Introduced and Edited by Ralph Metzner |  The Ecstatic Adventure ©1968 by Ralph Metzner Library of Congress 68-15269 | |
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| FOREWORD | by Alan Watts | |
| INTRODUCTION | by Ralph Metzner in which the editor attempts to place current psychedelic events in historical perspective and indicate salient trends. | |
| CHAPTER 1 | At Play In The Fields Of The Lord by Peter Matthiessen in which a distinguished novelist-naturalist describes the ayahuasca visions of a half-caste Cheyenne Indian. | |
Experiences Described in the Language of Psychology | ||
| CHAPTER 2 | A Kind of Harmonious and Convincing Equilibrium by Rolf von Eckartsberg in which an existential philosopher-psychologist plays back his observations of the sensitized nuances of being and perceiving under psilocybin. | |
| CHAPTER 3 | Of Hell and Heavenly Blue by Stanley Krippner in which a clinical psychologist struggles and comes to terms with human loneliness and isolation under the influence of morning-glory seeds. | |
| CHAPTER 4 | Psychiatry vs. God by Joseph Havens in which a Quaker psychotherapist describes the "great doubt" and "terror" of a psychedelic psychosis. | |
Experiences Described in the Language of Religion | ||
| CHAPTER 5 | Empirical Metaphysics by Huston Smith in which an eminent religious scholar and MIT professor tells how mescaline showed him directly what he bad only thought (and written) about before. | |
| CHAPTER 6 | Shaking To The Foundations by Walter H. Clark in which a distinguished teacher of religion gives a biblical commentary on his ecstatic experience with LSD. | |
| CHAPTER 7 | The Oneness in God, The Vision of Christ, The Crucifixion by the Reverend Mary Hart in which a lady Protestant minister descends into an inferno of madness and sin, makes the final act of faith and is restored to radiance. | |
| CHAPTER 8 | Uncontainable Joy by John Robertson in which a student of theology and mysticism ceases to exist and becomes immersed in the ground of Being. | |
| CHAPTER 9 | The Point Is That Life is a Gesture by Alan Watts in which the friendly word-magician discovers once again that life is purposeless play and there isn't any problem. | |
| CHAPTER 10 | The Conscious Ascent of the Soul by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter in which a Hasidic rabbi dances at midnight in the shrine with all his bones and struggles to pray in the garden at dawn with all his hand and mind tied by the holy ribbon to the hand and mind of a goy. | |
| CHAPTER 11 | Consciousness, Energy, Bliss by John Blofeld in which a Buddhist scholar describes a high yogic experience with mescaline in the language of the "diamond-thunderbolt" school of Buddhism. | |
| Psychedelic Poetry: Poems by Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary | ||
Experiences of Therapeutic Self -Confrontation | ||
| CHAPTER 12 | From Character Disorder to Mystical Philosopher Anonymous in which a series of Sessions with LSD and Ritalin progresses from Freudian sexual hallucinations to union with the real Self. | |
| CHAPTER 13 | The Crime Game by George Castayne in which a convict under psilocybin discovers the bewildering chaos of his life. | |
| CHAPTER 14 | Flights Go Down by Sugar Wagner in which an overdose nightmare plunge in the oily vortex of black nothingness results afterwards in all good things happening. | |
| CHAPTER 15 | The Eyes Of The Child-Corpse Were Open Wide by Linda Sontag in which a seventeen-year-old college freshman amphetamine addict takes LSD and, to her surprise, is liberated from cellular slavery. | |
Experiences Programmed for Creative Problem-Solving | ||
| CHAPTER 16 | The Designs Were More Free by Henrik Bull in which a professional architect under LSD finds that cobwebs, blocks and binds disappear and outlines three designs in three hours. | |
| CHAPTER 17 | Through A Mellowness Filter by Irwin Wunderman in which an engineer-physicist psychedelically considers the problem "What is a photon?" and develops a model that satisfies all the known constraints. | |
| CHAPTER 18 | Toward The City Of The Future by Eric Clough in which a California architect takes mescaline in a creativity project, envisions buildings of the past and future and rapidly designs a project for the present. | |
Experiences of Parents and Children | ||
| CHAPTER 19 | To Be Able to Say: Thou, Really to Love by Rolf and Elsa von Eckartsberg in which a husband and wife experience ecstatic fusion of male-female energies, magnetic union, liberation in sacrifice. | |
| CHAPTER 20 | Ecstatic Childbirth by Karin and Ronald Harvey in which a young mother describes giving birth under LSD with energetic ease, and she and her husband give a free-wheeling account of the impact of LSD on marriage, business and modem life. | |
| CHAPTER 21 | The Eyes Of Wonder by Charles Soames and Arnold West in which a twelve-year-old and nine-year-old give an account of their first encounters with inner realities. | |
| CHAPTER 22 | Dropping Out — Tuning In in which three ex-college students report how they dropped out of school in order to begin their real education. | |
Experiences of New Dimensions | ||
| CHAPTER 23 | The Refinement of Vision by Gray Henry in which a college girl explores some less substantial dimensions of matter, and encounters the basic mythic nature of her sex. | |
| CHAPTER 24 | Other Worlds, Other Times by Ken Green in which a young American yogi shoots himself out of the body with STP, hurtles through incarnations, is attacked by a malevolent spirit and rescued by the power of mantra and guru. | |
| CHAPTER 25 | In Tune With Positives by David Crosby in which one of The Byrds talks poetry, music, acid, telepathy, electronic sound, marihuana, mind gardens, hippies, trips, love, freedom, trees, growth, change, peace. | |