Carlos Figueroa

Ways of Knowing
May 10, 2015
Final
It Can Be a Real Trip
Life on Haight St. in the wild and colorful city that is San Francisco, is painted in an
extraordinary fashion throughout Joan Didions Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Specifically, the
chapter titled Life Styles in the Golden Land focuses on the community of hippies on Haight
St. living a life style where the habitual use of drugs such as LSD, crystal meth, and heroin is
extremely popular. As we take this journey with the author into the lives of these young adults
we come to understand how this community perceives the use of drugs and the effects they take
on their lives. One drug in particular; LSD or acid, is extremely popular among the community
and its effects are characterized generally as a positive influence amongst the young minds.
Taking LSD is perceived as an experience in which the user is led to discovering love, stepping
towards enlightenment, and removing the ego from oneself to attain a more purified or innocent
version of oneself.
The hippies along Haight St. describe the discovery of love as a moment of instinctual
passion or realization. Part of this realization is the phenomena often referred to as flashing.
Flashing is the initial feeling which triggers ones interest in another. For instance, Didion
writes When I saw her for the first time on Haight Street, I flashed, I mean flashed. So I started
a conversation about her beads, see, but I didnt care about her beads. (Didion, 117) quoting
Max as he describes the first time he met Sharon. The word flash implies a sort of rush feeling
or instinct that came over him and initially drew his attention and peaked his interest in Sharon

just by seeing her. He was immediately attracted to her. Later Didion writes But then she
offered me a tab, and I knewAnd then I decided to flow with it, and that was that, because
once you drop acid with someone you flash on, you see the whole world melt in her eyes.
(Didion, 117-118) quoting Max on how he found his love for Sharon. The passion or love grew
more profoundly once they shared the experience of dropping acid together. The phrase you see
the whole world melt in her eyes (Didion, 118) is significant because he is describing a sense of
the world not existing, where it is only him and her and thats all that matters. In a way the acid
brought them together and led them to discover each others love for each other even from the
moment she offered him a tab and he says I knew. As we come to understand the idea of
flashing, we come to understand how Max and other characters rely on instinct or initial
reaction and identify these feelings with coming to know something. The hippies identify a
congruency between these feelings of initial reaction and wisdom or enlightenment.
Dropping LSD as experienced by the young adults in the Haight-Ashbury district of San
Francisco is described as a learning experience in which the user is able to know more and be
more. For example, Didion states I try to meet his gaze directly because he once told me he
could read character in peoples eyes, particularly if he has just dropped acid, (Didion, 114)
describing how Deadeye; the local LSD dealer, describes the effects of LSD to somehow
enhance his senses or develops a new one in which he can read character in peoples eyes. This
statement refers to an instinctual tool enhanced by the drugs effects. Here, Deadeye offers
evidence as to how LSD helps you know more, in this case about other people. It is important to
note that this ability is extremely powerful, and could heighten the wisdom of an individual
about other individuals. In another instance, the author writes This is the first time I have heard
of anything you cant do behind acid, (Didion, 109-110) describing how the people in this

community commonly perceive the effects of acid as a drug in which you are able to do
anything. This is a description of the glorification of the drug and the hippies beliefs about the
power of the drugs effects on their minds. They perceive the human mind as limitless when
under the influence of this drug, except of course, in this particular case, where Tom says he
cant really write on acid, but this statement is a rarity as noted by the author. Part of becoming
more wise, enlightened, or knowledgeable, can be further understood by the ego death
experienced during a trip.
The separation between yourself and your ego that is described by the people of this community
while tripping on acid is viewed as a journey towards the more purified or innocent self. The trip
is perceived as being able to see everything because you are not blinded by your self-entitlement
or your wants, but rather a devotion to a higher self or authority. For example, Didion quotes a
psychiatrist from San Francisco in stating that The themes are always the same. A return to
innocence. The invocation of an earlier authority and control. The mysteries of the blood. An itch
for the transcendental, for purification. (Didion, 125) this describes how LSD amongst other
drugs serve as an outlet to explore for this state of purification or innocence. This statement
makes you think about drugs not as the problem, but as an attempt to find a solution to the larger
symptoms of a social crisis, where we can define ourselves as more honest or natural beings.
In other words, it is a search for an authority better qualified for the authority we lend ourselves
to in todays society. This idea of ego removal through specifically an acid trip is developed
through the character Max when the author writes Some people dont like to go out of
themselves, thats the trouble, you probably wouldnt. Youd probably like only a quarter of a
tab. Theres still an ego on a quarter tab, and it wants things. (Didion, 113) quoting how Max
thinks about the experience of an acid trip. He describes the ego as being separate from the

individual by saying Some people dont like to go outside of themselves. This idea of
separation gets the reader to think about how the removal an ego and its wants can lead to a bad
trip, thus the separation is vital for purification process and also, a good trip. The significance of
the use of the word it is essential in this idea of separation because it is given an attribute nonhuman like and the emphasis on it wants things portrays an ego as having a mind of its own. In
another instance, Didion writes She keeps licking her lips in concentration and the only off
thing about her is that shes wearing white lipstick (Didion, 131) when describing a five year
old girl who was tripping on acid. The white lipstick is important because white represents
innocence or purity, the author points this out also because she is a child, so this child is the
ultimate representation of the purified soul, removed of ego, that every LSD user strives to
become. The phrase the only off thing about her is significant because it highlights the white
lipstick even over the fact that she is a five year old tripping on acid, it builds emphasis on the
symbolism of the white lipstick.
The use of acid in this community of hippies is experienced as a complex learning tool in
which the user strives for a better and more wise self, passionate love, and the separation of ego
in search of a purified and true state of being. However, the users do in fact realize that tripping
is extremely sensitive and risky psychologically and physically speaking. A bad trip and its
ramifications run extremely problematic with the positive influences an LSD experience is said
to have as described by the people in this hippy community. Bad trips result in freak outs and
visits from a psychiatrist. Often times a bad trip is described as warranting panic attacks or
remaining in a daze, which the hippies describe as a bummer. For example, when Max says
you get put down on acid you can be on a bummer for months (Didion, 113) he is describing
not only a bad trip but the after effects and how it affects you after the trip. The term bummer

seems a little light in comparison to the psychological effects which it describes. Especially when
they use the term bummer to describe an over controlling parent earlier in the story. Also, I
noticed that the phrase you get put down is blaming an outside source for the reasons for
having a bad trip rather than the drug itself or the individual, which is interesting because its like
a denial of the drugs psychological effects. In contrast, when Didion writes Steve sits down
then tells me about one summer where he was at school of design in Rhode Island and took thirty
trips, the last ones all bad. I ask why they were bad. I could tell you it was my neuroses, he
says, but fuck that(Didion, 106) Steve implies that it was definitely drug abuse which made all
the trips bad, he blames his bad trips on the drug itself rather than his own mental stability. The
phrase I could tell you it was my neuroses implies that most other individuals would
reassuringly blame bad trips on their own mental stability rather than the adverse effects of LSD.
Another realization which is recognized by the community is that of physical harm including
sexual exploitation. Didion writes Rape is as common as bullshit on Haight Street. (Didion,
109) depicting a community where it is widely known how common drugs are used as a sexual
ploy. The simile of comparing rape to bullshit is almost casual as if its common knowledge and
almost not even worthy of mention.
How the characters in this story perceive the use of LSD and its effects is important in
understanding how the text paints the full scope of life on Haight St. and its complex ideologies
which belong to the community of the free spirited young adults in San Francisco. The text
highlights why the use of LSD is so prominent and important amongst this counterculture
movement and its complicated social systems and beliefs. Word Count: 1752