Observations placeholder

Humphry Osmond [from Introduction to The Witnesses – Thomas Hennell]

In my own mescalin experience, for instance, at the very start, a bit of the past suddenly began to well up in the present.  I wrote in my notes “I was at first aware that I was simply recalling something that had once happened to me.  But gradually I began to feel that I was not merely recalling but re-experiencing the past.  The room had peeling white wallpaper and behind this was a patch of green, a milky jade green.  I was much interested in this patch of green until I realised that I was looking at the winter sea, and if I stayed there any longer, I would see a ship sinking in a storm, and once again our ship would plough through those unhappy survivors in pursuit of the submarine.  I did not wish to see all that again.  To live comfortably the past should remain in its place”