Foucault LSD

Philosopher Michel Foucault's Death Valley LSD... http://www.talkingdrugs.org/philosopher-michel...
Philosopher Michel Foucault's Death

Valley LSD Trip
Simeon Wade & Heather

Dundas*
20 September 2017
Republish
Foucault and Michael Stoneman in Death Valley. (Source: Boom California

(https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09/10/michel-foucault-
in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/))
Editors Note:Michel Foucault (born Paul-Michel Foucault in 1926) was

one of the central thinkers of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Neither a traditional philosopher nor a trained historian, Foucault
examined the intersection of truth and history through the specic
historical dynamics of power.
This article was originally published by Boom California

(https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09/10/michel-foucault-in-
death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/). The original
may be viewed here (https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09
/10/michel-foucault-in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-
simeon-wade/).
In France, Foucault was a major gure in structuralist thinking of the

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1 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
especially in popular culture, Foucault is often thought of as an inciter of

the French theory movement that swept through American universities
in the 1970s and 1980s. Often controversial, Foucaults analyses of the
uses of power in society, as well as his concerns with sexuality, bodies,
and norms have been pivotal in the development of contemporary
feminist and queer theory.
One early follower of Foucaults thinking was Simeon Wade, assistant

professor of history at Claremont Graduate School. A native of Texas,
Wade moved to California in 1972 after earning his Ph.D. in the
intellectual history of Western civilization from Harvard in 1970. In 1975,
Foucault was invited to California to teach a seminar at the University of
California, Berkeley. Following a lecture, Wade and his partner, musician
Michael Stoneman, invited Foucault to accompany them on a road trip
to Death Valley. After some persuasion, Foucault agreed. The
memorable trip occurred two weeks later. This interview was conducted
by Heather Dundas on 27 May 2017, and has been edited for length,
clarity, and historical accuracy.
Boom :What can you tell us about the above photo?
Simeon Wade:I snapped the above photo with my Leica camera, June
1975. The photograph features the Panamint Mountains, the salt ats of
Death Valley, and the frozen dunes at Zabriskie Point. In the foreground,
two gures: Michel Foucault, in the white turtleneck, his priestly attire,
and Michael Stoneman, who was my life partner.
Boom :How did you end up in Death Valley with Michel Foucault?
Simeon Wade:I was performing an experiment. I wanted to see [how]

one of the greatest minds in history would be affected by an experience
he had never had before: imbibing a suitable dose of clinical LSD in a
desert setting of great magnicence, and then adding to that various
kinds of entertainment. We were in Death Valley for two days and one
night. And this is one of the spots we visited during this trip.
Boom :What can you say about this photograph? Were Foucault and
Stoneman already tripping when it was taken? And wasnt it incredibly
hot, Death Valley in June?
Wade:Yes. We rose to the occasion, as it were, in an area called Artists

Palette. And yes, it was very hot. But in the evening, it cooled off, and
you can see Foucault in his turtleneck in the cool air. We went to
Zabriskie Point to see Venus appear. Michael placed speakers all
around us, as no one else was there, and we listened to Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf sing Richard Strausss, Four Last Songs . I saw tears in
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2 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
/2017/09/10/michel-foucault-in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-
with-simeon-wade/#_edn1)and watched Venus come forth and the
stars come out later. We stayed at Zabriskie Point for about ten hours.
Michael also played Charles Ivess, Three Places in New England , and
StockhausensKontakte,along with some Chopin. Foucault had a deep
appreciation of music; one of his friends from college was Pierre
Boulez.[2] (https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09/10/michel-
foucault-in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-
wade/#_edn2)
Boom :Thats quite a playlist. But why LSD?
Wade:The revelation of St. John on the Isle of Patmos is said by some

