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Soul, you are so amable here's a non Hemmingway story for ya.



THE SANDMAN SLEEPS



Legend has it that the popular and durable rock music group "The Doors" borrowed its name from a 1950's drug experiment book by Aldous Huxley, "The Doors of Perception". The book today could be considered an obscure tome indeed but in 1954 it hit the stores as if written on cue. Huxley took the drug Mescaline, derived from the Peyote cactus, in clinical fashion, recorded the experience on tape, wrote a book that aroused the curiosity of white middle-Americans and would-be "hippies" alike.

I was 17, crewcut, in shiny loafers and clean Levi's when this book piqued my interest in mind drugs and the drug culture. I devoured the books of the "beat generation" by Kerouac and was keenly interested in the "new and better mind drugs", LSD, made from flower seeds and Psilocybin, found in mushrooms. The only drug I had ever tried was marijuana. It did nothing for me. I wasn’t into drugs. Besides, Huxley’s warnings about the possibility of serious brain damage and dangerous recurrences were powerful reasons to keep my interests academic.

Scientists studying these three drugs were hard pressed to explain why they could be so chemically different in nature but caused very similar changes in the mind. They declared that all three impaired a neurological valve that normally meters the amount of sugar going to the brain. Fifty years later they say the valve meters "seratonin", not sugar. An article on Psilocybin made a lasting impression on me when it declared, with immutable authority, that Psilocybin, occurring naturally in the brain, gives one the capacity to "imagine". They averred the brains of Newton, Bosch and Einstein produced more Psilocybin than the brain of Joe Six-pack.

What a revelation! With my mind racing through uncountable galaxies of colors, deserts, jungles, often immersed in Mittyesque adventures of daring-do, running through a cluttered and totally disorganized mental museum of picture-perfect objects and impedimenta, I thought I was crazy. It became clear that I was not nutso, my brain was just making a pinch too much Psilocybin.

Was this chemical imbalance a curse or a blessing? Perhaps both. With so many things to observe and think about, I often had trouble falling asleep. A close friend said "why not count sheep?" While I was in that "I'll try anything" mood I did just that.

Warm and comfortable in my bed, I began this sleep therapy, without a thought about my special faculty, relaxed and confident the exercise would prove to be a soporific success.



I imagined a small herd of fat, cream-colored Cheviot browsing in a pasture somewhere in America's lush farmland. It took no time at all to count the 62 sheep and move on. My mind wandered across the plains and counted the domestic sheep in pens and pastures, corrals and woodlands. Most were feeding and did not move around much -- easier for counting.

There were thousands (at about 260 animals per car) crowded into special three-decked railroad cars being pulled and pushed by locomotives on hundreds of rail lines across the nation. Huge Reo's and Mack tractor-trailer rigs raced down the interstates, each van loaded with about one third the capacity of the rail cars. Crammed into such confining space, unable to move about, they proved very hard to count because they began to blend, one into the other, in the shadows of the overloaded trailer vans. Now temporarily frustrated by the prospect of losing my place I took my attention from U.S. domestics like the hardy Dorset and Targhee, whizzing by and sent my imagination to Alaska for a brief and welcome change of pace and venue.

I made it summer in the highest mountains of North America to better find and distinguish each snowy Dall ram, ewe and lamb gamboling through the craggy rocks -- working my way down the Rockies I counted thousands of Bighorn and never lost the count when I knew I had crossed into Mexico.

The Hampshires, Southdown and black-faced Suffolk breeds were in vast herds in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand was an easy count, clear, green pastureland. Australia's outback was thick with gum trees and scrub making the tabulations almost impossible---after an hour or two I began to doubt my own figures.

Strange looking short-haired sheep in China and brown scraggly Asian Karakul took up more time, the hours passing pleasantly by. Just as I was about to begin in North Africa, I glanced up at the clock, surprised to discover it was time to shower, shave and get ready for work.

I wrote the final tally on a scrap of paper and put it on the "fridge" with a small magnet. The magnet is a perfect replica of a juvenile Clarion Angelfish, it’s my favorite. I love tropical fish. Maybe I could count fish?

Well I won't decide now -- I'll wait, see how I feel tonight, about bedtime.

Sorry moderator. I meant to put this in off topic.

Well, I will have to say I thoroughly enjoyed that!
Am I that transparent that you knew I would identify with that?
Well done. I want to reread it again later when I have more time to savor it and I am damn near wanting to print it out and put it into the cover of one of my Mexico books.
Saludos and gracias.
Oh, I had a friend I knew once upon a time..........that didn't produce enough of the magic in the mushrooms all by himself and, having had a few older sisters that grew up in the hippy era, well, he told me of many fun and exciting journeys......
He would want these related in person rather than print......at least until he retires.......so as not to feed any ammo to those that might want him deposed for no good reason.

See, I am like the moon.......generally dark but with a nice, bright shiny side that comes out regularly.

Originally Posted by Osprey

Sorry moderator. I meant to put this in off topic.

NOOOOO, Osprey!!!! Don't be putting any good stuff Off-Topic!

BajaGringo, please create a forum for "Baja Authors" so Osprey can post his tales where we can all enjoy them, por favor.

Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

NOOOOO, Osprey!!!! Don't be putting any good stuff Off-Topic!

You're saying that as if the two were mutually exclusive.
We have only the finest topics off-topic here.

Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

BajaGringo, please create a forum for "Baja Authors" so Osprey can post his tales where we can all enjoy them, por favor.

Isn't that where I moved this???