Sunday 17 May 2020

Film Review: "Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics" (2020).


From Netflix comes Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics. This documentary film directed by Donick Cary. Explore hallucinogenic highs and lows a celebrities share funny, mind-blowing tales via animations, reenactments and more in this documentary. Mixing comedy with a thorough investigation of psychedelics, the film explores the pros, cons, science, history, future, pop cultural impact, and cosmic possibilities of hallucinogens.

Born on October 22, 1920, American psychologist and writer, Timothy Francis Leary, was born and would go on to become a polarising figure due to his strong advocacy for psychedelic drugs. As a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, Leary worked on the Harvard Psilocybin Project from 1960–62 (LSD and psilocybin were still legal in the United States at the time), resulting in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment. Leary believed that LSD showed potential for therapeutic use in psychiatry. He used LSD himself and developed a philosophy of mind expansion and personal truth through LSD. The scientific legitimacy and ethics of his research were questioned by other Harvard faculty because he took psychedelics along with research subjects and pressured students to join in. Leary and his colleague, Richard Alpert (who later became known as Ram Dass), were fired from Harvard University in May 1963. Most people first heard of psychedelics after the Harvard scandal. After leaving Harvard, he continued to publicly promote the use of psychedelic drugs and became a well-known figure of the counterculture of the 1960s. He popularized catchphrases that promoted his philosophy, such as "turn on, tune in, drop out", "set and setting", and "think for yourself and question authority". He also wrote and spoke frequently about transhumanist concepts of space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension (SMI²LE). Leary developed the eight-circuit model of consciousness in his book Exo-Psychology (1977) and gave lectures, occasionally billing himself as a "performing philosopher". Opinions of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. Allen Ginsberg called Leary "a hero of American consciousness." Where as President Richard Nixon described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America". During the 1960s and 1970s, he was arrested often enough to see the inside of thirty-six prisons worldwide.

The film aims to entertain, not educate, as it presents a star-studded parade of celebrity reminiscences about taking hallucinogenic drugs. Mostly, it succeeds. However, listening to celebrities recount their dreams, these anecdotes primarily give the impression that you had to be there (and in that state of mind) to get it. Although the result is mildly amusing, it emanates the distinctive odor of a project that's funnier for the participants than the viewers. Anyone hoping Cary's film might lead to the wider, weirder history of the subject matter - the CIA, youth culture, so on - will be disappointed. Don't come to the film looking for answers, or even much information about psychedelics. But it is a friendly, entertaining and likeably brief collection of yarns and recollections. If nothing else, the film recenters this weirdness in our current reconception of psychedelia.

Simon says Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics receives:


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