to have been inspired by the Amanita muscaria mushroom. LSD is a
chemical equivalent to the hallucinogenic potency of these mushrooms.
So many great inventions that made civilization possible took place in
societies that used magic mushrooms in their religious rituals.[3]
death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/#_edn3)So I
thought, if this is true, if the chemical compound has such power, then
what is this going to do to the great mind of Foucault?
Foucault and Michael Stoneman, Death Valley
Boom :But why go so far for this experience? Why drive ve hours from
Claremont to Death Valley?
Wade:The major reason was that Michael and I had had so many
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3 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
Valley, you can hear harmonic progressions just like in Chopin; it is the
most glorious music youve ever heard, and it teaches you that
theresmore.
Boom :Until recently the very 1970s idea of, as you put it in your
manuscript,[4] (https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09/10/michel-
foucault-in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-
wade/#_edn4)a magic elixir to expand consciousness, was so out of
fashion as to be ludicrous. But current research has called this quick
dismissal of the psychedelic experience into question.[5]
death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/#_edn5)
Wade:And about time! [During these trips] I saw the rmament as it

truly is, in all of its glorious colors and forms, and I also heard the
echoes from the big bang, which sounds like a chorus of angels, which
is what the ancients thought it was.
Boom :So you wanted to give Foucault LSD so he could access this
glorious music?
Wade:Not only that. It was 1975, of course, and The Order of

Thingshad been published for nearly a decade (published in 1966 in
French).The Order of Things treats mans nitude, his inevitable death,
as well as the death of humanity, arguing that the whole humanism of
the renaissance is no longer viable. To the point of saying that the face
of man has been effaced.
Boom :Theres the famous passage at the end of The Order of Things ,
postulating a world without the power structures of the Enlightenment:
If those arrangements were to disappear then one can certainly wager
that man would be erased, like a face drawn in sand at the edge of the
sea.[6] (https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09/10/michel-foucault-
in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/#_edn6)
Wade:I thought, if I give Foucault clinical LSD, Im sure he will realize

that he is premature in obliterating our humanity and the mind as we
know it now, because hell see that there are forms of knowledge other
than science, and because of the theme of death in his thinking up to
that point. The tremendous emphasis of nitude, nitude, nitude
reduces our hope.
Boom :So you took Foucault to Death Valley for a kind of rebirth, in a
sense?
Wade:Exactly. It was a transcendental experience for Foucault. He

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4 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
Foucault and Michael Stoneman, Death Valley
Boom :At the time of this trip, Foucault had just published the rst
volume of his projected six-volume work, History of Sexuality . Hed also
published an outline of the rest of the work, and apparently already had
nished writing several volumes of it. So when did this post-Death Valley
change become evident in his work?
Wade:Immediately. He wrote us that he had thrown volumes two and

three of hisHistory of Sexuality into the re and that he had to start all
over again. Whether that was just a way of speaking, I dont know, but he
did destroy at least some version of them and then wrote them again
before his premature death in 1984. The titles of these last two books
are emblematic of the impact this experience had on him: The Uses of
PleasureandThe Care of the Self, with no mention of
nitude.Everythingafter this experience in 1975 is the new Foucault,
neo-Foucault. Suddenly he was making statements that shocked the
French intelligentsia.[7] (https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09
/10/michel-foucault-in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-
simeon-wade/#_edn7)
Boom :Such as?
Wade:Statements more condently out in the open, like that he nally

realized who the real Columbus of politics was: Jeremy Bentham.
Jeremy Bentham had been up to around this time a very respected
gure, and Foucault had begun to nd him an intellectual villain. And
Foucault denies Marx and Engels, and says we should just look at Marx
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5 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
had been inching toward were bolstered after the Death Valley trip.
Foucault from 1975 to 1984 was a new being.[8]
death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/#_edn8)
Boom :Youve mentioned that some people disagreed with your

experiment and thought you were reckless with Foucaults welfare.
Wade:Many academicians were very negative on this point, saying that

