High Weirdness

Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies

By: Erik Davis

Narrated by: Erik Davis

Length: 20 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

An exploration of the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson.

A study of the spiritual provocations to be found in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson, High Weirdness charts the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality that arose from the American counterculture of the 1970s. These three authors changed the way millions of readers thought, dreamed, and experienced reality - but how did their writings reflect, as well as shape, the seismic cultural shifts taking place in America?

In High Weirdness, Erik Davis - America's leading scholar of high strangeness - examines the published and unpublished writings of these vital, iconoclastic thinkers, as well as their own life-changing mystical experiences. Davis explores the complex lattice of the strange that flowed through America's West Coast at a time of radical technological, political, and social upheaval to present a new theory of the weird as a viable mode for a renewed engagement with reality.

©2019 Erik Davis (P)2020 Tantor

Want simple answers, look elsewhere

An historical, cultural archaeological exploration, both objective and subjective, linear and non, of the strange inflection point in humanity's existence that is the 1970's. Davis centers 3 out of the eras many most high authors, Terrence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, and Philip K. Dick, in this erudite, academic, and highly entertaining musing of the times. High Weirdness examines how these psychonauts got there, their place inside its landscape, and how they shaped and simultaneously transformed themselves, Davis, and us in the process. If you are looking for simple answers, look elsewhere, as this work weaves and meanders a crazy quilt of ideas, images, people, places, and trends in religion, philosophy, and ultimately consciousness. Get a glancing, vertiginous peek into how the 70s helped shape humanity at the end of the 20th century, and laid (or deconstructed) the cultural foundations that underpin the 21st. Altered states of consciousness not required, but it certainly helps.

In the beginning was the Weird.

Weirdness is a part of life. In the subjects of this book, we see a willingness to embrace the weird which is encouraging and exciting.

We also see a grasping at weirdness, an escape into uncertainty and novelty, and it’s consequences.

Read by Erik Davis, the author, who is a great orator and who is, of course, uniquely qualified to wyrd his own words.

Incredibly informative

Erik Davis did an incredible job with the content and his narration really adds to the overall subject. I enjoyed his Terence McKenna impersonation which was spot on. I would recommend this audio book :)

It's good.

I'm not a writer of well written words but this is a good book and you should get it.

A Must For All Weirdo Intellectuals

I felt like this book was written for me. Because how many people are out there who like pulp science fiction, comic books and the Merry Pranksters AND Guittari, Foucault and Baudrillard? Thoroughly fascinating and inspiring, and worth it for the bibliography alone! A deeply weird and wonderful book. I listened to the audiobook & Erik Davis does a great job of reading his own work. Then I bought the paperback, so I could review and study the most intriguing parts because, despite its title and subject matter, this is a scholarly study of “deeply weird shit.”

Психоделический Апостолат

Очередная удивительная книга Дэвиса, которая не хуже той марки расширяет градиент познания. Спасибо чувак!

Phenomenal

Phenomenal book. The sci-fi writers, the occult, the Gnostic, the Logos. This is a great book about the fringe of California from the 70s onward.

This is a strong book

I got this for the section on PKD. This is my second time to listen to it and it does not disappoint. The one weakness is the author’s performance. Over all it is solid. It is annoying when he attempts to affect a French accent. I don’t know what PKD sounded like, but Davis’s voice when quoting him doesn’t add to the performance. It is too bad, because, otherwise he provides a professional quality reading.

I highly recommend this book.

A great analysis of things outside the mainstream.

Truly enjoyed this book. Erik provided the best overview of a space between science and parapsychology. I got a lot from this.

Davis is the best

If your'e already here, you probably love Erik Davis. I have listened to hours upon hours of his podcast so it's a real treat to listen to a whopping 21 hours of him narrating his way through this amazing book. His wizened, wry, "stoner professor" style is just the Dudest Dude around and it feels like hanging out with him in a basement where the night goes on forever.