Psychedelic Birth: Bodies, Boundaries and the Perception of Pain in the 1970s

Historian Mike Jay questions why psychedelic culture is dominated by privileged white men, noting a recent study showing users are typically college-educated white males. Despite this, attitudes about gender, pain, and the body crucially shaped how spiritual transcendence was experienced and interpreted in 1970s America. Historians have been slow to study the 1970s, often viewing it as a betrayal of the 1960s, yet many 1960s goals became reality for more Americans in the 1970s. The growing interest in altered states of consciousness in the 1970s offers a lens for exploring cultural meaning, as illustrated by a 1973 account of a psychiatrist experiencing intense pain during an altered state.

Study at a glance

Abstract

‘Why is psychedelic culture dominated by privileged white men?’ asks historian Mike Jay, referring to a recent study of psychedelic users who are more than likely to be college-educated white males.1 This appears logical, given the figureheads (such as Timothy Leary) who attained cult-like status half a century ago. Many today continue to view psychedelics as a symbol of the hedonism of the counterculture rather than a form of therapeutic treatment. Yet recent attention to the potential of psychedelic drugs (MDMA and psilocybin) to effectively treat mental health conditions such as PTSD has raised new interest in the history of psychedelics and spiritual growth. Despite the absence of women in the psychedelic narrative, attitudes about gender, pain and the body played a pivotal role in how spiritual transcendence was experienced and interpreted in 1970s America. Historians have remained relatively reticent about psychedelics and spiritual transformation, as they have about many aspects of what may be, according to Beth Bailey and David Farber, ‘our strangest decade’. Unlike scholarship on the 1960s, they argue, ‘historians have been slow to put the 1970s into the narrative of American history’.2 Michael Willard adds that ‘we continue to see the 1970s as the betrayal of the 1960s, as the time when America lost its innocence, or faith, or passion’. Yet many of the visions and goals articulated in the 1960s became reality for more Americans in the 1970s than they had in the previous decade. The challenge for historians lies in ‘figuring out how to take Seventies culture seriously’.3 This is particularly the case when analysing the role of women in the counterculture. As historian Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo argues, ‘hippie women . . . have long been ignored and marginalized, relegated to the sidelines of both the counterculture and the women’s movement’.4 The growing interest in altered states of consciousness in the 1970s is an ideal launching point for exploring cultural meaning in the 1970s, as it embodies the struggle of a new generation to make sense of the physical and spiritual world around them. Two examples of individuals experiencing altered states of consciousness illustrate the intensity and variability of the experience. On 6 March 1973, Antonio, a thirtytwo-year-old psychiatrist attempted to describe the unfathomable pain he had just experienced.5 ‘Out of nowhere the most intense pain imaginable started penetrating my hands like a laser beam or a nail’, he wrote. He could feel the ‘terrible, agonizing