Richard M Clements - A Trip Along the Spiral of Life

Recreational drugs alter consciousness and people will always want to explore that. When 'tripping' on LSD you can see a massively exaggerated version of how things truly are. Someone in the throws of a strong experience can be wide eyed, toddling, hardly unable to communicate, as though they are seeing the fullness of reality for the first time. Even during a milder episode they notice things that other people don't, but you don't need to see those things to get along in life. Beneath a patina of frivolity such a voyage can be unnecessary and cognitively dangerous.

Imagine that life is a spiral. At the outset we begin in the centre, and then move gradually up or down the spiral as we grow. At the top is an understanding of one's place in the world so glittering and complete, it is a kind of 'death'. At the bottom of the spiral there is death also. Drug-induced learning curves short-cut that natural process of experience. Instead of comfortable progress the cumulative affect is to make giant leaps. The progression is like digging a hole that ends with an epiphany.

In Britain at the end of the 1980's it seemed that a new spirituality was needed to counter the height of capitalism, that the next decade would make the 60's look like the 50's. On the face of it, nothing happened. Apart from a couple of wars in the Middle East and a financial crisis, on the surface of it, the 90's seemed bland. But maybe something gigantic did happen. The 60's saw a social upheaval of groups of people that changed the world. Thirty years later, via train of thought, there may have been another kind of upheaval that was just as far reaching. A revolution of consciousness on an individual level, rather than en-mass.

Through progress usually shared between two people, citizens cultivated an avant-guarde spirituality. All learning curves are unique, but I believed that my own conclusion was bizarrely identical to everybody else's. People were re-born by means of a profound understanding of themselves. What is vital at that juncture is to be content with one's place in the world. Some explorers have enjoyed the journey so much it is easy to keep digging the hole, then fact verifies psychotic belief. Their shovel strikes the rock foundation with sparks that are figments. The downward path becomes ever more slippery, and falling off the spiral completely means to become insane. An unknown land is an exciting prospect, always, but exploring the facets inside your soul is to walk a dangerous road.