this was tampering with a great persons mind. I shouldnt tamper with
his mind. But Foucault was well aware of what was involved, and we
were with him the entire time.
Boom :Did you think about the repercussions this experience would
have on your career?
Wade:In retrospect, I should have.[9] (https://boomcalifornia.com

with-simeon-wade/#_edn9)
Boom :Was this a one-off experience? Did you ever see Foucault again?
Wade:Yes, Foucault visited us again. Shortly after his second visit,

which was two weeks after this, where we stayed up in the mountains
it was a mountain experience.
Boom :Also with music and LSD?
Wade:No LSD, but everything else. After he left the second time, I sat
down and wrote an account of the experience, called Death Valley Trip .
Its never been published. Foucault read it. We had a robust
correspondence. And then we spent a fantastic time with him again in
1981, when he was at a conference at the University of Southern
California.
Boom :Did you save Foucaults letters?
Wade:Yes, about twenty of them. The last one was written in 1984. He
asked if he could come live with us in Silverlake, as he was suffering
from a terminal illness. I think he wanted to die like Huxley.[10]
death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-wade/#_edn10)I said
yes, of course. Unfortunately, before he was ready to travel, the trap door
of history caught him by surprise.[11] (https://boomcalifornia.com
with-simeon-wade/#_edn11)
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6 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
Simeon Wade and Foucault, Claremont, after the Death Valley experience
Notes
The Editor (of Boom California) wishes to thank Stuart Elden,

Professor of Political Theory and Geography, Politics and
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7 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
ofFoucaults Last Decade andFoucault: The Birth of Power (Polity

Press) for clarifying a number of factual matters in this interview.
Thanks also to Jonathan Simon.
[1] (https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/09/10/michel-foucault-
in-death-valley-a-boom-interview-with-simeon-
wade/#_ednref1)James Turrell, Roden
Crater,http://www.rodencrater.com
(http://www.rodencrater.com/).
wade/#_ednref2)Editors note: According to Stuart Elden, Foucault
was much closer to JeanBarraqu, with whom he had a friendship
and for a while a relationship. Barraqu wasanother signicant
modernist composer and this may be who is meant [here] (email
correspondence, 29 August 2017).
wade/#_ednref3)such as the Sumerians, who invented
everything, including writing, and the Essenes, who invented
Christianity. Wades thinking aligns with John Allegros theories
presented in The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (London: Hodder
& Stoughton, Ltd., 1970). Most scholars rejected Allegros book
immediately. However, the book was reissued in 2008 with an
addendum by Professor Carl Ruck of Boston University outlining the
continuing mushroom controversy.
wade/#_ednref4)Simeon Wade,Michel Foucault in Death Valley ,
unpublished manuscript.
wade/#_ednref5)The recent explosion of research into LSD and its
effects is too vast for this article to document, yet some notable
publications include Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al., Neural correlates
of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal
neuroimaging,PNAS 113 (2016): 4853-4858; Stephen Ross et al.,
Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin
treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening
cancer: a randomized controlled trial, Journal of
Psychopharmacology 30 (2016): 11651180; Felix Mueller et al.,
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8 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
activity during processing of fearful stimuli in healthy

