From: mporter@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mitchell Porter)
Subject: RFD?:: talk.psychedelic (was Re: RFD?: alt.drugs.lsd)
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 04:13:07 GMT

At around the same time that the first suggestion of an "LSD newsgroup"
appeared I was discussing in email the possibility of a newsgroup devoted
to the "psychedelic experience" in general, and its psychological and
philosophical ramifications. I tend to agree with the people who have 
reservations (to say the least) about creating an alt.drugs.* hierarchy,
but I would argue that there is a case for creating a "talk.psychedelic"
along the lines mentioned above, as it would be a place not just for
people to post accounts of their wildest trips, but to actually discuss
the ideas of people like Leary, Lilly and McKenna, whose philosophies
have been heavily influenced by reflection upon their own experiences with
psychedelic drugs.
  Some excerpts from the email discussion:

... I [vote] for the creation of a newsgroup on
the subject of "what happens" or "what it's like" when you use psychedelics,
rather than the vague or evasive discussions that usually appear on alt.drugs.
The bottom line [is] fear of government opinion, or even intervention. After
all, LSD is still a controlled substance.

I believe that USENET is a society independent of "traditional government"'s
rule. The only government that exists on USENET is that which has evolved
since the creation of individual newsgroups in order to maintain "smooth"
information flow between discrete subsocieties of USENET and to prevent
catastrophic interruptions or surges in information flow. Clearly, that is
not a problem as the result of discussions about personal psychedelic
experiences or theory-creating on the nature of reality.

It's been months since I've read about the formalities of newsgroup creation,
so I'm not sure what the procedure is today. I believe we need some kind of
charter that states what the purpose of the group is, then there's a vote(?).

...and later:

I like the idea of alt.psychedelic or talk.psychedelic; probably the talk
hierarchy would be more appropriate, and it gets less censorship from "stuffy"
organizations...

Perhaps we should try defining the purpose of the group as discussion
specifically related to the psychedelic experience itself, including personal
experiences, perspectives, philosophies, theories, or religions. Other
related topics of discussion might include out-of-body experiences, time
distortions, cosmic or inner space interactions with non-humans, inner body
or inner mind travel, cognitive metaprogramming techniques, and creative or
inspirational post-trip motivations. These name only a few topics related to
the psychedelic experience today. The formation of a newsgroup would be an
invitation to others who wish to openly discuss psychedelic experiences or
activities that our "free" society considers taboo, yet are beautiful and
inspirational, nevertheless.

You may post this and our last discussion to alt.config (is it alt?) if you
wish. The above paragraph could almost serve as the charter itself, if you
think it's alright. You could add more if you think I missed anything
important.


[me again] So at this stage I am not submitting a charter or anything so
definite; think of this as an inquiry, to see if people are interested in the
possibility of a group along the lines of talk.psychedelic as described here.
Please post support, comments and/or suggestions, or contact me via email.