Carlos Figueroa

Ways of Knowing
May 5, 2015
Draft 2
It Can Be a Real Trip
Life on Haight St. in the wild and colorful city that is San Francisco, is painted in an
extraordinary fashion throughout Joan Didions Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Particularly, the
chapter titled Life Styles in the Golden Land focuses on the community of hippies on Haight
St. living a life style where the habitual use of drugs such as LSD, crystal meth, and heroin is
extremely popular. As we take this journey with the author into the lives of these young adults
we come to understand how this community perceives the use of drugs and their effects on their
lives. One drug in particular; LSD or acid, is extremely popular among the community and its
effects are characterized as a positive influence amongst the young minds. Taking LSD is
perceived as an experience in which the user is led to discovering love, reaching towards
enlightenment, and removing the ego from oneself to attain a more purified or innocent version
of oneself.
The separation between yourself and your ego that is described by the people of this community
while tripping on acid is viewed as a journey towards the more purified or innocent self. The trip
is perceived as being able to see everything because you are not blinded by your self-entitlement
or your wants, but rather a devotion to a higher self or authority. For example, Didion quotes a
psychiatrist from San Francisco in stating that The themes are always the same. A return to
innocence. The invocation of an earlier authority and control. The mysteries of the blood. An itch
for the transcendental, for purification. (Didion, 125) this describes how LSD amongst other

drugs serve as an outlet to explore for this state of purification or innocence. This statement
makes you think about drugs not as the problem, but as an attempt to find a solution to the larger
symptoms of a social crisis, where we can define ourselves as more honest or natural beings.
In other words, it is a search for an authority better qualified for the authority we lend ourselves
to in todays society. This idea of ego removal through specifically an acid trip is developed
through the character Max when the author writes Some people dont like to go out of
themselves, thats the trouble, you probably wouldnt. Youd probably like only a quarter of a
tab. Theres still an ego on a quarter tab, and it wants things. (Didion, 113) quoting how Max
thinks about the experience of an acid trip. He describes the ego as being separate from the
individual by saying Some people dont like to go outside of themselves. This idea of
separation gets the reader to think about how the removal an ego and its wants can lead to a bad
trip, thus the separation is vital for purification process and also, a good trip. The significance of
the use of the word it is essential in this idea of separation because it is given an attribute nonhuman like and the emphasis on it wants things portrays an ego as having a mind of its own.
The hippies along Haight St. describe the discovery of love as a moment of instinctual
passion or realization. Part of this realization is the often referred to as flashing. Flashing is
the initial feeling which triggers ones interest in another. For instance, Didion writes When I
saw her for the first time on Haight Street, I flashed, I mean flashed. So I started a conversation
about her beads, see, but I didnt care about her beads. (Didion, 117) quoting Max as he
describes the first time he met Sharon. The word flash implies a sort of rush feeling or instinct
that came over him and peaked his interest in Sharon just by seeing her. He started a
conversation because he had to, he had a compelling reason to, he was immediately attracted to
her. Later Didion writes But then she offered me a tab, and I knewAnd then I decided to

flow with it, and that was that, because once you drop acid with someone you flash on, you see
the whole world melt in her eyes. (Didion, 117-118) quoting Max and how he found his love
for Sharon. The passion or love grew more profoundly once they shared the experience of
dropping acid together. The phrase you see the whole world melt in her eyes (Didion, 118) is
significant because he is describing a sense of the world not existing, where it is only him and
her and thats all that matters. In a way the acid brought them together and led them to discover
each others love for each other even from the moment she offered him a tab and he says I
knew. As we come to understand the idea of flashing, we come to understand how Max and
other characters rely on instinct or initial reaction and identify this feeling with coming to know
something and their belief of congruency between these feelings and wisdom or enlightenment.
Dropping LSD as experienced by the young adults in the Haight-Ashbury district of San
Francisco is described as a learning experience in which the user is able to know more and be
more at the same time. For example, Didion states I try to meet his gaze directly because he
once told me he could read character in peoples eyes, particularly if he has just dropped acid,
(Didion, 114) describing how Deadeye; the local LSD dealer, describes the effects of LSD to
somehow enhance his senses or develops a new one in which he can read character in peoples
eyes. This statement adds to the instinctual tool enhanced by the drugs effects. Here, Deadeye
offers evidence as to how LSD helps you know more, in this case about other people. It is
important to note that this ability is extremely powerful, and could heighten the wisdom of an
individual about other individuals. In another instance, the author writes This is the first time I
have heard of anything you cant do behind acid, (Didion, 109-110) describing how the people
in this community commonly perceive the effects of acid as a drug in which you are able to do
anything. This is a description of a glorification of the drug and the hippies beliefs about the

power of the drugs effects on their minds. They perceive the human mind as limitless when
under the influence of this drug, except of course, in this particular case, where Tom says he
cant really write on acid, but this statement is a rarity as noted by the author. Part of becoming
more wise, enlightened, or knowledgeable, can be further understood by the ego death
experienced during a trip.
A bad trip and its consequences run extremely problematic with the positive
influences an LSD experience is said to have as described by the people in this hippy
community. Bad trips result in freak outs and visits from a psychiatrist. Often times a bad trip
is described as warranting panic attacks or remaining in a daze, which the hippies describe as a
bummer. For example, when Max says you get put down on acid you can be on a bummer for
months (Didion, 113) he is describing not only a bad trip but the after effects and how it affects
you after the trip. The term bummer seems a little light in comparison to the psychological
effects which it describes. Especially when they use the term bummer to describe an over
controlling parent earlier in the story. Also, I noticed that the phrase you get put down is
blaming an outside source for the reasons for having a bad trip rather than the drug itself or the
individual, which is interesting because its like a denial of the drugs psychological effects. In
contrast, when Didion writes Steve sits down then tells me about one summer where he was at
school of design in Rhode Island and took thirty trips, the last ones all bad. I ask why they were
bad. I could tell you it was my neuroses, he says, but fuck that(Didion, 106) Steve implies
that it was definitely drug abuse which made all the trips bad, he blames his bad trips on the drug
itself rather than his own mental stability. The phrase I could tell you it was my neuroses
implies that most other individuals would reassuringly blame bad trips on their own mental
stability rather than the adverse effects of LSD. Another realization which is recognized by the

community is that of physical harm including sexual exploitation. Didion writes Rape is as
common as bullshit on Haight Street. (Didion, 109) depicting a community where it is widely
known how common drugs are used as a sexual ploy. The simile of comparing rape to bullshit
is almost casual as if it is common knowledge and almost not even worthy of mention.
How the characters in this story perceive the use of LSD and its effects is important in
understanding how the text paints the full scope of life on Haight St. and its complex ideologies
which belong to the community of the free spirited young adults in San Francisco. The text
highlights why the use of LSD is so prominent and important amongst this counterculture
movement and its complicated social systems and beliefs. Dropping acid in this community of
hippies is experienced as a complex learning tool in which the user strives for a better and more
wise self, passionate love, and the separation of ego in search of a purified and true state of
being. However, the users do in fact realize that tripping is extremely sensitive and risky
psychologically and physically speaking.
Word Count: 1635