Being Stoned

James G. Carrier (jgc5p@UVA.PCMAIL.VIRGINIA.EDU)
Thu, 20 Jan 1994 07:17:53 EST

On Jan 20, 12:20am, "Read, Dwight ANTHRO" wrote:

...

> ..................... I recall a math professor I had as an undergraduate
> commenting once on the revelations he had about mathematical truths while
> high on (marijuana?, lsd?--this was the /60's). As it happened, he wrote
> down the revelations and when he was no longer high he read through what he
> wrote and found it all to be nonsense......

This is a hoary old tale. If their are druggie myths that correspond to urban
myths, it is one. I first heard it re: Carlisle or some such writer-sort,
only the drug was ether (so it probably wasn't Carlisle), and the note he
left to himself was something along the lines of `The room has a strong smell
of ether' (or some such).
But however amusing such stories may be, all that they indicate is that
the writer of the note did not recall the implications and associations of
the incomprehensible note -- the framework that gave the note its
significance.

Yours from the aether,

James G. Carrier

29, University Circle / Charlottesville, Virginia, 22903
(804) 971-2983 / jgc5p@virginia.edu