The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH one. Psychologically, the result is that one is thrown into an absolutely perfect state of introspection. One perceives one’s thoughts and nothing but one’s thoughts, and it is as thoughts that one perceives them. Material objects are only perceived as thoughts; in other words, in this respect, one possesses the direct consciousness of Berkeleyan idealism. The Ego and the Will are not involved; there is introspec- tion of an almost if not quite purely impersonal type; that, and nothing more. I am not to be understood as asserting that the results of this introspection are psychologically valid. 2. The toxic hallucinative effect (6). With a sufficiently large dose—for it is possible to get effect (2) only as a transient phenomenon—the images of thought pass more rapidly through the brain, at last vertiginously fast. They are no longer recognised as thoughts, but ima- gined as exterior. The Will and the Ego become alarmed, and may be attacked and overwhelmed. This constitutes the main horror of the drug; it is to be combated by a highly— may I say magically >—trained will. I trust my readers will concede that the practice of ceremonial magic and meditation, all occult theories apart, do lead the mind to immense power over its own imaginations. The fear of being swept away in the tide of relentless images is a terrible experience. Woe to who yields! 3. The narcotic effect (y). One simply goes off to sleep. This is not necessarily due to the brain-fatigue induced by (2) and (6); for with one sample of Cannabis, I found it to occur independently.