From Third Year is the charm

In 2017 I don’t remember the DMT part of this party, but I did in 1976, when I wrote my Antioch Portfolio. It was Trip #4 in the Addendum to Altered States of Consciousness. What I do remember is a circle of about a dozen people passing a joint around, standing at twilight in the dirt area in front of the cottage. It was memorable because the one who passed the joint to me was Neal  Cassady, who  made a huge show of noisy huffing and puffing to extract the absolute essence of the weed before handing it to me. 

I didn’t realize until researching for this page that Chloe Scott’s house was on Perry Lane, where Ken Kesey was writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chloe, at age 40, was the Grande Dame of this little group. Here’s an article about her at age 80.  She was very sweet to me. I remember her fondly. Below is what I wrote in 1976.

P/R: Back in Palo Alto, a pipe of DMT was passed around at a small party whose guests included Neal Cassady, hero of Kerouac’s “On The Road,” and Steve Durkee, later founder of Lama Foundation in New Mexico. Durkee by the way had picked me up hitchhiking on my way back from the first trip in Big Sur. The room and everybody in it turned a warm gold color. Very impressive. I felt like I was in the realm of the gods.

S/K: I learned of the effects of DMT, which was like a very intense fifteen minute LSD trip. Those experienced with the drug would take one inhalation of smoke and immediately lie on their back and close their eyes to wait for the visions.