与逝去的人的第一次交流

Datura stramonium, Jimson weed or datura is a wild plant that grows almost everywhere in the world. It is closely related to and has the same properties as the garden variety of datura.

Datura stramonium， Jimson weed or datura 这一类曼陀罗属的植物。是一种在世界各地都可见的野生植物。它跟花园中作观赏的曼陀罗非常相似且有相同的特性。

This plant has a very long history. People knew about it hundreds of years ago and thought that it would create daemons. 

这种植物有着很悠久的历史，在数百年前就为人所知并且认为它可能会引来鬼魔。

When I was young I had heard that Tibetan monks would take datura to communicate with the dead. I had read some of the books of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa such as "The Third Eye".

当我年轻的时候，我曾听说西藏的僧人们会用曼陀罗花与死人交流。我也读过洛桑然巴的一些书，比如说《第三只眼》。

I had also read some of the books of Timothy Leary and was keen on the idea of "cosmic consciousness" and "mind expansion" through various means.

我也曾经读过蒂莫西·里瑞的一些书，并且希望通过不同的方式去理解宇宙意念和扩张思维。

So one day when I was a senior in high school while studying plant taxonomy, I was delighted to find that such an exotic and wonderful plant as datura was growing in my own back yard.

所以在高中课堂上学习植物分类时，我很欣喜地发现这种奇异美妙的植物竟然可以在我家的后花园里找到。

I had heard of its properties, but did not have any accurate information on the subject. But, being a budding experimental scientist, I decided to do some experiments of my own. Doing your own experiments is how you learn about science. I always encourage my students to do experiments.

我听说过这种植物的特性，但是对于植物学并不是很精通。但是，作为一名刚启蒙阶段的实验型科学家，我决定自己去做些实验。自己做试验也是一种学习科学的方式。我经常鼓励我的学生做实验。

My father was not an experimental scientist, he was an insurance salesman and did not approve of many of my experiments. So I did not inform him the night I decided to take a large dose of datura about 8:00 at night.

我的父亲从来不是一个科学家，他是一名保险销售员，并且很多时候都不同意我做一些实验。所以那天晚上我并没有告诉他我决定在八点左右用大剂量的曼陀罗的成分做实验。

With drugs like LSD you may have hallucinations, but the hallucinations are actually more like distortions of reality. You can always tell the difference between reality and a hallucination.

如果你服用LSD 的话，你可能会出现幻觉，但那些幻觉经常是与现实脱离的。你可以很清楚地分辨出哪些是现实，哪些是幻觉。

Datura is different. At first I started hearing voices. Voices of people saying things. Then I started seeing people.

但是吞食曼陀罗不一样，刚开始，我听到了一些声音，一些人们交谈的声音，接下来我就看到了那些人。

At first the people were appearing out of the corner of my eye. Very distressing since I am not supposed to have people in my bedroom in the middle of the night. It got worse when people started coming out of the wall. Not at all the kind of cosmic consciousness that I was expecting.

他们先是从我眼角开始出现，这令我非常痛苦，因为他们不该在半夜的时候还出现在我的屋子里。使情况变得更糟糕的是，他们开始从墙里面走出来，这跟我所期待的那种宇宙意念可完全不同。

Mr. Silverwood, my 5th grade teacher had recently died. Suddenly I saw him come out of the heater and stand in front of me and I remember very clearly what he said. He told me that things were not as bad on the other side as people thought. Then he disappeared.

西尔弗伍德先生，我的五年级老师，那时刚去世不久。忽然间我看到他从装有电暖气的墙壁里出来并且站在我面前。我清楚地记得他对我说：死后的世界，并不像人们所想像的那么糟糕。然后他就消失了。

I was very distressed by that time. OK I was REALLY VERY distressed. My mother and father and brother were also very distressed.

那时候我感到非常紧张，好吧，我必须承认当时是非常非常紧张。我的爸爸，妈妈，弟弟也一样很紧张。

 My father came in and gave me the usual antidote for poison which was warm milk and plenty of fluids. He called Dr. Bartelles, even though it was the middle of the night.In the 60's, if you were sick in the middle of the night, you could call the doctor and he would do something.

我的爸爸走进我的屋子给了我一些热牛奶和大量的液体来给我解毒。并且打电话给巴雷耶医生，虽然已经是午夜，但是在60年代，假如说你在半夜生病的话，你可以请医生过来，并且他们会帮助你的。

It took some time, but by the next afternoon, I was back to normal. I had lost about 5 pounds from dehydration and during the episode I felt numbness throughout my body. I realized that, had I taken a little more, I may not be here today. I still did some experiments after that, but I was much more careful.

我大概直到第二天下午身体才恢复过来。由于缺水我轻了5磅左右，并且在这个过程中我感觉到全身麻木。我意识到，如果我当时只要多服用那么一点儿，我也许今天就不在这里了。在那之后，我仍然做了一些其它的实验，但都要谨慎得多了。

In the 1960’s there were many kinds of drugs. Some of them
were safe, some were dangerous. These drugs were called “psychedelic” drugs. Psychedelic
means “mind expanding”.  They would cause hallucinations, sometimes nice, sometimes bad. There was a lot of art that
appeared that made the hallucinations appear very nice. This kind of art was called psychedelic art.

 在1960年代，有很多的药品，有些是安全的，有些则是非常危险的。这些药品被称为“致幻剂”。致幻剂的意思是“意念扩张”。它们会使人产生一种幻觉，有些是很美好的，有些则是很恐怖的。有一些艺术正是以这种形式呈现的，有时会给人以美的视觉体验。这种艺术也被称为“迷幻艺术”

Most of my stories are funny but:

As my friend Louann Stoker Dickson says: this drug is very dangerous and can easily kill you, I do not suggest that anyone should try this.

我的大部分的故事可能很有意思，但就如我的朋友所劝告的那样，那些毒品是非常危险的，并且很可能会使你丧命，所以千万不要尝试。

 Richard in Medford 1967.

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