HEMP AND AMERICA XIX CENTURY

Not the British and the French, but the Americans created a whole literature about the spell and the whole fantasy of hashish. In doing this, they followed the example of English opiumists like Coleridge and De Quincey. Thus, the style of “enthusiasm and horror,” which made De Quincey’s name well-known, seriously influenced their work. Their descriptions of the actions of cannabis clearly show that they have left the impression of a kind of amazing metaphysical revelation. Today, eating hashish — with the exception of hemp-made homemade cookies made on the occasion of the holidays — is almost unknown as a method of consuming cannabis; For us, hemp is always something that they smoke. A different situation was in the XIX century, when, apparently, hashish was always used in the form of sweets imported from the Middle East. All visions and intoxication do not leave doubtsthat this method turns hashish into a powerful tool for studying the inner possibilities of fantasy and consciousness. The first test run into the immense space of hemp, which appeared in print, was the message of the American traveler Beyard Taylor in Atlantic Monthly for 1854.

The sensation of limitation — the conclusion of our senses within the limits of flesh and blood — disappeared immediately. The walls of my frame fell apart and collapsed; and, without thinking about the form in which I am clothed, even <having lost any idea of ​​form, I felt that I exist in all the vastness of space. […] The spirit (I would rather have said, demon) of hashish completely captured me. I was plunged into the flow of his illusions and helplessly carried them to him, wherever he took me. The thrill that ran through my nerves was revived and sharpened, accompanied by sensations that flooded my whole being with inexpressible delight. I was enveloped in a sea of ​​light, in which pure harmonious colors were born, born of it. Trying to describe my feelings in broken expressions to friends who looked at me incredulously and had not yet experienced the effects of a substance,I suddenly found myself at the foot of the great pyramid of Cheops. The layers of yellow limestone converging with a cone gleamed with gold on the sun, and the whole mass rose so high that it seemed to rest against the blue vault of the heavens for support. I wanted to climb it, and this desire alone immediately transferred me to its summit, ascending thousands of feet above the fields of wheat and palm groves of Egypt. I glanced down and, to my surprise, saw that it was built not from limestone, but from huge square layers of tiled tobacco! Not to put into words the overwhelming sensation of that boundless ridicule, which I then experienced. I crouched in a chair from wild laughter, which subsided only from the dissolution of this vision, like a blurring landscape, until out of the confusion of obscure images and their fragments did not arise another and even more amazing sight.The layers of yellow limestone converging with a cone gleamed with gold on the sun, and the whole mass rose so high that it seemed to rest against the blue vault of the heavens for support. I wanted to climb it, and this desire alone immediately transferred me to its summit, ascending thousands of feet above the fields of wheat and palm groves of Egypt. I glanced down and, to my surprise, saw that it was built not from limestone, but from huge square layers of tiled tobacco! Not to put into words the overwhelming sensation of that boundless ridicule, which I then experienced. I crouched in a chair from wild laughter, which subsided only from the dissolution of this vision, like a blurring landscape, until out of the confusion of obscure images and their fragments did not arise another and even more amazing sight.The layers of yellow limestone converging with a cone gleamed with gold on the sun, and the whole mass rose so high that it seemed to rest against the blue vault of the heavens for support. I wanted to climb it, and this desire alone immediately transferred me to its summit, ascending thousands of feet above the fields of wheat and palm groves of Egypt. I glanced down and, to my surprise, saw that it was built not from limestone, but from huge square layers of tiled tobacco! Not to put into words the overwhelming sensation of that boundless ridicule, which I then experienced. I crouched in a chair from wild laughter, which subsided only from the dissolution of this vision, like a blurring landscape, until out of the confusion of obscure images and their fragments did not arise another and even more amazing sight.

The more alive I recall the subsequent scene, the more carefully I try to restore its different features and separate the many threads of sensations that are woven into one luxurious network, the more I despair to convey its extraordinary magnificence. I was moving in the desert, and not on a rocking camel, but sitting in a boat of nacre, adorned with jewels of extraordinary beauty. The sand was made of golden grains, and the keel of my rook slid on them without the slightest rustle, without the slightest sound. The air glittered from the excess light, although the sun was not visible. I inhaled sweet aromas, sounds flowed close to me, which, perhaps, could be heard in Beethoven’s dreams, but were never recorded by him. The atmosphere itself was an atmosphere of light, aroma, music, and all this together and separately lifted above all that only sober feelings can convey.Before me – it seemed leagues for a thousand – a panorama of rainbows stretched, the colors of which glowed with gems. These were the vaults of living amethyst, sapphire, emerald, topaz and ruby. By the thousands and tens of thousands, they sailed past me, while my dazzling barge rushed through this magnificent gallery; and the panorama is unfolding and unfolding before me. I was surrounded by a wondrous world of bliss, which was perfect, because no sense was left unsatisfied. And, above all this, my mind was filled with a sense of unlimited triumph.and the panorama is unfolding and unfolding before me. I was surrounded by a wondrous world of bliss, which was perfect, because no sense was left unsatisfied. And, above all this, my mind was filled with a sense of unlimited triumph.and the panorama is unfolding and unfolding before me. I was surrounded by a wondrous world of bliss, which was perfect, because no sense was left unsatisfied. And, above all this, my mind was filled with a sense of unlimited triumph.

Such descriptions lead to a clear understanding of why this “artificial paradise” was so attractive to the imagination of romantics; they were made for each other. Indeed, romantics, with their interest in dramatic moods in nature and the cultivation of sensitivity, which their critics called “feminine,” bore all signs of the beginning of a revival of the style of partnership. Starting with the Beyard Taylor report, we find ourselves in the circle of modern works on psychoactive substances and modern experience in getting acquainted with intoxicating substances. Taylor is impressed with the beauty, strength and overall depth of the information, contained in the experience. His approach is not hedonistic, but striving for knowledge, and for him, as for us, the conditions caused by psychoactive substances lead to questions relating to human psychology.

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