Tolkien and Psychedelics

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Reading about his home life, it would seem a few pints at the Bird and Baby was about all the stimulation Tolkien needed to write his mythos. Jim Morrison he was not.

Though by today's attitudes towards cigs, booze and stodge, he was quite decadent If Tolkien saw the state of Oxford pubs today he'd be mortified - having to lurk on the pavement for a rushed intake of nicotine instead of actually enjoying a langorous smoke of a cigar or pipe while sitting by the pub fire; being monitored on your intake of beer and hectored to get up and do 50 star jumps in every TV ad break...I think he'd be horrified at the freedoms we have given up.

But in any case, great topic!

Yes, I've noticed a LOT of incidents in Tolkiens writing which have struck me as very 'trippy', and even the demeanour of the Elves themselves suggests they are not quite of this world but somehow exist between two dimensions - which always makes me think of Blake's vision of angels amongst many other 'uncanny' things.

Without being near any biographical tomes to check, I can only offer some notions about Tolkien's own experience... For one thing, Catholicism is a deeply mystical and colourful faith with its saints, icons, incense, ritual etc. so if anything his faith would lead him more towards the 'trippy' (I think I'd prefer to call it visionary, actually) imagery, rather than away from it. And another thing to bear in mind is his interest in dreams and the symbolism of them, something we see reflected in his writing - I have often wondered if he did any of this 'lucid dreaming', if such a thing exists...

Anyway, there's a few things...quite randomly as is appropriate for such a topic