Usually, when I'm in Amsterdam, my plans involve drugs in some way or another. But during my latest trip (trip as in, excursion, I should specify), I had an impending ayahuasca ceremony, and taking other drugs in the days before you take ayahuasca is not advisable. On my search for a drug-free yet Amsterdam-typical experience, [...]
If you're looking for an adventure involving music, drugs, or (ideally) both, there's no place like Ibiza. The Spanish island is known for its collection of famous DJs and, thanks to the Mike Posner song "I Took a Pill in Ibiza," its abundant supply of recreational drugs. Largely for this reason, many people have had [...]
British-Portuguese musician Nessi Gomes had an artistic awakening after living in Central America; could her work contain thinly veiled references to ayahuasca? According to traditional belief, ayahuasca is not just a powerful psychogenic substance - it's a spirit. When you ingest the Amazonian plant, "Mother Ayahuasca" scans your body and soul for places [...]
On October 10, 2017, I was plotting my escape from my boyfriend's squished studio apartment. Everything about it made me want to scream: the way his beard felt on my face when he went weeks without shaving, the pizza boxes he'd carelessly strewn all over the kitchen, the obnoxious Homer-Simpson-like "doh" he emitted when he [...]
When I first started going to music festivals, drugs were among their main appeal. Then, my body started telling me it couldn’t handle drugs like it used to, so I had to get creative. Over several sober weekends, I developed methods to preserve festivals’ excitement without the illicit substances. That’s not to say, “Don’t do [...]
I’m in a living room overlooking the water in Vinkeveen, The Netherlands, surrounded by a dozen people tripping on ayahuasca, when the ceremony’s leader approaches my bed. “This song is for you,” she says. “I’m being guided to come to you.” She sits down in front of me and looks into my eyes as Libby [...]
Music festivals are disappointing. There, I said it. Every few weeks or so, somewhere in the world, people spend a ton of money on plane tickets, festival tickets, and hotel rooms, then spend a ton of mental energy figuring out what to pack and what to wear for some festival that will probably disappoint them. [...]
When you’re a teenager, you start to realize that a lot of the songs you liked as a kid were about sex. Then, when you reach your 20s, you start to realize many of them were actually about drugs. A lot of drug terminology can fly right over your head if you’re not a user and [...]
When you hear the phrase “sex, drugs, and rock and roll,” you usually picture male musicians: Lou Reed croaking out the words to "Heroin" or "Waiting For My Man;" The Weeknd's famously numb face; Kurt Cobain finding God in "Lithium;" The Beatles on LSD; Neil Young's coke booger immortalized in The Last Waltz. Stereotypes about [...]
When I arrived in Mexico for my first three ayahuasca ceremonies, I had a checklist of questions to address: What repressed childhood memories were shaping who I was? Why did I hate my mother so much? Could I stop lying? What was wrong with lying if I didn’t get caught? So, I was surprised that [...]
