I was not a serious user of mind altering substances, but my life in this period at Reed College left me with a lasting awareness that a little goes a long way.

Notwithstanding the humorous picture on the right, I doubt I used anything other than amphetamine type CNS stimulants and coffee in the 1981-1982 period - any reality melting experiences took place two and three years prior.

Today, I see little or nothing of value in medicines (aka "drugs") that function to "reduce consciousness", which I define as a reduction in the ability of individuals to interact with the physical and social world. Of course, putting people in jail or penalizing people for any kind of drug use stinks. Instead of punishment, we need to address the pain, alienation and suffering that makes consciousness reduction seem like an improvement or even a good idea to so many. And of course, some drugs, in some circumstances, improve people's relationship to physical and social reality, and the use of these drugs, or "medicines", should be supported.

~

During the spring of 1982 I completed my senior thesis at Reed College, and graduated with a BA, majoring in Psychology.  I wrote a senior thesis about nociception, the perception of pain. Dell Rhodes was my thesis advisor.

I couldn't have done it without the help of my girlfriend, E. who supported me and typed the whole damn thing. She was a committed biologist and scientist who although Jewish couldn't relate to my Jewish interests. Years later, after I was married, she called me and told me that she had become a rabbi, while I was by then moving away from observance and trying to be a scientist.

But the main reality of my 1981-1982 senior year was that I was rather depressed, and the senior thesis was more or less a disaster. It was nothing I was proud of. I graduated. They gave me a degree. I moved on.

1981