Follow Up to Intimate Science

Sub title: 

 The "Wisdom" of Fish has Neurological Import

Author: 
Dottie Weckles, Ph.D.
Summary: 

How cannabis leads to a comparative study of hypothetical neurological findings of George W. Bush and a member of Phish.

I would like to share something significant that happened after our intimate encounter. Bill produced a marijuana cigarette and offered to share it with me. Normally, I would reject anything that might compromise my cognitive functions. But I thought that I was already pretty well impaired and another consciousness-altering experience would primarily expand my scope. In short, I "toked" the "reef" as they say, in the interest of science.

Continued from here.

I carefully noted the alterations to consciousness that it produced. The young man, Bill, played a videotape of a band that he greatly appreciated, called Phish. Apparently a third-grade education is not necesary to perform rock music for the masses.

One quote in particular stood out for me. I fumbled for my notebook and scrupulously took the words down verbatim, after several tries, and some revision in the morning after getting some sleep. As Bill explained it, the marijuana was hydroponically grown and thus more profoundly mind-altering than one might expect. Thus, my transcription skills were not at their best during my first attempts.

That having been said, here is the precise quote. It is interesting not because it is interesting, but because I was interested; not merely interested--I was profoundly moved by what the musician was saying as I listened under the influence of cannabis. In retrospect, I gathered that transcendent experiences can lead to significant confounds and terribly bad taste.

Here is the exact quote from Phish quitarist Trey Anastasio, as he was interviewed on the concert grounds where he was performing.

For some reason, it made perfect sense to me, at the time, to break it into verse. Apparently this formatting brought out the significance of this monolog. You may find it interesting to compare it with the speech patterns of George W. Bush. I find them to be strikingly similar. I suspect that there would be significant neurological findings for both individuals.

-- BEGIN TRANSCRIPT --

I was sticking to myself very much for the whole tour, and
I was trying to get grounded
and trying to get to the center
of what it's really all about,
thinking my job is to be playing music.

And when it's really great,
I feel like a straight line of people
or a circle of people
that I'm part of, um, and that,
everyone is trying to get to the same place,
which is accessing that beauty that exists

everywhere,

and it's a little bit bigger than, you know,
the underlying pattern or whatever it is.

I think that people go through their day incredibly busy.
There's stuff, you know, to do
and phone calls to answer and people to talk to,
and sometimes I think that all that busy-ness
is a way to avoid looking at...um...

yourself,

and then by looking at yourself,
your connection to the universe as a whole,
and so at it are a whole, uh... (sic)
the intent was to break as many of those barriers down,
so that the people that were there could have a chance to maybe
have a moment with themselves
and with the greater flow of,

er...

and see, that's why all the work that's done for the festival
and all the time spent
and all the making sure everybody's comfortable
and making sure that there's enough water
and that they get enough rest
and don't have to walk too far from the car to the tent,
and ALL of that stuff is so that

THAT

can happen.

 

- Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, during an interview

Editor's note: I have verified the transcription and stand behind it. - RAY