…this whole tradition, albeit an underground tradition in western intellectual or aesthetic, based around the perturbation of consciousness with substances. Coleridge comes to mind as an example, and you may know his poem Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan was written in…

…an example, and you may know his poem Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan was written in a flash, basically based on an opium reverie. Coleridge was an officiant of laudanum, which was a tinctured form of opium that had a great vogue in the 19th century. Well, I…

…up. We popped up throughout history. In France, the hashishins, Baudelaire, Gautier, Verlaine. We popped up in England. Wordsworth, Dick Coleridge, Nietzsche. Nietzsche was over there in Germany. You know, he was very sickly. They used to say when you went…

…romantic pursuit of synesthesia through opium that created the first wave of opium addiction in literate english society. I mean, Coleridge and. And de Quincey. And these people were quite consciously trying to use drugs to create and push the definitions…

…And everybody was this stuff from about 1795 through much of the 18th century. Not only the great names associated with it, Coleridge and de Quincey, but Byron and Shelley. All of these people dabbled in opium. Well, what comes out of the english romantic…

…the effort. I mean, to me, you know, it is a miracle to be able to speak poetry. It is a miracle. I mean, when Coleridge wrote and south and south and southward I. We fled and it grew wondrous cold and ice mass high went floating by as green…