Chris Bache: LSD and the Exploration of the Inner Cosmos

Thinking Ahead with Carter Phipps

Psychedelics are having a moment. There’s never been a time in which we’ve seen more research into, experimentation with, and acceptance of the use of psychedelics—for therapy, for inner exploration, and for spiritual awakening. Of course, psychedelics themselves are anything but new (just ask Brian Muraresku, who shared with me on this podcast his fascinating research into their use over millennia). And pioneering research was done in the sixties and seventies before the use of psychedelics was forced underground. But today, the topic is out in the open, championed by high-profile cultural influencers, researched by major academic institutions, and inspiring a number of popular books, such as Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind. Even amidst this explosion of experimentation, however, few people if any can match the experience and knowledge of Chris Bache. Back in the eighties and nineties, Chris took a series of more than eighty high-dose LSD journeys, all carefully documented. He initially wrote about these experiences in his 2000 book Dark Night, Early Dawn, but more recently he’s published a fuller account of them and a more mature reflection on what he learned in his new book LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven. What makes Bache’s account particularly interesting is that through his journeys he seemed to tap into more than just his own inner world; his intent was to explore, as he puts it, the very “mind of the universe.” Others might call this the collective unconscious or “intersubjective” dimension. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called it the “noosphere.” At times, Bache even ventured beyond anything related to humanity and glimpsed deeper states and dimensions of cosmos and consciousness. His precise and poetic documentation of these journeys offers a fascinating window into an intensive experience that few may match—but one that perhaps offers valuable lessons for anyone interested in the inner cosmos.