True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise

"This is one of my favourite books. Terence McKenna is the pioneer of psychedelics. There’s a revival in interest in the power of psychedelic compounds to treat a whole range of psychiatric disorders, in particular PTSD. In Wales, researchers are conducting trials into the use of MDMA or ecstasy to assist in therapy of PTSD. Other substances are being tested as well. There’s been a great surge of interest in the way psychedelics can be used to treat all kinds of problems because, back in the 1950s, before they were banned, they showed very promising results. There’s been a huge amount of fear, paranoia and repression on the part of the government which is not justified at all by science, but driven by political and ideological considerations. Terence McKenna was one of the leading pioneers who tried to think about psychedelics in a visionary and intelligent but also scientifically rigorous way. His book is an enormously enjoyable read. It is an absolutely mind-bending, mytho-poetic reality on the banks of a river in the Amazon jungle. It challenges every single preconception you might have about the nature of reality and the human mind. It’s an absolutely rip-roaring read. But he was a pioneer who advocated the study of these substances because he saw their potential for transforming people in positive ways, when used responsibly. I think that now, again, researchers in mainstream academic institutions are starting to acknowledge that. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but I think that many of the arguments and insights he provides are relevant for anybody seeing how these substances can be harnessed to help people who we simply can’t reach using all our conventional tools. Just because of fear and ignorance, we missed 50 years of research that could have transformed our ability to help people who are facing immense suffering. I’ve never suffered from PTSD in the classic sense from reporting in war zones, but I have had experiences of depression where I had to take stretches of time off work to recover. That’s something that has happened to me a number of times throughout my life. It is certainly true that my own interest in this field is driven partly by my own experiences, my own journey in finding what would help me to reconnect with the sense of joy and rebuild my own life. Although I don’t write about that journey in the book, I think it opened me up to exploring alternative avenues, alternative ways of thinking about what it means to have a personal crisis, and whether or not it can be the doorway to a new appreciation of life and a new way of being in the world. Having had those experiences and having had my own dark times enabled me to connect with many of the men and women I interviewed in a way that I don’t think I could have done had I not. Although I don’t write about them in the book, certainly they are there in the background. I certainly wouldn’t compare what I’ve been through to anything of the magnitude of the people I interviewed, but I think, ultimately, that some form of breakdown can, in some ways, be the cracking of a shell. Sometimes your old persona has to undergo a form of psychic death before you can emerge. I think that is a universal motif that can resonate with many people, regardless of the experiences they’ve had. The last thing many people struggling with these symptoms are going to do is read a book. We have to be realistic about that. What’s been very rewarding is that I’ve often been approached, after events or talks, by relatives or friends of soldiers and veterans, who bought the book because they were trying to understand what their loved ones are going through. That’s wonderfully gratifying to me, to write a book that’s been a practical help. I also do regularly receive emails from soldiers or former soldiers who have read the book and felt that the stories they’ve read have resonated with and validated their own experiences. One of them, who served in Afghanistan, wrote, ‘I thought I was the only one, but you’ve given me my sanity back.’ Having the opportunity to write a book is an immense privilege for the author. It is very rewarding to see that it has struck a chord and perhaps given some people, who are still trying to find their way out of that tunnel, hope. It’s not always possible to resolve these symptoms. Some people are trapped, but there are other people who are able to get a lot further than they thought possible when they were at their lowest point. The fact that these emails arrive is a sign that it is working. Hopefully, it will encourage more people to come forward and get the kind of help that can really change their lives — I hope sooner rather than later."