High Weirdness

Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies

De: Erik Davis

Narrado por: Erik Davis

An exploration of the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson.

A study of the spiritual provocations to be found in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson, High Weirdness charts the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality that arose from the American counterculture of the 1970s. These three authors changed the way millions of readers thought, dreamed, and experienced reality - but how did their writings reflect, as well as shape, the seismic cultural shifts taking place in America?

In High Weirdness, Erik Davis - America's leading scholar of high strangeness - examines the published and unpublished writings of these vital, iconoclastic thinkers, as well as their own life-changing mystical experiences. Davis explores the complex lattice of the strange that flowed through America's West Coast at a time of radical technological, political, and social upheaval to present a new theory of the weird as a viable mode for a renewed engagement with reality.

©2019 Erik Davis (P)2020 Tantor

Want simple answers, look elsewhere

An historical, cultural archaeological exploration, both objective and subjective, linear and non, of the strange inflection point in humanity's existence that is the 1970's. Davis centers 3 out of the eras many most high authors, Terrence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, and Philip K. Dick, in this erudite, academic, and highly entertaining musing of the times. High Weirdness examines how these psychonauts got there, their place inside its landscape, and how they shaped and simultaneously transformed themselves, Davis, and us in the process. If you are looking for simple answers, look elsewhere, as this work weaves and meanders a crazy quilt of ideas, images, people, places, and trends in religion, philosophy, and ultimately consciousness. Get a glancing, vertiginous peek into how the 70s helped shape humanity at the end of the 20th century, and laid (or deconstructed) the cultural foundations that underpin the 21st. Altered states of consciousness not required, but it certainly helps.

Fascinating and Frustrating in equal measure

This book is a LOT. Lots of great and fascinating insights, everything analyzed from every possible angle and set within every possible context. But frustrating in several ways as well.

Here are the two main areas of frustration:

1) The primary aim of the book is to analyze three famous mystical experiences from the 70s—the McKenna Brothers’ “Experiment at La Chorrera,” Robert Anton Wilson’s “Chapel Perilous,” and Phillips K. Dick’s “2/3/74.” And yet, Davis never clearly explains what these experiences were! Instead of giving coherent overviews at the beginning, then analyzing, he sprinkles details in with the analysis in such a way that I never got a clear sense of what he was really talking about. (Granted, a “coherent overview” is tricky with material like this, but he at least could have tried.)

2) Too much jargon. I’m not a scholar, but I’ve read a decent amount of philosophy, psychedelic literature, and the like. I don’t expect to understand everything in a work such as this, and maybe I wasn’t really the target audience. But it sure seemed that there were plenty of places where he could have been clearer.

Even so, I’m glad I read it as it introduced me to a whole lot of ideas and history I didn’t know about and I look forward to exploring further.

It's good.

I'm not a writer of well written words but this is a good book and you should get it.

A Must For All Weirdo Intellectuals

I felt like this book was written for me. Because how many people are out there who like pulp science fiction, comic books and the Merry Pranksters AND Guittari, Foucault and Baudrillard? Thoroughly fascinating and inspiring, and worth it for the bibliography alone! A deeply weird and wonderful book. I listened to the audiobook & Erik Davis does a great job of reading his own work. Then I bought the paperback, so I could review and study the most intriguing parts because, despite its title and subject matter, this is a scholarly study of “deeply weird shit.”

Психоделический Апостолат

Очередная удивительная книга Дэвиса, которая не хуже той марки расширяет градиент познания. Спасибо чувак!

In the beginning was the Weird.

Weirdness is a part of life. In the subjects of this book, we see a willingness to embrace the weird which is encouraging and exciting.

We also see a grasping at weirdness, an escape into uncertainty and novelty, and it’s consequences.

Read by Erik Davis, the author, who is a great orator and who is, of course, uniquely qualified to wyrd his own words.

Incredibly informative

Erik Davis did an incredible job with the content and his narration really adds to the overall subject. I enjoyed his Terence McKenna impersonation which was spot on. I would recommend this audio book :)

Erik Davis in His Own Words

realy great to be able to hear Davis himself perform the audiobook. Honestly, the freaky voice he chose for McKenna feels even odder when a certain piece of information is ""revealed"" towards the end of the book. Kinda wish he didn't treat the phenomena with so much skepticism; I'd love to read a book-length research on UAs by him, though.

Phenomenal

Phenomenal book. The sci-fi writers, the occult, the Gnostic, the Logos. This is a great book about the fringe of California from the 70s onward.

This is a strong book

I got this for the section on PKD. This is my second time to listen to it and it does not disappoint. The one weakness is the author’s performance. Over all it is solid. It is annoying when he attempts to affect a French accent. I don’t know what PKD sounded like, but Davis’s voice when quoting him doesn’t add to the performance. It is too bad, because, otherwise he provides a professional quality reading.

I highly recommend this book.