subjects,Translational Psychiatry (April
2017),http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v7/n4
/full/tp201754a.html?foxtrotcallback=true (http://www.nature.com
/tp/journal/v7/n4/full/tp201754a.html?foxtrotcallback=true).
wade/#_ednref6)Michel Foucault,The Order of Things: An
Archaeology of the Human Sciences(New York: Vintage Books,
1994), 387.
wade/#_ednref7)Editors note: The actual published vols. 2 and 3
were written to an entirely different plan than the original one, and
several years later with completely different material content. So the
claim that he destroyed and then rewrote is contestable.
Furthermore, the original plan for vol. 2 was a discussion of
Christianity, which was rewritten and yet was also recongured later
down the publishing pipeline to be vol. 4 of the project. According to
Stuart Elden, this volume is projected for publication in French in
2018 by Gallimard.
wade/#_ednref8)Foucault discusses the change in his thinking and
writing in interviews conducted in 1984, at the very end of his life.
See The Ethics of the Concern for Self, An Aesthetics of Existence,
The Concern for Truth, and The Return of Morality, all reprinted
inFoucault Live: Collected Interviews, 1961-1984 (Sylvre Lotringer,
ed. Semiotext(e), 1989, 1996). Editors note: Surveiller et punir:
Naissance de la prison was published February 1975 in French, and
therefore with the Death Valley trip being June 1975 it is impossible
for this later event to have inuenced Foucaults reading of Bentham,
&c., as the critiques are laid out in Surveiller et punir, the English
translation of which, under the title, Discipline and Punish: The Birth
of the Prison , was not published until 1977. The Editor wishes to
thank Stuart Elden for clarication on this point.
wade/#_ednref9)Simeon Wade left Claremont Graduate School in
1977. After adjunct teaching as an instructor of history and art
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9 of 11 9/23/17, 2:33 PM
Angeles County Psychiatric Hospital and Psychiatric R.N. Supervisor

at Ventura County Hospital.
wade/#_ednref10)The novelist Aldous Huxley asked his wife to
inject him with LSD as he died on 22 November
1963.http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/03/most-beautiful-
death.html (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/03/most-
beautiful-death.html)
wade/#_ednref11)Michel Foucault died in Paris, 25 June 1984 at
the age of 57. Simeon Wade and Michael Stoneman remained close
until Stonemans death in 1998. Wade is now retired and living in
Oxnard, California, where he writes and plays the piano.
*Heather Dundasis a candidate for the Ph.D. in Literature and Creative

Writing at the University of Southern
California.www.heatherdundas.com
(http://www.heatherdundas.com/).
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Foucault LSD

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Philosopher Michel Foucault's Death Valley LSD... http://www.talkingdrugs.org/philosopher-michel...

Philosopher Michel Foucault's Death

Simeon Wade & Heather

Foucault and Michael Stoneman in Death Valley. (Source: Boom California

Editors Note:Michel Foucault (born Paul-Michel Foucault in 1926) was

This article was originally published by Boom California

In France, Foucault was a major gure in structuralist thinking of the

especially in popular culture, Foucault is often thought of as an inciter of

One early follower of Foucaults thinking was Simeon Wade, assistant

Boom :What can you tell us about the above photo?

Simeon Wade:I was performing an experiment. I wanted to see [how]

Wade:Yes. We rose to the occasion, as it were, in an area called Artists

Boom :Thats quite a playlist. But why LSD?

Wade:The revelation of St. John on the Isle of Patmos is said by some

Foucault and Michael Stoneman, Death Valley

Wade:And about time! [During these trips] I saw the rmament as it

Wade:Not only that. It was 1975, of course, and The Order of

Wade:I thought, if I give Foucault clinical LSD, Im sure he will realize

Wade:Exactly. It was a transcendental experience for Foucault. He

Foucault and Michael Stoneman, Death Valley

Wade:Immediately. He wrote us that he had thrown volumes two and

Boom :Such as?

Wade:Statements more condently out in the open, like that he nally

Boom :Youve mentioned that some people disagreed with your

Wade:Many academicians were very negative on this point, saying that

Wade:In retrospect, I should have.[9] (https://boomcalifornia.com

Wade:Yes, Foucault visited us again. Shortly after his second visit,

Boom :Also with music and LSD?

Boom :Did you save Foucaults letters?

The Editor (of Boom California) wishes to thank Stuart Elden,

ofFoucaults Last Decade andFoucault: The Birth of Power (Polity

activity during processing of fearful stimuli in healthy

Angeles County Psychiatric Hospital and Psychiatric R.N. Supervisor

*Heather Dundasis a candidate for the Ph.D. in Literature and Creative

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