Do you think, as a friend of mine suggested, that the Acid experience creates an interconnectedness where everything is joined together and there is a oneness that allows us to suspend or put on hold some of our more logical beliefs so that we can contemplate the existence or not of UFOs, extraterrestrials colonising the earth, Bigfoot or Nessie?
I mean it’s all very harmless, and yes in my Acid taking days I was signed up to loads of similar beliefs and theories.

A) Acid only amplifies what you’ve got so if you have leanings towards fringe beliefs; ufos, bigfoot etc then you may well end up going down a conspiratorial rabbit hole! Conversely acid tends to make people think deeply and do help protect people from conspiratorial THOUGHTS. Question everything, as Leary used to say.

Q) But now I think the tent is bigger, and the way in is open and easier to get in via the internet and social media.
We all like the experience of being able to enjoy the interconnectedness of the world and universe and all that’s in it, but we also don’t like to share that beautiful world with ‘bad, dangerous and crazy types’. Can we keep them out? Do you think they are harming the New Age Acid culture and do you find yourself having to separate yourself from it and speak out at gatherings such as ‘Breaking Convention‘ ? Would you deny a platform to certain people if their views were too extreme?

A) As long as people aren’t trying to support, promote or advocate negative stuff like racism, sexism etc I think all points of view would be allowed, no matter what they were.

Q) How do we counter such an unwelcome infiltration?

A) By making opposing views just as clear and arguing the opposition..

Q) Andy, I didn’t want to end with a ‘down note’, so my last question is about the future of Acid culture. (We can put the crazies back in the asylum for a minute.)
How do you envisage the future of the use of Acid as a positive influence that would hopefully make the world a better place to live in?
Young people are so into Dystopian stories and that kind of vision of the world that it’s hard to convince them that there is an alternative. I mean, it’s hard with what is going on in the world but we both are old enough to know it wasn’t exactly a paradise in the past, but there was definitely more hope and a vision for a better future and an alternative way to live in this world – that seems to have disappeared. (I have two Millennial age sons). Do you think with a better understanding of using drugs like LSD and mushrooms, that we might find a better and brighter future.

A) I’d like to think all of the above will take place but it’s more likely things will continue as they are; individuals will continue to access the psychedelic experience, have their ‘minds blown’ and take the insights from that experience into their daily lives and hopefully want to spread the psychedelic gospel to others. They might not change the world but by changing themselves at least they’ve made a start! As Daevid Allen used to say ‘Somebody somewhere has got to be high!’

Q)If I walked into your home now what would you be listening to?
And what type of music do you listen to when you are writing ,if at all?

A)Re listening, if I listen to anything whilst writing it has to be something fairly abstract, otherwise I get too involved in listening. So I tend to listen to stuff like Miles Davies’ In A Silent Way, anything by Popol Vuh, Brian Eno or other ambient music. Quite often though I’ll write in silence or just listening to the birds in the garden. 

If you were to walk into the house today or at any time in the past few weeks, you’d find me listening to Bob Weir & Wolf Brothers, Live in Colorado which is Bob Weir, ex of the Grateful Dead, performing his own and Dead songs with classical musicians, a horn section and so on, amazing musical investigations of songs I’ve lived with for the past 50 years.

Thank you for your time and patience Andy, I hope we can turn this online Q&A into a positive experience for us and the people reading it.